The Kickaways

The Kickaways play five songs at Ultrasuede Studios recently for Midpoint Music Festival. - The Kickaways

"The Kickaways, at this time, are the hottest unsigned export from Cincinnati, our sister city to the south. The group is comprised of vocals, two guitars, a bass and drums. They are all noisy and uncompromising. They have been to Europe. They have put out an album called America! America! - and it was good. They look insane: their shows and personas seem to solidify this as the real truth, and not farcical theatrics. They won the Cincinnati Entertainment Award's coveted Best Rock 'n' Roll Band, and now they are coming to Dayton."

read full article from link above, then click the link to read the online paper version, its on page 16 - Dayton City Paper

The Kickaways are ready for their close-up with debut album

It’s a blistering evening in Northside as the four members of The Kickaways swelter in the apartment that they’ve dubbed the Kickaplex. Although only two of them actually reside there, it doubles as rehearsal space and crash pad for the quartet. But, tonight, “sweat lodge” serves as a functional description.
Heat is an apt metaphor for the The Kickaways’ career arc since their formation early last year; their most recent triumphs include a well received month-long residency at MOTR Pub in Over-the-Rhine and the March release of their official debut album, America! America!, on The Recording Label, the free music label/website founded by Pop Empire’s Cameron Cochran. After seeing The Kickaways tear through a live set at downtown club Mainstay, Cochran offered his services and the foursome (vocalist/guitarist Austin McMahan, guitarist Devyn Glista, bassist Jake Ittel and drummer Adam Lambchop) readily accepted.

“It was little things, like that night we just decided to wear black pants, shirts and ties,” McMahan says. “It just caught his eye.”

Even when things have gone wrong for The Kickaways, they’ve turned out to be positives. For example, a poorly managed gig had them playing at 2 a.m. to only a handful of people one night, but their resultant anger translated to a furiously visceral gig … which earned them a plum opening gig.

“We were saying, ‘12 people are going to get a hell of a show,’ ” Lambchop says, laughing. “But one guy was there who said, ‘Holy shit, you guys are really good. I want to book you for this Greenhornes show.’ ”

The Kickaways coalesced last year when the four childhood friends from Dayton, who had played together in various combinations — McMahan and Glista had been friends since elementary school, as had Ittel and Lambchop — decided it was time to pool their talents.

“We hadn’t played music in awhile and one day Austin came to me and said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna start a band,’ ” Glista says.

“It wasn’t really an option. So we did.”
They began playing a much more subtle form of Country Rock which quickly morphed into the rootsy Garage Soul that marks America! America! The band’s old sound was evident on their initial recording, a demo they titled Desert Days.

“It was a piece of shit,” McMahan says, laughing. “It started out as this Country thing and it wasn’t very good. We listen to too much Punk Rock to do that.”

The members bring a wide variety of influences to The Kickaways’ sound, but it’s clearly the four of them working in tandem that channels those influences into the band’s chaotically cohesive direction.

“We all listen to different kinds of music, but it’s all Rock & Roll,” Ittel says. “It’s a hodgepodge.”

“But it works because we each bring our own twist to it,” Lambchop says. “And once we did, it was like, ‘Wow, this is actually an interesting combination.’ ”

Although The Kickaways have largely abandoned a purely Country Rock sound, it still informs the band’s underlying sensibility without leaking out through the amps. McMahan counts Wilco as his favorite band and among the adornments on the walls of the Kickaplex, a massive poster of Johnny Cash’s infamous middle-finger photo is one of the most prominent. It’s all part of The Kickaways’ secret formula.

“Johnny Cash was a punk,” McMahan says. “That’s why we wear black.”

The Kickaways certainly work with Punk speed. America! America! started out as a proposed EP with Cochran’s estimation that recording five songs would take them two long weekends. Things went slightly better than that.

“We got done with every song on the album instrumentally by the first Saturday,” Lambchop says.

“Cameron wanted to do three tries, but by the end of it, we had done some of them on the first take,” McMahan says. “Plus, you get the little mistakes and treats that you get live.”

There is a muscular maturity to The Kickaways’ unhinged Garage Soul assault, a gritty psychedelic tumult that suggests a back-alley rumble between The Strokes, The White Stripes and The Greenhornes. Perhaps most impressive is the fact that only McMahan is legally allowed in the bars they play, and he only recently achieved that milestone. With so much road stretching out in front of them, and America! America! poised to become one of the year’s most memorable albums, The Kickaways’ success seems little more than a stomped gas and/or effects pedal away. They’re working toward amassing a slightly larger fan base, but that might require them to tweak their stage banter just a bit.

“Austin will be on stage and be like, ‘Hey, we’re The Dopamines,’ ” Glista says. “At Mayday, he was like, ‘We’re the Frankl Project,’ and after the show, somebody came up and said, ‘You know so and so?’ And we’re like, ‘No …’ And he’s like, ‘You’re the Frankl Project, right?’ And we’re like, ‘No, we’re not...’ ”

“That’s an anger drawn from not playing shows,” McMahan says. “We’ve been Oasis. We’ve been lots of bands.”

- CityBeat

Cincinnati’s best new Rock & Roll band is The Kickaways. The scrappy young foursome doesn’t muddy its waters with trendy consolations — they play it straight up … the way the Rock gods intended. See them live for a taste, then grab their fantastic debut album, America! America! (available for free download via The Recording Label here), to hold you over until the next time they play. - CityBeat

"With swaggering energy and unrestrained enthusiasm, The Kickaways sound like they could’ve formed in 1976 and been an early CBGB’s band. But the quartet actually got together initially in February of this year. The band’s self-described “loud, kickass Rock & Roll” should be like crack for fans that miss the raw intensity of the earliest Stooges and Patti Smith Group output."
-CityBeat - City Beat

Members: Jake Ittel, bass; Adam Lambchop, drums and sometimes guitar; Austin McMahan guitar, vocals; Devyn Avi Glista guitar
Hometown: Cincinnati and Dayton
Latest Project: working on the debut album "Desert Days"
Sounds like: '60s/'70s influenced garage flavored with psychedelia and R&B

Composed of a couple of childhood friends, The Kickaways have officially been a band for only about 10 months and only played a handful of live shows, one of which was in a basement. Still, despite their neophyte stage, this group is pretty sure they are going to be one of the best you’ve heard in a long time.

Considering that Dan McCabe, one of the organizers of the MidPoint Music Festival and long-time member of the local music scene, has just given them residency at his MOTR Pub, chances are good that they’re right.

We spoke to lead singer and guitarist Austin McMahan, who despite being sick powered through the interview like a trouper.

How did the band get together?
I was in the desert for a little while in February last year—about 10 months ago, and when I got back, I met them for some Skyline [laughs], and we had a lot of songs. I mean all four of us had been together our whole lives, grew up together. Then just dropped out of college, and the sensible thing to do, being 19 and young was play some loud wild music. We started playing together more and recorded an album this summer.

So who writes the songs?
A lot of things were written in Wickenberg, Ariz., but, you know, the songs needed a band. I guess I kind of bring an idea and lyrics and they all make it sound good and the way it should. They make it all sound the way it does in my head. It’s a very collaborative thing.

Where did you record the album?
In a parent’s basement in Dayton, in about a 10-feet, 15-feet circle—hung some blankets in a concrete unfinished basement, and stayed there for the summer, and recorded that in about four days. All live, just mic-ed it up and said, go.

What are your songs about? And what are your favorites?
They are about a lot of, uh, [laughs] women and drugs, is what it’s about. Not being able to do drugs and not being able to get women [laughs] is what it’s about. That’s the inspiration.

So it’s an album of longing?
Yeah, in a poetic sense I guess it’s an album of longing for things or not longing for things. ... But some of our favorite ones are the ones we play live from this first album.

What are your plans for this unreleased album?
Well we have talked a lot about it, doing some work with Ric Hordinsky at The Monastery. He produced the Pomegranates’ last album and is a close friend of Mark, who recorded and mixed our album. We’re not really sure what to do with the album just yet. We might hold on to it and play around until more than 10 people know who we are [laughs].

In your own words how would you describe your sound.
Now we're getting deep. Everyone brings their own thing to the table and that’s very vital to our band. I feel like it’s one of those balls of rubber bands and it’s all wrapped in a bunch of different colors and it comes together. We had no idea how we sounded until we heard our recording. It’s just very energetic and young. Young is probably the best way to describe it. It’s a little naïve. It has dreams and goals, but most of all it’s just young.

What do you do when you’re not working on the band?
Some of us go to school and have jobs, but we probably drink a lot of coffee and listen to records. None of us party, so really we’re bored a lot of the time. I think we’re very different from a lot of bands, we sit around in coffee shops all day and not bars. None of us are 21 either.

How do you drink your coffee and what have records have you been listening to?
Very black and as strong as possible. As far as records, I just ordered "Keep on Your Mean Side" by The Kills. I’m a big fan of The Kills. We listen to a lot of Wilco. I think that’s our biggest band influence. I mean, our biggest band influence is bands that don’t sound anything like us. Like our drummer loves Prince and Pearl Jam, and horrible bands like that. Devyn and I listen to a lot of country influenced things that don’t sound like us at all. - Metromix Cincinnati