You Should Be Listening To The Kinison
By: Arden Guy

The Kinison are: Chris Lewis – Vocals; Guy (Bub) Knight, Aaron Fuller – Guitars; Mike Villayicencio – Bass; Mike Rivera – Drums

“There's a real hot band coming to town,” I was told. “They're called The Kinison.”

Excellent, I thought. It's my first assignment for Smash Magazine, so I rush out and buy their new CD, What Are You Listening To. On first listen, I immediately realized there was something there. It sounded seasoned and solid and when I began to do my research on these five guys from Oblong, Illinois, I was surprised to find out how young they, and their career, actually was.

Technically, only three of the five member band hail from the Midwest small town. With a population of only about 1600 people, Oblong seems to be one of those places where the options are limited to sports or rock n' roll. Thank goodness Chris, Guy and Aaron chose the latter. With the addition of the two Mike's from California, the band set out to begin molding a sound and attitude that is pure to the founding ideas of what rock n' roll is supposed to be. I say 'rock n' roll' because it is difficult to categorize these guys into any of the boxes that writers and fans so often try to do. Call them screamo, post-punk whatever you want. The only thing that matters is calling them good. Damn good.

“Music is what we do,” says Knight. And music is what they do well. They've been compared to and called the new At The Drive-In, but they've grown weary of that comparison. “That's ridiculous. I think it's mostly the live show, because they (ATDI) were like the last band that were crazy live, and we're a live band.”

When they stopped at Jillian's in downtown Las Vegas last month, it seemed that their enthusiasm was unwaivering and they put all the sweat and energy they could muster into their show. It almost seemed as if that the crowd (or lack thereof) was inconsequential. The Kinison showed up to do what they do - play music.

Lewis, whose influences may surprise you, simply puts it, “we like to dance, have fun, and play. We love music and that's what we live by.”

A wonderful thing to witness. A band true to the art. If pressed, even though they say they live in Riverside, California, the truth seems to be that their real home is on the road and on the stage. A non-stop touring schedule, and a desire to do little more, truly drives these guys.

When asked if the tireless schedule was difficult, Knight said, “It's not wearing at all. I'd rather be touring than at home. It's what we wanna do. It's normal. All we wanna do is play shows and write records. We never actually want to take a break, we just wanna keep going.”

At the time I spoke with them, they were fresh off a two week stint on the Warped Tour. They were completely stoked to have had the chance to participate in the popular traveling festival. They told me of how much genuine fun they had, and even passed on a few stories concerning shoving matches and peeing incidents. Proof that the occupation they've chosen is an all around way of life for them, and not just something they do for the time spent on the stage.

Although not yet booked for the 2005 tour, Lewis says, “We hope to do the whole thing. That was the best time ever. It was just like a party the whole time.”

In the meantime, they're staying busy. With only a few weeks off, The Kinison will finish the year in England opening for Blink 182, a relationship that goes beyond shows. Travis Barker, drummer for Blink 182, just happens to also be the owner of La Salle Records, The Kinison's label. I asked Knight how that came about:

“I met him (Barker) on a whim through friends. He knew of our band and started coming to our shows over and over. Our friends were telling him that we were trying to get a deal and he said, 'When I get a label, I'll sign you guys.' Seemed like a nice guy, but it didn't seem real. You meet some guy who is pretty much like a rock star and he says he'll sign your band, it doesn't seem real. But he kept coming and when the time came, we signed.”

Asked if there were any sacrifices in signing with a label affiliated with Atlantic Records, the guys emphatically insisted there were none. The relationship with Barker and La Salle seems to be exactly what a creative and talented group like The Kinison needs to hone their art freely and offer songs without the tiresome generic quality of most of the corporate rock heard these days.

“Travis really let's us do what we want, whenever we want. We were like 'here, this is what we did and this is what you've got.' No stress.” The band's relationship with their label is a rarity these days, and what seems to spring forth from that is a fresh sound that is, although clean, raw enough to feel authentic.

It seems that the Kinison owe much of where the are today and where they'll be tomorrow to the helping hands of established musicians. They made their beginning when a demo was passed to Casey Chaos (Amen), and he, so impressed with their apparent substance, quickly gathered them up and produced the well received EP Mortgage Is Bank. Appreciative and aware of the help offered them by Chaos and Barker, the band made it clear to me that (given time and resources) they would return the favor to the next promising group of kids that came around with an earnest will to live and make music as they do.

The relationship with Chaos faded, and The Kinison's current work was produced by the well known team of Pelle Hendricsson and Eskil Lovstrom (Refused & Poison The Well).

“It was amazing. They produced records that really influenced us and when we found out we were going to work with them, we were really pumped. It was an honor. We made the record pretty quickly, and they grabbed things out of us that Casey probably wouldn't have done. But we'd like to work with him (Chaos) again.”

The Kinison rely on a totally inspired (as opposed to OVER crafted) approach to song writing. It is always a team effort. Any member of the band can bring a bit to the table and the other guys work with that, adding to the idea until a song emerges. A process that seems to be working just fine.

“It still is and will always be a band. There's no one person who says, 'This is how it is.'

On his lyrics, Lewis had only this to say: “Fiction or non-fiction, it's mostly just stories. My take on life.”

And the stories, such as the one sung in the tune, 'Lake Calmern Is Full,” seem to have enough substance to take on a life of their own. When the true story of the song, concerning a dead baby/fish found in a lake (known only to a select few), was passed on to artist Chris Smith - the eye catching cover art of What Are You Listening To was born. And if the inspiration for the cover art wasn't interesting enough, the name for the record (I found out) was really quite a story in and of itself,... but I'll leave that one to Lewis. If you ever get the chance to meet him, I'm sure he'll tell you. The only thing I'll reveal about it is that it has to do with a dream, and as the rest of The Kinison's unwinding experience seems to prove, a dream that (with a lot of sweat and determination) apparently is in the process of coming true.

The bands take on what they do can be summed up in the reputation of their namesake, the late Sam Kinison. “He was really loud and he didn't give a fuck.” So whatever opinion the critics formulate concerning these guys, it's nice to know that that opinion, good or bad, will have no power over The Kinison's drive to stay real to what's inside. It's not the critics that will influence these guys, it's solely a collective effort to make good music that cannot be and should not be categorized.

“Give us some Merle Haggard,” Lewis says with a smile, proving that predictability is not a quality the band brings to the table. About the only thing predictable about The Kinison is that we, thankfully, will continue to hear more from and of these guys as their promising career unfolds. That, you can take to the bank.