Floridian five-piece Black Kids blends some of the best of 80s new wave, 60s pop and R&B for an infectious aesthetic in one of the year's most exciting albums, Partie Traumatic.
Jacksonville Sunday School
Black Kids are Reggie Youngblood, the band's singer, songwriter and guitarist, his sister Ali and Dawn Watley on keyboards and backing vocals, Owen Holmes on bass guitar and Kevin Snow on drums. They met in, of all places, Sunday school. If this strikes anyone as a surprise (anyone who's heard their arch, gender-twist lyrics might react that way), so might the fact that the five originally started playing together as a Christian pop band.
By way of explanation Reggie Youngblood has stated that in the often conservative south, Sunday school is often an ideal place to socialize with the opposite sex. He has also said that the switch from Christian rock to indie rock was not as difficult as one might think, all they did, he says, was change the word "Jesus" to "baby" and Black Kids was reborn.
CMJ Music Marathon and the Wizard of Ahhhs EP
By August 2007, there was an enormous amount of buzz around Black Kids due to their raucous dare-you-not-to-dance live shows, including a high profile performance at the Athens Popfest in Georgia and the release of a 4-song EP Wizard of Ahhhs, available for free only on their MySpace page.
Wizard of Ahhhs featured the future singles I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You and Hurricane Jane as well as Hit the Heartbrakes and I've Underestimated My Charm (Again) and made it clear that these Kids have exceptional taste with the myriad classic pop references.
By the end of the year they were being championed by countless music blogs and breathlessly cheered by such publications as Vice Magazine, NME, The Guardian, The Village Voice, The New York Times, USA Today and Rolling Stone, who named Black Kids as one of their Artists To Watch for 2007. Most notably, Pitchfork Media, one of the go-to websites for up-and-coming new bands and purveyour of often-elitist opinions, gave Wizard of Ahhhs a reverential thumbs-up (and later, with the release of Partie Traumatic an inexplicable and unexplained huge thumbs-down).
On the strength of the Wizard of Ahhhs EP and the massive online buzz around them, Black Kids were invited to tour England in December 2007 while they weighed offers from record labels suddenly very eager to sign them. After signing jointly with Columbia Records in the US and Almost Gold Recordings for international distribution, Black Kids began work with on their debut album.
Partie Traumatic
Produced by former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler who is best known for his recent work with Welsh songbird Duffy, Partie Traumatic was released in July 2008.
It's a treasure trove of an album, full of irresistible hooks, sharp lyrics and classic pop references from David Bowie in Snow's drum beats to the coy romanticism of The Smiths to the hook-laden dance pop of New Order.
Reggie Youngblood is clearly channeling The Cure's Robert Smith with his vocal style and when he sings lyrics like "You are the girl that I've been dreaming of ever since I was a little girl" (on I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You) he's clearly got an innate feel for Morrissey's play on gender. The irresistible girl-chant vocals supplied by Watley and Ali Youngblood hearken back to Human League and Toni Basil, while their dueling keyboards provide the album's predominant focus.
What makes Black Kids and Partie Traumatic stand out from other 80s referencing pop bands are the goofy, romantic, sexy lyrics ("You're too much sugar for my sweet tooth" and "Yeah, I ain't tryin' to be liable/I swear it on the bible" or the knock-knock joke that opens the album).
Also contributing to their unique style is the way Reggie Youngblood's lead vocals interact with his sister's and Watley's and the clear appreciation the band has for the heartbroken romance of BritPop heroes Jarvis Cocker and Suede. Additional references to modern pop classicists Belle & Sebastian, The Arcade Fire and Magnetic Fields and a good dose of the modern dance-rock of Franz Ferdinand are also prominent.
Partie Traumatic entered the UK album charts at #5 upon its release and the band's success in the UK by far so far outweighs their success in the US. Sold-out gigs, and three singles released so far in the UK (I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You, Hurricane Jane and Look At Me (When I Rock Wichoo)) have furthered their success and steady touring to small sold-out gigs in North America continue to win new fans.
Partie Traumatic is one of the albums of the year, easily and a remarkable debut for a young band who's already run the gauntlet of fickle music writers.
Catherine Solmes - Currently residing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and writes whenever she can. Contributes to www.northernstars.ca, www.thisnext.com and ...
