Indie Music Watch - Kinch
Written by Chad Grischow
Following appearances at NoisePop, South By Southwest, and Warped Tour, Arizona trio, Kinch sound ready for prime time. Despite the poppy, melodic demeanor of their piano rock, the band is decidedly more Ben Folds Five than The Fray. The clever, ramshackle "John Adams" bounces along with a janging piano shuffle, serving simultaneously as an ode to the long-gone President and either an invitation to a wedding or praise for a dog. It is wonderfully confusing and fantastically catchy. A lively tale a kidnapping, "Tie Me Lightly" features the best of the pushy piano pop, as the victim relentlessly questions the kidnapper's motives and skills.
Truthfully, the band's best moment here comes when they drop the piano in favor of some strutting riffs, on "Carolina Cannonball". The combination of sunny guitar and driving beat against the emotionally wrenching vocals of a man who discovers his fiancée cheating is the kind of addictive sonic bliss that instantly makes you a fan for life. The tambourine thrusting, "I guess I should have kept my / I guess I should have kept my / I guess I should have kept my eyes closed", hook makes you want to pump your fist along to the heartbreak. The second of two great EPs the band released in 2009, Collars And Sleeves is a taught four-track powerhouse not to be missed. Best of all, the band is in only charges for the physical copies of their music, offering up free downloads of both EPs on their site (www.kinchband.com), but you will be hard pressed not to track them down on tour and drop a fiver in their hands for an actual disc after one spin.