Kill the Clock is a local, four-piece pop punk outfit from Buffalo. Their new EP “To All My Friends and Family” is upbeat and energetic, with complex rhythms and a professional-sounding mix (with one exception, as noted below). You can hear many influences of their genre in their music, which calls to mind Good Charlotte, Brand New, Fall Out Boy, Blink-182, Relient K, and Stiff Little Fingers.
Opening track “Fighting the Weather” features great harmonies and backing vocals and is the best mixed track on the EP — too bad it’s only 55 seconds long. It feels like as soon as it starts to grab you, it abruptly ends. I would have loved to have heard this song fleshed out some more; as it stands, it feels like an unfinished segment of a song. The second track, “Rookie with Potential,” pushes forward with cool, distorted fuzzy bass and driving drums, while “Welcome Back Weekend” inspired me to do some air-drumming in my living room. “The Red Flower” ends with some tight lead guitar hooks but isn’t very catchy or memorable on the whole. The title track closes out the EP. The mix seems a little muddy for this track, as the drummer’s toms sound completely lost and the vocals are too loud; otherwise it’s another not-particularly-memorable track.
To All My Friends and Family is upbeat and catchy. That said, it sounds just like every other pop-punk/emo band of the last 15 to 20 years. While the lyrics can be witty from time to time, it’s filled with too many of the banal cliches that mark the genre.
From their videos, Kill the Clock looks like they’d deliver a fun and energetic live performance, but to be truly memorable, you have to take the genre and add your own flair to it, not just follow in the footsteps from the last 20 years. They clearly have the chops to be a valuable contributor to the local music scene, but they need a sound that is truly their own.
Find Kill the Clock on Bandcamp at https://killtheclock.bandcamp.com/
Ryan Gurnett has a B.S. in Music Industry from The College of St Rose. He has worked as a studio engineer, live sound engineer, producer and sound editor and has been a musician for 25 years. He is currently the bassist for The Lady, or the Tiger?. Email him at never_really_been@hotmail.com or find him on Twitter @SirWilliamIdol.
