By: Alyssa Rashbaum
Before he became the frontman of the New Wave-inspired, angst-ridden L.A. quintet Rock Kills Kid, Jeff Tucker was a teenage hermit, lacking direction and drive. Fast-forward to 2000 when Tucker, having motivated himself to hook up with a couple of punk bands, saw his own Rock Kills Kid sign to Fearless Records and release an EP in 2001. But the band didn’t tour behind the album, and Tucker found himself back in the same hermit-like existence, living in the studio, bathing himself with Baby Wipes, using all his free time to write some 150 songs by the end of 2003.
After pilfering a few musicians from other bands, Tucker and a revamped Rock Kills Kid got to work on Are You Nervous? (out next week), an album that reflects Tucker’s ascetic bent lyrically, while pumping radio-friendly, danceable backbeats, especially on the hit single, “Paralyzed.” (Listen) And while Tucker is surely showing signs of growth, as on “Back to Life” (“I have waited for this day / To feel I’m fitting in”), his progress might be still be a little stunted, as evidenced in “Life’s a Bitch” (“All God’s children are evil / Yeah, it sucks”).
Goes to show, you can take the boy out of seclusion but you can’t take the seclusion out of the boy.
Rock Kills Kid tour dates:
5/9, Dallas, TX (Gypsy Ballroom) 5/13, Irvine, CA (Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre)5/18, Boston, MA (Landsdowne St. Music Hall)5/19, Providence, RI (Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel)5/21, Asbury Park, NJ (The Saint)5/22, Philadelphia, PA (First Unitarian Church)5/23, Cleveland, OH (Cambridge Room @ House of Blues)5/24, Norfolk, VA (The Norva)5/26, Richmond, VA (Alley Katz)5/27, Columbia, MD (Merriweather Post Pavilion)6/10, San Francisco, CA (Club Mezzanine – BFD After Party)7/4, San Diego, CA (Qualcomm Stadium at Jack Murphy)7/29, Bonner Springs, KS (Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre)8/4, San Diego, CA (Qualcomm Stadium at Jack Murphy)9/4, Seattle, WA (Bumbershoot)
