Raising Kane

One of the interesting challenges of writing about music is deciding how much, or how little, to rely on genre classifications. If you get too specific, and describe a particular group as, say, “contemporary ambient post-punk j-pop crunkcore.” Most readers worth their weight in vinyl will simply shake their heads in disgust and turn the page, as well they should. However, it’s possible to err too far in the other direction, and, without a basic signpost or two, be too vague: “This group plays music.”

In that way, the Kanes, a Reno band, is refreshing. The Kanes is a rock band (period). Sure, it’s possible to get more specific—there’s a heavy dose of Nirvana’s Nevermind, tempered with a jigger of Lennon-McCartney songwriting, and stirred with ’70s classic-rock power-trio dynamics—but you, the reader, don’t need that. All you need to know is that The Kanes play rock music, and if you like rock music, you’ll probably like the Kanes, because the members play a pure distillation of rock music that has broad appeal.

The songs from the band’s new album, Black Magic, have enough hooks to reel in casual listeners, but enough musicality to keep more attentive music nerds interested as well.

“If You Want” goes from mid-tempo to fast in a way that recalls a bluesier, stomping Nirvana, but then, in the coup de grace, the song lurches into a slow and heavy Black Sabbath-like riff.

“It’s like three songs in one,” says lead vocalist-guitarist Greg Gilmore.

“I like when time changes flow into each other,” says bassist and harmony vocalist Adam Springob.

“Hey Yeah”—not to be confused with Outkast’s iconic “Hey Ya!”—almost sounds like a Cars tune, complete with a drums-and-chanted-chorus breakdown. It’s fun song, with a mood about 90 degrees removed from “If You Want,” which precedes it on the album. One of The Kanes’ many strengths is the ability to play songs with different moods but still sound cohesive.

Springob plays with enough dexterity that the songs sound harmonically dense, even when Gilmore takes a solo, and drummer Mike Orris plays with flair that always serves the songs. Both members of the rhythm section sing harmony, which adds a nice element—they’re an old-fashioned vocal group as well as a rock trio.

But Gilmore’s vocals are out front, and they have just a hint of grit that adds a bit of a blues feel to the music. He says that old bluesmen like Leadbelly and Robert Johnson are, like Nirvana and the Beatles, among his influences.

“I like what they wrote about,” he says. “It’s real, but imaginative.”

That description is also true of Gilmore’s songwriting, which has the cathartic quality essential to good rock music. He describes his lyrics as the things he wishes he’d say in conversation, but never does.

“I write songs as therapy, to help me get through the day,” he says. “Hopefully, they help other people get through their day.”

For Gilmore, songwriting is, in part, a way to sort out the complexities of mixed emotions.

“When you experience something, you go back and forth about it,” he says.

In that way, the lyrics are in unison with the music, which similarly changes in rhythm, tempo and texture—these guys are students of the art of loud-quiet-loud.

Black Magic was recorded throughout 2012 by Scott Curtis at Stonehaven Studios in Sparks. The record release show, featuring fellow locals Drinking with Clowns, Scarlet Presence and Bazooka Zoo, will be a benefit show for the educational nonprofit Future Kind. Horror movie host Zomboo will be the evening’s master of ceremonies. The show, co-presented by KRZQ, is at the Knitting Factory on April 27.