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LOCAL POP ARCHITECTS BECOME THE
REBORN KiNDERCORE'S FLAGSHIP BAND
B randon Hanick is a songwriter with a passion for the subtle,
and it shows. In the songs he's playing with his pop band
King of Prussia, lyrics in memorable choruses shift slightly
each time around, and tiny musical flourishes poke through in in
dividual songs. The local band self-released its debut disc Save the
Scene earlier this spring, and is seeing the album re-released on a
national scale as the first on the resurrected Kindercore label.
"I wrote a lot of these songs by looking back through other
songs I've written, pulling in things from that past that finally
seemed to fit," says Hanick, "and found a place for them. I try to
go for minimal repetition with my lyrics, and so my choruses aren't
necessarily traditional choruses, because I'll rework the words as
the song progresses."
The shimmering pop melodies and finely crafted tunes on Save
the Scene garner immediate comparisons to the Beatles, Belle &
Sebastian and the New Pornographers, and there's even a subtle
feel to a couple tracks that calls to mind the Moody Blues.
King of Prussia features former and current members of Athens
bands Beijing. Touchdown! and Fabulous Bird, as well as South
Carolina's The Envelopes, among many others. Hanick says the
band first set out solely to record its debut album Save the Scene.
That the entire album was recorded at home on a simple Boss BR-
1180 digital eight-track is particularly impressive.
Crisply placed chimes and criminally memorable choruses lit
ter the seven-song disc, and the album's lyrics are prominent on
tunes like "Misadventures of the Campaign Kids" and "Spain in the
Summertime." "In a perfect world, people would listen and pay at
tention to the lyrics," says Brandon Hanick, the band's songwriter,
guitarist and lead vocalist. "But I'm not out to change minds or
preach a message. But if the lyrics move people to consider things
in a new light, that’s great. Or if they just like the melody and
think the song sounds nice, then that's also good. I don't plan on
becoming the leader of a revolution or anything, they're just the
lyrics that come to my mind."
Originally a recording project, Hanick and King of Prussia have
been making a slow move into the live setting after debuting at
the 40 Watt Club in May of 2006. The shows have allowed the band
to exercise even more creativity, moving beyond the precision of
Save the Scene's recorded form—a second album is already writ
ten. "I always appreciate bands that change things up [live]," says
Hanick. "If I want to listen to the album, i could, y'know, stay
home with some breadsticks and listen to the album. So it was im
portant for me to make the live performances a little more rockin',
and a little looser than what's on the album."
And what about cryptic lyric "Tony Danza's on the run"? "I
wrote that song shortly after Cat Stevens was arrested for terror
ism, or detained or whatever," says Hanick, laughing. "It was just
a tongue-in-cheek reference thing about a celebrity as jokey and
non-threatening as I could possibly imagine. That's a strategy in
a lot of the lyrics I write, working something in that is catchy and
attention-grabbing, but that also speaks to something sociopoliti
cal or economic."
Chris Hassiotis
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AUGUST 15,2007 • FLAGPOLE.COM 37