MUSIC | Killer musicianship from Kilometers Davis on their debut, "Reading Books About How It's Done"

Don't you just love it when all you've got to go on in writing about a band is the music? Sure, when you happen to be hanging at a club and somebody hits the stage, that's what you get—how good or bad they play, what the name is and, on an exceptional night, an attractive lady's phone number before calling it a night and hitting the bricks. Putting coverage generally together calls for considerably more. Like a bio, press release and, oh, being able to read the promo CD and at least see a listing of which song is titled what. Nothing doing with the group Kilometers Davis and their album Reading Books About How It's Done.

Research at MySpace and KilometersDavis.com yields that the personnel is Gary Malec (guitar, vocals, harmonica), Jeff Gilbertson (guitar, vocals, banjo), Steve Gilbertson (piano,vocals), Nick Zielinski (drums, melodica, vocals, computer), and Ryan Farmer (bass). With the following bio: "Kilometers Davis was started 10 years ago on Woodland Avenue in Duluth, Minnesota. Initially a band of three, over the years we have expanded our ranks to five. We are brought together by a love of diverse styles of music and driven by a desire to bring a unique and creative perspective to the traditional medium of the rock band. To this end, we are releasing our first studio album, Reading Books About How It's Done, in 2010.  Recorded at the Terrarium in Minneapolis by Jason Orris and Rob Oesterlin, the album features guest performances by Ryan Young (Trampled by Turtles), Geoff Senn (Ingo Bethke), and Brad Townsend (Arp of the Covenant)."

On the bright side, you can only go with what you have, and what I have playing on the stereo by Kilometers Davis is marvelously intriguing music. They have a quality hand at crafting soulful, acoustic rock and unorthodox arrangements that bring the Band to mind. The songwriting is strong. Musicianship-wise these boys came to burn. Especially Zielinski, who can rattle off more licks in a minute than seems to be humanly possible and not sound the least bit too busy, not one second of overkill. "Red Book," the opener, could do very good things for this group if it got the right airplay. You can't ask for earthier fare, and the salty vocal has a style all its own. The lyrics are tight. For instance, "You like the forest in the dark/ Really off the mark/ You need someone to ring your bell/ Riding like King David on your carousel/ You know it's been a double fantasy/ You were drowned in Hawaii/ Now it's time to take a look/ You say you're the guy inside that Red Book." The album without question is a killer debut. Just wish I had more information about it.

Dwight Hobbes

Dwight Hobbes (dwight@tcdailyplanet.net) is a writer based in the Twin Cities. He contributes regularly to the TC Daily Planet.