The Castaway Kids - BEach

The Castaway Kids

Beach
self-released; 2015

3.3 out of 5

By Ted Rogen
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I remember the late ‘90s when I was in high school and there were so many local bands that sounded like Nirvana. I asked myself why and it came down to two things. The music was easy to appreciate and also really easy to reproduce. Nirvana was hope for those kids in the garage because it was in the realm of possibility of what that could sound like. Trust me that not many local bands thought they could sound like Gun N’ Roses. 

Fast forward twenty years and Nirvana has largely been replaced by The Strokes. There are countless bands out there who I have listened to through this website that sound so similar to The Strokes they are going to have cut them a check. The same reason holds true for The Strokes as it did for Nirvana. The music is catchy and extremely easy to make. The same reason also holds true for why most bands don’t sound like Animal Collective or Viet Cong. Most young bands simply don't have the skills or know how to make music that is similar. 
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Enter The Castaways Kids comprised of Akiva Henig (drums), Blu Midyett (bass), Avery (tambourine) Eli Goldberg (Mellotron/guitar), Kelly Schenk (vocals) and Tristan Jackson  (vocals). Their recent release Beach EP owes a lot to The Strokes but also contains a couple of inspired moments that point to some more originality in the future. 

Let's starts with the opener “Beachy Song Part I” which to be blunt sounds exactly like every song from The Strokes. The song is catchy but the singer is obviously trying to sound like Julian Casablancas. I can’t stress this enough that there is no way a song that sounds so similar to another band can be a good thing. They will not be able to rise above a certain point of success because people will call it out and just start listening to you know who. 

The second song “Beachy Song Part II” sounds similar to the first but luckily the band starts to display a bit more originality moving forward. “You Get So Mad” has some decent moments and rocks out but still has the guitar style that made The Strokes popular.

The band’s highlight and the best song by a wide margin is “Summer Daze.” It's a heartfelt song, which shows a different side to the band. The guitar riffs are more melodic and the vocals are pretty good as well. 

I have to cut The Castaways Kids some slack when considering their age. The band looks as if they are still in high school and truth be told at that age it's harder to come up with original sounding material for a myriad of reasons. I have writing music since I was fourteen and I think my most original material started happening in my mid to late twenties. 

The Castaways have some work ahead of them but the last song shows some potential. Time is on their side so we will see.

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