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The Death Killers – Zak, Ally, Tim

There’s something very charming about listening to rock and roll made by kids. Like anything artistic made by children there is a great sense of honesty that comes from creating something you don’t enough about to be jaded or overly polished. Just do it and figure it out later. Color outside the lines. Build a bobsled. Record an album. Whatever! It’s a brazen DIY/indie spirit that we all have as children. It’s a world without rules where it’s OK to do something just because you want to, and no one (not even you) cares if you screw up because you never knew any better in the first place.

That same spirit breathed wonderful savage life into the first wave of punk rock of the early 70s, and it lives on today in the hearts of 10 year-old boys and girls from Peoria, Illinois. The likes of The Death Killers and The Tiny Masters of Today show us that punk is still kicking and pulling ponytails. Anywhere a child scowls at an unfair bedtime, punk will be there. Anytime names like “stupid-head” and “butt-face” are thrown back and forth from opposite ends of the playground, punk will be there. Wherever caricatures of evil teachers are drawn, punk will be there.

These bands are not polished, not in the least. The Death Killers album was probably recorded on a Walkman. But for what they lack in polish they make up for in honesty, which is what rock and roll is all about. You can’t get much more honest than a Walkman album. Not many of todays bands would come even remotely close to passing the Walkman-album-acid-test if they were ordered to do the same. There’s just nothing honest about them.

The Tiny Masters of Today have been getting some pretty significant airplay lately. They are also currently on tour in Europe.

The Death Killers have never been released on a label, and to my knowledge exist only online. Much rawer and more interesting than the Tiny Masters, the Death Killers are a brother/sister duo comprised of a 6 year-old and 13 year-old. Amazing. The punkest thing I’ve heard in a long time. The full “album” is available on WFMU’s blog. Listen carefully to the end of “Your Mother’s Dead (She Lives In Your Head)” and you’ll hear Ally being told to put the guitar away and go back to bed.