Artisit Spotlight :: Verbal & The Kickdrums

So I’ve featured their album a few times on the site but seeing as there isn’t much in the way of music on the weekends I decided to write this feature.

Aaron Weiss, Alex Fitts, and Matt Penttila are long time friends and collaborators dating back to high school. Hailing from Cleveland, Ohio this trio’s latest album combines indie rock samples, live instrumentation (The Kickdrums) and an infectious monotone flow (Verbal) for a very intriguing sound.

Hit the jump for some sample lines from Verbal aswell as links to songs & the album.

If you listen to any of his songs you’ll know that Verbal is a dope lyricist, who manages to keep his songs fun but also talk about real subjects and never resorts to gimmicky rap. This first song I chose to upload was ‘Ice Princess’.

To me Ice Princess is a song about a relationship, the type we’ve all been in. If you give the song a listen i’m sure you will relate. However it could easily be about hip hop as an entity, give it a listen and make your own mind up.

“she tried to hit me but she missed me/then she kissed me like she missed me”
Ice Princess [Stream/Download]

The second song is called ‘Don’t Say A Word’, this song is more down tempo than other songs on the album. This song is one of my favourite lyrically, there are so many quotables in this one.

“the game makes me wanna fall asleep/ radio is like one song on repeat”
Don’t Say A Word [Stream/Download]

The final track is UFC. This song tells the story of a young UFC fighter and a young basketball player. To me its about working hard for your dreams and not giving up. Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

“knowing his opponent don’t work harder than him”
UFC [Stream/Download]

Here is some footage of Verbal performing with The Kickdrums at SOB’s earlier this year.