I can go on and on about these guys. I feel privileged and fortunate to have them as friends. They are here because they are also musicians of note. We all met at work when the social walls between our various functions, and shifts finally were starting to erode. When I started there the rivalries between the three shifts and numerous departments at La Salle/Bank of America were fierce. Second Shift was lazy, First Shift were divas, Third Shift did all the heavy lifting. People were trained in Third. People in Balancing seldom associated with us in the front lines receiving the bags of checks. Yes, some departments at the bank ran 24/7. I was in 3rd shift where I met Jesse and Amaris, two thirds of Killer Moon.
We were all misfits that just found ourselves in a job Talking Heads would ask "How did you get there?" We all had our own singular relationship with music. I was the old goth...still am. They were...are ambitious and talented musicians in need to perform what was inside. I started to hang with Jesse after work. We smoked and listened to music, or he would play what he wrote and I was fascinated as to how effortlessly gifted he was. His music was not current nor common. His music sounded older than he was. What he had to express I believed had massive subcultural potential. On top of that I liked what I heard. We would hang out until the morning sun made us too sleepy. When you work the grave-yard shift the morning sun tells your internal clock "lights out" with some authority. In fighting this authority I found some really good friends before they became this awesome and to me and iconic original band.
Before this band, I did not like a lot of instrumental psychedelic, heavy anything. I needed a voice to hook me. But a voice you can hear from each instrument in Killer Moon's arsenal. You know how a really good score to a movie can both keep you engaged in the action of the film as well as having it's own gravitational pull? Each song is like a story with characters and things, consequential things happen to or are done by these characters. There's conflict to encounter and resolve. It's heavy psychedelic music that keeps you engaged and hanging on every note like a movie capturing attention. In the absence of actors, a great story for them to play out and all the great visuals that come with an epic film, you have Alex on drums, Jesse on lead guitar and Amaris on bass telling you a different story with each song. You can almost write a different scene or story with each song of Killer Moon. Some tracks seem harnessed from the energy of "God Of War". It's only recently that
Jesse's lead guitar gets you familiar with this theme, a series of riffs you become familiar with and fond of and just as that happens he takes off and enter Amaris on bass. With minimal movement she holds together what Jesse establishes while flexing the muscle that is the bass guitar. Stoic she seems in the face of the storm she is part of creating. Alex the travel weathered drummer has this massive cardio. He keeps up with Jesse with intensity, power and speed. Even when he slows down he retains this urgency. Killer Moon is not the product of one singular instrument. There are moments when the lead guitar ebbs into the shadows you see the engine under the hood, the drums and the bass. Killer Moon is also the product of the cultures the members represent. Alex and Jesse are both Mexican-American. Amaris is Puerto Rican. In a way they are misfits of those cultures because they went head first and screaming into producing rock music instead of more... expected channels. Amaris can't even stand reggeton music. Killer Moon therefore can appeal to fans of rock-en-espanol. They are Rock and they are Latino.
Zig
