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Music: If you read this blog, then you know that I’m a big Kirby Krackle fan. They’re local, they’re game players, they’re comic readers, and they’re awesome.

Their latest album is out. Titled Live in Seattle and recorded at the Hard Rock Café during this year’s Emerald City Comicon, it’s now available on Bandcamp (you can listen to the entire album for free before you buy!) and features the eleven tracks listed below.

Here are my thoughts on each…

 1> Up, Up, Down, Down If you know KK, then you know this one -- it’s pretty much their signature song and it’s a great one.  Plus, Wilson Fisk callout.

2> Nerd Money I’m not quite sure why this one doesn’t do much for me, but it’s not one of my favorite songs.  It’s a great rendition and easy to groove too, but… Meh.

3> Vault 101 A song dedicated to Fallout 3. If you’ve crossed the wasteland, this one will bring a smile to your face. The rising refrain just nails it.

4> Needing A Miracle Unlike many of their other songs, what this one is referencing is fairly vague…  Maybe I need to listen to it again, but it seems to be more about a general superhero theme than any one in particular.  A great song, though.  It reminds me of something that could have been on the radio in the eighties, and I mean that in the best possible sense.

5> Comic Shop I’ll be honest -- I dig this song, but when the female voice comes on (Kristina Horner, who I’d never heard of before) it just falls flat.  I don’t know if she’s a friend of the band, if they pulled her out of the audience or what, but her vocals kill this version.

6> Ring Capacity A Green Lantern homage. Not a favorite character of mine, but this song’s driving pace and pounding beat get my head bobbing.

7> Great Lakes Avengers They’re the worst heroes of all time, and the hero of this song has no other team to take him… The subject is a great fit for the quasi-punk vibe here.

8> Booty Do Math Did you read that title? ‘Nuff said. (Plus, Adam Warrock!)

9> Roll Over An unreal amount of 80’s/90’s cartoon references and a bouncing, rolling party beat. Pure fun, and round two with Adam W. I’m a big, big fan of this one.

10> Take On Me A Krackle-ized cover of A-ha’s 1985 classic. The synth! I dig it!

11> I Wanna Live In A World Full Of Heroes An earnest anthem of wishful thinking that stays upbeat and closes out the album with thoughts that every comic book reader has surely had.

I’ve seen Kirby Krackle play at least two or three times, and the energy of being in a crowd of fans is definitely captured here.  If you’ve never heard the group before, this would be a great place to jump on, and if you’re already someone who’s got a T-shirt of the band and drives to their local gigs, then you probably bought it before reading this.

Although I might have picked some of their other songs to replace the couple that I wasn’t crazy about here, overall, Live In Seattle is a win. 

Eleven bucks? Hell yeah.  8/10

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