KILL YOUR EX ‘From Words To Motion’ (Mediaskare) RATING: 6/10

By JEFF MAKI

Kill Your Ex's music is a blend of emo, rock and punk, nothing original but benefits from a decent vocalist nonetheless. I always get nervous when a band's bio brags about the number of friends it has and plays it gets through it's myspace page and that's exactly the case here. For all intensive purposes I immediately throw that out the window as this is no legitimate proof of a band's popularity or quality. I'd much rather here more about a band's history, ideas and stories. Vocalist/guitarist Joey Rubenstien is the main draw of this band. He's a great melodic emo singer with good range and varying styles. Unfortunately, other than Rubenstein the band does little to keep things interesting through the duration of From Words To Motion, their first release for Mediaskare. Most all of the material is played at the same tempo and the overall quality of the songwriting and lack of any bonified hit hold back a decent talent. The one song the leaves a lasting memory for me is “Consent,” the best song of the album. The guitars standout at times with strange Nintendo-type sounds, bleeps and melodies, especially in opener, “Hades and Demeter.” The band has worked hard and have taken on a D.Y.I. approach, something you almost have to do these days as an up-and-coming act. They even went as far as following around last year's Warped Tour to hand out postcards promoting themselves.

Other than a great band name (wouldn't we all like to do that?) Kill Your Ex seem to be in limbo in terms of finding a direction and identity. They seem like they have what it takes to write some great alternative-rock songs and have a dude with the pipes to lead the way. If you're going to play this type of music is has to be relatively catchy and have pop appeal. This may be a sleeper of a band in the future but for now it just seems like unfulfilled potential.

www.myspace.com/killyourex