Cut The Kids In Half and hallmark of understanding, pain and sacrifice in "The Quiet Life Of August"

 

"we dress like we never heard of cameras / broken walls and debt collector calls / its not the life we had imagined..." 


A raw bare bones rock and roll bloodletting somewhere between heartland rock and busker punk about the trials and tribulations of being a parent, an ode to working families and a personal love letter to what their parents had to go through told through their parent's eyes and called "The Quiet Life Of August" moved and stunned me. I have listened to it often and while my personal battles and constant chasing of the almighty dollar has kept me from writing about it, I have visited this track often over the last several weeks. 

This dramatic artful song mostly runs on raw emotions and a vocal countenance full of gut punches, cold splashes of water in the face and decades of emotions stuns me, floors me because the authors here, the duo Cut The Kids In Half are brothers Jack and Charlie Silver (age 17 and 16). Even in today's world where info, where great works of art is available at one's finger tips I find it hard to believe that this song that has a literate quality to it was penned and performed by those so young. My surprise might be informed by many things. I am at that age where not one day doesn't go on that I don't think of death and all that it entails. I also get so inspired by young people who know of the musical icons instead of getting lost in what I might consider the vapid art that is all around us. 

So what shapes these guys? 

The Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Radiohead, and Joy Division. Non-musical influences include authors such as Sylvia Plath, Albert Camus, and Alexandre Dumas have been influential to Jack Silver's writing. 

Jack and Charlie's parents must be a proud as hell and I can imagine that tears poured down their cheeks listening to "The Quiet Life Of August".

"we dress like we never heard of cameras / broken walls and debt collector calls / its not the life we had imagined / don’t let the kids see you cry / who knows what kind of damage that could do to them  / maybe this is more than I can manage..."

-Robb Donker Curtius

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM 

https://soundcloud.com/cut-the-kids-in-half


If you ever wanted to be transported back to a time where you could hear Lou Reed, Ian Curtis, or Leonard Cohen for the first time, enter Cut The Kids In Half - Jack and Charlie Silver (age 17 and 16) hailing from Rahway, NJ. 
 Spending their time in Los Angeles in the summer of 2022 writing and recording, the band of brothers have released their debut single “The Quiet Life of August”.

Cut The Kids In Half, alt rock, poetic lyrics, deep reflections, heartland rock, busker punk, Jack Silver, Charlie Silver, "The Quiet Life Of August",