The Sexy Accident - Change And Consistency - Present Magazine - June 30, 2010

PROFILE: The Sexy Accident - The Buddha Den - June 16, 2010

The Sexy Accident Gets Some Lady In the Lineup - The Pitch - December 24, 2009

Jesse Kates answers 10 questions posed to 100 musicians - Erasing Clouds - July 28, 2006

Kates takes on personal project, begins solo tour despite injury - Iowa State Daily - March 04, 2005

With songs this rich, who needs albums? Though only three tracks long, the Sexy Accident's Now That She's Gone teems with sonic and lyrical detail. It captures a fleeting, stunning portrait. And fleeting is the operative word because Camry Ivory — who joined seven months ago — will soon be the longest-tenured member besides founder Jesse Kates. (The Sexy Accident is slimming down a member to a quartet and unveiling a new rhythm section.)

The addition of Ivory's keyboards and background coos to Kates' local band fills out the pop tunes with more panache. Kates' lithe tenor narrates meaty stories preoccupied with heartbreak. Though it's the oldest trope in the songbook, Kates makes his heartache ballads distinct.

The title track — which recalls the new-wave soul of Graham Parker — finds Kates having trouble letting go, promising, My heart is broke, but it's gonna mend. The cinematic, nearly six-minute "In Heaven" captures the guilt and longing of an illicit affair between onetime best friends; and the punchy, sample-laden rave-up "Savage Love" is incited by a condom wrapper on a car seat.

It's a smart, catchy, fulfilling course, despite its appetizer size.

- Chris Parker, The Pitch

Kansas City pop-rock group the Sexy Accident's new EP is a self-contained world of cheating and leaving lovers, presented three ways. At the center is the high-drama version, the six-minute "In Heaven". She's going to marry someone else. They meet one last time, every breathless second filled with importance, at least in his mind. His thinking is no joke: "I'd even love his kids / ‘cause they're yours and his". The backing vocals tilt the song towards melodrama, even soap opera, as do the build-ups of guitar, which almost suggest a demonic ending. That ending makes the song feel, at least to me, like a true-crime drama of over-the-edge obsession, not as innocuous as it first seemed.

The first and title track, "Now That She's Gone", is the lighter, sweeter version of this. He misses her but, you know, he does yoga and exercises and keeps moving along. There's an upbeat tone, singer Jesse Kates singing, "now that she's gone" with a grin. It's hard to get a grasp on the exact story, perhaps because our narrator doesn't want to face all of the facts. "The story's not quite as simple as I try to make it out to be," he admits, "it's no fair to want from her / what she can't count on from me." From that line it seems like he may have been stringing her along, that her leaving wasn't a cold, heartless act. "My heart is broke / but it's gonna mend," he declares. But what about her heart?

The third song, "Savage Love", tells the same basic story from a sleazier angle. The sex that wasn't happening in the other songs is here, as the song starts, "I miss lusting after you / maybe more than I miss you." It's the catchiest song, though the spirit of the song isn't as light as its sound, even with crashing sound effects that make us feel like we're in a B movie. Camry Ivory's backing vocals almost poke fun at the song's narrator, in an observing-from-a-distance way, especially her bouncy echo of "car car car" after his lyric, uttered with a self-conscious sense of dirtiness, "I know monogamy is hard / but so was f___ing in your car." The song's title is both a reference to the syndicated newspaper column and a supposed philosophical statement: "savage love / is all there is." Is that true? The first two songs sure seem to disprove the notion.

- Dave Heaton, erasing clouds

Betrayed expectations, dashed promises. Mantoloking, the third album from The Sexy Accident due out on August 21, 2009, addresses the noticeable failings of leaders, family, friendship, and love.

The album takes its name from an affluent seaside town in New Jersey. "It also happened to be chosen as namesake for some of the junkiest of junk collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that precipitated the mortgage and financial crisis; investment bankers dubbed a steaming pile of financial refuse ‘Mantoloking' to lure unsuspecting investors into a false sense of classist security," explains Jesse Kates, guitarist and lead singer

Recorded at Black Lodge in Eudora, Kansas by accomplished Seattle-based producer Steve Fisk (Nirvana, Soundgarden, The Wedding Present), the forthcoming album exhibits a darker edge lyrically and musically than its predecessor, Kinda Like Fireworks. While Fireworks pops with catchy hooks and unusual time signatures, Mantoloking bulls ahead with a driving sound full of urgency or alternately pauses to brood with piercing insight.

The band picked up guitarist Chad Toney in May 2008, joining Kates, bassist Pat Padgett (replacing Pat Fent, who moved to Florida), and drummer Daniel Torrence. As a quartet, they rock hard without sacrificing melody or lyricism.

Lead track "I Tried Again" is about being drawn to a person with an addictive personality that needs an audience for attention. You know the type – someone that's attractive because of outrageous behavior but remains elusive as a love interest. The craziness becomes disturbing when it's time for accountability. The lyrics play tug-of-war between the poles of letting go and sitting tight. The adrenaline of self-induced drama for entertainment and the lull of boredom become a vicious cycle.

"I Just Need My Car" is an all-out dismissal, a parting of the ways with no tolerance for bullshit even if love leaves a residue. The band plays with a laser focus. A ringing guitar works next to firecracker drums as Kates sings with exasperation. A round of handclaps breaks the pace for a moment until the band drives the song home.

A wildcat guitar yowls and snarls with a psychedelic bite to open "Buy Me Out." Padgett's bass line creates tension as crunchy guitar riffs clear a path.

The songwriting also shows a sense of humor with "I'm Just Trying to Help (Me Like You). Some women might recognize the jerk in this song full of dictates about how to look, eat, and act. Kates says, "It's written from the point of view of the douchiest of ex-boyfriends. One of his parting suggestions is that his girlfriend consider a spray-on tan."

"Failing to Play Nice" examines the emotional perspective of a boy dealing the departure of his father, the breakup of a marriage, and the succession of men that follow into his mother's life. The words in the final stanza hint at the strength of the writing:

and then came the succession
of more unwanted men
and I made it my task
to tear away their masks
‘cuz the way they'd dupe my mom
with money and aplomb

Kates shows a sensitivity not often seen among male lead vocalists in town. He proffers raw lyrics and bitter memories with aching honesty. It's the plaintive hurt in his singing that makes it feel so pure.

By the time "A Merry Christmas To You" rolls around, there's no doubt that The Sexy Accident have reached higher, worked harder, and dreamed bigger than they have previously. Seven songs into Mantoloking, the quality of the song craft still doesn't relent. "Merry Christmas" drops into the middle of a surprised lover's betrayal. The brisk guitar work inserts an element of suspense into a moment fraught with tension. The backing female vocal of Michelle Plaitis, a friend of producer Steve Fisk's from Seattle, trading lines with Kates adds another chilling layer to the coldness of the situation. Plaitis also contributes backing vocals on the final track, "Won't You Be Mine."

"The Chatty Bandit" is a more upbeat number that could have been a hidden track from the previous album. Nonetheless, it fits nicely here as an enthusiastic pop song that rocks with jubilation.

"All Surface" swings the mood back to introspection with a mid-tempo pace that slowly builds. The lyrics stem from Kates' state of mind at the time.

"It was the first song I wrote after we got back to Kansas City from recording Kinda Like Fireworks," says Kates. "I wrote it in early April. Winter was hanging on way too long, which is where the ‘float away winter' opening line comes from. I found myself floundering in a number of ways, both personal and professional. I felt I was stuck in a dead-end job. I was feeling old. I felt crippled by responsibility. I was experiencing the postpartum blues that follow the completion of any major art project."

Feeling isolated and adrift, he attempted to "turn the feelings of hopelessness into useful angst. Angst and frustration can be powerful feelings if you take action in response to them," he says.

While tough to share this song with the public, Kates decided to loosen the reins. "I've always tried to make The Sexy Accident an upbeat band, and so I've censored songs that were too gloomy or serious in the past. This time I just let them out. I can't tell if it's led to a better result to do that, but it's an experiment. You gotta take chances."

For a record due this autumn, the spirit of the recording feels like the last hot embers of a bonfire fending off the penetrating cold of winter, fingertips still stinging from life's raw handshake. The album artwork visually conveys this faint sense of resilience in the midst of hardship.

"The cover image has been selected to convey tenuousness, isolation and tension," Kates says. "Two individuals stand on a bridge in the middle of winter, their faces turned away from the camera. Their embrace is awkward and stilted, but they hold on to each other just the same. They are alone surrounded by the blur of the city, facing out into the unknown, trying to steel each other against some sort of wave, bracing for impact as children against a rough sea. By and large, this is the stuff Mantoloking is made of."

Indeed, brace for an impact after listening to Mantoloking. This cohesive set of songs is built on lyrics that strike true with meaning beyond catchy phrases and refrains. Fisk's solid production boosts the power of this gutsy music. With these eleven songs, the band draws more attention to storm clouds than to hidden silver linings. The Sexy Accident is actually quite deliberate in their intentions, willing to weather the storm and shake off the chill. While the album's theme reflects the dour outlook and off-kilter momentum of the times externally, the music's sheer energy also serves as an internal catalyst to keep the fire burning and keep biding time until better days cycle around.

- Pete Dulin, presentmagazine.com

- Jonathan Aird, Americana U.K.

Chunky guitars crunch with crackling melodic vocals humming bars of harmonies underneath an engulfing wave of oceanic delight and power pop saltiness. Neat and organized indie pop from Kansas City's The Sexy Accident.

- Smother

Kansas City's The Sexy Accident make music that falls somewhere between the power pop of Teenage Fanclub and the upbeat indie rock of Nada Surf. Lead singer Jesse Kates' voice may bring to mind Magnolia Electric Co.'s Jason Molina. Check out "I Tried Again."

- Jeremy, WLUR

To say that music should have no monetary value is a little silly. After all, release a pirate copy of an album people are supposed to pay for, people flock.

Release an album free-of-charge, people give it the wide-birth of a sneezing Mexican.

They can't all be bad though, right? Well, time for another test case: meet The Sexy Accident. Now download this album by heading to their music download page.

Now read along.

We're somewhere in the territory between Teenage Fanclub and Mull Historical Society here with a greater onus on those "driving rhythms" so beloved of press departments.

Front-man Jesse Kates throws an impressive amount of gusto at the vocals. Hearing his voice strain, run dry of air and gasp for breath between and during notes adds a huge amount of energy and humanity to what could have been a typically lifeless performance.

Retro stylings may place them beyond the focus of the typically narrow-sighted indie-kids, but it's very much their loss. Although we must take time to rue the somewhat sagging nature of the mid-section of Mantoloking, we'd still consider it a home-run/six/whatever sports analogy you wish to use.

First song on the album "I Tried Again" scores major points for never losing its momentum throughout a giant swing of a chorus and the cleverly structured guitar riffs. Taking the baton from that song, "I Just Need My Car" quickly solidifies The Sexy Accident as a band adept at those trickiest of rock conceits: melodies. The background vocals feel exactly as if they emanate from the back of the room, rather than the right side of the mix.

"Buy Me Out" may be a little too pub-rock at its initiation, but the sweeping bass-line soon takes us back to the land of the epic rock band. The rather audacious use of counter-pointed vocals at the end really does warm the heart as well.

Seven-point-five minute opus "All Surface" is anything but and "Merry Christmas To You" brings a Coral vibe to a downbeat Christmas anthem.

We'd not recommend that the band start building an awards shelf just yet, but this is one we'd likely hold as being worth its price at HMV, that it's completely free-of-charge makes it an essential download.

- Aidan Williamson, Strangeglue

Named after one of the wealthiest communities in New Jersey, Mantoloking, the third release from local group the Sexy Accident, is rich in pop intricacies and full of rhyming nuggets. Froggy-voiced frontman Jesse Kates' heartfelt and slightly gooey lyrics are complemented by jangly guitars and chugging low end, in the vein of '90s alt-pop acts like Toad the Wet Sprocket or the Barenaked Ladies ... Mantoloking is more seasoned than the Sexy Accident's previous recordings. It's not as upbeat or cheerful as one would expect from catchy Midwestern guitar pop, but its multilayered stylings and more mature approach make for good background music during a personal introspection session.

- Berrry Anderson, The Pitch

Kansas City's The Sexy Accident is going through an identity crisis. That, or the band has come into its own with its third full-length album, Mantoloking.

Gone are the simple power-pop chord progressions and fast rhythms of last year's release, Kinda Like Fireworks. Instead, the quartet offers a slowed down, more mature sound reminiscent of '90s college rock. Think Toad the Wet Sprocket or R.E.M.

The tracks are longer and more brooding, and the sound is more full and dynamic, thanks to the addition of a second guitarist.

Jesse Kates' dry, top-of the-throat, nasally voice has a tendency to sound too muffled during some songs, such as in the opener, "I Tried Again." But there are times when his voice rings out clear, and he conjures up R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, just minus the twang, most notably in the "Everybody Hurts"-esque "Failing to Play Nice."

The ghost of the band's power-pop past speaks up here and there. For instance, the album's opener, "I Tried Again," is a punchy, uplifting number … musically, anyway. The melody steps up the scales to a marchlike beat, and there are even a few power-pop stops. However, the lyrics are tragic, dealing with the cat-and-mouse chase of a lover who is impossible to pin down.

Mantoloking — named after a type of junk collateralized debt obligation, which was named after a high-class seaside town in New Jersey — deals with betrayal of all kinds. Like the credit meltdown caused by bad business practices, Kates writes tales of personal meltdowns caused by touchy subjects such as obsession, infidelity and divorce.

In fact, The Sexy Accident addresses corporate greed head on with "Buy Me Out." The track starts out with sleazy '70s acid-rock guitar licks that represent the glitzy, shiny money world and the smarmy, two-dimensional people who inhabit its fast track.

Kates sounds bitter as he spits out the lyrics "A grinding halt? It's not my fault/Just ‘can' my assistant." Toward the end, the song breaks down as it switches gears and heads back into power-pop territory. The move makes for a jarring end to a jarring song.

Overall, the band has grown in its songwriting. Tracks such as "A Merry Christmas to You" and "The Chatty Bandit" stand out.

The former, an intricate and soul-crushing number, makes use of tinkly, chimelike guitars and female background vocals that ooze "Carol of the Bells."

The lyrics performed by Michelle Platis are interspersed throughout the heavily layered song as she realizes she's been spotted with another lover.

And "The Chatty Bandit" is as fun and rambling as the IM flirtations Kates sings of. However, the melody gets clunky during the chorus as the tempo downshifts.

Most bands mature, and The Sexy Accident seems to be headed in the right direction with Mantoloking. The group took a risk in adjusting its sound, but it may have been a risk worth taking.

- Liz Garcia, ink

This Kansas City-based band's second LP is just as driven by catchy melodies and smart, real-life lyric-writing as their first, 2006's Tourism. But they're tighter: a forceful, even fiery power-pop trio.

The band's singer/songwriter/guitarist, Jesse Kates, sings with a devotion and sensitivity that's sometimes surprising; his voice will rise above the rock, catch air. His guitar will too, alternating between lightness and crunch.

The songs switch too from the rough to the gentle, by telling stories sad and sweet. Within them people make mistakes, hurt each other, and express their love, through road trips and a shared knowledge of each other's eccentricities. This musical and lyrical balancing of hurt and tenderness is to the album's benefit, making it a very human sort of rock 'n' roll album.

- Dave Heaton, The Big Takeover

It's hard to miss a name like The Sexy Accident. Score points for a catchy moniker. Guitarist and lead singer Jesse Kates, bassist Patrick Fent, and drummer Daniel Torrence are power pop pugilists fighting to express their views on those human strengths and weaknesses - love, lust, loss, and infidelity - that make life more than a to-do list. The band's latest album, Kinda Like Fireworks, shows their finesse at delivering tightly composed pop songs that employ unusual time signatures and catchy hooks.

Ringleader Jesse Kates isn't new at the recording game. He's progressed from two instrumental albums as a member of Whitford to Sleight of Hand, a solo record of loop-based guitar music. Next, Kates formed The Sexy Accident and released Tourism, an album of indie pop with chewy hooks billed as Weezer meets Elvis Costello.

Kinda Like Fireworks follows closely in the footsteps of that Weezer meets Costello comparison. Lead track "Baby, It's Not Cheating" jangles hard like a Ma Bell plastic telephone. The vocals and music jut with a herky-jerky pace, but it works once Kates finds the right gear.

"My Girl" is immediately catchy with its quick guitar hook, peppy drumming, easy-to-digest lyrics, and Kates' staccato vocal delivery. "Gardener, Gibbet, Misery" slows down the pace and surges with emotional intensity. It's honest and naked, stripped down to a guitar, bass line, and superb drumming that add crisp context between breaks in the singing.

"Flirting With Disaster" rampages like Godzilla moshing across Tokyo in emo-power pop mode as Kates sings about lust for a friend.

"Hey You" ditty bops on a great beat. Kates' choppy guitar buzzes with a hornet's nest of angst as he snips with hurt about the frustration of long distance between two people. These aren't weighty subjects until you realize that something similar happened to you, or might, someday, somewhere. Then, it all makes sense. The drums and bass and guitar kick in behind that near snarl of vocals. Those two words - Hey You - become the most eloquent address, statement, accusation, and pleading ever uttered.

The compact hits keep coming in short order with firecracker pop of "Morning Drive," the soft-edged longing of "Lonely Days," and the poignant narrative of "Skies."

This record rocks with the enthusiasm of a hormonal teenager, but with the perspective of an older brother who has gone down the rocky path of love and loss. Kinda Like Fireworks is a fun, energetic listen that plays out the thrill and ache, the scathing moments and soothing memories, that make us pursue relationships.

- Pete Dulin, present magazine

Kansas City’s music scene is known for its hard-ass bands. Groups as tough as railroad spikes serving up hard metal, hard alt-rock, hard punk and even hard country. It’s a foundation set decades ago as our provincial, Midwest location made it difficult for an act to get known without making some serious noise. In a sea of ultimate fighters, what’s a clean, shiny pop band to do? If it’s The Sexy Accident, they come up with a confusing name and just try their best to let the songwriting do the talking.

With “Kinda Like Fireworks” the Kansas City trio takes a deep breath, shuts their eyes and dives into the mix with short songs, jangly guitars and the least-threatening vocals on this side of the Mississippi. Singer Jesse Kates has kind of a Smoking Popes thing going on, but the group doesn’t go for that huge wall-of-distortion sound. It’s a pregrunge style that evokes the new-wave songwriters of the ’80s, clean-cut pop artists like Marshall Crenshaw, Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello. The upfront production, for better or for worse, emphasizes Kates’ voice as he both nails it and occasionally whiffs it, sometimes on the same track.

The Sexy Accident launches its less-is-more approach from the top, though with mixed results. “Gardner, Gibbet, Misery,” a mostly two-chord wonder, shows how little is needed to fashion a devastating and memorable pop song. Other tracks (“My Girl,” “Hey You”) try to do too much with pop-punk arrangements that are in need of some maturation and better all-around performance. “Stall” in particular is an example of an excellent pop song marred by tepid drumming, an unnecessary and sloppy opening guitar riff and bass-only power-pop stops, which can be effective if everyone joins in but end up sounding like accidental pauses. A looser band could get away with the tempo issues that sprout up all over “Kinda Like Fireworks,” but The Sexy Accident’s concise songwriting can only benefit from some whip cracking in the studio. For instance, maybe someone with a fresh ear who can help the band rework its single-note guitar solo (“Lonely Days”).

With all the cranky posturing in the Kansas City scene, The Sexy Accident, in spite of its ridiculous name, could become our regional answer to the Fountains of Wayne. A charming, clever, nerd-core trio that doesn’t take itself too seriously. “Kinda Like Fireworks” isn’t quite an M-80, but those little paper popper things can be fun too, and a lot less scary.

- Steven Garcia, ink

This is a Kansas City-based band lead by singer/songwriter/guitarist, Jesse Kates. After a great punchy pop debut, the band gets more adult and serious in subject.

The sound recalls Jonathan Coulton meets Elvis Costello. "Baby it's Not Cheating" is a great topical tale, about just thinking about being unfaithful. Jesse sings about someone he met online and convincing himself "it's not cheating, as long as it's fleeting" and hoping it really is a girl online.

The super catchy "My Girl" is immediately accessible with a smooth guitar hook, and tight delivery. The slower tunes like "Gardener, Gibbet, Misery" are emotionally honest in telling the tale of self doubt. Jesse speeds things up with buzzing guitar on "Flirting With Disaster" and "Hey You" brings to mind Weezer or Fountains of Wayne.

Other highlights include the snappy tempo and chord changes of "Morning Drive," and the spiteful "Dancing With My Friends" complete with wild guitar break about stewing over regrets.

A worthy set of emotional pop songs with lyrical bite.

- Aaron Kupferberg, powerpopaholic

Epic, 70-minute albums have their pleasures, but there's something to be said for keeping things short and to the point. There's a distinct pleasure in a quick, compact album where every song hits its mark, and when it's over you're ready to play it again. TOURISM, from the Kansas City trio The Sexy Accident, is one of those albums: 10 songs, 30 minutes of sleek, punchy pop-rock that is infectious and fun, yet still filled with real-world emotions, stories, and settings.

'Playability' is a vague concept I guess, but TOURISM is the epitome of it: an album you can play and play and play - listen to, sing to, live with. The appeal lies in part with their tight, rhythmic, melodic style of pop-rock, with guitars, bass, and drums blending seamlessly. And it also comes from the everyday, universal quality of the songs themselves. Jesse Kates sings in an non-rock-star, low-key style that I find endearing. It fits his real-life style of lyrics well, whether he's singing about the adventures of a video game player ("Undefeated Champion of the Arcade") or lambasting an unfaithful lover ("Ashley Christian").

The lyrics are detailed, seem carefully crafted, and reflect circumstances from life as we know it (in the "Arcade" song, for example, the video arcade is torn down to make way for a Rite Aid). And in every case the musical tone is designed perfectly for the song's content. The video game player in "Arcade" is sung about over more driving, aggressive (but still quite pop) music. The blissful lovers' scene set up in "Morning Pales" is accompanied with gently alluring guitars, for example. Similar guitars loudly explode and ring out during "Bottled in Glass", reflecting both the hurt and the wistfulness of the lost-love tale.

A feeling of loss, wrapped up with memory and wishes and regrets and hope, runs through the album's second half, culminating with the gorgeous final track, "The More Things Stay the Same," an attempted new beginning hopeful in tone if not content. It's one of the most unique songs on the album, catchy even as it's particularly low-key and gentle. It ends an outstanding album on a high note.

- Dave Heaton, erasing clouds

There's something to be said about nerdy power pop that can poke fun of itself, and The Sexy Accident is a shining example. One part Cheap Trick and one part They Might Be Giants, TSA out maneuvers all expectations by weaving geeky intelligence and humor throughout their quirky rock opus.

Perhaps their finest moment is Undefeated Champion of The Arcade, where all their elements come together in a perfect unit. It's got a groovy droning guitar line, with nasal-toned vocals boasting about video gaming skills, along with a lament about the arcade being torn down to build a Rite-Aid. What's not to love?

- Mish Mash

Sleight of Hand comes with a small chart that diagrams the instrumentation and the "rules" used in recording the album. Kates uses one guitar per song (except for "Answerphone", which sounds like Kates reading a poem into his answering machine), feeds it through an effects pedal and a loop machine, and records the results live. On paper, these sorts of artistic rules often seem like a good idea; when an artist works within a set of artificial restrictions, he or she is often more focused on the purity of the process. However, these ideas don't always play out as well as the artists would hope -- we need look no further than cinema's Dogme 95 movement for proof. Fortunately, Sleight of Hand is much better than Von Trier's The Idiots.

Rickenbacker opens the disc with a sparsely layered sequence of heavily effected guitar lines. Kates's choice to begin his experiment with economical use of the looping machine is an interesting one; his guitar is so heavily affected that it almost sounds more like a keyboard, and the epic soundscape he creates is both meditative and spiritual. G&L is moody and rich with reverb. As on Rickenbacker, Kates is patient with his machinery, adding a new loop to his piece only when necessary, wisely letting his improvisational playing dissolve in the air instead of coming back at the listener over and over again. Stratocaster goes for a cleaner sound, and this time Kates layers his guitar generously. It's a beautiful song that any anonymous listener would enjoy, not only for its success within the "rules", but as a well crafted and interesting piece. What more could anyone hope for in this type of artistic outing?

- Philip Stone, Splendid

Accompanied by a flow chart, which was by all guesses intended to explain the process of recording his latest album Sleight of Hand, Jesse Kates debut is a bit more complex than a few sparse arrows and chintzy MS Paint diagrams. Ill do my best not to bust on the guy for flow charting his flow, so to speak, because the best part of this album has nothing to do with Kates' tendency to diligently plan a path ahead.

Kates recorded this album using certain pre-determined rules (one instrument per song, no overdubs, 50% composition/50% improv). At times, the rubric behind Sleight of Hand succeeds in slighting the rest of us. The more emotive, free-form side of Kates, as on G&L where he sounds softer and more deliciously elusive than a guitarist is allowed to be by most civilized, verse-chorus-bridge-chorus countries, reveals the beginnings of a guitarist who seems poised to put the "emote" back in "emo" if only he had a flatmate who played a mean bass and had a contact at DreamWorks. G&L, like Stratocaster, eschews structurality, allowing Kates' more amorphous tones to overlap and loop into a concerted whole.

At its most effective, Kates six-track instrumental album, recorded entirely at home, is an introduction to a raw and still blossoming guitarist whos got the pedal and effects head of a seasoned studio musician. Less frequently, Kates' work leans too heavily on repetitive compositions that do not utlize his strong ability to pick which drones cut to the bone. Still, ultimately, Kates takes us there. Now get this lad a band.

- Ryan McCarthy, Delusions of Adequacy

Being the guitar geek that I am (wow, a critic who's a frustrated musician; who would have imagined that?), I was immediately drawn in by the guitar signal chain diagram on the press sheet. It's just not something you see everyday. Kates uses only one guitar per song, running it through a series of effects pedals and loops to create some ethereal instrumentals. Even non-axe slingers can appreciate these cool, atmospheric tracks.

- Chris Lupton, Impact Press

...Kates picks, strums and occasionally wails his way through these pieces. He does a fine job of telling stories without words.

- Aiding & Abetting