Kill Vargas

"Kill Vargas is punk of the pop variety, but you can hear a wide range of influences driving the music that keep it from feeling prepackaged or fake. I saw them at the LuLu Temple of Doom last month with the Serpent Overlord, Bastard Glow, and the Earth Dies Screaming and they definitely held their own. The vocals, more often than not, owe an obvious debt to Billie Joe Armstrong, but can easily veer off into Sex Pistols territory and beyond. The drums and bass bring it hard, but with Nirvana-esque intensity/volume drops that lull you back into a song only to burst back with a primitive garage rock stomp or classic punk rhythm. Kill Vargas talk a lot about riffs, and interestingly, the bass seems to take the load of the riffage responsibilities in the band. The guitar is definitely a presence but is sometimes meandering and thin, filling in the top end of the bands sonic space but only occasionally shining through. The most important thing I can tell you about Kill Vargas is that these boys are in it 100%. There is hardly a moment in the show where the teenage energy isn’t coming through not only in the music but in the gyrating, head banging, and general punk-rock-style-body-moving that brings to mind the on-stage antics of the Blind Shake. These dudes obviously care about their music – and the awesome songs they’re putting out make it easy to care right along with them." -Mason Monigold (ICT Fest) "Hometown kids Kill Vargas opened the Thursday-night show. This trio is comprised of 15- and 16-year-olds, but they had solid talent. The Maize High Schoolers play an interesting blend of punk and rock. Once they warmed up, I was pleasantly surprised. Their vocalist, Griffin Bush, has great punk tone, and I don't even like punk. Both the guitar and bass (Austin Engler) parts were well-written and executed. The drummer — Logan Bush — left me awestruck; this teen was ridiculously good. Every beat was crisp and to the point." -F5 paper "Noise is an EP that’s full of rock music with a bluesy, punk attitude. It is full of feeling, and an obvious love of making and playing music. It’s a pretty impressive display of invention and musicianship, and then you learn that Kill Vargas is still in high school." -Naughty Dog Records "The show kicked of with a local Wichita group called Kill Vargas, a relatively new band containing a bunch of high school kids. This was actually kind of shocking to me, because what they lacked in age, they definitely made up for in musical maturity with their brand of grungy basement rock and roll. They slammed through a whole set of high adrenaline punk tunes, and a thrashy onslaught of feedback and noise, as the crowd stood back - almost afraid to get too close. I heard a few people compare them to the Hot Snakes, and I thought they were just fantastic." - Loser Gazer “Kill Vargas, out of Kansas, is a three-piece band with members ages 15 and 16. The alternative/punk band released their first EP, Noise, and although they're young, this record doesn't show it. This six-track release has a good punk vibe to it with some great parts to bang your head to. Check out this 2013 release!” - Midwest Mixtapes Magazine Alternative Rock band from Wichita, Kansas. New EP "Tunnel Vision" out now.