From the small handful of performers that currently make up Rexburg’s alternative music scene, few names have had any significant impact on the public opinion people now hold for local bands in the area. However, chances are that you or someone you know has been to a local concert, seen an event flyer online, or just overheard someone else talking about one local band specifically: Carry On, Kid.
Earlier this year the pop-punk/emo four-piece from right here in Rexburg released their first full-length album, We Belong to Each Other, through Boise-based indie record label, Hidden Home Records.
The 10-song LP resembles the sounds of early-emo and post-emo heavyweights like The Dangerous Summer, La Dispute, Brand New and The Early November but with an authentic small-town vulnerability that the band calls “Idaho Emo.”
The record starts with an instrumental track, “Intro,” that, depending on where you’re streaming it from, may or may not contain a sound clip of Robin Williams’ famous monologue in Dead Poets Society. “The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”
Suddenly and somewhat explosively, the record quickly crescendos into “Tar-Zan,” the first full song on the record. Echoing the sentiment of, “I’d settle down for you, write all these songs for you,” the record starts on a journey of self-love and self-discovery, elaborately setting the pace for what direction the remaining nine songs will take.
Track-for-track the record consistently delivers Christian Anderson’s poetic lyricism paired with Cameron White’s intricately layered guitar, Mike Menendez’s bass and Curtis Gough’s drumming in a wave-like back-and-forth progression, flowing from one song into the next.
But the record holds its lighter moments also. The track-listed fourth song, “And They Gathered in the Gardens,” is an ode to the temporarily popular Pokémon Go app, delivering a 1-2 punchline that is not easily missed or forgotten, “1..2..catch a Pikachu.”
The hidden gem on the record comes in the stripped-down acoustic duet, “Stay With Me”. It pulls at the listener’s heartstrings as both the male and female voices echo back and forth the words, “Please stay with me if you want to, cause I need you.”
The record’s single “Waterfall” premiered through New Noise magazine in April of last year. The song is a letter by Anderson, the band’s frontman, to himself in a commitment to improvement and reaching personal goals.
“I wrote it about how religious I was,” he said. “I wasn’t where I wanted to be and felt I needed to be better. The song is a promise to myself that that is exactly what I am going to do, and that I’m okay.”
The record is perfectly flawed. Displaying the ups and downs of human experience for all the world to see. It captures adolescence and the sometimes-frightening feelings of growing up and acquiring responsibilities.
But most importantly the record poses a thought, found in the record’s title, that we belong to each other. Not in a possessive way but in a selfless way. Helping each other through hard times as we let ourselves open up and as we allow not just our strengths but also our weaknesses to be gifts we give those around us.
Listen to “We Belong to Each Other” by Carry On, Kid in its entirety below or on most streaming platforms.