Kickstand love was the songwriting duo of Andrew Kenefick and Amelia. They started popping up around the time Andrew’s band, North, stopped playing shows which, if memory serves, was sometime around 2004. Kickstand Love became a favorite of the underground music collective known as the Rice Mountain Coalition, who routinely booked them at the many DIY spaces that the collective managed (most notably The Den of Doom, The Coup De Chicken, Houdini Compound, Heather’s Garage, The Loft and the Pimp Haven) throughout the greater region of Melrose and Schaghticoke, NY, despite the fact that Kickstand Love was based out of Albany. It should also be noted that they had a significant hand in shaping the first Rexleigh Mill Festival, which would become a local music tradition for the next 5 years.

There was an undeniable charisma that emanated from the two of them, both sharing vocal duties while Andrew played guitar and Amelia played trumpet or sometimes a host of junk percussion… not to mention a rippin’ kazoo solo. They were also my first reference point for the first time I saw We Are Jeneric. Not to say that all boy-girl duos sound the same, but the charm, quirk, and basic-but-effective instrumentation will always tie the two together in my head.

Sadly, Kickstand Love came on the scene shortly before both departed for college in Canada, and subsequently disbanded. The short lifespan of the band did not yield much content to share, but fortunately left behind one of my most prized albums: the six song EP Don’t Worry, Your Hair Looks Great. Which I listen to fondly and remember being crammed into the woodshed known as the Den of Doom rocking out to “Empty Bottle Conversations”, playing Frisbee at the Coup De Chicken, late nights playing capture the flag in the Empire State Plaza, and many out-of-state road trips.

Download Kickstand Love’s Don’t Worry, Your Hair Looks Great

All stories are subject to discrepancies that are inevitable when trying to remember exactly how things went down many years and hundreds of beers ago. If you have details pertaining to any of these articles, or would like to add supplementary media, music, personal accounts, or anything else, please email ferguson@b3nson.net. Also, if you were once in any of the bands mentioned and would like to include anything, edit anything, or omit anything, please let me know. If you are interested in contributing your own article about a favorite Capital Region band, please contact me. I would love to get more stories and insight!

Previously on 518 Mixtape…
Foreward/Rewind
Track 1: Rockets and Blue Lights
Track 2: The Pink Hearse Paparazzi Project