Early Warning: Latch Key Kids EP Release, Coming in January

I was happy as hell to see old-school pop-punks the {Latch Key Kids} arise from the dead back in 2008, and I’ve been itching to see ’em ever since; the last time I saw the band play, back in their first “life,” I was a kid a year or two out of college, and they were tearing up the stage at Fitz while I jumped around like a crazy person in the pit. (Ah, yeah — I could do shit like that then.)

Nowadays, I’m quite a bit older, maybe a little bit wiser, and a hell of a lot more breakable, so I’m not planning any moshing, but I am psyched to be finally gearing up to see the Kids once again, more than a decade on. They’re playing a couple of weeks into the new year, on Sat., January 14th up at — where else? — Fitzgerald’s, and it promises to be one hell of a show.

They’ve got even more old-school punks {The Hates} on the bill, which is always nice to see, along with {Dead to the World}, about whom I’ve heard many, many great things, Austin skacore band The Buzzkillers, and locals {Llorona}, who I’m hearing for the first time today and am liking quite a damn bit; “It Comes Alive,” in particular, is nicely snarling and boozy.

Plus, this show’s the official release party for the band’s brand-new EP, Democracy: The Art of Maintaining a State of Fear, which’ll be the band’s first release since, I dunno, 1997? Hell, yes. You can check out a killer-sounding new track from the EP, “Hear Me Roar,” over at Dying Scene.

The guys have been promising new stuff since I interviewed ’em a couple of years ago, and I’m very happy to see ’em follow through on that, especially since I was a little nervous when things got pushed back from the previously-announced August release date. But hey, with this track it sounds like they never left, seriously.

Oh, and yes, the logo over there on the flyer doesn’t lie — the Kids asked SCR if we’d be willing to officially sponsor the show, and after about 5 seconds of thought, we enthusiastically agreed. So yours truly will be reminding folks about this again in later weeks and will definitely be at the show the night of (okay, barring any catastrophic kid illnesses; you can’t always predict those things). Mark your calendars now, and stay tuned for more on the show soon…