Critics Choice
COUNTRY Rodeo Kill
If you don't know where I stand with regards to the state of mainstream country music in the 21st century, then obviously you haven't been paying attention. So for the last time, modern country has seen a steady decline in quality with the model-sequel artists who are sold to the masses like Pepsi Cola. Give me Neko Case, Drive By Truckers or Southern Culture on the Skids over any of the commercialized bullshit they play on KMPS. Apparently the Northwest's own Rodeo Kill feels exactly the same way. Obsessed by the outlaw country music movement of the early '70s, the band has links on where to buy classic albums such as Redheaded Stranger and Nashville Rebel on their Web site — www.rodeokill.com. More than 75 percent of the tunes they pick are obscure covers from Steve Earle and David Allen Coe, as well as classics from Waylon and Willie but also include some shit kickin' originals into each set. Even though they are a bit more progressive sounding than their heroes, they maintain the purest attitude of the rule breakers from the past. Sunday, RK will issue its CD debut, Year of the Steer, which is comprised of original material on its own label amply named Kill Country Stars.
- TE, May 17, 2007 The Weekly Volcano

Country outlaws
Olympia's Rodeo Kill loves to break the rules
There's country music, and then there's the hard-rocking outlaw country of Rodeo Kill.

This is a band with attitude. Its inspiration - and the songs it covers - comes from such hard-edged '70s icons as Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

"We consider ourselves outlaw country, with the idea of breaking the rules of country," said Ryan Leisinger, the group's drummer.

"We're going back to Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings and David Alan Coe, who weren't playing typical country of their time.

"We're playing country, but it's loud and it's raucous. It's not of the pop-country genre."

The band, celebrating the re lease of "Year of the Steer" with a benefit concert Sunday at The Brotherhood, also has covered some more unconventional material.

"We've done an Iron Maiden song, 'The Trooper,' which we thought was supposed to have been a country song. We've done Motley Crue songs.

"Breaking the rules is kind of what we're looking for."

All of those covers - mostly of late '70s and early '80s country tunes - help to explain why, though the band has been together since 2002, Rodeo Kill is just now releasing its first full-length album of original songs.

"We started with just doing covers," Leisinger said. "It took us a while to build up a catalog of the songs on there. We didn't really focus on recording for the first couple of years.

"We were playing more than 25 shows a year."

In its current incarnation, the band consists of Leisinger, Scott West, Olivia Love and Rif Adams. Guest musicians at the Olympia show will include Jon Merithew of C-Average and Paul Pearson.

At first, Leisinger and company didn't expect their own breed of country music to fit into the Olympia music scene.

"In my opinion, the Olympia music scene is more dominated by what's considered independent music," Leisinger said. "There's amazing artists that don't fit into any genre that come out of Olympia.

"At that time, I didn't know of anyone else here doing what we were doing," he said. "Now, there are a lot of other country bands, but to be loud and to be rocking, that's different."

What the band found, though, is that outlaw country had a place in Western Washington.

"We quickly discovered how many country fans there were out there," he said.

"And being a little different definitely is something that's embraced in this town."
by Molly Gilmore, May 17th, 2007 For The Olympian

Outlaw Country - Rodeo Kill
Is hardcore twang your thang? If the answer is yes, Rodeo Kill serves up a heaping helping of outlaw country that will satisfy your Southern-fried appetite. Like Drive-by truckers and the Bottle Rockets, these radical honky-tonkers are an ass whuppin' alt-country band with deep roots in traditional country but add a little extra powder to the keg for an explosion in sound.
- TE, July 27th 2006 Weekly Volcano

Loud and proud
Rodeo Kill describes its music as "outlaw country." (Think Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.) And if you believe the Olympia band's Web site, they take this outlaw business pretty seriously. After a 2003 show at McMenamin's Olympic Club in Centralia, the band was asked never to stay overnight at the hotel again "due to various incidents that may or may not have taken place on the roof of the establishment." More to the point, Rodeo Kill promises a "powerful, professional and sometimes hilarious live act."
- The Olympian News Paper, July 2005
www.theolympian.com

Editor's Pick
Music.Download.com
Outlaws, wannabe renegades, Cash fans, and others merely deranged from too much Jim Beam on a dirt-scorched afternoon are sure to dig this alt-country plea to "Old Hank" from Olympia, Washington alt-country band Rodeo Kill.
-music.downloads.com

"I'm into country bands like Olympia's Rodeo Kill. They saddle up the outlaw country classics from the likes of Willie Nelson, David Allen Coe, Hank Williams Jr., Waylon Jennings, and other bad mo fos. They even wrangle their own songs that travel the same dusty roads as their outlaw heroes. Best of all, Rodeo Kill runs tighter than a dry county."
-Weekly Volcano - Dec 2003

Best of South Sound
The Olympian's Pick
Bar band/ musician
"This local band draws on a history of outlaw country acts. And their original compositions follow suit. Catch them at a variety of local venues from Tugboat Annies Waterfront Bar to McCoy's Tavern."
- The Olympian News Paper
www.theolympian.com