Harry Konidtsoitis has been a fixture on the Midtown rock scene for years, with a reputation as a great front man for bands like The Angel Sluts. But on his new album, he assumes the name The Switchblade Kid, shrugs off his communal impulses, and strikes out on his own.
“The record is essentially a solo project of mine,” he says. “I started working on it about a year ago.”
Rather than assembling a new band, rehearsing, and locking themselves in Konidtsoitis’ own 5 And Dime Studio, he used a scattershot approach. “I just kind of pulled in various friends of mine…to play on different songs.”
The resulting album sounds a lot more varied than Konidtsoitis’ output with his other bands, Angel Sluts, Twin Pilot, and Turn It Offs, members of which appear on The Switchblade Kid. “No two songs sound the same, and that’s pretty neat,” he says. “Some of the songs are really spaced out—noisy and dreamy. But the thing that ties them all together is this Phil Spector production thing going on.” The songs’ instrumentation is much more varied than the usual dual guitar-bass-drum punk combo. “Live, the band has ranged from five to eight people.”
