Coyote Kisses at Exchange LA, 8/16/12 (Graham Clark/Neon Tommy)

They’re just kids, with a midsize horde of devoted, excited fans across the globe and insatiably online. Just kids about to kick off a three-day tour to Canada and back.

There was a bottle of Grey Goose on the table, and an occasional member of the power-suit set stepping forward to rub palms. Myndset's “Cocaine” remix vibrated the air in the club en mass. Their show last night garnered all the trappings of a higher-end electronic music showcase. Club management stated that the show was one of LA Exchange’s smaller events, with a crowd topping out at around 500 people.

Surveying the glowing mob, Bresnan maintained his statement: “I’m still just that kid, living across the street from you.”

It should be noted that this statement contains both a literal and figurative meaning. He meant that he lives like any other up-start artist, that he’s grateful for his exceptional fortune. Also, he really did live across the street from me for six months in Sarasota, Florida. 

There I heard Bresnan mash away at his USB keyboard, repeating minutely detailed licks for hours on end in the solitude of his room. The distinctive sound of his preferred lead synthesizers leaked out from under his door, closed and adorned with TNG memorabilia.

But not until last night had I observed Coyote Kisses in full effect. Bolstering the group’s technical melodic proficiency are Sussingham’s monkeyshines. He brings the timeless je n’sais quoi that is a pumped up dude on-stage, frenetic pogo-ing theoretically activating mirror neurons in all who looked on him, stimulating secondhand exhilaration. More to the point: his arms are muscled-up rope, and he kicks himself around like a gawky tasmanian devil.

The Coyote Kisses guys are young. They shared this trait with the majority of their audience last night; accounting for the fake-ID set, the median age of attendees wasn’t much higher than 22. They schedule their time and professional appearances around semester lengths. That will probably have to change. In a recent interview, they stressed how wrapping up college would probably influence their musical careers. 

How they apply innovations in future efforts should be extremely telling, concerning how musical acts can cultivate and nurture a vibrant existence. It’s a question of whether they’re looking to strike out and define something radically new, as opposed to focusing on mastering the form as it has been established.

At last night’s show their efforts were basically accepted without fail, albeit with moments of hesitancy. The duo was clearly concerned with putting on a fundamentally suitable show, e.g. one that kept people drawn in and moving above all else. When the audience started shuffling their feet 20 minutes into the set, Bryce and Joe appeared to take evasive action. They screamed in each other’s face to communicate over the speakers, chests pressed together flatly. Meeting adjourned, they returned to their samplers, stoking the crowd with strict beat breakdowns and potential energy expulsion.

Emotionally, their music evokes positivity. It doesn’t  always crush your earbones, it deviates from a clear beat nominally, and there’s a lot of major key use. It’s best described as the opposite of lugubrious.

There are soaring 8-bit bloops, but it’s video game music not only in terms of digital grit. Its digitally rendered nature contains a cheerful, expansive quality. The Ocarina Of Time's soundtrack is bright due to the plastic-bubble timbre of a 64-bit orchestra, but that's simply color in a landscape of solid chord progressions. Coyote Kisses does sort of the same thing.

It’s too simple to basically categorize their music as “cute,” even if their debut soundcloud smash was anchored by a Star Wars sample. Yes, their recordings to date fall towards the conventional, pop end of the spectrum.  So the question is, is kitchy sweetness merely one tool in their arsenal, or would fans stop coming if things got too edgy?Are counterpoint piano melodies less profound if they’re on a remix of “Call Me Maybe?”

As they continue to develop a solid foundation, set-wise and among fans, perhaps Coyote Kisses will exercise more radical creative autonomy. That is, with a prerequisite number of bangers locked down (Acid Wolfpack sounded plain great over the club’s huge monitors, and their choice to splice in Kanye and Two Chains’ Mercy was pointedly apt), they can go on more exploratory sonic tangents and expand their authority as showmen. 

They are in a position to reinforce any number of creative commitments. By the sound of things, polishing themselves up to radio-ready producer status would be a snap. It’s less likely that they’d make a decisive break from their current style to pursue something wholly unorthodox, but far from impossible.

The tradition of electronic dance music evolves through working artists. Original pioneers have been put on a particular shelf, retaining their status as mythical figures with unique creative limitations. Another wave of musicians is currently passing into symbolic icondom: your Skrillexes, your James Blakes, and any number of dubstep figures. Though still working and defining themselves, they’ve proven influential to a point where their legacy is at least partially set in stone.

Then there’s the newest wave. They've grown up with nigh-complete immersion in digital fluency, an infinite wealth of musical resources just downloads away and a sweet tooth for facebook friends and Adderall. What will come of these folks is yet to be determined. But scores of interested, hopeful parties are paying attention, investors and listeners alike.

Perhaps Coyote Kisses will play only the most minute role in the industry’s grand historical narrative. It may be enough of a feat in its own right to be remembered for cobbling together a few pieces rife with compositional comeliness, a goofy sample or two as icing on the cake. But the duo shows promise, both by demonstrating a functional stability as performers and leaving the lingering suggestion that they will have more figured out for audiences in the future.

Not bad, for kids.

SETLIST: 

Supernova (unreleased)

Let Go Part II (unreleased) 

Let Go Part III (unreleased) 

Golden Stars (unreleased) 

Prototyperaptor - Drive Hard

Starchaser

M Machine - Trafalger

Lazerswag

John Williams - Binary Suns (Coyote Kisses Remix) 

Earth Mover (unreleased)

Polaris Breach (unreleased)

Supernova Part II (unreleased)

Birdy Nam Nam - Wild For The Night (Skrillex Remix)

Baauer - Harlem Shake 

Kanye West - Mercy (RL Grime & Salva Remix)

Credit (unreleased) 

Conscious Pilot

Magic Tricks (unreleased)

Acid Wolfpack

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