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Despite being the songwriter behind what critics have hailed as “the great lost glam-rock concept album of the pre-punk ..70’sâ€, Ryan McKay is too young remember that decade. It was the late 90’s when he began turning heads with a style that was imaginative and electrifying, just like his heroes 2 decades before.
Born in the midwest then landing safely in the sunny Southwestern US, he quickly became a sought after session guitarist, and an asset to many projects. Most importantly, a guitarist and arranger with original Alice Cooper member Michael Bruce’s “Billion Dollar Babiesâ€. The significance of this was not just playing with one of his heroes, but collaborating with A.D. Adams, a drummer with whom he would form a band.
That band, christened “Crash Street Kids†opens their debut album with the phrase “Hello, Hello….come dig the Supersonic Star Showâ€. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out that this band’s mission is to create an explosive live experience. After all, Ryan McKay is a frontman who cut his teeth on KISS, Alice Cooper, and David Bowie. Whether he is standing atop CSK’s massive staging flanked by cheerleaders dishing out solos with machine gun like attack, or being shot up 30 feet in the air with his piano and top hat, Ryan has always given his audience a serious amount of “bang†for their concert-going buck..
But it’s not all style over substance, CSK’s music has received critical acclaim worldwide. In Los Angeles, the magazine ALL ACCESS wrote “..there is more harmonic inventiveness and sheer melody in this one disc than most groups are able to come up with in their entire careers.." In 2007, a DJ in Bristol, England named Crash Street Kids' "Chemical Dogs" Album of the Year, then they were nominated in 5 categories for the Phoenix Music Awards. Ryan and company then boarded a jet to be crowned Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the Hollywood F.A.M.E. Awards. Fans of this band leave the show not only doused in confetti, but moved by the passionate execution of great songs, by a truly great artist.
