Us Kids Know get booming vuvuzela powered press release, Alice Walsh photo radness.

It's no secret that I can't wait for Saturday. It'll be my last DJ gig of the year, a chance to see 2 of my favourite acts live, team up with NSP and far more importantly celebrate the launch of a ridiculously special EP.

Below please find attached Us Kids Know's press release about the forthcoming series of launch parties. You may also notice it's been mixed with some of UKK's great new photos by the always awesome Alice Walsh.

*** In case you’ve been wondering where your favourite post-apartheid twee-piece band has gone, look no further, they’re right here and there and everywhere.

But if you don’t know who they are in the first place, you’ve been at all the wrong parties and listening to all the wrong music.

Us Kids Know is an independent instrumental two-piece band consisting of whacked-out, wonky haired guitarist, Colin von Berg, and wild-but-kind-at-heart drummer, Chad Polley.

von Berg and Polley formed the band in late 2006 after many experiments with other musicians around Joburg. After a few practices together they realised the potential in continuing the project; which, to them, is more a feeling than it is a band per se.

The band’s sound has been described as indie, post-rock, shoegaze or twee; meshing floaty top-note guitar riffs with brute, often grungy, drumming.

After a bumper year of gigging and rocking Joburg in 2007, the band decided to go on hiatus in 2008, hitting the scene once again in April 2009 with all new tracks, a conceptual advisor and a hunger to break away from sloppiness to offer South Africa and the world something different.

And boy have they been hard at work with Vuvuzela Incorporation, their partner in production and media solutions- recording a five track EP, shooting a music video for the song Tick Stapping off the EP, planning a launch and tour to KZN, and generally renewing their inclination to everything lo-fi and edgy.

The EP, titled Friendship Test, was recorded live by the KRNGY logo over two days at the old Gem Bioscope in Troyeville, Johannesburg, an unprecedented move in terms of breaking away from the traditional studio recording method as well as putting one of Johannesburg’s erstwhile cultural hubs back on the map. “We wanted to distance ourselves from the conventional way of recording and try something new. Often recordings are over-produced and lose the raw quality they need to really have an impact on the listener,” says von Berg, an absolute perfectionist when it comes to music.

Tracks on the EP include the spacey kwela-buzz Tick Stapping, the trippy vuvuzela-soaked Shongololo!; the beautiful dusky sounding Always a dull moment, the thrilling, punky and energetic Drink to sink, and the lazy-Sunday-afternoon epic TIM.

“I don’t think I have ever worked as hard as I did on this EP,” says Polley, “for that reason alone I want people to love it and think of it as a gift from us.”

Part of this hard work came in when the team conceptualised and produced the music video, which consists of 100-plus intricately designed, handcrafted foam cutouts that were used to dress the set to create an otherworldly kiddies playroom.

The cutout concept was then carried over to the EP artwork, all tour flyers, posters and merchandise. The only way to get your hands on these impressive, yet playful objets d’art is by attending one of the launch shows on the following dates:

* December 12 at the Belavista Lounge in Troyeville, Johannesburg * December 16 at the Winston in Westville, Durban * December 17 at the Chain & Sprocket in Durban * December 18 at Cliffy’s in Pietermaritzburg * December 19 at the Willowvale in Durban.

As the band would say on their Facebook page, Be there or be… where?