Since 1986, KILL CREEK has been a fixture and major influence on the Lawrence, Kansas / Kansas City music scene for as long as most of their recent contemporaries can remember. Bands like Matt Pryor’s New Amsterdams and The Casket Lottery have covered their songs on records. Musicians such as Stacy Hilt and Nathan Ellis (Coalesce, The Casket Lottery), Eric Melin (Ultimate Fake Book, Truck Stop Love), Kliph Scurlock (Sixteen Deluxe, The Flaming Lips), and Julie Shields (Shallow) have graced their studio recordings or been full members. Producer-extraordinaire Ed Rose (Appleseed Cast, The Get Up Kids, Puddle of Mudd, Reggie and the Full Effect, Limbeck), even cut his teeth recording KILL CREEK soon after he moved to Lawrence, Kansas in 1989, foreshadowing his own prolific influence as a producer. The relationship and friendship that developed between KILL CREEK and Rose led to his involvement in every recording that they would release as a band.

After three successful and critically glorified releases on Mammoth recordings, KILL CREEK was caught sleeping during Mammoth’s sale to Disney, and languished in the late-90’s label sell-off that killed many of their peers. After several years that saw them scrap progress on an album being recorded for Disney, KILL CREEK joined the Second Nature Recordings roster and released another critically extolled full-length, Colors of Home.

With a new album in the works, The Will to Strike was released as a way to reintroduce new fans to their heretofore-deleted catalog, as well as to fulfill the requests of completeists who have long requested a “proper” release of many unreleased demos, compilation tracks, and studio out-takes.

Clocking in at almost 80 minutes-per-disc, and comprised of nearly 50 songs, The Will to Strike is a document of KILL CREEK’s unmistakable influence on many artists, and a testimony to 17-years of steady effort and dedication.