Next, was Kembrew McLeod. McLeod read from his just released book, Pranksters, which tracked the role pranksters have played in English and American society since the likes of Jonathan Swift and Benjamin Franklin. He read from his book that he had “no interest in cruelty” and chose only to include pranks that had the aim of enacting some sort of change, whether it was social, cultural, political, or economical. Considering the subject matter, it wasn’t surprising that McLeod’s reading was light, sarcastic, and had the perfect amount of dry wit to keep the audience surprised and laughing. The Q&A session largely revolved around McLeod’s own pranks, which include him dressing up more than once as a robot to get noticed by big politicians.

Prairie Lights Bookstore is now selling copies of Made to Break and Pranksters. McLeod has also provided Prairie Lights with prankster trading cards, giving synopses of some of his favorite pranks featured in his book.

The post Mission Creek: Kembrew McLeod & D. Voy Reading @ Prairie Lights, 4/2/14 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The night kicked off with Idpyramid, whose set relied on synthesizers to create an other worldly atmosphere. Their first song wasn’t an easy listen. Four notes were held out for measure after measure before they returned to the first note again to repeat the sequence. All the while, the drums kept time unenthusiastically. However, each of Idpyramid’s songs got progressively better. By the end of their set, the audience was nodding along to danceable, albeit thin, electronic music.

Koen Holtkamp took the audience on a journey through the elements. He played one continuous epic song with video accompaniment. The video started out with a flickering fire, as Holtkamp played one reverberated note. After a few minutes, the fire faded into a video of tree branches and ended with a video of rippling water. The music developed with the video, slowly becoming more complex, and finally reflected the frenetic energy of the water through song.

Next, Jenny Hval, a Norwegian musician, sang and played the synth, while a bandmate strummed (and sometimes bowed) along on his electric guitar. Hval’s voice shrieked and flitted from note to note, sounding almost ghostly at times. Her singing style is certainly unusual, calling to mind both yodeling and Régine Chassagne of Arcade Fire. Hval utilized the reverberation of her mike very well. During one song in particular, she stood a few feet back, moved her head back and forth, and sang, creating an eerie yet beautiful effect. While Hval’s songs weren’t extremely easy to digest (she herself said, “We’re not exactly Top 40—even in Norway”), they eventually built, with the help of percussion, to a satisfying ending.

Mark McGuire took the stage alone with a synthesizer, guitar, and accompanying video.

McGuire told KRUI that he put together a video that fits with his set. Rightly so. McGuire’s first song of the night was light and iridescent. The screen depicted comforting scenes of nature. It was exactly the type of song that made a listener appreciate life—something McGuire encouraged the audience to take a moment to do before he began playing.

As McGuire sang about finding truth, quotes about truth flitted across the screen. Finding truth might just be the main goal of McGuire’s music.

As he told KRUI, “I think that any artist that is creating anything that is really coming from within them and reflections of their voice, finding their way out in different ways is very inspiring… I study a lot of spirituality and philosophy and occult sciences. I draw a lot of inspiration from that. I do a lot of independent research on alternative history and looking beyond the CNN versions of what we’re given, even going back to ancient times.”

McGuire explored other concerns throughout his set. In his second song, as he sang, “Where do we go?”, pictures on the screen morphed between chilling headlines and pop culture icons, Barack Obama turned into Jay-Z, Sandy Hook turned into Beyoncé. His video gave the audience direction in interpreting his music.

While the songs he performed were all from his newest album, Along the Way, the arrangements from the show, however, can’t be found elsewhere. Upon preparing for his tour, he rearranged his songs by making them less dense and more appropriate for a stage.

“After I made the album, because most of the songs were multi-track layering with thirty, forty tracks deep and there’d be no way that I could do that live or even want to do that I live, I had to recompose the songs and rearrange them so they can be played live. That in itself is kind of reinventing the album,” he explains.

Whether intentionally or not, McGuire seemed to often take us through that process of layering the music. The synthesizer would usually lay down a background melody, to which McGuire would then layer over with other synthesized countermelodies, beats, and his guitar. The layers would build on top of each other, intertwining with the next and the last, until reaching positively explosive levels.

It became apparent early on in his set that what McGuire does best is play the guitar. He looked most comfortable plucking along and easily strummed out quick, complicated melodies and fierce, energetic chords. The moments where McGuire and his music really shone were when his guitar got to take center stage.

McGuire continues on his tour tomorrow, but you can look forward to more music from him. He’s currently working on a project where he draws inspiration from lectures and then creates music that goes along with them.

He described this process by saying, “Sometimes I’ll listen to a lecture about something and be playing along to it based and starting shift chords between what I’m naturally hearing. And then I’ll take harmonic ideas from that and go from there.” The project was inspired by his desire for truth and information. And hey, if the search for truth is what makes him play, then keep looking.

To see what other Mission Creek shows are happening this week check out the website.

The post Mission Creek: Mark McGuire @ The Mill, 4/1/14 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Fortunately, the intimacy of the venue worked really well for Best Coast’s style. Before the band took the stage, Bobb Bruno himself helped set up the equipment. In the couple minutes before the concert began, the audience got out of their seats and started crowding the stage. By the time Best Coast swaggered their way on, fans were standing just a few feet in front of the band. After finishing their first song, Bethany Cosentino joked that, “You guys are so close. It’s weird having all these eyes on me.” Their laid-back attitude continued through the whole show, whether Cosentino was asking who was having a kegger that night or complaining about her bangs. It felt less like a concert and more like hanging out with friends, listening to an old classmate from high school play.

Best Coast might’ve acted like they were nothing special, but their performance said otherwise. They sounded just as full and energized as they do on their records, if not more so. Cosentino was in full-form. Every note she sang was right on, bright, clear, and full of inflections you can’t find in their recordings. The chorus of “Why I Cry” was positively explosive, as she wailed on “Do you know why I cry?” They played a good balance of songs from both Crazy For You and The Only Place and show-cased their new single, “Fear of My Identity” (which is available on eBay, but don’t buy it because apparently it’s super expensive). Highlights from the show included: “Crazy For You”, because they sang about weed in a church; “The Only Place”, which immediately got the audience grooving and moving; “Boyfriend”, the perfect, crowd favorite closer; and “How They Want Me To Be”, probably the most emotional performance of the night. Cosentino brought a raw yearning to her voice, and the audience couldn’t help but see it, hear it, and feel it. The lyrics came alive, and for a moment, the whole room was lost in the song.

It’s always refreshing to see a band perform that isn’t too rehearsed or are such veterans that the novelty of touring has worn off. Best Coast was just that, which made it all the more disappointing when they didn’t come back for an encore. But hey, no hard feelings. They might’ve had to run to catch the kegger.

The post Show Review: Best Coast @ First United Methodist Church — 4/27/13 appeared first on KRUI Radio.