I didn’t know he was coming home until that previous Monday. I had been sitting on the pleather couch in Doug’s apartment, Mitchell’s friend who I stayed with while Mitch was away, when I heard the door unlock. Doug already came and left, so I was suspicious. I leapt off the brown couch and took my position in front of the door. If someone was breaking in, I would be ready.

I watched as the shiny, gold doorknob turned. I crouched down, preparing myself to pounce. Finally the door swung open. It was Mitch standing tall, dressed in his army greens with a smile plastered shamelessly across his face.

“Hey Jake, ya miss me?” Mitchell asked as he knelt in front of me to pet my short chocolate hair. I got so excited that I knocked him to the ground and planted a slobbery kiss smack dab on his clean shaven face. Of course I had missed him and now that he was back, safe and sound, I was not going to let him out of my sight.

The rest of that week, Mitch and I spent every waking hour together. Each morning we got up early and jogged to the dog park, where we played Frisbee until it got crowded. After that, we ran back to our apartment and watched TV for the rest of the day. Every now and then, someone would knock on the door during the day, but Mitch wouldn’t answer it. He just kept his eyes on the screen.

At night, Mitch would toss and turn and scream and sweat in his sleep. One night it got really bad. Mitch began screaming through hot tears, “No don’t take him, take me,” I began licking the salty water off his afflicted face. Suddenly, Mitch woke up and shoved me off the bed. I hit my shoulder on the wood floor and let out a distressed whimper. My cry for help brought Mitch back to reality.

“Oh Jake, I am so sorry! I didn’t realize that was you,” he said as he picked me up and placed me on the bed. He rubbed behind my ears as I recovered.

“I guess I am just having a hard time adjusting this time. I don’t know why, but this tour is staying with me more than the others,” Mitch confessed as he laid back down.

After that, I wanted to make sure Mitch didn’t have any more bad dreams. So that Saturday night, I watched him until my eyes were too heavy to stay open. When I woke up, I instantly looked over, expecting to see Mitchell sprawled out with his chestnut hair in disarray, drool spilling slowly out of his mouth like molasses. But Mitchell was nowhere to be found. I stretched out to his side of the bed to feel that the sheets were cold and crisp, meaning he had been gone for a while. I assumed he went for a run without me since I hurt my shoulder when he threw me off the bed.

I didn’t think anything of it as I jumped off the bed in search of breakfast. I trotted to the kitchen where my chrome bowl was waiting for me, filled to the brim with chicken-flavored kibble. As I was about to dig in, a foul smell hit my snout. The smell reminded me of an old iron pipe. Curious where it was coming from, I left my delicious breakfast behind to go investigate.

I walked back into Mitchell’s room but the scent became less potent. My next destination was the bathroom. As I advanced, the smell crept its way back to my nose. When I arrived at the bathroom door, I found it slightly cracked open. Now the iron scent was overpowering. I nudged the door open slowly. The first thing I saw was blood, and a lot of it. The deep brown sludge covered the tiled floor. Then I saw Mitchell. His arms and legs were thrown chaotically on the ground and his face resembled a tortured man. A piece of notebook paper with his scrawled handwriting sat above his bloody head. A pistol with a silencer attached laid a foot next to his right hand. I stood there in disbelief as I took the scene in.

I let out a tormented howl. I did not want to see my best friend like this. He was a hero, not someone who should be mangled by his own hand. I began to whine as I shuffled over to his contorted body. I solemnly licked his face one last time before I toppled down beside him. I felt the thick blood soak into my fur, but I didn’t care. I continued crying until I heard a knock on the door.

A few minutes following the knock, the manager of the building came in as a result of the noise I was making. When he saw Mitch’s body, he turned around and threw up. After he got his barrings, he got out his phone and called the police. When they showed up, a woman in a dark blue uniform came over and sympathetically stroked my head with a latex glove. She stopped when she saw the note laying by Mitch. She slowly picked it up and began to read it out loud. I zoned it out. I knew why he killed himself, I didn’t need to hear confirmation. It wasn’t until I heard my name that my ears perked up.

“And tell Jake that he truly was a man’s best friend.”

The post Cold appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Carl Sagan: This song is very easy to listen to. It has a really good melody; not too fast, not too slow. And the mix of the instruments slightly reminds me of something that would be played in the seventies. The lyrics are clear and easy to make out, which is really important to me. The vocals are why you want to listen to this song, though. It has a lot going for it, but the vocals are amazing. The way the singer travels between his chest voice to falsetto is utterly impressive.

Denis, Don’t Wanna See you Cry: This song starts off with the instruments sounding like someone is screaming, which I thought was fitting based on the title. This whiny sound is kept through out the piece. It gives it a techno feel, while maintaining it’s Indie rock identity. This piece has long instrumental solos, which I don’t particularly care for. And when the vocals do come back in, they just repeat the same verse over and over again. Granted, it is a good verse, but I would have liked the song more if it had more substance.

Leave Your Light On: This song has more twang than the others. The first time I heard it, I imagined it being sang in a run down bar with only old men drinking their beer to listen. It just has that far away sound that you find in a live performance. The vocals are crazy good. He is able to travel through his range without any hesitation. The music aspect of this song is really great, but I had a hard time understand what it was about. Which of course isn’t always necessary, but I do enjoy that aspect. I think if I could really understand what was going on, it would have really sold me on the song.

Border On Border: This song starts off with a great and poppy electric guitar solo. It really got me pumped up for what was going to come next. The vocals are a lot more whiny in this song compared to the others, which some artists can’t pull off, but this band really makes it work. My favorite part in this piece was when the instruments died down so the vocals could really stand out, then a few seconds later, the same poppy electric guitar came back in. It gave me goosebumps.

Kind Luck: This song reminded me of something behind it’s time. The vocals reminded me of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” because they both have that raspy feel to it at the beginning. This song was one of my favorites from the album, mostly because the lyrics are so crispy and easy to make out. Everything about this song really works, whether it is the clear lyrics, great  vocals, or the subtle acoustic guitar in the background.

Hiding in the Melody: This song features the high falsettos as well. Seriously so good. I can’t get over how well he changes his voice. There is even a part in the song where he creates a full but whiny sound. I think this song is my favorite on the album, mostly because of the insanely impressive vocals, but also because the melody keeps you on your toes and the lyrics are touchingly poetic. This song is by far the longest in the album, but I promise you will enjoy all seven minutes of it.

Staurolite Stroll: The beginning of this song really reminded me of the song by Maxine Nightingale, Right Back Where We Started From. Even the vocals kind of take you back in time. Really a great song. Understated yet excellent.

Alabama: I love the way this song starts, it is all high, airy falsetto and it is so well done. I can’t even put into words how good the vocals are in this song. It goes from high falsetto to something that sounds like Elton John to something entirely different. Seriously, everything about this song is utterly beautiful. Even the lyrics are touchingly insightful. If you are to check out any song on this album, check out this one. You won’t regret it, I promise.

Only To Live in your Memories: I loved this song as well. It had the airy vocals, like some of the songs at the beginning of the album, but the lyrics are so much more thought provoking and clear in this song. I can see why they saved this for last, because it truly made me feel something. “And I held on cause I feel love.”

This album was great. I may not listen to every song everyday, mostly because I like to sing along with what I am listening to and I had a hard time making out every lyric in some of the songs, but it definitely made me feel something, which is all you can ask for in an album. There were a few that I down right loved, but all of the songs on the album had something great about them, whether it be the impressive vocals or the fun instruments. If you like what you hear or just want to know more about the band you can follow them on Facebook and Spotify. If you want to see them in concert, their tour dates are on their website.

The post Album Review: “Pennied Days” by Night Moves appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Joe’s father waits patiently outside the rest stop. Once Joe comes out of the bathroom, they begin to walk. Joe doesn’t know where they are going and when she asks her father, he just moans and continues to walk. 

The sun cakes the blood of Joe’s first kill onto her skin, making Joe feel even dirtier than she had before. The gravel road they had been walking on turns to pavement making it easier for her to walk. She doesn’t feel tired and she isn’t hungry, even though they have been walking for a good twelve hours, but her mouth yearns for the taste of human flesh. She tries to think about something else, in hopes it will distract herself, but everything moves too slow in her now mushy brain.

As the sun sets, two black vans pull up beside her and her father. Before she can realize what is happening, a barbed wire net covers her face making movement impossible. She feels something sharp stab her neck. Her neck slowly goes numb, followed by her arms, then her chest, then the rest of her body. She falls unconscious right as she sees her father being stabbed just as she was.

Joe wakes up just like the morning before, laying on a cold cement floor. She still is unable to feel any part of her body except her head. Her head is pounding as hard as a butcher pounding a hunk of meat. She moans in displeasure and fights to move her body. After thirty minutes of squirming, she is able to feel her arms. She crawls aimlessly around the dark room, trying to find some leverage. When she finds the wall, she digs her nails into it and pushes herself to her feet. Once she gets up, a door swings open. Light floods in. Joe is so startled that she falls, back first, onto the cement floor. She feels the barbed wire net cover her face again. The net is used to pull her across the floor. The wire’s sharp edges dig into Joe’s face, making her bleed.

Joe is pulled to her feet. When her eyes adjust to the bright sun, she sees Benny standing a mere fifteen feet away. She suddenly remembers the burning in her throat. The craving of human flesh. Before she can stop herself, she charges at Benny. Arms flailing, mouth drooling, mind racing. Benny pulls out a gun and aims it at her forehead. He looks away and pulls the trigger. The bullet pierces Joe right between the eyes. She falls to the ground, the burning in her throat gone.

The post Adventures of Joe pt. 4 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

“Ahhhhhhh,” Joe cries.

The light makes her feel like someone is stabbing her brain with needles. She feels hands grab her by her tattered shirt and lift her to her feet. When her eyes finally adjust to the brightness, she see’s her father holding her up. Suddenly she remembers what happened. Without even thinking about it, she throws her hands around him. Unlike before, he embraces her without ripping out her flesh.

“Am I…dead?” Joe asks.

“Yes, now you are one of us,” her dad says.

She follows her dad to the door. Everything seems to be moving slowly around her. Even her thoughts are moving slowly. He leads her into a ransacked rest stop at the end of the street. Other zombies are gathered there feeding on the defenseless store clerk. Joe sees the flesh being ripped off the man’s face and her mouth begins to water. Before she knows it, she has pounced on top of the man, shoving the others out of her way.

She sinks her teeth into his shoulder and feels the thick blood flow into her mouth. The taste speeds everything up. Suddenly it is as if she was still human. She feels a rush of adrenaline flow through her body, but unfortunately, it fades quickly.

Once she is finished, she gets up and walks back over to her father. She catches her reflection in the a mirror that is placed above the door. Her black hair is in untamed knots all over her head. Her skin, once the color of olives, now looks like the color of slushy snow on the highway. Her body is covered in dried blood and dirt. She is hunched over so much that you can make out her spine. Her clothes are tattered and worn. Her shirt, ripped at the neckline, exposing her milky shoulder. Her arms are turned in a way that makes her look like she doesn’t have any joints.  Then she sees her eyes, the once beautiful, green gems are now dark and foggy. When she used to look into them, she would see a sort of gleam or sparkle, now all she sees is emptiness.

Check out the first and second part of Joe’s adventure.

The post Adventures of Joe Pt. 3 appeared first on KRUI Radio.