Interview has been edited for clarity.

Harry Epstein: To break the ice, how’s the tour been going?

Ben Zito: Good!

Dan Rickabus: Good! Day 4, yesterday we played Prince’s birthday, at the venue that they filmed Purple Rain in, so that was a good thing.

Emilee Petersmark: He didn’t curse us, so that’s good.

Dan: We’re not haunted by Prince.

Ben: Word’s out on if he blessed us or not, though. He’s a benign Prince, so we’ll see. 

Emilee: If he was neutral, I’d take that as a win.

Livian LaVine: Have you been able to check out Iowa City at all? See the Arts Fest? 

Kate Pillsbury: Oh, that’s what’s happening? Yeah, we’ve only just loaded in, and then sound checked. We just got done with the sound check. 

Ben: Two hours ago, got the stuff in. 

Emilee: We usually see everything from the window of the van on the way in.

Harry: Did it look nice? 

Emilee: It looked really nice! I went to the comic book shop next door, which was great. It’s nice to be able to get these little moments of humanity in.

Livian: Elephant in the room, you guys just recently released new music with your song “Arcturus Beaming”. What was some of your inspiration behind that song?

Kate: That’s a big question. That song was kind of a convergence of a long period of survival mode, and the coming out of that into more of a hopeful era. It’s a song about coping with the overlap of those things. The grief of losing something, but also the hope of a new future. I don’t know how deep to go into the influences.

I used a little bit of Plato’s allegory of the cave for inspiration for that song. And obviously the star Arcturus is a huge influence on the song. That’s the fourth brightest star in the sky, and it’s based off of a conversation that I had with someone about like, “What if there are aliens out there, looking at our sun?” And it was just like, “I need to fit that into a song!”

Livian: What did the songwriting process look like for that piece, or for other songs on the upcoming album?

Dan: It was cool to hear about Kate’s process because you had to just trust it, and for us that was like one big poem, nothing repeats in it. So I think it’s really fun because Kate’s guitar part holds it down, and Ben’s bass part creates the energy and rock-solidness of it, and as the song progresses, every time there’s an instrumental, Emilee and I go a little crazier, so there’s this release feeling in the instrumentals. But that’s more in the arrangement side of things. When we write, usually Emilee or Kate will write the chord structure, lyrics, flow, verses, and choruses of a song, and then we’ll all build it out. But this time, writing this new album, we tried a lot of different stuff. We just tried to challenge ourselves and try stuff.

So, we have a song where the main guitar riff, Ben wrote on an acoustic guitar and kinda passed it around. We have stuff on this album where I had a chorus and a beat for a song, and then Emilee wrote the verses. So, for this time I think we got back to like, when we were first a band, we would do, “Oh, Emilee and I are writing a song, but we’re imagining Kate singing it,” and stuff like that in the early days. But in the middle period we didn’t do a lot of that, so we kind of brought some of that back. One of the songs, Kate wrote for me to sing, so it’s all this trading around.

Kate: Also, when we released our first album Safe Ship, Harbored, immediately after our album release show, we went to a little cabin and worked on new music. We were so invigorated. 

Ben: Literally the next morning! Partied all night after the show, then got up and drove.

Kate: We were so youthful! But we decided to summon some of that, because y’know, we’re older now, and we each have our own houses and our own lives, so we said, “Let’s have a little retreat together.” So this past July, that’s where we worked on a lot of the music for this album, including Arcturus. We just hung out in a cabin and did what we called it a “hot tub retreat” with some songwriting on the side. We just hung out and bonded and worked on a bunch of music, I think seven songs?

Dan: Mhm, seven at the first retreat, and then we did another retreat in December that was shorter, where we did two big songs, and then two of the other ones kind of were old. Well, not old, but from this era where they didn’t belong anywhere yet, so we got them up in fighting shape and added those two. So, there’s 11 tunes.

Harry: As you kind of mentioned, it’s been a long time since the first album release. How does that feel? 

Ben: Weird.

Dan: Weird.

Emilee: It’s odd. It makes me feel very aware of how long we’ve been doing this. I think when we started the band, there wasn’t any expectation of what we had envisioned for the long-term future. I think we were all just in it as long as it felt right and comfortable, and so long as the pieces fell together, everything aligned. But to look back and realize that you’ve been doing it for 13 years is kind of like a “wow” moment. I don’t think I planned on doing this for over a decade, but it’s a huge part of our lives, and it’s really cool to see that there’s been a real evolution between album one and album five. 

Kate: We’ve been through so much life parallel to each other, really enmeshed in each other’s lives, that it really is like a marriage of a kind. All of our partners, and all of our life kind of overlaps, and we really have to work with each other to make sure that we can shape a future that works for everyone involved, and I don’t know, I think there’s something really special about that.

Livian: You mention as well the evolution between album one and, this is now album five I believe, how do you think your sound has changed between some of the last music you’ve released and now?

Dan: Last music?

Livian: Like, maybe your live album from 2020, for example.

Dan: Oh yeah! That was kind of like the new electric era. Here I Am is kind of what captures the electric Crane Wives. Obviously our first album is just acoustic folk, eventually it just felt better for the show, and both Kate and Emilee seemed so excited to play electric guitar. With them having such a thick tone, and then also not having to switch different acoustic instruments around, we were loving just the energy that being an electric 4-piece gave us. That’s definitely a big part of this album, y’know, it’s fleshed out. We invited two string players that are our friends from Michigan to play, and there’s lots of other like, sonic depth that we added. But a lot of it is excitement about being a 4-piece electric band. 

Ben: You know, we do incorporate some acoustics, and try to stay true to that earlier sound, but it’s considerably different. It’s a super natural progression, though. It’s been nice. 

Emilee: We’ve just kind of been doing what feels fun, exciting, and interesting to us, and I feel like as we’ve gotten older, our music interests have changed a little bit. The things that we’re interested in exploring are grittier riffs or more complex sounds, and it’s been really exciting to have an avenue as a 4-piece to explore how big and how thick of a sound we can create with just the four of us, and then adding in extra little ear candy bits just to add a little bit of magic to the music. It’s really exciting. 

Ben: It’s really a product of us chasing what is interesting to us. Like, in quite a few of the songs, there’s a specific pedal that was very exciting to us, like, “Oh, that sounds cool on this too!” It just happens to be everywhere, just because we thought it was sweet, and chasing what was interesting. Picking up an electric guitar, it’s a lot more interesting than an acoustic. You can make a lot more different sounds with it. There’s a lot more freedom to run. 

Harry: I mean, doing what you think is interesting, that’s music, so it’s good to hear that you guys are continuing to do things that you enjoy, even as The Crane Wives has gotten bigger, at least from the outside.

Dan: One of my favorite parts, as we’re talking about this, is just being a huge fan of each of these three. Obviously we have a lot more sounds, but the way some of those electric guitar parts interweave, it’s just like, “Woah!” It’s also just really fun to note that Ben recorded it in his studio and mixed it.

Emilee: He built that studio with his two hands. 

Ben: These two. (Holding up his hands) 

Dan: Those two!

Harry: There they are, right there!

Livian: In the flesh!

Dan: Yeah, there they are!

Emilee: But it’s like a dream to be able to work in a studio environment that is not only super comfortable, but was also crafted to fit the songs that we make. 

Ben: That’s where we practice, too.

Emilee: Yeah, it’s very convenient. 

Dan: In that studio we kind of became like a four-headed producer, where some decisions were made without speaking.

Livian: As you guys said, you have your own lives outside of this band, so I’m curious, what individual projects have you been working on or are excited to work on in the future?

Kate: I think right now, we’re all very excited about The Crane Wives and very invested, but the three of us me, Emilee, and Dan do have solo music we work on as well. But it kinda creeps on over time.

Emilee: Ben and I, over the lock-down, like during pretty much peak Covid, we recorded—

Ben: You about to make news?

Emilee: We recorded a solo record with a bunch of my solo music that’s just kind of been like, I don’t know, we’ve been waiting for an opportunity to let it out into the world, but it just hasn’t felt right.

Ben: We’ve got it done, but we’re like, “Okay! Crane Wives album,” and then that has just been…

Emilee: Yeah.

Ben: It’s awesome.

Emilee: But it’s one of those things where it’s exciting to come back to it and kind of use the influences we’ve gained by performing, and by working on this record together. I feel like it’s kind of like a trading off of inspiration, right? When we work together I think we inspire each other to do more on our own as well. I know Dan also has a solo project as well, and we write music individually. Sometimes that music just doesn’t fit with the band and that usually just ends up in a Google Drive folder somewhere, so it’s nice to give those songs a home as well.

Livian: I feel like every creative has something of a similar experience, just like—

Emilee: Just a dump site?

Livian: Exactly, exactly.

Dan: I actually saw a hat that you can get today, and all it is are just the words, “Untitled, Unmastered.” Something for artists, y’know?

Emilee: Version 5: unfinished.

Dan: Yeah, yeah, I have a solo record that all three of these people were on, and I’m also in a band called Moss Manor, and yeah, like Emilee’s saying, there’s a really cool exchange where you get out certain ideas that don’t belong in different projects. You get them out in different projects, or then you get inspired to do something, and then your playing changes by the time you come back to the band. We’re all just fans of each other’s projects, so it’s just a big old, I don’t even know what you’d call it. Just a generative… 

Harry: Soup?

Dan: Yup, it’s a soup!

Harry: This is gonna be a kind of big on the spot question, but what do each of you guys, or as a whole, think your biggest influences creatively or musically are? Like I said, big question.

Emilee: That is a big question.

Harry: If it’s easier, you could just say favorite album or whatever.

Dan: That isn’t any easier.

Livian: Yeah, that might be harder!

Emilee: Hmm, I’ve been listening to a lot of Mitski. It’s been really exciting seeing her kind of pull that like, Kate Bush, avant-garde card a little bit, and see that you don’t have to do the mainstream thing to be recognized, which is really comforting. We also listened to a lot of Boygenius around the time we were in the studio. 

Kate: I’m obsessed with Adrianne Lenker, and Big Thief in general, but particularly Adrianne. I wanna say that’s a huge influence, for us all I think, as well as just other art forms. Emilee’s a visual artist, and I like that overlap in visual media and music, which you can see in art that Emilee does for us, and we have Rebecca Green on this new album again, who did the art for our last four albums as well. But then another huge influence has been, especially on this album, space.

Emilee: We love space!

Kate: Yeah!

Emilee: But back to influences, The War on Drugs. Really interested in the guitar sounds there.

Dan: There’s like a Venn diagram, y’know? But it’s so cool cause there’s some stuff in the middle of the Venn diagram of the four circles that we all agree on, but there’s all sorts of stuff in the wings.

Harry: Well, obviously with the new album coming out, is there any chance we’ll be hearing some upcoming songs tonight?

Dan: Oh, yeah! (Reaches for the setlist)

Ben: Hide it, quick!

Harry: I’m not looking, I’m not looking!

Livian: I was right next to it and I didn’t even notice!

Dan: We’re playing “Arcturus Beaming” at every show this tour because we’re very excited to have it released as of this week, and it’s so cool, even the first three shows, I heard people singing along. We’re playing “The Well” tonight, which is our recent single that came out in December, which is just a standalone piece of art, and not actually part of the new album’s music. We have too much music! The way the album flowed and fit together thematically, it felt like it would just be kinda tossed in there. We will play, tonight anyway, one more song that will be on the new record.

Livian: You mentioned the themes of the album as well, and listening to “Arcturus Beaming”, it seemed like it was kind of the title track for the album, singing “Beyond, beyond, beyond.” What felt right about making that part the name of the album?

Emilee: Finding a name for your record has got to be the most torturous experience because no matter what you say it sounds dumb. Every time that you verbalize that it’s like, “That’s dumb. That’s a dumb name.” It’s like that with band names too, like you scrutinize any band that exists. Red Hot Chili Peppers, stupid name. The Beatles, stupid name. Like all of those are dumb. Anything under a magnifying glass sounds so dumb and pretentious. So, we went through a huge process of attempts to label this record. In the past we just kind of spitballed for whatever felt right, like sometimes things just hit.

Ben: There were a few contenders, Dan had a list.

Emilee: Yeah, Dan had a big list.

Ben: There were about 15 in the drive, and they were all pretty good, y’know?

Emilee: But like, “Beyond, beyond, beyond,” that moment in “Arcturus” for me anyways, as somebody who’s just listening to the record and trying to be a casual listener in my mind, that just felt like the pinnacle moment of us saying what we need to say. The theme of the record is that yes, things are hard, but a lot of our music over time has focused about the ugly things that people try to keep pushed down and repressed. This is more like, yes those things exist, but also this other thing exists, which is hope and the future, and this idea that there is a world outside of the hard things and hurting.

Ben: Emilee brought that to practice. She was like, “What about beyond, beyond, beyond?” Without thinking, I was like, “Yup!” I had a feeling, and then we all thought like, let’s all sit on it for a week or whatever. Then in another practice we brought it back up, and it was like, “Yeah that’s it!” Beyond, beyond, beyond felt good, y’know?

Emilee: It just takes you further away from where you start, and I like that this album kinda gives us a view of the veil between, and this idea that there is something on the other side.

Kate: The whole album too just has this sort of trudging energy of making it through the difficulty, and we liked imagining what comes after.

Ben: That doubling down on the unknown, because whatever’s beyond beyond is, beyond. Unknown, unknown, unknown. Picture what’s beyond, and the alliteration at least anyway. It’s just perfect. Nailed it.

Dan: Nailed it! I can’t say what it is, but I have an alt band/alt album name that would be like our early 2000s post-hardcore album name. Has a comma in it, y’know? It’s like way too long.

Emilee: All lowercase letters in it.

Dan: I had so many ones where I would say “That’s our blank-blank album name, if we wanted to be something other than what we are.” So yeah, we got the right one.

Livian: Maybe after the album releases, you make a post with all the other names.

Dan: Then we can make faux press photos, change our look.

Harry: Radical shift for The Crane Wives!

Emilee: I vote for really bad photoshop, with Jojo Siwa makeup on all of us.

Harry: Speaking of Jojo Siwa, that’s not something I thought I’d be saying today, how do you guys feel about the fact that so many queer people really enjoy your music?

Kate: It’s such a gift.

Emilee: It feels like we’ve really found our people. We spent so long playing like, I don’t wanna badmouth venues or other people obviously, but like to people that I felt were not our people.

Ben: We played a lot of breweries. People there for the beer, and then the music. Maybe a little too much of the beer. 

Emilee: Exactly! And now we have these amazing, deep-feeling fans who wanna know what the meanings of the songs and visuals are, and like they’re artists! They’re creators! Which is also such a huge thing to be able to write music for people who make things. It’s such an honor. It feels so great to be in a room full of people who you can trust to hold a drink.

Ben: Not to generalize too much, but like every town we go to, the people that run the merch table are the most polite humans I’ve ever met. Every night it’s like the nicest people.

Kate: Our openers on our tours have said the same thing, they’re just an attentive audience of kind people. It’s almost scary being on stage, cause everyone’s listening so intently, no words are exchanged. It’s such a polite crowd, and our fans make friends at the shows. I know people do in the wild, but like there’ll be people who have never been to a concert, they’re scared to go to a show where they don’t know what they’re gonna get out of it, and they’re like, “Ugh, how do I do this!” There’s a Discord server that we have where fans will like sync up before the show, and plan to meet each other. It’s just this little safety net of people who are open, kind, and loving, so it feels amazing to play to audiences like that.

Dan: Mhm. Yeah, we get lots of stories about people finding belonging, and we always say that we didn’t do this or propagate it, but they found our songs, and we’re just so happy that our songs can mean so much to people’s lives.

Emilee: I always think as an adult, that grew up queer and didn’t have safe spaces or a safe community necessarily, it feels like a big responsibility, but also important work, to be able to provide that for our fans as well. It’s really good to know that the way that they’ve cultivated themselves has been to such an extent where we feel comfortable saying that this is an all ages show, and we feel comfortable bringing you here. It’s been really meaningful and important to me to be able to do that. Particularly for the kids, cause I remember being 16, going to my first concert, not necessarily old enough to be there, a lot of Warped Tours. 

Kate: I will say too about the emotional content of our songs, when we were younger and writing these songs which are very cathartic, and like they’re not about love, they’re not love songs, they’re identity songs, but there was a lot of influence from the music industry, and from like brewery fans y’know, to kind of change our sound—

Emilee: “Play Rihanna!”

Kate: Yeah! To play, what other people wanted. It’s really poetic that we aren’t able to veer from our course, we just wrote the songs we had to write emotionally. But in doing so our fanbase needed those songs, they found those songs, and it’s just really poetic to have this alt fan base that is not mainstream, and to just be able to have this beautiful community together, instead of changing who we are to be what the mainstream demands.

Emilee: Fuck the patriarchy.

Ben: You could make that the title of the article if you want.

Livian: We’ll remember that one.

Emilee: It’s nice to be able to speak our minds as well. It’s just nice to know that our fans are not going to send mean emails to us anymore about like, being pro-feminism. The bare minimum.

Harry: Well, if those are the people who are sending you mean emails, they suck.

Emilee: Y’know, that’s alright, we don’t play for them anymore, which is wonderful. It’s been really nice to have that shift.

Harry: Are you looking forward to Omaha?

Kate: I think the last time we played in Omaha we played to, two people?

Harry: Two?!

Dan: I think it’s our first time in Omaha, but it was in Lincoln. It was the bar staff and two people. It was a Monday, it was bad.

Kate: This’ll be a little different.

Harry: Fixing the first impression, I suppose.

Emilee: But also it’s nice to go to these spaces where I feel like we don’t know what these communities are like, and figure out what the vibe of every town is. Every place is a little different, and it’s exciting to hit a new spot and kind of see what they’re about.

Harry: I can tell you one thing, there is a huge hardcore music fest going on right now, Pokey’s Fest.

Emilee: So we’ll fit right in.

Livian: I saw that most shows on your tour right now are actually sold out. That’s gotta feel pretty amazing.

Dan: It does, it’s crazy.

Emilee: It doesn’t really feel real, until we show up and there are people. Cause I think in some part of my brain I keep thinking, “The bar staff and those two people are gonna have a great time tonight!” I hope people come!

Dan: It’s wild too. You go out, you see all those people, and you’re like, “Alright, time to do something that deserves that.” What we end up doing is the same thing we’ve been doing the past 13 years, but they love it!

Emilee: Thank goodness they like it, cause that’s all we know how to do!

Dan: They either like it or they’re too polite to boo.

Ben: There’s a feeling I had last night. I can’t identify this feeling, cause we walked out and it was our biggest show ever last night. 1,600 people, and it was like me doing this with my instruments, is that what you wanna hear?

Harry: Is there anything you wanna add, or wanna mention at all?

Emilee: We’ve got a couple singles coming out, we’ll release one in July and one in August, before the record comes out.

Dan: Record releases September 6th.

The post Fuck the Patriarchy: An Interview with The Crane Wives appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Kenzi Rayelle started out the night strong with an acoustic folk sound. Rayelle amazed the audience with songs accompanied by ukulele, guitar, and mandolin. Passionate during the higher points in songs and tender during softer sections, her vocals were mesmerizing throughout the set.

Originally from Indianola, Iowa, Rayelle has a unique indie sound that blends together aspects of folk and punk genres with relative ease. Her voice has a twinge of Lana Del Rey tone with its velvet timbre. Rayelle also contributes to design for both Fools Magazine and Scope Productions, a fruitful member of Iowa City’s artistic community.

Next up was Corbin Phillips. Several friends crowded around the stage to show him support, cheering and clapping as he started. Phillips was powerful on acoustic guitar, which contrasted wonderfully with his mellow voice. He was adept at using looper pedals, creating percussion-like sounds with his guitar and formulating layered harmonies to underscore several melodies.

Though he was performing solo, Phillips is a member of local band London Fog, with bandmates Emi Bendler and Brett Eikenberry. The band has an acoustic indie sound and released an EP entitled Snow in December of 2018, which Phillips wrote the music and lyrics for. Eikenberry was also at the event and joined Phllips on the stage for a few songs, supplying guitar and trumpet to the half hour set.

The two beanie-clad performers played together comfortably, some songs with combined vocals and others featuring just Phillips. Mixing jazz and indie styles, Phillips gave a varied performance that had the crowd clamoring for more. He ended the set involving the audience, leading a sing-along that had each half of the restaurant harmonizing with the other.

Lily DeTaeye closed out the night with a thrilling mix of guitar, piano, and harmonica. She started with a piece accompanied by Eikenberry on trumpet, a first-time collaboration on the song. The rest of the set included songs from her 2017 EP, an acoustic cover of “Little Black Submarines” by The Black Keys, and selections from an upcoming album she is currently working on with Jim Eno’s Public Hi-Fi in Austin, TX.

Relationships, past memories, and female empowerment drive many of her lyrics, giving each song a particularly emotional edge. DeTaeye is equally skilled at slow, ballad-like songs as she is with upbeat tracks. Her robust alto voice takes lower notes to the fullest while tackling the higher range with a delicate control.

The Des Moines native interacted with the crowd frequently, candidly telling stories about the inspirations behind her lyrics. The punchy “Downgrade,” she described, is about a past relationship with a fellow musician from high school. She talked about how another piece had recently been played in front of her class by a professor, unknowing fellow students commenting on whether they liked it or not directly in front of her. DeTaeye doesn’t let events like this affect her too much though, a beaming presence on the stage confident in herself and her sound.

A celebration of local voices on the rise, the entire night was full of support and joy. It seemed no coincidence that the onset of spring arrived alongside the warmth of these artists, who will hopefully regale Iowa City with more performances in the near future.

The post A Night at El Banditos appeared first on KRUI Radio.

It happened to me January 2017. I was living in Los Angeles, at my first live show of the year. I’d just discovered a band called King Washington and learned one of its frontmen, George Krikes, was playing an acoustic set at a new-ish joint on the Sunset Strip, a wood-paneled, cozy cavern aptly called “The Attic”.

The song was untitled back then, at least as far as I knew. I was pretty emotional that night, trying to get over a two-week fling. By the time I showed up at the venue, George was already onstage, teasing out the intro to a song. I closed my eyes and let the clean guitar lines soothe my bruised ego. Somewhere in the first verse, the lyrics hit me:

“So go find answers, go find proof
Let the wings of your spirit guide you

Go find new love, take it in
And let your heart break again and again.”

I nearly fell off the stool. How could he have known exactly what I needed to hear at that moment?

Half a year later, I returned to the same venue with a new date. George was playing again and I was doing my best to move on. By then, I had gotten to know George so I felt confident enough to approach him and request the song.

This time, what landed was in verse two:

“Now I finally realize
That you, you gotta be set free
And I’m gonna be all right
And you, you’re gonna find yourself
Just wait and see…”

Though I’d forgotten the lyrics, my subconscious mind remembered. Or at least suspected. Hearing the song again was healing. It was the reminder, the push I needed to strengthen my resolve.

On September 16th, George released his first EP, LM.

“It stands for ‘love you, miss you.'” he revealed when I asked. “That is what me and one of my exes used to say to each other because I was always out on the road.”

The five tracks were inspired by that same relationship, including the now titled, “I Don’t Need You, You Don’t Need Me.”

“That song was just completely me as far as everything that was recorded on it. I tried to make it more general, about things I want to remind myself. It still has little touches of the sadness of losing someone but there’s also the need to move on and find peace in the closure, not hate.”

The rest of the album follows suit. From the melancholy musing in “A Long Time Ago” to the more upbeat “It’s Not Over,” through the hypnotic “Come Be With Me Awhile,” and the crisp, clean guitar in “The Right Combination,” George explores what he calls “different points of the ‘getting over it’ journey.” His lyrics are honest, sometimes brutally so. Relationships tend to be messy affairs, no matter how black and white we might want to make them out to be.

“I can be a real monster, I can be pretty sweet
I could stop you from falling after I pull the rug from your feet…”
(from “The Right Combination”)

But this California-based musician is a master storyteller, even without words. He can tease out longing in a chord progression, draw out loneliness from a lingering slide. I can picture scenes while listening to the music: sitting at a fireplace on a cold evening, staring out the window of a train (or van) going down a long country road, spending a dreary Saturday with a bucket of raindrops for companionship.

For the recordings, he got a little help from some friends. “The guitar and the vocals were the first things that I did, and I did those just at home. Then I worked with Ross Garren to re-conceptualize certain things and think of what other instruments could go here and there. It helped to have him keep the emotion grounded. And we had some other great performers including David who played drums in King Washington.”

“I Don’t Need You, You Don’t Need Me” has certainly grown up since I heard it last, with a new call and response bridge. I fell even more in love with it, and said as much.

“I think you heard the first time I ever played ‘I Don’t Need You’ and it stuck in your craw. So that was a good sign.”

Indeed, the song continues to ring true for me to this day Its meaning has changed. I can listen to it now without clinging to it. During our conversation, I confessed to George that his music not only helped me get over one instance of heartache, it had also served as a compass to find my way through anything I had to let go of, from past loves to past versions of myself which no longer serve me.

“’Cause you don’t need me

And I don’t need you anymore

I don’t need you
And you don’t need me anymore…”

It’s funny how such a seemingly simple concept could mean so much.

“These songs aren’t trying to be experimental classical compositions or crazy King Washington arrangements. I wanted these to be a bit more from the heart and intimate.”

They are. And I highly encourage you to find your own guide in them. Because sometimes what speaks to us the strongest is not in the loudest voice. It’s in the quiet moments, when we can truly listen and hear ourselves. Bonus when accompanied by some killer slide guitar.
—

The post When Music is the Muse: On George Krikes appeared first on KRUI Radio.

1.) Piece Of Your Heart

“Piece Of Your Heart” is the first single that MP dropped in anticipation for this album, and I gotta say that I love it. As I mentioned before, I wasn’t the hugest fan of their last two albums, but this song actually has me looking forward to their new album. It feels reminiscent of early Mayday, which as you’ll be able to tell soon, is my favorite era of MP (thus far). The lyricism is similar to their “A Lesson in Romantics” days, something I didn’t know I wanted to hear again. The instrumentation has been cleaned up since their last album (which IMO was a failed attempt at trying to “get back to the roots” of pop punk) and from what I’ve heard of the new album, it sounds like it will flow smoothly.

2.) I Swear This Time I Mean It

If there’s one thing that MP is really good at, it’s sappy ballads. This song, from their sophomore album “Anywhere But Here,” features an acoustic guitar paired with soft vocals from lead singer Derek Sanders. The tempo is pretty slow, almost as if Sanders is singing a lullaby. The song slowly builds, the music crescendoing from the slow tempo to fit smoothly with his gentle voice. Tbh, I could totally listen to this on repeat until I fall asleep. His voice is so soothing.

3.) Kids In Love

“Kids In Love” is another track from their sophomore album, and it’s also the first song I ever heard by the band; I was in 7th grade and thought that I was so in love with the guy I dated that year *cringe*. For as cringey as that is, it felt so applicable at the time – “We were just kids in love / the summer was full of mistakes we wouldn’t learn from.” Despite the memories of my first puppy love, this song feels timeless to me. The instrumentation stays interesting during the entirety of the song, and the lyricism doesn’t feel like it was directed at 13 year olds.

4.) When I Get Home You’re So Dead

This song hails off of their first and most celebrated album, “A Lesson In Romantics.” At the time, Derek Sanders was a co-vocalist with Jason Lancaster, who ended up leaving the band and joining Go Radio (before they broke up and he went solo). This break up song is so 2007 – not sappy and sad, but savage AF. The lyrics basically allude to the fact that the girl is a cheating whore and she won’t ever change. One thing I love about the lyrics is that it doesn’t sound cheesy AF, like some songs I’ve heard calling out ex-girlfriends for being whores. Instrumentally, the guitars sound angry, which helps the direction of this song channel the angsty side of pop punk.

5.) Three Cheers for Five Years

Eeeeeek, this song is so sad. This song was written by drummer Jake Bundrick, who found out that his girlfriend of five years cheated on him (and she told him on their anniversary, nonetheless). This piano ballad features a back-and-forth vocal trade off between Sanders and Lancaster, with vocals sometimes overlapping each other, but in my opinion showcasing the conflicting thoughts of a break up and how to deal with the news of your S/O cheating on you. I love that MP are able to tell stories of break ups in completely polar-opposite ways (see choice 4). The twinkling piano, the switching vocals, the overlapping of thoughts – they all culminate into a song that brings out emotion I didn’t even know I had.

6.) Still Breathing

“Still Breathing” starts off with a somber-sounding guitar, the chord blending seamlessly with Sanders’ vocals. Drums subtly come in throughout the verse and eventually build up into the chorus, which isn’t anything mind-blowing, but isn’t overly simple and boring either. I don’t really know what draws me to this song, but I enjoy it nonetheless.

7.) Just Say You’re Not Into It

Let me tell ya, this EP was *~amazing~*. This song follows the hearts of a conflicted relationship, where the two are fighting, however they want to forget about it for the night and “bring their hearts back home.” I love the way the song starts off, with the lyrics “In a show of hands / who has ever said these words before? / And in a show of hearts on the floor / who has ever meant them more?” I thought that line was just cleverly crafted and didn’t even need to be explained for it to be understood. That right there my friends, is good lyricism.

8.) I’d Hate To Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About

Long live the days of long song titles – can we bring that back please? I heard some rumors that “Sunnyland” will have more long titles – yay! Anyway, back to this song. The main reason I love this song so much is because you can hear so much emotion in both of the vocalists voices, but especially Lancaster’s when he jumps into the chorus. I honestly don’t really know what this song is about, who it’s about, what’s going on, but it makes me feel. It’s the weirdest thing – but hey, that’s what music does to ya. Also, with the guitar solos and the way that the song builds, the song flows together so smoothly and makes me want to throw down.

9.) Terrible Things

Okay sorry, we’re going to get sad again. But this song is just. so. beautiful. The narrator, a father, is telling the story of the father and mother – when they first met, when he proposed, and when she told him she’s sick. I mean, shit. Paired with the somber piano, this song is so sad and evokes so many emotions. The father is telling the son “So don’t fall in love / there’s just too much to lose.” and “Now son / I’m only telling you this / because life can do terrible things.” This song is basically a Nicholas Sparks book summed up in four minutes.

10.) One Of Them Will Destroy The Other

This song is one of the songs I actually like from their 2015 album, “Black Lines.” I love how raw this song sounds, in terms of instrumentals and in vocals. Sanders experiments with some more screaming, a change that really shook up their discography since Lancaster left the band. Some fans were disappointed, citing that MP is a band they go to for more sappy, heartfelt songs, not heavier music. However, I thought this was one track that actually did a good job of capturing that raw, stripped down sound that they were looking to do for the album. I don’t think it completely worked out for them – I saw them live shortly after this album was released and they played 3 songs out of a 20 song show from this album. That being said, the songs they did play were the good ones, so I wasn’t too disappointed.

So there you have it! I’m really excited to hear what their album will sound like, and of course, I will see them live at Warped this summer.

Check out my blog where I write more music related content, and follow my music Twitter to hear constant updates on everything music related!

The post Jen’s Top Ten’s: My Favorite Mayday Parade Songs appeared first on KRUI Radio.

This collection of songs features songs that are exclusively acoustic, simply because there were way too many good acoustic versions of songs to narrow it down to just ten (those songs will serve as honorable mentions in my Spotify playlist linked below!). So without further ado, here are my top ten picks for best acoustic songs.

1.) Love Your Friends, Die Laughing by Man Overboard

This song has nostalgia written all over it. It has that perfect “campfire song” vibe to it, which makes it such an enjoyable and uplifting song. The lyrics talk about being in the moment.

“I left my heart with my phone in my center console / I left my feelings with my wallet and my keys.”

2.) Cherry by Moose Blood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGqRIdWfdE8

While “Cherry” uses an electric guitar as opposed to an acoustic, it still has a soft, acoustic feel to it. This is one of Moose Blood’s slowest, remorseful sounding tunes. The song is about lead singer Eddy Brewerton wrote this song about his wife and step-daughter, with the lyrics discussing his love of being a father and coping with the fact that he isn’t her real father.

“She’s not mine and she never will be / I’m reminded every day / She’s not mine and it fucking kills me / She won’t look at me that way.”

3.) I Don’t Mind by Defeater

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1IdKeZU8hs

This classic love song is beautiful next to the lone acoustic guitar. It’s the perfect love song as the lyrics reminisce on their time together. It’s sappy and uplifting all at the same time.

“And I don’t mind / If we take our time / No, I don’t mind.”

4.) Timmy Bowers by Modern Baseball

This one is pretty much guaranteed to bring the waterworks. While the song itself hovers around two minutes and the lyrics pretty much repeat the same phrase, the lead singer’s haunting voice mixed with the melancholy melody brings up emotions that I never knew lived inside me.

“Wait a minute / cause I’ve been living more like a piece of shit without you / and I’ve been spending all your past killings / trying to drink my way out of this groove.”

5.) Clairvoyant by The Story So Far

This gut-wrenching tune is a surprising release from a heavily aggressive pop punk band in the scene today. Parker Cannon’s usually outside-voice is lowered and showcases not only his hidden voice but also their lyrical talent. The song discusses the downfall of a relationship, a topic that hits home for a lot of heartbroken lovers.

“Don’t paint me black / when I used to be golden.”

6.) Leave You In The Dark by State Champs

I can’t imagine what this song would be like if it had been crafted to be plugged in and amplified. State Champs are excellent at sending messages in their fast paced pop punk, however this slow jam fits perfectly with the mellow lyrics. The lyrics follow a couple that aims to be different despite their struggles.

“And I know I don’t say it / but I love you too / and it’s starting to make sense.”

7.) Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Green Day

Of course I had to include this classic off of Green Day’s 1997 album “Nimrod”. As an adolescent, this song really resonated with me as I’m sure it has with almost everybody else that’s heard this classic tune. It’s nostalgic, heart-wrenching, and bittersweet all at the same time.

“It’s something unpredictable / but in the end is right / I hope you had the time of your life.”

8.) If It Means A Lot to You by A Day To Remember

Emotions run rampant through this slower melody from post-hardcore band A Day To Remember. The lyrics follow a couple that is separated because of the man going on tour with the band. Guest vocalist Sierra Kay stars as the female voice in the second verse and throughout the third as the two vocalists sing back and forth with each other. While it’s unsure how things turn out, we’re rooting for the couple to last.

“If you can wait till I get home / then I swear to you that we can make this last.”

9.) You by The Pretty Reckless

Any Gossip Girl fans here? Yup, that’s Little J from the CW’s hit show. This slow track is accompanied by soft drumming and violins in the background. Paired with Taylor Momsen’s delightfully soft voice, a somber feeling rises from the lyrics as she sings about loving a person that doesn’t love her back.

“You don’t want me, no / You don’t need me / Like I want you, oh / Like I need you.”

10.) Riding In Your Car by Mat Kerekes

Mat Kerekes, the lead singer of the band Citizen, released this solo album “Luna and the Wild Blue Everything” in 2016 and it is SO. UNDERRATED. While all of these songs on this album are acoustic, this one sticks out to me the most. Mat sings about riding in somebody’s car as they listen to their favorite music, which coincides with his favorite songs as well. He doesn’t want the day to end, and all he wants is to ride around with this person and listen to their favorite songs.

“I’m riding in your car / and it seems that your radio plays all of my favorite songs today / and I wish you would sing along.”

To listen to my playlist along with the honorable mentions, check out my Spotify playlist below!

The post Jen’s Top Tens: My Favorite Acoustic Songs of All Time appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Some other albums from Golden Bloom are Fan the Flames (2009), March to the Drums (2011), and No Day Like Today (2013).

The album starts off with “Looking up to You,” a singer-songwriter staple track. The acoustic guitar and soft maraca in the background make for a fantastic kick-off.  “Circles Round My Mind” keeps the ball rolling by adding some great percussion to the already lush melodies from the first track. The prominent drums continue on “Great Unknown.” It starts off with sweeter vocals, then picks up with some unpredictable chord progressions.

The cleverly titled, “Books You Never Read,” is a slow paced, easy listening track with lyrics that speak to you on another level. “Listen to yourself as you begin to say, ‘tell me everything is gonna be okay'” is one of the lines from the song that really stuck with me after I listened to it. I feel like most of the tracks on this album have a much deeper meaning than they may seem. Golden Bloom picks up the pace again with “Fall Out of Line,” yet again talking about the sucky things of life in a rhythmic, yet direct way. “Racing thoughts just can’t keep up when the walls start caving in” was another beautiful lyric that I could not get out of my head after I heard it on this track.

Full of uplifting and memorable arrangements “Searching for Sunlight” is one of the best songs on the whole album. It is one of those songs that you could listen to on repeat for days. “Come Back Home” was one of my least favorite songs, I did not like the keyboard they added at the beginning and it took too long to get into. Ending the album on a softer more gentle note, “Want Love” pulled me in with more meaningful lyrics about life’s hard truths. After I heard the line, “Weigh your head like a weight upon my shoulder” I replayed it over and over because it was just so relatable.

I recommend this album to everyone–it is just one those albums that are hard not to enjoy even if you do not particularly like this genre of music. It is feel-good, downright amazing music that you can listen to any time of the day, in any mood. If you are sad and want to sulk there are songs on this album that will make you ponder your thoughts for hours. But if you want a quick pick me up, or are having a grand ole time there are tracks on there that will make you want to dance around wherever you’re at. I give this album a 9/10, make sure you give it a listen!

The post Album Review: “Searching for Sunlight” by Golden Bloom appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The album gets off to a running start with its first track, ‘God in Two Persons.’ It is such a well written song, as are all the rest of the songs on this album. It is very fast paced with a catchy chorus and joyoussound to get you hooked from the beginning. ‘2009’ is a perfect example of Lithuania’s unique garage band type sound. They keep it going with even more smart lyrics, rolling drums, buzzing guitars and another infectious chorus. The least exciting track would have to be ‘Pieces,’ it was just very generic, repetitive but still has a nice grungy sound. ‘I Wanna Drink Poison’ is much slower, and less intense compared to the rest of the album but it is a nice change of pace from the other fast paced tracks and was much needed toward the middle of the album. The track starts off with a nice, slow intro but gradually burns into a raging fire. Lithuania was very smart when they decided to place their more lethargic songs in the middle of the other tracks as they did with ‘Coronation Day.’ This acoustic piece had a beautiful sound that makes you want to jam along with them.

The pace picks back up again with the second half of the album starting with ‘Deaf Gene’ and its raging lyrics and very catchy chorus. I am almost positive I may have stumbled upon my theme song when I first heard ‘Clumsy and Forgotten’ (pun intended). The lyric “I just want to sleep the day away, say that I feel rotten” perfectly describes anyone that is like me and wants to do nothing but lay in bed 99.9% of the time. ‘Places of Tomorrow’ is full of catchy chords, more rolling drums and is pretty similar to most of the other songs.

Lithuania is great at coming up with infectious choruses that grab the listeners attention, especially in ‘Questions’. The vocals are very clean but still have enough hardcore screams to keep their edgy sound. Lastly there is ‘Hardcore Friends’ a perfect closing number for this fantastic album. It is full of relatable lyrics and yet another catchy chorus that ends the album on a great note.

Overall this was an awesome album and I would recommend it to anybody. Lithuania’s memorable lyrics will be etched into your brain for days, even weeks after you give it a listen. I give it a ten out of ten, you have to hear it for yourself.

The post Album Review: “Hardcore Friends” by Lithuania appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Take a Breath was one of the bands that played; they are an alternative rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They played songs off their album ‘The Anatomy of a Rose’ . For the most part the crowd consisted of about twelve fan girls that were front and center for almost all the acts that night. They had a good stage presence, but the sound was up way too high and they sang to close to the microphone, so it caused a lot of distortion and was not pleasing to the ears. Besides that, after listening to their tracks online, they’re very good and if it were under different circumstances, I’m sure they sound better live.

Time Atlas was the main act of the night and definitely were the most talented ones that played. They are a pop/alternative rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota that formed in 2015. They sound scarily similar to the previous group, and were not very different in that aspect. They do have promise and are relatively popular but there was nothing about them that really stood out to me. They just released their debut EP “Clarity” and you can check that out here.

Kickbox is a pop punk group from Chicago, Illinois. They reminded me a lot of Real Friends as far as their sound goes, it was almost like they were trying to mimic them. They really got all the fan girls going with their teenage angst lyrics, and when they would accentuate

the f-word anytime they sang it in one of their songs. Overall they were good enough to keep my attention which is a pretty big accomplishment. You can check them out here.

The rest of the acts that played that night were singer/songwriters that all pretty much sounded exactly the same. I know that may seem a little harsh but if you want to make it as a singer/song writer you have to find a way to differentiate yourself from all the other ones that are out there or else you are pretty much just background music for the audience.

One of the singer/songwriters was Brian Moroney. He is from Chicago, and also plays in Airways an indie rock band from Peterborough, England. Brian had a really nice voice and played an all acoustic, but like I

said, he wasn’t very unique in that aspect. He did draw in a lot of attention from the ladies though and had a pretty good presence on stage.

Next is Clay Borrell, a 19-year old singer/songwriter and entertainer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was very good at getting the crowd going; well, the crowd that was there

with his young Justin Bieber type of sound. The fan girls went crazy over him which made him even more energetic on stage. If you’re interested here is the link to his to YouTube account.

Lastly, there was Cup Check: a female-fronted pop punk band from Chicago, Illinois. Their female lead singer has a great voice but not a very attention-capturing presence. It may have that way just because it was an all acoustic set rather

than their usual rowdy pop punk sound. The lyrics were very well-written and they had an overall good sound but sounded very similar to the other bands that were there. The only thing that made them different was their female lead singer.

Overall it was a good show; it wasn’t the greatest one I’ve ever been to, but it was still entertaining. None of the bands sucked so I would say it was worth the trip back to Iowa City for the night.

The post Iowa Music Review appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Originally from Muscatine, Iowa, Strause has created his own original combination of blues, folk, and bluegrass. Similar to the stylings of Amos Lee and Brett Dennen, Brooks Strause usually plays with his band, Brooks Strause and the Gory Details. But on Friday, Strause kept the audience entertained simply with his voice, his acoustic guitar, and his harmonica.

Strause played a number of songs, including “The Wrong Reasons” from his forthcoming effort, Acid Casual. This upcoming album will be his fifth CD. Strause also performed “Strange City,” a song specifically about Iowa City. Although it was written for the Iowa City Song Project, Strause highlighted the fact that he has lived in Iowa City for the past three years and has always loved the great people, great ideas, and the arts that the town has to offer.

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