S. Carey is the stage name of Sean Carey from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He started his solo career in 2010 after touring and recording as a member of the band Bon Iver.

He was the drummer and backup vocalist for the band. Carey and Justin Vernon realized how great their harmonies sounded together and Carey was immediately brought on as a member of the hugely successful band.

Carey’s solo career has steadily been gaining momentum; he was featured in a Taylor Swift curated playlist of her favorite songs, has worked with other popular indie artists like Sufjan Stevens, and was even commissioned to write a song for the Netflix show Flaked.

My first experience with S. Carey came a few years ago, when I was in the midst of a Bon Iver obsession. I had always assumed that the band was Justin Vernon and a rotating supporting cast of musicians, until I watched one video: a live Bon Iver session at AIR studios, featuring only Vernon and Carey.

Bon Iver, Bon Iver is one of my favorite albums ever, and seeing the songs stripped down to their cores revealed the supreme talent of Carey to me. Melodies and harmonies isolated themselves, and the back and forth chemistry between Carey and Vernon revealed to me how important of a component Carey was to the sound the band cultivated. It’s one of the most beautiful live performances I’ve seen.

Perhaps Carey’s most famous song is titled “Fire-scene- Alt. Version,” and features the soft, almost whisper-like voice of Carey backed by only the sounds of a piano. The song slowly gains momentum and the piano gets louder as Carey’s voice soars. The song is extremely beautiful, and a great introduction for those trying to get familiar with Carey’s style of music.

S. Carey’s newest album Hundred Acres is described by Paste Magazine as “well-written, breathtakingly pretty and as edgy as a cue ball.” The album is a return to simplicity for Carey, featuring folk-pop arrangements that engulf the listener in an ethereal trance of beautiful harmonies.

Carey’s music is sure to translate spectacularly to the intimate setting at The Mill, and will be a perfect backdrop to his soft folk-pop. It will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of Mission Creek Festival 2018.

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Most fans of indie music know the story of Bon Iver’s first record like the back of their hand by now. Justin Vernon broke up with his girlfriend, band, got sick with mono, and decided to seek refuge in a remote cabin in the Wisconsin woods where he recorded his debut album as Bon Iver titled “For Emma, Forever Ago”.

The story has garnered Vernon a cult following and cemented his status as an indie legend. Recently, the band announced a vinyl reissue of the iconic album. Which, will feature new artwork and will be accompanied by a live performance of the album in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on February 17, 2018.

Since the release of “For Emma, Forever Ago,” the band has gone in drastically different directions. The band’s 2011 release “Bon Iver, Bon Iver” featured sweeping soundscapes and lush instrumentation that expanded upon the raw acoustic nature of their debut. “22, a Million” released in 2016, and was an electronic extension of the band’s earlier albums, resembling Sufjan Stevens’ “Age of Adz.”

The widespread acclaim, Grammy wins and collaborations with artists such as James Blake and Kanye West would cease to exist without the framework built with “For Emma, Forever Ago.” Where the rest of Bon Iver’s discography utilizes grand soundscapes and unique combinations of complex instrumentation, “For Emma, Forever Ago” succeeds in its intimate lyrics and isolated, icy acoustic heartache.

The album opener, “Flume,” introduces the listener to Vernon’s beautiful falsetto, with a backdrop of a creaky and squealing acoustic guitar. Vernon doesn’t write lyrics with the intention of making total sense, but instead writes based on what words sound good together, as can be heard in the chorus of the song: “Only love is all maroon/ gluey feathers on the flume/ sky is womb and she’s the moon.”

“Skinny Love” is the third track on the album, and is the breakthrough song that vaulted Bon Iver to becoming a household name. It is a heartbreaking ballad that features a pained Vernon spitting: “Come on skinny love just last the year/ pour a little salt we were never here.” The song is the emotional center of the album and is one of the best breakup songs of all time.

The most upbeat song on the album comes towards the end of the album with “For Emma.” The song sees Vernon introducing horns and other vocals that harmonize in the background, indicating that maybe some light is seeping through the cracks for Vernon and there is some hope.

The album closer, “Re: Stacks,” is a slow and beautiful track, featuring the soothing and uplifting falsetto of Vernon tying the album up nicely. Its the sound of Vernon finally coming to peace with himself and indicating the new beginning and direction of his life: “This is not the sound of a new man, or a crispy realization/ It’s the sound of the unlock and lift away/ your love will be safe with me.”

“For Emma, Forever Ago” is a hugely important album in the scope of the music industry, as Bon Iver paved the way for all of the alternative-folk acts to follow in the coming years, from Mumford and Sons to the Lumineers to Of Monsters and Men.

Not only that, but Vernon’s impeccable falsetto became widely known after numerous collaborations with Kanye West. Vernon was featured on the songs “Monster” and “Lost in the World” from West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” and was also on West’s 2013 album “Yeezus,” which had great influence upon “22, a Million.”

The influence and impact of “For Emma, Forever Ago” cannot be overstated. Who could’ve guessed that one of the most iconic albums of the 2000’s would come from one man isolated in the Wisconsin woods?

The post Music MATTers: Bon Iver’s “For Emma, Forever Ago”- 10 Years Later appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The National’s 7th album, Sleep Well Beast contains many of the band’s first’s; a guitar solo by Aaron Dessner on “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness,” or the song “Turtleneck,” which Berninger explains to NPR is basically gibberish but with dark political connotation about President Donald Trump.

Electronic influences aren’t new to Sleep Well Beast, although it seems so to an audience. A bright citrus opening to the album playfully awakens this to the audience, with horse hove sounding synths while in the background, a melodramatic piano pattern carries the classic sounds we’ve been craving since their last release in 2013; Trouble Will Find Me.

“There’s some of it [electronic influence] on every record, really. You can hear beds of electronic stuff kind of rolling away in the background on the last album, on “Demons” and “Don’t Swallow the Cap” says Bryce Dessner, National guitarist and composer tells Joe Goggins.

Bursting choruses, bloody and brooding lyrics all bring together the perfect pace that Sleep Well Beast is. While still moody and dark, no doubt with help from Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, friend of Aaron Desser, there’s a new take on relationships, romantic and social, for this album.

“I’m not lost I’m not lost I’m losing grip the fabrics ripped” Berlinger grumbles in Sleep Well Beast, “let me figure it out, how to get us back to the place where we were when we first went out.”

“The [lyrics] are flexible, My marriage is in tact, but this is clearly a record about a relationship that’s over or maybe about to be over”  Berlinger tells NPR’s All Songs Considered with a chuckle. The album is centered on Berninger and his wife, Carin Besser, who co-wrote part of the album.

“We write about the things that are really really scare us the most, looking over the edge, and if you really look far enough over and address it and then come back and talk about what you saw and saying ‘I don’t want to take that step, I’m not going to do that’ that’s a healthy thing,” he tells NPR.

Sleep Well Beast isn’t an album that was put together with just chords and lyrics, it’s a socially aware active piece of art. The title of the album was born from the idea of Resignation Syndrome where, after being told they’re being deported from Sweden, hundreds of Syrian refugee children are falling into a comatose state for weeks at a time.

Berninger explains what part the election took in the album to Joe Goggins, “We had a bunch of songs that were actually quite political, but they just felt fundamentally lame and insignificant afterwards, so we dumped them. The political stuff that remains is just of a different tone.”

Aaron Dessner continues, “You can’t really separate your art from your personal experience, and everything that’s happening right now – you know, these are things that are going to affect our children.”

You can hear empathy, and the tug on Berninger’s patience in his voice through the entire album. It’s nothing that we don’t expect from the band, but it’s everything we needed to hear.

“The end of it’s a bunch of imagery from news footage that I saw, people like on forklifts..and you know native americans stopping the pipeline…and different stuff, its just fragments of imagery coming in and out at the end” Berninger tells NPR’s All Songs Considered.  

“Also the sound of the record gets a little bit deconstructed and the pieces of the architecture of the song get kind of revealed at the end…it was a big…yeah we were smoking weed, man.”

Sleep Well Beast was released September 8th, 2017.

The post Everything you need to know while you’re listening to The National’s new LP “Sleep Well Beast” appeared first on KRUI Radio.

S. Carey played a phenomenal show at The Mill Thursday night.   But first, Jack Lion, a band based out of Iowa City, warmed up the stage.  The band consisted of three guys, mainly playing drums,  bass, and trumpet.  The focus was instrumental rather than vocal, and impressively donned a complex rhythmic structure and experimental electronic sounds.

A member of Golden Birds played next.  Kicking it with just a rented acoustic guitar, the Golden Birds memeber sang a number of relaxed vocals.  The first couple songs were edged with nervousness, but eventually he got into the flow.

At last, S. Carey captured the stage, and it was a performance to remember.  Eloquent and aesthetically pleasing, the band played from their new album, Range of Light. Sean Carey played the piano, percussion, and sang the entire show.  His piano playing was captivating, to say the least. Even in the bar scene of The Mill, there was a respectful ease as people swayed to the mellow strums and beats.

The idea to record his own music struck Carey while on tour playing drums as a member of Bon Iver.

When I asked him how he differentiates himself from Bon Iver in S. Carey, Carey replied, “Our sonic landscape is the same, but we approach songwriting differently. I’m new to songwriting.”

Nevertheless, the lyrics in the songs played from Range Of Light were well crafted and poetic–a perfect match for Carey’s delightfully smooth voice.

The instrumental ability of all members of the band were sincerely profound.  As one of the bass players, Jeremy Boettcher, put it, “We are all working our own thing to make one cloud of music together.”

According to Seas Carey, this is the band’s fourth time coming to Iowa City.  He said it’s just on the way to everything.  “Plus we do well here.  I think it reminds me of my hometown.”

The band used Mission Creek festival as the birth place to an exciting tour that will take them to the west coast and all over Europe.  Like them on

Facebook and listen to their music on soundcloud here.

If you like S. Carey, be sure to check out Caroline Smith, with whom Jeremy Boettcher of S. Carey has played with.  Caroline Smith performs as an opening act for !!! at Gabe’s Friday the 5th.

The post Mission Creek: S. Carey @ The Mill, 4/3/14 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Five men and one woman make up the group. They are currently on tour with The Daredevil Christopher Wright, with whom they also recently released a split 7” record entitled “A Man of the Arts” together. Cuddle Magic’s mesmerizing sound is comprised of strange melodies, harmonies, and bridges. the band uses multiple guitars, a bass (which happily wears a teal button-down shirt), drums, and bells to create such a style which is reminiscent of the stylings of Vampire Weekend, The Postal Service, and Passion Pit.

After entertaining the audience with a few numbers, including “Expectations,” the band turned it over to the Daredevil Christopher Wright, who took the stage at 11 PM.

As the three Daredevil men (Jon Sunde, Jason Sunde, and Jesse Edgington) took the stage, they pointed out their Wisconsin heritage but complemented Iowa City. “It’s always a pleasure to play in Iowa City,” Jon Sunde remarked. “I really admire the Iowa Writer’s Workshop.” The group strummed their acoustic and electric guitars and played the drums and the glockenspiel for a solid hour and a half. Such a conglomeration of instruments mixed with the sweet sustaining harmonies of the band members created a phenomenal sound. Similar to Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes, The Daredevil’s style consists of random chords, oohs and aahs, echoes, and whistling. A number of the band’s hits, including “Divorce,” “Ames, IA,” “The Daredevil Christopher Wright,” and “We Fold Inside of Us” captivated the audience for the evening. When the night was finished, the audience insisted upon an encore. The Daredevil consented and played “East Coast.” “Now you’re going to graduate school…” the ensemble sang while a group of students in the corner cheered and waved their arms. By 12:30, the concert wrapped up and the members of both bands milled around The Mill, happy to talk with fans and admirers.

The post Show Review: Cuddle Magic and The Daredevil Christopher Wright @ The Mill appeared first on KRUI Radio.