Much of the same was the case when we at KRUI reached out to Cousins ahead of the urika’s bedroom performance at Gabe’s in Iowa City on February 25^th in partnership with SCOPE. He was deliberately aloof and answered questions in a short, vague manner. With this all we have for a mission statement from him is, “I was inspired by love, crime, and Modest Mouse.”

In the absence of information though, there can be ideas for an explanation. It could be a matter of wanting to keep a low profile in the digital age where seemingly any information about you can leak out into the world, even if a lot of that information has already seeped through. This is perhaps why when asked about other artistic projects he was working on outside of urika’s bedroom, he only said, “Personal things just for me.” 

It could also just be another aspect of the art itself. In his music videos for songs on his album Big Smile, Black Mire are several cryptic like images, clipped and spliced together so they’re flashing in even more obscurity. They all are derived from early 2000s inspired visuals with sharply colored backdrops filmed through older grainy digital cameras. The images are often of a suburban type of decay between fields of concrete and tall brown grasses. The same is true with the marketing, using images behind raster lines paired with washed out graphics. About the visuals, Cousins said, “I don’t know if pairs at all. I guess the graphics are washed out because I am. It’s like a Millennial brain rot thing.” 

These degraded digital images do combine with the music to bolster this meticulously crafted persona and presentation. On Big Smile, Black Mire the songs are gritty as the textures are battered in the recording. It’s an effect that Cousins strives for as he writes and records everything himself directly into cracked copies of Ableton. Dreary guitar tones are bit crushed and followed by whispering digital artifacts.  

They form anguished slowcore compositions dragged around by tumbling trip hop beats, a style that has been very popular in indie scenes recently. A track like “Circle Games” adds to this by having strings swell and fade at the song’s breaks. Cousins’ lyrical delivery is dejected and sounds like it’s hissing through tinny cheap speakers. Together it’s all very murky, and listening to it leaves an acidic taste in the mouth. The music of urika’s bedroom gives into notions of a cynical view of the world where anything comfortable or righteous seems to be deteriorating. It’s like it’s dealing with the ramifications of lost hope in sifting through the rot that has been left behind. 

For Tchad Cousins, this isn’t the first time that he’s playing at Gabe’s or coming through Iowa City. He was here about two years ago as the touring bassist for Youth Lagoon on the Heaven is a Junkyard tour. There he looked like he was thrilled to be performing. He said he didn’t remember much from the show, but he did remember exploring a collection of Neil Young pedals at the house he was staying at that night. He’ll stand on stage at Gabe’s again this Tuesday. Behind all the constructed mystery, maybe there something about urika’s bedroom will be revealed. The performance is free for anyone to see. 

The post Show Preview: urika’s bedroom at Gabe’s appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Founded in 2010, through a destined encounter sparked within the philosophy department in 2008, Tennis released their first full-length album, entitled Cape Dory in 2011, under Fat Possum records. Meanwhile, their most recent album Pollen, released earlier this year, showcases their evolved sound the most. It’s a vibrant profusion of unlimited nostalgia for surf-pop. As Moore sings about shorelines, sunsets, and clovers, the album is ever flourishing with an organically natural elegance that is incited by its flair for genial bass lines and reverb-tempered guitar riffs.

In such tracks like “One Night with the Valet” and “Gibraltar”, one can observe a jaunty, breezy tempo that leads one to believe that Tennis is a band for buoyancy, a listen for the sake of floating or flying. Mnemonic to adult-contemporary and light-rock from the ’50s through ’70s, Tennis takes after accents and timbres that pay homage to such beachy phenomena like yacht rock. This led to the discovery that most of these songs were written, inspired by the couple’s voyages and expeditions across the sea by sailboat.

Delectably charming and dear, other albums of Tennis such as that of 2020’s Swimmer, display illuminations of a skirmish between self-love and the love of another. Scrupulously encapsulating what are meditations and introspections on the waves of love, whether Tennis chooses to glide through it by billow or by ripple. Chillwave, with inklings of lo-fi cadence, Tennis employs their dexterity for tinges of hypnagogic pop as they practice the revitalization of an old scene. 

In this interview, we speak with Tennis’ Alaina Moore about what their music signifies for them, who their music is for, and how their music came to be.

Image via Ladygunn

As you claim, Tennis was birthed upon the halls of the University of Colorado’s Philosophy department, how did you as a duo come about that sonically?  Was the desire to pursue music immediately mutual, and what was the driving factor that led to a connection that encompasses your current kinship for sound?  

Patrick and I bonded over music early in our relationship. Patrick made me mixes and would drop them off at my work. It was a very bold move that clearly worked. But the sonic direction for Tennis came to us when we were sitting in a bar in the Florida Keys. The bartender was playing all ’60s girl group music and the song “Baby It’s You” by The Shirelles came on. I asked Patrick about the drum tones in the song, why they sounded so different from modern drums. He surprised me by knowing a lot about recording and explained how they were recorded with a ribbon mic to tape, et cetera. I said “I wish music was still engineered in the same way,” and he said, “Let’s do it ourselves.” That was really the beginning of Tennis, which is why our first two records are so Phil Spector-y. We eventually grew out of it but I almost think it’s a rite of passage for an artist to start off by emulating that Brill Building era. 

Your tonality is often associated with surf-pop and yacht rock as both lyrically and instrumentally, your music evokes the feeling of the beach atmospherically. How did your expeditions and voyages across the sea via sailboat influence how your music is conveyed and transmitted to listeners?  

Neither of us thought of making music until after we went sailing. I didn’t want to write about anything other than the sailing trip because at 22 years old, it was the most interesting thing I’d ever done. That certainly explains how we fell into that genre. I’m glad we got our start that way because it was very focused. It was our only concept album in that sense. It was about a time and place, and had a specific sound. There’s not even any bass guitar on our first album. We wrote and recorded it as a three piece. We don’t work that way any more and we’ve definitely moved away from that sound. I can’t speak to how our music is transmitted to listeners. I try not to have any expectations in that area.  

Image via Tennis

Skateboarding, I saw that this is an activity that the both of you particularly enjoy doing. Does gliding and drifting help inspire you when in the stage of conceptualizing music?  

Patrick is a skater and I started to get into it during the pandemic. He’s a good teacher. He taught me how to do a shuvit which I didn’t think was possible for me to learn at 38. Patrick had stopped skating for a while but his therapist encouraged him to get back into it, which is incredible advice. It forces you to clear your head. When you’re skating you can’t think about anything else or you’ll crash. It’s extremely meditative in that sense. We like to skate when we want to stop thinking about music.  

A lot of your visuals feature the outdoors. How does this kind of imagery influence the way people perceive your music?  

Music videos cost a bazillion dollars that we don’t have, so we’ve had to be really scrappy to make what we have. But we still put a lot of work into what visuals we think correspond with the essence of the song. Often I will have something in mind when we’re recording. Some songs are very obviously day time, and others are night time. Some songs sound like the outdoors and others sound like a created set. We do our best to honor that intuition.  

You went on tour this year for the Pollen album, do you have a specific memory of performing live that you occasionally like to look back on?

Yes. We headlined The Beacon Theatre in New York for the first time. It was just a monumental personal achievement. We were all really nervous and overwhelmed. During load in, the venue staff thought Patrick and I were roadies because we drive the vehicle that tows the gear. It made me really happy to show up to one of our biggest shows and be mistaken for a crew member.  

In the “Let’s Make a Mistake Tonight” music video, Alaina, you play an oversized piano. Do you like to integrate these absurdist abstractions to your identity as a band? 

That was Patrick’s idea. He literally got it from the movie Big. Whenever an idea makes us laugh we go with it.

Chillwave is another descriptor occasionally used to reference your music. Would you say your casual utilization of lo-fi implements a further lightness and nimbleness to the modulations that are pitched to your sound?  

We just really like lo-fi music. We haven’t made much of it lately but we’re partial to anything blown out, filtered, or varispeeded.  

When exposed to your music, one catches a sly tinge of hypnagogic pop, even psychedelic rock, through the medium of very subtle reverberations. Are these slight nuances of sound meant to be homages to these original movements of music?

Patrick and I draw from a wide variety of influences so it makes sense for these elements to seep through. For our song “Gibraltar” on Pollen, we channeled The Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Electric Prunes and I was reading Sylvia Plath’s poetry. That’s an odd pairing of influences but we felt like it worked.  

You write about love songs, those to the self and to others. Why would you say two sides of the coin are important? Would you say you’re bending the rules of love songs by doing this?

I don’t want to write a song that has already been written so I try to bring in a unique perspective. I never even want to write love songs, but I find myself doing it anyway. I just can’t quit it.

Image via 303 Magazine

Vocally, you elicit such accents and inflections that hark back to the Bee Gees and ABBA as somewhat in a more evolved form. Would you believe that this style of vocals is seemingly growing outdated?

Disco is really in right now. Also, the Bee Gees and ABBA are timeless! I never think about the cultural relevance of anything we do, we just try to please our own ears and try to avoid doing anything too trendy, which weirdly sometimes results in doing something trendy, but it’s impossible to control that. You just have to follow your own instincts.  

You have previously covered a series of songs in the past, one of them being one of my favorite songs of all time, Broadcast’s “Tears in the Typing Pool“. Your rendition had made the song so much more punchy and bubbly with its animated and chirpy feel. Would you say that your qualities as a duo translate into anything and everything that you do? Including covers of other songs? 

“Tears in The Typing Pool” is one of my favorite songs as well! I’m obsessed with Trish Keenan. RIP. We recorded that song in a parking garage with a handheld mic and four track tape recorder, so we really weren’t thinking about being bubbly or animated.

Listening to your discography, what I’ve concurred is that sound-wise, you simulate the feeling of buoyancy or, rather, floating and flying. What do you wish for your listeners to feel upon listening to your music?

I almost always write from my own point of view. Since I’m the one who has to sing those lyrics night after night onstage, I want the songs to connect with me, with my experiences, otherwise I can’t do it authentically. I like that you get a buoyant feeling from listening. 

Image via The Englert Theater

Next to Tennis, Sam Evian, who withholds the same affinity for dreamy, chiptune like tonalities, will also be performing. Evian’s music, as noticeable in his 2021 album entitled Time to Melt, hums to a tune evocative and redolent of a world seen through the tincture of rose-colored glasses, which consummately fits into Tennis’ spacey, cosmic temperament for sound. Tennis and Sam Evian will be making their Track Zero debuts on Thursday, October 19th, at 7:30 PM, at Englert Theatre.

The post Track Zero Interview: Tennis on Sound, the Sea, and Disco appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Originally a breakthrough from the burgeoning world of Soundcloud, Bollinger started off her career through uploading her music on the platform from the vernal age of sixteen. She grew up in a household where her mother was a music therapist, and her two brothers both played in bands. Around this juncture of time, she had already established her serene tendency for embodying the now euphoniously dulcet symphony evident in all of her songs. Springy, blithesome, and affectionately maudlin, Bollinger’s musicality withholds an aptitude for a laid-back, subdued sentimentality that extends itself lyrically and instrumentally. In another single “Running“ released in 2022, aspects of her musicality provide the feel for epiphanic reflections, as if accessed through the breach of her secret garden of a diary, and all met in the bridge that ties indie pop to folk rock. With the adjunct compliments of chimerical synth lines and delicate ringings of the saxophone, Bollinger blurs the line between what is intimate and grandiose.

Image via Kate Bollinger

On the 3rd, Bollinger will be accompanied in the roster by special acts, courtesy of Sam Burton and 24thankyou. Touring with Bollinger, Burton possesses the similar kinship to folk rock, at which his tracks reminisce upon longing and discovery. This is all illustrated within the backdrop of rural, country scenery within context of a road trip or a search for truth. 24thankyou brings a more vogue edge to the program in their music. With its occasional glitch and distortion for tonality, it expresses a nostalgia for circuit-bending break-core intonations that descend upon a path of forgotten memories. Close to remembrance, but not quite.  

Kate Bollinger, alongside Sam Burton and 24thankyou will make their Track Zero debuts on Tuesday, October 3rd at 7:30 PM, at Gabe’s. Other upcoming acts within the catalog of Track Zero include Tennis, Madison McFerrin, Sen Morimoto, and ZORA.

The post Track Zero Preview: Kate Bollinger To Set the Bridge That Meets Indie Pop and Folk Rock  appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The inaugural show to the series’ inaugural year will be performed by New York based multi-instrumentalist and composer Emily Wells. Wells, who released her album Regards to the End last year, will bring her hyper-layered style of chamber pop to The James Theater. Her one-person band performance fills the air with lush orchestral sounds of clarinet or violin flickering like shady leaves. This is accompanied by rolling, murky swells of electronic synth sounds and her shrill, reverberating voice. Her music gives the atmosphere of a dreary, cold, rainy afternoon where the reflections of streetlights streak across the pavement. Fitting for the oncoming fall months, or of beauty in industrial decay mentioned in her album.  

Image via Emily Wells

Lex Leto will open the performance, and therefore the entire series itself. The KL!NG (formally Penny Peach) collaborator and multi-instrumentalist creates minimalistic electronic music that feels on the cusp of being ambient. They have released a 7-track album Right Here, and a new single my bike / my wife in July and August respectively. Their solo project’s music is very fitting to Wells as an opener, as their music also plays as compositions arranged to eerie, enveloping moods. Leto takes a more intimate, DIY style approach to their music, recording and producing it themself. 

Emily Wells and Lex Leto open the inaugural Track Zero series this Wednesday, September 20^th at 7:30pm at The James Theater in Iowa City. Other artists coming to Iowa City for the series include Kassa Overall, Kate Bollinger, Tennis, Madison McFerrin, Sen Morimoto, and ZORA, who will all be performing in the upcoming weeks.  

The post Track Zero Preview: Emily Wells to Christen the New Concert Series by The Englert appeared first on KRUI Radio.

During that time Trevor Powers released music under his own name, with 2018’s “Mulberry Violence,” a more glitched-out, experimental rendition of the flooding power-pop he did as Youth Lagoon, and 2020’s “Capricorn,” an ambient, minimalistic electronic album much akin to Brian Eno, or Mort Garson’s work. These albums were made from his attempts to grapple with his own self-perception.  

Near the end of 2021, Powers was faced with a sudden medical emergency. A drastic bad reaction to an over-the-counter medicine had his stomach acid bubbling upwards. The vapors from that eruption lingered on. His throat was coated in acid leaving Powers unable to speak for extended periods of time. Powers described the experience as a “mini death” that resulted in him having this feeling of rebirth. Having his body destroyed, and then being forced to reassemble all those pieces, it allowed him to transform into a person he better recognized.  

Image via Lightning 100

That led to the creation of “Heaven is a Junkyard” and a return to Youth Lagoon. Powers’ tender damaged voice tells stories of characters with parallels to his experiences over the past few years. From that pain there comes a sense of comfort, from the growth of working through it all and striving to come out the other side. It feels free of anxiety. “Heaven is a Junkyard” has a loungey feel to it with creaking basslines, shallow pianos and light, serene instrumentation. The album has a clean production value to it and ripples, like drops of water into a puddle. This is in contrast to the lo-fi, gushing climaxes in previous Youth Lagoon releases. 

The Youth Lagoon show at Gabe’s in Iowa City marks the fourth show on his new tour for “Heaven is a Junkyard,” the first one in over five years. Since it has been so long, it’s kind of a mystery what the performance will be like. It won’t be the glammed-out, bathed in colorful LED light indie pop concert that was the archetype in the early 2010’s. Powers has grown out of that. Besides Gabe’s can’t really fit that. Yet, will Youth Lagoon pull out a song like “Cannons” or any other one from that era, or have they been permanently laid to rest? Likely the performance will reflect the growth and change that Youth Lagoon has found itself in. 

Youth Lagoon will be at Gabe’s in Iowa City on Tuesday, July 18^th as his fourth stop on his first tour in over five years. You can listen to “Heaven is a Junkyard” and the rest of his discography on Bandcamp and other streaming services.  

The post Show Preview: Gabe’s Hosts One of the First Youth Lagoon Performances in Over Five Years appeared first on KRUI Radio.

This five-person ensemble takes full advantage of their size. They successfully create the big-band sound achieved by iconic groups such as Fleetwood Mac and The Mamas & the Papas. Will Turner and Georgie Fuller lead the band on vocals, but the full power of the group’s four-part harmonies turn their tracks from a listening experience to a spiritual one.

Their first album was released last year with an extended version being added to Spotify just last month. “Life and Life Only (Expanded Edition)” introduces some live versions of their songs, capturing this outstanding group in their raw element. The new release also contains a few covers, including Father John Misty’s “Real Love Baby”, which boasts the band’s full sound and soulful capabilities.

The Heavy Heavy will be performing at 5:30pm Saturday evening at Big Grove Brewery. On the last night of Mission Creek, The Heavy Heavy is sure to send us home with warmer hearts and renewed hope for sunny weather. Check out their discography below and stop by for their set this weekend!

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Never heard of Sky Ferreira? Not sure what synth pop is? Have you ever wanted to know who styled Michael Jackson’s hair? Well you came to the right place.

In anticipation of Ferreira’s show this Sunday, I, your trusty student journalist, will break down all the information you will need to impress your friends at the show this weekend. Here’s some Sky Ferreira trivia you probably never knew and most likely never wanted to know.

Fact: Troy Carter, Ferreira’s manager, worked as a promoter for Notorious B.I.G. before he made it big time as chairman and CEO of Coalition Media Group.

Another fact: In 2010, Ferreira starred in an independent drama called Putty Hill, where her character Jenny must cope with the untimely death of a young man named Cory.

Aside from her brief acting career, Sky has had a pretty successful music career thus far. Karolina Ramos from The GW Hatchet compared her to indie pop artist Lorde for her ability to “tackle contemporary love, desire and insecurity with depth, composure and frankness.”

She has also been placed amongst the ranks of Lana Del Rey and MGMT in both style and prowess. Her synth pop roots, comprised of drum machines, heavy bass guitars, and of course synthesizers, create an alluring canvas for her rebellious, teenage romance lyrics.

Sky first became interested in music through her friendship with Michael Jackson at a young age, one of many artist her grandmother worked for as a personal hairstylist. Since then she has released three EPs and one full length album entitled Night Time, My Time.

In promotion of her album she recently toured as the opening act on the Bangerz tour. Her most recent accolade however is her performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last Friday, April 4th, where she performed her song “I Blame Myself,” accompanied by a plethora of lasers.

However, if you take anything away from this Sky Ferreira crash course it’s that few come close to her wit when it comes to captioning Instagram photos.

Sky Ferreira’s show has been rescheduled due to illness, she will perform at the IMU Ballroom this Thursday, May 8th. Doors open at 7pm. The show starts at 8. You can purchase tickets at The Hub in the IMU or on Ticketmaster.

The post Show Preview: All you need to know about Sky Ferreira (Show 5/8/14) appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Never heard of Sky Ferreira? Not sure what synth pop is? Have you ever wanted to know who styled Michael Jackson’s hair? Well you came to the right place.

In anticipation of Ferreira’s show this Sunday, I, your trusty student journalist, will break down all the information you will need to impress your friends at the show this weekend. Here’s some Sky Ferreira trivia you probably never knew and most likely never wanted to know.

Fact: Troy Carter, Ferreira’s manager, worked as a promoter for Notorious B.I.G. before he made it big time as chairman and CEO of Coalition Media Group.

Another fact: In 2010, Ferreira starred in an independent drama called Putty Hill, where her character Jenny must cope with the untimely death of a young man named Cory.

Aside from her brief acting career, Sky has had a pretty successful music career thus far. Karolina Ramos from The GW Hatchet compared her to indie pop artist Lorde for her ability to “tackle contemporary love, desire and insecurity with depth, composure and frankness.” She has also been placed amongst the ranks of Lana Del Rey and MGMT in both style and prowess. Her synth pop roots, comprised of drum machines, heavy bass guitars, and of course synthesizers, create an alluring canvas for her rebellious, teenage romance lyrics.

Sky first became interested in music through her friendship with Michael Jackson at a young age, one of many artist her grandmother worked for as a personal hairstylist. Since then she has released three EPs and one full length album entitled Night Time, My Time. In promotion of her album she recently toured as the opening act on Miley Cyrus’ Bangerz tour. Her most recent accolade however is her performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last Friday, April 4th, where she performed her song “I Blame Myself,” accompanied by a plethora of lasers.

However, if you take anything away from this Sky Ferreira crash course it’s that few come close to her wit when it comes to captioning Instagram photos.

Sky Ferreira performs at the IMU Ballroom this Sunday, April 13th. Doors open at 7pm. The show starts at 8. You can purchase tickets at The Hub in the IMU or on Ticketmaster.

The post Show Preview: All you need to know about Sky Ferreira appeared first on KRUI Radio.