Album of the Week
Alright so I’m sort of back on a regular schedule. It’s nice. As I’m sitting down to write this, I’m at the end of a fifteen-hour day. Which, unless it’s full of hookers and chocolate (which it wasn’t) is never fun. The upside is now I can pay for food, and eating is sort of a hobby of mine. I don’t really have too much to say before today’s review, so I’ll share a nifty anecdote. I fucking LOVE my friends. Two Fridays ago I had the extreme pleasure of attending a performance of none other than Coheed and Cambria. The venue was close to my house, but still about an hour and a half away. Down I drove, my car loaded up with friends. In the parking lot I take my jacket off and put it in my back seat… with my keys in the pocket. And my doors were locked. All of them. Yeah. My reaction was to scream “fuck” as loud as I could, much to the delight of the gathering crowd of concert attendees. Simple fix, let’s call AAA. WRAONG. They refused to help because I wasn’t on the AAA account, even though I was registered to the car and there would be a processing time of about three hours to add me to the account etc etc. Fuck that. My dad, bless his heart, was going to drive my spare key down to me. But no, my friend Bryan (who oddly enough is mentioned a lot on here), the fucking CHAMP that he is drove all the way down with the spare, got MY keys from my car, and brought them to me at the door to the venue. Thanks Bryan, you saved me a 19 hour walk. On to the music!
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Self Titled by Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground
I listen to a lot of music. I really do. I listen to music 90% of my time. Figure there are twenty-four hours in a day (I usually like to put something on when I go to sleep), well, that’s a lot of time spent listening to music. I can’t listen to the same thing over and over again, so I need a pretty wide variety of genres to get me through the day. Metal, hardcore, swing, jazz, blues, pop, indie, and every combination possible find their way into my daily life. So, it’s not that often that I encounter a band so unbelievably genre-defining that not only do I listen to them nonstop for a whole day, but that I am genuinely impressed. Today’s band, Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, are genuinely impressive. Kay Kay was formed by Kirk Huffman and Kyle O’Quinn, both who are of Gatsby’s American Dream fame. For those of you unfamiliar with GAD, don’t worry. Even though that makes you less cool than the rest of us, you can still enjoy Kay Kay. They draw from what may quite possibly be the most eclectic pool of influences I’ve ever encountered. Honestly, listening to this band is a treat. Think early days The Beatles, but with a more contemporary spin (benefitting from a higher production quality, thank you technology) and just a tad more polished. I’m not exactly sure what I mean by polished, but its true. Trust me. A lot of the songs have a really nice groove to them, which I’m inclined to attest to the assortment of instruments. Trumpets, trombones, tuba, violin, cello, what I think is a sitar, and a flugelhorn. That’s right, a fucking flugelhorn.
What should one listening to Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground expect? Nothing. Any expectations you have will be immediately blown out of the water. I’m putting myself on the line here by recommending this band so strongly, but I stand behind what I’m saying. There’s so much going on in each song; they’re dynamic and engaging and every member brings so much to the table. Though there are only 3 core members, they brought on a lot of guest musicians, helping the band to diversify their sound. That’s how you get one song that could easily be off of Chutes Too Narrow (The Shins’ second release) and a song with a horn section straight from the sixties (with vocals to match, no joke). If you’re into new things, different things, unequivocally awesome things, and salads, this band is for you. Folks I’m serious when I say Kay Kay is really doing something creative and original, which is refreshing these days. The sad thing is, I don’t know how much radio play a band like this will get. Unless you listen to badass radio, in which case please email me the station (though I doubt Delaware gets it). What we have here is innovative music that deserves to be rewarded. I’ve tried my best, but honestly what I’m saying here can’t really do the album justice. The song I’ve picked for today is my personal favorite, and I believe it was the single from the album. It serves as a good introduction to the world of Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, but doesn’t quite represent the album as a whole. It’s a good summary, but every song still has the ability to surprise you. Fucking stellar band.
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Few last notes about Kay Kay, they’ve announced that they’ve been in the studio recording their second full length, Introducing Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, which should be out sometime in 2009, so keep your eyes and ears open for anything more from this band. Also, I built my updating schedule to match my classes last semester, when Tuesdays were the best day to update. However, that’s really no longer viable. I’m going to switch to updating Wednesdays, which will usually mean Tuesday nights around this time, give or take a few hours. Keep breathing my lovely readers, and see you next Wednesday.
A Sample of KKAHWU:
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