Wild Belle, Saint Rich and Hey V Kay @ Neurolux (9/19/13)

Some of my co-workers at the Record Exchange turned me on to Wild Belle (for a while, it made the regular rotation of CD's played over the store's stereo).  I liked what I heard enough to put this show on the calendar.  The chance to see Hey V Kay again was a nice little bonus (well, not so little, actually--I've put Gut Wrenching on the stereo a few times, and the listens re-convinced me of its excellence).

I counted about thirty-five people when I got to Neurolux.  When Wild Belle played, I counted about eighty.  And actually, the crowd might have been closer to ninety or ninety-five.  A very respectable turnout.

Hey V Kay opened the show.  A few songs into the set, a friend who'd never seen Karen Havey before asked me why she isn't huge in the music scene right now.  I didn't have a good answer.  "Middle-Class Sweetheart" and "Call It" (the song she debuted at the Crux show last June) sounded as tuneful and hook-laden as I remembered, and Havey's gorgeous vocals did well both by them and by her older songs.  Not only did my friend get to hear Havey's "Wicked Game" cover, she got to hear her "Toxic" cover too.  I guess I know what to get my friend for Christmas now...

Saint Rich, a five-man band from New Jersey, played next.  I came up with two different ways of describing this group's mix of ringing guitars, slinky rhythms and nasally, deadpan vocals.  The first is a sweeter, friendlier Strokes.  The second is a less interesting Soft White Sixties.  Which one you prefer will probably depend on your affection for 60's hard rock (and possibly for Delicate Steve, two of whose members are in this group).

Wild Belle closed out the show.  Whenever one of my co-workers plays something... not quite to my taste, shall we say, I just try to remember the good stuff that they've introduced me to.  Like this, for instance.  This Chicago group's blend of skanking reggae grooves and sunny, soothing pop fit together like rum and Coke.  Natalie Bergman's honeyed, lightly smoked vocals topped it all off.  The dance floor was packed and bubbling for the entire set.

You can find info on these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Neurolux and the Record Exchange.

The Very Most, PETS, the Dirty Moogs and Hey V Kay @ the Crux (6/14/13)

I've always liked the Very Most, but I hadn't written about them in over a year.  This show attracted my interest for that reason and also because it celebrated the release of their new EP Just a Pup.  The presence on the bill of the Dirty Moogs, whom I also hadn't written about in a good while, and Hey V Kay, one of my favorite local acts, didn't hurt either.

I counted eleven people when I got to the Crux.  The audience would peak at about forty-five, by my estimate.  The Very Most didn't play until around 11:40, but over thirty people stuck around to watch them.  Pretty good.

Hey V Kay opened the show.  Karen Havey told the crowd up front that she'd come down with a cold and apologized if she sounded nasally.  Given her low, breathy singing style, however, I couldn't hear much of a difference.  Indeed, her voice, her melancholy tunes, her dance-worthy beats and Owen Havey's elegant guitar lines all sounded as irresistible as ever.  "Middle-Class Sweetheart" was as impressive here as it was at Treefort, and a frantic, intricately crafted new number matched both it and the older material.  The cherry on top was a swooning, disco-ish take on Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game."  I've said it before and I'll say it again: Hey V Kay needs to do a covers album.

The Dirty Moogs played next.  In keeping with the Very Most's sunny pop sound, the Moogs opted to twee things up here: tinkling keyboards, purposely dinky beats, even an acoustic guitar.  That the songs held up under the cutesification was a testament to their charm and craftsmanship.  Having Gia Trotter sing harmony on "Julie's an Android" was an especially nice touch.

After a DJ set by Discoma a.k.a. Jake Hite, PETS played.  I can't think of any other group that could call to mind both Beat Happening and the Ohio Players.  Melodic, buoyant basslines and smooth, steady drums anchored ringing guitar and high, murmured vocals.  I couldn't make out all of the lyrics, but what I heard didn't threaten to turn my stomach (not even the song about drinking apple juice).  Twee but funky: a very interesting combination.

Jeremy Jensen dropped a bomb near the end of the Very Most's set: he announced that this might be the band's last live performance ever.  That'd be too bad, but happily, he mentioned afterwards that they still planned to record.  Besides, they picked a good show to go out on.  The groove between Jake Hite's lean, swinging drums, Brion Rushton's driving basslines and the Jensen brothers' elegant, jangling guitars felt as lived-in and comfortable as your favorite sweater.  In addition to her usual gorgeous harmonies, Gia Trotter took the lead on "It's Not Unusual" and brought a nice bit of sultriness to it.  Last but not least, the melodies sounded as sweet and fresh as I remembered.  Congratulations indeed.

You can find info on these acts on Facebook and elsewhere online.  If you like what you've read and would like to help keep it going, click the yellow "Give" button and donate whatever you can.  Even $5 would help.

Email Interview: Hey V Kay

It's the voice that stays with you.  Weary and vulnerable but still bearing a calm self-possession, Karen Havey's low, breathy moan is possibly the sharpest hook in her well-stocked arsenal.  It sounds heavy with the weight of desires, memories, secrets.

Sucker for the darkly romantic that I am, I've been smitten with Hey V Kay's music from the first time I heard it. I was curious to learn more about the person behind it, so I asked Ms. Havey if she'd like to do an interview.  Happily, she agreed.

The responses that she sent to my list of questions surprised me a little.  As it turns out, she wasn't keen on singing in front of people originally.  Not only that, this admitted introvert and self-proclaimed maker of "sad bastard music" revealed a downright ebullient personality: funny, ardent, down-to-earth.  (Actually, this last part didn't surprise me much.  Nor will it surprise anyone who heard that Goat Song cover.)

Anyway, here's the interview:

Tell me about your history (where you grew up, went to school, etc.).

Well, I grew up here in Boise and went to school at Amity Elementary, West Junior High, Borah High School, Boise State University and then the College of Western Idaho.  So far, there hasn't been a long period in my life where I haven't been in school of one sort or another.  I absolutely love learning, and I've managed to work at various places and live cheaply to support my addiction to learning.

After high school, I studied French and art and BSU, then finally saved up enough to send myself abroad to France for a semester, where I ended up living for a year and a half.  I came back to graduate with a degree in French, though really, it was just because I had so many credits in French from my study abroad experience that I thought it would be nice to have a degree.  Plus, it looked good on my resume when I applied to be an English assistant in a French high school.  I was accepted in that program and went back (again!) to France to teach English for a year, which taught me an incredible amount about myself... but mostly that I'm not meant to be a high school teacher (I realize now I should have studied up on my babysitting lessons before diving into that).

So back in Boise, I signed up for Auto Tech classes at CWI after buying a motorcycle during the summer and deciding I wanted to learn more about how it worked.  Now I'm working in a shop, nearly finished with my degree, then we'll see what comes after that.

What kind of stuff were you into when you were younger (music, books, hobbies)?

I was pretty shy when I was young and a huge tomboy, so my attire of choice was oversized men's "No Fear" t-shirts and JNCO jeans.  I grew up with most of the boy bands and girl bands of the 90's and plastered my room with posters of Hanson, but my first real love was Garbage.  I'd listen to the albums Garbage and Version 2.0 on repeat for weeks at a time.

As for hobbies, I'd always been involved in creating one thing or another, and as a kid, I started sewing clothes and hats, really haute couture stuff way ahead of its time... cow print pants and Dr. Seuss hats in orange and white (I'm pretty sure I wore the two together rather frequently).  I also sewed all my own book covers for my school textbooks, which included handles to bypass the "no backpack" rule enforced during junior high (a nerd achievement I was quite proud of, strutting though the hallways and flaunting them for all the suckers carrying their books without handles to see!!).

I started playing percussion in the school band to avoid joining choir, as singing in front of people was one of the worst things I could possibly imagine, and frankly, the drums were just kind of cool.

How did you start making electronic music?

After about five years of drum lessons, I eventually sold my drum set to buy a guitar and started taking lessons, but rewind!  Even before I even bought a guitar, my brother bought a keyboard.  But this was no ordinary keyboard!  It had a "RECORD" button on it with multiple tracks, which was AMAZING!...  (Minus the fun feature of wiping the memory every time it was unplugged without a proper power down)  It was my first introduction into recording music and being able to layer tracks together to create a full song without the need for a band.  The fact that I could do it all by myself was perfect.  I didn't have to embarrass myself by letting anyone hear my musical ideas until they were a complete song--really the perfect tool for an introvert.

Owen's friend then gave him a copy of an old Cakewalk recording program and it really exploded from there.  I recorded songs for school projects, making both an American Government and an Algebra song, but started making more serious songs just for fun.  The electronic music hasn't always been as pronounced as it is now, but it was just kind of a natural progression and not something I thought consciously about (though some of my first recordings sound more like a terrible version of Enya than anything else... I'm pretty sure "Only Time" was a big hit at the time).

How did you start making music with your brother Owen?

Owen has always made music on his own, mostly instrumental songs, and he is an amazing guitar player, but we rarely make music together.  The song "Hammerstrike" was the exception, and I really love that song, but we usually just kind of do our own thing.  He works with his friends in the Dedicated Servers to make a lot of their beats.  As for playing together live, he's been really nice to help me out playing gigs around town, as it's much harder to get up on that stage alone.  And I think it brings something special having him there, but I don't think it's something he's interested in doing on a long-term basis.  He has hopes and dreams of his own.  I'm just secretly hoping he'll change his mind and be my band-mate forever... or maybe I'll try drugging him.

Tell me a little about your creative process.  How do you start to work on a song?

Most of my songs begin with a beat or a synth/instrument line and me working alone in my room on my computer.  I build up as many layers of instruments and melodies on top of that original line as I possibly can until my computer explodes, then I'll listen to what I have so far, looping it and humming along until I find a vocal track that works.  I keep a little booklet with me at all times to jot down ideas, themes, little sayings or misheard phrases to reference when I'm trying to create the lyrics.  I'll often have a general idea, but lyrics are usually the last and hardest part for me to finish.  I've never been great with words, and I used to scrap an entire song just because of the lyrics not panning out.  I've relaxed a bit with that now, but I'm not sure you'll hear a Hey V Kay song with a reference to "raising hands in the air" or "getting out on the dance floor" any time soon.

I'm intrigued by the stories of your songs, especially "Can Be Wrong," "Catherine" and "Find Another Girl."  How did you get the ideas for them?

"Can Be Wrong" is a bit of an anthem song for me.  I'm sure a lot of us have had a time in our lives where we just feel like we're being told how to live, and it can be incredibly frustrating, especially when these people are in positions of power.  The holier-than-thou attitude can drive a person crazy, and this song was my reaction to this sort of feeling (I was probably listening to NPR or something on that day).  It's about that feeling of nothing, nothingness, living a life not being who you really are inside, and that it doesn't have to be ok, it can be wrong.  Be who you are.  You're beautiful, and don't let any crowd tell you otherwise.

"Catherine," on the other hand, is a song about getting caught up in a madness, named after the lead character in the 1960's French film Jules et Jim by Truffaut.  It's a beautiful story about a very dynamic woman and two men caught in a love triangle and the red hot spark of passion that can't be sustained.  The song is a mix of that story and my own.  A lot of this album [Gut Wrenching] was written after a rather harsh romantic fall of mine.  This song follows that feeling: to love someone so madly that all reason and logic are thrown away, then the loss and pain of trying (or having) to give that up.  Being burned up by the fire of another person and, in Catherine's case, squelching her own fire in the river.

"Find Another Girl" is one of the first couple of songs I finished for this album, and it's that age-old story of  watching someone love someone else who you think would be much better off loving you.  This girl who's obviously in love with someone who is using her, cheating on her, but still just wants to be loved by this person, forgiving him and lying to herself that it's ok.  I've seen this happen more than once, and I've been that person who drives themselves crazy thinking that they could swoop in and turn that person's life around, give them happiness, take them away from everything.  Generally things don't go so very well in such situations.

I noticed that you've played a couple of gay and lesbian benefits.  Is gay rights a cause that you're particularly passionate about?

Oh yes, absolutely!  Why anybody spends their time trying to define and restrict love is beyond me.  I wish they would realize how much pain and suffering they are causing.  There have been so many steps forward in this fight recently, though, that I know change will come.  And that's really exciting: to watch and to be a part of the generation that's pushing that forward.  Plus... I just can't pass up a show where I get to share the stage with drag queens.  Eleganza!

Out of what you've done with your music so far (both recorded and live), what are you proudest of?

I'd say playing the cover of Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble," the goat version, was my proudest moment.  Ha, no, but I think the most concrete thing I can think of where I thought, "Hey, that's pretty neat," is getting my finished album in the mail and then seeing them on the shelves at the Record Exchange.  I'm all about tangible accomplishments, something you can hold in your hand and remember all the hard work that went into it.  So for me, that was a really neat moment.

What kind of music are you listening to right now (inspiration, solace, guilty pleasures, etc.)?

I have a couple artists that I listen to on rotation between trying out new music.  I have a love/hate thing going on with Lana Del Rey right now.  Blonde Redhead, Stars, Metric, Bat for Lashes, the Cardigans, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ladytron and a few others are the ones I find myself listening to most, but I'm not a terribly music-savvy person.  I love getting really musically plugged-in people to make mix tapes.  There used to be a few guys in my photography classes that would play their mixes in the darkroom and it was great!  I'm not ashamed to not be familiar with the newest, hip bands, and I don't see the need to be snobby with music.  Music is there for enjoyment, and people should listen to whatever makes them happy!  As for guilty pleasures, I don't think that exists for me.  I'll listen to just about anything without shame!  I'll sing along to the super pop hits all day long if you don't stop me.  Shine bright like a diamond!

What are your plans for the future?  Do you plan to make another album?  Have you thought about touring?

Well, I'm really looking forward to playing in the Treefort Music Festival right now, so I've got that in my sights, but really, I just plan on continuing to make music.  It's one of my most enjoyable--and, at the same time, challenging--hobbies.  I have a few songs for the next album that I'm pretty excited about.  I'd also really like to keep improving and streamlining my live performance.  This is all pretty new for me, so I'm still learning the ins and outs of live sound.  As for touring, it's not really something I've thought too hard about, but it would be really fun to do one day when I get some free time.  There's just not enough time in the day for all the things I want to do!  I'm not one of those people who get bored, it just doesn't happen.

Is there anything you'd like to say to the readers out there?

Oh, I guess I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who has been so kind and supportive, coming to our shows and helping with the promotion of the album.  I've met so many cool people through this process, and it's really exciting to watch the Boise music scene growing.  We have so many great artists in the Valley, and it's really neat to see what amazing things they're capable of.

You can find Hey V Kay on Facebook.  Her album Gut Wrenching is available now at the Record Exchange and on Bandcamp.

Edmond Dantes and Hey V Kay @ the Crux (3/2/13)

The intro to this post is gonna be a little long, but bear with me.

I was awfully tempted to check out Go Listen Boise's show at the Crux last Saturday.  However, since I'd already written about Iconoplasty, Hey V Kay and Edmond Dantes a couple of times each, I figured that I'd go with a show across the street at Neurolux instead.  The headliner, Oklahoma band Broncho, had played there last year, but I'd missed them for some reason or another.  The opener, Seattle "Experimental R&B" group Night Beats, sounded promising too.

I arrived at close to 8 pm and found only fifteen or sixteen people there.  That struck me as a little strange.  Then I learned that Night Beats had canceled.  That struck me as a little disappointing.

I plopped down in a booth, drank a couple of beers and read some Yasunari Kawabata.  After two hours had passed, the crowd had built to over forty.  Broncho had arrived and done their soundcheck, but they still hadn't started playing.  That struck me as a little really friggin' lame.

Around 10:20, I decided that I'd had enough.  I paid my tab and walked over to the Crux.

It did my heart good to count over fifty people there.  So did seeing a good chunk of the crowd on their feet and close to the stage.

I got there in time to catch the last bit of Hey V Kay's set.  The beats and synthesizer hooks sounded as enticing as ever, and Karen Havey's low, solemn moan sounded in strong form.  The lights shining up on her and Owen Havey's faces added a suitably dramatic touch.  However, the set wasn't all gloom and ominousness: for a laugh, Havey tossed in a Goat Song cover.  The crowd cawed along most enthusiastically.

Edmond Dantes closed out the night at the Crux.  What a difference a drummer makes.  I already liked Andrew Stensaas's gliding, soulful croon and Ryan Peck's sinuous basslines plenty all by themselves, but Jason Ringelstetter's quick, intricate, hard-driving work behind the kit upped the funk at least twofold.  Also welcome was Joey Corsentino's calm, jazzy trumpet.  When even I wanna start dancing to something, you know it's good.

You can find info on these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Stephanie Coyle and Go Listen Boise.

Hey V Kay, Exit Prose and Oso Negro @ Neurolux (12/28/12)

This show interested me because it gave me the chance to check out two local hip-hop acts I hadn't really written about before, Oso Negro and Exit Prose.  As an added bonus, it gave me the chance to see local electronica act Hey V Kay again and to show a little support for the good folks at Go Listen Boise, who had set this deal up.

I got down to Neurolux at about a quarter past eight and counted a little over thirty people.  That number would more than double as the night wore on.  That's what you'd hope for with a Friday night show.  It was kinda refreshing to plenty of unfamiliar faces too (in my experience, you don't often see Tapout T-shirts at Neurolux).

Oso Negro performed first.  His smooth, catchy beats, his warm timbre, his quick, assured flow and his smart rhymes got the night off to a fine start.  A couple raps about living on a budget and what'll happen when all the bees die off were particularly impressive.  This set also featured a one-song team-up with Exit Prose and Dave Boutdy from Dedicated Servers.

Exit Prose performed two sets this night, one after Oso Negro and another after Hey V Kay.  This gave him ample time to show off his effectively spare beats, forceful flow, sharp lyrics and sung chorus hooks.  The audience really started to warm up during his first set: about a dozen people moved up to the dance floor to groove and wave their hands in the air.  He may have stumbled at a couple of points (decided to skip one track, had to start over a couple of times), but overall, Exit Prose did more than enough to prove that he's been keeping it real since his Kamphire Collective days.

Hey V Kay's somber electronic tunes sounded just as sexy as they did when she opened for Friends back in October.  Karen Havey's booming, intricate beats, elegant synth and guitar lines (performed both by her and her brother Owen) and low, sultry murmur elicited plenty of dancing and loud applause from the crowd.  This set featured an astute recasting of Beyonce's "Sweet Dreams," but that song sounded outclassed next to Havey's originals.  Beguiling stuff.

(Sidenote--Somebody out there oughtta set up a bill with Hey V Kay and Edmond Dantes.  Mmm, that'd be something...)

You can find info on these acts and Go Listen Boise on Facebook and elsewhere online.

Friends, Hey V Kay and S.L.F.M. @ Neurolux (10/18/12)

This show caught my attention thanks to an email that I'd received a couple of weeks prior.  The email, which came from a PR agency that represented the Brooklyn-based group Friends, asked if I'd be interested in writing a preview for this show and reviewing it.  After listening to a few of Friends' songs, I most definitely was.  I emailed the agency's representative back and said that I'd be game if I could write an honest review.  To the representative's credit, he consented and put me on the guest list.

I posted a preview on my blog's Facebook page the morning of this show.  When I got down to Neurolux around 8:40 pm, I only counted about twenty people there.  I'm a regular Walter Winchell, I am.  Oh well.  Just goes to show that New York City isn't the only city of things unnoticed.

First up this night was S.L.F.M., a solo musician from Salt Lake City.  I missed the first little bit of her set, but since she averaged something like twenty songs every ten minutes, I didn't feel too bad.  Her manic strumming, cutesy vocals and jagged, goofy punk-tunes were abrasive in a charming way and charming in an abrasive way.  Her amplified ukulele sounded so loud and harsh that I actually put in my earplugs (that's a compliment).

Next up was local electronica group Hey V Kay.  If Snake Rattle Rattle Snake ever comes back to town, they've got their opener right here.  Elegant guitar lines, spare synthesizer hooks and steady dance-beats wrapped around Karen Havey's low, breathy vocals and tormented but tough-minded lyrics.  While her partner worked out some problems with their recorded tracks at one point, Havey played a solo-electric cover of "Toxic" that sounded closer to PJ Harvey than to Britney Spears.  Somber, sexy, astonishingly catchy stuff.  Definitely a group to watch out for.

Friends closed out the night's music.  Performances like this remind me why I started writing reviews of live shows in the first place.  Clad in thrift-store chic and mixing sugary synth-pop with muscular funk, this group ripped through one quirky, playful, irresistible song after the next.  Their cooed vocals, chicken-scratch guitar, dreamy synthesizer and driving, always-on-the-one bass and drums got almost everybody in the bar on their feet and dancing.  Their two singers and their bassist took turns hopping off the stage and mingling with the crowd, and there were plenty of time-outs for warm banter, jokes, slapping of butts, etc.  The small audience grew so ecstatic that lead singer Samantha Urbani asked, "Would you guys just follow us?"  This group would certainly deserve such a following.  Without a doubt, this was one of the best performances that I've seen all year.

You can find info on these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to BB Gun Press.