I've been meaning to write about this band for a while - and not quite sure what caused me to delay on reviewing their recent self-titled debut album, "Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground."The band Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground is actually the remnants of the band Gatsby's American Dream -Kirk Huffman & Kyle O'Quin who teamed up with cellist Phil Peterson. With this change, the band Kay Kay ditched the teenage angst of Gatsby and replaced it with more mature sunshine, carnival, psychedelic indie pop rock.
The album is an ever swirling mixture of random influences, but none are more prevalent than the Beatles Sergeant Pepper. Which is both the down fall and saving grace of the album. It is as if the members of Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground raided their parents old LP's and 45's from back in the 50's-60's and took all the best aspects of this era of music and injected them into their music. Because of this, the album doesn't break any new grounds or introduce any new radical sounds to their listeners.... however they are trending familiar ground and it proves to be nostalgic and one pretty damn good album. Even Phil Peterson (cellist/production) stated that with the album: "We are trying to do something that is tapping into what was great about music..." On the process of creating the record, when interviewed by the Stranger, Kirk Huffman mentioned that, "While we were doing something simple, and just kind of mimicking our favorite artists, and chopping up 12 different songs and making them --- well there is a kind of homage and tribute with this record, and we wear that on our sleeve; it is nostalgic, that when those familiar chords and chord progressions, and changes, and feels -- we were trying to mimic everything - Kyle the whole entire time was like we need to take the tambourine and pan it right - that is exactly what they did on 'Rubber Soul'." With this precision and attention to detail, it all shines through brilliantly on the recording.
Susan Frances of Absolute Punk previously reviewed Kay Kay's debut album and stated that: "The songs from Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground’s debut album have the dreamy seascapes of The Minor White, the gypsy punk sweeps of Nurses, the theatrical crests of The Dear Hunter, and the tuneful esoteric stylizing of Mika. Kay Kay’s album is made up of so many components, and yet, all of these fragments diametrically come together peacefully into a scenic Utopia. The gypsy-tinged symphonies of “Into the Realm of the Unknown” and “Simon Courage Flees the Coop” have exotic chimes lining the rhythmic beats and a theatrical-pop spirits which coats the melody with enchanting ringlets."
http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=422751
My favorite's off the album have to be 'Birds (On a Day Like Today)' - has some Ben Fold's aspects to it --- 'Hey Momma' - I included a live video of this song being performed below and 'Simon Courage Flees the Coop' with its baroque pop sensibilities.
Overall, the album is a beautiful homage to the music of an older generation, which none of the members of Kay Kay were alive to live through.... however were able to Frankenstein together a great album.
Looking forward to seeing them live at Bumbershoot this year in Seattle.
~Andrew D.B. Joslyn
