For those who are weary of the traditional pop-music scene that has overwhelmingly dominated the Billboard music charts and has completely controlled our culture, there is an alternative. ..
Indie Rock has long been an elusive genre, encompassing several subcategories such as emo, screamo and DIY music. Indie-pop bands Rainer Maria and Mates of State have become two of the shining lights in the emo scene, and both perform tonight at Luther’s Blues.
The members of Rainer Maria, in returning to Madison, are returning to the same place their band originated in 1997. Lead singer Caithlin DeMarrais met Kyle Fischer (guitarist) in a University of Wisconsin poetry workshop, where the two had organized extra evening sessions of the class. They shortly found they were the only ones attending, and they wrote poems that would later become songs on the band’s first album.
DeMarrais and Fischer have been a couple for about as long as they have been a band. This gives their songs about relationships, such as, “The Awful Truth of Loving,” a bit more balance and depth than listeners usually get in a typical lovelorn indie-pop song.
DeMarrais and Fischer paired with drummer William Kuehn to form a trio with a lot of recording and practice ahead of them. Their band devised its name from that of deceased symbolist poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who believed lyrics are the key to success and respectability.
Rainer Maria creates “gentle, sophisticated pop music with strength and catchy-ness, but they never leave behind the soft, laid-back grooves that defines who they are,” according to the group’s website.
Emo may also be a way to describe the band, as it does have that soft, then rock-out feel, loaded with plenty of emotions. But regardless of how you label the band, the strength of the lead female vocals, the delicate melodies, and the extra help from the male vocals create a warm yet dramatic sound.
The band’s new album, Long Knives Drawn, just might give it the much-deserved boost it needs to bounce into the big time. However, the new album is very different from the group’s 2001 release, A Better Version of Me and 1999’s Look Now Look Again. Dueling vocals are almost completely absent, leaving DeMarrais with the center stage.
In a recent MUSE interview with Fischer, he responded to the new album by saying, “Caithlin’s performance on this album is really unparalleled. It’s clear that she doesn’t need supporting in terms of background. A Better Version of Me became less of a couple’s rock record, so it seemed that, thematically, it was less important to have that male voice piping in — especially a male voice with a lot of personality.”
Rainer Maria is working hard to follow the yellow brick road to stardom. Releasing three albums in the last six years, selling a combined 80,000 records and playing nearly 1,000 shows, Rainer Maria has outlasted many of its “emo/indie” peers.
Accompanying Rainer Maria on tour is Mates of State newlyweds Kori Gardner (keyboard/organ) and Jason Hammel (drums). The duo met while attending the University of Kansas in 1997, adhering to their motto that “success lay in being willing to play anytime, anywhere.”
Mates of State played six times in Lawrence, Kan., before packing everything and driving to California in 1998. They relocated to the San Franciso Bay area, where they met Claire Walsh, who shortly thereafter asked them if they wanted to go half-and-half on a split single with Fighter D in 1999.
Omnibus Records did a great job of distributing the single, “Leave Me at the Tree,” and it saw considerable radio airplay.
Mates of State songs tend toward the briefer side by avoiding long introductions and excessive musical interludes. Many tunes are enhanced by lengthy dramatic pauses and methodical time changes, both of which add to the music’s charm.
The two share vocal duties for the band pretty equally, relying heavily on their contrasting and harmonizing voices. Gardner is also responsible for playing keyboards, while Hammel takes care of the rhythm section, and that’s it: so simple yet so appealing.
Gardner and Hammel landed themselves a deal with Polyvinyl prior to recording Our Constant Concern (released this past summer), the Mates’ follow-up to their 2000 debut album My Solo Project. Tracks have been described as “[dipping] in and out of light and dark moments of being in a relationship — the comfort, the joy, the envy, the self-doubt.”
Mates of State began touring the country in January and will be traveling basically all over — to Wisconsin to Florida and even New York. But, after that, who knows?
WORT-FM welcomes Rainer Maria and Mates of State to Luther’s Blues, 1401 University Ave., at 9:30 p.m. tonight, Feb. 6. The show is for ages 18 and up, and tickets are available for $10 advance, $12 day-of-show, from Luther’s Blues ticket outlets. See www.luthersblues.com for details.
