Welcome to the slightly-snoozing happenings page for RAW Kinder at
Home Office Records. This is the place to tune in for What's Up
Documentation and information on the Kinder, their recordings, and
all of what's moving and shaking in their slice of the world. The last year
of the 1900's has been a slow one for the band so far; there isn't much to
tell, so you can wander through the bones of the last seasons while you're
here...the new pictures on this page (updated August 1999) capture a few
moments from the magic and strange performance by RAW Kinder at New
York's Digital Club Fest on July 21st.
Got the CD Yet?: The first RAW Kinder solo recording, a 23.5-minute 5-song EP cannily christened "EP," arrived in a flood of boxes in midsummer 1998. Since then it has won fine words of praise from Jack Rabid's delightful music zine The Big Takeover and from a passel of other mags all over the country, including New York Scene zine Sound Views, Brian Broccoli's Potpourri & Roses, Rotcod Zzaj's Improvijazzation Nation, and more. This lush and moody mini-album was recorded in New York City and produced with intimate and meticulous care by miracle whipper Dan Snyder. If you've heard RAW Kinder before, you've never heard them like this. If you haven't heard them yet, hey: let's get with it!
This CD is a limited edition, for sale at CDBaby (a great online indie store -- and drop by for sound samples in RealAudio and MP3!), here at the Home Office Records online store and at RAW Kinder gigs. We also place the disc directly at selected music stores, like Kim's Mondo in the East Village (on St. Marks Place). Want to see this specialty collectible stocked in your area? Drop us an e-line so we can find out where you are and what's the hot music spot nearby. Vote early and often!
Speaking of voting, the band made its second appearance at the
Intel New York Music Festival last summer -- RAW Kinder was
lodged for the entire course of the Festival in the top ten list of favorite
IntelFest bands, ranging up as high as #3 and finishing at #7. That's out
of 350 bands in the Festival, so kudos to the Kinder Core for turning out
and voting.
This year was no different, except that the festival was called the Digital Club Fest and it was the band's third year on the roster. There was something truly ineffable and splendid about the Kinder's duo performance at Acme Underground, on a bill with fellow Home Office Records recording artists Pawnshop and The Cucumbers. The audience was treated to an elbows-deep atmosphere that filled the room with fascination and strong, pensive musical motion. Renée was the consummate musing mistress of the proceedings, perched cross-legged on the spare stage (OK, on a chair on the stage, you know what we mean); Charlie ranged with grand authority through the aural space, at times pricking the songs forward with supple insistence, at times knitting them together with complex rhythmic glue. Keep an eye on our HO Gigometer™ performance calendar for future concert dates as they come! We're looking forward to seeing you, again or for the first time.
How It Happened: Back in the fall of '97, the first rough recordings
for "EP" were laid down in The Shack, on a sandy Long Island spit over a
full moon weekend in the midst of a full moon high tide. It was an elemental
experience, marred somewhat when Paul the Sound Guy capsized our doughty
skiff The Lizard and fell into the Bay during an ill-conceived fishing
break. (You can't make this stuff up.) The music was magical, performed to
the crackle of the log fire and the howl of the generator. Out the
full-height windows churned a sweeping expanse of water, mist and chilly sky
(and curious ducks, too).
Those recordings didn't end up on the final CD, except in spirit: what we ended up using is full of atmosphere and dark rain, and it was teased out of the bleak winter in a warm, dry studio. It's a perfect RAW Kinder spot, poised on the fence between urbs and ocean. You'll hear real honest water sampled from the downtown streets on Track 5, "Damp"; and those are Dan Snyder's insistent, fast-walking boots. There's also an ambient F train getting ready to pull out of the station. Are you on it?
As always, for electronic reminders for RAW Kinder gigs and your e-hot e-line to all and sundry Kinder news and commentary, tap a couple of keys here to join the bona fide, accept no substitutes Kinder Core mailing list.
So this is where we're going; want to see where we've been? The last two editions of this News Page are available in the Archive Department. Watch those creaky stairs...
And if you're new here, you'll doubtless want to check out RAW Kinder's first appearance on CD as part of the redoubtable Burner compilation, about which much more can be said elsewhere. Four Kinder tracks join four early and vigorous Pawnshop demos, as well as fab music by HO friends bluecowboys, Mark Stewart and Rob Schwimmer, at a pretty price and in a pretty package.