[RH Feature] Marrow: The Second Time Around
Photo byNolis
Six months ago the dream was all but dead.
Kids These Days officially broke up on May 8, 2013. Two days later I was behind the wheel of my Chevy Trailblazer heading north to Wisconsin. The seven piece funk/soul/rock/hip-hop group that had captivated a generation of a city was no more, and they had retreated north to make sense of it all.
As I drove through the newly warm spring air with drummer Greg Landfair, his girlfriend and a friend, we listened to the eclectic sounds of Traphouse Rock and Hard Times. The group had spanned nearly four years together, essentially amounting to what would later be referred to as their “college days”. With college over, we pulled up to a hastily-erected sign on the side of a seldom-used street in what seemed like the middle of nowhere of Wisconsin to return to where it all began.
As we pulled up to the main house of the Postock farm, the ominous sounds of Macie Stewart’s voice could already be heard emanating from the large, old barn located just on the other side of the red brick structure.
For a group of young adults that achieved so much, the end of the band was almost jarringly abrupt. After a series of tense discussions and numerous arguments, Kids These Days rode out their tour through New York and called it quits. Horn players Nico Segal and J.P. Floyd left from there to join Frank Ocean on tour, Vic Mensa immediately embarked on a solo hip-hop career and the rest headed back to Chicago to figure everything out.
[Video] Marrow: "Two"
Photography by Nolis
For Liam Cunningham, Macie Stewart, and Lane Beckstrom, the past few months have felt like a strangely familiar walk around the block. Since leaving their previous project, Kids These Days, and picking up drummer Matt Carroll though, the three close knit friends have been slowly building steam after re-establishing themselves with a new band; Marrow. The four Chicago natives have spent the time since KTD broke up in June writing incessantly, playing gigs both big and small, and practicing in Cunningham's living room, cluttered with instruments, chords and pages of half-finished songs.
Never one to do things traditionally, Marrow wanted to make a statement with their debut video for the group. Turning to seasoned director and close friend, Austin Vesely, they shot a video that encapsulates the personality of the individuals and the group as a whole while seemingly subliminally explaining the underlying thoughts and feelings that come along with going through the kind of tumultuous year much of the band has endured in 2013. "I worked a lot with Liam to figure out what direction we wanted to go with it," said Vesely. "I had this idea for a train, and an abandoned farm, so we sort of put those pieces together and made it about a journey. We were talking a lot about Kubrick at the time--we even went to see The Shining in theaters-- so that was a big influence on the project. We wanted things to start typical and achieve a surreal, dreamlike feeling by the end."
The visual also appropriately straddles a pair of songs from Marrow, (“She Chose You” & "Mother of Maladies,”) set to the journey of Liam finding his way on a train before arriving in the countryside. It's an artistically interesting piece of work that is a testament to the kind of stuff Vesely is capable of making, and Beckstrom's job as a bell boy may have Hollywood calling soon. Anyway, take some time out of your day to sit and watch this fitting masterpiece for Marrow to re-enter the music video game. Also, be sure to catch Marrow next week in Chicago on 12/19 at Schuba's for their album release show for their debut project, Two.
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[Video] theWHOevers Live at Schuba's
theWHOevers graced the Schuba's stage August 24 as part of Closed Session's show with Evidence and George Sol of Sol Films was on hand to catch all the action. The place was rocking and theWHOevers held it down. Watch the video below and keep an eye out for their second album, Ridin' Waves, due out in October.
http://youtu.be/gwwINbujTLU