Join The Kite Flying Society
David Lizerbram sent me the above picture. It's of his bedroom. It's probably unnecessary to say that getting emailed a picture of some dude's bedroom doesn't happen that often, and I pretty much discourage the practice across the board. But this was a special case. David had noticed that Bruce Springsteen was included on the National High Five Day soundtrack CD, and expressed his happiness with that to me in an email. I wrote him back, telling a few Bruce Springsteen related stories of my own, (they involve The Rising, high volume, and the destruction of a friends property.) Then David sent me that picture.
There's a few key things that I like about it. One, it's pretty much the only thing on the wall. You can see a fair amount of wall on either side, and there's nary a "The Kiss" poster or a "Lifeguard May Be Used as a Flotation Device" in sight. So he's not a man to decorate his apartment, but he puts his sparing efforts to good use. Secondly is the speed with which he sent me the picture. It arrived in my email a mere 12 minutes after my Bruce Springsteen stories were sent. This means that he read my email, found his camera, snapped the pic, loaded it up, debated about whether to really send it to a stranger, and decided to go for it, all very quickly. Thirdly, I like the fact that David Lizerbram is the bassist for a sweet band from San Diego called the Kite Flying Society.
Kite Flying Society
Did you wonder where that was going? Well if you made it here, you'll be a better person for it. From the songs that I've heard, the Kite Flying Society makes music akin to those happy popsters in the Apples In Stereo. Lots of spacey background harmonies on the oohs and the aahs, some handclaps, and eclectic instrumentation that includes organ, guitar and a quite prominent glockenspiel. The songs are incredibly catchy, and stay soft without being wussy. Like, they have enough going on and are fun enough that you'd want to turn them up loud, but they would sound just as good through your headphones while you're walking around the zoo.
David was kind enough to send me two songs to let you all download. 6000 Shipwrecks has the best backgound harmonies and is the more uptempo of the two, plus it includes the rarely attempted background harmony solo, whereas Love & Seagulls is more of a slower, bouncier track with a melody very similar to Daydream Believer by the Monkees, but just enough to reel you in before switching it up on you.
I'm pretty sure the band is named after Max Fisher's sparsely attended club from Rushmore, and I think that the tone of the songs would be akin to the aural equivilent of Wes Anderson fare. Rushmore is my favorite movie and Anderson can do no wrong by me, so I think that this is one band that I'm going to recommend and keep an eye out, as they are currently recording their debut album. They are also playing a few shows at the Casbah, one on June 20th, and Ain't No Cure, a Cure covers benefit show on April 30th.
Check out their myspace page for two more streaming songs: http://www.myspace.com/KFSMusic
Comments
what about the lesser known emo band kite flying society? (old skool emo) I Don't know if they are still around, but man they were great.
Posted by: ewe | April 25, 2006 03:15 AM
Yeah what about that other kfs band? Man, nobody misses them. I am really glad these guys reclaimed that name from some guys who were about as cool as Florida's other major contribution to contemporary music, Limp BiZkit.
Posted by: yakov | April 28, 2006 06:50 PM