The Flock: Indie Rock – Luke Krutzke and the High Tides, d.c.R. Pollock, Culture Thief, CARDS, Flip Rushmore, Glorietta

*Check out these artists and every other artist we’ve featured on the blog this month on our Spotify playlist for this month.*

The Flock is an idea that we had to help fans of a specific genre find multiple bands they love in one post. It helps us provide value to you, the reader, by putting more of what you want in one place. It also helps the artists. Fans of their music come to the page and become fans of other similar artists, growing their fanbase more efficiently. It also helps artists connect with other artists who have a similar feel, so they can help each other out, work together, play shows, etc. Our goal here is to help promote artists that we believe in and want to see succeed. The Flock is a great way to help with that, and we’ve seen some really cool things happen because of it. Let’s get into this edition of The Flock.

*click on the artist’s name to go to their page*

 

Luke Krutzke and the High Tides – Self Esteem

Luke Krutzke has a voice that made my arms feel weak and want to tap to the music both at the same time. The weakness was from these bizarre goosebumps that felt like they were under my skin. I don’t know what it means or anything like that because this is the first time I’ve had them. I just thought it was an interesting fact. Maybe it was his voice coupled with the fact that I had just read what the song was about, and it’s something I’ve been struggling with lately.

The song is a reflection on self preservation and care, in a fast paced world that doesn’t always accommodate.

I feel as though I stretch and stretch, expecting the labor to garner fruit at some point. It doesn’t seem to be, so my solution is to stretch a little more. In fact, I feel like my body is starting to give up and I can feel myself getting sick: sore throat, pounding headache, tender skin. This song is to warn people and remind them to take care of themselves before getting to this point because something will breakdown at some point if you don’t. I talked about this yesterday. We need to take care of ourselves because if you’re anything like me, we are the only ones who can force ourselves to stop.

With piercing vocals, smooth guitar riffs, and orchestral strings and brass sections that surprised the hell out of me, Luke Krutzke and the High Tides’ song, Self Esteem, is one that will stay on repeat for quite a while.

Don’t talk, don’t speak, it’s okay. 
It’s your problem anyway. 
I’m not trying not to breathe. 
Side effects of self esteem. 

 

d.c.R Pollock – Cold Bath

I am absolutely losing it over this song. I keep hyperbolic statements at bay when we do these reviews because I want it to mean something when I say, “I am absolutely losing it over this song.” Three words that describe this song: raw, thought-provoking, and demo. Wait. Demo? This is the kind of recording that has the perfect amount of polish meeting with the ideal amount of unbridled emotion. While reading through the lyrics to try to piece together what the song was about, I kept running into roadblocks here and there. I decided to let the song just create disjointed scenes for me instead of a whole story.

The scene in the diner, feeling the familiarity while in a distant place. Seeing home from hundreds of miles away through a picture of a girl you used to know.

The scene of a man curled up in a motel tub, either catatonic or crying, I couldn’t decide, completely immovable as the water turns from hot, to warm, to cold. He never even felt the change in temperature, mind focused on other things.

A hard conversation between brothers where one isn’t able to make it to a court date, and the other knows he’s probably not getting out of trouble this time. His crooked smile reassuring his brother that everything would be okay.

All of the scenes that I built in my head were these tangible scenes; they were something I could hold onto. I just couldn’t piece together the story. I reached out to d.c.R. Pollock to get the real story from the obviously personal song, and this is what he told me.

The song is a true story about me on tour. The first part is about us taking a break at truck stop and I recognized one of the models in a magazine. Then got me thinkin bout how I wasn’t exactly where I wanted to be. I was a hired gun playin for pop act with a real cheap budget. Was a hell of an experience, just not what I imagined it to be.

The second half is about how my brother was a arrested while I was on tour and just the phone call between me and him.

The song is very personal, but it’s also a relatable song for so many people. We may not have gone on tour and had a less than optimal experience, but most of us have accepted jobs and realized that it’s not what you really wanted to do. We may not have a brother who has been to jail before, but a lot of us have family that we care about, and they don’t take care of themselves like they should. This is the beauty of music. Even if we feel like our song is a personal story to us, people can always find something to connect with.

 

Culture Thief – Tidal Breath

Right out of the gate, that guitar hammers home letting you know that you are in for almost 6 minutes of sweeping guitar and heart thumping drums join in, building up before dropping out to make way for an ethereal falsetto. This is the kind of song that you need in your ears while you are cleaning. The song talks about feeling so lonely, but the music will make it feel like you’re surrounded by 500 of your closest friends. There is so much depth to this song that it seems impossible that it’s only 5 people.

 

CARDS – Periphery

No stranger to the blog, CARDS makes another appearance on the blog, and this time he has hit us with a song that has given my right leg an uncontrollable bounce. This is the song that you hear on an advertisement for a summer beer. This is the song that paints a very specific but diverse landscape. You can see this song being played at a barbecue, dogs barking, frisbee flying, and a dancing person flipping burgers on the grill. You can see this song in the video a professional kayaker posts online to show a sweet new line they found on their favorite river. You can even see this song being used in an advertisement for new metal detectors geared towards hipsters. The point that all these scenes share is that the suns out, the people are outside, and everyone is enjoying life. This song is the perfect summertime jam for literally any fun outdoor event.

Lofty vocals and an instrumental track that grooves with a perfectly off-beat guitar track and straightforward drums. The key to this song though is the whistles. I’m usually not a fan of them in music, but the problem I have with them is that most people aren’t as good at whistling as they think they are. This song is the exception. It’s already found it’s way onto my summertime playlist, and I expect it to stick around for quite a while. Another great song from CARDS, we can’t wait to see what happens with this guy’s future.

Flip Rushmore – Phife and Merle

This song is such an entertaining ride. The music video is wildly energetic, the instrumentals are a headstrong blood rush, and the vocals are abrasive and direct, just like the style of music needs. What I want to talk about is the lyrics though. This is such an interesting song lyrically. The whole song is about how once you become famous as an artist/entertainer/musician, the battle has usually only just begun. When your first album hits it big, everyone is just waiting for you to hit your sophomore slump. They’re looking for a reason to write you off as a passing meteor, and move on.

This can be really discouraging for artists, and make it difficult to create. Plus, they can lose the joy in the whole process. For example, say I have an album that I worked on for 5 years that went big. More than likely, I whittled hundreds of songs down to the ten to fifteen best for the album, spent months honing and crafting each song, and then made sure I found the best fit for me to produce the album. That song takes off, I sign with a label, and now they’re telling me I have to crank out another album by this time next year, all while going on two extensive tours. This is one of the many reasons artists hit that slump with their second album, and if that happens, it’s game over. For every artist that you hear about hitting their big break and remaining relevant, there are hundreds who were signed to a label and bumped off after their second album flopped.

Chase the dream, but never forget the roots.

Please don’t lose me now
I’m still delivering

 

Glorietta – Heatstroke

This is the beginning of something really interesting.  Glorietta is a collaboration between indie artists Matthew Logan Vasquez (Delta Spirit), Noah Gundersen, Kelsey Wilson (Wild Child), David Ramirez, Adrian Quesada (Brownout, Group Fantasma, Spanish Gold, Black Pumas), Jason Robert Blum. With so much talent, you’re bound to get a phenomenal song, and Heatstroke is that song. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a collaboration project this much since Kevin and Andy announced Bad Books. The gang vocals throughout are so on point, and I guess that’s fairly easy to achieve when you have multiple lead singers singing all of the parts. That in and of itself is another beautiful part about this though. Usually with collaboration projects, the build is setup in a similar fashion: I sing, he sings, she sings – rinse and repeat. Having so many dominant voices on one project, you would expect that same setup, but the members of Glorietta share the soundscape stage brilliantly, letting every unique voice be heard throughout the song.

It also doesn’t hurt my assessment of the band that I am absolutely enamored with Kelsey. My wife and I went to the Orange Peel in Asheville to see Wild Child (for the second time, the first was in a small venue with Wild Child and Pearl and the Beard *RIP*), and her stage presence is second to none. This is probably going to be a really fun act to see live, and hopefully it means there’s a Delta Spirit, Noah Gundersen, and Wild Child tour in our future.

As always, go spend money on all of these artists. Click their names to find their website, contact info, etc. Buy their albums, their merch, and tickets to their shows. If you can’t buy something, let them know how much you love their sound. Let them know that anyways.

We have a podcast. Click here to listen to it. 

 

-Seth

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