the ugly hug

Crispy Crunchy Nothing

April 19th, 2023

PACKS

GENRE: rock/folk LABEL: Fire Talk

An apple with a rotten core can have beauty on the outside, giving off the falsehood of a pristine piece of fruit. This doesn’t mean that there can be no joy from this apple but a balance between the beauty and the crumbling core within. Canada’s own, PACKS, have returned to the scene with their sophomore album, Crispy Crunchy Nothing, setting boundaries between vulnerability and understanding while all having a good laugh about it in the end.

Returning from her soft solo acoustic project, WOAH, Madeline Link found herself in a confusing state of will-they-won’t-they until she reunited her band mates to return to the muddy and gritty groove that defined PACKS since their 2021 debut album, Take the Cake. In the meantime, what came about was 18 months of sending demos back and forth until the fourteen songs were fleshed out in one week of friendship and creative endurance. What emerged was Crispy Crunchy Nothing and a nod to the crummiest of situations while still grasping on to optimism, certainty and laughter from our day-to-day surroundings.

Elevated by drowsy melodies and the fuss of electric guitars, in a way, Crispy Crunchy Nothing is a return to the basics for PACKS, but it shows that the band is reaching for more. The new sonic sketches that the band indulges in help build a fitting home for Link’s sincerely humorous yet frank lyrics and mumbly double-tracked vocal approach. With no song surpassing the three-minute mark, Link’s offbeat imagination and select attention to detail, combined with loads of dry wit, produces songs that drown reality in plump bar chords and minor lo-fi garage rock-band instrumentations to create something from nothing. The stand-alone singles “Abalone” and “Brown Eyes” follow the band’s moody takeover of slacker-rock and the good-humored attitude that comes with it. Dexter Nash’s harsh yet calculated guitar riffs add a layer of boldness in the same fashion that Joey Santiago brings to the Pixies. Noah O’Neil’s bass hides within Link’s fat chords while also bringing new melodies to the songs. Shane Hooper’s punctual and tireless drumming acts as a steady hand while maintaining the sloppy sound of garage rock. The loose song structures only illuminate the hidden melodies that Link sneaks into the shortly lived songs. From the “lalalala’s” on “Dishwasher” to the soft choruses in “Cheese” and “Rag Doll” showcase a collection of warm lo-fi songs that represent the small and buried bliss that comes out when least expected.

Within these tender lo-fi songs, though, there is no hiding the loss and discomfort that is brewed on the surface of Crispy Crunchy Nothing. “EC” takes a song about the death of a coworker and masks it with a soft, twangy folk song that resides in the warmness of our hearts. With emotionally exhausted vocals, Link sings about a failed long-distance romance and the feeling of complete loneliness on “Say My Name”. The song barely scrapes over a minute long but still manages to come off as heart-breaking and sincere when you hear Link plead “Never thought I’d say I just wanna hear your voice say my name”. “Smallest One” plays into frustratingly taking apart nesting dolls in the hopes for a obtained sense of closure when holding the smallest one in your hand.

Slumping through songs about loneliness, frustration, loss and the tumultuous feelings of being stuck, the band’s moody disguise doesn’t completely mask the moments of confidence and ambition that Link has hidden throughout the album. Link’s knack for humor in lyrics that are derived from the mundane world around her make a PACKS song stick out when you hear one. “Fourth of July/fireworks and fountains/Shattered dreams and cotton candy”. As funny as a Canadian singing about a sacred American holiday, the song “4^th of July” tells of feelings of loneliness derived from holidays and festivities mixed with an already present internal sadness that feels oh too familiar. Even on the minute-long track “Late to the Festivities” shares the line, “cause’ like an apiary in a cemetery/I was fooled by the flowers”, which in and of itself induces a nervous laugh to the situation.

Crispy Crunchy Nothing is less about purposely seeking out joy from life, but letting the joy sneak out from where we least expect it. There is a mutual understanding between Link and her bandmates that these collections of songs are not an appropriation of bad feelings, but more of a celebration of the small things in life. Even through topics of loneliness, heartbreak, loss, wasting life and unfortunate fixations, there is a warm feeling that Link and company coat over each song. Whether that be the charmingly unpolished sound of the band or the allurement of sincere anecdotes, there is a sense of hope categorized finely by Link’s imagination of her banal existence that when she sings “Laughin’ till I cry/Sometimes it feels like life is on my side”, you can’t help but to feel it too.

Written by Shea Roney

PACKS bandcamp
Ike Reilly Assassination Sell Out Schubas Tavern for St. Patrick’s Day Matinee

March 20th, 2023

In the early afternoons of the St. Patrick’s day hangovers, a group of working class self profiteers, Irish delights, the poorly destitute and blatant rock n rollers crowded into a sold out Schubas Tavern in Chicago for a matinee to see one man; Ike Reilly. What Ike and the rest of his band, the Ike Reilly Assassnation (IRA) deliver is nothing short of back pocket magic that they seem to master with every performance.

The opener “My Wasted Friends” invites what being at an Ike Reilly show is; a brooding sense of comradery tapered with washed up friends, intoxicated singalongs, and the holy belief in the importance of sharing stories.

With little time in between songs besides for talent or instrument switch outs, Ike performed a setlist that collected songs from his entire catalog, but still holding tight to the latest LP titled, Because the Angels, with the songs “Ashes to Ashes” and the fabled “Racquel Blue”. Ike even played some long-time-fan pleasers, such as the deep cut “Falling Into Happiness” from the 1992 release of Community #9. And because it was the day after St. Patrick’s Day, Ike and the band couldn’t help but pay homage to “one of the greatest songwriters of all time who drinks a lot and has no teeth”, Shane MacGowan (as described in a story about his oldest son for which he is named after). Covering both “Rainy Night in Soho” and “Dirty Old Town” accompanied by the Irish tin whistle, Ike’s long time friend Frank Quinn joined the band for a handful of songs to ring in the Irish holiday tradition.

Since the faulty days of quarantine, Ike has been performing with his three boys, Shane, Kevin, and Mickey in what were live stream videos as a source of income; or just an attempt at family bonding. But since then, the boys have been touring with their dad and the IRA family, and now are a pleasurable staple to the shows. Shane performed an original song, “Who’s Been Hurting’” from his anticipated album. Implementing Dylan undertones, (but catchier), he showcases his own writing ability next to his established father. The Reilly family also pulled out the new crowd favorite, “Trick of the Light”, in which every boy gets to sing memorable lines of messed up families, greed, internal mutiny and the common backhand to those around you.

After seeing Ike and the IRA a dozen times, it’s striking how the band can make each show unique. Ike Reilly, as the front man, is no more fierce as he is endearing. Taking a hold of the stage with what is years of experience and a powerful message to be told, Ike will always give a nod and smile to familiar faces in the crowd and tell personal stories that ground him as a humble yet sometimes flawed human. The band behind him is just as important as Ike himself to the unforgettable IRA shows. Whether that be Phil Karnat’s ability to emulate overarching tones with atmospheric guitar playing, Dave Cottini’s taut style of drumming, Pete Cimbalo’s strict bass lines and iconic bass-face, or Adam Krier’s ability to blend any instrument into the song, Ike Reilly uses this high-class talent for his benefit. A benefit, that no matter the venue, the band has the ability to own it.

To capsize the show with IRA traditions, the show ended with “Put A Little Love In It”, where the stage was filled to its brim for this holistic sing along about death, weed, and a gravedigger. For as intense and heartbreaking the original story behind that song is, it means something different to everyone, and I think Ike understands that. “This is a song for the people that we have lost and the people that we miss”, Ike says before brandishing the song that closes so many IRA shows.

Ike Reilly is often referred to as a renegade, a poet, a storyteller and a rebel, but what I think deviates Ike Reilly from other singer songwriters today, and the novel past, is his humility. Throughout his career he has experienced critical acclaim and critical neglect, but has learned to become something more important to his fans; an escape from life’s shitty doings. He is a man who understands hardship, religious turmoil, soul-sucking suits, the towny drunk, and the lost familyman; but in the end that makes him no different than anyone else in that crowd who gathered into Schubas at 2pm on Saturday to listen to the most experienced folk singer that no one has heard of.

Written by Shea Roney

Ike Reilly Information: https://www.ikereilly.com/
A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing

February 23rd, 2023

Tenci

Zac Belcher, Rachel Lessing, Paul Santiago

GENRE: folk/alternative LABEL: Keeled Scales 2022

Blackberry Farm; a farm turned family center in Aurora, Illinois, was a place of early childhood development for me. In our matching overalls and denim baseball caps, there are an abundance of pictures of my little brother and I with our mom at this farm. We often indulged in the attractions of miniature pony rides, the anticlimactically slow carousel, and the steam engine train that was conducted by a likely alcoholic. But at that age, bubbles and chalk were all we cared about. In the back of the farm, next to the, now questionable, “settler” house and period-actor with the weaving loom, was an old well. It was too dark to see how far it went down and the top was barred off to prevent fidgety kids from finding out. But it was wide enough for us to wish on a penny and drop it in with every visit.

            On their sophomore album, A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing, Chicago’s own, Tenci, create a space of empathy and self-rejuvenation to find understanding in what it means to be human. Jess Shoman, the primary songwriter of Tenci, expands on their 2020 release My Heart is an Open Field, which focuses on themes of loss and loneliness. On A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing, Shoman returns to these themes, but with the perspective of mature growth and understanding.

            Tenci has always built instrumentations around the use of Shoman’s unique voice, which is often used as an instrument itself. On this album, Shoman uses influences of psychedelic folk artists such as Jessica Pratt and Michael Hurley to create a fit-for-a-movie landscape of sparse and airy folk tunes. But like Shoman’s voice, the band comes in and out with a method of accent points. The rest of Tenci consists of Izzy Reidy, Curtis Oren, and Joseph Farago, who all have respective musical projects of their own. The band’s use of instruments all play a part in the compositions and are strategically picked to tell the story. On songs such as “Be”, it begins with a simple and synchronized guitar riff. Just as Shoman growls the word “be”, the band erupts into a controlled burn of a screeching saxophone solo by Curtis Oren while maintaining the subtleness of the song underneath. This song early in the album showcases Shoman’s new complex approach to songwriting that goes beyond the illustrated emptiness that was My Heart Is An Open Field. This new conflicting orchestration is then showcased in “Sour Cherries”, where Shoman’s folky stylings are challenged by a subtle growing amplification of the band until chaos unfolds of squealing saxophone and swoops and howls of Shoman’s voice.

            As mentioned in the bio of A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing on Bandcamp, there are multiple meanings of the word “well” that could be considered in Shoman’s storytelling. The most obvious form of “well” is the old fashion way of getting water and making wishes. “Well” is also the most benign way of answering small talk questions about how you are doing. It is also the easiest way to kill further questions about how you are actually doing.

            A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing does the small talk for Shoman. This project has many instances that showcase Shoman’s personal growth since My Heart Is An Open Field. “Climb to the top of the magic tree, I’ll show you how I’m changing”, is how Shoman starts off on “Shapeshifter”, laying out what is to be the rest of the album. On the track “Vanishing Coin”, Shoman sings about the odd disappearances of friendships as they get older. With an accompanying music video of Shoman as a party magician, adult relationships can often vanish with no reason like a magic trick. In the almost fully acoustic “Great Big Elephant”, Shoman sings “we should just throw it down the well”. A simple and old-fashioned way to get rid of something. In this case it’s something that Shoman has been holding on to for too long and needs to accept that it is gone.

            As a kid, I can’t remember if I believed that tossing a coin down a well would make my wish come true. Although it’s probably a front for well owners to profit off the moldable minds of the youth, it is a nice sentiment. Even if the forces of the world don’t work directly with the coinage-to-well business, there is an idea that whatever you wish for on that coin is a small representation of who you are at that time. With Shoman’s notion of moving on and growing up from past experiences and relationships, there is a well overflowing of small representations ranging from their entire life. In the second to last song, and one of Tenci’s best, “Two Cups”, Shoman repeatedly sings “I won’t wait to fill my cup”. A realization that self-inflicted progression is the only way to accept the past and that filling your well with pieces of past experiences is never a bad thing. With a playful sing along chorus, it is almost a direct feeling of surrendering to your past and allowing that to shape who you are.

The legacy of family is a consistent point of topic throughout the album as well. With nursery-rhyme like songs of animals and clowns, Shoman brings up integral childhood emotions that still follow them to this day. In “Sharp Wheel ”, Shoman sings about being scared in their bedroom, but from fear that they deserve it, won’t seek the comfort of their parents. “Swallow Me Whole, Blue ” is a traumatic story about some neighborhood kids poisoning Shoman’s mom’s childhood dog. “I want to pet you from the inside ”, is Shoman’s way of wishing Blue was still here in order to protect their mother’s bad memories. The album’s closer, “Memories” utilizes audio from recovered home video of Shoman’s childhood, including conversations with their grandmother in Spanish and the screams of fear from encounters with bugs. “Memories” is pretty on-the-button, but it is still impossible not to feel a sense of nostalgia while closing out the album.

            Thinking back to my own memories of dropping coins in the well at Blackberry Farm can also be considered extremely on-the-button, but is there anything wrong with that? These memories bring me back to early childhood development of relationships with my family as well as with nature and wildlife. There are parts of me from that time that have remained, while there are parts that I have gotten rid of since. What Tenci does is create an album around a celebration of self-rejuvenation from your past. Especially after an album focused on grief, this new focus on A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing creates a relatable feeling of nostalgia, both through trauma and gratitude.

By Shea Roney

Tenci Information:

https://tenci.bandcamp.com/album/a-swollen-river-a-well-overflowing-2
Love the Stranger

February 15th, 2023

Friendship

GENRE: folk/country LABLE: MERGE Records

Oliver Wasow, Palo Alto, California, 1998

I live on the fourth floor of a brownstone in the middle of Madison, Wisconsin. This particular apartment, with its aged wood trim and random nail heads protruding from the floorboards, gets unbearably hot in the midst of the summer days. I have resorted to a system of carrying a box fan around with me room to room, powered with a humorously long extension cord. I would spend these days sitting on my soup stained, thrifted plaid couch and patiently wait for the day to end. Whatever problems I had in my life at that time were further provoked with the heat. The tools of successfully navigating a healthy lifestyle are weakened and I can’t help but watch the world around me as I sweat into it.

Philly based alt-country group, Friendship, released their album Love the Stranger in late July of 2022. I first listened to this album on a two-hour drive from a cabin where I shared an entire week with extended family. The week was spent reading Pearl S. Buck’s, The Good Earth, and the danger of always having a beer within arm’s length. Coming off this uneventful week, the car ride was endured by listening to Love the Stranger fully in two rotations and it just made sense.

Dan Wriggins and company began Friendship in 2015 with their debut album, Shock out of Season, from Chicago’s Orindal Records. The group was built around Wriggins and members from another Philly-based band, 2nd Grade. Their songwriting was consistent through two albums of subtle instrumentations and loosely constructed melodies. Since then, they have signed to Merge Records and now have the pressure to prove themselves as a potential indie powerhouse, alongside other Merge artists such as the Mountain Goats, Destroyer, and The New Pornographers. Instead of putting out something like the next Arcade Fire album, Dan stuck to what he knows best, sitting still.

There is a loose misconception that the most powerful and meaningful songs are thunderous music festival anthems that inspire thousands of people. But in retrospect, the majority of life is spent waiting in traffic, melting into your couch watching the History Channel, staring at articles about deconstructed churches on your phone, or doing the dishes. “Waiting on the fan with a slow rotation” from the song “Hank” was the first phrase that intrigued me on Love the Stranger. This line in and of itself sums up Dan’s writing as looking around and taking inspiration from everything and nothing at all. What Dan accomplishes in this single line is an illustration of someone who finds themselves caught in the in-betweens of life. Someone who is broiling in their home and counting the time for the rotating fan to come back to them with its blessings. This fixation on the mundane is relatable to anything, which makes Dan’s writing that much more endearing.

Love the Stranger is filled with frustration as well as a particular fixation on sitting still. Dan sings about the struggles of cleaning the grape-jelly remnants from a ramekin and being humored to a metaphor of the struggles of a relationship in turmoil. Jess Shoman from Chicago’s Tenci, makes an appearance on “What’s the Move”, singing about a faceless relationship. Even regional highway stops are given a nod of attention in the handful of minute long instrumentals spread throughout the album. “Kum & Go”, “QuickChek”, “Love’s”, and “UDF” are all regional convenience stores crossing the US, creating distance in the album and offering distinction to places that can blend together.

The Americana sound that the group emits has developed over time since their debut album. Approaching territory beyond the simple instrumentations, the group has embraced a larger sound that still holds true to rotating behind steel guitar drones and folk guitars. Dan’s voice, with its subtle grit, helps add frustration and emotion to the prosaic observations he’s singing about. Embracing the alt-country Americana sound is both charming as well as a callback to the classics where songs tell stories about the working man and the troubles of simple life.

I have had my fair share of dirty and laborious jobs growing up, enough to understand how disingenuous people can be. Learning how far the developing psyche of a teenager can be pushed. Being harassed by strangers because their table is too wobbly or their French dip isn’t warm enough for the complex palate can stain a world view. There comes a point when you get numb to the fact that people could care less about you, so you are given the opportunity to experience your surroundings undetected. You develop different meanings to the feelings you get from drinking alone as opposed to drinking with a friend. “I can tell you’re stuck. I can’t tell anyone else, cause you don’t threaten to help” is how Dan finishes “Mr. Chill”, a song about finding the right drinking buddy that won’t pity you for a bumpy existence. On the second to last track, Ugly Little Victory, Dan sings “it sucks when it ends and it sucks when it has no end”. An exhausting thought, but Friendship’s driving drums and dueling guitars approach make this the most inspiring (music festival anthem) line from Love the Stranger. “Only a nose hair away from inner peace today”, Dan sings on the album’s closer, “Smooth Pursuit”. An image of personal success of finding pleasure in your own place.

What Love the Stranger accomplishes is the ability to be okay with the idea of not seizing the day. Carpe diem, a cheap slogan branded into our personal motifs from movies and crappy kitchen signs, places a lot of pressure on an individual who is tired of their surroundings and the world around them. It’s not that Dan is singing about running away, altering his life or anything serious like that, but rather gives comfort in the thoughts that come to you when you take a moment to sit still.

On those hot summer days in my Madison apartment, I don’t panic anymore when I’m stuck on my couch with my box fan. I let it drown out the city noise and my shitty neighbors. Finding inspiration in an old couch, an unusable fireplace, or a rickety box fan can be just as inspiring as telling someone to be “Brave” or to “Shake It Off”. Love the Stranger offers new perspectives and a bit of hope in a place that I often find cruel and aging.

By: Shea Roney

Friendship information:

https://friendshipphl.bandcamp.com/album/love-the-stranger

https://www.mergerecords.com/artist/friendship
I Just Want to be Wild For You

February 7th, 2023

Tristan Paiige

MAITA

GENRE: rock/folk LABEL: Kill Rock Stars

Dear Portland, Oregon… you are no stranger to lyrically cutting and icon allotted artists at your disposal. But as of 2017, you have a new artist making a name for herself while keeping the dream of Portland music trapped within her big comforting hug. MAITA, with core member and songwriter Maria Maita-Keppeler, first released an EP in 2017 titled, Waterbearer. After that, she was quickly picked up by Portland profit makers, Kill Rock Stars. Her first full length album, Best Wishes, was one of my personal favorite albums from 2020. As an artist who started in indie folk roots, she was used to playing as a solo artist. But the more she wrote, MAITA morphed into a high dynamic and cathartic sounding group, adding Mathew Zeltzer, Cooper Trail, and Nevada Sowle. I Just Want To Be Wild For You, MAITA’s second full length release from Kill Rock Stars, continues on the path of personal storytelling of regretful disappointments and unmatched love in the eyes of someone who feels lonely.

The opening track “Loneliness” starts the album on a self-reflective and exhausted story of time spent in Kyoto, Japan. Having Japanese roots, Maria finished college with a degree in traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking. In 2013, she spent 6 weeks alone in Kyoto receiving private woodblock printmaking classes. In that time of solitude, Maria learned first hand what it means to be lonely in another country (only depicted up to this point by Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray). “Loneliness” perfectly describes the feeling of catching your reflection in a shop window and seeing how pissed you look at the fact that you feel lonely in such a beautiful city. As the closest thing that MAITA has released that could be considered dream pop, “Loneliness” starts the album with an atmospheric daydream sound that strays from the normal sound of the group.

“Pastel Concrete” showcases what makes MAITA’s songwriting so absorbing. With her long winded and melodic phrases leading to short, catchy choruses bathed in 90’s crunch guitar style chords, poignant and rhythmic drumming, and fingerpicking electric guitar, MAITA can sing a song about a broken heart caused by a distant romance and make you want to dance to it.

There are a lot more tracks that use thrashing guitars than the previous album; asking the question who does MAITA want to be wild for? Tracks like “You Sure Can Kill a Sunday Part I” have the flashing guitar work right out of the gate, with fuzz filled bar chords and dueling staccato guitar notes. Songs like “Road Song” and “Honey, Have I Lost It All” save the loudness for the end, almost in a strategic and manipulative way to keep listeners emotionally overwhelmed that they feel the sudden need to punch dance out all of their pent up feelings. So who is going wild at these points in time? Is it the band, the listener, or does it go deeper into the world of Maria?

Closing off the album, the song “Wild For You” is a look at the role of women in a marriage, especially in the modern day concept of a legally binding relationship. Maria takes reference from her life to try to piece together a tale of a loveless marriage. She sings “And when I am gone you stray/And when you are here you are nothing”. Going wild can mean a number of things. It can be a reactionary to what can be seen as oppressive, or it can be finding youthfulness again when there is nothing left. With dynamic swells of strings and the driving rhythm of the drums and Maria’s words, “Wild For You”, pushes us to think about who makes us feel like going wild, and, to that point, is it worth it?

When listening to Maria’s lyrics, it is hard to imagine how she can make this beautiful cluster of elongated phrases into a melody that is enjoyable to listen to. But Maria is well versed in making the words work for her. Her intimate lyrics are chalked up with specific and intricate details that can only come from her personalized artistic thought process. Coming from indie-folk roots, Maria is duty-bound by her need to tell a story. Whether these are stories of love in turmoil or the mundane feeling of killing a Sunday with someone other than your own thoughts, MAITA’s charm of narrating is key to their draw. Stories are only as good as the one acting as the storyteller. In her own style of playing, MAITA proves time and time again that she is one hell of a storyteller with a lot left to be said.

By: Shea Roney

MAITA information:

https://maita.bandcamp.com/merch
Talking Quietly of Anything With You

February 6th, 2023
Free Cake For Every Creature

GENRE: folk/pop LABEL: DOUBLE DOUBLE WHAMMY

“Talking Quietly of Anything With You”

At the age of 22, I am at the stage in my life where I am roughly teetering between the stages of uncompromising adulthood and the inscrutability of being a young kid. I’m required to make my own doctors appointments and I drink black coffee, but yet I pick the tomatoes off my sandwich and my mom still offers to do my laundry when I’m home.

No one has captured the minimal obscurities of everyday life and the inconsistent feelings of getting older such as Katie Bennett and her project called Free Cake For Every Creature. The Philly based soft pop group released their album Talking Quietly of Anything With You in 2016. With a runtime barely over 20 minutes, the album goes through a collection of tracks that soothe and excite the listener, almost like a soundtrack to their own life. On this album, Katie leaned into textures of warmth with her soft voice that almost resembles a close friend whispering to you. Her voice, mixed with the playfulness of her bandmates, make even the catchiest pop songs seem like a closely guarded playground secret.

I didn’t find this album until I was 21 years old. This could not have come at a better time. Not only was it fun to have a giggle with my friends when I told them my new favorite band was called Free Cake For Every Creature, there was something about this album in particular that really resonated with me. What I found to be a common theme throughout this album is that it is okay to be unsure about where you’re at in life.

Most pop songs are upfront with how the writer is feeling. Love songs brag about hopeless romantics drooling over their latest attraction and presenting their dream life. Sad songs hold no question as to what emotion is being told. With Katie’s music, she tells us that she doesn’t know what she’s feeling. In her writing she focuses on the miniscule details of the world around her to cement herself in the present rather than worrying about an overarching situation or emotion.

Lyrically this whole album tells the story of a young adult figuring things out. On the title track, “Talking Quietly of Anything With You”, Katie sings, “we’re not old/but we’re getting older”. This line in and of itself can strike fear in any twenty-something year olds in the midst of a PBR induced all-sharing hangout session. Sitting with a pal and talking about the future and rehashing the days of past laughs and stories. Scientifically speaking, you’re not old at the age of 21, but, fuck, does it feel strange to think of getting older? Following that mini-crisis, the following track happens to be when Katie slows down and takes a breath with you. She sings, “All You Gotta Be When You’re 23 is Yourself”, assuring stability in knowing who you are and where you’re at in life. At 23, it’s okay to be a part-time artist and part time Whole Foods grocery bagger. It’s okay to walk three miles in no direction just for fun. It’s okay to move to a new city and go out wearing funny clothes and make friends with other people wearing funny clothes. You have time at 23.

When I first came across Free Cake and Talking, I was madly in love. The type of young love where you don’t even know what to do with yourself. It seems too big to comprehend and place it into one person. The song “For You”, takes a leap of faith into interpreting what it means to be in love. Katie puts focus on the tiny, silly things you do when you’re in this state of tenderness. Instead of the generic and muddled expressions of sexual attraction, Katie sings about saving the brownie from her TV dinner for her love, or writing a “shitty poem on the wall of a dressing room at JCPenney”. She then goes into the reoccurring dream of any two young lovers of leaving town together, committing crimes, and being on the run. But in Katie’s world, this consists of stealing a 50 cent machine and living a life hiding from authorities and surviving off of gumballs. Her view of love turns this scary concept into a simplified, almost childish, game of enjoying life with the person you like like a lot.

Since finding this album, I have gone through major life changes. My long term relationship ended and I graduated from college with no idea on what to do next. It might be cliché to say that I have found comfort in Katie Bennett’s music, but it couldn’t be more true. Taking a step back and focusing on the miniscule parts of life that you find joy in is the only way of surviving change, as well as, family, friends, enemies, school, jobs, and acts of god. What better way to go about that than a collection of soft pop songs singing about kissing your crush with margarita lips or doodling chubby cows in your journal.

By : Shea Roney

Free Cake For Every Creature Information:
- https://freecakeforeverycreature.bandcamp.com/
- https://dbldblwhmmy.com/store/free_cake_for_every_creature