Radkey
It wouldn’t be hard to make the argument that rock and roll in its purest form is pretty much a teenage fantasy writ large. Like a blacklight poster sprung to life, the lure of picking up a guitar that will transform your adolescent bedroom into an arena filled with screaming fans and pot smoke is the myth that keeps rock and roll forever young, and it’s a kind of dream narrative that has keeps getting re-told, whether it’s The Byrds’ “So You Want To Be A Rock-N-Roll Star” or about half the tracks on Weezer’s blue album, the burning adolescent desire to nothing less than fucking rock is the very thing that makes rock music a constantly renewable resource—and it’s also what makes Radkey—a trio of power riffing brothers—such a classic kind of rock and roll phenomenon.
Formed in the quiet enclaves of St. Joseph Missouri, the trio of 20 year-old Isaiah Radke (bass), 18 year-old Solomon Radke (drums), and 22 year-old Dee Radke (vocals/guitar) began making music together in 2010. Fueled by a steady diet of Nevermind and small town boredom, Radkey’s music quickly went from a bedroom hobby into a full-time pursuit. The band opened for Fishbone in 2011 – less than a year after first playing together – and eventually headed out on the road to play shows with the likes of Red Fang, Against Me, and Touche Amore. Given that the band members were homeschooled (and thanks to their incredibly supportive parents), the idea of jumping in the family van and hitting the road gradually morphed from a kind of surreal fantasy into a much-celebrated reality. In 2013 the band unleashed two EPs (Cat And Mouse and Devil Fruit) and knocked out tons of big-ticket live appearances (including Riot Fest, Download, and, in 2015, Coachella and Japan’s Punksping) in addition to taping a memorable spot for Later with Jools Holland. Though early press on the band often focused on their unconventional backstory—a rock band comprised of three homeschooled African-American teenagers from Missouri—the band’s backstory was always eclipsed by their incendiary live sets: balls-to-the-wall garage punk that is messy, explosive, and crazy loud.
“The last couple of years have been really crazy,” says Isaiah, the group’s most outspoken member. “Traveling in England in Europe was really cool for us. It’s incredible—and such a weird feeling—that you are doing something that is actually important to people. To travel to other countries and see people singing along with us is just…it’s really strange. I never thought our music would become a thing that could take us to all of these places.”
After nearly five years of playing and touring together as a band, all of the Radkey’s hard work comes full circle on Dark Black Makeup—the band’s full-length debut. Recorded primarily in the UK alongside producer Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, The Fall, Jarvis Cocker), the album is a blistering punk opus—13 tracks that show off the band’s knack for combining stadium-sized riffs with surprising pop sensibilities. Tracks like “Love Spills” and “Evil Doer” rank among some of the best—and hookiest—songs the band has ever written, while tracks like “Le Song” and the album’s title track show just what an unstoppable live juggernaut the band has become. The songs are both tightly wound and explosively huge-sounding “We wanted to show people that you can still make a proper rock record,” explains Isaiah, “Something that is both super catchy and super heavy. We want people to hear it and think Fuck Yeah! Mostly we just try and only write songs that we love—that we love the shit out of—and that way it never gets boring and it never feels like a drag to play them live even if we’ve been playing them for years. It seems like a simple thing, but we really just want to make the music that we want to hear.”
Dark Black Makeup tackles more than a few teenage tropes—boredom, anger, girl problems, broken friendships—but does so in a way that is not only clever, but also refreshingly honest. No where is this more evident than on the record’s title track, which itself is a kind of high-decibel wake up call for young people to take ownership of their own lives: a sort of punch in the face for teen angst that is made all the more visceral coming from three musicians just barely out of their own teen years. “That song is about how much of your teenage years can just be such a waste,” says Isaiah, “If you spend all of your time not caring about anything just because you think you’re not supposed to then you’re probably leading such a boring life. You could be partying or making something, as opposed to just spending all your time worrying about what other people think. It’s like, wake up. Hang out. Do something. It’s annoying that you can’t necessarily change the fucking world at that age, but you can make your own situation better. Stop wasting time”
Five years in and the brothers Radkey are happy to be making a musical statement that will hopefully put to rest a few of the preconceptions that have followed them throughout their career thus far—namely those based around their age, their hometown, and race. “Surprisingly that—the racial thing—hasn’t been a factor for us,” says Dee. “Honestly, it’s never been about that. Mostly we get given a hard time about our age, but that’s also something we can’t really change. We might walk into a venue and feel like people are taken a little bit by surprise when they see us, but usually after we play all of that stuff kind of goes away. We get a lot of questions about being brothers—like, do we argue?—and it’s a good question I guess, but the answer is no, we don’t really argue very much. And yes, we all write the songs together—everyone writes—so it’s not a thing we really spend too much time thinking or talking about it.”
The ambition of Dark Black Makeup is evidenced by the heightened songwriting and broadened sonic palette, but the energy behind the music remains the same—visceral, urgent, and raw. It is the sound of three people doing what they love…loudly. “Our only ambitions have ever really been to make a record that people will love and to be able to play as many shows as we can,” says Isaiah, “It’s also a personal journey. We’ve been living this for years now. This is literally all that we do and the record is the evidence of that. I stop and think, man I’m 20 years old and I’ve been doing this since I was basically 14. We’re still making the same kind of music we were when we started, but we’re better at it now. Thankfully, we’ve had the opportunity to actually go out into the world and experience some real shit, which gives us something to write about now. We just want people to listen. And play it really loud.”
OUR LINKS
Drop a Grand
TRADING WITH THE ENEMY!!!
Founded in 1975, G. Blanzden & Associates (dba DROP A GRAND) is one of the world’s largest providers of Psych and Shmooze services in the industry of face melting.
MEMBERS:
GERN BLANZDEN guitar vox phase
UNICRON bass vox fx
WHITE N SHITTY II keys keytar synth
2 DOLLA BILL skins vox
GUESTS:
DR FLASH!! shredder
SACRED HORNS OF MANITOBA (aka Brass Flag)
WHITE N SHITTY I plastic saxxx
SHEILA P digital percussives
Z phazer accordion
Drop a Grand is a Kansas City band or a performance-art ensemble. Or both.
Its members wear costumes and go by pseudonyms or noms-de-tunes. Their performances are loud, brash, dramatic and subversive. Their music is a deranged, riff-roaring clamor that clings to a steel-toed groove.
“It’s psychotropic blues-punk,” said Unicron, the band’s bassist. We recently interviewed the band’s founder, Gern Blanzden, about the band’s music and the art of costuming.
What was the concept of Drop a Grand from the beginning?
It’s very self-serving: I have $1,000 to blow with my buddies. … What should we do? Sure as hell ain’t gonna play a round of golf, now are we? Mommy always said if you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing. In DAG we’d get blurry-eyed, make some enemies and blame it on the Tiger.
Were costumes part of the concept from the start?
Complete disguise was initially the only means of getting others to join me on a stage. Kind of an afterthought, but whatever. The art of costuming has significant advantages: minimal stalkers and no unwarranted shop talk from town to town.
OUR LINKS
The Bad Ideas
The Bad Ideas is an American punk band from Kansas City, Missouri formed in August 2011. They've written all original songs and are influenced by post-hardcore, punk, and early 80's punk. Their EP, Worse Thoughts, was recorded on January 22, 2012 and released March, 2012. Their first self-produced full length, Lesson #1 was released March 8, 2013. The Bad Ideas also released a 7" split with Red Kate on March 31, 2014. Their most recent release is a full length cassette, "Leave Me Alone." Released in June 6, 2015.
OUR LINKS
Wick & the Tricks
MORE INFO COMING SOON!
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