Illinois : The Adventures of Kid Catastrophe, Chapter 1

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/illinoisadventureschapter1.jpg" alt=" " />The wide spanning and inventive Illinois embark on the first<em> Chapter</em> of <em>The Adventures of Kid Catastrophe</em>.<br />...
8.1 Plus One
2008 

Illinois : The Adventures of Kid Catastrophe, Chapter 1

Illinois has always been a band that reached far on limited support – their What the Hell Do I Know? EP (QRO review) stretched from intimate sadness to banjo-twang down-home to electronic white-boy rap, and all in only seven songs.  And now the Bucks County, PA group tries something even more ambitious: six EP’s in six months, each a chapter in The Adventures of Kid Catastrophe.  And the story has a

strong start in Chapter One, more electronic and beat-focused than your ‘average’ Illinois piece, but still wonderfully varied.

The Adventures begin with first single “Hang On”, whose pressing, ‘tronic nature in the keys and rhythm is still matched with a dark backwoods air in the vocals of singer/songwriter Chris ‘Arch’ Archibald (QRO interview), Kid Catastrophe’s alter-ego.  While “Hang On” does still lean more to the higher-tech end, an even more diverse combination comes out in “Irish Whiskey”, putting a dark-twang next to Archibald’s monotone rhyme and a wonderful female back-up chorus line (though the piece may rely too much on its chorus, over its verse).  Finisher “Tree” is more ‘traditional’, sad, fuzzy, and laid-back, but still sees the Casio line prominent.

Each Chapter also includes a video installment from Archibald and Los Angeles’ underground art collective People-Food in The Adventures, starting with ‘Arch’s Quest For The Perfect Alarm Clock’:

After releasing What the Hell, Illinois followed the usual path of doing a lot of opening gigs, albeit with acts ranging from Brooklyn rockers The Hold Steady (QRO live review) to Brit-smash The Kooks (QRO live review – with Illinois) to the more experimental Menomena (QRO photos – when on tour with Illinois), while doing the usual – working on new material and finding a home for their debut full-length.  But their wide reach left a double-album or more worth of songs, so they’ve broken it up into an episodic Adventure (with dates up and down the East Coast to celebrate each EP’s release), with the more electronic Chapter 1 still promising a wide scope.

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