Battle of the Bands ‘26: a documentary
by WKCO Blog
WKCO Blog presents a documentary of epic proportions: Battle of the Bands, a night when student bands valiantly duel to the death (to open the sendoff).
filmed by Liv Stripling Sara Yanelli Nina Loofboro Maeve Reichert Daisy Lerner JP Harris
edited by Liv Stripling Sara Yanelli Nina Loofboro
Contemp. american folk music: a playlist
by Liv Stripling
A Playlist for the abroad
by Alex Gerstein
Interviews:
introspective conversations
Album Reviews:
thoughtful reflections and reactions
Let’s introduce ourselves to WKCO blog readers. Who are we? Why are we writing about Sufjan Stevens? And this album? It’s 2025. Nava: My name is Nava Bahrampour, and I’m a junior at Kenyon from New York City. I have loved Sufjan for quite some time and have tried to find ways to incorporate his music into my Kenyon life, whether it is through writing my first WKCO blog piece about Javelin or singing No Shade In The Shadow Of The Cross with my lovely singing group during my freshman spring. He is one of the artists of my adolescence, my college years and my life in general. Sophie: My name is Sophie Garman. I’m a sophomore from Newport, Rhode Island. Sufjan Stevens has been one of my favorite artists for a long time, and in May he released a tenth anniversary edition of his 2015 album Carrie and Lowell. The re-release reminded me how much of an impact C&L had on me when I discovered it, and the importance of the album then, now, and forever.
When asked by a friend what I thought of Swift’s new release and twelfth studio album, I could not figure out exactly how I felt at the moment. If asked again after further reflection, I would have responded with “disenchanted.” The catapult of energy and even mystery that I’d come to associate with release nights – in other words, my enchantment – was simply absent upon my many listens to Showgirl over release weekend.
After years of touring their Grammy-nominated album exploring the complexities of joy, Japanese Breakfast has flipped the script with the release of their fourth record, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women). While long-time fans know the indie-rock band is no stranger to sorrow, the direction of this new project – primarily featuring guitar-based ballads – is a surprise, given the recent success of their pop anthems “Be Sweet” and “Slide Tackle.” This new route is certainly not unwelcome…
With contributions from eight writers, this list covers our favorite albums from 2024 and why exactly we adore them. Ranging from The Lemon Twigs to Megan Thee Stallion, we hope you get some new recs or see an album in a new light through this read.
On a blind listen, Ethel Cain’s debut album Preacher’s Daughter is a masterpiece amalgamation of gothic folk-rock and ethereal slowcore, Americana motifs, and the intensity of Evangelist gospel music. There is no denying the pleasure of listening to this album with no prior knowledge: the gorgeous, velvety voice and incredible vocal range of Ethel Cain (aka Hayden Silas Anhedönia) are all-encompassing while narrating Cain’s fraught journey from small-town Alabama, to Texas, across the Western US to the coast. The variety of genres, sounds, and rich instrumentals make the listening process very engaging, even with the album boasting four songs over seven minutes, with one nearing ten. Underneath Cain’s excellent musicianship, however, is a whole other layer waiting to be revealed: that of a master storyteller.
I first learned that Sufjan Stevens was releasing Javelin on August 14th, 2023, while emptying my bedroom in New York City and preparing to pack for Kenyon. I decided that a new Sufjan album, let alone his first “folk singer-songwriter” album since 2015’s Carrie and Lowell, was some sort of sign from the universe that my first semester at Kenyon wouldn’t be quite as daunting as I had made it out to be in my head.
I would like to shout out Hunter Harris for this format of meeting in a google doc. This is my new favorite way to discuss things. Let’s do this. Not my fave album…but I know that’s not unique. But I feel like you and I have the qualifications to speak on this!
The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess conveys the complicated and fun mess that is moving away from home, being queer, and just generally trying to understand how to be a functioning person in your twenties...
What’s incredible about Big Red Machine is their ability to bring together this wonderful network of artists, who they’ve collaborated with before or admired from afar. This surprising experiment is by no means a ‘no-skip album’ but is a fascinating listening experience, utilizing talent from across genres and borders.
As a young woman undergoing humiliating newness, any female musician holds my heart in their hands. Mali Velasquez is my latest comfort, my latest forgiver, and my latest reason to stay curious about grief when I lack any framework to recover. Her debut album I’m Green is music created within, and about, that demeaning adolescent newness.
In their debut album “The Secret To Life”, dodie, Gartland, Isaac, and Brown each bring their own style and talent to meld together in a pot of whimsical aesthetics, camp chaos, and existential fun. As a fan of each of these artists, I can confidently say they bring out the best of each other, pushing one another in new directions, and bringing together genres of pop, rock, indie, and folk.
2020 marked a year of renaissance in the career of the Irish electro-dance pop singer Roisin Murphy. The record she released that year, “Róisín Machine,” brought her the critical acclaim she consistently garnered, but also became her highest charting record in her home country and abroad. It is easy to see why that was.
2011 was 12 years ago. Huh. Hard to believe. Times have changed, yet one movie and its soundtrack have held strong in my head. That movie is Lemonade Mouth. The Disney Channel Original Movie, starring Bridgit Mendler, Adam Hicks, Naomi Scott, Hayley Kyoko, and Blake Michael, revolves around five high school students who meet in detention and make a band! High School Musical might have been the money maker, but Lemonade Mouth remains equally prevalent through its grounded characters and positive messages.
Gregory Alan Isakov takes his sweet time crafting his studio albums, molding them into the best they can be. Five years after the release of Evening Machines, he has returned with Appaloosa Bones, another example of the masterful minimalism he exudes through his music. Accompanied by his ethereal voice and symphony of strings, Isakov paints visuals of a sweeping, all-engulfing landscape with his lyrics, a frontier he braves with his listeners throughout the album.
In their sophomore album, “10,000 gecs”, 100 gecs continues to push the boundaries of pop music with their goofy vibes, genre-spanning influences, and extravagant sound. Duo Laura Les and Dylan Brady seem to approach this album with a goal of keeping the unserious and silly feel of their first project, “1000 gecs” while incorporating more sounds beyond the Skrillex-esc drums and boiler room mayhem present throughout their previous record…
For nearly twenty years, Urfaust has been at the forefront of avant-garde music. Although the group consists of only two members, Willem Niemarkt on guitar and vocals and Jim Dokter on drums, they were able to conjure mythical and otherworldly universes through the power of sheer simplicity.
Lights, sweat, endless dancing, and screaming along is probably the best way to enjoy Fall Out Boy. Or lying on your bed with your eyes closed. Either way, you're in for a journey, some tears, and definitely some emotionally cathartic screaming.
Lana Del Rey is widely considered the most influential pop star of the last decade. Her carefully crafted aesthetic and persona has captivated the minds and ears of many and inspired bigger-name copycats since she burst into mainstream relevance in 2012 with her first album “Born to Die.” Since that first album, Lana Del Rey has been gently pushing her sound to new places under new influences. She has also embarked upon gradually dropping the artifice and character that is Lana Del Rey that was created by her early work.
I found All You Need is Time on January 11, despite its release date being nearly three months prior. I usually trend more toward realism, but I think this was fate. I have never connected so much with a record before; I must have needed it at that moment.
There’s few on this planet who can weave such eclectic influences as seamlessly into a pop song as Caroline Polachek does. The New Yorker and former opera singer released her second solo-album on Valentine’s Day aptly weaving the new collection of songs around desire. Polachek rose to prominence first as one-half of Indie-pop group Chairlift, but chose to strike it out alone while delving into her connections with the PC Music crowd. Her first album, “Pang,” melded ambient, electronic, and pop influences with her remarkable vocal agility, clearly striking a chord with music fans and critics alike.
Sometimes it’s a hard realization to know that Pierce the Veil (PTV) is by far your most listened-to artist of all time. I have been a die-hard fan since the age of 10 and they have definitely changed the course of my life. I would probably be normal if my ears remained virgin to the piercing voice of lead vocalist, Vic Fuentes. But I would never change a thing. I am passionate about the genre and this band – I have come to terms with that. My loved ones accept me for who I am…
At the 2017 FYF music festival, I had the pleasure of seeing the Canadian indie band Alvvays live. I also had the misfortune of being an inattentive witness, more keen on photo ops for lead singer Molly Rankin’s lavender American Apparel skirt than her girlish wailing and songwriting capability. The band has a primarily consistent and enjoyable discography; their self-titled debut album produced some of their most revered tracks, from the teenage fantasy love ballad “Archie, Marry Me” to the humorously creepy and equally as jangly “Adult Diversion.”..
Samia packs a specific punch in her Sophomore album “Honey”. Released January 27th, produced by Caleb Wright from the band Normal Parents, this intimate record is a macrocosm of emotions told through minute detail. With a more electronic sound than her debut “The Baby”, the 26-year-old singer-songwriter has enriched the devastation of her already poetic despair. This album feels more deliberate than her former work because it is dripping with symbolism and intention; Some songs are stripped down while others are layered to a point of invoking anxiety…
Moving forward from her shiny, rock-heavy record That’s How Rumors Get Started, Margo Price presents a formidable follow-up, Strays. Though Price has been quite open with psychedelics’ influence on the album’s writing and production, Strays is as grounded as it is ethereal. Along with memorable instrumentation and production, the real star of the record is Price’s impressive songwriting.
After a two-month-long mysterious promo campaign, one of the most anticipated albums of the year is here: Midnights by Taylor Swift. Midnights is Swift’s 10th studio album and comes following two re-recordings of the albums Fearless and Red. Consisting of 13 songs in the standard edition and 20 songs in the 3am Edition, the album has been described as a “concept album” of 13 sleepless nights.
With time, northern English musician Beth Orton has changed. She emerged in the late 90s; her 1996 freshman album Trailer Park and 1999 sophomore album Central Reservation became pillars of the folktronica sound alongside fellow northern English musician David Gray. Twenty years, though, is a long time in music, and Beth Orton has taken the time to refine her style with each project.
On April 18th, 2022, Maine-based folk band The Ghost of Paul Revere shared a post to their social media platforms beginning with the question, “how does one write an obituary for a Ghost?” The band had been performing for the past eleven years, beginning in small venues in the local Portland area, eventually reaching enough success to take their tours abroad.
Kit Martin, based in both London and France, and Merve Erdem, based in London, make up the two halves of Kit Sebastian. The group was formed in 2018, with their debut album Mantra Moderne being released the following year. I had first caught a whiff of Mantra Moderne in 2020, date unknown, for all the inferable reasons.
The first thing that struck me about Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You was the cover: a white canvas with a drawing at the center. All four of Big Thief’s previous albums have had photograph covers full of life, while this cover is sparse. Ironically, the album is anything but. Released three years after Two Hands, Dragon is a turning point for Big Thief.
On January 28, 2022, the American rock band Pinegrove released their fifth studio album, 11:11. To many of their devoted fans, the album was a bit of a letdown. Their single “Alaska '' was released back in November 2021 and it took on a newer feel and style that made many excited for the upcoming album. On the album, with its upbeat, catchy rhythms, it demonstrated the best parts of Pinegrove’s indie rock sound.
Liv: Yeah. I’ve been in positions recently where I felt insecure about my playing abilities, but the thing about Victor is like, we are in this band. No one is going to kick you out. And it’s such a constant: I, at least in college, have so much trust that this band will keep going. Throughout mistakes and learning and all of this, we’re going to keep being a band.
Avery: I think we just push each other to get better… Like, I’ll have not practiced for a while and I’ll come in to a practice and everyone’s on, and it’s like, ‘Ok, I want to do this,’ not just because I love the music, but for them, because they’re all so talented and we all deserve to push each other to get better.
Maya: We need every member to be the band. Each member brings something so unique, and yet the band would be incomplete without each of us, without that 5th contribution.
In late November of last year, I had the opportunity to interview Ryan Dombal of Hearing Things, a new worker-owned, independent music journalism publication. Previously, he was the Features editor at Pitchfork for fifteen years, reviewing some of the most influential albums and artists working right now, and profiling artists like Sufjan Stevens, The 1975, Erykah Badu, Charli XCX, and Ethel Cain.
Last February, fresh off the release of her latest record Wisecrack, I sat down with Haley Blais and we sleuthed it out. In her music, the Vancouver-based singer-songwriter acts out narrative omnipotence with frequency and plays God with necessity. This artistic self-assurance made our casual conversation feel almost indulgent, almost sacred; nearly profane. Blais, however, the professional self-investigator that she is, was fueled by ease.
Blog writer Greer Morgan sat down with Jacob Cohen to talk about influences, origin stories, and to write silly poetry. This interview is full of laughs, heartwarming connections, and mischievous concoctions. It was too good not to film, and too good to keep from you! Check out the video.
Werewolf is the musical pseudonym of Ollie Peterson, a 19-year-old Kenyon attendee, Kokosinger, AD, and Horn Gallery sound tech. On an unusually warm day, Peterson and I met outside of Farr Hall to talk all things music production, writing, influences, and intention…
Aidan Puntes’ “in Parting” is a poetic act. It’s a relatable, true portrait of all that is human and real. It’s a heart on display. In my conversation with Puntes about his debut album (first of many, he adds), it took only a minute for me to realize his brain is just as memorable as any one of his songs.
Thursday evening, the bubbly and earnest Phil Hicks arrived at Farr Hall, with a swag bag of merchandise and an infectious positive demeanor. One could say that Phil “moonlights” as a record store owner alongside his primary job as a pharmacist, but his salesmaking skills translate seamlessly to his storefronting.
Liv Stripling: What’s your creative process when making music together, and how is it different from when you guys produce for other artists?
Scootie: Whenever we were making stuff for us it’s kinda like throwing paint. We just kinda do whatever we feel. Versus if we’re making something for somebody else, it’s more so trying to help them to tell the story they want to tell and paint the picture they want to see…
Picture this: it’s your very first Summer Sendoff because you’re a senior in the class of 2023. Your first Sendoff was canceled due to the novel coronavirus and so was your sophomore Sendoff. For your third Sendoff, you were studying abroad (sometimes three times is not the charm). So, that leaves you with Summer Sendoff 2023 as your first and only opportunity to enjoy Kenyon’s famed end of year festivity. Guess what? It’s pouring rain.
It was a gloomy day in Gambier until rising indie-pop/rock star Alfie Templeman popped onto our Zoom call with a big grin and a glass of wine (“because I’m in Sicily!”). The English artist, who has amassed a devoted fan base of over 2.4 million monthly listeners since the release of his debut single in 2018, has taken the past two years to explore and expand his sound.
Rigby is the solo project of 21-year-old Kelly Rose Golden. Rigby’s discography consists of three EPs and four singles, the latest of which is titled “In Limbo”. Everything that Rigby has released thus far has been self-recorded, self-produced, and self-released, making Golden a true indie artist. Despite working solo , she manages to produce studio-quality recordings from her bedroom in Los Angeles, California.
Indigo De Souza, breakout indie garage-pop artist from Asheville, North Carolina, is coming out of quarantine with a hopeful attitude and a new album.
It’s a tough time to be anything right now, and being a college student is no exception. My entire second year of college consisted of constantly panicking about becoming infected with COVID-19 or being sent home because of it, missing my friends because they either deferred or weren’t permitted to live on campus, and struggling to concentrate in class or get any work done. I acknowledge how extremely fortunate I am to have been at school at all, but the whole experience left me feeling stressed, lonely, and honestly, deeply depressed.
Only a few years ago, Sloan Struble — better known to most as Dayglow — was sitting in his childhood bedroom in a tiny town in Texas, recording an album that he had only ventured to show his mom and best friend. Now, the musician has over six million monthly listeners on Spotify, with his 2018 single “Can I Call You Tonight?” finding a new life on TikTok where it provides the background music to about 65,000 videos. He’s played the Austin City Limits festival and recently had his late-night TV debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Tiktok has quickly become a rising musician’s go-to in regards to gaining exposure. From overnight successes like Olivia Rodrigo (whose Drivers License went viral after Charlie D’Amelio played it in a clip) to smaller artists like Ant Saunders and Ashnikko, it’s no secret that the platform can easily make an artist’s work go from zero streams to half a million in just a few hours. One artist that demonstrates this is Maude Latour, a 21-year old singer-songwriter from New York City.
“I’m just living in this space, trying to contribute something so that when I die, I live on,” Haley Blais tells me through our Zoom screen. “...I’m scared of death!” she blurts out soon after, grinning as she does so.
Charlie Hickey is a 21-year-old singer/songwriter from South Pasadena, California. He released his debut EP, titled Count The Stairs, on January 26, 2021. The project was produced by Marshall Vore and contains six tracks, two of which feature Phoebe Bridgers on backing vocals.
The first time I heard Anna Vaus, she was singing a currently unreleased song she wrote for her mom on TikTok. Immediately, I was drawn in by the introspective lyrics and the undeniably catchy melody. Vaus' reflective, pop-country sound came off like a Taylor Swift project with a unique sense of intimacy. I hit subscribe instantly.
Hazlet is the type of small suburban town every punk band sings about wanting to escape. There’s one high school with just under 1,000 students enrolled annually, and you can only drive through town for about ten minutes before hitting city limits. Most kids go stir-crazy living there for their whole lives, it’s so small and uneventful. Soon, however, Hazlet will be known as more than just a stuffy, boring town. Soon, it’ll be known as the birthplace of up-and-coming Alternative Rock band, U Might Be Mine.
Analyses:
In-depth explorations
Music, at its core, is an experiment to make us feel things; to make us feel alive. Maggie Rogers’ discography has been a defining example of that for me. Although Rogers has been on my Spotify rotation for a few years now, each track still feels like a fresh discovery. Lately, I have been especially attached to her 2022 album Surrender. This record stands out from Rogers’ work…
On May 30, 2025, Taylor Swift regained access to her master recordings, defined as “the original, definitive recording of a song or piece of music”. The whole journey began about 7 years ago on November 19, 2018…
Studying abroad was a wonderfully transformative experience for me. That was a time when I was essentially starting from scratch, alone. Yet, “alone” has negative connotations that negate the benefits of solo adventures. So, “solo” is a better term! My main word of the semester was “wandering” –– I wandered everywhere, from the streets of Edinburgh, one of which was the Royal Mile, to Malta, Budapest, and other exciting locations.
Since the release of her August 2024 mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal, rapper-singer-songwriter extraordinaire Doechii has been the center of attention. In an Instagram post announcing the album, Doechii wrote, “This mixtape embodies my resurgence, my reclaiming of power… it is my fight back. I am nobody’s prey; I was born to be the predator.” And fight fiercely, she has: the empowered mixtape encapsulates themes of resilience and resistance in the face of depression, discrimination, and degradation.
Since the genre was pioneered, singer-songwriters have built uniquely microscopic universes from the sheer force of experience. Engaging in this practice requires being a sharer, knower, observer, and translator of world to word, then page to song. Singer-songwriters specifically wield these roles with ferocity, with a growing dedication to truth as generations pass…
To abide by tradition or to throw it all out the window? To let it all out or reel yourself in before you do something you can’t take back? To move to the country and have that baby or not? These questions are the crux of Alvvays’ exuberant-but-in-crisis power-pop anthem “Belinda Says.”
"The introspective lyrics are asking us as the human race to grapple with our existence as either profane or sacred. Each lick of the song is a poetic masterpiece. The imagery, even from verse one, is jaw-dropping, and the atmospheric instrumentation, haunting melodies, and homophonic texture blend with the lyrics to make a song not worth missing. He goes back and forth between first-person and second-person to insist that his listeners think the same way as him, which makes the song even more personal to me."
All of Death Grips’ albums are an experience, to say the least, and are all worth listening to; however, for those who want to cut right to the chase and hear only the best of vocalist MC Ride’s guttural and penetrating verses over equally tumultuous backtracks, you’ve come to the right place for your comprehensive Death Grips’ album ranking.
Although Loveless and Gluee present vastly different sonic landscapes, their commonalities are indisputable. The similarities these records share are a testament to the ever-evolving nature of music, where artists draw inspiration from a wide range of sources. I look forward to hearing how these incredible albums will continue to stir and shape the future of music. Until then, I cannot urge you enough to explore both these albums and see the remarkable similarities yourself.
Truly dedicating itself to a folksy musical theme, some fantastic artists were invited to play on the film’s accompanying soundtrack, interweaving with the incredible songs performed by Rachel Zegler and the rest of the cast of Songbirds and Snakes. The album is brimming with talent from some of the best vocalists, instrumentalists, and storytellers from the current bluegrass revival…
Lana Del Rey is an enigma. That's kind of her genius. She exists in a space between fantasy and reality; she is the image, and she is the person, and she is neither at the same time. Throughout her discography, Del Rey creates a passive and static image of herself.
Artists have forever been enraptured by trees. They divulge the poeticism of roots and find human semblance in how woods breathe. With one hand in the past, and one searching forward, Vancouver-based singer-songwriter Haley Blais engages this poetic canon uniquely in her track “Beginners Guide to Birdwatching” off her 2023 record “Wisecrack.”
I am not here to convince you why “Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is the greatest song of all time. You should already know that. Instead, I want to talk to you about music and memories, about how what we listen to defines parts of our lives. We all have a song or two we know we would not be the same person without. “Maps” is one of those songs for me.
British pop band The 1975 start every album with a song titled “The 1975.” In their own words, the songs serve as a status update for the band. Lead singer Matty Healy made a statement featured on Spotify Storyline: “I really wanted each of our albums to be a distillation of the one that preceded. The first track on the album is always our opportunity to express this idea as immediately as possible.”
What is it about God that pushes us away from ourselves? How does art heal these wounds? The answer is subjective and ambiguous, but Lucy Dacus and Adia Victoria have found it through songwriting. Home Video, Dacus’ 2021 release, and A Southern Gothic, Adia Victoria’s 2021 release, are works of art that reclaim the self by questioning God. Both artists dug into their past by using old journals, exploring themes of community, relationships, and adolescence in order to birth these albums.
Curated Playlists:
artfully compiled songs
For the past year, I’ve been working on an honors thesis that argues that contemporary folk musicians - Adrianne Lenker, Kara Jackson, and Haley Heynderickx being the figures I focused on - are using the legacy of political lyrical content in American folk music to subvert dominant norms of what proper citizenship looks like.
Kenyon is, well, small. Naturally, so is the town that encompasses it. Though I do not take the rolling fields and sky-scraping trees we’ve got for granted, I’d be remiss if I didn’t admit that Gambier can feel a bit claustrophobic at times — particularly when so many of its residents are traveling the world and exploring all that lies beyond our quaint campus.
This time of year is singular and holds magic. You start your new beginnings by preparing for an end, and that cycle never gets old. Here’s a playlist curated by WKCO Blog, for this tried-and-true closing. Enjoy!
The leaves have been turning earlier than usual this fall and I couldn’t be happier. My musical tastes shift with the changing environment, and I find myself wondering, “What music should I listen to?!” It’s jazz, it’s always jazz, the perfect music for any season.
This week marks the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. I have always put innate emphasis on chances to start fresh—almost to a fault. My notes at the beginning of the school year are particularly neat, my resolutions lofty on January first, and my journal entries most consistent on single-digit days of the month.
Here’s what the WKCO Exec team has been spinning so far this summer. Listen now!
Artists like Blossom Dearie, The Sundays, and Astrud Gilberto remind me of low-growing plants, watching geese dip into the pond with the smallest of ripples, and designating time to be mindful –– particularly outdoors –– amidst the whirlwind that has been the last couple of months. I began to compile this playlist on that very walk a few days ago and have been feverishly editing the order of the songs since, as I regain some of the motivation and energy that my senior spring workload, a tedious post-grad job search, and the weight of the current political situation has sapped from me. As always, music makes everything feel lighter, and there’s something to be said for curating a mix of mood boosters to make you feel both soft and reinvigorated, even if it feels artificial at first.
It’s that time of year. Love floats in the air, circulating. To celebrate, WKCO’s exec team compiled a Valentine’s Day playlist for your listening pleasure. Hear a song you like? Send it to your lover, best friend, or enemy! Share in this time of affection and soundtrack these February days with love, love, love.
This mix of 30 songs showcases a healthy mix of classic and contemporary: vocal jazz standards, instrumental grooves from Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, and more, ‘souldies,’ and recent finds of mine that seem perfectly suited to this time of year.
Over the past month, I have been asked for countless fun facts about myself –– it’s one of the trademarks of college orientation. It's usually a crowd-pleaser to tell new friends that I’m from Newport, Rhode Island –– the town where Bob Dylan was booed for using electric amplifiers, altering the trajectory of folk music by opposing the notion that true folk had to be acoustic. Newport Folk, a music festival...
If you walk into any party where a man is holding a guitar, chances are he’s about to play “Wonderwall,” the 1995 smash hit by the legendary Britpop band Oasis. And now that the Gallagher brothers have announced their long-awaited reunion tour, chances are you’re about to hear that song a lot more.
In the melancholy of late July, I’ve spent a lot of time listening to new (or new-to-me) music that encapsulates the feeling of a soft summer breeze: music for easy listening, for spending time in nature, for pushing fears and obligations away (even if temporarily). This 40-song collection spans…
Unironically, the best aspect of the Twilight films is the aesthetic: the vibes, the foggy Forks woods, and Bella’s rusted red pickup. Stephenie Meyer, if nothing else, set a scene that would define a generation…
At some point in February, everything starts going faster. I’ve felt this shift every year since starting college, and I attribute the feeling to the transition between winter and spring in Ohio. The winter sputters on and off, snowing several inches after an encouraging spell of 50-degree days, lingering uncomfortably until something finally decides it’s spring.
To show our love and appreciation, WKCO Exec has come together and compiled our favorite love songs just for you. Feel free to peruse, to fall head over heels with our amorous collection. We hope it brings out the romantic in you and you feel inspired to tell those around you that you love them, maybe even through song… send-a-song…?
Ever get freaked out and not know what to play for your family gatherings? Ever want to feel festive but don't know where to start? Ever need an inexplicably gut-wrenching song for the season? Thankfully, our blog writers got together to craft this mass holiday playlist to ease your worries!
Maybe you went to WKCO BBQ this Saturday at Farr lawn and were enraptured by the amazing music our DJs were playing. You probably were having so much fun you forgot to Shazam your favorite hits. Maybe you had other plans, although I can't imagine any Kenyon campus event on September 30th worth skipping our wonderful barbecue.
James Murphy, frontman of LCD Soundsystem, creator of DFA Records, and renowned DJ, doesn’t hide his influences. The debut and self-titled album, LCD Soundsystem (2005), is packed with references and homages. For Introduction to Musical Style this past semester, I wrote an essay analyzing this album and its musical connections, diving into the specifics of shared riffs and mimicked synths in each track. I was sent on a deep journey to the depth of Murphy’s mind... This playlist is the result of my quest.
For my film thesis, I’m adapting Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park into a feature-length screenplay, and the proper soundtrack is imperative. Classical music would suffice; Gregory Alan Isakov gets closer; but Taylor Swift perfectly captures the highs and lows, expectations and surprises, of a Jane Austen novel. She literally has a song for every imaginable romantic situation. Her discography could be mined for years and we still wouldn’t know all there is to know. It is a bottomless depth.
In a time where Spotify will often persistently recommend the same five artists, it’s difficult for smaller, lesser known artists to reach their intended audience. It seems that unless you’re the rare artist whose songs are blowing up on TikTok, an overnight boom in fans is unlikely. The algorithm for both Spotify and TikTok has become increasingly dependent upon and more and more selective. As a result, it can be difficult for the average listener to form connections with smaller bands looking for an audience. ..
Now that November is upon us, some might say that we have to leave the Halloween spirit in the past. However, those same individuals do not realize that by venturing deeper into the past, we can hold onto the spookiness of October, even in its department. Join me on a moonlit journey where we journey back to the mid-20th century to find unrecognized eerie music of the late 1950s to the early 1970s.
Do you remember how we used to be little kids? With baby fat protecting the veins on the backs of our hands and the bones beneath our cheeks. When you look in the mirror, do you see your face? Is it the same face you’ve always had? Maybe it’s thinner, stronger, more tired. Maybe you’re happy to be this older version of yourself.
I was always the last one to finish the mile in middle school. Chubby and morally opposed to forced exercise, I found myself minutes behind my classmates– always sweaty and short of breath by the end of my seven laps, embarrassed that I couldn’t keep up.
Lately, I’ve been noticing the large amount of songs in my rotation that contain the word “honey”: “Honey Hi,” “Hunnybee,” “Honeybody,” and just plain “Honey.” Instead of just making a playlist with songs about honey, I decided to switch it up a bit, alternating each honey song with a song about, or vaguely relating to, lavender.
Johnny Cash. Stevie Wonder. Tom Jones. ZZ Top. Jimmy Dean of microwave breakfast stardom. What do these artists have in common? They’ve all covered the song “Sixteen Tons,” originally written by the American folk artist Merle Travis in 1947.
As a bit of a running joke, my dad famously woke up to the song “Need A Little Sunshine” by Augustana every morning for several years. It’s a perfect song for easing into the day; it doesn’t jolt you awake, but it has just the right amount of energy to motivate you to get up, get dressed, and get out of the house…
The summer after my senior year of high school, right before we all headed off to college, my best friends and I would go on these long drives. Mostly, we’d fantasize what the next four years would be for us, and we’d always come back to the fear we’d become such radically different people. The fear that one day, we wouldn’t know each other anymore.
I imagine that, in the fifties, things were simple. A boy asked you out, you were “going together,”, he took you to the sock hop (what even is a sock hop?) and then he dumped you right before home-ec. I’m not saying it was easy, but it was simple. It was clear cut. (Or maybe it wasn’t at all, sorry grandma.)
I live in Bushnell, on the south side of campus. It's one of the two ski lodges they're about to bulldoze to make way for “apartment style housing.” If you're wondering, it is absolutely charmed to live in a building the college has already decided is functionally useless and has no value. We did a great job with the wall decor, though, which helps.
Over the past few months I’ve begun to notice an abundance of songs in my rotating music collection that have to do with “Georgia.” By this I mean either Georgia the state, or Georgia in reference to a person. I’ve never been to Georgia, and I don’t know anyone named Georgia personally, but for some reason I’ve become invested in accumulating this music.
Artist Bios:
in collaboration with the horn gallery
Reviews & Photos:
concert write-ups and event documentations
Milo Goldmark is a musician with experience performing live and some knowledge of the Mountain Goats. While Quinn Washburn can’t play any music, he’s a Mountain Goats super-fan. This edited conversation began as soon as the show was over.
Tenderness comes in waves at a Shallow Alcove show, and July 25th at Lincoln Center was no exception. The band moved as one with open hearts, seeping love into a willing crowd. This photo gallery is an homage to that connection, and an attempt to capture that abundance of light.
Margaux Bouchegnies, known by the mononym Margaux, is a Seattle-born, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and bassist. A graduate of the New School in Manhattan, Margaux studied jazz and upright bass before majoring in poetry. This diverse background of creative study shows up brilliantly in her songs…
This Friday, the Horn Gallery is thrilled to host Racing Mount Pleasant! The band, formerly known as Kingfisher, has performed annually at the Horn for the past three years and has become a Kenyon favorite.
On Saturday night, New York City based singer-songwriter Allegra Krieger will be performing at the Horn Gallery. Krieger’s music blends elements of the indie folk rock genre into poetic cadences characterized by soulful vocals and melodic instrumentals.