We’ve been working on this website since about May.  It’s been a slow process, but we’re glad to have it all up and running thanks to the hard work and commitment of Meta13 of Saint Cloud, Kevin Springer our Technical Director and his staff, and all of our other staff contributors!

We’ll continue to add new content and update things as we go along, but feel free to check out the schedule (updated daily!), our album reviews, the live stream, and other new content we add as the days pass!

For our CSB/SJU visitors, welcome back to school and we hope you’ll tune in or perhaps get involved by becoming a DJ or joining our staff!

Thanks for listening to KJNB Radio!

Logan J. Gruber
General Manager, KJNB Radio

Concept: Battles is what I guess the kids call math rock. Genre aside, the band makes a particular effort here to layer simple melodies over each other, with a spectacular knack for mixed and matched rhythm. The album flows pretty well, although sometimes it gets too slow and ambient to fit the heart of the songs. The band trades in electronic methods on earlier recordings (by which I mean mixing and beats) for good old-fashioned rock instrumentation, but the sharp playful feel remains, and the music itself has gotten stronger, folding and referencing itself eloquently, successfully evoking the album’s image of a pack of mirrors facing and swallowing each other.

Sound: The rhythm, as mentioned before, is by far the biggest hook of the album. Technical skill doesn’t really lend itself to the listener from any member so much as the drummer. This guy sounds like he’s exhausted himself; any trick you want, he’ll try it. The vocalist can be unnerving, consistently drawing on distortion to hurl his voice up several octaves. If you’re not too cool for the occassional Alvin and the Chipmunks vibe, it works with the melodic stomping of the other guys involved. If there’s a big drawback, it’s this: good luck dancing to it. It’s easy enough to move to some songs, but with tracks like Rainbow, slipping in and out of 19/16 time and the like, you’re better off just putting it on for a ride in the car or sitting back at the computer. It’s all upbeat, if a little dark, and very thoughtfully structured. These guys are a real team, and it shows.

Lyrics: You won’t make them out. I promise. Like the sound, they’re quirky and occasionally edgy, like some metropolitan Grimm fairytale. Otherwise, it’s all ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’. No love songs, though: the message is musical. They’re reporting live from the studio. Without the song, the words seem out of context, because they are.

Quick And Dirty: If you get tired of it, give it a year and it will present some welcome surprises all over again. (♦♦♦♦♦)

The best album of 2005, in my opinion…

Frances The Mute by The Mars Volta

Concept: These guys aren’t normal people. Let’s just get it out there. The album is a scrambled tragedy built off of frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s convoluted storytelling obsession and the true(?) story of a diary found by their producer shortly before his death, which allegedly contained entries from a transvestite prostitute dying of AIDs searching for the identity of his biological family.

Sound: Here is why I feel this might be the best rock album of the decade. Punk, salsa, psychadelic rock, jazz, all together, all in 72 minutes, all completely cohesive. This band experiments with their sound live; it’s usually about half of the show. In the studio, all the mistakes from this process are brushed away, and in this case that’s actually a wonderful wonderful thing. The songs are so very long and musically twisted, but they are too intricate and dense to let go of. More than musical merit, this album delivers that elusive emotional power people are always looking for. One listen and it’s obvious they are experienced rockers (having existed about a decade beforehand as part of the offbeat punk band At The Drive-In) and that they’re not working sober. This is apparent because they have ideas, musically and otherwise, which would never just pop into anybody’s head. You aren’t likely to spontaneously hum any of the featured songs, ever. This album seems to have been made almost exclusively of melodies intended to haunt people. Halfway into the opening track, the band’s standard frantic sprawl gives way to a 15/16 jam coiled in reverb that is so far from the rock formula yet completely danceable yet touched with gnawing desperation and sadness. I should confess to having cried the first time I heard this song, because I found that overwhelming. There’s my bias, right there. On the other hand, many listeners might never listen to this album straight through, and never hit that point where they appreciate all the intensity and sheer luck that is in the album. A 45-minute song featuring grinding wood, corvid screeches, tritones, and a saxophone possibly trying to emulate a woman being murdered can be a strain even if it is somehow really good. If you have ever taken the time to get lost in an album, Frances The Mute strongly deserves a listen. If not, I can’t make any promises.

Lyrics: This is typically the weak point for the dynamic duo: bizarre, verbose, and opaque. However, in this album the lyrics follow through for the storyline, matching the music’s often despairing and neurotic tone with all the scrambled and cryptic sense of urgency that might be expected of mythology’s Cassandra, and at times a surreal beauty. Anthropomorphic birds, bloody parlor fiends, and buried faces abound. After all, a tale of mystery is far more compelling before it’s solved, when it’s delivered as cracked pieces in the dark.

Quick And Dirty: It could go either way: compelling or obtuse. Regardless, it’s one hell of a thing. (♦♦♦♦♦)

That’s what I got for now. I look forward to doing my part for KJNB. Until next time,
~m

I’m also one of the reviewers here, and that’s what I would like to talk about right now. One of the problems I personally have with reviewers is usually that I have no context for the reviewer. I have no idea what they enjoy, I have no idea what they’re looking for in music. And that renders most reviews pitfalls. So I felt I should try and counteract that myself. Thus, the idea of “Meet KJNB”. If you know the reviewer, you get a better sense when you read their reviews.

Some of my favorite musicians include, but are not limited to: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, A Silver Mt. Zion, Clann Zu, Mark Seymour, Stars of the Lid, Eluvium, Boards of Canada, and Mogwai. So a fairly eclectic bunch. I branch into folk music, and a lot of international bands.

When I listen to music, I pay special attention to lyrics and voice work, if they’re present. I feel the human voice is just as much an instrument as any other, and if you use it you should have a good reason. Lyrics are always important. You could have a musically amazing song, but if your lyrics are bad, I’m not going to enjoy it that much. I also enjoy it when bands experiment musically. If they try something new, I may be willing to cut them some slack on other counts. Not much, though.

I hope this little bit of information helped you get more out of my reviews.