KAN KAN’s music has always felt pretty timeless to me. But the more I’ve listened to them the more I’ve realized that’s not quite right – what they really are is not of this time.
Spiritually, KAN KAN makes indie, DIY music that feels plucked from the indie-halcyon days of the 90s and early 2000s. Through some of their tunes, there are flashes of the sublime meanderings of bands like Pavement. Through almost all of their songs, though, there’s a lethargic, smudged nature that makes their music feel both vivid and hazy.
But this music isn’t just empty genre posturing. What really sells KAN KAN is just how deeply felt the band’s songs are.
“I’ll tell you this country will break your heart,” singer Cameron Rogers croons on “Hotel Circle,” a tale of a life spent in a perpetual in-between. The simple, repeated refrain on “Time Manager” manages in only a couple of lines to conjure up the feeling of being a screw up trying against all odds to not screw it up. “I am the same age you were when you died,” begins “Pretty Horses,” a song about persevering through loss and grief that also features the soul-crushing line “Please don’t let me sleep through the day it all ends.”
KAN KAN won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. The band’s true blue DIY approach – much of the music is recorded by bassist Joseph Hoang – means some songs feature a thin hum of static or flubbed notes. But it’s all of those little “imperfections that make KAN KAN’s music that much more impactful.
This is music made for real people and by real people.
KAN KAN, “Around the Bend”: One of the best things about KAN KAN is the band’s ability to conjure delicate, tender melodies amid messiness. “Around the Bend,” highlights that knack with a gentle picking pattern that radiates a folky melancholic nostalgia. So much of the band’s music grapples with the difficulty (impossibility?) of change – from changing yourself to changing the world around you. On “Around the Bend,” Rogers seemed resigned to substantive change being impossible. Even so, in a strained whisper, he pledges, “I’ll try to be a better man.”
Like what you hear? Catch Kan Kan tonight at the Brown Building. Do you have a “Song of the Week” suggestion?Shoot us an email and a sentence or two about why you’ve been bumping this song lately. Friendly reminder: all songs should be by local artists.