Over the last seven years, Minneapolis-based pop group Walker Kong has been on a

Read More...

mission to pour silver icing over a raw collection of mega-hits. Their latest

album, Deliver Us from People, brilliantly captures the band's live shambolic

glory while continuing to integrate the highly reflective sound present on their

two previous full-lengths. Exploring the relationship between animals and humans

in modern times, Deliver Us from People is nothing less than a rave-up brimming

with eternal love, fatal sacrifice, and the wonderful tragedy of symbiosis.

Formed in the spring of 1998 they were originally known as Walker Kong and the

Dangermakers. The group had high ambitions even though the only trained musician

was songwriter Jeremy Ackerman. The rest of the group: Emily Cahill on drums,

Alex Ackerman on bass, Sara Vargas on keyboards and Katie Kanwischer on

percussion were for some odd reason very willing to make this experiment a

serious endeavor. Sometimes practicing 5 times a week, the band slowly built up

the nerve to record their first lp entitled the early years, which despite it1s

lack of technical luster some how put them on the map in their hometown of

Minneapolis. Two successful ep's followed that highlight the bands progression

from naive pop status to genre splitting song crafters. Those ep's won the band

a number of awards from local newspapers including best pop group as well as

holding a string of #1 hits on kuom 770 (University of Minnesota College Radio).

Throughout all this WALKER KONG and the Dangermakers had remained primarily in

the bounds of the Midwest, knowing their style was rapidly changing and not

quite ready for the world at large. Dropping the Dangermakers from their moniker

they are simply know as WALKER KONG. At this time they added veteran musicians

Tony Mogelson on guitar and Kevin Riach taking over on percussion. This was the

line up that would eventually be thrust into the atmosphere.

Now the time has come and WALKER KONG are finally the band they wanted to be.

With this in mind, you should hear their new album There Goes the Sun which will

be released in the U.S. by Magic Marker Records this July. Containing many

shifts in tempo, the album contains a mood that was meant to feel like the last

day on earth. Songs about failed cities, self indulgent couture, faded memories,

and the end of the world are assembled to evoke a soundtrack of solitude.

Pastoral dance music that you dance to alone. Your soundtrack. Make no mistake

though, this is not a manifesto, it is a pop record that treds happiness and

sadness with great pleasure. With many nods to influences, you will hear Talking

Heads, Orange Juice, the Go-Betweens, the Meters, Nillsson, John Cale and

numerous others. More than anything, you will hear WALKER KONG. That's who they

are. If you wish to experience the band live (a very different experience!) you

may go to digitalclubnetwork.com and view a show the band played with Broadcast

last November.

User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.