Kill-Me Kare Bare

This time on “Bands You Should Know About” we focus on a band that’s been around for more than just a short while, but continues loudly and proudly to produce their banana-influenced high quality fun.

Kill-Me Kare Bare, although an odd name for a band, has a great tight unique sound with catchy rifts and melodic elements you can’t help but want to bounce around to. A sound most certainly influenced and derived from a modern post-punk era, with a hint of Weezer’s Sweater Song — KMKB contains and captures those idolic moments of 90's alt-rock and punk, with a power-pop twist only they could deliver.

Formed in late 2006 / early 2007 by lead-singer Blake Stoppel and his keyboardist sidekick Chris Johnson, the duo would later pick up other members to fill the bass, drums, and guitar slots — bringing their distinctive “lemonade-lured, chocolate-cake sucker-punched sound” to Twin Cities stages.

After a few years of hitting the local venues, the band headed across the pond, off to Ealing Studios in London during the Spring of 2011 to record their latest EP, “Just For Fun” — a follow up to their two previously released EP’s. They soon birthed their first single “WE DO”; in which they sputter on, like birds in a fight, about the need for a “Wake up call…” — an exciting announcement that pop and good humor, are alive and well in modern music, and making a clear distinction that they should not be, by any means, shied away from.

So if you like poppy, catchy, bouncy tunes, that your girlfriend would probably like too, you should take her to an upcoming show, so she’ll love you forever. (We’re not responsible if she doesn’t though, sorry…)

- Mpls Music. Com

ndie rockers, Kill-Me Kare Bare, are releasing a new CD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XLMlvhs6-w - Kare 11 News

. - Post Bulletin "Christina Valdez

nate@olmstedcountyjournal.com

Kill-Me Kare Bare, the Minneapolis power pop band comprised primarily of veterans of the Rochester music scene, last month released their second disc; an EP entitled Just For Fun. They will be in Rochester this weekend in support of their release, playing Friday night at the Northstar Bar along with three other bands.

On Saturday the group will play Rock Your Choice at Whiskey Bones Roadhouse, an event that will raise funds for local charity organizations.

The duo of front man Blake Stoppel and keyboardist Chris Johnson made the jump up to the Twin Cities in 2004 while playing in their former band, Mark of the Underdog. They played mostly house shows while adapting to the new musical landscape, most notably hosting the last gig for the Rochester phenomena, Cesto, in basement of the house shared by Stoppel and Johnson.

The pair formed Kill-Me Kare Bare (KMKB) in 2009 and released their self-titled debut with guest musicians filling out the lineup.

Stoppel said he came up with the band’s name (which definitely generated a flight of imagination and a smirk on a number of occasions for me) while considering the common practice of giving something happiness provoking (but harmful) to something you truly love.

“It’s like loving your dog so much that you feed it pizza every day and eventually it has a heart attack,” explained Stoppel.

Things have really picked up for Johnson and Stoppel in the last year, tapping familiar friends to join them in KMKB’s adventures. Former Mark of the Underdog drummer, Matt Hoppe, once again is keeping time and accomplished solo artist, Jared Denton Jones, came on board to play guitar.

Stoppel and Jones met up at a Twin Cities bar soon after Jones had moved back from a stint in Austin, Texas and talked about starting a band.

“I was thinking ‘I’ll never hear back from that,’” said Jones, recalling feeling the conversation as being a great idea that wouldn’t materialize.

Stoppel called the next morning.

“I gave him a CD and said, ‘learn this we’ve got a show in a week,” Stoppel said.

The two started playing together soon after and now get lots of time to jam as roommates.

The group set out to accomplish adventurous goals, and has been checking them off the list steadily.

In March, Kill-Me Kare Bare traveled to London to record the tracks for Just For Fun in 10 days at Ealing Studios, primarily an British independent film studio, most recently notable for its production of Shaun of the Dead.

The EP was produced by the Icelandic multi-instrumentalist, Gisli, who began corresponding with Stoppel to ask permission to remix some of Kill-Me Kare Bare’s original recordings.

“It was frickin’ amazing!” an enthusiastic Jones said of the groups time in the UK. “It was like a fantasy world and the creative energy was freakin perfect!”

While the each group member’s musical influences differ, the group’s sound is largely driven by driving crunchy guitar, accented by Johnson’s keyboard pieces that create harmonies that play well off of Stoppel’s vocals, which can paint a range of emotional landscapes in content, but always come across lighthearted and cheerful in feel.

Jones quickly offered that the most important part of the connection to their Rochester musical roots was the camaraderie enjoyed between the people who have cut their musical chops in the med city.

“That’s the main thing. There’s a lot of history there,” he said recalling time living in a silo outside of Rochester with other musicians as well as scratching and clawing to find venues to play shows in town along with his current band mates when they were all in different Rochester groups.

Kill-Me Kare Bare has received quite a bit of media attention lately, playing live on the Today Show on KARE 11 in Minneapolis, and getting some airplay on MPR’s music station The Current.

The group has given itself a new slate of fun and ambitious goals to accomplish in the coming year. An appearance on a late night talk show? They’ll work on hooking that up. The group has planned the first of what they hope will be an annual Mississippi boat party on the afternoon of August 27th. The party will involve a four hour tour on the waters between Minneapolis and St. Paul. For $25 music lovers will get to test their sea legs along with several other local bands. Stoppel says there will be free beer, but I went to too many of his shows in the 90s disappointed by the lack of this, that I’m not sure I believe him.

(If you’re one of the 20 people who got that reference, it’s you’re lucky day. If you didn’t get it, ask around until you do, and you’ll have a lucky day too. It’s kind of like a lucky day hunt.)

More and more people will likely take notice of Kill-Me Kare Bare’s powerful punch of happy, catchy music as they continue regularly play popular Twin Cities nightspots and make connections with other artists. October will bring a small tour of the southern Mid - Olmstead Journal (Nathan Langworthy)

I think Rebecca Black sums up Kill-Me Kare Bare's music best with her world-famous quote, "Fun, fun, fun." The band even made a video promoting their album release, Just For Fun (hey, it's also in the title of their album) at Cause parodying Ms. Black's video.

While many new artists find their niche in running their band with business-like precision, sarcasm and light-heartedness is a theme that runs through all projects this band produces. Smart move? Yes! For funny sells, garnering them recent attention from quite a bit of local press.


Members:
Blake Stoppel- vocals guitar
Chris Johnson-keyboards
Matt Hoppe-drums
Jared Denton Jones- guitar, vocals
Scott Hefte- bass, vocals

CD release show June 24, 2011 at Cause with With a Gun For a Face, The van Gobots, and Hunting Club.
21+, $5, 9 pm

Gimme Noise: Where does the name Kill-Me Kare Bare come from?

Blake Stoppel: Umm. I was just thinking of caring for something or someone so much. Overindulgence comes into play and actually destroys what you love right before your eyes. Kinda of like feeding your dog pizza everyday cause it seems like they love to eat pizza, so you just keep feeding them to keep him or her happy...if that makes sense. Haha.

I hear a little Weezer in your music; besides bananas, where do you guys draw inspiration from when writing?

I'm glad you noticed the bananas, you know, potassiam is crucial to writing a good hook or a catchy verse...

But seriously, it is a little different for all of us in the group. We all love playing music with each other, that's for sure, so just by getting together, there is a lot of energy and excitement in the room. I find that inspiring.

Dreamgirls (not the strip club, but actually amazing women that don't exist...kind of) seem to play a role in a lot in the KMKB writing material, at least on some level.

Maybe level two, you know. We recently traveled to London UK to record Just For Fun, which will be our latest release, I must say a very inspirational time there.

We basically wrote and recorded 4 songs in 5 days while we were there. Not to mention that we got to work with a producer that Blake and Chris have been a fan of for years.

Actually four years prior to us all going to London, Gisli Kristjannson has worked in the music industry for a long time and has so much experience. He has produced a lot of great bands, as well having a successful solo recording career himself, and as fate would have it we really got along with him. Which made for a super fun day, every single day we were there.

Being in London was just a whole story in itself; we will have a book someday just on that few days. (10 days) So much life happened. We met a lot of great people
there and are really looking forward to going back next year for a tour.

What makes KMKB unique and different from so many other bands these days?

One thing we do is have a lot of fun and try not to be so serious about everything. Even though at times bands tend to run like a business, unfortunately, but overall we like to come up with crazy goals and just do them.

The band got serious only about a year ago when KMKB had an official line up of members who were ready to make some cool dreams happen. For example: let's go to London and record an EP. (Did it!)

Next, we decided to play on a boat on the Mississippi and have Kill-Me Kare Bare's first annual boat party! We just booked that for Aug. 27th with 3 other great local bands!! So I don't know if that answers your question, but those are the types of things we are doing.

We have a couple more fun ideas cooking at the moment.

What comes first, the lyrics or the music?

It's always different, we have a few different formulas to write songs. Chris and Blake have been playing together a long time, and Matt used to be in a band with them years ago (Mark of the Underdogs).

So we have a strong writing connection that just happens. Jared and Blake are always hanging out writing hooks in the basement and such, so Blake will take those and demo out the songs in his room, put them on a disc, show them to everyone, and everyone seems to know what to do with it instantly and all of the sudden..whammo, we have a new song.

What artists are you listening to now? Locally? Non-local?

Hunting Club just gave me their last CD, which I've been listening to, and A Gun For A Face is another great local band. Just got the disc and really enjoying that..

They are both goods friends of ours and also playing at our CD release this Friday at Cause.


Finish this statement: "Never have I ever..."


Never have I ever been skydiving while playing the opening riff to "Sweet Child of Mine" and then landing in a sweet convertible race car with, guess who is driving...yup, you guessed it. Burt Reynolds.

And then, of course I never broke into a really cool theme park with said Burt and our friends Lady Gaga and Big Bird - Citypages, GimmeNoise, by Youa Vang

I think Rebecca Black sums up Kill-Me Kare Bare's music best with her world-famous quote, "Fun, fun, fun." The band even made a video promoting their album release, Just For Fun (hey, it's also in the title of their album) at Cause parodying Ms. Black's video.

While many new artists find their niche in running their band with business-like precision, sarcasm and light-heartedness is a theme that runs through all projects this band produces. Smart move? Yes! For funny sells, garnering them recent attention from quite a bit of local press.


Members:
Blake Stoppel- vocals guitar
Chris Johnson-keyboards
Matt Hoppe-drums
Jared Denton Jones- guitar, vocals
Scott Hefte- bass, vocals

CD release show June 24, 2011 at Cause with With a Gun For a Face, The van Gobots, and Hunting Club.
21+, $5, 9 pm

Gimme Noise: Where does the name Kill-Me Kare Bare come from?

Blake Stoppel: Umm. I was just thinking of caring for something or someone so much. Overindulgence comes into play and actually destroys what you love right before your eyes. Kinda of like feeding your dog pizza everyday cause it seems like they love to eat pizza, so you just keep feeding them to keep him or her happy...if that makes sense. Haha.

I hear a little Weezer in your music; besides bananas, where do you guys draw inspiration from when writing?

I'm glad you noticed the bananas, you know, potassiam is crucial to writing a good hook or a catchy verse...

But seriously, it is a little different for all of us in the group. We all love playing music with each other, that's for sure, so just by getting together, there is a lot of energy and excitement in the room. I find that inspiring.

Dreamgirls (not the strip club, but actually amazing women that don't exist...kind of) seem to play a role in a lot in the KMKB writing material, at least on some level.

Maybe level two, you know. We recently traveled to London UK to record Just For Fun, which will be our latest release, I must say a very inspirational time there.

We basically wrote and recorded 4 songs in 5 days while we were there. Not to mention that we got to work with a producer that Blake and Chris have been a fan of for years.

Actually four years prior to us all going to London, Gisli Kristjannson has worked in the music industry for a long time and has so much experience. He has produced a lot of great bands, as well having a successful solo recording career himself, and as fate would have it we really got along with him. Which made for a super fun day, every single day we were there.

Being in London was just a whole story in itself; we will have a book someday just on that few days. (10 days) So much life happened. We met a lot of great people
there and are really looking forward to going back next year for a tour.

What makes KMKB unique and different from so many other bands these days?

One thing we do is have a lot of fun and try not to be so serious about everything. Even though at times bands tend to run like a business, unfortunately, but overall we like to come up with crazy goals and just do them.

The band got serious only about a year ago when KMKB had an official line up of members who were ready to make some cool dreams happen. For example: let's go to London and record an EP. (Did it!)

Next, we decided to play on a boat on the Mississippi and have Kill-Me Kare Bare's first annual boat party! We just booked that for Aug. 27th with 3 other great local bands!! So I don't know if that answers your question, but those are the types of things we are doing.

We have a couple more fun ideas cooking at the moment.

What comes first, the lyrics or the music?

It's always different, we have a few different formulas to write songs. Chris and Blake have been playing together a long time, and Matt used to be in a band with them years ago (Mark of the Underdogs).

So we have a strong writing connection that just happens. Jared and Blake are always hanging out writing hooks in the basement and such, so Blake will take those and demo out the songs in his room, put them on a disc, show them to everyone, and everyone seems to know what to do with it instantly and all of the sudden..whammo, we have a new song.

What artists are you listening to now? Locally? Non-local?

Hunting Club just gave me their last CD, which I've been listening to, and A Gun For A Face is another great local band. Just got the disc and really enjoying that..

They are both goods friends of ours and also playing at our CD release this Friday at Cause.


Finish this statement: "Never have I ever..."


Never have I ever been skydiving while playing the opening riff to "Sweet Child of Mine" and then landing in a sweet convertible race car with, guess who is driving...yup, you guessed it. Burt Reynolds.

And then, of course I never broke into a really cool theme park with said Burt and our friends Lady Gaga and Big Bird - Citypages, GimmeNoise, by Youa Vang