With the release of Americana band Kuinka‘s Stay Up Late EP earlier this year, the quartet took creative steps forward to deftly expand their sound into folk-pop territory. Riding in on the trend of moves made by bands like the Head and the Heart and the National Parks in recent years, they’ve traded in their raw roots sound for a bit more pop polish. Kuinka has kept the same singalong, celebratory vibe that they’ve been toting all this time, but there was a fork in the sonic highway that they boldly took this go-around. In this writer’s opinion, they succeeded in once again captivating their audience, just in a respectably newfound way.
If the EP could be described in just one word, that word might well be “joyous”. No track does better to establish those themes than “Mistakenly Brave”, which now has a similarly sunny music video to accompany it. In the video directed by Kuinka’s own Nathan Hamer, the scene is set in a Renaissance setting as the kingdom’s bards are offered a proposition: perform and perform well for the king, or it’s off with their heads. It’s then that the musicians band together in an exuberant performance that gets the whole court dancing, but will the king ultimately be pleased? Either way, it’s just the sort of festive zest that one needs to see to keep the holiday season rolling.
Hamer says, “The music video for ‘Mistakenly Brave’ was first born when we stumbled upon some old ornamental French horns in a thrift shop and thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be hilarious if we made a music video where we performed with old renaissance instruments instead of our own?’
“The idea sort of snowballed out of control from there and got increasingly ridiculous. And with today’s political climate, the idea of playing music for a self-obsessed tyrannical king also seemed fitting.”
TOUR DATES
JAN
17 Redding, CA // The Dip
18 Mill Valley, CA // Sweetwater Music Hall
19 Agoura Hills, CA (LA, CA) // Tiny Porch Presents at Cornell Winery
20 Phoenix, AZ // Last Exit Live
25 Washington, D.C. // Gypsy Sally’s
26 New York, NY // Mercury Lounge (early show)
27 Saratoga Springs, NY // Caffe Lena
28 Philadelphia, PA // World Cafe Live
31 Pittsburgh, PA // Club Cafe
FEB
1 Columbus, OH // The Basement
2 Chicago, IL // Schubas
3 St Louis, MO // The Bootleg
6 Ann Arbor, MI // The Ark
7 Indianapolis, IN // HiFi Indy
8 Kalamazoo, MI // Bell’s Eccentric Cafe
9 Davenport, IA // Redstone Room
10 Iowa City, IA // Iowa City Yacht Club
11 Madison, WI // The Frequency
14-16 Kansas City, MO // Folk Alliance // official showcase FRI 2/16
17 Omaha, NE // The Slowdown