Most-Recent Entries
By: Ben Cannon, Bram Epstein, and Darrin Snider
Sunday, June 6, 2021
M.O.R. Episode 2 -- Ian Thomson
By: Ben Cannon, Bram Epstein, and Darrin Snider
Sunday, May 23, 2021
M.O.R. Episode 1 -- Mark Kelly
By: Ben Cannon, Bram Epstein, and Darrin Snider
Sunday, May 16, 2021
An In-Snide Look: I Think I Could Get Used to this Life Sometimes
By: Darrin Snider
Sunday, June 7, 2020
Getting Down to Earth with mOOnMen
By: Amy Foxworthy
Sunday, February 16, 2020
The Musical Journey of Jethro Easyfields
By: Amy Foxworthy
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Monday Mixtape: Etwasprog
By: Darrin Snider
Monday, February 10, 2020
Monday Mixtape: Excerpts from the Summer of 2014
By: Darrin Snider
Monday, January 20, 2020
Mix Tape Monday: Mashin' it Up
By: Darrin Snider
Monday, January 13, 2020
Mix Tape Monday: Back to the Gym Workout
By: Darrin Snider
Monday, January 6, 2020
Album Reivew: Brad Kleinschmidt's Gone
By: Kelly Fox (kelly at indyintune dot com)Friday, July 17, 2015 7:00:00 PM
Despite the double-take I did when looking at Brad Kleinschmidt's name, I had no idea what to expect when I started in on his newest CD, Gone. Brad calls Muncie his hometown, really likes flannels (me too, Brad, me too), and isn't the biggest fan of social media, from what I gather from his Facebook page. His website boasts outstanding reviews and features tracks from his previous album, Head Trash. I sampled a few of those songs, and I can tell he's trying to go in a more rock-direction, which I, personally, am a big fan of.
While that first album leaned more towards a safe, modern-country sound, his new sound is best described as country-tinged rock. Rock with hints of folk is very common, but Brad's style is founded in straight-up country with alternative influences. His growth as an artist is clear in his new pieces. It's clear that these four songs were written after reflection of his first album, as he realized, “it's time to try something different” (he's looking for the space between? No more puns, I promise). Some songs feature almost synth-y elements, some begin with hard rock intros, and some even throw in some old-school record scratches before a chorus.
Despite this experimenting, Brad's lyrics and the majority of the instrumentals stay true to his older sound. His lyrics are warm and depict small town-life (I can vouch for his accuracy, being from Nowheresville, IN), which compliment his acoustic sound. The fact that he writes his own music, while expected on the local scene, shouldn't be taken for granted. It may be easy to miss the significance of his lyrics, but when taken into consideration with the tone of the songs, they create powerful messages. I'll let you interpret what said messages are come July 24th.
I deeply respect what Brad has accomplished with his newest pieces. He's an artist who identifies his roots and then tries to shake things up with allusions to different styles, which is how new genres and styles are made. Even if I don't personally dig the more country vibes, I acknowledge and appreciate his effort to incorporate those weird, alternative elements into his sound. I also enjoy the fact that he is able to weave them in a way that doesn't make it sound forced. It's impossible for me to write this review without acknowledging that Kleinschmidt is, in fact, an artist. He's growing and changing within his art, and rather gracefully. Before I listened to his previous album, I would've assumed he had been doing country-alt-rock throughout his entire career. Kudos, Brad.
Bottom Line: He would be awesome live. Even listening through my headphones, I can tell Brad is passionate about what he creates. On stage, I imagine this zeal would allow him to create those deep connections with the audience that often make smaller shows into an entirely different experience than huge concerts. If you're looking for something a little more country, but you're getting bored with the same-ol'- same-ol', check Brad Kleinschmidt out; he brings a new alt flavor to the typical scene.
When/How to Listen: On a long car ride during those days when you can see summer ending, but you're not quite ready to acknowledge the disappearance of longer days and socially-acceptably mosquito bitten legs. Brad will bring you back to the days of heat-lightning and bonfires.
Previous Post: Album Review: IAMLION's Vessel | Next Post: Show #209: Brett Wiscons Forever |
Kelly Fox is an aspiring photographer and photojournalist when she's not at concerts. Her life would probably be a lot less cool if she had any capacity for embarrassment. |
Blog comments powered by Disqus
Useful Links Elsewhere
Solicitations and Submissions
Solicitations for blog posts can be made by sending and email to "blog -at- indyintune -dot- com" and should follow these guidelines:
- Local (Indianapolis-based) acts always have priority.
- Visisting acts playing a bill with one or more local acts are also considered.
- We generally don't like to repeat content found on other sites. If your request already has a lot of coverage on other sites, it will be considered low-priority unless you can give us an exclusive angle.
- For obvious reasons, we don't do solicited album reviews, though we do appreciate you letting us know when you have a new release. Consider coming in and talking about the album yourself live on the air or a podcast.
- All of our staff writers are unpaid enthusiasts. All requests for blog posts are entirely at their descretion.
- As such, they generally need a lot of lead-time to put something out -- we're talking weeks of lead time, not hours.
- That said, individual authors have full authority to ignore the following guidelines and write whatever they want ... if you can convince them to.
- In addition, feel free to write your own post and submit it for posting as a "guest blogger." Those almost always get accepted.
- Finally, regional or national acts submitting without meeting the above guidelines are generally ignored. We're not trying to be dicks, but if you send us a generic form-letter with your press release, and it doesn't even remotely concern a local artist or event, then you're not part of our core focus.