Seattle Subsonic

Kyp Malone And His Rain Machine

October 3rd, 2009

So, Kyp Malone and his Rain Machine (I kinda wish that was the actual band name) unexpectedly blew me away the other night. For whatever reason, I wasn’t “super stoked” to see the lead guitarist from TV on the Radio perform a bunch of eccentric and unfamiliar songs, but ten minutes into the set I realized I was watching THE LEAD FUCKING GUITARIST FROM TV ON THE FUCKING RADIO. IN THE FRONT ROW. AND IT WAS AWESOME. Seriously, why wasn’t I more pumped? Perhaps something in his music is lost in translation from live to studio to record, or perhaps I’m getting old (ugh…30?! already?!), or perhaps I just failed to give a unique man and his creative prowess the credit their due. Probably a combination of all three.

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Kyp—I call him Kyp—is the force and creator behind Rain Machine, which is nothing if not individual. He even thanked us for checking out “something different” this night. We should not assume that an artist such as he will crank out some formulaic guitar rock solely because he’s got some idle time on his hands. No, he’s gonna create some weird and crazy incomparable shit because he seems like a weirdo. A good weirdo, who has an artist’s soul, and a musician’s touch, and avoids vacuous mainstream culture by choice (though his pre-show turquoise Dr. Huxtable sweater was pretty intriguing). And while his otherworldly beard offers little in the way of facial expression, it turns out he’s a pretty affable and friendly guy. At least in front of a loyal crowd. P.S. I think I just officially fell in love with Mr. Kyp Malone.

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Thursday night he took the stage at Neumos with four other undistinguished musicians, who seemed like some random people that Kyp found interesting and talented enough to bring his vision to life. And while their body language was often tentative, constantly looking for cues from Kyp and no doubt getting used to each other as an on-stage unit, they indeed gave Rain Machine’s songs a fervent heartbeat. There was a girl, who sang and played keyboard and banjo. There was a talented bassist wearing boat shoes. There was a long haired drummer who played mostly with timpani mallets and cowbell. And there was Carmen, the strained-face guitarist who relied mostly on racket and texture. Kyp split his time between a dobro and small body Gibson, which accompanied his unearthly voice. Regarding his voice, its much more conspicuous than its role within the realm of TVOTR, more of a centerpiece, and its range is quite good.

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Said voice was the focus of the one solo “song” that Kyp was alone on stage for. After a handful of tunes, the band exited, he made a jab at himself (while referencing the value of the self-deprecation he learned from watching Jewish comedians as a kid), and set out on a wild tirade of a song, whose two main lyrics were “hoooooooooooooly shit” and “satan’s got the a-bomb”. It was a winding, singing, spoken word freak out that epitomized his artistic approach. The band re-entered and played probably their most popular song thus far, “Give Blood”. The energy was high.

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Some other notables: Kyp spent a summer in Ballard many years ago and our city impressed him. Yay. During the last song, which was a hushed crescendo folk rocker (“Winter Song”), someone in the chatterbox crowd got a scolding from the front man: “ssshhh” he said, and when the noise continued, “I know it’s late at night, but I dedicated this song to my nephew.” I like how carefully he chooses his words. More pics here.