[this article was originally published for Suburban Bully, May 27th, 2010]
Into Arcadia won’t be playing the show they had scheduled this Saturday due to a booking mistake/scheduling conflict. The name of the venue they were slated to perform at will remain unnamed here, however, due to the fact that I’m holding a grudge against the place’s owner for not responding to an e-mail I sent him regarding some other business I’d like to discuss - yeah, that’s how childish I am.
Anyway, I’ve been listening to Into Arcadia’s debut EP, entitled Maps For Children, religiously since I got my hands on it, and the fact that I wouldn’t be able to experience the band live came as somewhat of a disappointment. That was until I got in contact with lead singer/guitarist Otto Ohlsson, and he told me he’d make it up to me.... by inviting me to the band’s studio, where they would perform a private set! Needless to say, I was honored by the opportunity. Obviously the fact that I’m writing for Suburban Bully has earned me some clout (hear that, unnamed establishment owner? Get in touch with me, damnit, I’m important!).
So as we drove in his car to the band’s Glendale rehearsal studio, with me eager as a teenaged boy on prom night riding in the passenger seat, Ohlsson asked me if I’d ever been to one of their shows before. “No, I haven’t,” I said, to which he responded: “It’s more a burlesque show than a musical performance. We have all sorts of really cute outfits we wear, and we have some really good ones for you tonight.” The man was a comedian as well, was he... “Is that right?” I asked, “And will there also be a little miming and some hat tricks?” He very sincerely looked at me and said: “Yes, there will be.... so you have been to one of our shows then!”
Before I go any further into this, let me just give you some insight into this band (in case you’ve been living under a rock). Into Arcadia is one of the bands I have in mind when I make bold statements like the following: the Milwaukee music scene right now has the ability to turn the world on its ear. There is such a wealth of talent here right under our noses that’s it’s outright shameful if you aren’t out there experiencing it! You’re going to be paying out the ass to see these groups live someday - mark my words. Do you enjoy Tickmaster’s exorbitant handling fees - the ones that turn a $35 concert ticket into a $65 dollar charge on your Mastercard?? I know I don’t, that’s why I see these bands before they’re huge, and a cover charge is all I have to worry about. Plus, I’ll have bragging rights to say pompous things later on in life, like: “Into Arcadia? Posh [flick of the wrist as I stir my gin and tonic], I saw them when they were just starting out in Milwaukee. They even performed a show just for me in their studio back in the day.” And people will roll their eyes and not believe me, but it will be the truth. The truth, I tell you!
The best comparison I can give you to describe the lucid soundscapes that Into Arcadia creates, is something like The Cure meets U2, with just a smattering (just a smattering, mind you) of INXS. Every song is a proclamation, a war call, an urge for revolution - all brought on by Ohlsson’s deliberately staccato vocal refrains, and the band’s master technical prowess. I watched the group’s second guitarist and keyboardist Kenny Buesing use a screw driver on his guitar to emulate a violin, for Christ’s sake! If I’d had my eyes closed, I’d have sworn it was the genuine article. “That was just a flathead,” he told me, “you should see me on a Philips.” Wes Falk plays a 2-string fretless bass guitar that supports their sound in all the right places and with just the right growl - only two strings! And though drummer Antonio Ninham is replacing the work of Zak Weiland, he’s less filling his shoes and more raising the bar. Ninham is a much more elaborate drummer, with a noticeably more energetic delivery than his predecessor.
What enamored me most about the Maps For Children EP (and the band itself, for that matter) is not only their musicianship, but the uninterrupted theme to the collection (themes are something I’ve always been a sucker for). The album and the songs interact to make a tangible element between the music and the packaging. The cover depicts a young girl with her arms suspended on puppet strings, but in her hand she wields a scissors, and is in the act of snipping those pulleys away one by one. The design on the disc itself is of a compass; it all fits hand in hand with the content. In the opening track “Distance Equals Time”, Ohlsson sings: “would you give it up, would you let it go, would you let me learn, would you let me grow - I don’t mean you no harm.” It’s the message of separation from being told to finding out. It’s what every person, child or not, is entitled to; because we all develop our character and have our life experiences from learning in our own way and by following our own curiosities. We trust our own judgments even when we really should have been taking the advice of those who know better - but we want to learn for ourselves just how to know better. “Grace of Light” is a particularly defining track, where as the song closes Olsshon chants: “this world changed, and it’s a long way home...” True to the theme of the EP, it’s in this moment that the antagonized makes the realization that he or she has grown and matured, and the way back to those simpler times is long and far away.
“The whole theme of the record is very reminiscent of the past, and of growing up,” Ohlsson explains, “it represents all the pressure that we put on our children to grow up to be like this, or to grow up and do that. I wanted to portray this very ghostly Victorian girl as a puppet, and she’s bound to these strings that are being controlled by her parents or by other adult influences... but she’s cutting them because she just wants to be a kid, and she wants to have the freedom to just grow and learn for herself. It explains the title: Maps For Children.”
Into Arcadia put on a stellar performance for a room of no one other than themselves and me, yet watching and listening (on a pretty comfortable couch, I should add) as they moved through their set, they may just as well have been performing for a whole crowd. All the energy was there: Ohlsson stomped his foot and lunged at the mic when the strongest lyrical messages needed to be emphasized. Buesing busied himself like a mad scientist between keys and guitar; Falk snaked his anything but simplistic basslines around it even as Ninham’s percussion would build to crescendos, plateau into steady timekeeping, erupt again with a crashing cacophony of cymbals... and then bring it all back down. Arcadia’s live performance is an organized maneuver on the senses, and by far one the most moving live musical experiences I can remember having.
While they won’t be playing for any of you (jealous yet?) until round about July, when they do they’ll be bringing new material with them.
“It’s been two years since we recorded a record, and our songwriting has come a long way since then. We’ve gotten more creative, and I actually think they’re better songs than are on the [first] EP.” Ohlsson says, “This is the band we’ve been trying to put together for the past two years. We’re more confident in our sound and ability now, and Antonio’s kicked us into a whole new gear, so we’re really centered on recording this album.”
That doesn’t leave much hope for the burlesque show I was promised. Oh well... maybe some other time.
[photography: David Larson]
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