“I SAID" 02: rainbow kitten surprise is a good band

I might have bad taste ?

May 20, 2024

Disclaimer: I don’t know any “cool” music. I am Death Cab for Cutie’s biggest fan. I have tickets to Passion Pit next week. I haven’t listened to a single one of the 1975’s albums past “I like it when you sleep” because I refuse to believe they ever got as popular as they did. They played Webster Hall in 2014 and I WAS THERE. When they tour now, they’re selling out arenas. My music taste is stuck on a Tumblr blog somewhere, waiting for me to reactivate my account.

My friends used to joke that I would google random strings of words together and listen to bands that would pop up from that search. In hindsight, that’s so funny. (f*cking hilarious, actually) The bands in question were called shit like “Atlas Genius” and “Rainbow Kitten Surprise.” WTF is that. As a youth, obviously, it was isolating. I felt MiSuNdErStOoD.

If you don’t follow me on Instagram (shameless plug) I was lucky enough to actually go to the Rainbow Kitten Surprise concert at Webster Hall a few weeks ago. I like them, but they’ve been pretty quiet lately and I haven’t been following following them. I really wanted to go to the show for one reason: a single they wrote in 2022. My true love and respect for this band came when I heard Work Out for the first time. Spoiler alert, they didn’t play it at the concert. I am coping.

I listened to them a lot in early college. It’s Called: Freefall was a hyperfixation song for me in the spring of 2018. I know this for a FACT because I posted it on my Instagram story in the hopes that a boy that I liked would acknowledge my feelings of being so incredibly sad about his recent decision to move across the country. That song probably had a big-ish moment (for an indie song) back then, but it had another on TikTok within the past year. So yes. I am a hater! Rainbow Kitten Surprise is getting popular and it’s irritating. Not for gatekeeping purposes, but also kind of for gatekeeping purposes. The tickets for their Webster Hall show were $45 face value. I bought one on resale at $100, but that entire day the prices were creeping above $225. It sucks to admit, but I will. It’s a good thing that bands that I like are getting the attention they deserve. High quality, well produced art should.

So I go to the show alone. My phone’s on 35% so I turn it on airplane mode and deprive myself of the simple pleasure of looking up the setlist in advance - just anxious girly things. I know they’re putting out a new album at midnight, I like a few of the singles that they released so I am expecting a mix of old and new, nothing out of left field. They come on to perform.

I had popped a camino before this so it could partially be that talking but I feel my soul leave my body. All the songs I didn’t know off the new album were hitting in the right places. The ones I did know were slapping me in the face. I’m a sucker for things I don’t know how to say myself.

I took the train back from third avenue and teared up a little.

So the decision is made to stay up until the album drops. I listen, I cry a little more in private - Brian’s not home so it’s just me, coming off a gummy and facing some pretty intense thoughts.

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I’m trying to put myself first, trying to focus on myself, working on being more honest about my feelings. Is it working? Am I doing it? 
I miss a couple friends I don’t hang with anymore. 
I want to see them. Why does it feel like they don't care about me? 
I'm finally on the other side of a pretty deep depression. Am I though? Did I come out the other side?  I’m starting to feel like myself again. I'm terrified.

Maybe this album just came at the right time for me. I’m listening to it so much. I’m inhaling it, running with it in my ears, falling asleep to it.

So the next day, I go falling down the r/rainbowkittensurprise rabbit hole. I’m expecting everyone to be posting their favorites and talking about what the lyrics mean; my favorite scrolling activity these days. Instead, all I see is hate. Loud hate. Intense hate.

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They sold out 
They went pop 
The label made them change their sound
The lyrics have no meaning
This is surface level shit 
This sounds nothing like them 
I hate this

There’s some context to this, some band lore - they kicked their bassist out, they took a hiatus, the lead singer came out as transgender, they didn’t put out a new album for six years. There’s been a LOT going on. The fans so deep in it had high expectations for this 22-track magnum opus. And I guess I can’t blame them. It is a different album, it is a different sound.

Maybe I have bad taste, but I live for that shit. I want different. In 2022, when Drake put out Honestly Nevermind I was losing my mind. It was so freaking good, fun, unexpected. Are our brains just so nervous about change that we can’t let our favorite bands get creative? Must we hold them hostage to the same-exact-shit-they’ve-been-doing-forever? Aren’t we better people for expanding our horizons and encouraging taking chances?

Someone wrote on reddit that the first few albums were about lead singer Ela feeling like a stranger in her own body, that she was literally a tortured artist unable to be herself. That really resonated with me, mostly because she sounds happier on this album, while still packing that emotional crush I crave.

“Am I breaking hearts just to feel alive?” from Meticulous is a favorite lyric.

Give it a listen and let me know your thoughts below.

“I SAID" 02: rainbow kitten surprise is a good band

I might have bad taste ?

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