Kid Theodore, Hello Rainey

Salt Lake City natives — now Los Angeles residents — Kid Theodore are a band you may not have heard of yet, but one that you definitely should try to get to know. The band’s sophomore release, Hello Rainey (a follow-up to their debut, seven-song EP Goodnight…Goodnight) is a retro-sounding jam session complete with danceable beats, jazzy tunes, and piano rock at its finest.

The album starts with a track that sounds as if someone is tuning a radio, going from station to station until finally they seem to stop on a Kid Theodore song, moving the album to track two entitled “Horse.”

The band uses a wide variety of instruments, most notably the standing bass, which helps give the album that vintage vibe, along with the accordion, harmonica, and trumpet. Even the vocals seem to have a faded, vintage sound to them, as if the music really were playing through one of those radios from the 1930s. Hello Rainey continues with the vintage radio theme with two commercial breaks between songs and a commercial outro at the latter half of the album.

I’ve seen Kid Theodore play several times and I must say that while I like Hello Rainey, the band’s recordings, at least on this album, can’t match a live performance. The first time I saw them they opened for Sea Wolf in Salt Lake City a couple years ago and I couldn’t believe that they were a local Salt Lake band and not a national touring outfit. It was one of the most fun and energetic shows I had seen, and from that moment I was hooked.

The band has so much fun onstage and knows how to get any crowd excited. I’ve seen them play in front of a few hundred people, but I’ve also seen them play in front of about eight people, and each time, it was a party; regardless of the crowd, the band gave it their all. When I think of them, I always remember the way vocalist and bassist Cole Barnson handles that huge, standing bass; he spins it and plays it while it’s lying on the ground. It’s a thing of pure beauty.

Hello Rainey is a unique blend of vintage-esque pop tunes — a little slow at some points, but overall very fun – complete with high-energy dance tunes and more toned down ballads as well. It’s definitely a fun album worth checking out, and if you have a chance to see the band live, it will totally change your perception of them and this album. And since the band is still together and playing music, I’m positive their next will release will be that much better. I’m excited to see what Kid Theodore has in store for us next.

Feature photo by Maleah Butcher.