Hello reader,
How are you today?
I’m excited to discuss another band that continues to create great music that I know will appeal to music fans, regardless of age: Listening Party.
Since forming in 2013, the Milwaukee-based band has been driven by the talented duo of Weston Mueller (vocals, guitar) and Jacob Wood (piano, harmonica, background vocals). Blending elements of alternative country, Americana, folk, and rock with descriptive and storytelling lyrics, the ever-engaging group has built up a dedicated Midwestern following over the years, especially in southeastern Wisconsin.
For many years, they performed live and recorded in the studio either as a duo or trio. In 2018, they released their self-titled debut, followed quickly by 2018’s Less Is More. Right as the band was building momentum and was preparing to record another album, the pandemic hit. That halt of normal life caused Mueller and Wood to contemplate whether their career path in music was viable.
Fortunately, the members of the Listening Party quickly realized just how important music was to them. They began adjusting to their new reality, performing now as a duo instead of a trio. In 2023, they released a new album, Been a Long Time Comin’, with a largely acoustic sound. You can read my interview about that album here.
In the past couple of years, they began to ask themselves: “How can we challenge ourselves and expand our sound?” The answer was to begin performing as a quartet. With the new additions of Travis Worth (upright bass, vocals) and Tyler Furrer (guitar), they were able to create a more wide-ranging, dynamic sound that is much more “rock and roll-tinged”. It matches the “Acoustic-Americana persona of their previous work with a new rock’n’roll twist.”
Even with these changes, there remains, as a press release describes, an “intimacy between the band, song, and audience,” with the band “taking pride” in playing venues ranging from dive bars to main stages. As someone who has seen the band many times, both as a duo and in an expanded format, I can firmly attest to that.
In February, they released their excellent new album High & Low, which perfectly showcases the band’s charming qualities, growth, and evolution. The album was recorded and produced by Kyle White at the Wauwatosa, Wisconsin studio Wire and Vice.
According to a press release, “While Mueller’s lyrics range from light-hearted to gritty and vulnerable, the band matches instrumentation emotionally. From a gritty blues harp in ‘KK River Blues’, a moody distorted guitar in ‘High Road’, and the percussive drive of upright bass in ‘Billy Winter’, the band paints a musical tapestry to accentuate the ‘soul’ of each song.” I couldn’t say it any better, as it’s an ever-engaging listen from start to finish. It’s exciting to see where the band’s growth has taken them.
One of the prime examples of that, and one of my favorite songs on the album and live tracks, is “KK River Blues”. You can listen to the song below, as well as a promo video after that, which features the band live:
Mueller wrote the song after recalling an experience he had in called of “uncovering an urban legend of a man who gave it all up to live by the river with his dog. The story is looking through the scope of a man who has given up on living in the confines of society and has begun to fall off the deep end.”
Below, Mueller describes how the song came alive while recording it:
“We came to the studio with these songs pretty polished as a quartet (no percussion) and then had Kyle get to work on producing them with an outside set of ears. First, he added Drums and percussion to the mix. For ‘KK River Blues’ specifically, during the first guitar solo you hear kind of a quirky ‘Junk’ kit accompanying the guitar. A simplistic sound that breaks up the sections without drawing attention away from the meat of the song.
Then the experimental part of the recording process was introduced where we would layer guitar, organ, piano, etc. to give the songs more depth. And sometimes it led us to adding guest musicians on a track when we would stumble upon an idea for varying instrumentation. Such as fiddle on ‘Billy Winter’, a horn section on ‘Scoundrel’ and a string section on ‘Hill’s & Valleys’. Overall, it was our first experience working with a producer and allowed us to dive deeper into the art of recording an album.”
The press release describes it eloquently, saying that the song rides a “wave of spirited, sometimes desperate vocals and brash blues-harp accompaniment” and takes the listener on a “near hallucinogenic experience as you enter the mind of a hopeless vagabond looking for salvation in all of the wrong places.” It certainly left me in a trance between Mueller’s charismatic range as a vocalist and ability to twist an engaging story and the rest of the group’s spirited and tight playing. It’s an earworm that hasn’t lost its poignancy even after multiple listens.
Mueller offers memorable lyrics, including “I was self-prescribed n’ off the rails” and “I’d kill for a beer and some fried bologna”.
“Mueller’s lyrics take you through the throes of the dejected wanderer’s life decisions,” the album’s press release says. “But by the time the chorus hits, ‘KK River Blues’ shifts into a possibly misguided optimistic outlook with a come one, come all sing-along; encouraging everyone to join the narrator in singing, the ‘KK River Blues.’ And so, the band too is inviting everyone to come along with them on a whimsical journey to imagine and explore the very real, Kinnickinnic River in their hometown of Milwaukee, WI.”
The High & Low album Tracklist:
- KK River Blues
- Hills & Valleys
- Drinkin’ Buddies
- Billy Winter
- The Old Man
- Ode to a Neighbor
- Scoundrell
- High Road
- Branches
You can connect with and listen to the Listening Party at the following links:
Website: Listeningpartymusic.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/listeningpartymusic
Instagram: Instagram.com/listeningpartymusic
YouTube: Youtube.com/@listeningparty5111
Spotify: Listening Party on Spotify
Bandcamp: Listeningpartymusic.bandcamp.com
Apple Music: Listening Party on Apple Music
Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.
