“Exuberant guitar pop melodies – sweet, yet with loads of nutritive value. Kahoots: earfood for a song-starved republic.” – Clint Conley – Mission Of Burma
Formed on Martha’s Vineyard in 1995 by then-high school senior Elisha Wiesner and Rob Myers, Kahoots began as a two-piece rock duo, but soon evolved into a full-force five-piece band. Nineteen years, eleven albums, a handful of e.p.s, and more than 500 shows later, Rob and Elisha, along with longtime bassist John Larsen, multi-instrumentalist Robbie Lee, and drummers George Berz and Salvadore Mcnamara, are back with “Take To The Fields,” their first album in four years.
Martha’s Vineyard is a busy summer resort for three months of the year. The rest of the time, it is a veritable ghost town. A strange place for a band. “There’s something to the isolation,” says guitarist Wiesner. “Somehow it just brings out songs, brings out strange ideas and without a big city scene. It allows a band to just be themselves without having to fit in. There’s a lot of great music here.” Kahoots is a tricky band to describe. You might call them “a rock band with odd changes,” or “a pop band with a lot of feedback.” Ask them, and they’ll probably just say they play “rock music.”
“Take To The Fields” is at times pure pop melody with plenty of hooks, and at times music somewhat at odds with itself, fighting to be either heard or contained. An uncomfortable tension permeates the album. Kahoots have spent the better part of the last two decades making and (primarily) self-releasing music for themselves, music that resonates along the dead streets of a snow-covered summer resort island in February. Now, almost 20 years in, they want you to hear it too.
