Artist description check out www.kiddakota.com.

Music Style indie/rock

Musical Influences Neutral Milk Hotel, Palace, Palace Brothers, Palace Music, Bonnie Prince Billie, Elliott Smith, Codeine, Slint, Sebadoh, Sparklehorse, Smog, Silver Jews, Shellac, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Phillip Glass, Steve Reich

Similar Artists Neutral Milk Hotel, Palace, Bonnie Prince Billie, Codeine, Elliott Smith, Will Oldham, Smog, Sparklehorse, Pedro the Lion, Silver Jews, June of 44, Sebadoh, Songs: Ohia, Black Heart Procession, Rex

Group Members darren jackson. i play shows and record with various musicians, including , ian prince (houston), zak sally (low), andrew broder (fog), erik appelwick (camaro, vicious vicious), and john hermanson (alva star).

Instruments vocals, guitar, bass, harmonix, ice cube tray, drum set, turntables, violin, wurlitzer, rhodes, lap steel, etc.....

Albums so pretty

Press Reviews Here's another one that has been out for a while, but I just discovered this summer. Kid Dakota's self-released EP, So Pretty, sounds like some weird combination of Built to Spill and Low, if that is at all imaginable. Darren Jackson's rugged guitar work along with his sincere and sometimes devastating vocals compliment Christopher McGuire's percussion and drum work perfectly. But don't underestimate the sonic capabilities of this two-piece - they could easily blow your ears out." Nude As the News (Aug. 2001)*******"The title track is a lugubrious and haunting song filled with minimalist instrumentation and a loud, distortion-induced chorus which frames Jackson’s quirky and eerie lyrics like the haunting, “instead of a habit, you should have a hobby / like Barbie or bubble gum cards.” However, the gloom is interrupted, briefly, by the slow and lovely acoustic love (or lust) song, “Pairin’ Off.” Throughout it all, Kid Dakota understands that plodding tempos and severe honesty can be as effective (or even more so) than blazing speed and extreme dynamics."Dripping guitar and sometimes-sullen voices provoke sprawling visions of a twisted Americana dream. This indie singer-songwriter is on the verge of genius. His music is fiendish and fun-filled with deep messages and wild six-string slap-back goodness." Riffagenews.com (Sept, 2000)********** "Kid Dakota's new EP is stunning: five songs about Faulkner, dope, and �hard times in Providence, RI.� Messy, reckless, and oozing with style, Kid Dakota hits the abyss and comes back up to nail a beautiful ballad about Spring. Highly recommended." John Vanderslice, tinytelephone.com (Dec, 2000)**********"Kid Dakota has apparently just signed to Tiny Telephone, but I think that happened after we received this CD. No mention of a label appears on my copy; it's just a CD-R with a cover photo showing a guy with a bloody face. I wasn't exactly excited by its prospects. However, now that I've finally put the disc in my player, it's made me lonesome for the days when I could sit back and listen to a single CD for a month straight. Darren Jackson's vocals and guitar work are more accomplished than all the early work by indie icons like Doug Martsch and Steve Malkmus, and his songs convey an astounding range. Rather than one great song repeated five times over, we get a stunning, lyrically beautiful ballad ("Spring is finally coming on, the geese are pairin' off") and rockers blending classic sixties pop with Archer of Loaf. There's "Coalminer", a song that conveys the same dirt and sweat with which Joe Grushecky stuffs his songs, but still makes me think of The Kinks, and you also get a "Summer Cold" that sweeps you, like So Pretty, 'up into the atmosphere, where the sky is blue and clear'. This is a must-have EP, and one which gives the fabulous Tiny Telephone catalog yet another gold star. -- td" Splendid (Mar, 2001)**********"Indie endurance artist Kid Dakota (a.k.a. Darren Jackson) gigs the hours away to make up for lost time. The boy on the cover of Kid Dakota's So Pretty has a face only a thug could love. Scabs blotch his forehead and chin. His arm dangles in a sling. His features appear even more menacing in front of the tiny bags of dead insects he has taped to the walls behind him. This is Darren Jackson, local indie-rock darling."I broke my elbow and knocked out some teeth," Jackson explains about the photo, which was taken of him years ago, when he lived in Rhode Island and was using drugs. "I passed out on a road in the middle of rural Connecticut. I don't really remember what happened after that, except that I woke up in jail. My friends bailed me out three days later." That night's frail survivor stares forebodingly from the cover of the ironically titled So Pretty, playing upon Jackson's trademark self-deprecation with subtle humor. The five songs that make up the EP--all of which Jackson recorded under the alias Kid Dakota--speak candidly of this downtrodden period in his life. Slinking into a chair in a Dinkytown coffee shop, the 29-year-old Jackson now looks considerably less battered, although he still seems a bit wilted and bleary-eyed. It's understandable that he should be fatigued: Anxiously paging through a new date book, he runs down an exhausting list of upcoming gigs scheduled as Kid Dakota, as well as performances with John Hermanson's Alva Star (in which he plays guitar), and the pop quartet Camaro. This sudden surge onto the local music scene was bolstered by Kid Dakota's three releases, the most recent of which is the gorgeous, sprawling So Pretty (Negative Kid Records). So Pretty riffs off Kid Dakota's moniker by detailing the barren landscapes of Jackson's native Bison, South Dakota. Rattling with slide guitar and keyboard, "Smokestack" eavesdrops upon Jackson's rough upbringing there, as he whispers, "I promise to quit if you promise to stay." The title track continues the shadowy tale of misguided youth, warning, "Niki, oh Niki, so young and so pretty/Your dad doesn't know what you are/Instead of a habit you should have a hobby/Like Barbie or bubblegum cards." The title track maintains a chilly mood with ice-tray-cracking percussion--courtesy of Christopher McGuire--and a waltz tempo that puts the album's glacial movement in step with Jackson's own gothic footing. Jackson--a bookish grad-school dropout--admits to a penchant for Martin Heidegger, whose later discussions of poetry, as the German philosopher put it, "speak of a clearing, making a space where things can reveal themselves." Similarly, So Pretty calls for the listener to be patient as the complex narratives unfold. Patience also proved to be an important factor while Jackson produced So Pretty with Alex Oana, who labored over mixes for several months. Both friends recorded the music at Jackson's home, allowing the spare quality of what Jackson calls "psychotic, kinda country weird stuff" to come through. Bands like Palace Music, Sebadoh, and Neutral Milk Hotel have all turned Jackson from a preference for classical and jazz styles toward So Pretty's basement aesthetic. Describing the album's raw tone, Jackson jokes, "I realized you can play rock 'n' roll and still be interesting." Jackson is currently working on a number of projects, including a Kid Dakota full-length album planned for a late-spring release. Meanwhile, when will this man with so many endeavors find time for leisure? "Maybe when I'm older and I can't sing anymore and I've got arthritis and can't play," he shrugs. "[Right now] I just don't have any time, but I have a planner." Kate Silver, City Pages (Apr, 2001)**********"I tend to judge a lot of things by whether or not they scare the shit out of me. FEAR, BABY. A tough order among such an obdurate race, but nevertheless the easiest emotion to effectively manipulate. It�s the most primal sense; it brought us screaming into this world, and may well usher us out in the same way. The most common element that runs through fear is the UNKNOWN: the most fertile frontier of the imagination. Only there do all of the possibilities truly emerge both sweetly divine and utterly horrible. It is the universal solution out of which we all crystallize, if but for a moment, only to melt back away as a final acceptance, all consciousness nothing more than erratic, disruptive signals to be smoothed back into mute harmony.But when these tones assert themselves from above the discordant breath of nothing, let them sing in recalcitrant celebration. One such voice rising from above the vacua of what you�re being told to listen to is that of local duo Kid Dakota. Comprised of Darren Jackson on vocals, guitar and keys and drummer/percussionist Christopher McGuire, this twosome�s apparent lack of numbers does nothing to hamper the hugeness of their sound. In fact, being so small is what makes them so big. Dig? You will.To call Kid Dakota minimalists might seem like an easy way to throw a net around them, but they�ll just utilize their escape from that snare with the same thing they utilize so well in their music�the exploitation of space. I first saw Kid Dakota within the cozy confines of St. Paul�s Turf Club on a Tuesday in late February. Upon donning my coat to leave that night, a stranger implored me not to, so that I might stick around for �just for a song or two.� I ended up staying for the entire set. The bold overstatement of the music�s meter tugged at my flesh. Even when my attention wandered, and while I conversed with my neighbors, the band still held me, my skin as acute a receptacle to interpret it as my ears. It was that deadly time of the year, and the exquisite sickness that accompanies it was afoot. From between the musical spaces that Kid Dakota open up so well seeps the ravenous un-sound of the non-elemental. The music hovers above the ground, a sub-violet blanket of electrically charged gases�the smoldering and buzzing exhaust of a shivering combustion.There is a low-end drone that�s equal parts dread despair and radiant tenacity of life. In an almost processional and mock grandiosity, these waltzes sweep and swell to fill both vast, arched chambers, but also the tight crawl-spaces between the stations of the mind. Reminiscent of Pink Floyd and later Nirvana, these rock dirges are like a northern take on the New Orleans funeral dirge twisted by geographical influence. The downbeat flattens everything as it hits. A shower of sparks leaps out and quickly cools to death as lightning on the Plains at night.Darren Jackson is a product of the South Dakota plains and their huge skies, as we are all products of our environments. The more resistant we are to them, the more susceptible we become to their influence (and thus are shaped by them, regardless). Rebellion, however, is quite natural, and for the most part healthy.Jackson first came to Minnesota to attend St. Olaf College in Northfield. He returned later to engage in noble combat against a few pesky demons and straighten out the old wagon a bit. The five-song EP So Pretty is a chronicle of this homecoming. Produced by Alex Oana, an old St. Olaf chum, at his CityCabin studio, the record is hypnotically tempoed, with gallantly executed accents that thrust defiantly and erectly into the void. Melodies are pressed up from the earth�s depths straight through the rock to emerge skinned and bleeding, the sun and air licking like salt at the exposed tissue. Oana�s production talent takes the seemingly dry and brittle minimalism and moistens it with the mixing board faucet so that as the towel snaps, the end is sufficiently wet to deliver its wicked kiss.Being somewhat of a high plains drifter myself, I got together with the Kid over some sarsaparillas at a rootin� tootin� little caf� that I�m sure won�t go out of business if I don�t plug �em. We talked about the gunfights, the many long and dusty trails, and how he�s aimin� to clean up this here Podunk. So for any a� you consarn pussywillows out there afraid of a little pistol fire: This could get gritty.Pulse: So where�d the songs come from? Umm, I mean, I read something in the bio about your move from South Dakota . . . is that your point of origin?Jackson: I grew up there, yeah. And for a long time, you know, I like . . . rebelled against being from there. I lived in Providence and Boston and Chicago. I lived here in Minneapolis a few times, and it�s only since sort of recently that I�ve really started embracing being from there and writing songs about what it�s like to be from there. You know, a lot of the stuff we play is about . . . is influenced by the fact that I used to be a, you know, a heroin addict. Pulse: Yeah, I got that so, you know . . .Jackson: So . . . I still write songs about that even though I�m not using right now or anything.Pulse: That�s definitely relevant, and comes through not only in the text of the lyrics, but I think you try to elucidate that with the entire method of how you want this set of songs to sound.Jackson: Right. Except for �So Pretty,� which is pretty explicit, I try to make all those references pretty opaque. You know, so there�s a lot of interplay with the listener and us, because lyrics that just spill everything out and make it easy . . . just aren�t that interesting.Pulse: Well, the people who are gonna get it are gonna get it, you know. It�ll strike all the right sensitivity points. And those who don�t, well something like �cottons� will be lost on somebody who just doesn�t know.Jackson: . . . or belts, like tying off, you know. Those references are gonna be lost, which is kinda nice. Pulse: And having been down those dark alleys, it�s nice to realize that there�s light at the end of the tunnel, you know. And that�s what I get from So Pretty. It has that crackling back to life quality to it. I mean, is that accurate?Jackson: Yeah, I think that�s accurate. I mean, those songs were all kind of written when I was sober and excited about being sober.Kid Dakota�s So Pretty is a record about rediscovery and reconnection. To myself and perhaps many others, some of the existing notions of �recovery� just rub me as being a bit manipulative. Good people make bad choices. That�s life�so get over it, get better and enjoy the rest of it.Suffering is a ragged carriage with its own sense of joy�a countenance both dignified and pathetic. As the noxious gas of emerging from a netherworld dissipates, the sun�s light slowly loses its animosity and the elation of living wrestles itself from its stubborn and stupid oppressor. Jackson survived his own Wounded Knee and he�s come to the city to tell the tale. As he does this, he strums and sings, all the while backed up by professional gunman, Christopher McGuire, former longtime 12 Rods drummer. Jackson: When we recorded that . . . I didn�t even know [McGuire]. A friend of mine from college (Alex Oana) was like, �These are really cool tunes, we need a drummer that can do a really cool job.� So he talked to McGuire and we practiced for a couple days and then we recorded them. So they�re really fresh-sounding, but we had to do �em twice. In April �99 I took them back to South Dakota and I was like, �Uhh, the drums are just way too busy.� So then I came back three months later before I went to grad school in Chicago and we recorded them again and they turned out really cool because he had more time with them. So it was really weird how it came together. Do you like how the drums are done? Pulse: Yeah, I do. They�re perfect within the context of your songs. I�m kind of a spazzy drummer. But anyhow, do you have any new ideas that you�re working on in the studio right now? Jackson: Well, we have a whole album that�s ready to record. We�ve been playing all the songs on it for like 10 months. It�ll be different from this EP because there�s a lot more interplay between the guitars and drums. When people listen to [this EP], they�re like, �Oh, the drums are really tasteful and appropriate.� But I think when people listen to this next record it�ll be like, �Those drums are amazing! Those parts are awesome.� Pulse: So are you writing busier stuff? Jackson: I think it�s busier, but I think it�s just more McGuire. A lot more of his personality is coming through, you know." It�s funny how we assume that it is we who move about through space at our whim, when in truth we are simply the full extension of its movement. It is the presence, the remaining frontier in front of which we all cower, having chosen to construct ideologies that make its apparent emptiness seem so frightening. It�s all about fear. It has been said that 99 percent of fear is not knowing. And this has plenty of merit, but the remaining 1 percent of fear is knowing. Why do you think most folks wrap themselves comfortably in the aforementioned 99 percent? And although we may not know where we�re going, we do know where we�ve been.Having been there and back again, Kid Dakota has, for the most part, just opened its mouth. And I have a feeling that as times grinds onward into the insatiable appetite of the unknown, this voice will continue to grow brighter and stronger in an attempt to satisfy its own appetite to rise above the nameless roar of malign ignorance." Donny Doane, Pulse (Apr, 2001)*********Subtle Crusher: 13 Questions w/Kid Dakota by: John Wenzel "A bruised, bloodied face stares at me from the CD cover. The subject�s arm is in a sling and his eyes have that drugged, half-conscious look of someone recovering from a serious accident. In the accompanying press sheet some allusion is made to the reason for this photograph, but it�s never fully explained.Reading Kid Dakota�s bio sheet, one can only assume that the injured kid in the picture is Darren Jackson, leader of the Minneapolis indie-rock duo. Jackson�s songwriting, vocal harmonies, and fluid, even guitar work define Kid Dakota�s sound. Underpinning this rush of analog fuzz and smooth, melodic vocals are drum beats from former 12Rod drummer Christopher McGuire.Another guitar and drums indie duo? Yes, but read on.The bio sheet tells me that McGuire has an impressive eight years of drumming experience to his credit, while Jackson is a relative newcomer. I would never have guessed this. Confidence and precision permeate Kid Dakota�s five-song So Pretty E.P. (Negative Kid Records). Wailing, textured guitar riffs in the vein of Built to Spill or Quasi race along Jackson�s mournful vocals. There are hints of twang (vocally and instrumentally) from song to song, implying an affection for that brand of oblique, indie-folk/country that�s emerged in the last decade. The lyrics are literary-minded and raw, highlighting absurdity or post-industrial decay in the same line. The beautiful acoustic ballad �Pairin� Off� is clever yet honest, offering a multitude of images that anyone could relate to but few could express."Why aren�t these guys on Secretly Canadian?" I ask myself. They�d be great on tour with Swearing at Motorists, another excellent Midwestern duo dripping with harmony and mournful themes. As the E.P. plays I find myself comparing Jackon�s vocals to Jason Molina (Songs:Ohia) or Neil Cleary (Stupid Club). They�re delicate, but assured. Soundscapes worthy of the inimitable Low are formed from stop-start, turn-on-a-dime rhythms and furiously belted riffs. A delicious hum swells into a blistering, overdriven lead. Ice cube trays (yes, ice cube trays) click rhythmically over the din. Who recorded this thing? Alex Oana, it says.This thing is tight, I think to myself. I�ve gotta talk to these Kids.1. I sense a kind of Neutral Milk Hotel, Sebadoh vibe from a lot of your guitar work. Could you elaborate on some of your stimulus?I really enjoy the music of Neutral Milk Hotel, Will Oldham (in his many incarnations), The Silver Jews, The Black Heart Procession, Songs:Ohia, Sparklehorse, Pavement (Slanted and Enchanted, Westing By Musket and Sextant), Smog (The Forgotten Foundation, and Julius Caesar), and Elliott Smith.2. The production on this E.P. is exceedingly tight. Was there a particular sound you went for?Aside from the second guitar parts and vocal harmonies, Christopher and I wanted the E.P. to be an accurate representation of our live show. The 'sound' of the E.P., however, is largely due to Alex's sonic sensibilities. He spent weeks mixing it so he's probably more familiar with the music than we are.3. Along with that: tell me about Alex Oana. What did he use to record this E.P.? There's some wicked analogue guitar crunch on a few songs, but I'm thinking most of it was rendered digitally?Darren: Alex and I went to college together and have known each other for a long time. He's an amazing engineer/producer. His input was substantial; it's almost as if he's a member of the band.Alex: Crunchy guitar sounds were rendered by overdriving a tube preamp. Sometimes this was applied �in the mix� to an existing track on tape, sometimes �live� as it was going down to tape. Nothing was �rendered� digitally. The microphones were recorded to 16 tracks of 16 bit ADAT to capture the performances. I mixed through an old-school Mackie to a vintage Tascam DAT. I used four cheap compressors in the mix and a couple guitar pedals. We mastered by doing a real-time bounce to �� analogue, but that did not create the sound, it merely sweetened it.4. The tone of your album art and bio sheet imply a similar anti-aesthetic as a lot of other Midwest indie groups. Do you feel any affinity with that loosely-comprised scene?No, not really.5. What's up with the ice cube trays? Do you use them live?I started using ice cube trays as percussive instruments when I was demo-ing songs at my parent's house in South Dakota. I was recording in the basement and the ice cube trays were in the basement, so I never had to take my headphones off (the other percussive stuff was upstairs). We do use them live. We also distribute them at the door so members of the audience can play along. We've had as many as thirty people simultaneously playing ice cube trays. Although I haven't researched it, I wouldn't be surprised if that's a world record.6. The title track almost has an epic feel to it. Do you think of it that way?I've never thought of it that way, but I can see how it might come across like that.7. Have you guys been playing out lately?Not really. We're playing a show with Brick Layer Cake in January8. Are you planning a full-length anytime soon?We're going to start recording our first LP in 1/01 (to be recorded again by Alex Oana). It should be out by late spring. The member lineup will be the same. We�re going to shop it around.9. Were you in any bands before this?No, but I play two other bands, Cellophane and John Hermanson.10. What can you tell me about the cover photo and its relationship to the first couple paragraphs of your press bio? (For the reader�s convenience, those paragraphs are as follows: �It was October, 1999. I had come from South Dakota with bad ideas, but unfortunately, no one realized that I had brought them with me. It was assumed that I had left them, viral and contagious, infectious and deadly, behind with the bags and the cottons, with the teeth and the blood. If only they had known. I came to Minnesota, not for the duck hunting or for the ice fishing, not even to see the Vikings or Paul Bunyan, as do most. No, I came for the taper. I came for the tapeworm. I came to get better. I remember walking the grounds of the state hospital, the thought of 10,000 lakes always intruding, making me feel smaller, weaker.�)Well, the cover photo was taken in Providence, RI. Those were dark days. It was out on the East Coast that I started writing the song �So Pretty,� which, in many ways, is a testament to darkness. It was in Minnesota, the home of ten-thousand treatment centers, that I eventually got clean. I now lead a rigidly ascetic lifestyle and abstain from all impurities (drugs, alcohol, nicotine, sex, etc.). My body has become a temple.11. "Pairin' Off" is perhaps the best song I've heard in the last 6 months. Did you write it with someone in mind, or is it more of a general statement?Thanks. It's more of a general statement. The song produces very diverse reactions. Some people think it's sad while others find it liberating and funny. When we play it, the audience always laughs so it must be funny. My brother, Derek, and I made a video for it one night, so maybe it will be on MTV someday.12. There's this lovely little post-rock bit at the end of �Summer Cold.� Would you ever consider doing an instrumental album?I would love to do one, but I�ve never seriously considered it. In the future, after I've used up all the words, I'll probably give it a try.13. Favorite record release of 2000?Black Heart Procession 214. Favorite mixed drink?Soy milk-orange juice-banana-blueberry-kiwi-peach-strawberry smoothie. Sometimes I use apples and raspberries and when I'm feeling particularly daring, I sprinkle in a few grape nuts." (Jan, 2001)

Location Minneapolis, MN - USA

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