Kat and the Kodachromes Come in with a Kick
Review by: Emily D. Schmidt, Writer @emwritesaboutmusic
Edited by: Andrew Perrizo, Owner/Editor @PlaylistTC
If you like what we are doing, please consider supporting us on Patreon, PayPal, or Venmo.
Popular Problems, the debut EP from Kat and the Kodachromes, encourages listeners to do more than just listen. Its engaging instrumentation and thought-provoking lyrics do what music was meant to do: connect people.
Kat Kirschmann, lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter, has been in many bands. Moving to St. Paul from Minot, North Dakota in 2019, she wrote some of this EP soon after. Popular Problems is a snapshot of some of Kirschmann’s points of view at that time. “Poison in the Well” and “Dollars and Sense,” for instance, both contain unambiguous commentary on pressing sociopolitical issues we still face in the United States. The opening song begins as a seemingly ordinary day, getting out of bed and brushing your teeth. But then this line hints at a veil of darkness: “Ride the bus, come home and say, ‘I survived school today.’” Paired with lines about mass death and “bad apples who commit crimes,” it’s apparent that this song is about gun violence.
“I'm a teacher, so every time I hear something about arming teachers, school shootings, or gun violence in general, I feel like I'm secondhand traumatized,” Kirschmann explained. “It's built into my routine to be prepared for that happening at school. It's just really scary thinking about what you would do in that moment and how uniquely awful the situation is in America.”
Then it’s clear from the title that “Dollars and Sense” is about socioeconomic class. A western sounding guitar riff begins the song, an appropriate musical choice for the lyrics’ working-class stance. Kirschmann sings about the all-too-popular problems working class people face, like bosses making dollars as they make dimes. While the lyrics are direct, they’re also often poetic. One of my favorite lines is, “I found those bootstraps broken. I had nothing to hold onto,” a clever spin on the classic American idiom.
Contrastingly, “Plants and Weeds” and “Absence Only” evoke universal human emotions. These tracks feature what I learned to be a mellotron, which is a keyboard instrument that pre-dates the synthesizer and plays prerecorded tape with the press of a key. The opening of “Strawberry Fields Forever” by the Beatles, as Kirschmann pointed out, is a famous example of the mellotron in use. Kirschmann uses the brass setting on “Plants and Weeds” and a blend of flute and piano on “Absence Only.” The latter track is my favorite of the EP due to the mellotron’s ethereal tone juxtaposed with her classic rock guitar riffs I picture floating on top and filling an entire stadium.
After a couple listens of Popular Problems, I realized that the politically charged tracks each used simple meter (the beat is divided into multiples of two, like a march or a chugging train), while the emotionally universal tracks used compound time (beats are divided in three, like a waltz). This auditory distinction compliments the distinction between the tracks’ lyrics. The compound meter feels light and lofty, like the mind is wandering and open for input or direction. Meanwhile, the simple meter gives the music a sense of urgency, the beats relentlessly driving forward. Kirschmann delivers a pointed message with little room for interpretation, and that’s intentional.
“The issues warrant directness,” she said. “There's no benefit to concealing my intention. This is what it's about, and I hope you hear me and think about it and listen because it's real.”
Popular Problems asks the listener to think critically: to question the violence students and working class people face, and to ponder profound ideas about love and life’s purpose. Given Kirschmann’s background in music education, this perspective only makes sense. Like a good teacher, this EP begs the listener to interact, to be curious, and to take action towards making your community better.
