Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground is an indie band started by Kirk Huffman and Kyle O'Quin of

Gatsbys American Dream Gatsbys American Dream is an American indie rock band from Seattle, Washington. Since their founding in 2001, they have released four full-length albums and one EP. The band's self-titled fourth album, their second released with Fearless Reco ...

. Like Gatsbys, the band is influenced by a wide variety of musical genres. Though the band only has three official members, they have been known to perform with as many as 11 additional musicians on stage.

History

Kay Kay got its start when

went on hiatus, shortly after the release of their 2006 self-titled album. Huffman and O'Quin had been writing songs together while on tour and brought in Huffman's friend Phil Peterson to round out the group. The band first released a handful of tracks for streaming on

Purevolume PureVolume (formerly Unborn Media) was a website for uploading and streaming of music files, the first independently run of its type. PureVolume was created by Unborn Media, Inc; Mitchell Pavao; Brett Woitunski; and Nate Hudson, all from the Univer ...

and

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

. These songs later appeared on a

cassette single A cassette single (CS), also known by the trademark cassingle, or capitalised as the trademark Cassette Single, is a music single (music), single supplied in the form of a Compact Cassette. The cassette single was introduced in 1980 in music, 1 ...

released by ECA Records in 2006. A copy of the band's cassette found its way to John Sidel of

V2 Records V2 Records (or V2 Music and V2 Benelux; V2 being an abbreviation for Virgin 2) is a record label that was purchased by Universal Music Group in 2007, sold to PIAS in 2013 and partially acquired by Universal in 2022 (as part of larger PIAS 49% ...

. The band signed an initial agreement to record a full-length album, but V2 was bought out by

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum ...

shortly thereafter and a finalized contract never materialized. In early 2007, the band released ''Live at the Pretty Parlor'', a two-disc set featuring a live DVD and accompanying CD. The DVD was filmed at an independent clothing store in Seattle in late 2006 and released on the band's own label, Bombs Over Bellevue. In mid-2007, they played their first out-of-state shows in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. On June 13, 2007, the band made their national television debut on

Last Call with Carson Daly ''Last Call with Carson Daly'' is an American late-night television series that was broadcast by NBC from 2002 to 2019. Hosted by former MTV personality Carson Daly, the series was initially formatted as a late-night talk show in line with '' ...

. According to Huffman, the band's DVD found its way into the hands of

Carson Daly Carson Jones Daly (born June 22, 1973) is an American television host, radio personality, producer, and television personality. From 1998 to 2003, Daly was a VJ (media personality), VJ on MTV's ''Total Request Live'' (TRL), and a DJ for the Sou ...

who then pushed to have the band on the show. The band performed "Hey Momma," reducing the song's length due to time constraints. On February 19, 2008, the band released their debut

self-titled An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

album on vinyl through Vinyl Collective, a subsidiary of

Suburban Home Records Suburban Home Records and Distribution is a record label based in Denver, Colorado, United States. The label was founded in 1995 by Virgil Dickerson, and is known for focusing on vinyl releases and bands in the pop-punk and alt-country genres. Its ...

. The album is a double LP (with a digital download code included) and pressed in three variations, totaling 1,000 copies: rainbow transparent vinyl (200), rainbow milk vinyl (300), and orange with red speckles (500). The album was also made available digitally through several retailers, including

Amazon MP3 Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and digital music store operated by Amazon. As of January 2020, the service had 55 million subscribers. It was the first music store to sell music without digital rights manage ...

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

and

eMusic eMusic is an Online music store, online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. In exchange for a monthly subscription eMusic users can download a fixed number of MP3 tracks per month. eMusic was established in 1998, is headquart ...

. To celebrate the album's release, the band played a sold-out show at

The Triple Door The Triple Door is a dinner theater, lounge and music venue founded in the fall of 2003, located at 216 Union Street in Seattle, Washington. The building often hosts concerts for folk, indie, and World music groups. The Triple Door is also not ...

in Seattle, where Huffman declared "I thought we’d be playing for ten people. This is the greatest night of my life." The band was also featured in Seattle weekly newspaper '' The Stranger'' for the album release. In August 2008, the band embarked on their first west-coast tour in support of Rx Bandits and

Portugal. The Man Portugal. The Man is an Alaskan rock band from Wasilla, Alaska and based in Portland, Oregon. The group consists of John Baldwin Gourley, Zach Carothers, Kyle O'Quin, Eric Howk and Zoe Manville. Gourley and Carothers met and began playing music t ...

, with dates running from August 12 to September 1. On July 17, 2008, the band posted a Myspace blog stating that they were already half way through recording their second full-length titled '' Introducing Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground''. This blog was accompanied by a new song, titled "Diggin." Kay Kay toured the US in support of

mewithoutYou MewithoutYou, usually stylized as mewithoutYou, was an American rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The band consisted of Aaron Weiss (vocals), Michael Weiss and Brandon Beaver (guitars), Greg Jehanian (bass guitar), and Rickie Mazzott ...

through the summer of 2009 and when they returned on August 10, 2009, the band announced they had finished the recording of ''Introducing Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground''. The album was streamed in its entirety on the band's Myspace/Facebook/Purevolume pages starting August 14. In the summer 2010 Kay Kay did a US tour with

Damien Jurado Damien Troy Jurado (; born November 12, 1972) is an American singer-songwriter from Seattle, Washington, United States. Over the years, he has released albums on Sub Pop, Secretly Canadian, Loose, and is currently on his own label, Maraqopa Recor ...

where members filled in as his backing band following the release of his "St. Bartlett" album. In early 2011 Kay Kay both digitally and physically released their sophomore effort "Introducing..." via their own imprint Bombs over Bellevue and SUburban Home Records/Vinyl Collective and completed a full US tour in support of the record with

The Dear Hunter The Dear Hunter is an American progressive rock band originating in Providence, Rhode Island. It began as a side project of Casey Crescenzo when he was a member of The Receiving End of Sirens, before becoming his main band in 2006. The band's s ...

and O' Brother. The band announced a small string of west coast dates in February 2012 with Anthony Green and The Dear Hunter and confirmed that they would be recording a new record, tentatively titled ''III'', that year. It is not yet confirmed but, the band is apparently on hiatus.... (but there has been no official statement regarding the bands status). Most believe it is the result of Kyle O'Quin joining

.
Oregonmusicnews.com. June 16, 2011. Huffman has since been recording and releasing music under the Real Don Music moniker.

Members

According to the band's Myspace page, the official members are: * Kirk Huffman - lead vocals, guitar, percussion * Kyle O'Quin - keys * Phil Peterson - cello, backing vocals

Additional musicians

The following is an incomplete list of musicians who are not officially a part of the band, but accompanied the band on their album and for live performances. * Thomas Hunter - guitar * Racheal Huffman - backing vocals, percussion * Nate Mooter - bass * J. J. Jang - violin * Victoria (Tori) Parker - violin, backing vocals * Robert (Bobby) Parker - trumpet, flugelhorn, backing vocals * Joey Seward - tuba * Samuel Anderson- cello * Andy Lum - drums * Garrett Lunceford - drums * Devin Ensz - Tuba * James Prow - Bass * Megan Homer - violin * Scott Macpherson - Saxophones * Eric Padget - trumpet * Aaron Benson - drums * Eric Howk - guitar

Discography

* ''Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground'' (2006, ECA Records) - Cassette tape featuring 3 early songs later released on their self-titled album. * '' Live at the Pretty Parlor'' (2007, Bombs Over Bellevue) - Live DVD/CD release recorded at a clothing store in Seattle. * '' Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground'' (2008, Suburban Home/Vinyl Collective) - Studio album. Vinyl color variations: 200 on Transparent Rainbow, 300 on Rainbow Milk, 500 on Orange w/ Red Speckles. 2nd pressing vinyl on unspecified number of standard blue * ''Diggin' '' (2008, Suburban Home/Vinyl Collective) - 7" featuring 2 tracks ("Diggin'" and "All My Friends Passed Out"), taken from the forthcoming album ''Introducing...''. Includes downloadable versions of both songs. Vinyl color variations: 300 on Green, 700 on Clear * '' Introducing Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground'' (February 8, 2011) - Second full-length studio album. Vinyl color variations: 300 on White, 700 on Translucent Red * ''Experimeducation vol. I'' (2012, Bombs Over Bellevue) * ''III'' (TBA)

References

External links