Biography
Knotted Cord is the band of Northern California-based musician Rebecca Keehner. Rebecca plays all instruments in the band, including Guitars, Drums, Bass, Keyboards, and Vocals, and also Violin, Percussion, and Horns. Rebecca has played guitar in several other bands, most notably the noisy and elusive 3-piece indie rock band The Tangles. Knotted Cord is her first solo band which she began in August 2010.
Knotted Cord's sound is characterized by songs with irregular structures, diverging and resolving rhythms, percussive and noisy guitar, bass, and analog keyboards, and elastic and chaotic jazz- and rock/metal-inspired drumming. The songs structures incorporate imperfections such as warped time signatures, dropped beats, and simultaneously played conflicting rhythms. Distortion, atonal notes and pitch bending add to the the noise and dissonance of the guitar and bass melodies. Rebecca's medium-toned slightly dreamy vocals tend to feature partially buried or suggested lyrics in layered harmonies. Amp noise, instrument effects pedals, string and pickup noises, and miscellaneous recorded sounds contribute to the textural density of the songs.
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Knotted Cord's most recent release is the album Use Your Mind Powers For Hours And Hours (s/ r April 2012) ["...influences can be grudgingly, and pretentiously, presented but it would seem like bragging about the knife strapped to your ankle in a fight where an RPG is your primary weapon backed up by an uzi..." "...The reality in question here, to be precise, is music; painstakingly understood and barbarically beaten into submission..." -Jonathan Cohen, Music Director KAMP, US 04/26/12]
The band's first full-length album is Polyphonic Beasts Expand In Parallel (s/ r August 2011) ["...should come with a health hazard warning..." "...here we see a marriage of her post-rock and noise-rock tendencies, a parabolic build-up and climax rendered and twisted through her now familiar brand of chaotic, woofer-screeching dissonance..." -Scott Reid, Aberdeen Student Radio, UK 09/29/11]
["...Keehner's brand of out-rock is rife with outrageously obtuse guitar passages, Pete Nolan-inspired drumming and vocals reminiscent of dreamy chanteuse Hope Sandoval...." -Bryon Hayes, Exclaim! magazine, Canada 08/02/11]
["...Noisy and great like early Sonic Youth." -Love and Mathematics, MA, US 10/23/11]
Knotted Cord’s first release is the Moth-Shaped Flame EP (s/r Feb 2011), a dark, moody and tightly controlled minimal evolution over 4 songs. ["I honestly do not know quite what to make of this..." "...it just sounds like she broke a decent rock album most of the time." -Anthony D'Amico, Foxy Digitalis, 6/17/11]
All three releases were written, played, engineered, and produced by Keehner.
The band is currently located in Sacramento, California, US.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.