Rebel Kind Today

Rebel Kind stepped out of the shadows songwriter Autumn Wesli had been inhabiting with her isolated bedroom demos and dusty solo songs Summer 2012. While playing in various dive-bar dwelling garage and punk bands, she'd quietly been toiling on tunes of her own making under the banner of Rebel Kind that traveled a gentler, but often far darker path. Songs composed of loner folk acoustic guitar chords and soft, low vocals that often just barely obscured lyrical screams of rock bottom brokenness and confusion. Bred on equal parts disaffected punk, sugary pop and day-dreamy country twang, Rebel Kind's first self-distributed tapes were no mopey sad bastard fare, but rather songs that read almost as angry as they were catchy without ever letting things boil over and ruin the moment. This dialed-down phase of the band found its clearest articulation on Laurel Canyon, a limited 12" on the Life Like label that came out just before Wetli expanded the group to include collaborators AMBER FELLOWS and SHELLEY SALANT (TYVEK). Both foundational members of the Michigan DIY scene, these new members re-made/remodeled Rebel Kind, playing frequently and reshaping the sound of Autumn's low-lit solo songs into toothy eruptions of spring-like pop and open-road anthems. Recorded in a flash of light, the band's debut full length Today captures thirteen fits of urgency, wanderlust and roughly hewn brilliance that shine light and celebration out of the dark heart still very much beating in the center of these songs.REBEL KIND stepped out of the shadows songwriter AUTUMN WESLI had been inhabiting with her isolated bedroom demos and dusty solo songs Summer 2012. While playing in various dive-bar dwelling garage and punk bands, she'd quietly been toiling on tunes of her own making under the banner of Rebel Kind that traveled a gentler, but often far darker path. Songs composed of loner folk acoustic guitar chords and soft, low vocals that often just barely obscured lyrical screams of rock bottom brokenness and confusion. Bred on equal parts disaffected punk, sugary pop and day-dreamy country twang, Rebel Kind's first self-distributed tapes were no mopey sad bastard fare, but rather songs that read almost as angry as they were catchy without ever letting things boil over and ruin the moment. This dialed-down phase of the band found its clearest articulation on Laurel Canyon, a limited 12" on the Life Like label that came out just before Wetli expanded the group to include collaborators AMBER FELLOWS and SHELLEY SALANT (TYVEK). Both foundational members of the Michigan DIY scene, these new members re-made/remodeled Rebel Kind, playing frequently and reshaping the sound of Autumn's low-lit solo songs into toothy eruptions of spring-like pop and open-road anthems. Recorded in a flash of light, the band's debut full length Today captures thirteen fits of urgency, wanderlust and roughly hewn brilliance that shine light and celebration out of the dark heart still very much beating in the center of these songs.