Rainer Maria returns to Vassar for ViCE Versa

Freddy Deknatel A&E Editor

Rainer Maria, an indie/pop band from Madison, WI, are one of four acts on Friday’s ViCE Versa bill. Spin rated their Look Now Look Again a Top 20 Album in 1999, 2001’s A Better Version of Me reached number 1 on the CMJ college radio charts, and maybe you’ve seen their video for “Ears Ring” on MTV2. Kyle Fischer, guitarist/vocalist for Rainer Maria, talked to The Miscellany News on Monday. The band also includes bassist/singer Caithlin De Marrais and drummer William Kuehn.

Freddy Deknatel: How do you find the college circuit?
Kyle Fischer: This is a great time of the year for the college shows because it's always an end of the year blowout bash, and that's great for us…we love playing college gigs, that's part of our bread and butter.

FD: What do you remember about your last Vassar gig, last year with Rufus Wainwright for Valentine’s Day?
KF: I remember very distinctly sitting in the Chapel during sound check and not being able to believe that Rufus sounded better live than he did on record…it was funny, when we play with other bands a lot of time we're not the loudest band. We're like the third loudest band…the medium band. Whereas playing with Rufus, I felt like I was in Craft or something. We felt so scrappy and punk.

FD: Rainer Maria has found push on both MTV2 and the College Music Journal. How do you like to get your music heard?
KF: That's a hard thing to say…but the best way to find out about something is, I think, organically in terms of…you go to your friend’s house and are like "What is this?" That's the best way, it's always gonna be the best way. You're in a space where you're comfortable, you're listening, you're open, you're not distracted…Something like that where you feel a connection to the music and then you take it with you is better than having it handed down from on high.

FD: Handed down, put on a chart…
KF: I mean that can be great too. And music of a certain caliber is just going to transcend all of that anyway. I don't care if I heard "Hey Ya" for the first time at like a frat party with a bunch of people I hated standing around. Like that's great. That's a great song. It's not going to be denied.

FD: What are you listening to these days?
KF: Well, Bill and Caithlin are more of the new music scavengers…So she's the one that turned me on to M.I.A., whereas Bill's like "You gotta listen to the Bloc Party record!” And the Go! Team record similarly. I put them in the same group in a way because they're both this incredible pastiche of influences but never derivative, which is so hard to do.

FD: What do you think of the ViCE Versa lineup?
KF: Hats off to Vassar for giving us some of the coolest bills we've ever played on…And I think it's great that the students, the people organizing it are visionaries to say "We're going to take all this stuff, throw it together, and it's going to gel under this big party umbrella.” We thought we were originally going up to headline on a normal night, and then when we found out we were opening for Talib Kweli we were like "Oh My God!" My girlfriend’s like, “I'm going, I'm going and I'm not coming back! I'm riding away with Talib!”