Every week, the Milwaukee Music Premiere sponsored by Density Studios connects the city’s artists with our listening audience. If you’re an artist with a track you’d like us to debut exclusively on Radio Milwaukee, head over to our Music Submission page to learn how.
For a long time, Riley Campos went it alone with Limber Brain. It was one of those “things that sound like a band but it’s really a person” setups that allowed Campos to flex his multi-instrumentalism and share his creativity.
The benefits of such an approach are largely based around autonomy. You can try what you want, write what you want, record what you want. What you lose are the collaborative aspects. Something new to try. Someone else’s perspective to write about. A group of people to share the grind of recording.
Campos realized those benefits — and more — when he opened Limber Brain to fellow musicians James Webb (guitar/vocals), Brett Harrington (bass/vocals) and David Webb (drums).
“Limber Brain continues to evolve and adapt,” Campos said. “Everyone in the band brings so much individually and collectively to the table, more than I ever could by myself. It’s become a community, and I’m so thankful to have found these people to help bring the music to life.”
It couldn’t be more appropriate, then, that the new track we’re helping the quartet premiere is titled “Oh How I’ve Kept My Garden So Gated.” It’s a piece of music that doubles as a lamentation of the “habits that don’t serve us” and an acceptance of “a future that may be uncertain, but is also full of growth and beauty,” as the band put it in the song notes.
Their group dynamic is on display immediately in the harmonious, a capella opening that gives way to a waltz-time stroll with touches of psychedelia. It isn’t hard to hear the influence of bands like My Morning Jacket as the lyrics lay out a day-to-day existence that could’ve been better spent:
Overgrown has been my home for most of my life
Apple trees and everything you ever could want
Cleanest air, sit and stare at the clear sky
A setting sun, a swan song sung
But the notes were all wrong
Oh what good is a life lived alone?
Like the band performing it, the song displays signs of an encouraging future as it declares toward the end, “And I hope someday we’ll be laughing …”
Whether you’re solo or with your metaphorical bandmates, you can listen to “Oh How I’ve Kept My Garden So Gated” from Limber Brain anytime using the player at the top of this page or on the 88Nine airwaves throughout today (6:30 and 10:30 a.m.; 2:30, 6:30 and 9:30 p.m.). The single gets its official release this Saturday, March 15, with a celebratory show at Bear Bones Basement that night.
