Mental Man

Out of the blue, Konrad got a call from renowned Swiss producer Chris(z) from Tracelements and Zodiac Project. The concept was simple: Chris(z) would brew up some melodic, heavy musical ideas from his mountain top studio in Switzerland and Konrad would compose lyrics and melodies from his underground urban Illinois US bunker. Chris(z) laid down the musical foundation with guitars, beats, bass and synth; Konrad penned and crooned. Tracks were traded and sounds were swapped, resulting in the single "Mental Man" that now surfaces. The single is doing incredibly well on Swiss national radio.

The Tracelements full length album "Star Trekking" will be released December 15th 2008 and features the "Mental Man" single. The album will be available in a deluxe digipack edition. The record goes out together with the new film of the mountain climber R. Nottaris called "Appointment with Shackleton".

Tracelements on myspace

MP3 Tracelements :: Mental Man (featuring Konrad)

Greetings From Rock Island

We’ve been thrilled to read all of the raving reviews piling up in the Blogosphere about Loose Canyons so far, but our favorite comment so far at Radical Turf HQ actually has nothing to do with the record. Over at the blog Cream Team, blogger ‘V’ in Chicago wrote:

hailing from a mysterious city in Illinois called Rock Island , which I'd never even heard of (and thought was a joke until I googled it), Konrad's roots are as unique as his sound...

Ha! Yes, that’s right Rock Island is indeed a real city. It may not be as cool as it sounds, but we assure you that it really does exist. Here are some fun facts about our fine metropolis:

• The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad was founded here in 1851 and was known as the Rock Island Line. The railroad was liquidated in bankruptcy in 1980.

• Rock Island is also home to the Rock Island Arsenal on Arsenal Island. It is an active factory producing ordnance and weapons components for the U.S. Army. The Arsenal provides 6,000 civilian jobs for the local area.

• The worst prison camp during the Civil War in terms of percentages of death was at Rock Island

• The inspiration for the character John Rooney in the well known Road to Perdition novels and movie came from a true Rock Island gangster, John P. Looney.

• The computer was invented in a downtown Rock Island bar*

*at least that's what Jeff tells me :)

Loose Canyons release date

New millennial song constructionist and studio savant KONRAD finally surfaces with his debut electronic pop opus, LOOSE CANYONS.

Konrad is just one of many different musical personas employed by studio savant/song constructionist Jeffrey Konrad. In the past he's recorded as an 8-bit obsessed electronic musician by the name of Robot USA, an emo indie rocker known as eggspout, and a folksy singer/songwriter called "Nigel Jeffrey" who cut an album titled Struggle in the Hive with Patrick Stolley of Marlboro Chorus and Daytrotter.com. And those are just his "official" credentials, he's also released dozens of underground mix tapes and collaborated on a countless number of other projects with musicians from across the globe.

Now he's dropping his full-length solo debut as Konrad called Loose Canyons; a seeming amalgamation of all his past and present musical personalities all mashed into one meticulously produced package. Combining the old school synth sounds of Devo, the ironic b-boy style of Dan Deacon and the sardonic wit of Hot Chip, Konrad is poised to be the underground electro-indie sensation of 2008.

WHO: Konrad

WHAT: Debut full-length titled Loose Canyons

WHEN: August 19th (street date) August 19th (radio add date)

WHERE: iTunes, CD Baby, RadicalTurf.com, KonradMusic.net

WHY: An infectious collection of songs that sound like they were created by the love child of Mark Mothersbaugh and Dan Deacon.