People of KJACK: 2nd Edition (Fall 2023)

PEOPLE OF KJACK

2nd edition

1. Table of Contents by James Ainsworth 2. KJACK Sessions by James Ainsworth 3. Wizard Hat Wednesday by Olivia Vester 4. Gatekeep Word Scramble by Matthew Moser 5. Coming Out Collage by Michael Eggert 6. Lollipop Marshmellow by Elena Gennaro 8. The Magic Bats by Brian Boroughf 9. Listen to KJACK by Caitlyn Konecne 10. Neon Trees by Abbey Sobelman 17. KJACK @ 107.1FM by Emma Rosales 18. Musiquarium by Elliot West 19. Funky Beats by Marina Golden 20. Tamagotchi by Kimberly Rios 21. KJACK: for the starving by Julius Happonen 22. Lily's Guide by Lilyann Dominick 23. c00l internet w0rdsearch by Caroline Wilmer 24. Hot Summer Quiz by Loron Cox 25. Doodles by Chandler Carlisle 26. Crossword by Loron Cox 28. Years in The Making by Abbey Sobelman 33. Vinyl by Abbey Sobelman 34. Programming by Olivia V + Sydney Stanley 35. Pinata Maze by Caitlyn Konecne 36. Somebody Please!! by Caroline H. Jimenez 37. SadJacks by James Ainsworth 38. Autographs!

40. Credits

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Neon Trees light up Prochnow Auditorium for “Favorite Daze Tour” By: Abbey Sobelman from The Lumberjack Each semester, ASNAU and SUN Entertainment work together to host the Lumberjack Concert Series, bringing a variety of musical acts to campus. Tickets for every show are sold at a discounted price, making concerts more affordable and accessible for students.

For the latest installment in the series, Neon Trees made a stop in Flagstaff during their “Favorite Daze Tour” to a sold-out show on Sunday evening at Prochnow Auditorium.

The Utah-based group has been making music for 17 years but took a brief hiatus in 2015 after frontman Tyler Glenn publicly came out as gay. Having grown up Mormon, Glenn told Rolling Stone Magazine in 2016 that he no longer believed in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints after witnessing how their statements affected the LGBTQ community.

Neon Trees returned to music in 2020 with their album “I Can Feel You Forgetting Me” and have now embarked on their first headlining tour in eight years.

Glenn told Caitlyn Konecne and Foster Hilding on KJACK Radio that the goal of this tour was to build a strong foundation on the band’s old work to prepare for the release of their upcoming unnamed album.

“We have unfinished business with what we’ve built,” Glenn said. “It’s taken forever for us to get back on the road in a proper way. But now, I feel like we have a team that’s really supporting, and we have a vision.”

The energy was palpable among the crowd, even before the show began, as Prochnow Auditorium buzzed with movement and conversation. Students gathered in front of the stage and lingered in the aisles, attempting to get up close to the bands.

Los Angeles-based trio Silent Rival kicked off the night with a mixture of loud synth-pop and classic alternative rock. Dressed in latex, lead singer Sara Coda danced across the stage as she displayed a clear belting voice.

Coda told KJACK that much of her musical inspiration comes from strong vocalists and energetic performers, naming Glenn as one of these influences. She said she prefers what she refers to as “singer-singers” over singer-songwriters and attempts to translate that powerful vocal ability into her energy on stage.

“I'm always aspiring to be at that level,” Coda said. “I want to have high energy; we move a lot, we try to pump up the crowd. It’s funny because a lot of the singers that I like kind of just stand there, because they’re singer-singers, but the performers I like are dancing and moving. It’s kind of impossible to do both, and I would like to do all of it all the time.”

Coda said her music is heavily influenced by her feelings, which can be seen in the constant mood shifts in Silent Rival’s albums. Instead of creating a concept album, she said she enjoys it when a project reflects her changing emotions through the writing process.

“If you’re bummed and you connect to a kind of a moodier song, then the next one comes up and picks you up without you realizing it,” Coda said.

Following Silent Rival, Laundry Day took the stage to “It Was A Very Good Year” by Frank Sinatra.

The pop-rock band released their fifth album, “Younger Than I Was Before,” in September, with recurring themes of New York City appearing in both the album artwork and the songs.

The album opens with a track titled “Showtime! (Skit),” filled with sounds of life in New York City. The skit leads directly into the song “Y.K.Y.N.U.N.Y.,” an abbreviation of the phrase ‘You know you need unique New York.’

The band encouraged audience members to take a shot at saying the tongue-twister as singer Sawyer Nunes held up the words written inside a pizza box.

As Laundry Day’s set came to a close, anticipation for the main act grew. Students continued to pack into the aisles and fill the seats of the auditorium while they waited for Neon Trees. When the band walked on stage, the room erupted into cheers.

Adorned in black skinny jeans and a skeleton-printed leather jacket, Glenn began the performance with a moody rendition of their 2021 track “Versions Of You” before transitioning to the pop-punk sound of “Favorite Daze,” the namesake of their tour.

The set was organized in order of release, with the band’s oldest work played first and their most recent singles placed at the end. Starting with their debut album “Habits,” Neon Trees performed “1983” and “Sins Of My Youth.”

During “Animal,” students jumped and danced around as they loudly sang the lyrics back at the band.

As the single of their debut album, the track reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. Glenn told KJACK the success of “Animal” projected the band to where they are now.

“Animal was a huge surprise for us because it was our first single as a signed band,” Glenn said. “It just took off, and from there for, I would say, a good straight five years, we were just in this escalating thing where we thought, ‘Oh, this is our life now.’”

Shifting to their 2012 album “Picture Show,” Glenn prolonged the already-upbeat energy of the show with “Moving In The Dark.” As a throwback to the cover they sang on the album, the band performed “Don’t You Want Me” by The Human League, with drummer Elaine Bradley taking over the vocals during the second verse.

While introducing “Used to Like,” Glenn told the audience about the person who had inspired the song: a man he had been casually dating. Although Glenn thought the relationship was serious, he said the man got bored after a few weeks and moved on.

Before ending the show with “Everybody Talks,” Glenn thanked the crowd for coming to the show, expressing his appreciation for everyone who sang and sweated with the band.

“Coming out of the pandemic, all we wanted to do is tour and put out records that we love,” Glenn said. “This tour has been proof-positive that we have fans that know our music beyond the two or three songs that the country or the world knows.”

Even so, the audience was most energized during “Everybody Talks” as they danced and sang along.

During the chorus, the band went quiet and allowed the crowd to continue singing on their own.

After returning from such a long break, Neon Trees said they are grateful for the fans who continue to support them and their career path.

Neon Trees only has two shows left of their tour, set to make their way through San Diego and LA this month, with plans to release their fifth studio album next year.

SUN Entertainment took the stage before the show to announce the next installment of the Lumberjack Concert Series; indie-pop band Sun Room plans to perform at NAU for their 2023 fall tour.

KJACK CROSSWORD

Years in the making, Chappell Roan’s debut album is finally here, By: Abbey Sobelman from The Lumberjack Chappell Roan first attracted attention as an artist at 14 years old when she started uploading song covers to YouTube. Only three years later, Atlantic Records scouted her after she posted her first original song, “Die Young,” to the same site.

Roan released her first EP, “School Nights,” in 2017.

After moving to Los Angeles from her home in rural Missouri the following year, the singer no longer felt connected with her discography. She said in an interview with Rolling Stone her move was liberating as a young, LGBTQ+ woman and it allowed her to start making music that felt like the “real” her.

After taking a break from writing to tour with Vance Joy and Declan McKenna, Roan released “Pink Pony Club” in April 2020 — a pop track that details a young woman’s move from the rural United States to dance as a stripper in West Hollywood. The single failed to turn a significant profit, and the record label dropped Roan.

In the same week, her partner of four years broke up with her.

Roan briefly moved home to work as a barista before returning to LA in late 2020 to take one last shot at making music. Although she had to work odd jobs to support herself, Roan started writing with producer Dan Nigro, who worked on Olivia Rodrigo’s albums “Sour” and “GUTS,” which catapulted her to the indie-pop star status she has today.

On Friday, 25-year-old Roan released her debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” detailing the highs and lows of her career and personal life. The record’s 14-track run captures feelings of blooming queer relationships, unrequited love and the uncertainties of young adulthood atop sounds of electrifying dance-pop and crooning ballads.

The opening track, “Femininomenon,” sets the tone for what listeners can expect from the album. Roan infuses the perfect amount of fun and silliness into the empowering girl anthem. She screams, “Dude, can you play a song with a f—ing beat?” over the beat drop and reminds female listeners not to settle for a less-thanworthwhile man.

In “Red Wine Supernova,” Roan describes the excitement that comes in the early stages of a relationship with a female partner. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Roan said she had not yet dated a girl when she started writing for the album, but songs like “Red Wine Supernova” allowed her to explore this side of herself away from the pressures of her hometown.

Following the concept of exploration, Roan is not afraid to be sexual as she navigates her early twenties. “Naked in Manhattan” entices the musician’s subject to move away from the friend zone, and “HOT TO GO!” serves Roan to the object of her affection. Roan described herself as a “freak in the club” on the disco beat of “After Midnight.”

Breaking away from the more upbeat tracks on the album,“California” and “Picture You” showcase the singer’s unique vocals, sometimes even developing into a full-on yodel. Originally released as a single in 2020, the former sees Roan longing for her home in Missouri and is sonically similar to her original 2017 EP. On the other hand, “Picture You” is a slower ballad about the uncertainties of a one-sided romance, identical to her tracks “Casual” and “Kaleidoscope.”

As an instant stand-out from the album, “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” is the ultimate dance track. Between layers of loud vocals and heavy synth, Roan dismisses “super mega bummer boys” and celebrates her eccentric personality, also seen in her exaggerated drag makeup and homemade bedazzled outfits.

Although Roan put out more than half of the album’s tracks as singles in the years before its release, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” is an instant classic. As a whole, the record shows Roan’s growth in her career and personal life, taking more risks as she moves through her early twenties. Unafraid to be loud and cheesy, the singer knows how to have fun with her music while representing everything that matters most to her.

In an Instagram post commemorating its release, Roan said her album is the accumulation of a decade’s worth of work.

“This album is for the 10-year-old girl from the Midwest who never thought she could be herself,” Roan said.

“The girl who felt shame from the day she turned 13 for having a deeper love for her girl best friend that was unlike anything she felt for boys. For the girl who was told to be proper and sweet and ladylike, but simply would never be.”

Roan passed through Arizona on her first headlining tour earlier this year but will return to Phoenix on Nov. 3 for “The Midwest Princess Tour.” She will also open for Olivia Rodrigo on the U.S. leg of Rodrigo’s “GUTS Tour” next year.

help me get back to the radio to listen to kjack!!!