Biography All Music GuideWikipedia
Group Members: Kyle Fischer
All Music Guide:
Madison, WI, emo trio Rainer Maria emerged in 1995 from the ashes of another poetically inclined local combo, Ezra Pound, reuniting singer/guitarist Kyle Fischer and drummer William Kuehn. Enlisting singer/bassist Caithlin De Marrais, within six weeks Rainer Maria recorded their first demo cassette, quickly selling out all 350 copies. Following a handful of compilation appearances, the group resurfaced in 1996 with a self-titled EP on Polyvinyl; the single "New York: 1955" appeared in early 1997, heralding a shift toward the more subtle melodicism of the full-length Past Worn Searching. Absent throughout 1998, a year later Rainer Maria returned with both the full-length Look Now Look Again and the EP Atlantic. A Better Version of Me arrived in early 2001.
Within the next two years, the band would tally nearly 80,000 records sold worldwide. Rainer Maria's sweet indie rock was contagious and their fan base never lacked enthusiasm. Long Knives Drawn, which appeared in January 2003, marked Rainer Maria's slickest effort yet and was a sure challenge to their rock & roll peers. The band's first ever CD/DVD combo, Anyone in Love with You (Already Knows), was released in March 2004. The double-disc set included various live cuts from Rainer Maria's touring days and live footage from a show in Chapel Hill, NC, from their 2003 tour. In 2006, the band moved to Grunion Records and released Catastrophe Keeps Us Together. Unfortunately, that album's title didn't hold true, and after final shows that December, Rainer Maria called it quits.
Wikipedia:
Rainer Maria was an emo band originally from Madison, Wisconsin, later residing in Brooklyn, New York. Named after the German-language poet Rainer Maria Rilke, they formed in the late summer of 1995 and released five full length albums, a live DVD, numerous live recordings, and EPs. In its earlier days, the band had a dual male and female vocal line-up; later, Caithlin De Marrais took over most singing. The gender ambiguity of the name Rainer Maria paralleled this and was one of the reasons it was selected as the band's name.
The band's many tours and intimate live shows at venues such as Brooklyn's North Six (which lead singer Caithlin De Marrais referred to as "home" during her final show because it also served as the band's rehearsal space), Washington, D.C.'s The Black Cat, the Bowery Ballroom in NYC, and Chapel Hill's Cat's Cradle helped to grow its fan base and fuel album sales.
On November 6, 2006, the band announced, through Pitchfork Media, that the December 16th show at New York City's Bowery Ballroom would be their last. It was accompanied by this statement:
"We are grateful to our new listeners and especially our longtime fans for their endless support and attention. We feel incredibly fortunate to have come up during a unique time in rock music, in a community that grew with us from the Midwest to Brooklyn and beyond. Making records has always been a revelation, and walking onto stage together we found a vision we could share."For us, this transition can be nothing short of heartbreaking. But for reasons both musical and personal, the three of us have chosen this time to move on."The band played their last show on December 17, 2006, at North Six in Brooklyn. They opened with "Artificial Light" and closed with a lengthy version of "Rise." Referring to the intensity of the show and the enthusiasm of the crowd, guitarist Kyle Fischer at one point remarked jokingly in-between songs "we should break up every night."
