It Are Good

Hi! My name is DARREN KEEN. I have spent the past 8, almost 9 years touring full time with my band THE SHOW IS THE RAINBOW.

The Show is the Rainbow is a bizzare mix of FUNK / HIP HOP / DANCE / and EXPERIMENTAL ELECTRONIC music, with a MULTIMEDIA presentation and lots of quick witted banter. I have played literally just under 1,000 shows, including 30+ tours of the United States, 9 European tours, and 2 tours of New Zealand.

Pulling influences from Frank Zappa, Beck, Squarepusher, and Captain Beefheart, I have built up a following, and turned what was once sort of a “novelty” act, into a full fledged, DIY, underground movement. People have compared me to a midwestern, musical Andy Kaufman, with the ability to light up any room with my hilarious, original, and confusing behavior.

I have released 4 full length albums, and plenty of ep’s and singles, on a variety of record labels from all over the world, including TSK!TSK! (London, UK), RETARD DISCO (Los Angeles, CA), YOSADA (Boise, ID), and I have future releases planned for both the FLYING NUN (NZ) and DUAL PLOVER (OZ). My most recent full length “Tickled Pink”, was released on 12″ vinyl on my own label, IT ARE GOOD RECORDS, which has luckily found distribution through the forward thinking electronic label ILLEGAL ART (home of Girl Talk, Steinski, and Junk Culture).

Right now I am in the middle of a YEAR LONG HONEYMOON TOUR, which will take me and my wife all around the world 3 times! It has been amazing so far, and we look forward to our upcoming dates in Europe, New Zealand, and Australia.

Through my 9 years of touring, I have played a variety of shows and venues, and I love it all, from the dingiest basement to the largest
outdoor camping festivals. I have been lucky enough to tour with acts like Man Man, Neil Hamburger, Deerhoof, The Faint, Girl Talk, Dan Deacon, Mae Shi, Cursive, and F in Math. I have been invited to play so many great shows, including Bergenfest in Bergen, Norway (twice!), Camp A Low Hum in New Zealand (twice), and countless appearances at CMJ and SXSW in the USA.
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100% CONFIRMED EUROPEAN TOUR DATES!! LOT’S MORE TO BE CONFIRMED SOON!!!

Sat. Sept 3 Bergen, Norway @ Garage

Tue. Sept 6 Aalborg, Denmark @ 1000Fryd

Wed. Sept 7 Copenhagen, Denmark @ Kifak

Thu. Sept 8 Amsterdam, Netherlands @ OCCII w/ Rainbow Arabia

Sat. Sept 10 Amsterdam, Netherlands @ W139 (Bring Yr Own Beamer Festival)

Mon. Sept 12 Gent, Begium @ Cafe Video

Tue. Sept 13 Metz, France @ La Rubis

Wed. Sept 14 London, United Kingdom @ Roadtrip

Sat. Sept 17 Tilburg, Netherlands @ Kafee ‘t Bultenbeentje (INCUBATE FESTIVAL)

Tue. Sept 20 Madrid, Spain @ La Faena II

Wed. Sept 21 Turin, Italy @ Velvet

Thu. Sept 22 Carrara, Italy @ gGrama

Fri. Sept 23 Rome, Italy @ Fanfulla 101

Sat. Sept 24 Genova, Italy @ Burrida II (If the Bomb Falls Fest)

Sun. Sept 25  Modena, Italy @ Pasteggio a Livello

Thu. Sept 29 Winterthur, Switzerland @ Kraftfeld

Fri. Sept 30 Eindhoven, Netherlands @ TAC (Pageturner)

Sat. Oct 1 Nijmegen, Netherlands Swing Sting @ De Onderbroek

Sun. Oct 2 Kassel, Germany @ Club A.R.M.

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MEDIA!!!

Return Of The Microthrone by The Show Is The Rainbow from Ingrained on Vimeo.

The Show is the Rainbow – “DONT VOTE” (from the forthcoming LP “Tickled Pink”) by darrenkeen
The Show is the Rainbow – “PAY THE COVER” (from the forthcoming lp “Tickled Pink”) by darrenkeen
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PRESS CLIPPINGS!!!
“The other thing that went through this demented mind Friday night was
that Keen may be onto something. His set was fun and “in your face,”
with just enough edge to be considered subversive. There is an
aggression boiling just below the surface, a strange unnerving tension
that could erupt at any moment. And though the music is less “dancy”
than his earlier material (which may change after he fills it out in
the studio), it’s no less engaging. Let’s face it, it’s impossible to
be bored at a TSITR show, which is more than I can say for 90 percent
of the indie bands that come through town. And for those folks who
will stumble onto Darren by accident as he and his girlfriend
criss-cross the country over the next eight months, he could be a
revelation or at least one helluva conversation piece”
1/31/11 Lazy-i.com

“The man is insane, and it shows on the new record. From start to
finish, the new music is 666 BPM-cool and everything you could ever
want from a TSITR release, and the release show reflected this. The
crowd was as crazy as Keen, and that only fed the madness. When the
projector broke, he broke his set. It doesn’t matter, as long as
there’s the music. Even when the dancefloor devolved into a full-blown
mosh pit, Keen was still in party mode, being knocked about by his
fans as he entertained them.”
5/21/11 hearnebraska.org

“It’s hard to review the sophomore album from Nebraska’s Darren Keen
and not fly off the handle with contrasting comparisons. He’s like the
Rapture and Kraftwerk on speed at a degenerate Art Ensemble show, like
Bruce Haack being interviewed by Television, or the Talking Heads
making an Asthmatic Kitty record with Dan Deacon, sometimes all in the
same track. The self-proclaimed Andy Kaufman of the DIY
indie-electronic scene develops his material during the rigors of
constant touring and the spunk of his visceral performance art
spectacle comes through on this record.”
3/19/09 popmatters.com

“That song was about fucking while you’re freezing to death in an
alleyway.” Hmm, who knew? Keen peered over into the front row, “I
smell weed.” He then cued a Pink Floyd inspired arpeggiated loop and
informed us that the next song was, “…about a guy who liked butt-sex
with guys, but got a new girlfriend who doesn’t and so he has to find
prostitutes.” Moving on from banter to stage direction, he asked for
audience hand claps and took to robot voices. Many in the crowd were
wondering just what the hell they were seeing, it was about to be a
whole lot more of Darren Keen. His rock star persona and girth
immediately conjure thoughts of Jack Black. But it was more like if
Jack Black was from Omaha, Nebraska, never found his KG and took too
much acid. I thought it was spectacular. After a failed attempt at an
anonymous crowd survey, followed by on stage moonage and a rant about
acting your age he popped his top and showed off his new tattoo of the
logo for Retard Disco Records who he had just signed with. Now
shirtless and sweaty they played a song about “Hitler and his meth
mouth” – I couldn’t make out all the lyrics, but the first line was “I
am a Siamese Duck.” A rant on Hugh Laurie’s keen ability to diagnose
the misdiagnosed at the last possible second followed by a faux stage
dive (thank god) and a triumphant stage return – made even more
triumphant by asking the crowd to “…cheer really loud when I get
back on stage like you guys are real happy to see me again.” TSisTR
finished off his set of danceable indie rock hip hop by running out
into the crowd with his wireless mic and climbing the tree (audience
assisted) in the middle of the Jannus Landing pavilion to serenade us.
It was rock star retard in full glory.”
4/20/09 cltampa.com

“When the most recent leg of his massive and nearly non-stop touring
schedule brought him to New Orleans, Keen showed up at Siberia with
little more than a laptop, a portable LCD projector and a bed sheet
that had been fashioned into a video screen. This, apparently, is the
most common line-up of the band, as The Show Is The Rainbow has only
occasionally hit the road as anything more than a one-man show.
Lucky, then, that it is without a guitar in his hand, a stage under
his feet or supporting musicians at his side, that Keen’s prolific and
fascinating personality truly comes into sharp focus.

Among the many dynamic features of Darren Keen’s tour de force live
show – dizzying compositions equal parts psychedelic glitch-hop and
fat-bass rap breaks; frantic lyrical delivery that alternates between
rapid-cypher fire and sing-songy falsetto; and non-stop motion in,
above, below and beyond the crowd – it was his lucid denouncements of
mainstream standards and practices – both spoken and in song – that
stuck with me the most. His beef with Conor Oberst is long-standing
and has been well documented, but Keen also takes issue with the
entire wave of overly-affected, form-over-function indie divas he
feels are sucking the fun out of real, honest music.

Coming from a shirtless dude who just finished rolling around on the
dirty floor of a Bywater bar – a floor peppered with splotches of the
fake blood novelty shock-popper Rhodes employed in his opening set –
such proclamations would have rang hollow if they weren’t so
thoroughly earnest. The time Keen spent deriding all the phonies,
clowns and gold-bricking music industry frauds was equaled only by his
repeated conveyance of overflowing gratitude for every cover-paying,
jaw-dropped member of the audience who took the time and effort to
support the latest edition of his nearly perpetual world tour.

In a culture that often misappropriates phrases like “alt” and “indie”
as shallow shorthand for whatever happens to be “new” and/or “trendy”,
a TSITR performance is nothing short of revelatory; one that
momentarily re-brands those along for the wild ride as a triumphant
band of outsiders in perfect lockstep with Keen’s magnificent vision
for a truly alternative musical reality.”
6/21/11 barryfest.com