Rainbow Kitten Surprise

Rainbow Kitten Surprise arose from Boone, North Carolina, a college town set amid the Blue Ridge Mountains, delivering an intense blend of luminous indie pop and heartfelt folk-rock anchored in vocal harmonies. Their precise instrumental command and jam-band dexterity cultivated a devoted grassroots audience, prompting Elektra to sign them after a pair of independent releases and issue the 2018 full-length How To: Friend, Love, Freefall. Extensive touring in the following year produced the 2021 live album RKS! Live from Athens Georgia. After concentrating on standalone singles for several years, the band resurfaced in 2024 with the expansive, cross-genre double album Love Hate Music Box.

The group originated in 2013 inside an Appalachian State dorm room when vocalist Ela Melo and guitarist Darrick "Bozzy" Keller cut and self-released the acoustic EP Mary. They soon added Ethan Goodpaster on guitar, Charlie Holt on bass, and Jess Haney on drums, expanding the sound into the fuller, more dynamic style captured on the debut album Seven, later combined with the EP as Seven + Mary. Their second LP, RKS, appeared in 2015 via the local Split Rail imprint; together with the mounting online traction of the single "Devil Like Me" from Seven, it extended Rainbow Kitten Surprise’s reach across the country.

During 2017 the band performed at Bonnaroo, Firefly, and Austin City Limits before signing with Elektra Records ahead of their third album. Cut at Nashville’s Neon Cross Studio amid a trove of vintage gear and produced by Jay Joyce (Cage the Elephant, the Head and the Heart), How To: Friend, Love, Freefall arrived in 2018. A demanding tour ensued, highlighted by a sold-out concert at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre and a series of Athens, Georgia dates later assembled into RKS! Live from Athens Georgia. Ahead of that release the band issued the standalone single “Our Song” in 2019, with the live set finally surfacing in 2021. They opened 2022 with the reflective “Work Out,” an upbeat track exploring tangled relationships. The equally buoyant “Drop Stop Roll,” a fan favorite refined onstage for more than a year, followed in 2023. In March 2024 Rainbow Kitten Surprise parted ways with bassist Charlie Holt, then immediately released “Superstar,” the lead single from Love Hate Music Box. Issued that May and co-produced by Daniel Tashian, Konrad Snyder, and Melo, the adventurous 22-track double album marked the group’s first new LP in six years and included a duet with Kacey Musgraves on “Overtime.”