Keep for Cheap Drops Second Single, "Cyberspace", from Upcoming Album, 'Big Grass'

MINNEAPOLIS (July 25, 2024) - The Midwest's own “prairie-rock” pioneers, Keep for Cheap, released their latest single, “Cyberspace,” and is now available on all streaming platforms. This track offers a sneak peek into their eagerly awaited sophomore album, 'Big Grass', to debut in August 2024. 

“Cyberspace” is a meandering indie-rock tune that opens and closes with questions about why humans are so pervasively online. Inspired by the tangled relationship between social media and personal identity, Keep for Cheap reflects on the cyclical nature of harmful digital behaviors, including over-consumption and over-sharing.

The song addresses how social media feels necessary for connecting with others. However, as often a toxic and cyclical tool, its support of vapid and detached consumption habits leaves the band insecure in its growth as it struggles to produce viral content.

The song questions the need for external validation and a wider audience to witness individuals' lives feel actualized — themes of human indulgence and “shouting to the ether” echo throughout. 

As Autumn and Kate, the band’s fronting duo, lament, “Cyberspace" is, “a song about feeling drained by your biggest resource.” It challenges listeners to ponder the true cost of the performance of our online lives, the hollow nature of virtual connections, the unseen consequences of our digital selves, and the implications of feeling more alive with our faces turned toward screens.

Musically, “Cyberspace” blends shoegaze indie-rock with twangy punk influences, reminiscent of Wednesday and Bully, or Pinegrove meets Soccer Mommy. The track features spacey guitars, melodic yet driving bass, steady drums, and stirring vocals, creating a sound that is both immersive and thought-provoking. Produced by Abe Anderson, the band notes, “It's one of our more in-depth arrangements on 'Big Grass,' capable of holding multiple meanings and resonating on various levels.”

Keep for Cheap’s special blend of indie, country, rock, and pop has a little something for everyone. Playing what they call “prairie rock,” the Minnesota five-piece’s playful sound will make you feel like a kid, then break your heart with its next turn of phrase. The band strives to make music that moves, with driving instrumentals and poignant lyrics. Drawing at times from their own love story, fronting members Kate Malanaphy and Autumn Vagle write music to make you pine over queer love and passing youth, seek inspiration in the natural world and connection wherever it can be made. 

The emotion in their music mainly reflects the lives of songwriters and fronting members of the band, Autumn and Kate who formed a musical connection when they met in the alto section of college choir in 2017. They soon started “KfC”, became best friends and are now nearly five years in love, writing alternative country songs reflecting on their lives in Minnesota and the world as they see it. Their special connection brings a vivacious perspective to their music.