Listen to Strand of Oaks’ haunted, piano-driven take on “Radio Kids” via The Current

Last week, Timothy Showalter of Strand of Oaks headed to 89.3 The Current in Minnesota to perform a stripped back version of “Radio Kids” taken from their newly-released record Hard Love.

Although his Bunyan demeanor might seem imposing, Showalter has some emotional chops — we’ve followed him for years at The Key, and know this well. His voice is haunted by memories the days of discovering music for the first time, an eye-opening and life-changing experience for any obsessive listener. Forming a music taste of your own is pretty damn freeing, as he looks fondly back to those days when you formed your own taste not by what the Internet has to say about it, but by thinking whatever you wanted to think. And he owes it all to radio.

Showalter also contributed to the Our First 100 Days project an intricate instrumental called “I Know YOU Know You’re Evil,” and it runs the gamut from simmering ambient to hammering industrial dissonance. Listen below.