Pitchfork

Never fear, hypersensitive young person: emo still cares about you! So do long-standing lit-rockers Rainer Maria, who were kicking it e-style way back when all Joey Screamo could utter was a pubescent caterwaul. The poetically-inclined trio have mellowed a bit since the "Goddammit!" days of "Tinfoil" and "Rain Yr Hand", but ten-plus years on they're still tight as shit and a marvel of onstage energy.

April 4 sees the emergence of studio album number five, Catastrophe Keeps Us Together. Released via new label Grunion Records, Catastrophe features eleven red-hot RM cuts, nine of which were produced by Malcolm Burn, the man who changed your life with Shawn Colvin's "Sunny Came Home".

Kyle Fischer, Caithlin de Marrais, and Bill Kuehn formed Rainer Maria in Madison, Wisconsin and soon hitched their baby to a wagon bound for New York City, their present stomping grounds. They are cool people. Love them. Love their songs, too:

01 Catastrophe
02 Life of Leisure
03 Burn
04 Bottle
05 Terrified
06 Cities Above
07 Already Lost
08 Clear and True
09 Make you Mine
10 Southpaw
11 I'll Keep It With Mine

While the Rainer kids have dabbled in assorted solo- and side-projects, 2006 will prove a year of renewed band focus. Disclosed drummer Kuehn to Pitchfork via e-mail: "We've made Rainer Maria our priority for the foreseeable future. We're all very proud of the new record, and feel very fortunate to be in the position we are in with Grunion." Witness Kuehn and Co. playing out their pride and joy this March.

Rilke who?:

03-11 Charlottesville, VA - Starr Hill Music Hall
03-12 Mt. Pleasant, SC - Village Tavern
03-13 Birmingham, AL - Cool Beans Coffee House
03-18 Austin, TX - Karma Lounge (SXSW) $
03-19 Fort Worth, TX - The Ridglea Theater *#
03-21 Des Moines, IA - Vaudeville Mews #
03-22 Omaha, NE - Sokol Underground #
03-23 Urbana, IL - Canopy Club #
03-24 Madison, WI - Club 770
03-25 Lansing, MI - Mac's Bar #

$ with Moonlight Towers, Aberfeldy, Blue Aeroplanes, Cayto, the Magnolias
* with Black Heart Procession
# with Scout Niblett