Ida “I Know About You” 1996/2026 30th anniversary edition (lent to me by my pal BJ). We had the extreme pleasure of seeing indie-folks Ida perform at one of our yoga studio locations last week as part of their I Know About You anniversary tour, one of small (micro) non-traditional venues (facilitated by Undertow and another local pal, Jon Duris). Duo (and married couple) Daniel Littleton and Elizabeth Mitchell played a lightly amp’d acoustic set of many IKAY tracks plus a few other Ida songs and one from Elizabeth’s 2006 children’s record You Are My Little Bird. In between songs they had light banter (he is the rambling storyteller, she the long-suffering partner who gently grasps his forearm and says “you can stop talking now”), reminiscences of performing in Milwaukee years ago and other delightful moments.  I Know About You is the band’s second album and considered a true gem of the indie folk rock genre. Their voices weave beautifully together both in person last week and on the record: crystal clear and unaffected, just totally honest without being raw or forced. While much more mellow than the majority of the music I listen to, the record has such a sweet melancholy to it and absolutely feels like the mid-90’s (they are just a couple years older than me so I feel/remember those mid-to-late 20-something emotional vibes hard). My top pick is the hardest edged song, the almost-grunge ballad “Requator” but I absolutely appreciate the softer edges too. Sides A-C are the original recording of I Know About You, and Side D is a collection of singles (1995’s “It’s Not Alright” – a jangled indie rocker – and 1997’s “Truxtun Park“) and previously unreleased tracks recorded in ’95 and ’96.

Because they had a local professional recording the show at the yoga studio, I don’t think anyone in the audience was recording video on their phones (I certainly wasn’t as I was sitting on a bolster like 5 feet from Elizabeth’s feet) but here’s a video of them performing a house show last month, the track “August Again” from I Know About You.