Why haven’t I heard these guys before? Usually I pick this type of music up on my music radar (madar?). How did they avoid me? They’ve been around since 1983, for goodness’ sake.
From Wikipedia:
… World Party, … which was created by former Waterboys members.
…sheds quite a bit of light on them. It’s like piecing together a family tree to find out more about a relative I never knew, but should have.
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I was in the coffee shop on Saturday and I heard a song playing above and was like, “What is this?? Does Spoon have a new album out!?!?” I got all excited b/c I love Spoon (just as much as I love Pavement and that’s a lot!). I asked the Barista who was playing and she mentioned she didn’t know — that she just had KEXP tuned in so the song remained unconfirmed.
Today on my way to work I had KEXP on and John Richards mentioned he was about to play a new song by Robbers on High Street — this is where I promptly turned to my carpool buddy and told him that ROHS sound uncannily like Spoon.
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There isn’t much left to say about Rodrigo y Gavriel that wasn’t already covered in my rave last month (See: Gomes Closes for Rodrigo y Gavriela).
The Mexican guitar duo truly transcend anything you have come to expect emanating out of any stringed instrument. This is not flamenco, it is certainly NOT folk. It’s rich, full of heavy beats and most importantly it ROCKS..
Opening for Gomez in October, RyG promised to return this December for a show at Chop Suey. The date has been decided for Friday Dec 15th. Be sure to grab tix early as this is a replacement show for one they had to cancel in Rock-tober due to our boys at the border. This band at this venue are not to be missed.
All this talk of “dead” bands… on the heels of getting a 5 (count ‘em, FIVE) disc set of Soundgarden rarities last night. Holy cow.
So a few members of this group already know that I am a total self-proclaimed mother-breather fan-boy* for Soundgarden. And if you didn’t, you know now.
Entitled “Odds & Sods”, it is comprised of 80 songs of unreleased or hard-to-find tracks, including Sub Pop demos, electronic remixes and B-sides. There are a few songs that the casual listener probably has heard, like “Seasons” from the soundtrack to “Singles”, “Right Turn” from Alice in Chains’ SAP EP, and the video version of “Fell On Black Days” that appeared on the “Superunknown” multimedia EP.
Some other standouts that are studio-quality recordings:
I came up with 6 or 7 once. First one’s obvious:
No Googling!
Pyramid Brewery — Nov 11, 2006: So I haven’t been to a show in a very long while so I’ll share my somewhat feebled attempt to go to one this past Saturday eve where The Evergreen Effect opened for Matt Costa at Pyramid Brewery. I scored a free ticket a while back from a friend who works at Pyramid (which I didn’t even need b/c the door person let me in free!). I was looking forward to going since I’ve had good times at previous “Get Snowed In” parties (Built to Spill and The New Pornographers) however I must say this one was a disappointment. Maybe it was just me but it seemed like a big frat party with an OK opening band playing self proclaimed “acoustically driven, funky, classic rock”-type songs that somewhat reminded me of the loppy blues riffs of G. Love. I found myself distracted and more interested in watching people slamming beers through beer bong embedded in a big block of ice for 2 bucks than the band. By the next last to song, I just couldn’t get myself excited to see Matt Costa — who I guess sounds like Jack Johnson, as reported by my friends. So it got me thinking — “what sounds like more fun… staying up another hour and a half to listen to a guy that I’ve never heard of who sounds like Jack Johnson OR my warm cozy bed at home…?” I bet you can guess what I chose…
The ticket fairy dropped two passes to the “Get Snowed In” show into my filthy hands yesterday. Hadn’t seen the band since a Sky Church show with J Mascis in 2001, so why not?
Doors were to be at 9 and there was an opener so we decided not to get there til 10:30ish.
Crossing First Ave from Safeco, we could clearly hear BtS. “Great, show’s underway,” I thought. But according to another show-goer, they’d been on since before 9:30! The rocked out the hits, and even though it was in a heated tent out behind the brewery, and we were all wearing ski caps, the sound was way better than expected. Plus, there was a ton of free Snow Cap being poured into my face.
Lotsa great songs: “Sidewalks”, “Goin’ Against Your Mind”, “Big Dipper”, and two of my all-time favorites, “Carry the Zero” and “You Were Right”.
I’d sorta burned-out on them after the “Perfect From Now On” and “Keep It Like a Secret” LPs and couldn’t really get into “Ancient Melodies”. A few of the last shows I saw after ‘98 were too jammy and wank-y. (Check out the “Live” album when you have to kill a really long hour or so.) But last night really erased those last few bad shows.
Thanks for a great show, Doug & Co. And thanks, Ticket Fairy.
Strangely, on the way home, some kids that had just exited the Fun House, and hence, the Bloodhag show, got on our bus and did a sweet poetry reading out of some sci-fi dime novel that they had apparently been given by the band.
My hat is off to Leon Berman and KEXP’s Shake the Shack rockabilly show for hitting their TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY. It should go without saying it’s the world’s longest running rockabilly radio show. Catch tonight’s milestone show 6-9pm West Coast time.
I’ve met Leon a few times, and he’s a man with a very kind heart that hides behind Leon’s penchant for jr. high humor. The combination is somehow, inexplicably, endearing. But don’t take my word for it, listen for yourself.
Central Service’s pop is nothing if not exuberant. Kevin Emerson’s enthusiastic band saw a decent turnout at Mars Bar, and the turnout saw a fine set of competent, tight indie rock.
Emerson, who volunteers for 826 Seattle, is clearly proud of the Service’s music, and happy to front the band as their front-and-center, blazer-wearing, singing standup drummer.
I prefer my pop in the vein of 1984-era Psychedelic Furs or Army Navy, but this was fine.
The openers Friday Mile (only half of the band) were superb I thought.
Going to the Mars Bar tonight to see Central Services play.
Seattle-based Central Services plays pop with a retro-rock sound.
Also the drummer for Seattle indie-pop favorite Math and Physics Club, lead singer Kevin Emerson formed Central Services in 2004 with bassist Jeff Blancato, after ten years of songwriting collaboration.
http://classifieds.thestranger.com/seattle/ViewBand?oid=oid%3A85006
