Not news to anyone…Rolling Stone blows

A hangover from my naive and idyllic youth. A (dis)comforting reminder of who I once was. A glimpse at what the average music listener thinks of when “rock & roll” pops in their brains. That’s what Rolling Stone is. I was once an avid subscriber. I honestly thought the magazine mattered and covered new and interesting types of music. When Brittany started grabbing headlines I pulled out. I still have the habit of picking it up at newsstands and flipping through every page, realizing quickly that I couldn’t give a fuck about the status of the new Velvet Revolver album, what Pete Doherty wore when he vomited on himself, or how many stars the newest Fall Out Boy record gets.

I still check the webpage everyday (bored at work) and read a few of the articles. There is no “news” reported on Rolling Stone’s webpage — only links to other news sources with stories about how some dude is opening a bar, or that Russel Simmons thinks rappers should quit swearing so much. This is followed by pages of comments by readers who no doubt consider themselves hip, informed, and down-with-it. After all, they read Rolling Stone.

…I couldn’t give a fuck about the status of the new Velvet Revolver album, what Pete Doherty wore when he vomited on himself, or how many stars the newest Fall Out Boy record gets.

Up till 3

I stayed up until 3am last night, trolling the airwaves for fine music to bring to YOU.

Ok, not really. I was post-processing images from a photo shoot on my underpowered MacBook. But I was catching some damn fine music while watching progress bars creep across my screen, and this is the damn fine music I heard:

	8:56pm		Laura Veirs		Saltbreakers		Saltbreakers		Nonesuch
	12:01am		!!!		Must Be The Moon		Myth Takes		Warp
	12:29am		CocoRosie		Japan		The Adventures Of Ghosthorse And Stillborn		Touch And Go Records
	12:46am		Cloud Cult		Alien Christ		The Meaning of 8		Earthology

and one by Seattle band the Blakes that I can’t find on KEXP’s playlist page.

Who’s Killing Internet Radio?

A War on Independence

This country needs more culture, not less, and what is our government doing?

The feds just increased streaming fees for Internet radio stations, and not only that, but made the fees retroactive to 2006.

Plus there’s now a $500 per year minimum. Say goodbye to the smallest broadcasters.

Silversun Pickups at the Triple Door

KEXP darlings SSPU put on a little 50 minute set today at the Triple Door. MC’d by Troy, it was yet another in their VIP Club Show series.
The upside to a quick ‘n dirty show at this venue: you could conceivably put in a half-day at the office and cash in on being a KEXP donor by rocking out at lunch. Not just to any ol’ band, but one that’s commanding $50-$75 through Craigslist for tonight’s show at Neumo’s. Yes, seventy-five dollars for what Tuffy calls the second coming of the Smashing Pumpkins. (Though hot girls could go for a dollar, if you are into this guy)
The downside to the show is more of a criticism of the venue than of the band. The sound there today was, as expected, phenomenal. Seated along the wall on a padded bench, the Nikki’s rolling bass moved you, and Chris’ impossibly-high high-hat was crystal clear. But singer/guitarist Brian affirmed my reservations about the seating-only space when he said the band felt like they were playing a lounge in Vegas. “Thanks to Barbara Mandrell for opening today…” he added.
Had a cocktail server ever come around, the scene would have been complete. (Keeping with sad tradition at the 3D, the bartenders’ sloth made my head hurt more than any hangover in recent memory. We gave up after waiting at the bar doodling rude pictures on the countertop for five minutes.) Las Vegas lounge act, with a Seattle twist: a rock and roll show in a room full of vinyl seats and no standing room, attending by a bunch of head-bobbing, bespectacled office folk (or are they extras from a Verizon commercial?)

But, back to the music, as they say: crisp, in tune and loud. Though they only have an EP and LP to pick from, they played ‘em freshly as if they haven’t grown weary of the limited material. “Future Foe Scenarios”, “Rusted Wheel” with a unique intro, “Common Reactor” with requisite guitar wank, and “Lazy Eye” with EXTENDED fuzzed-out wank.

If you have it in you to be some lonely Renton guy’s date, follow that link from Craigslist. At least the music will be good.
Oh, and to the bar manager at the Triple Door: remind your bartenders that it’s a “for-profit business.” Folks playing hooky at noon have beer money to burn.

A great band you probably never heard of.

So any time I have friends over to my house for whatever, I always have music playing in the background. When a certain little Elephant 6 band pops on the stereo, I swear to you that there hasn’t been one single time when someone hasn’t said, “Who’s this? – they’re great!” (or something to that effect…). Well this band  is Beulah. They were part of the The Elephant 6 Recording Company. Elephant 6 was a collective of musicians who spawned some of the most notable independent bands of the 1990s, including The Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Apples in Stereo and of Montreal (from wikipedia).

So check’em out. I hope what happens to my friends happens to you — that you discover a great band that you never heard of before.

Here’s more interesting tidbits from Wikipedia re: the Elephant 6 collective:
The most characteristic trait of an Elephant Six recording is the eclectic and exotic instrumentation: along with the guitars and drums, you hear, for example, the flugelhorn, singing saw, and the wandering genie on Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea; the euphonium, selemintan, and magnus organ on Olivia Tremor Control’s Black Foliage; the sitar, “magic robot voice”, and Nepalese copper shawm on Elf Power’s When the Red King Comes; and everything from sarangi to clarinet played by eighteen backup musicians on Beulah’s When Your Heartstrings Break. This was the ostensible nature of the Elephant Six collective: instruments, players, and space are divided among and shared among many projects.

Scott H Biram w/ Mike D (of SOB) 4/28 @ Tractor

In my everlasting pursuit of the rock and excuses to wear shirts with snaps and yokes, I’ve come across a pretty killer show at the end of April.

Sat, April 28
blues, hillbilly and country precariously lashed together with raucous punk and godless metal
SCOTT H. BIRAM
EDDIE & THE HELLDREGS
MIKE D & THEE LOYAL BASTARDS of I Can Lick Any SOB In The House
9pm ~ $10
www.scottbiram.com
www.myspace.com/eddieandthehelldregs
www.mikedamron.com
Tickets also available at Sonic Boom!*

 

Now I’ve written before about the backwood punk/hillbilly rock that is Mike D from SOB, and honestly I JUST saw that he was in this lineup when I was copying it from the Tractor site. The real prize of the night is going to be Scott Biram. Really raw roots rock with a lo-fi sound and guitar that makes your fingers bleed just hearing it.

Names to Remember: The Heavy Hearts and Helms Alee

     Here are two bands to be on the lookout for when scanning through the club listings.  Both are excellent should not be missed.

Formerly Triple X Audio, the Heavy Hearts changed their sound and their name a little over a year ago.  Last fall they put out their debut EP on Swingline Records.  It’s full of angular guitar, chaotic vocals, pounding drums, and duel bass.  But where they really shine is on stage.  Their show at the Sunset on March 24th had local press buzzing.  The Seattle Weekly said, “…the Hearts hit the Sunset stage with enough energy to power all of Ballard, tearing through a 30-minute set like a pack of pit bulls going at a side of bloody beef”

Saturday Night @ the Rendezvous – Jewel Box Theater

SPOILS + DIMINISHED MEN + WAH WAH EXIT WOUND

10:00 p.m., $6

Spoils

The first time I saw Spoils is when they opened for Kinski and the Pink Mountaintops at the Crocodile Cafe earlier this year. I was positively blown away. The band consists of Milky Burgess, Don McGreevy, and Diamond Vincent. These guys all do double duty in a variety of other freaked out projects: they form the musical core of costumed ritual rockers, Master Musicians of Bukkake. McGreevy is played bass on doom metal/drone forefathers Earth’s newest album and is a member of the Stares — a boy/girl indie rock Seattle band. Jim “Diamond Vincent” Davis plays in splatter punk godfathers, the Accused. Here in Spoils though, it’s all about one thing — big ol’ fun dancing drinking smoking rock & roll. Milky plays and sings guitar — and he does both with a style, passion and sincerity — his voice sounds like a combination between John Fogerty and Prince. He fingerpicks his guitar, but not in a folky John Denver way. More in a “how the fuck is he doing that right now” kind of way. If you like straight up rock & roll to party to, to dance to, to fuck to, to get high to — this is it.

Cafe Venus Mars Bar on Wednesdays

Come out, Wednesdays are great. I’m here now.

JimiC and Alias play mostly 80s & indie vinyl, and it sounds great. The spectrum is from indie 80s to obscure 80s to somewhat modern indie. No 80s bubblegum.

Plus the staff and regulars are wonderful.

Jim’s crates of vinyl are seemingly endless; I’ve requested some rare tracks and he’s delivered every time.
See more images here.

Last Weekend & this Upcoming Weekend in Seattle music

Last Saturday I caught The One and Only True Messiah at an afternoon show at Fremont’s High Dive. The band is fronted by Steve Van Liew (former lead singer for Sub Pop’s Bible Stud, Seattle’s ’80s metal group Overlord, and I believe Mike McCready’s old band, Shadow). I don’t know what his old hair metal voice sounded like, but his new voice is old, worn and craggy — it’s perfect. He sounds like he’s been there and done that, and probably some more. The music of TOOTM is generally moody Crazy Horse-cum-Drive-By Truckers styled singer-songwriter rock.