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Northwest Music Blog

The Sound of Music in the Northwest

 

Hipsters around the block unite!

Author Jules   Filed under Music, NW Show Critic   July 31, 2007  

It almost felt like everyone made a stop at Urban Outfitters before showing up at the Capitol Hill Block Party on Saturday, July 28th. Lemme tell ya, premo people watching for the year happened here. And I have to say, all was pretty much a good time except the big clusterfuck of a crowd in the beer garden by the stage while Spoon was on. Never in my 15+ years of concert going have I been in such a messy crowd of people shoving, grabbing and being downright mean just to get out of the crowd. It was very uncomfortable. Ok, ’nuff said about that. John Vanderslice was a highlight playing his indie-pop tunes. He came out at the perfect time, late afternoon with sun shining and the crowd pretty much non-existent. Britt Daniel was spotted many times (by my friends as well as myself) meandering thru the beer garden and into Caffe Vita. Next up on stage was Aesop Rock. Not my cup of tea so headed into the Comet for some PBR tall boys then out for some food at the Six Arms afterwards. Made it back for Spoon where we ran into the aforementioned crowd of unpleasantness.

Popularity: 40%

 
 

Two Shows Tonight

Author Jared Nelson   Filed under Music    

CROCODILE CAFE

  • The Curious Mystery
  • Sugar Skulls
  • Delta Hymax
  •  $6, Doors @ 9 p.m.

I generally don’t recommend the Crocodile Cafe (due to lack of cheap beers, over abundance of Stranger-loving hipsters, and a hideous confiscation policy executed by their thick-necked security).  But tonight the Curious Mystery and Sugar Skulls make it worth stopping by.  The Curious Mystery play spaced out folk rock (kind of).  The lead singer strums autoharp and banjo while cooing away in a voice filled with innocent bloodlust and intrigue.  Sugar Skulls bring the joy-prog with a line-up featuring violin, bass, keyboards and drums.  “We don’t live in a world that was made for us/We live in a world that was made for them!”

ReBAR

  •  Malak
  • Wah Wah Exit Wound
  • Hemingway
  • Zdraastvootie (Portland)
  • $5, doors at 9 p.m.

Malak bring the minimalist psych metal.  Wah Wah Exit Wound supplies the over-the-top bar band prog.  Hemingway is psyched-out weirdness from the some of the folk(s) that brought you Playing Enemy.  Zdraastvootie is prog-psych-jam madness (with wind instruments) from Portland.

Support!!!

Ah — next week as well

8/9 Wah Wah Exit Wound, Nymph (Japan/New York), T.I.T.S. (San Francisco), Nudity (Olympia) @ the Comet

8/10 SPOILS, Climax Golden Twins @ the Jules Maes

8/11 Sean, Times of Despearation (Sacramento), Fortress of Victory

Popularity: 20%

 
 

Seafair’s Big Attraction!

Author misterlevitan   Filed under Music   July 30, 2007  

Is it the big crowds? The spectacle that is water NASCAR? The endless traffic debaucle?
Nope, it’s Mudhoney,
Awesome.

Popularity: 17%

 
 

Block Party pics

Author matt   Filed under NW Show Critic    

capitol_hill_block_party_2007_8.jpg

capitol_hill_block_party_2007_14.jpg

>>>>>Here<<<<<

Photo sequence goes something like this: (sorry they’re not labeled)

The Blakes, Matt and Kim, Blood Brother Cody Votolato(?), View from the Comet, Blood Brothers, Matt and Kim, Things, Things, Things, Stuff, Blue Scholars, Stuff

Popularity: 24%

 
 

On a Scale of One to Ten

Author matt   Filed under NW Show Critic   July 28, 2007  

…I give the Capitol Hill Block Party organizers a middle finger.

The last act, Girl Talk, couldn’t be seen by (at least) several hundred people who got to Neumos before it started (midnight). Doors were jammed, fan-security pushing matches broke out, and general ill-feeling and non-communication ruled. A girl had a terrible, screaming claustrophobia attack near one of the doorways, an area that was shoulder to shoulder for 30+ minutes.

Why pump Girl Talk (I’m looking at you, KEXP) as one of the headliners for the past month, and put him in Neumos and not on the main stage?

If you don’t want headliner, last-act-of-the-night crowds, don’t put it in the smaller venue. How hard is that?

Twenty dollars (with all the “service” charges) is a lot to pay for a block party. Going to see the act I’ve pimped for over a month on these very pages, and not being able to get in is a fucking cockpunch. I had a joint rolled for it and everything.

Popularity: 25%

 
 

Capitol Hill Block Party Must See’s, Friday

Author matt   Filed under Upcoming   July 27, 2007  

4:00pm - The Saturday Knights

5:00pm - Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head

5:15pm - The Blakes

8:00pm - Blue Scholars

9:00pm - Viva Voce

9:45pm - Silversun Pickups

12:00am - Girl Talk

Popularity: 21%

 
 

Smooth like Buttah…

Author Jules   Filed under Music   July 26, 2007  

Just had to share that I’m loving the Arctic Monkey’s cover of Amy Winehouse’s “you know i’m no good.” It’s so smooth and groovy*. Every time it plays on KEXP, I love it more and more.  I’m sad it’s not on itunes for me to buy so I can listen to it over and over. It makes me want to wear too much make up,  drink bombay sapphire martinis with lemon twists and smoke cigarettes while sitting in a vinyl high-backed barstool at an art-deco styled bar.  And I don’t even smoke!  Take a listen…

 *First use of “groovy” this year.

Popularity: 25%

 
 

Went to Kurt’s House on Sunday

Author matt   Filed under Music   July 24, 2007  

It was a quiet and wet day, and there was absolutely nothing remarkable about the setting in which Kurt Cobain shot himself in the head in 1994.

His house borders a small park, and I walked up to a fence along the property line that is perhaps not more than 20 feet from where the infamous greenhouse was. The new homeowners had it torn down.

Spiders spun their webs in the still air, and park benches with their Kurt graffiti sat facing Lake Washington.

Popularity: 100%