Hallelujwah Festival — this weekend, Portland…

Yes, Bumbershoot is descending on Seattle Center this weekend, but I’ve got far too many fond memories from my youth of attending during the days of better music, cheaper prices, and more youthful optimism.  My recommendation for it now is simply to : AVOID IT LIKE THE PLAGUE.  (Unless you manage to catch old friends, Mono in VCF from Tacoma.)

So what to do to avoid the ridiculous spectacle?

Portland is hosting the Halleluwah Festival this weekend.  Now, I’m quite ignorant about what the Hell this thing is.  I know a few things which seem to be quite obvious.  Well, one thing (other than some great bands).  It’s named after a Can song from Tago Mago (I believe).  So somehow the people who started this festival named it after a Can song.

They stepped it up a notch by having Damo Suzuki (Can’s singer from ‘70 - ‘73) headline Sunday’s festivities.  Damo Suzuki!  Yea!

I’m not too sure about the lineups on other days, but there’s film showings all days.  (Such bad writing, luckily this is a “blog” and not jouralism).

On Sunday though, is the show — Seattle’s own Climax Golden Twins and the awesome psychdelic ritual force that is the Master Musicians of Bukkake are performing before Damo Suzuki.  I’m lazy so instead of describing in “poetic” and “flowery” language, I’d say go check it out yourself and then you can insert superfluous descriptions: HERE.

Popularity: 25%

Cure Cancels Fall Tour

Just heard it from Cheryl Waters on KEXP.

The first thing that popped into my head was this: My Goodness the Times have Changed. In the 80s it seemed there were a few hundred Mega Bands — you know, the ones on Warner Records, IRS Records etc. And then there was the underground scene.

Now that’s segmented into hundreds of subgroups, filled by tens of thousands of bands using the Internet to get their music out. Hooray for that. Look for this granularization to continue.

Popularity: 27%

Wall of Sound Presents: A Night with the Spoils

Wall of Sound is probably the craziest record shop in the city.  Located on Capitol Hill it peddles shit that even freaks and music nerds must admit is quite rare.  Need that Baby Grandmothers’ (’60s Finnish psych band) live/outtakes comp.  That’s your place.  They put on shows highlighting bands they dig and this week/month/or whenever the occur, is SPOILS.

SPOILS are not some weird, fucked-up out there band.  (Well they are, or the dudes are.)  Spoils’ groove is to play the most freedom-rockin’, balls to the wall, grab-a-chick-for-the-night, drink some beers, get fried, get wired, dance around, smile, happy, good timin’ rock & roll band in this city.  The band consists of Milky Burgess (guitar/vox), Jim “Diamond Vincent” Davis (bass), and Don McGreevy (drums).  These dudes fill the same roles in the psyched-out ritual mindfuck that is the Master Musicians of Bukkake.  Milky has also been doing live shows with Morricone-scorched desert drone pioneers, Earth, and sings some nice songs himself ( myspace.com/milkyburgess ).  Don McGreevy is the bassist for the same uberband Earth, also plays bass in indie-rock group the Stares, and recently pulled double-duty for Kinski (sometimes on bass, sometimes on drums) during their arena opening tour for Tool.  Diamond Vincent, formerly of Gigantum, cuts some spooky, stoned out, candles in a dark room-alone music ( myspace.com/diamondvincent ).

Away from the fucked up insanity of Bukkake and their various other endeavors, Spoils bring the straight-up rock & roll which we should all love.  Milky’s guitar technique is one of the craziest you’ll ever see — Seattle’s own-private guitar god.  McGreevy & Diamond Vincent hold down the groovy groove with what they used to call “feel” back in the day.

They’re playing two sets.  Spoils, all night long.

Popularity: 24%

Pimp Yourself

NW bands, pimp yourself here. Reply to this thread in the comment area. Direct links to MP3s are always prefered over links to MySpace pages, but if all you have is MS, that’ll work.

Tell us about you

• where are you playing?
• who do you sound like?
• who do you like?

Popularity: 26%

KEXP BBQ Wrapup

Fun!
>>>> Photos here <<<<

• I missed the Cave Singers and the Blakes, damnit
• Pela rocked the fucking house
• Pela’s members are extremely nice guys, eager to talk to fans and autograph shit
• I bought their CD approximately 18 seconds after they finished their set
• John Richards is funny
• Blue Scholars sounded great. They’re a solid band any way you slice it.
• It was great to be outdoors, and the weather was plesant, if a touch damp
• Everyone was having a great time. It was a joy to be there.
• Supporting KEXP gives me the warm fuzzies
• Cloud Cult wrapped up the night. Perfect choice here.
• Cloud Cult was also very fucking good, thanks
• There were some artists doing live art as Cloud Cult played. Cool idea.
• I’m not on Happy Pills, it really was a great time

Popularity: 31%

Another Ugly Neumos Incident

Last night I was walking by Neumos with a friend, and we stopped — on the sidewalk — to look at/listen to whoever was playing via an open door. (Neumos is notoriously hot, and they keep the Pike Street door open during summer events.)

Being a street photographer, I had my camera with me. I raised it to shoot a few frames through the door. Shooting through a door while retaining some of the door’s border — like the wall for instance — can frame a subject beautifully. And there was some real dancing going on in there.

Ok, so let’s compose and fire the shutter. But wait! There’s a hand coming toward me… now it’s filling my frame, and now it’s actually pushing the lens, the camera, and my head back.

Popularity: 27%

Showbox Sodo to take over where Fenix fell

The huge SoDo venue that once was The Premier and then Fenix (as in Fenix Underground) is being taken over by the Shobox and new shows as billed to begin playing as soon as Sept 21. I have always loved this space as it has a huge stage lifted way off the ground and it was rumored to have had the sound set up by a famous local sound man from the days of grunge scene. I believe he used to set up for Soundgarden…Someone please add in the details of this guy if you know them…

The ex-Premier soon to be Showbox SoDo- is a 1500 ft space where as the Showbox-soon to be Showbox at the Market-sits at only 1100. I can olny hope they pay as much attention to teiring the floor and working the sound as they did in the original.

 Check out the story in the Times here

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Who’s Going to the BBQ?

Cloud Cult and The Blakes are what I’m going for, but I’m sure Blue Scholars, Pela and the Cave Singers will be more than just a bit entertaining as well.

Here’s some pix I shot at the 2004 BBQ, when it was in the KEXP parking lot (read: ghetto, fun, no frills) on a Sunday. Aveo and The Ruby Doe played.

Popularity: 24%