Another great show created from the cosmic radiation.
Earth are epic, slow-plod, God-country music. Grails have put out two of my favorite releases of the 21st century, Burden of Hope and Black Tar Prophecies Vol. 1, 2, & 3. Master Musicians of Bukkake are the best band in the city. Watch Don McGreevy pull double duty as the drummer for Bukkake opening the show and super groove thunder stick in Earth at the end.
Popularity: 23%
Local label Beep Repaired hosted a Turkey Day concert at the Crocodile this past Wednesday (11/21), featuring four solid Seattle rock bands: Juhu Beach, Lake of Falcons, Unlearn, and the Bismarck. Only two of the four bands are currently signed to BR, but they’re cool like that, and asked a couple of their friends to round out the lineup. Admittedly, I was there mainly to see Lake of Falcons, whose old-school melodic-punk style has intrigued me ever since my sister introduced me to them a few years back while she was still actively affiliated with the BR family. But the whole show ended up being well worth the six bucks I paid to get in. Juhu Beach opened the show, and, having never heard them before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. They answered the bell with flying colors. This four-piece played with a lot of energy, featured some notable song writing, and even threw in a flurry of non-annoying intersong banter. AMAZING!
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Popularity: 30%
Powersolo is a punk/rockabilly trio (the railthin brothers Kim “Kix,” and Bo “Atomic Child” with drummer J.C. Benz) from Aarhus Denmark. This is their second North American tour supporting Heavy Trash. We sat down before their Chop Suey show to chat about their new album Egg, their love for American music and other music-good-times.
Before we could get right down to business Jon Spencer, Kim and Bo tried to organize their evening – where to eat, where to get J.C. Benz’s specs mended, and where the heck was their hotel? For some reason, unbeknownst to me, they conducted much of this planning in a British accent. We concluded that Kim was a very organized fellow, and has added “organized” to his name, making him: Kim “Organized Kix” Jeppesen. (I wonder if it will stick?)
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Popularity: 25%
Hey y’alls! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and are ready for tons of live Seattle music this December. I had an amazing time at the WEEN show last month. For those of you who are fans, 2.5 hrs of unadulterated WEEN. What else can I say. Gene and Dean were in rare form, the crowd was full of geeks and freaks and there was a peculiar smell in the air all night. For those of you who aren’t fans, it was everything you hate about WEEN. That I can promise. But I digress…
There are still a couple not-to-be-missed shows for November
Les Savy Fav - Friday Nov. 30th @ Neumo’s ($18 Adv)
The Cave Singers with Fleet Foxes - Friday Nov. 30th @ the Crocodile ($10)
Suicidal Tendencies at El Corozon Wed Nov 28 ($22 ADV /$25 DOS)
Now lets get to the December lineup:
The THERMALS @ Neumos - Sat, Dec 1st
It’s finally time for the December list and I can rant on about the Thermals. This Portland trio puts on an incredible live show and their newest album, The Body, the Blood, the Machine has a permanent place in my rotation. I’m pretty confident that this will remain my #1 pick
Click the link for more recommended shows
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Popularity: 27%
http://www.sonicboomrecords.com/
Sonic Boom Records Capitol Hill:
514 15th Ave E.
Seattle WA 98112
To support his new record, Shelter From the Ash, Ben Chasney aka Six Organs of Admittance will be performing at Sonic Boom tonight around 7 pm. I am not sure if he’ll be solo or with accompaniment, but either way it’s definitely worth checking out and the price is right…..FREE!
Popularity: 32%
Probably the biggest thing which happened for music in 2007 (as the media would have you believe) is Radiohead’s download only release of In Rainbows. Unfortunately, this only has to do with the industry and not the actual art. Various other pundits can debate what the “effects” of this will be for major labels, downloading music, distribution, etc etc etc. To me, the only thing which should be considered is whether or not the album was good and I’ll get to that later.
Hunkered down in my hole, I have no idea what really “happened” in music this year in terms of the bigger bands, important releases, trends, styles, or revolutions. None of it really matters to me since we can not tell at this point in time if any of it mattered for music qua music.
BEST ALBUMS OF 2007
A misnomer: the title should be “Albums I Have Purchased That Were Issued in 2007.” I can count them on my fingers. Here they are in alphabetical order:
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Popularity: 34%
Since I was fifteen years old I have spent a large part of my time reading, absorbing music and writing about it. As a creator of music as well, I tend to agree with a sentiment of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn — our culture is at a dire time when there is more commentary on a specific art form than actual art. With the proliferation of blog pages such as these, it seems that we are moving into an era when the possibility to actually listen to music, to understand it’s historical perspective, is diminishing under the weight of the opinions of the millions out there in the blogosphere. The main qualification for having an opinion on the web, is that one knows how to type and has access to a computer. How these are confused with the right to actually say anything constructive about the topic (beyond subjective stumping) is mind-boggling. I theorize it is deeply rooted in the American concept of validity in one’s opinion — which must be true to have a democratic state (or at least to convince people that they live in one). But this is a lie. Very few citizens of this country (politicians included) have anywhere close to an inkling of the knowledge required to make political decisions.
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Popularity: 26%
Let me begin by saying this: I like the Cops. I do. I’ve seen them numerous times in various venues and I’ve always left their shows impressed and satisfied. They seem like hardworking locals with a flair for guitar fights and energetic performances. They strike me as the type of guys you might want to slug back a sixer of High Life tallboys with and then go egg your buddy’s parents’ house. Even though you graduated high school in 1992. And it’s still 2007. But that’s neither here nor there; my point being that they’ve carved themselves a particularly small niche in the local landscape with a garage-punk sound predicated on pulsating and mesmerizing guitar riffs, vocalized by Michael “Mikey” Jaworski’s raspy yet passionate lyrics, with just enough primal drumming to make you want to march. In boots, goddammit. Their debut LP, Get Good or Stay Bad, was rightfully lauded for its gritty sound, political undertones, and danceable hooks (a lá Gang of Four or the Clash). But it’s this new release, Free Electricity, which has me a bit worried. After watching them at the Crocodile this past Friday (11/16) for a CD-release show, I’m led to this conclusion: while Jaworski mostly keeps to the same (successful) formula vocally, and bassist Drew Church more than holds his own, the addition of a third guitarist has left their sound a bit, well, muddled.
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Popularity: 27%
