| May 1, 2008 | ||
| 8:00 pm |
Nancy is holding her axe and looking for a place to grind it.
Mars Bar is a great little joint to see it go down.
Check out the CD release party happening at the Mars Bar
8:00 $6.
with
Watch it Sparkle
Amzeah.
Popularity: 2%
Popping in a copy of ¡Gross!, the searing, thrash-punk debut record from Seattle’s Pleasureboaters, one immediately feels the hissing sense of urgency spewing forth from the throat of vocalist/guitarist Ricky Claudon. The bass guitar of Erik Baldwin chimes in with a chugging line befitting a fast-paced horror movie scene, while Tim Cady clamors his way to a crash-induced drum beat. The chaos found in “State of the Union”, while taking a few breathers here and there, will not conclude until the album is over. The guitar, often busting loose like shattered glass, will persist until the listener has been fully engulfed in audio anarchy. The bass regularly leads the cluster into a foray of hardcore guitar splatter. The drums will fastidiously attempt to corral the pandemonium with a delicious attack on the snare, only to succumb to a commotion atop the crash cymbals.
So I guess I’m saying it’s rowdy. But at the same time, it’s undeniable catchy. I don’t mean ‘catchy’ in the “Young Folks” kind of way—there’s certainly no whistling like on that ubiquitous single from Peter, Bjorn and John (there’s some wailing, though). But Baldwin provides enough funky slaps to reel the rest of the characters in before they go careening of a cliff. For example, on standout song “Andalou”, a good 30-second preamble introduces a creepy bass riff the song will lean on for its entirety, while Claudon maniacally professes his love to Andalou in terms of razor blades to the face. During the latter half, just when you think the song can’t get any more tangled, the guitar and drum kit discharging a scathing squall, back around the bass comes to keep the ruffians in check.
“Deckhand Paterson” is a rapid, 2-minute affair that might be the album’s single if these guys gave two shits about singles (Editor’s note: LB has no idea if they would welcome the single format or not—it just makes them sound more badass this way). It’s certainly more straightforward than most of the other cuts, but still has enough bite to stay true to the threesome’s piercing sound. Another album highlight, “Scramble” makes use of its title in the most obvious way: muffled lyrics, intermittent caterwauling guitar, and a tight bass line to fulfill the musical task at hand. As for the rest of the LP, released in 2007 by Don’t Stop Believin’ Records, there really isn’t a clunker among them, save for maybe the final track. But, hey, 11 out of 12 ain’t too bad for a first go-around.
Fans of Murder City Devils, These Arms Are Snakes, the Blood Brothers, and Mclusky will find much to applaud while listening to this impressive record from a trio of young South Seattleites. Similarities in the shrieking vocals, in the sardonic song titles (“Leopard Print Babyware”, “Cockhair”), and in the song structure point to their influences from the local hardcore scene. Their live show, as well, is rife with physical antics and old school punk sensibility (wait, punks? sensibility? huh?). Make it your duty, friend, to enable their madness.
Popularity: 36%
The Blow played last Saturday night to a sold out crowd at the Triple Door, and I’m going to do my best not to use corny puns throughout the course of this review by saying things like, “I was Blown away”, or “They Blowed the place up”… Instead I’d like to focus on something that I have been emphasizing to my peers for a while now about live shows, the delivery and execution. What I was expecting before I saw the show and what I got after were two completely different things but by no means was I disappointed. I’ve been interested in The Blow since the release of Paper Television in 2006 with founding members Khaela Maricicha and beat-master Jona Bechtolt (Yacht). Jona has since left the group to focus on his own project, but Khaela Maricicha astonished me with how simplicity with flawless delivery can execute a stellar performance that kept the whole place captivated and brought down the house.
If you haven’t heard the album it is very well put together with Khaela’s vocals over Jona’s simple and spacious, yet very danceable back-beats. And I think maybe I was expecting an almost DJ’d set with each track being mixed into the other and spun off to break the house into two. Instead with only her, a microphone, and a few bottle’s of water (one of which became a prop), in an almost comedy fashion Khaela carried all of us through her journey’s of love, loss, and want. And I don’t know if it’s her look, her confidence, her wit, or a combination of all three that magnetized the crowd like it did, but I was most amazed at how she seemed to self empower every woman in the place to relate to her. I was really impressed. I guess The Blow plays next on April 25th in Bellingham at Western Washington University, and if you get a chance to check the Portland band out I highly suggest it.
Popularity: 36%
Calling from a tour bus rolling through Colorado, CJ from Drowning Pool checked in with us here at nwmusicblog.com World Headquarters to shoot the breeze about the band’s upcoming appearance in Seattle. They are scheduled to play tonight at the Showbox with Saliva.
Q: What was your last experience in Seattle like?
A: The crowd was great, and we were stoked that the opening bands were so good. You know, sometimes you get some openers that just haven’t cooked long enough? Not the case here. And the people are great, they really respect music.
Q: Are you guys big in Germany, like Hasselhoff?
A: You know, we did really well there! Those crowds know *all* the words to our songs!
Q: No kidding? Is that your biggest fan base?
A: Actually the most amazing response we’ve ever had overseas was in Oz. Down under, they love us. But in the U.S., the people in Kansas City go nuts for us. Even bigger than back home in Dallas.
Q: So you’re in new towns all the time, being on tour. Who do you trust when you look for a place to go after the show? Because I don’t think you want to just ask a cabbie to take you “where the kids go”, right?
A: We’re surprised that more people don’t come up to us after the show and hang out. We’ll finish the set, go backstage, but when we come back out into the club, people are gone. It’s surprising. We’re pretty approachable. We’re at the merch booth, at the bar, whatever. Come say hi.
Q: Have you ever had big bands ever come to your shows? I heard Henry Rollins tell a story once about how Billy, Frank and Dusty of ZZ Top showed up at a Rollins Band show and how humbling it was.
A: Yeah, you know, Pantera showed up one time… ha ha. This was like ten years ago. One of the guys [in our band] owed Dime[bag Darrell] some money… We were stoked that they were there but at the same time, we had to go to him and say “Hey, could you hold off on kicking Dave’s ass ’til after the show?” It was pretty funny. I mean, it was a matter of like, a couple hundred bucks, and they were like, “uh, yeah, we’re here to see you guys play, man. Who cares about the money?” Ha ha. That was pretty funny.
Q: Does a guitarist from a big-time national touring band get to play his own guitars? Do they just hand you stuff?
A: Well, after our first album got big, I was approached by some companies… Fender, Gibson. They wanted me to play their guitars, and I said I would if I could design them. They said: “We have people for that.” So I waited til I found the right deal. Washburn was really cool in the beginning. So I play Washburn.
Q: What’s the rest of your setup like?
A: I really searched for the right gear. I mean it, I spent 8 hours a day, three days in a row at a convention hall, plugging into amps to try to find the right sound.
Q: And what’d you come up with?
A: Kustom was the one. From the second I plugged in. Instant rock guitar sound. In all the clubs we play, it’s just… set a mic in front of it, and turn it on.
Q: So what’s playing on your iPod this week?
A: Pantera, and Mudvayne. But then it’s like, Sade is singing the next song.
Hear CJ and the rest of the band tonight, 24 March, at the Showbox at 8pm opening for Saliva.
They’ll return to Kansas City a few days after that to face rabid fans. Their tour schedule is here.
Popularity: 39%
Charles Mudede, associate editor of The Stranger and an African-born American, gives his indignant take on Vampire Weekend’s dated Afro-pop fetish. I won’t profess to have a solid opinion on the subject matter, but Mudede does make a compelling argument against the NYC group’s misuse (”appropriation”) of Africa’s indigenous sound.
Here’s a particulary seething excerpt, the context being VW bandleader Ezra Koenig’s recognition and subsequent confusion at Ivy League jackets in a Harlem hiphop store:
If Koenig’s mind had made even the slightest effort to penetrate this mystery in the Harlem store, he would have seen the reflection of his own ideas turned upside down. The Ivy League jackets were simply the inverse of the sound and catchy aesthetic of his band. Here in the Harlem store, low culture is appropriating the codes of high culture; with Vampire Weekend, high culture (rich kids in the richest country on earth, America) appropriates low culture (music made by the poor people in the poorest continent on earth, Africa). And when appropriation is going both ways—streets kids wearing the symbols of university prestige; Manhattan’s upper crust playing Soweto jive—appropriation is not bad. Indeed, it’s strange that Koenig, who celebrates postcolonial interclass/cultural exchanges as the new norm, can only recognize such exchanges when those at the top are taking from those at the bottom and not when those at the bottom are taking from those at the top.
I have to agree with him. It certainly should be a two way street, as Mudede points out, and the fact that the band’s leader wasn’t quite sensitive to that is a bit perplexing. He goes on to point out:
And it’s not just African music they are appropriating; it’s impoverished African music from the ’70s, ’60s, and ’50s. Since the 1980s, Afro pop has less and less sounded poor. The biggest names in the business—Papa Wemba, King Sunny Ade, Thomas Mapfumo, Stimela, Youssou N’Dour—have aspired to and maintained the production values of the rich and famous. Vampire Weekend are not faithful to this trend. They instead simulate the sounds of preindependence, pre-postmodern Africa.
It’s difficult to know exactly what the band’s intent is—or whether Koenig truly believed what Mudede indicts him for—but if it’s to pay homage to Africa’s musical past or emulate the current trend of African music (i.e. the band’s reference to the kwaito movement in Soweto, urban Johannesburg), they fail on both fronts. It’s particularly interesting to hear the author’s take on the ubiquitous Paul Simon comparison, as well (Graceland, woo-hoo!).
Anyway, it’s an interesting read regardless of your opinion. To digest the whole nine yards, click here.
Popularity: 41%
| April 30, 2008 | ||
| 9:00 pm |
Not too long ago, a friend of mine gave me a copy of Cut Copy’s Bright Like Neon Love (2004). It’s pretty freakin’ good: it sort of blends the shadowy optimism of New Order with the modern danceability of C89’s “Drive at 5″ (they still have that, right?). They have a new record and they’re from Australia.
Florida’s Black Kids and Somewhereville’s Mobius Band will be supporting. I suspect this will be some sort of ‘dance off/pants off’ kind of event. Get to it!
$15 ADV
8PM DOORS
21+
p.s. It’s my berfday!
Popularity: 2%
Class is in session kids.
Seriously though, if you are not hip to the funky stuff look no further. Funk and Soul are by far my favorite genres of music (outside of hiphop) and I am about to bless you with some must have albums. You may have noticed that funk, soul and all things daptone are back in the mainstream and I am hoping they’re here to stay longer than the last few musical ‘fads’ that came and went.
I would argue funk is one of very few genres that are all-inclusive. You can bring a friend to any (good) funk or soul performance and no matter what their background or musical tastes, they will be gettin’ on the good foot like the Godfather of Soul before you can say “hit me!” Throw on a crackin’ breakbeat or drop the needle onto a classic .45 and just about everybody with functioning eardrums is gonna nod their head… how many styles of music can truly claim this?
Anyway, get some funk in your life. Here’s a list of some current groups and record labels to watch out for:
Popularity: 18%
Today is the first day of spring, and what better thing to do than think about SUMMER! Let’s get it on with the sunshine already, GAW! We’ve already covered Sasquatch, and the Pemberton Festival in BC. Now I give another 2-day event to fill your ears and your summertime weekends.
The 3900′ Festival. The laid-back, lo-budget, festival of the season. This is a fest jam-packed with tons of Pac NW independent artists (not just CALLED indie, the real-deal indie) and bands on independent labels mainly from Seattle and Portland. Bands range from Folk to Country, Rock to Reggae. It seems super relaxed, all about the music, the camping and the hanging out. The promoters have even promised NOT to jack up the prices on food, beers etc. and a 2 day pass INCLUDING parking AND camping is $31 - at the early bird price.
Now to top all of this off, the goal of Union Records and the rest of the people responsible for putting together 3900′ are trying to make this as close to carbon neutral as possible - right down to making a list of suggestions of how individuals can help reduce the footprint.
This isn’t a hugely popular event but they do expect close to 4500 people. I mean this thing is so on the down low it even happens in a place called “The Hideout.” What kinda secret squirel dope sh!t is that? It’s right outside Portland and loaded with sweet campsites, trails, and a natural ampitheater
So here’s the deal,
2nd Annual 3900′ Festival (click for festival samples)
June 27th & 28th
Horning’s Hideout
(North Plains, OR).
Featuring two days of camping, two stages of music, and over 30 independent bands (indie labels and unsigned) from the West, the all ages 2008 3900′
This year’s line up includes: Ian Moore, Two Loons for Tea, Jared Mees, Kurt Hagardorn, Finn Riggins, Echo Helstrom, Ascetic Junkies, the Wherewithals, Outpost, Power of County, McDougall, Acoustic Minds, Trip Like Animals, Ohioan & Native Kin, Reverse Dotty & the Candy Cane Shivs, the Royal Houser, Mercury Tree, No Go Know, Paper Brain, Little Beirut, Shaped Like Sharks, Nick Caceres, Mantis, Double Plus Good and many more.
Advanced tickets are available exclusively at: theunionrecords.net/3900festival for $31.00 until March 30th. After March 30th, tickets will be $53/per person.
Both rates include camping and parking. (DAMN) The Festival is all ages. Horning’s Hideout is located in North Plains, OR just 30 minutes from Downtown Portland off Highway 26.
For more information, please contact: kelly@theunionrecords.net
Be independent! I-N DEP E-N-D-E-N-T… ok that doesn’t really work, but it’s worth a cheer regardless.
Popularity: 12%
