| April 4, 2008 | ||
| 8:00 pm |
The band with the best name in the game just keeps on shreddin’. Lake of Falcons and The Lights do their fans a favor and play a secret location!
@ The Booty Cave. LoF sez: “Send us a note for the location!”
w/ The Lights, Moderstate
ALL AGES
Cost : $5
Update: Time: 9ish; Location: Between the LoFi and The Victory on Eastlake
| April 4, 2008 | ||
| 9:00 pm |
Do it.
Update: The Girls have been added to this bill. The Cops sez: “This will be the last time we’re playing in Seattle for several months, so don’t miss it!”
The Cops
The Girls
Caves
$8 adv
9pm doors // 21+
* The Saturday Knights have dropped off the bill
Sera Cahoone has produced a lot of buzz in this city and outside, and for good reason - she’s a marvel. An artist you’re bound to carry forward as a classic favorite. Her music is timeless, and will be as appreciated twenty years down the road as it is today. Hers is sweet melody and melancholy, folk and country intertwined. The kind of music that is lovely and quaint, and at times bittersweet. There’s a hint of sorrow that looms throughout many of her songs, and if she weren’t backed by such a gregarious and upbeat group of musicians on stage – who all jive so very well together – one would draw a certain loneliness from her music.
I recently saw Cahoone and band perform a stunning show opening for equally fantastic Grand Archives at Triple Door. Tomorrow, she’ll perform at Easy Street Records to promote the release of her new album, Only As Long As the Day, her sophomore release, though first release on Subpop (I still haven’t figured out how her first album managed to slip through the cracks and go self-released). The Triple Door performance was powerful, though I hold dear the fact we Seattleites have an opportunity to see Cahoone up close, solo(?) in such an intimate and interactive setting tomorrow evening. She’s one of the great local artists/bands redefining Seattle’s sound(s) and contributing to another epic era of Seattle music that’s on the verge of exploding already.
Her new album is rich in various string as well as soft country twang. The banjo and pedal steel are beautiful value-add to an already gorgeous and fluid sound Cahoone resonates on her own. The album sets the listener into a relaxed, though at times unsettled (her lyrics have an ability to set one off guard), state of calm and contemplation. There is depth in her lyrics that unleash self-reflection and sorrow. She is practical and direct with words, and her songwriting provides a glimpse into an introspective and philosophical soul. Her voice is beautiful, gentle, smooth, and as natural as the color green in the Pacific Northwest. Her songs often reach sad story and heartbreak territory, and judging by her lyrics, one gathers she has broken a few hearts along her way.
All in all, her second release provides another (in addition to her first) harmonious coordination of acoustics, melody, and rhythm that produce a fresh and colorful sound. Here is an artist one is bound to gravitate and hold on to. We all know the kind.
Sera Cahoone – Only As Long As The Day is out March 18th. She will be performing at Easy Street Records free at 7pm the same day. Her CD release is on March 29th at the Tractor Tavern.
Sera Cahoone’s abbreviated history:
• Played drums for Seattle band Carissa’s Wierd from 1995 to 2003
• Sera contributed on drums to Band of Horses debut album (which was formed by Ben Bridwell who was also in Carissa’s Wierd)
Hot off of the internets:
Coldplay, Jay-Z, NIN Headline First Pemberton Festival
Billboard.com is reporting that Coldplay, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Jay-Z and Nine Inch Nails will headline the first-ever Pemberton Festival, set for July 25-27 in Pemberton, B.C. (Brace yourself: the three-day ticket is $240CDN and they go on sale Friday, 28 March. - ed.)
The festival is produced by Live Nation and Good Boy Productions. Live Nation Canada CEO Shane Bourbonnais will spearhead LN’s efforts on the event. Good Boy Productions is a joint venture between Coldplay manager Dave Holmes and Depeche Mode manager Jonathan Kessler.
Also on the bill are My Morning Jacket, the Tragically Hip, Interpol, Flaming Lips and Death Cab For Cutie, along with newer acts like Vampire Weekend, MGMT and Sia. The plan is to feature two stages, a dance stage and more than 50 bands.
Pemberton, a two hour drive from Vancouver, is a popular destination area due to its close proximity to Whistler ski resort, site for some competitions for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The event will boast a festival village, camping facilities, an RV Park and shuttle service to and from nearby Whistler, tickets for the Pemberton Festival go on sale through PembertonFestival.com beginning Friday, March 28.
Concert-goers will be able to camp on site or sleep in accommodations ranging from motels to top notch luxury hotels in Whistler.
The confirmed line up as of today (March 13) is:
Coldplay
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Nine Inch Nails
Jay-Z
Flaming Lips
Interpol
Death Cab For Cutie
The Tragically Hip
Serj Tankian
My Morning Jacket
Metric
Sam Roberts Band
Vampire Weekend
Black Mountain
Minus The Bear
Wintersleep
Buck 65
Secret Machines
MGMT
Brazillian Girls
SIA
Fiery Furnaces
Mates of State
The Airborne Toxic Event
Carolina Liar
Grand Ole Party
Monte Negro
Low Vs Diamond
Annie Stela
The Crystal Method
DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist
Junkie XL
David Seaman
Booka Shade
MSTRKRFT
M.A.N.D.Y.
Tommie Sunshine
Chromeo
Deadmau5
3 OH! 3
Kevin Shiu
Timeline
Tony Pantages
I have been to Pemberton, and the idea of this kind of event in a small town with one road in and one road out makes me wince. I imagine a traffic cluster**** on the scale of White River Amphitheater. So I think I will be bringing my bike to get to and from the venue.
Monday is St Paddy’s Day and the roofs are green, why should your beer be the same? Even more so, once you rub all the luck off your shamrock, you’ve kissed the Blarney Stone and one too many Mollies, there still the rest of the night to fill, ain’t there? So hike up yer cracks and Bob’s yer Uncle. Here’s the git go on the musical happenings in Seattle for St. Patty’s Eve - after the break:
more››
Jesy Fortino goes by band name Tiny Vipers, a unique and curious name to match an equally unique and curious sound. Watching Tiny Vipers at Triple Door last night, who is older (24ish) than she appears - but clearly wise beyond her years - was a pretty unique experience. OK, I’m done with the word unique already (almost). But you’d have to see her to get it. Her music, is, well, difficult to classify (aka unique). It’s intense, beautiful, folk, acoustic, moody, deep, dark, thoughtful, deliberate, intense, and soft all the same. Her voice is beautiful and rich, folky and difficult to pinpoint. Which is exactly what she is as an artist – difficult to fully grasp, difficult to pinpoint. Her guitar-picking may sound simple and bare, but it’s really much more deliberate and complex if you properly tune in. She also has perfect ‘pitch’, a very rare talent at that. She’ll properly draw you in, engage you without doubt. Her lyrics are stories(?), they’re hard to decipher, let alone follow, but this is a side factor when it comes to Tiny Vipers. What she has going on is a lot deeper and textured than can be defined by the words she’s singing.
There is no statement Tiny Vipers is trying to make. But there’s something about her music, her presence, that makes a statement all the same. There is no pretense in who she is, she delivers a raw, but soft and gentle, performance. She’s on stage, not there to please anyone – in fact one gets the feeling it wouldn’t matter if she were playing all alone in an empty apartment, or in front of thousands of folks (though one would question if she’d ever wish to go down this path, she seems the kind who would quietly allude to remaining just under the radar, or under no radar at all). She’d still deliver the same performance, wholely consumed in her art, her work, which in many ways makes her the untouchable, powerful and mysterious artist she is.
Triple Door’s acoustics and sound did justice to Fortino’s performance. It was a thoughtful show, a contemplative one from the audience’ perspective, and a very enjoyable and real experience at that.
This kid is raw talent. Check out the EP ‘Hands Across the Void’ (Subpop, 2007) for a glimpse into the deep and complex soul of Tiny Vipers. And to get an idea of Fortino live, pick up the DVD series ‘Burn to Shine’, Seattle WA edition – one of filmmaker Christoff Green and ex-Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty’s documentary series that captures live performances of favorite (in this case, Benjamin Gibbard’s - Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service) local Seattle bands in a unique and intimate setting - a house that is on the verge of being demolished.
Hey, LB here. I thought I’d try something different and offer a glimpse of what’s been getting recent significant play in my CD player. I call it “No, YOU Listen!” and hopefully I’ll find enough gumption to make it a continual thing. The title must be said (somewhat) vehemently—emphasis on the ‘you’—while pointing your index finger at the tip of someone’s nose. Don’t say it if you’re not going to do it. Enough jibber-jabber.
I picked up the debut from Seattle’s Fleet Foxes a few weeks ago, a 5-track EP entitled Sun Giant. Needless to say, I’m really pleased with it. The quintet has garnered a lot of attention in recent months, most notably for their union with Sub Pop (guilty) and subsequent tour supporting Blitzen Trapper. Late last week, bandleader and avid scarf-wearer Robin Pecknold wrote a blog on the band’s myspace page apologizing for all the press they’ve received of late. But since he didn’t explicitly refer to anything in particular, it’s difficult to know what he was talking about (or if he was simply being facetious). Well, I’m here to say: Good for them. No, not for getting annoyed with the inevitable exposure enjoyable music will bring a fledgling band in this here technological age; but for warranting such added recognition.
Maybe the consternation—feigned or otherwise—has something to do with the fact that innumerous writers/bloggers across the internet have incorrectly and frivolously lumped them “into the My Morning Jacket and Band of Horses genre.” It sure irks me—they sound like neither. Jim James and Ben Bridwell are understandably comparable due to their similar vocal ranges. As well, the layered multi-person harmonizing that Fleet Foxes employs is generally absent from the music of either of their bands. Both MMJ and BoH are proud of their southern rock, country-tinged roots, but you’ll find no such basis when listening to the Foxes. BoH and MMJ are inclined to elongated guitar and drum jams, like any good Neil Young pupil would be, but you’d be hard pressed to find any evidence that FF is anything close to a jam-band. In a word, Fleet Foxes are a folk group, plain and simple.
I say plain and simple, of course, but I mean intricate and vibrant. Sun Giant begins with its title track, a song mostly devoid of instrumentation until its final stages. “So,” you ask, “is it like Rockapella or something?” Good god, no; but it does, as is the case with most of their songs, make use of the band’s myriad vocal talents to sway the listener towards the fantastical bliss to follow (yes, I just said ‘fantastical bliss’). The hymn-like tune closes out with a trail of plucky mandolin. The record continues with “Drops in the River”, a baroque-pop venture that may remind some listeners of the band Beirut, without the Eastern European influence. Pecknold’s ethereal reflections, accompanied by mandolin, tambourine, and Nicholas Peterson’s kick drum, swell to an inspiring crescendo. They are eventually met with a flourish of jangly guitars and choral texture, leading into an arresting pause in harmony, and finishing with another sonic upsurge. It’s a testament to legendary producer Phil Ek that the song comes off as beautiful as it does. The man should be cast and bronzed in a square somewhere.
“English House” continues the trend of luminous, pastoral imagery in Pecknold’s lyrics, crooning his refrain with all the fervor of a 70s AM radio star. The string players here —Skye Skjelset, Casey Westcott, Christian Wargo— hold the weight, chanting along with their kinsfolk, painting a lush musical landscape, while Peterson drums his way through the countryside. The fourth track, “Mykonos,” is my favorite. It moves a bit faster than the others, has a bit more rock for its roll, and clearly flaunts the band’s ability to successfully arrange a song. The listener is transported to a sun-drenched and peaceful imaginary backdrop, beginning with Pecknold’s enchanting lyric: “And you will go to Mykonos \ with a vision of a general cause \ and a sun to maybe dissipate \ shadows of the mess you made.” If any cut on their self-titled LP—to be released June 3rd of this year—is half as moving, half as dazzling, and half as impressive, it will be an irrefutable success.
Sound OFF! - the under 21 battle of the bands - wrapped at the beginning of this month. Not Surprisingly, New Faces from Port Townsend, walked out of the EMP’s Sky church with the much coveted trophy. (Can I say I told ya so?) They won the first round, beating out heavy rockers The Batteries, The Dead Are Judged and Southgate in a pretty stiff, if not ear blasting, night of competition. They were the most composed and professional of the lot and I had been taken by the sampling of songs posted on their site from the get-go.
The other semi-final winners to stack up against New Faces for the big prize were The Nextdoor Neighbors from r.2 who ended the competition in second place and Man Down Medic from r.3 placing third. For taking the cake, New Faces get a spot on stage at Bumbershoot and The Nextdoor Neighbors will be playing at Folklife for their #2 victory. Keep an eye out for other local shows by these guys. I’m sure they will be lighting up the radar a bunch in the near future.
Kudos to the EMP for putting together such a great platform for bands to leap from, and for everyone involved in getting these packages to the winners.
First Place - New Faces
* Performance at Bumbershoot 2008
* Live on-air performance on KEXP’s Audioasis
* Performance at the Gibson Seattle Showroom
* Production of one song by producer Glenn Lorbecki
* $600 gift certificate for studio time at Soundhouse
* Studio Shure microphones
* From Gibson: Les Paul Double Cut and an Epiphone Valve Junior amp
* Industry Consultation from the Recording Academy
Second Place - Nextdoor Neighbors
* Performance at Northwest Folklife 2008
* Live on-air performance on 1077 The End’s The Young & The Restless
* 2 Days Studio Time at Orbit Audio Studio
* Shure microphones
* From Gibson: Epiphone Sheraton II.
* Industry Consultation from the Recording Academy
Third Place - Man Down Medic
* 2 Days Studio Time at the Redmond Firehouse studio
* Shure microphones
* From Gibson: Kramer Vanguard FR-440
* Industry Consultation from the Recording Academy
Finals Audience - New Faces
* 2 Days studio time at The Vera Project
