Notes from the Capitol Hill Block Party

[NWMB reader Jill sent this in for our edification with a sticky note labeled ‘better late than never’ — Matt]

Friday

PWRFL Power was fun.  One guy, one guitar, good times.  While I don’t know that I would ever buy an album, I would definitly pay to see him live again.  But I’m a pushover for witty song writing.

Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head was a highlight.  They were one of the bands that I was really looking forward to seeing, and the show didn’t disappoint.  I’m very impressed with the charisma of these kids.  One of the better performances I’ve seen in a while, in addition to the music (which is super fun and danceable).  And I think some of their parents were there - how freakin’ cute is that?  [pix]

Saturday

Chromeo: So, apparently I live in a dark cave in the middle of nowhere.  I had never heard of Chromeo prior to seeing the block party line up, but I love the name.  This is how I pick my music.  Friends had good things to say as well, so I made sure to catch their set.  The music was a little more electronic than what I usually listen to, but still good.  There appeared to be slight choreography, which is never a bad thing, and they seemed to be having a good time on stage.

[Jill would also like you to know, sans sticky note, that Rod Stewart’s Every Picture Tells a Story is $2 for the MP3 album download today at Amazon — Matt]

Popularity: 11%

Decibel Festival @ Neumos

Jahcoozi(Berlin) : Live - Kitty-Yo, A-Records, Tujiko Noriko (France / Japan) : Live - Mego, FatCat Records, Barbara Morgenstern (Berlin) : Live - Monika Enterprise, Balún (Puerto Rico / New York) : Live - Sgulp, Observatory Records, Careen Ajar (Montreal / San Francisco) : Live - Asphodel, Recombinant Media Labs. $17 ADV, 8pm Doors, 21+. Tickets on sale Friday at 10AM.

Popularity: 2%

GIN BETTY, Drunken Guitarists, Bench Grinder, Slacktide Soul @ Neumos

GIN BETTY, Drunken Guitarists, Bench Grinder, Slacktide Soul. $8 ADV, 8pm Doors, 21+

Popularity: 1%

Nancy Frieko, GloryDog, Music Video? @ High Dive

Where: The High Dive
513 N 36th Street, Seattle
When: August 11, 2008 — 8pm
Cover: $6/ 21+

Nancy Frieko www.myspace.com/nancyfrieko
GloryDog  www.myspace.com/glorydogmusic
Music Video? (from Tucson) www.myspace.com/musicvideo

Popularity: 1%

The French Semester NW Dates

Your Master Plan

Fourteen

The French Semester MySpace page

Popularity: 11%

Portland Band The Great Northwest Releases Debut Album

Chief John from The Widespread Reign of The Great Northwest

Brian Coates moves to New York in 2004 where the music/art project that is to become The Great Northwest commences. It grows to involve over 20 people including Portland ex-pats Noah and Nathan Rice (the Christopher Twins), Josh Kalberg, and Dale Winston. After a year in NYC, Brian’s wanderlust leads him west to California. At his friend Armando’s house in Fresno, a musical beacon was sounded. Joe Kaczmarerk, Brent Fellows, Courtney Taylor Taylor, Brent DeBoer, Ray Gordon, Sean “Gothman” Addams, Poopy Simons, Louise Fenton, and a load of new friends converge for a blowout of a party. Brian Richburg, owner of Studio 9 in Fresno makes them a deal for studio time and recording begins. More than an album’s worth of music is made.

Brian, working with Dead Meadow, ends up in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of our nation’s capital in 2006. Douglas and Mike from Kora meet up with him at a bar in their mutual ‘hood to hear some unmixed MP3s on his laptop, leave awe-struck and sign him straight away to put out an LP. During a summer pitstop in , with longtime bandmate Randall Crush, the songs receive mixing treatment at The Dandy Warhols’ Odditorium with mastering back east by TJ Lipple (Aloha) at Silver Sonya in Arlington, VA.

The 13 track album brims over with lush soundscapes and ambient modulations. Pop melodies and slowcore pacing coalesce seamlessly throughout the record. Lavish and haunting vocals woven with Brian’s savvy wordplay complete the sonically induced mind altering experience. After the mixing session, Coates said tenderly, “there’s guitar, there’s bass, there’s drums, there’s trombone, there’s Leslie speakers, practice amps, Jew’s Harps, drum loops, tambourines, ebows, harmonicas and pie tins. There’s thought… there’s love.”

Popularity: 12%

Joan Baez @ The Moore

The most accomplished interpretive folksinger of the 1960s, Joan Baez has influenced nearly every aspect of popular music in a career still going strong. Baez is possessed of a once-in-a-lifetime soprano, which, since the late ’50s, she has put in the service of folk and pop music as well as a variety of political causes. Starting out in Boston, Baez first gained recognition at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival, then cut her debut album, Joan Baez (October 1960), for Vanguard Records. It was made up of 13 traditional songs, some of them Child ballads, given near-definitive treatment. A moderate success on release, the album took off after the breakthrough of Joan Baez, Vol. 2 (September 1961), and both albums became huge hits, as did Baez’s third album, Joan Baez in Concert, Pt. 1 (September 1962). Each album went gold and stayed in the bestseller charts more than two years.

Show Date:                          Monday, November 24, 2008

Show Time:                         8:00 p.m.

Ticket Price/s:                     $42.00 - $54.00 (not including fees)

Venue:                                  The Moore Theatre

Public On Sale Date:         August 6, 2008 @ 11:00 AM

Opening Act/s:                    TBD 

Web Address:         www.joanbaez.com

Popularity: 2%

JOSHUA JAMES/CORY CHISEL @ THE TRIPLE DOOR

Joshua James, originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, has been called a singer-skater-songwriter. Now based in Salt Lake City, he’s been gaining notice all over with a whispering voice that seems to get inside your mind and songs that take on big themes and extremes. Cory Chisel is a songwriter on the verge. He broke out of Appleton, Wisconsin, with a passionate, storytelling blues sound and original songs that bring Van Morrison to mind, and he’s toured with the Roots. At the end of last year Chisel and his band, the Wandering Sons, were signed to the RCA label.

Popularity: 3%