Tonight: The Cops to Arrest Fans at the Croc

The Cops record release riot for “Free Electricity” ensues tonight at the Crocodile with the Pleasureboaters and the Whore Moans and they will play Portland’s Tonic Lounge tomorrow night.

“Will The Cops make my tap my foot and have a good time?” you ask? Well, KEXP included The Cops’ infectious “It’s Epidemic” onto the Free Song of the Day podcast, and pumped out the provocative “Light If Off” one morning this week while I was stuck in traffic. Check the podcast directory to get a free taste.

Popularity: 33%

De La Soul this Thursday at Neumo’s

De La for ten bucks? At Neumo’s? Dang. Even if it is co-sponsored by Red Bull, and they aren’t supporting a new album, it’s ten bucks and local. 

Popularity: 32%

X-Ray Eyes CD Release at Croc Nov 17th

Local rockers, X-Ray Eyes are releasing their sophomore album Social Splash on Hercules Records, and celebrating with a CD release party at The Crocodile Cafe, on Saturday, Nov 17th.

You can check out some tracks, both the new and old on their site here

Popularity: 25%

Post Harbor and Born Anchors @ Comet Fri 10/20

This ain’t no sea shanty show.

The Comet Tavern on Capitol hill is quickly becoming my favorite spot to catch local music. Just the other night when I was immersed in the audio ocean that is JUSTICE, I stepped outside for a breath and found myself wandering over from Neumos to the Comet just to have a listen to the band playing in there. It’s a small, seedy, cash-only venue with decades of signatures and graffiti carved into the tables and honestly the PERFECT place to see some local rock.

If you haven’t been, this Sat night Oct 20th could be a good one to bust your cherry. Local bands Post Harbor and Born Anchors play with Soft Lights and You May Die in the Desert.

Post Harbor is generally referred to as having a sound akin to Sunny Day Real Estate. There has been a lot of positive press about their album and their recent touring. From what what I’ve heard, I’d have to agree on all counts.

http://www.myspace.com/postharbor

Born Anchors formed in March this year and have already had the cohesive vision put out an EP. Their sound is heavy and tight and bound to make thewalls of the Comet ring. Check them out.

http://www.myspace.com/bornanchors

Popularity: 49%

QOTSA Return to Portland and Seattle

The Duluth/Era Vulgaris tour keeps rocking along:
17 December at the Roseland Theater down there in the 503.
18 December (Tuesday’s alright for rock n’ roll) at the Paramount

Pre-sale begins today at 10AM.

Let me nip this in the bud: Dean Ween was affiliated with the band for the album Songs for the Deaf.

Popularity: 41%

Check Out My Shiny New WEEEN!!!!

Hey There Fancy Pants!

Lots of you know that Ween is releasing a new album on the 23rd of Oct. titled La Cucaracha. For those of you who got the sneak peak with the Friends EP, you know that La Cucaracha will not disappoint. It’s Awesome Sound is unclassifiable, unorthodoxed, unapologetic, and unbelievable. If’n you haven’t heard the Friends EP, I’ll do you one better and be your Johnny on the Spot. A Little Birdy told me that you can preview the ENTIRE La Cucaracha on Ween’s MySpace Page

So all you Pretty Girls and Fat Boys get to listening so you can sing along through your Mutilated Lips at the Paramount on Nov 13 when Gene and Dean come to town.

If you don’t love the Ween, well you can just Piss up a rope.

VIVA Boognish!!!

Popularity: 53%

A Summer-y of Summer Shows and Albums

Though I was in LA for half of June, working all of July, bed-ridden with SARS for six weeks after July 30th and MIA for most of September, I still managed to bear witness to some rock and some roll and a lot of hip hop this summer.
I downloaded the new Common album, “Finding Forever” and despite the rough and dissonant track “Southside”, wholly endorse it top to bottom. You have probably heard “Misunderstood” with the Nina Simone sample on KEXP. This was in heavy rotation in my work van until…
Talib Kweli’s “Eardrum.” Dang, Kanye was busy, what with producing some of this album plus “Forever”. Judging by the credits, it’d be hard to beat this album: Pete Rock, Madlib, will.i.am (now off the hook as Fergalicious is off doing something else) and longtime producer Hi-Tek are responsible for its release. The beats and themes bounce all over on “Eardrum” as much as his flow on “Country Cousins.” (Is that an “Earth, Wind and Fire” sample in there?) Try to put this one down.
By the time I saw Lyrics Born and Rodrigo y Gabriela rock crowds at Bumbershoot, I had probably played Queens of the Stone Age’s “Era Vulgaris” about 30 times. These artists bolstered my faith in the State of Music 2007 as much as the subtext of “Era Vulgaris” tried to question it.
A special thanks to a couple of NWMBers for inviting me along to the Spoon show last month. Like an old locomotive trying to gain momentum, the band had to fight the mass of their last album - too slow and cumbersome for this listener - to get the show going. Once into the second half of the performance, though, they found their groove and sated up the sold-out Showbox crowd.
Surprise surprise at my friend Michael’s wedding reception at the Sunset Tavern: a private show by our beloved Cops. A great preview of the new album followed a short set during the cocktail hour that featured “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” and “Ballroom Blitz”. Hell yeah! Since my last visit to The Cops in late 2005, they have added a guitarist (Brandon of Free Electricity) and replaced founding bassist Brian Wall with Drew Church. They as solid as ever. I am eager to see them again this week with The Blakes at the Croc.
A fellow NWMB editor invited me out to see Two Gallants at the Croc earlier this month. The harmonics and minor-chord whiny-ness of Modest Mouse plus the two-piece frenetics of Hella. They totally underwhelmed me but it afforded me the opportunity to check out Blitzen Trapper, newly signed to hit maker Sub Pop. My idea that night: Radiohead mates with The Eagles and has a rockin’ Wilco baby. Whatever that whiskey-stained thought means. Check ‘em out and decide for yourself. Or grab the free show on the “KEXP Live Performances” podcast on the omnipresent iTunes.
I have been missing out on the goldenthroat rock, so tomorrow I am going to see Chris Cornell do something at the Paramount. Maybe he’ll take his shirt off. Or maybe he’ll play Billie Jean and I will try to sing along. Lately he has been covering Zeppelin’s “Thank You” and that out to be goldenthroat-tastic.
If Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings are on the road, I will have to catch the support of their third release. Anyone into it?

Popularity: 65%

Founding The Cure member Lol Tolhurst plays Seattle

Founding The Cure member Laurence “Lol” Tolhurst plays Seattle on October 8th at “The Main Stage” [anyone know what this is?].

You can hear some tracks from Levinhurst’s brand new album ‘House By The Sea’:

nobody_cares.mp3
heart_and_soul.mp3

Popularity: 36%