Lifesavas, Grayskul, Rudy & The Rhetoric, Mic Crenshaw-Sat Apr 4,2009

Lifesavas and Grayskul at the Nectar…this is gonna be a great show. For those of you unfamiliar with Grayskul-they could be described as minimalist gothic hip-hop, which is better than it sounds. They’re on the Rhymesayers, which is a pretty good indication of a high-quality live show, and hail from Seattle. Lifesavas is a lovely complement to Grayskul’s witty gloom n’ doom…Portland-based, positive, upbeat, funky hiphop. Rudy & the Rhetoric are a UW hiphop duo. They’re all on the bill, as well as Mic Crenshaw, a Portland-based social worker by day, hiphop artist by night who’s an anti-racism activist and slam poet. Sounds promising.

Don’t forget…Nectar Lounge has a great happy hour from 4-7!

Lifesavas, Grayskul, Rudy & The Rhetoric, Mic Crenshaw

Sat, Apr 4, 2009, 9pm doors, $12

Nectar Lounge, 412 N 36th St (in Fremont)

206.6322020

Lifesavas w live band! at Nectar

Thurs, Mar 6

-Lifesavas w/ Live Band
-One Struggle feat. Ras K’dee

9 PM / 21+
$12 adv.

Some of the best Hip Hop out there comes right from Portland. Lifesavas blend soulful, hard-hitting beats, and spiritual consciousness. Check some out here:

Lifesavas – Shine Language

What I’m Trying To Say is – Bring Back The Rock!

Rockin the ass out of Valentines day in Fremont.
It’s all a bit hazy, but it’s slowly coming back to me in bits and pieces. Valentines Night in Fremont, I attended what I’ve dubbed as the Unintentional Valentines Music Festival. The High Dive and Nectar both had 8-band lineups peppered with local favorites-both were considerably cheap to get into ($7 and &10 respectively)-and both are practically across the street from each other.
The High Dive was home to the Great Valentines Day Massacre. MC-ing the going-ons, along with Coz from presenters, Nada Mucho, was the (in)famous KEG. KEG IS “The Lone Ranger of Rock.” Everything you could possibly imagine from a person with such a title is doubly true for KEG. We even more appropriately titled him the Mayor of Rockville as he introduced himself to almost every individual in the crowd, shaking hands with his right while tossing his hair out of his eyes with the left. He paraded around the place decked to the teeth in butt-rock gear complete with ankle bandannas, skull headband, wristbands, bangles, spangles and obligatory rocker mascara. Even fingering his flying V as he went. KEG thanked each and everyone for coming. He even introduced us to Lake of Falcons, (who knocked the back wall out of the High Dive, but more on that later.) And all that’s not even the impressive part. Aside from being the one-man glam-rock show that he is, playing drum tracks and looping them along with rhythm guitar, then thrashing the ever living crap out of the stage, this guy has the best “rock-kick” I’ve ever seen. Seriously, we’re talking entire boot above the head, like 10 times a song. Fuckin’ A! And in the tiny 1/2 hour set that he played KEG pulled out every quintessential rocker move imaginable. From leaping off of chairs and monitors, to playing the guitar behind his head and with his teeth (not at the same time of course, he’s just a butt-rocker, not a god). The set ended with Keg’s sing-along tune, “What I’m Trying to Say is – Bring Back the Rock!” and left us all completely dumbfounded.
And all of this happened after Lake of Falcons broke in the night with an incredible-albeit short-set. I haven’t even gotten to that yet. Frig, I haven’t even left the High Dive yet. There’s still another venue to visit here. But first, lets talk about this Lake of Falcons.

Music for Lovers -Freemont’s Unintentional Valentines Day Music Festival

This Valentines day there is a strange anomaly happening in Fremont. Both Nectar and the High Dive have completely stellar line-ups scheduled consisting of sixteen, yes, count them, sixteen North West bands. 8 at each venue. Now the 2 places are not officially affiliated with each other, but they ARE officially right across the friggen street from each other. Now both are a great value on their own. Nectar is only running at $10 for the entire night. High Dive, even cheaper at $5 ($7 doors).

Now just consider this, pay the door fee at BOTH Nectar AND the High Dive. You would be dropping a total of $15 dollars and have access to all 16 bands. That means you can catch the Cops AND Partman Parthorse. Hell if you hate either, you have the option to head across the street and see someone you’ve never even heard of before.

It’s your very own valentines day music festival.
So, that’s the plan. Band listings are after the break. Both events start at 8:00

CD Review and CD Release: Half Acre Day (Nov 1st @ Nectar)

The CD! Local Seattle Band, Half Acre Day, releasing Fourteen Trips Around the Sun avail Nov 13th

Right off the bat, Anemone, the first cut off Fourteen Trips Around the Sun, digs its nails into you like a wildcat. It reminded me of an epic Weezer ballad. Slowly sneaking through it’s first couple light and poppy measures and them BAM it’s all over you and you’re hooked into looping it over and over on repeat. The rest of the album follows this first song up with concise, well written pop songs. Some psych-pop, some indie, and it becomes obvious that this band’s members not only play along, but all have a hand in creating and forming each piece. Fourteen Trips Around the Sun is a disc that can be listened all the way through from first to last. A rarity in CDs today.