One of the biggest musical events of the summer in Tacoma, WA, has finalized its lineup, and after parties. Tacoma Hempfest is being held June 25th, 2011 in Wright Park, just North of downtown Tacoma. You can find all the details for Tacoma Hempfest 2011, here:
The Gentry
The Gentry – Sex by the Unit – Official Video
Awkwardness! Opens with big driving drums, a distorted loose bass line, synth bass followed by guitar then powerful vocal that channels both earlier electro-rock influences as well as power groups like Zeppelin. This is as straightforward rock and roll as any one makes, electro punk to the highest degree, and my favorite new road tune.
Logan Lynn + The Gentry, The Hugs, and Little Black Bats
The Gentry, a separate entity providing Rock & Roll to Logan’s emo-tronic sound, also have a new record recently released entitled ‘Sex by the Unit’, which sports an awesome condom-like package which is well worth the $10 I paid for mine. You even have to tear it like a condom package.
Recent shows in the Pacific Northwest have been raucous parties, featuring lines stretching around the block, and satisfied partied-out party-goers filtering out into the early morning. The Oregon Music News recently profiled Logan’s growing impact on the Portland live music scene.
This past Sunday, June 27, marked the launch of Logan’s West Coast tour, starting in Seattle at The Cuff’s Gay Pride Block Party and playing to an estimated crowd of 6,000.
Dates are below – try and catch one if you can.
+TOUR DATES
6.27 – Seattle, WA – The Cuff Pride Street Party
7.13 – San Francisco, CA – Rockit Room with Special Guests The Hugs (Portland, OR) & Little Black Bats (Sacramento, CA) $8
7.14 – Sacramento, CA – Blue Lamp with Special Guests The Hugs (Portland, OR) & Little Black Bats (Sacramento, CA) $8
8.6 – Salem, OR – Flipside Nightclub $10 (tickets here) / $15 at the door
8.20 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
Google Maps Link
As You Are Entertainment has lined up 5 area bands for our entertainment with an early start time in South Prarie, WA, (near Puyallup) launching at 4:45PM at the Wagon Wheel Restaurant and Lounge. If you live in Seattle’s southern burbs, or Pierce County, you may want check this one out.
The Fun Police (http://www.thefunpolicemusic.com)
Brotherhood of the Black Squirrel (http://www.myspace.com/brotherhoodoftheblacksquirrel)
10 Miles of Bad Road (http://www.myspace.com/tenmilesofbadroad)
Blacktop Nightmare (http://www.myspace.com/blacktopnightmare )
Big Wheel Stunt Show (http://www.myspace.com/bigwheelstuntshow)
Seattle pop band I Love Jen! released their 10-track synthy pop/rock album Stimulus Package on December 25, 2009 as a free download.
You Are Where I Want To Be
[audio:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3276561/Stimulus%20Package/192k/09%20You%20Are%20Where%20I%20Want%20To%20Be%20192.mp3]
Be My Naughty CEO
[audio:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3276561/Stimulus%20Package/192k/07%20Be%20My%20Naughty%20CEO%20192.mp3]
Strong And Sturdy
[audio:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3276561/Stimulus%20Package/192k/02%20Strong%20And%20Sturdy%20192.mp3]
Download: http://music.welovejen.com/album/stimulus-package
Tacoma’s own good-time band, The Fun Police, kick off the City of Tacoma Main Stage entertainment at 9:30 on the main stage at the city’s famous, family friendly, alcohol free First Night Celebration. With seemingly few in Tacoma sorry to see 2009 quickly fading in the rearview mirror, the hometown heroes of musical public safety will perform their genre defying act in celebration of an upcoming year that, God help us all, has to be better for the Tacoma area than this one.
Skillful musical artists of slice of life tales wrapped in easy to sing and dance along with melodies, The Fun Police, tackling diverse topics including economic hard times, interpersonal relationships, running afoul of the law, and globe-trotting adventures. However, their repertoire shines optimistically with tongue and cheek lyrics, and unexpected rhythm change-ups that will have you dancing and celebrating in the early evening like it was midnight.
Get your pre-funk on and start your First Night adventure with The Fun Police, 9:30 – 10:30 PM on the First Night Main Stage, New Year’s Eve between 9th and 11th on Broadway in downtown Tacoma. Be certain to dress for the outside street venue.
First Night Tacoma Programs
The Fun Police – MySpace
Fun Police – Facebook
FREE FUN POLICE MP3: Rather Be Dead
8:30 PM @ The Northern – 321 4th Avenue, Olympia, Washington 98501
All Ages
Wednesday, 8PM @ Neumo’s
All Ages
$13.50 Tickets Here
(TRYPTOPHAN RECOVERY DAY) Black Friday 9PM @ The New Frontier
21+
8:00 PM @ Rontoms
600 E Burnside, Portland, Oregon 97212
21+
2/3 of Sleepy Sun
Sleepy Sun is unwinding backstage after the show in Portland, enjoying the feeling of a great set while The Upsidedown are starting their set onstage at the Roseland Lounge. I’m still reveling in the sights of the show they had just put on, a spectacle of energetic rock, dancing and floating vocal harmonies twisting out of the male and female vocal leads. Several members of The Dandy Warhols are present and the place is hopping with great music and great vibes.
SPOILS
The best rock & roll qua rock & roll band in Seattle. Existing in a realm void of the pre-requisite irony or blaspheming idolatory of which infects current popular music propagation.
Extracting themselves from their various other constituencies (Master Musicians of Bukkake, Earth, Asva), Milky Burgess, Diamond Vincent, and Don McGreevy rock free.
Primordial electric finger-picking, supergruv rhythm section, and vocalizations emanating from some being’s core.
Doped-up, sexed-up, and fog-imposed tributes to the pure romance of the hedonsitic side of things.
WAH WAH EXIT WOUND
The naysayers of progressive rock only indicate their unprogressive minds. Progenitors of progressive rock who use the term should operate with caution as well to avoid semantic pitfalls.
Compositions designed to frighten and challenge within pre-existing languages. Presented from the realms of ADD denial and dreams of schizophrenic absolution.
Funk in 9, drunken pirate sing-alongs, odes to solary ocular organs, and a complete musical thesis on one interpretation of Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations.
“Her eyes were the color of the sun!”
As always, the show is free. Because the Blue Moon is a free venue. And bands still get paid. Funny how that works. Required attendance for anyone who claims to have interest in the archaic musical tool known as “guitar.” Phenomenological demonstrations of various methods.
Only two bands on the bill so everyone gets to open up a little bit.
10 p.m.
North Twin announced two killer lineups this weekend. The first at Dante’s in Portland and then at the Tractor in Ballard. Lots of local NW Ass Slappin, Dirty, Grimy, Ol’ timey Twang and Boot Rhumpin Rock’n'Roll! Read on to win tix.
more››
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
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?
I got a taste of three new QOTSA tracks from the upcoming LP, Era Vulgaris. Slated for a June 12 release, the new LP is expected to feature an all-star lineup of studio musicians, including guitarist Alain Johannes (Eleven, Chris Cornell band) drummer Joey Castillo (Danzig), Troy Van Leeuwen (A Perfect Circle), Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Mark Lanegan (The Screaming Trees, and Mark Lanegan Band), Julian Casablancas (The Strokes) and Trent Reznor (what band is he in?).