The Locust ARE playing Neumo’s tomorrow night, on APRIL FOOLS DAY. The show is totally still on, nobody has cancelled. This post was a joke. The “press release” contained the words “April” and “foolish” in consecutive sentences. The post contained three links to different sites associated with the show that wouldn’t corroborate the band having broken up. I thought it would be funny. And since less people read the blogs on weekends, I thought I’d post it on Friday.

I’ve always thought the Locust were kind of playful pranksters themselves, and that’s part of what made them such an appealing band. They make serious, sometimes sadistic noise, but it’s not without a certain dark sense of humor. And Justin Pearson is one of the funniest frontmen I’ve ever seen live, especially when cutting down his hecklers. The show is on, you should go. If you’ve never seen the Locust before, you’re in for an assault to the senses, and if you haven’t seen them for a couple years, you might be interested in how they’ve evolved from a grind band into a kind of aggro Wendy Carlos electronics ensemble.

Refused’s “New Noise” really is the best song ever (this week). The biggest “hit” the now defunct Swedish band ever had, “New Noise” is just one track on the unbelievably innovative, bombastic, and ballsy 1998 release The Shape of Punk to Come. The album was way ahead of its time—part jazz, part hardcore, all punk as fuck and chock full of art, ideas, and passion.

“New Noise,” is the album’s climax—it is the point where the music really starts to boil over. It sounds like a musical science experiment gone awry.

And how can we expect anyone to listen if we are using the same old voice? We need new noise, new art for the real people

I can’t even say enough about it right now. The song is energizing, empowering, and furious as hell. I include it on almost every mix CD I ever make.

If you’ve never heard “New Noise” before, please please please listen to it right now. There’s no better way to start a weekend. And if it scares you in the beginning and you’re tempted to turn it off, you absolutely must hang in there until the 3:50 mark, when the band comes close to exploding the entire world with their amplifiers. That, and the “woo” at 1:19 is what makes it the best song ever… this week.

Head Like a Kite
(Music) Occasional Stranger contributor Trent Moorman is also accomplished as a one-man rhythm machine and one half of audiovisual rock experimentalists Head Like a Kite. Moorman hits skins and triggers samples while musical mastermind Dave Einmo plays guitar and synth and sings. The band cuts from mellow space explorations to power pop while home movies and found footage flicker behind them, lending their show a glow of psychedelic nostalgia. Heads will soar. With Voyager One, Heavenly States, and Bluelight Curtain. (Crocodile Cafe, 2200 Second Ave, 441-5611. 9 pm, $7, 21+.) ERIC GRANDY

My favorite new Sunday night, Fresh Produce, is bringing out the big guns(no pun intended)- PAC VS. BIGGIE. Who wil triumph in this bi-coastal battle for dance floor supremacy?

Who fuckin cares, any night I can hear “Hypnotize” and “How Do You Want It” blasting out some speakers is damn sure a good one.

I’ll be sure to pour out a lil Thug Passion(1 part Alize, 1 part Cristal, ‘guaranteed to get the pussy wet and the dick hard’) for my fallen heroes though. Their murders changed everything, and god knows hiphop’s never recovered.
God Bless The Dead.

So Brand New must’ve thought they were really clever last night, playing their whole set chronologically. They started strong with a lot of energy, playing the few tolerable songs on Your Favorite Weapon which fans absolutely love singing along to. The energy was high and the sold-out crowd was packed so tightly that kids were soaked with sweat before the band even started. Once the music kicked in, crowd surfers were being picked out by the dozens. The band was warming up, people were getting stoked, and I couldn’t wait to hear the new material.

After a handful of their early tunes, Brand New played “Tautou,” track one of their notorious 2003 release Deja Entendu. That’s when it became clear: they were playing their songs in order, and suddenly the evening became utterly predictable and, honestly, a little boring.

Not only did I know exactly what was coming next every time a song ended, but their “interesting” approach also meant the band didn’t touch any of the brand new (ha, get it) material from The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me until over an hour into the set. It was sort of ridiculous. By the time the band had played the majority of their Deja hits, it was almost 11 o’ clock. They started the show around 9:30. I was tired of standing and hearing only songs I’ve been hearing for the past four years.

At the end of Deja’s last song, “Play Crack the Sky,” the lights went out, the band left the stage for a few minutes, and the crowd tried to catch their breath (while a good number of people headed for the door). When the boys returned to the stage, they were shirtless. It was odd. But they finally got to the new stuff. They played just a few songs from The Devil and God (“Archers” and “You Won’t Know” were thankfully on that list) and then they disappeared. The dazed crowd of kids cried for an encore, but Brand New did not oblige (which is fine, especially since they played an hour and a half already).

The crowd (consisting mostly of teenagers, not surprisingly) were stoked regardless. During the entire show they sang along to every word (even when the band squeezed a cover of Modest Mouse’s “Trailer Trash” into the middle of the song “The Boy Who Block His Own Shot”), and they especially loved it when the overly aggressive security guards sprayed the mosh pit with water guns the entire night… the room was so humid that the ceilings and walls were dripping. Ew.

It was an okay show though, you know, if you’re into that sort of thing. But honestly, the best part of the night was this dude:

He wouldn’t tell me his name, and when I asked him his age he said he was five, but he tried to start a fight with me during Brand New’s set after some other dude accidentally knocked me into him. He even shoved me! Not like, “We’re at a show, people run into other people, but don’t let it happen again” sorta shove, but like a full on, blatant “let’s rumble” push. Ha! Don’t you know you shouldn’t push girls, brah? He was an angry and funny little boy. Just like Janeane Garafolo at the Showbox was earlier that night. But I liked her a whole lot more than I liked this dude. She’s at least smart, angry, and funny. And also not a boy.

When you think of artists from South Africa the first that comes to mind might be the most obvious, Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Then you might move on to a classic, like Manfred Mann. You might even get to Johnny Clegg.

But back in the 1978, there was a group, who released a single in the States that reached #67, and though it didn’t go any further, they managed to stay on the charts for another 9 weeks, and get a little radio play.

It would have been hard for them to promote their album, as the politics of the time didn’t allow them to tour America. So they released their single, and eventually their album, to the U.S. public and hoped for the best.

The single was a cover of The Righteous Brothers song Substitute. The album was called Six Of The Best. The group was, surprisingly for the time and place, an all girl rock outfit called Clout.

I haven’t been able to find out very much about the band, apart from the fact that the album was recorded with the help of a lot of session players, which ultimately lead to charges that the girls were merely a front for the producer. This eventually hurt their credability in Europe where Substitute had become a number one hit.

In a recent interview one of the old band members, Cindy Alter, who now lives in L.A. remembers:

…we didn’t read the fine print and what ensued was not what we had expected. It did become a bit of a puppet show with the grand master puppeteer raking in all the money and the poor little puppets getting put in the box at the end of the day.

I’m sorry they never reached more popularity in the States, because their album Six Of The Best is totally amazing! It’s like a rock album that you can dance to. The songs are just fantastic. The vocals are sexy and throaty, without sounding too mature. The girls never seem to be cloying, or hung up on girlish euphamisms. Listening to this album makes you feel like your hanging out in the girls room with the bad girls, but their not so bad that they won’t talk to you and tell you what it’s all about.

They obviously had some style too….

If you’ve never heard Clout before, go to my blog and check out some samples!

You’re gonna love them. To tide you over, here’s some awesome YouTube footage of Clout singing their hit, Substitute, live!

The Death Metal Band of the Week is NunSlaughter.

Mid-’80s satanic death metal compared to Massacre, Sodom, Death, Morbid Angel, and Venom. Sonics contain themes and lyrics concerning death, zombies, Satan, and the downfall of Christ.

Formed, or deformed, as they say, in 1987. They are Pittsburg-based and their label is called Hells Headbanger. They have released 16 7” records and have toured Australia and Japan. There is a 2007 tour of Scandinavia.

This music will not make you sing Kumbaya or think of small birds chirping in the morning.

NUNSLAUGHTER “Power of Darkness” Japan Tour 2005

What with Jesse Sykes’s pair of upcoming shows at the Tractor this weekend, we’ve got sultry chanteusery on the mind. And we’re not the only ones: Seattlest has an extended interview with Sykes posted today. It gets good when she starts slamming Pitchfork.

As a counterpoint, check out Trent Moorman’s surrealist reverie fanfic that’s out in this week’s Stranger. It’s strange and mythical and a totally different approach, just as—if not more—revealing than your usual artist profile.

San Diego noise/grind veterans the Locust have abruptly decided to call it quits after over a decade of sonic terrorism, canceling their Sunday night show at Neumo’s. Their (final?) album, New Erections is available from Epitaph. A press release from the band states:

We apologize to our fans, but the Locust will not be able to continue touring through April. Conflicts within the band have become irreconcilable, and it would be foolish for us to try to continue.

Update: April Fooling, dudes. The show is still on, nobody broke up.

Mark Farina plays Neumos tonight in support of his new “House of Om” release. Mark Farina plays here a few times a year and is a bit of an institution, so his return is hardly a surprise and hardly needs any promotion. My personal highlight of his last set at Neumos was when he dropped the following classic track (1988!), which I share with you now.

Armando - “100% of Dissin’ You”

Woo!

I interviewed Country Music Hall of Fame honoree Charlie Louvin (of the Louvin Brothers) earlier this week, about his show at the Tractor on April 10. A full feature will appear in next week’s paper, but this brief reminiscence — about Louvin’s previous visit to our neck of the woods, en route to the Korean War — didn’t make the cut, so I wanted to share it.

“Isn’t Fort Lewis pretty close to Seattle? The last time I was there was in 1952. I shipped out on Christmas Eve, 1952. And the Red Cross really let it all hang out. They gave each of us one of those little packets of cigarettes, with four cigarettes in ‘em, and a cup of coffee.”

Dang! Where’s a USO troupe when you need one?

I really need to stop going to see bands where all I know about them is how awesome they used to be. Not that I know that Apples in Stereo was ever good live—the albums I love of theirs came out when I was ten and thirteen, respectively—but I need to stop having this hope in my heart that they will only perform their old songs, and that they will perform them with my best interests in mind. This is never the case.

However, the Apples in Stereo show last night was basically enjoyable. All of their new songs really seem to play it safe in the music department, and I felt like I had heard these shiny pop songs a million times before. Any time they dipped into their older material, it felt like they were diving deep into the sonic underground, and it was marvelous. I didn’t hear anything off of Fun Trick Noisemaker or Her Wallpaper Reverie, but I left early because all of the new songs were not keeping my attention. What a bummer.

Confidential to the dumb blonde bitch in the back: That woman who sits in the back of Neumo’s recording all of the shows may be the nicest creature on the earth, and one of the only people I know who truly loves live music. And her setup is incredibly advanced and professional. Never touch it again, even if you think it’s funny to take her (incredibly expensive) microphone and try to pretend you are performing fellatio with it. You suck.

Posted by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee

In an interview over at Can i bring my gat, El Producto crushes any hope of a new Can Ox album:

Is there a new Can Ox album coming out any time soon?

I really doubt it.

Really?

The fact of the matter is that everyone has been crossing their fingers, including Def Jux, hoping that Cannibal Ox would get their shit together as a group, even to the point where I resigned them. I really hoped and prayed that they would get their shit together, thought they were at a certain juncture in time. At this point I can’t pretend anymore or cover for those guys. They haven’t been together for a long time, but they tried to get it back together again, but it’s proving to be an impossible task.

Fuck.

Enjoy the video for Painkillers and lament/dream about all the griminess that will never be.

Some more details for anyone who was tantalized by this poster yesterday.

The night is called Bang Bang, not Go Go Bang Bang, and not only will there be go go dancers, there will be five different types of go go dancers, so says one of the night’s promoters, Michael Yuasa. They are:

(1) Bear
(2) Twink
(3) Buff Dude
(4) Sailor Type
(5) Emo Boy (“but oh so cute under black hoodie”)

They will be “dancing on the bar and getting sweaty for everyone. In fact we probably should have named it Sweat.”

Mmm, delicious sweat. Now! Here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna have a poll here on Line Out on Sunday morning for you to vote for your favorite go go dancer at Bang Bang. It’s easy to be hot in a black hoodie, but Sailor Type? I hope you’re working on some original moves, because you have some gaynormous cliches working against you.

The rest of the dancers? Work out extra hard, too, because commenters around here are vicious. (But also pretty horny.)

(Confidential to any of the dancers: If you want to review the crowd for Line Out—like, a review of the night from your perspective—email megan@thestranger.com.)

Now please enjoy this picture of some guy licking the Bang Bang poster:

A little birdy just told me that if you go to the Bumbershoot website and sign up to be a “Bumberfan” you will have access to a special $60 three-day pass. This price is a good discount—last year three-day passes were $80, so this will save you a little money on whatever they are this year (the prices will probably be higher, they always are).

Of course, no lineup has been announced, so you’ll just have to trust One Reel that you’ll want to be there.

Paul Anka sings “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” (as mentioned on SLOG back in 2005). I’m sure every time this video gets played Kurt Cobain does a 1000 turns in his grave.

[via Ario]

Jarvis Cocker needs people to open when he performs at the Showbox on April 30th. Think you have the chops? All you need to do is drop a message to his Myspace (oh, um, excuse me, his Jarvspace) and tell him what you think makes you worthy. You should also make sure to give him some music links.

I think Little Party & the Bad Business should apply.

Scroobius Pip & Dan Le Sac:

Hilarious blog Hater Tuesday brings (duh) the hate.

Engineer / producer, Gary Reynolds, from Electrokitty Studio in Wallingford, is here on Lineout’s Sound Check today to talk about mixing.

Clients of Electrokitty have been U2, Brandi Carlile, Shuggie, Schoolyard Heroes, Carrie Underwood, and the Purrs.

** Gary will be monitoring this post, so if you have any questions, ask away. Here is Gary:

We use a 56 channel Neve 8128 with flying fader automation. It came from Electric Ladyland in NY and was the console for some Public Enemy, Cars, and Queens of the Stone Age.

Mixing is a blending of levels. Mixing engineers used to be called ‘balance engineers’. They decided the mix. It’s still the same really, a balancing of things.

Main points of a mix are dialing the EQ, compression, reverb, effects, levels, and panning.

- STEP 1: I always ask, ‘What kind of music is it?’ ‘What is the purpose of the music?’ I put the faders up at 0 and listen to the song there initially.

Each song has a statement. I figure out what that statement is. I figure out what makes the song tick and accentuate that. Is it a guitar riff, or a chorus, or a particular change that stands out?

Continue reading "Step By Step Mixing at Electrokitty Studio" »

JJ Grey, main man behind North Florida front-porch soul outfit Mofro, wrote the introduction to his new album Country Ghetto. From the liner notes:

I grew up when the “root hog or die” days were still fresh in the minds of my parents and grandparents. I was brought up to earn it and not waste it, to respect and protect womanhood and promote manhood, and to be thankful for what you got. By today’s standards we ourselves, and most of the folks we knew, lived below the so-called “poverty line.” We were land and culture rich and dollar poor but I wouldn’t trade my upbringing for any other. I’ve always felt blessed to be raised here, to know so many larger than life characters, and to steep in the years of blood, sweat, and grim determination of my people before me.

My culture, life, and love is here in this country ghetto.

Makes you wanna hear what Mofro’s all about, dunnit?

Grey is a treasure, dedicated to preserving the rural lifestyle he grew up with in Jacksonville, a few hours from West Palm Beach, where I was born and raised. All across the state, the old Florida landscape has been decimated by rampant development and is hardly recognizable from the sand-and-swamp-strewn outback I knew as a kid. (It’s a phenomenon all too common everywhere these days.)

Blues-drenched, sweat-stained, and horn-blasted, Country Ghetto is totally Stax-influenced with a great Memphis brass sound, driven by Grey’s Otis Redding-esque vocals and Daryl Hance’s languid slide guitar. It’s a weary lament wrapped in feel-good music, full of pain but boldly undaunted. You can sample the entire album at the Mofro website.

JJ Grey & Mofro play Neumo’s Friday, April 6. Watch for the story in next week’s issue.

Hey Savage, a British blogger has coined a new word to describe your latest pop crush Mika: gaybe.

Who was an international hit maker who’s first group was called The Dragons?

She also sang back up vocals on a number of Elton John singles, most notably Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me.

She sang back up vocals on Pink Floyd’s album, The Wall.

About which she said:

I went to see the [Pink Floyd] concert at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles. There was a 15-year-old boy sitting in front of me who recognized me. He turned around and snottily said, “What are YOU doing here?” So I told him I sang on the album. He ran off to find a friend who had brought the LP to the show, and looked at the back to see if my name was really on there. A few minutes later, he came back and apologetically said, “Can I have your autograph?”

Recently a song she sang was sampled by the chill out duo, Bent and used in their big club hit, Magic Love.

Answer after the jump.

Continue reading "Can You Guess Who?" »

Way back in the day, before “Awesome” got all (provincially) famous and started playing rock clubs and fancy literary events and theaters like On the Boards, they did a series of intimate (but packed) shows in the long, dimly-lit theater in the Rendezvous that always, always makes me think I’m in a bordello.

(Even though it doesn’t look particularly bordello-ish. Did it used to be a bordello? Are the ghosts of cheerful turn-of-the-century prostitutes, gruff-but-sweet barmen, and a diminutive piano player named Mac floating around the place? I’d like to think so.)

Anyway, those old shows were great—surprising, conspiratorial, like you were in on a secret. They’re still my favorite “Awesome” shows. Special guests with improbable-looking horns (big saxes, long trumpets) kept coming out from backstage. A tub of water was used as a percussion instrument, getting the tub-player soaking wet. The national anthems of other countries were sung. Lots of people wore suits. Some guy behind me kept barking load, hoarse yeah!s every time a song ended. And drinks, of course, were drunk. Those were good nights. They looked like this:

(The photo in the banjo was, I think, of Patrick Swayze.)

This Friday, March 30, “Awesome” returns to the haunted bordello known as the Rendezvous for one night. The 8 pm show is sold out. The 10:30 pm show is almost sold out. You can get a ticket here.

Look at me, I’m becoming Dan Savage—tearing down posters of hot guys, putting them up here…

My questions:

1. Go Go Bang Bang, what are you? A DJ? A club night? A shoot out? I don’t know what you are but I love you already. Because of my Ninja Turtle fetish.

2. If you are a club night—and you are, and who doesn’t love a new club night?—can you explain this phenomenon of doubled-up, single-syllable names for club nights? (Once upon a time there was Club Club. More recently, the excellent Sing Sing. You see those stutterers and you raise them: a doubled-up, single-syllable name times two. Trend alert!)

3. Who are you, dude? Are you real? Will you be there? Will you be dancing? According to some intelligence gathering, there will be go go boys at Go Go Bang Bang. Eat your heart out, Comeback!

Jacob London is the Stranger’s new Band of the Week, that lucky act culled from the hordes at our Bands Page and instantly catapulted to 168 hours of blog superstardom.

Dave Pezzner, a nice guy who puts the “Jacob” in Jacob London, was not a session player on key electric-period Miles Davis recordings, nor did he cut his chops as a touring keyboardist with Katrina and the Waves. Bob Hansen, a graphic designer who prefers Amsterdam over London, didn’t learn studio technology as a tape operator on Michael Jackson’s 1982 smash “Thriller,” and he spent no time in the music industry as an A&R representative for Columbia Records. Together they make Jacob London.

After 13 years of countless live performances, world tours, several band name changes, idealistic decisions to “stop producing (insert techno subgenre here)”, and powerful releases/remixes on Om Records (San Francisco), Stay True (Paris), Doubledown (San Diego), U-Freqs (UK), and Derrick Carter & Luke Solomon’s enormously popular Classic Records (UK) imprint, “Jacob London” has become a household name for house and techno dj’s all over the planet.

The pair perform this Friday at Oseao Gallery as part of the Mark Farina after party. They play Malorca and Belgium on April 7th & 8th before returning home for April 14th’s Krakt at Re-Bar with [a]ppendics.shuffle.

Ratatat brought the micro-arena rock to Neumo’s last night and they brought it hard. The three-piece NYC outfit have evolved from semi-ironic, riff-slinging hipster phenomenon to fully balls-out riff-slinging true rawk demigods, and the change suits them well. Standing front and center, I was pressed up against the barrier coralling the underage fans to my left into a dense throng, and watching these kids wyle out—I mean fully throw, thrash, hesh, and mosh their bodies into a sweaty, quivering heap—proved the band’s rising status and undeniable effect.

No doubt Ratatat’s always had a way with melody, using Mike Stroud’s guitar glammery to braid bittersweet hum and classically-informed chords around Evan Mast’s rudimentary bass and drum-machined beats. Joined by a spastic keyboardist, they built epic anthems out of pulsing rhythm and melody and then totally shredded them to bits. Stroud’s got all the guitar hero moves down pat, arching his back, falling to his knees, waving his axe out in front of his body to hose the crowd with sound. He veers from minimalist syncopation to hard-strummed grandeur, a singular style that will, in a couple years, land him in the pantheon of the masters.

The band’s greatest asset is the emotive, human heartbeat that pulses at the center of their robo-rock blowouts. It comes from their swooning melodies and keeps them grounded even as their volume reaches into the back rows and beyond. With continually evolving visuals thrown up behind them—abstract slivers exploding, digital rain falling, cars crashing and fires storming—the whole affair was rather gripping and totally ripping. Ratatat are definitely a band worth seeing live, more rockin’ than most rock shows.

Much-ballyhooed opener 120 Days, however, continutes to fall flat. Fujiya & Miyagi did a much better take on Motorik a couple weeks ago at Chop Suey, going funky and pristine where the Norweigans of 120 Days muddle it up with scuzzy psychedelica. Lead singer Ådne Meisfjord does a Euro-fied mashup of Jim Morrison and Bono, all sleeveless preening and out-of-tune howling, pretty much ruining the unruinable Motorik drive of the rest of the band. I guess some would consider him a sexy nihilist crooner; he seemed more like a lunkhead. “We are 120 Days; you are Seattle,” he informed the crowd at the end of their set. “Buy the t-shirt.” Whateva.

After their set, Ratatat played a 45-minute “DJ” set at Havana. The dudes, along with their elfin bearded mascot, basically scrolled through their iPods and threw on seemingly random, totally unmixed selections. Some were good, most weren’t. It was as much a DJ set as karaoke is a concert. Still, the crowd ate it up and danced until the lights came on at 2 am.

This is what freezers look like in hell.

In the dark of night we left Las Cruces, NM and headed for a hotel somewhere in West Texas so as to ease the brutal drive through that Horrordome of a state. All was well until around 1:00 am when we approached one of the fucked-up middle-of-the-road border patrol stations and got told that our van was going to be “randomly” searched for drugs by dogs. Obviously we were profiled as being dopers—a van full of tie-dye clad zoneheads from Washington with music equipment in the back is constantly suspect, and they were right to profile us as such because we were holding onto a few marijuana cigarettes. Needless to say we’re all shitting our pants. We didn’t have time to eat it, as any smart touring band should do, because we were all asleep except for the Wolfman, who was driving (never carry more than you can eat, or you’re fucked).

The border patrol dudes asked us if we had drugs and so we figured it’d be easiest to just give ‘em the stuff. It wasn’t much, and we thought they might just kick us in the ass and let us go. Instead we got fucked. There were four Adderall in the weed bag and we ended up having to sit in a cell, waiting for the sheriff who didn’t show ‘til three in the morning, and then took the Wolfman to jail for the pills after writing weed tickets to some of the rest of us. What a fucking nightmare. We had to go to the neighboring town, which probably had the most (too much) character of any place I’ve ever been. We got a $30 hotel with a door that didn’t close and slept until 8:30 am, when we went to the jail in hopes of this whole thing blowing over and getting straight to Austin (the only beacon of sanity in all of Texas) but we needed to get the Wolfman out of jail first. Little did we know we’d be in for trouble.

This is the desert hellhole hotel we stayed at. Seriously, it’s right out of the shining.

Continue reading "Animal Guts for the Dog to Eat: The Trashies Tour Diary, Week Two" »

Sasquatch has just announced that the Beastie Boys will be playing an exclusive instrumental set at Sasquatch Saturday on the Wookie Stage. This is in addition to their headlining set on the Mainstage.

Sasquatch goes down May 26 & 27th at the Gorge.

Update: Here is the complete lineup as of today:

Saturday, May 26th:
Björk, The Arcade Fire, Manu Chao and Radio Bemba Sound System, M.I.A., Citizen Cope, Neko Case, The Hold Steady, The Saturday Knights, Mix Master Mike, Beastie Boys - A Gala Event - Exclusive Instrumental Show, Grizzly Bear, Ghostland Observatory, Electrelane, Two Gallants, Lonely, Dear, The Slip, Aqueduct, Mirah, The Blow, Viva Voce, Gabriel Teodros, Blitzen Trapper

Sunday, May 27th:
Beastie Boys, Interpol, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Spoon, The Polyphonic Spree, Ozomatli, Bad Brains, Mix Master Mike, The Dandy Warhols, The Black Angels, Clinic, Tokyo Police Club, Earl Greyhound, Money Mark, St. Vincent, Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter, Common Market, Smoosh, The Helio Sequence, Minus The Bear, Stars of Track and Field, The Blakes

Comedians Michael Showalter and Aziz Ansari will be hosting the Wookie and Yeti stages. Sarah Silverman hosts the main stage on both days.

Los Angeles based singer songwriter, Lissie, opened for Badly Drawn Boy at Neumo’s on Monday night.

She sat down to talk after her set and discussed some Rush, Elliott Smith, and Algebra. Later, Badly Drawn Boy played Madonna.

Originally from Rock Island, Illinois, Lissie is earthy and splendid and nice as hell. She told a story about a friend getting her a gig in LA a while back. He didn’t tell her where. She got her guitar and he drove her to Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher’s wedding. She said she put on her game face, and played, standing next to Bruce Willis.

And speaking of Madonna, Lissie had some stuff slated to come out on Maverick Records, but it’s in limbo. She said she’s not wating around for it though. She’s recording again soon and will have a record out that’s not held back by Maverick.

UPDATE: Two new videos discovered, a look at and listen to “Earth Intruders,” and the REAL album artwork/packaging.

What appear to be teasers for the promotional campaign of Björk’s new album Volta are enigmatic but completely in keeping with what they’ve been like before—snippets of disorienting video, some fairly low-quality loops of sounds from the library of the new album (though not necessarily sounds from the album’s songs), some degreee of amateurism, and always with a measure of mystery or false identities. In the past teasers have been presented by a character called Meester Fly, who would pop in with reports like this one called “Organ Cries,” which preceded 2004’s Medúlla.

First this happened:

V

Then came this peculiar MySpace profile (who appears on both Björk’s and former Sugarcube Einar Örn’s MySpace top friends). The profile includes four audio clips that seem to be from Volta’s library of sounds. There’s definitely a bit of Konono Nr. 1 in the second clip, “Denoisering.” There’s some pretty heavy live drumming (Chippendale? Corsano?) in a couple of the tracks. But the most compelling evidence that this is part of the promo is the video. In it you’ll hear the sounds of the brass and the Chinese pipa, both known to be featured on Volta. And if you watch very closely (and maybe step back a bit), there’s a special guest toward the end:

You shouldn’t expect much too more than this until the first single, “Earth Intruders,” is released in early April.

UPDATE: It seems there are a few more of these leaking.

Continue reading "Very VVeird Volta Teasers" »

Despite the efforts of a now-defeated blogger, Peter Bjorn and John are looking like they’re going to sell out their May 13th date at Neumos. It’s over a month out and over 600 tickets have been sold. So if you’re into whistling Swedes with shakers, you’d do well to buy your tickets soon.

Video of the group from SXSW:

In case you missed Ian Svenonius discussing his book, The Psychic Soviet, at Sonic Boom’s General Store in Fremont last week, Kelly O has the tape. Check it out:

Due to a family emergency, S unfortunately had to cancel her performance this Thursday at Vera. But the show will still go on with Panda & Angel, Ferocious Eagle, and Wet Confetti.

Show starts at 7:30 pm and costs $7 at the door ($6, if you’ve got a Vera club card).

Here. Here’s something I love:

I also like the Hold Steady and daffodils (I call ‘em daffodilies) and vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting and people who can take a joke.

Now stop whining, ya big babies. Not everything in the world deserves a big bear hug. (Especially not this band.)

Here’s a little taste of what Ratatat will bring to tonight’s post-show DJ set at Havana: a slammadocious remix of Biggie’s gangsta-life celebration “Party & Bullshit.” HEAVY!

Ratatat will be DJing tonight at Havana for Hotel Motel following tonight’s Stranger Suggested show at Neumo’s. FortuneKiki and DJ Curtis will be keeping things warm until the boys show up. From the Suggests:

Ratatat (Music) Wild animals have all kinds of ways to make themselves appear larger than they actually are—cats arch their backs, cobras show their hoods, bears rise up on their hind legs. Ratatat, the slight pair of Evan Mast and Mike Stroud, pull off a similar trick, inflating their guitar/synth studio hybrids into arena-sized instrumental jams via the magic of multitracking. Live, the duo sound like an army of axe-men riding on loose grooves and bedroom hiphop beats. (Neumo’s, 925 E Pike St, 709-9467. 8 pm, $13, all ages). ERIC GRANDY

Multi-instrumental wizard Brian Webber (B-Web for short) has left the Saturday Knights. Contrary to some reports, Weber was apparently out of the band before SxSW and didn’t play with the band at the festival. Weber tells me he was kicked out of the band in late February after a flare of tempers led to some boozy fisticuffs between himself and Barfly.

Light in the Attic’s Chris Estey says he “wasn’t at that meeting” but adds that Weber’s departure was “fairly abrupt, as they were heading to SXSW.” An official statement from the band is in the works.

The Brits love affair with attractive young men with high voices didn’t start with Jake Shears and end with Mika. Here’s are the Alessi Brothers singing their 1997 UK hit “Oh, Lori”:

I heard it on a CD compilation called “Guilty Pleasures,” and fell in love with it after listening to it three or four times—and I was in love with this song before I saw this video and discovered that the Alessi Brothers were good lookin’ identical male twins.

Maybe because there was a grand total of 22 people at Chop Suey last night (I counted), the management decided to leave the lights on during the Whigs’ performance. I couldn’t figure out why the show was so dismally attended until lead singer Parker Gispert clued in the audience: “Why aren’t you guys at TV on the Radio right now?” he asked from the stage. I assume most of Seattle was.

Despite the nearly empty, brightly-lit room, the Atlanta trio ripped through a set of hard-charging Southern garage rock, the kind of music you’d hear after a couple pitchers at college bar and think it was the greatest thing in the world. Gispert switched from guitar to organ for one particularly soulful number and his backing band, especially the drummer, kept right on swinging. Dude’s got a powerful voice, loud and scorched into a empathic blues-rock howl.

It was a good set, a little too short for the band’s first in Seattle, not earth shattering but potentially so. A bigger crowd would’ve made the music feel more urgent, or maybe a better setting, like a house party and a keg. When it was all over, I felt a little foolish for not having a good answer to Gispert’s question.

Mike Nipper: “It’s like if MySpace could actually poop, this is what would come out of it.”

Said while sorting through the “toss out/to sell” bin of CDs which includes numerous copies of albums by Escape the Fate, the Matches, State Radio, I Am the Ghost, and Scars of Tomorrow.

But if you’re a Daft Punk fan, GO HERE NOW!

First, Dominic Davi, former member of Tsunami Bomb (and currently in Love Equals Death) was charged with rape. He allegedly admitted to raping a woman while on tour in Philadelphia in 2006. Full story at philly.com.

Second, Tony Lovato, the former singer of the (not very good at all) band Mest, was arrested in a fatal stabbing incident in L.A. He allegedly stabbed his ex-girlfriend’s new lover. Full story at reuters.com.

As Alithea, the lovely Line Out reader who supplied both links said, “That’s Mest up.” Get it? Mest up! Hahaha, girl’s hilarious.

We just got a press release for Scott Fisher & the 1 am Approach, whose press sheet includes a quote saying “…sounds like Jack Johnson leading the Ben Folds Five….” (it gets worse) “…with touches of Medeski Martin and Wood’s groove, Brad Mehldau’s pop-jazz fusion and Dave Matthews’ knack for vocal melodies.”

Dear God. That’s awful.

Upon reading that, Ari Spool rightfully threw the CD into the air and walked away.

Just thought you should know.

His website is here.

He looks like this:

Not bad, actually. Sorta cute. Maybe it isn’t terrible. But still, after that description, I just can’t bring myself to listen.

You know you’ve always wondered what’s on Skerik’s iPod. Here’s your answer.

Last week the avant-jam saxophonist came to Stranger HQ where I grilled him on the contents of his iPod. Normally, victims are demanded to justify the embarrassing selections they harbor; Skerik’s collection, however, was bulletproof. Totally tasteful, full of weird world music, death metal, and classic jazz, his iPod was, not surprisingly, intriguing. He had a hilarious story about the William Shatner album involving himself and noted saxophonist Bill Clinton and was even able to fully justify his inclusion of ZZ Top. I was still feeling run down after SXSW so I was glad that Skerik really got into the whole thing and ran with it.

Enjoy.

We must not forgot, even for a moment, what is truly amazing about the distribution deal that the Blue Scholars struck with Rawkus Records: It came into being for no other reason than the immense size of the duo’s local support. Rawkus recognized the Blue Scholars because Seattle recognized the Blue Scholars. Without Seattle, no Rawkus. For the main of established artists based in Seattle (be they writers, filmmakers, architects, and so on) the opposite was the case: Local recognition only came about after achieving national recognition. But the Blue Scholars made their music for local consumption, they addressed local hiphop history, conflicts, realities, and the music itself seemed entirely indifferent to national trends and shifts. This is what impressed me most when I first reviewed their debut CD back in 2003. And as their press coverage widened in 2004, this localness, coupled of course with high production standards, is what impressed their growing number of supporters in the metropolitan area. By 2006, the incredible size of this local support resulted in the national distribution deal. Seattle can make hiphop giants from its own stuff. This fact, this lesson, this awareness stands above all disagreements and debates on the matter.

The 5th Avenue Theatre’s run of Buddy ended a few weeks ago. Billy Joe Huels takes a few moments to look back on his role playing Buddy Holly:

First of all, anything off the top of your head about it?
Billy Joe: After years of sweating it out in rock clubs, I finally reached my true demographic audience: 65- to 80-year-old ladies.

How was the last performance compared to the first one?
I think the first performance was crisp. I focused on all the important details, like tucking in my shirt and tying my shoelaces between scene changes. I was so relaxed by the end of my run that I didn’t even bother to zip my fly before singing “True Love Ways” to Maria Elena.

What was your relationship to the character like at the end? Did it change as you went along?
It was like I was a guy portraying a dead musical legend in a theater production. I think my relationship with Buddy Holly is still the same, but we haven’t spoken in a while.

Did you ever get sick of the songs?
No .

Have you gotten out of character yet?
I think so, but my wife still complains when I scream out Peggy Sue in the middle of the night.

Looking back at it, what was the hardest thing about it? What did you like the most?
Acting. Acting.

How do you summarize the experience?
It was the highlight of my 76-year-old dad’s life.

Did you take any notes along the way?
Yes. Never upstage the veteran actors, and always check your fly before sitting down to perform a love song in front of 2,000 people.

Do you still have the Buddy glasses?
Yes. The fine folks at the 5th Avenue Theatre put my prescription in them and gave them to me.

What would Buddy be doing if he were still around?
He would probably be starring in The Buddy Holly Story.

Video Interview w/Billy Joe from before.

There’s this great story in the business section of today’s New York Times about how Apple and its iTunes store has changed the way people buy music, and the new ways music company’s are trying to deal with it. Namely by signing new acts to deals where they only produce “singles.”

Labels have signed new performers to singles deals before, typically to release what they viewed as ephemeral or novelty hits. Now, executives at Universal say, such arrangements will become more common for even quality acts because the single itself is the end product.

Ron Shapiro, an artist manager and former president of Atlantic Records, asked, “What are the Las Vegas odds of constantly having a ‘Bad Day?’ ” — referring to a tune by the singer Daniel Powter that sold more than two million copies after it was used on “American Idol.”

Is the cherry-picking of the consumer-at-large on iTunes really going to destroy “albums” as we’ve come to know them?

Courtesy of Joey Casio and friends, the world’s “original riot grrrl band”:

There’s a new website about the Northwest’s electronic music scene, called Sea of Hands. Here’s the press release from Scientific American:

okay, time for the big reveal…so let’s all welcome sea of hands so, ummm …suprise!!!! (thanks, seaver!)

sea of hands is a site that revolves (roughly) around the culture of underground/non-mainstream/generally underrepresented electronic music in the northwest (northwest as in the cascadian variety). the format will be pretty blog-standard; we’ve got a grip of contributors lined up to post about the stuff that interests them, and while the ability to start posts is limited to the initial contributors we strongly encourage anyone and everyone to sign up and join in the fun. we’ve been posting this and that for a month or so to get rolling…expect the contents of sea of hands to include: selected local events, the ubiquitous youtube fun, mixes and tracks, gear/software links, dj horror stories, rampant misspelling and poor grammar, show write-ups, ill planned and poorly written tirades against those we disagree with (so what’s the blog equivalent of drunk dialing, anyway?), reviews, remixes, etc. etc. the spec is pretty broad…

right off the bat, one thing we really want to do is build up the links section on the right side of the page. so if you do something that relates, please sign up and i’ll post a thread on the site that
y’all can comment to with yer links. i’ve been putting some up as they come to me, but i need help.

so here’s the primary list of contributors who may or may not beposting to the site…
ario
matt carthum
jerry abstract
mr. piccolo
j-justice
scientific american
fucking in the streets
kris moon
2red
rachel shimp
dice.thrown
zapan

i’m not usually the type of person that writes disclaimers but i have to get one in here: the contributors list is very loose and everyone is their own individual who may have more, less, or nothing to do with where things are at at this point…the idea was thought up by andy (scntfc) and ario, with helpful contributions from 2red (donte), design and internet infrastructure (implemented poorly, mind you…i’m not sure we can even embed mp3s yet) by scntfc, and the ball commenced rolling with julian (piccolo) and tim (dice.thrown) getting the post count going.

the ultimate goal of this is to raise the profile and awareness of our neck of the woods. as mr. segal summed it up in his farewell data breaker (we’ll miss you, dave!), seattle has become the berlin of the united states. now we just have to make sure everyone knows it. so please feel free to spread the word…

now click that link!
http://www.seaofhands.com

thanks, and wrd.
scntfc

As hinted at in one of the final Border Radio columns, local troubadour (and all around swell fellow) Korby Lenker — solo artist, band leader, and member of Barbed Wire Cutters and David Goliath — has announced that he is officially relocating to Nashville, Tennessee. After May 1, you can reach him in Music City. But he’s leaving town with a bang, headlining the Triple Door on Thursday, April 12. He will be playing songs off all his records (seven total, if my memory serves). “Lo, there will be some bluegrass,” he writes, “and the venue has a beautiful grand piano so I’ll get to play that too.” I have often made fun of Korby’s taste in shoes over the years, but at this moment I’m hard-pressed to imagine who will fill them once he is gone.

The end of an era? Perhaps. But definitely the end of the consistently funnest thing to do on a Sunday, barring, of course, going to church…naked, stoned, and spray-painting profanity on the walls.

I’m talking about Sunday Nights at Vito’s (AKA “Fascinator”). For (oh my!), going on two years I reckon, Fascinator at Vito’s has filled the gloomy and dank hours of Sunday night with dizzy joy—-or at least enough sexy-sexy people, compelling beats, and delicious liquor to resemble dizzy joy. Quirky performance art interludes, superstar DJs, very special (ed) guests, and awesome live bands peppered the night like precious rhinestones, and provided the best excuse to call in sick with “the flu” on Monday morning that God knows I’ve ever had…

But it’s all over now.

The popular night’s producers are calling it quits, and no glorious and boozy beast has yet risen to take its place, so tonight is your very last chance to snatch a piece of the magic that was Fascinator. I’ll be there. So come and say goodbye with me. We’ll cry just a little bit, together.

DJ’s Freakazoid, Sam Kirkland, Scratchmaster Joe and Travis Baron, presiding.

VITO’S, 9th and Madison. $5 at the door, but worth it. Things get going around 11 o’clock. Be there.