From The Stranger Classifieds - Musicians Wanted:

No dying of natural causes. If your drumming slowly and gently passes into the afterlife, you need not apply. The death here needs to be extreme. Your drumming needs to dive head first into a woodchipper. Or be eaten by piranha. Or have a parachute that doesn’t open.

In death metal there is distortion, there are morbid and harsh lyrics sung by low growled Orc men, blurringly fast drums, and a pure sense of darkness. With extreme death metal it needs to be harsher, faster, more distorted, more morbid, more Orc.

In extreme death metal, not only does your parachute malfunction, but you land in a woodchipper that spits the shards of your body into a piranha tank. Then a serial murderer lets the water out of the tank, freezes the piranha, and throws them back into the woodchipper.

One night roughly 14 years ago, back when Pioneer Square’s weekend meat-market Trinity was still the Velvet Elvis theater, Greg Anderson graced the tiny stage as the singer/guitarist for Engine Kid. Their dynamic set culminated with a cacophonous climactic finale. With amps at full volume, drum heads pock-marked from repeated battery, and audiences’ earplugs wedged deep into ear canals, Greg pulled off his guitar, set it on the floor, pulled out a package of firecrackers, and set them off on his instrument. The racket was immense. My mind conjured images of Jimi Hendrix on his knees, dousing his guitar with lighter fluid, and beckoning the flames as his amp roared behind him. But Anderson upped the ante with explosives.

With the benefit of hindsight, that destructive moment seems less of an homage to Jimi and more of an embrace of the 20th century’s obsession with the happy accident. What exactly does a packet of firecrackers sound like when it’s amplified through a Marshall half-stack? There’s only one way to find out, and why not unlock that mystery in front of an audience? In the realm of music, perhaps the most noteworthy employers of this spontaneous venture are the jazz players. Kerouac mythologized Charlie Parker’s impossible blunder, that incorrect note that bred Bop, and that limitless world of pushing for chance discoveries and new sonic territories. Of course, it’s doubtful that Anderson had The Bird in mind when he blew up his guitar, but I wonder if the course of history would still have led him to shove a pack of firecrackers in his back pocket on the way downtown if Parker had never bleated that twisted note.

Continue reading "Relating Dudes To Jazz" »

Billboard reports today that the new Girl Talk record, Feed the Animals is due out “on the Internet over the next few weeks” via Illegal Art with a pay-what-you-want pricing scheme sampled from Radiohead (mashed-up with NIN, possibly with Saul Williams a capella over the top). The album will be 55 minutes long, contain over 300 samples, and be “more over the top” and feature “more in-your-face classics” than Night Ripper, which just boggles the mind.

Girl Talk plays the Capitol Hill Block Party on Friday July 25th.

EYE from Boredoms sends us his far away love. And materials for the 88 Drummer Show happening in New York on 8/8/08.

EYE wrote:

Dear Seattle and Stranger lookers. Thank you for such a experiencing show when we were there. Seattle has best crowd. I remember and think you. See you in 88. – EYE

I replied and sent our collective love back at him. I also sent him a copy of The Kweeks Of Kookatumdee by Bill Peet.

Far off somewhere in the Tumbuzzaroo Sea, On the jungle island of Kookatumdee, There once lived a flock of strange, birdlike things. Called kweeks, with huge beaks and undersized wings. With no wild beasts living there to endanger the kweeks, Their only problem was eating, just filling their beaks.

Lil Wayne - “A Milli”

God that sample is annoying. No wait, now it’s stuck in my head. It won’t go away. Weezy’s flow… he really sounds like he doesn’t give a shit about anything. He really will cancel a show if security won’t let him carry his gun on stage (his glock is sick). Every rapper boasts, but when Wayne says “Muthafuckah I’m Eeeeewwlll” you actually believe him. This album cut is much better than the mixtape version, without all that extraneous yelling and sample bullshit. This track is infectious; Lil Wayne is a “venereal disease” like he claims. “A Milli” is the best song ever (this week).

Tha Carter III comes out on Tuesday.

There are lots of reasons to love the Peter Bjorn & John song “Up Against the Wall” great—the easy backbeat; that endless, perfect guitar line; the foggy harbor ambience; Peter Moren’s always adorable accent; the way its seven minutes pass like half the time. But what I love about it most right now is the double meaning in its chorus. Lyrically, it’s anxious and conflicted—up against the wall in the sense of being backed into a corner and forced to act. But melodically, sentimentally, the songs is blissful—”almost that I wish you had me up against the wall”—pinned up against a wall as in an embrace, weighed down as in “the love poetry of every age.” I’ve been warned that there’s no way to reference Milan Kundera while describing a Peter Bjorn & John song without sounding like a total d-bag, but there it is. It’s currently my favorite song on Writer’s Block, an album comprised almost entirely of favorite songs.

The only thing more impressive than Isaac Hayes’ gold-plated El Dorado Cadillac inside The Stax Museum of American Soul Music is an entire authentic, 100-year old Mississippi Delta church. Relocated to the site when it was built around 2001, the church’s front doorway serves as the museum entrance after you leave an introductory film about the label’s history. You literally have to walk down the aisle between the aged, wooden pews and “pay your respects” to the roots of Memphis soul as admission to the rest of the exhibits.

I visited the movie theater turned recording studio turned museum/music academy on McLemore Avenue in south Memphis when I traveled down to the capital of the mid-south a few years back. It’s both a dazzling distraction amidst the rough neighborhood that it’s still hoping to revitalize and a first-rate tourist mecca for pilgrims of the Memphis sound. Once unaware, the museum definitely opened the eyes (and ears) of this ignoramus to realize there was more to Booker T. & the M.G.’s than “Green Onions”.

Starting this Sunday and running thru Thursday, the Northwest Film Forum is screening Respect Yourself: The Stax Record Story and Wattstax - the former, a documentary chock-full of archival material put together to mark the 50th Anniversary of the label and the latter, a documentary of the 1972 Stax label memorial concert for the Watts riots, re-released for 35th Anniversary screenings.

This past Wednesday at Studio! I played Tangoterje’s re-edit of Titanic’s 1973 cut of “Macumba”, for the first time in quite some time. A few minutes into the track, I remembered how good the track is and thought I would share it with everyone whom hasn’t heard this latin-prog-disco classic. This edit definitely has a bit of a chessy side with the “Aerosmith like” guitar intro, however the song follows with a more 70’s latin funky rock sound very similar to the latin sounding group Barrabas. Overall, it’s a nice extended edit from Todd Terje that could challenge all the heavy rock heads to get out and dance.

Download Tangoterje’s re-edit of Titanic’s 1973 cut of “Macumba” and more by visiting here. I will also be spinning this track plus many many more cosmic disco at the Solo Bar tonight for your listening pleasure.

The Submarines - “Peace and Hate”

The Submarines, Bad Dream Good Breakfast, the Color Bars
(Chop Suey) The Submarines are the L.A.-based duo of John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard. They used to date. They broke up. They separately wrote a bunch of songs about breaking up and missing each other, which they still recorded together at Dragonetti’s home. So of course they got back together and got married. The most obvious analogue here is also the most apt, as the Submarines’ sickly sweet, love-stoned pop songs recall nothing so much as the less manic moments of Mates of State, although Hazard occasionally sounds like a less subtle Mirah. Their latest, Honeysuckle Weeks—which ranges from the odd dub lope of “1940” to the manicured hand-wringing of “You and Me and the Bourgeoisie”—is as glossy and broadcast-ready as you’d expect from a band whose work has appeared on Weeds, Grey’s Anatomy, and Nip/Tuck. ERIC GRANDY

Half Light, the Purrs, the Jones Family Fortune, the Delusions
(Comet) In the late 1990s, Seattle was rife with music to sway to drunkenly, and no band exemplified the local shoegazer aesthetic better than Voyager One. Dayna Loeffler, V1’s old bassist, has switched to guitar in Half Light, the band she now fronts. Half Light’s debut CD, aptly titled Sleep More, Take More Drugs, Do Whatever We Want, is being released tonight, and it’s exactly what you’d expect: smooth, dreamy spacerock that owes influences to Pink Floyd, Lush, My Bloody Valentine, and, of course, Voyager One. The Purrs, another example of finely crafted local postpunk, round out a strong bill for fans of psychedelic rock. MATT GARMAN

Click here to hear Half Light.

Billy Bragg - “Waiting for the Great Leap Forward” (Live on the Henry Rollins Show)

Billy Bragg, C.R. Avery
(Moore) The election is still five months away, and you’re already worn down. What to do? You could be cryogenically suspended until November, but seeing Billy Bragg offers a much better way to recharge your batteries and forge on. His classic “Waiting for the Great Leap Forward” grows more stirring with every lyrical twist added to reflect time, place, and state of mind. And for all his fiery politics, Bragg’s live sets are tempered with humor, down-to-earth romance, and savvy observations. As befits a man of his wit and charisma, the Bard of Barking is not bashful in his pulpit, but unlike so many folk artists, he rarely stoops to preach. KURT B. REIGHLEY

Mars Accelerator, The Preons, Casey Alexander
(Skylark) The Preons play warm, mellow indie rock laced with lush layers of harmonica, trumpet, and keyboards. They’re like a calm, less literary Decemberists. The band’s members have a deep history in local music—bassist John Hendow played in local reggae band Jumbalassy before joining the Preons, and guitarist Josh Cowart once leant his talents to Hourglass Lake. The music benefits from their diverse pasts—subtle hints of jazz and reggae make their way into tracks on their latest record, Starshine on the Devilwoods. But the band say it’s the life experiences—everything from “rehab, weddings, weddings canceled, and death”—that happened while writing and record that make it so strong in the end, proving that sometimes adversity is the best inspiration. MEGAN SELING

The Preons:
“Conflict of the Cobra Kai”

“It Will Be Soon”

For more, check out our online calendar.

Not sure if the Dubstep Forum 2007 Award Winners was released early this year, but it was posted (and as a result came to my attention) yesterday. Nevertheless, the most important Award is this:

Best Producer 1. MALA 2. BURIAL 3. BENGA 4. COKI 5. TES LA ROK 6. KODE 9 7. Rusko 8. Skream 9. Kromestar 10. Clouds

Second is this:

Best EP/LP
1. DISTANCE - My Demons (PLANET MU 170)
2. BURIAL - Ghost Hardware (HYPERDUB 04)
3. RUSKO - Babylon Volume 1 (SUBSOLDIERS 02)
4. SKREAM - Skreamizm 3 (TEMPA)
5. Cyrus - From The Shadows LP (Tectonic)
6. Various - Box of Dub Vol. One LP (Souljazz)
7. Coki - Redeye EP (Big Apple)
8. D1 - Trial Run EP (Tempa)
9. Caspa - Ave It Vol. One LP (Sub Soldiers)
10. Various - Tempa Allstars 4 EP (Tempa)

Burial, of course, should be at the top both lists. As for the absence of Untrue in the second list, that in itself is being untrue. Lastly, what happened to Boxcutter? His first record, Oneric, was so dazzeling, so majestic, so celestial. How can you come and go just like that?

Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts (pictured above) and Jacob London are going to be getting their techno on tonight at the Baltic Room. I didn’t get to mention it in the column this week, but Guillaume makes some fine tracks, and Jacob London is always a safe bet.

To get the word out, the Oi Vay guys put together a podcast of G&TCD and JLo tracks, which you can get here. Here’s the tracklisting:

1. Guillaume - Saperlipopette
2. Guillaume - Sous L’Arbre
3. Guillaume - Cant Cheat With Concrete
4. Flow - Feel It (Jacob London’s Biscuit Mix)
5. Guillaume - The Flying Dutchman
6. Justin Martin & Sammy D - Cats & Dogs (Jacob London Remix)
7. Guillaume - Ocre
8. Guillaume - Mederico
9. Guillaume - Yone
10. Style Of Eye - LDR (Guillaume Remix)
11. Guillaume - Da Drum
12. Jacob London & Mossa - Touch The Dingle
13. Guillaume - Domdom
14. Guillaume - Fat Cat

Yes, this entire post was just an excuse to post that picture. Techno producers that don’t take themselves too seriously are alright by me.

I know that it’s effectively pointless for most people if I post something that’s already been on BoingBoing, but if I can introduce one more human being to this video, it will have made everyone else’s groans and strains of their scrolling fingers worthwhile. It is awesome.

A Q-Tron effect pedal kidnapped me at knifepoint today. It knocked on my door and said, “Get in your car now, bitch. You’re taking me to Aurora. I need scotch and poker.”

I said, “But you’re a Q-Tron Electro-Harmonix Envelope Filter, you have scotch-tape holding that knife. You provide all the wah sounds of the famous Mu-Tron III heard on so many funk and rock recordings, but with increased frequency response and improved signal-to-noise ratio. You can’t kidnap anyone.”

Then the Q-Tron cut me. A little sliver out of my forearm. So I got in my car and started the engine. “Take me to gamble, now. Or I cut you again.”

The Q-Tron lost big. “Get me away from here, now. I need scotch,” it said.

“Now I need Sugar’s. I need a waitress contest.”

I said, “But it’s Thursday, the sign says the waitress contests are on Tuesday.”

“There will be a waitress contest BECAUSE I SAY THERE WILL BE A WAITRESS CONTEST,” the Q-Tron replied. “Don’t make me cut you again.”

The Q-Tron emerged from Sugar’s with Brenda. There was some small talk and then her envelope controlled his filter. – the end

A few nights ago my iPod shuffled and dealt me an old song I’d forgotten just how much I loved: “The Mule” — a restless, glassy tune packed with more exuberant left turns than a Mudede blog post, written and recorded by Eureka Farm at some point in 1999. It’s the sixth track on this astounding album…

…The View.

Hearing “The Mule” summoned all kinds of involuntary twitches — clear memories of living in Bellingham in the late 90s and watching a tiny but tireless community of musicians form, dissolve, and reform groups like kinetic molecules endlessly breaking down and recombining. Eureka Farm started life as Shed, fronted by a guy named Arman Bohn, and featured Nick Harmer on bass and Ben Gibbard on drums. When I saw the band for the first time in late ‘96 or early ‘97 on WWU’s main campus, it was their final gig as Shed and their first with a new drummer named Jason McGerr. Eureka Farm’s first record Analog appeared shortly thereafter….

Continue reading "Eureka Farm's "The View" (1999)" »

I’m not headed to the Marymoor show, but I’m excited to hit up Neumos tonight for my first Roots experience for these two reasons (sure, it’s just ?uestlove DJing with Black Thought, but it’ll have to do):

#1) Afro Envy

#2) Acute Genre Awareness

The Roots - What They Do

Image from flickr user mezone.

If you happen to be in Shanghai this Saturday:

Saturday June 7th: Robert Hood plays The Shelter, located at 5 Yongfu Lu near Fuxing Xi Lu (永福路5号，近复兴西路). 50 RMB gets you in the door starting at 10 PM. Shanghai_Ultra, Nat Alexander, and Ben Huang ope

Robert Hood’s Minimal Nation (1994) is black thought in its purest condition. It is nothing but thought. Nous qua nous.

My minimal techno list:
“Enforcement” by Basic Channel
Minimal Nation by Robert Hood
Metropolis Jeff Mills
“Bubble Metropolis” by Drexciya
Coldest Season by Deep Chord

Still living up to his name: Johnny Rotten sued over assault

The return of White Lightning: George Jones gets stolen guitar returned after 46 years

Trent Reznor continues to embrace the internet: NIN offer free album of sampler of bands from their upcoming tour

Fretboard acrobats rejoice: New Dragonforce album in August

Update on the quality of British music press: Ozzy Osbourne wins libel suit

Buzz and the Biz: Details on new Melvins album and Big Business tour

The Oregonian reports that Fred Meyer is experimenting with restocking vinyl (hat tip to Rev. Fever). Older music technology keeps yielding new finds: Researchers have a found a song recorded before the advent of Edison’s phonograph in 1860 using the Phonoautograph. Going back an eon or two, a team led by linguist Phil Lieberman and anthropologist Robert McCarthy claim to have reconstructed the sound of Neanderthal speech.

Also, I have yet to read Aniruddh Patel’s Music, Language, and the Brain, but this filmed lecture is interesting if you can tolerate the dorky library music intro.

Finally, is anyone besides me experimenting with YouTube mixing? It’s nice to hear and see these cats playing a theremin - once. If you’ve got the bandwidth, play ‘em at the same time or stagger the play buttons here or open in multiple tabs and just as Roy Clark used to say for his TV ads for the Big Note guitar, “Just give a little strum and hey! You’re making music!” (or at least something very strange).

^{Photo by Anna Knowlden}

Get a glimpse of the Feral Children’s upcoming full-length Second to the Last Frontier (produced by Scott Colburn, out July 8th)—four tracks from the album are available as a free download at Sarathan.com.

The Feral Children will play the Capitol Hill Block Party Saturday, July 26.

Another great record that I found during my trip to Paris was Chocolat’s 1977 LP, Les Fabuleux Chocolat’s. I found this record while hunting through stacks at Croco Disc (My favorite new record store), which had a numerous amount of 70’s French disco rarities among other great genres. If I was anywhere near that place, location wise, I would definitely need to get another job just to support how many records that I would buy from that shop. Anyways, Chocolat’s is a French disco group produced by Jean Vanloo that released many amazing disco records during the 70’s including Les Fabuleux Chocolat’s, The Kings of Clubs, Rythmo Tropical, African Choco among others. There most known effort came in 1977 when Salsoul Records released the The Kings of Clubs LP which features a fourteen plus Tom Moulton mix of the self-titled track. Here we have, Baby Let’s Do It The French Way which was the single off the Les Fabuleux Chocolat’s LP, which even though not as popular as the classic “The Kings of Clubs” cut, could be considered one of Chocolat’s finest tracks. If you love French disco, I highly recommend checking out anything and everything from the Chocolat’s.

Download Chocolat’s “Baby Let’s Do It The French Way” and much more by visiting here.

Dude! Dennis Lyxzén and David Sandström from Refused have started a new hardcore band called AC4! I’ve been waiting ten years for them to do something heavy again to follow up The Shape of Punk to Come! I can’t wait to hear what it sounds like…

Oh. That wasn’t interesting at all. I wonder what the guitarist and drummer of Refused are doing…

This is Tom Bailey…
Who is Tom Bailey? Remember the Thompson Twins? Remember the lead singer? That’s Tom Bailey. 15 years after his brief but exciting career in pop, Bailey established a dub project called International Observer. The project’s first release, Seen, has this as its significant achievement: an ambient dub that takes echo effects/art very seriously. Most ambient artists use echo effects only to make their music sound dreamy—the dub is merely cosmetic. International Observer, on the other hand, used echo art to inspire visions of the cosmic. It was as if you were looking at a star nursery through a wilderness of gas and dust—brilliant explosions here, the cracking of moon ice there, the dark drones of deep space everywhere. Seen was released in 2001.

In 2007, International Observer released Heard, which is a more layered recording—more trumpets, more percussions, more riddims. Seen is only better because it’s light on the layers and heavy on the dub effects.

What do we learn from Bailey? This is how you end a sunny career in pop: in the twilight of dub.

Remember Microsoft’s plans to release a Joy Division-themed Zune?

Well, it’s done.

Today Microsoft Corp. announced that a limited-edition Zune digital media player designed by Peter Saville will be made available to commemorate the DVD release of “Joy Division,” the critically acclaimed documentary. The film will come pre-loaded on a custom black Zune 80 player that is etched with an adaptation of Saville’s iconic artwork from Joy Division’s “Unknown Pleasures” album. Five hundred limited-edition players will be available for purchase June 17 for $399.99. In addition, Zune Marketplace will feature exclusive outtakes from the DVD.

by puddletownphoto

Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris was consulted backstage at White River Amphitheatre:

What do you think about when you play?
Harris: Mostly I think of the ocean and running water.

But what about all your scary artwork and the gore? You don’t think about war?
Yeah, you’d think I would be thinking about battle scenes and that sort of thing, but no, I mostly think about water. The backdrop during “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” makes us look like we’re playing on the back of a ship and there are creaking ship noises, so it’s easy for me to get lost in the oceanic motif. You know the Zeppelin song “The Ocean”? That’s about the crowd.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever thought about while you were playing?
Butterscotch candy. At a show in Los Angeles a few years back, I had a butterscotch cough drop in my mouth. For some reason, maybe it was the cold medicine, I imagined the crowd was a bunch of butterscotch candies.

Radio Slave, Quiet Village at Nectar
Radio Slave is the higher-profile alias of British DJ/producer Matt Edwards, who is also one-half of Quiet Village. The shrewd double-booking means lower overhead for Nectar, but should also make for a stellar show, contrasting Radio Slave’s minimalist remixes and populist reedits against Quiet Village’s hazy disco-touched ambiences, which sound like club music as heard from outside the club, muffled and floating on some warm breeze. With Nordic Soul. (Nectar, 412 N 36th St, 632-2020. 9 pm, $10, 21+.) by Eric Grandy

Click here to listen to Radio Slave.

Supermassive, Furniture Girls, Blue Light Curtain
(Chop Suey) Blue Light Curtain takes Velvet Underground’s drone and makes it their own, it’s application in the finest fashion. The drone is there in its impending and tension-building presence, but it’s met with a shoegazed drift and a Korg drum machine. In “Let’s Run” a distorted kick and snare drum pound with starts and stops of guitars then recede for vocals. Paul Groth sings, “The time has come for me to run as far away as I can.” It’s hollow and distilled. His-and-her harmonies couple and evenly glide, minor chords rhythmically strum. The song grows until the end, where all is gone but the distorted kick and snare you started with. The song returns, having traveled a great distance. TRENT MOORMAN

Blue Light Curtain:
“Sleeping”

“We’ve Seen it All Before”

^{Photo by Renee McMahon}

Jaguar Love, Nazca Lines, Das Llamas
(Neumo’s) It may take a while for Jaguar Love to escape the shadow of their previous projects, Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves. No new band wants to be weighed solely against their past endeavors, but no band exists in a vacuum either. In the case of Jaguar Love, they’ve certainly kept their former bands’ knack for quirky high-energy songwriting—the Blood Brothers’ campy nihilism and Burroughs-inspired lyricism are still present, as is Pretty Girls’ aggressive angularities. Jaguar Love, however, seem geared more toward both bands’ pop leanings than their edgy and dangerous attributes. While they might not whip you into the same frenzy of their earlier projects, their sharpened melodies are infectious on an entirely new level. BRIAN COOK

Jaguar Love:
“Bats Over the Pacific Ocean”

If you were bummed you missed your opportunity to score tickets to Moby’s upcoming DJ set at Neumos, have no fear, the venue has been changed to the Showbox. This means loads of tickets are now available.

Hold tight……GO!

^{Photo by Ryan Russell}

Listen to “Great White Bull” from the upcoming album Jersey Shores.

by cloverity

A buddy asked me last night, “You listen to the new Weezer album?”

“God no.”

“Yeah, probably for the best.”

I don’t know why I keep letting this band make me angry. I haven’t liked anything they’ve done for a fucking decade now - after hearing the few tracks that leaked early from the Red Album I refused to listen to the rest. Then I see the headline “Tay Zonday and Weezer,” and I know nothing good can possibly come from it. But I watch it anyway, and get so frustrated I want to crash a motorboat into a helicopter. Is there something meta about the Weezer/Internet Turd mash-up that I’m missing here? Is it like, “Look at all the people who got famous who shouldn’t have! Look at us, we’re still famous and we shouldn’t be! Now we’re a turd team!” The joke was pretty funny when South Park used it to represent “theoretical internet dollars” concerning the writer’s strike. But for Weezer it’s like they’re purposefully attempting to associate themselves with flash-in-the-pan entertainment that will never be relevant or worthwhile again (if it ever was in the first place). Neither one will go away fast enough.

Weezer Weezer (aka Red Album)

A “my first listen” review to come later this afternoon. For now, enjoy the first single (which has been posted on Line Out before), “Pork and Beans.”

Ladytron Velocifero

Here’s what Eric Grandy had to say about the new album in last week’s U&C section (when the band came to town, playing the Showbox):

Ladytron’s forthcoming album, Velocifero, delivers more of what you’ve come to expect from these impeccably coiffed electro rockers post Light & Magic: Perfectly polished shoe-shopping music that doesn’t always manage to follow you out of the Urban Outfitters. That’s fine—people need shoes, after all—and the album’s handful of superior songs, like the lilting (and appropriately haunting) “Ghosts” or the Depeche Mode–meets–Add N to (X) analog machinations of “Black Cat” or the dark, looming “Predict the Day,” pleasantly recall the band’s earlier highs.

Ladytron - “Ghosts”:

Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes finally follow up their debut Sun Giant EP with their much anticipated full-length (out on Sub Pop). They’re probably going to be really famous. Fleet Foxes play Sub Pop 20th anniversary show Saturday, July 12 at Marymoor Park.

Fleet Foxes - “White Winter Hymnal”

Shearwater Rook

Sam Machkovech gave the album a three-and-a-half star review in this week’s paper. And excerpt:

…the band’s fifth LP finds them setting sail from their Southern-gothic folk-rock approach and lapping at European shores with the gentle ebbs of a tide. If the opening song’s any indication, running aground wasn’t so quaint: “As the splinter flies apart, to your bow, to the biggest wave/but your angel’s on holiday/and that wave rises slowly and breaks,” Meiburg weeps in his striking falsetto, before the song imitates the crash, harp and horns and strings and feedback and wooden bits of ship all asunder.

After that, the record flows like water over rocks, moonlight gleaming on the surface (like the sound of tinkling xylophone above a cushion of cellos in “Leviathan, Bound”), without abrupt starts or stops. It’s Shearwater’s first full departure from folk songwriting roots—even memorable rockers like “Rooks” and “The Snow Leopard” avoid choruses and central repetition, allowing the band’s most lush instrumentation yet to warble on, building momentum like a classical arrangement.

Shearwater - “Rooks”

Visit Pause & Play to see what else is in stores today, like the new “Journey” record, Kaskade, and Subtle.

Man and his (or her) cymbals have had a solid and sound relationship since the Zildjian family started making them in Turkey around 1600. Our ears have been blessed ever since. The cymbal is that explosion when you need an explosion. It’s the tightly accented bell when you need a tightly accented bell. The cymbal’s symbol means power and strength or if played with touch, it’s a lightly blowing breeze.

Some drummers take this cymbalism too far. They feel the need to cover their kit with an inordinate amount of bronze, brass, and copper. They mount up so many cymbals, there’s no way they can use them all.

At some point, it becomes symbolic. The more cymbals, the tougher the drummer.

Carl Jung says the symbol is a thing that represents another. The dove means peace. It’s the external, or lower expression of the higher truth which is symbolized, and is a means of communicating realities which might otherwise be obscured by the limitations of language.

But fuck that. Sometimes you need that fourth crash cymbal, and it’s not because you’re insecure.

When you are Neil Peart and your drum set is half a mile wide, you need cymbals all over. When you’re playing on the right side of the kit, it’s impossible to hit that crash cymbal to your left. See?

I’m back from my amazing trip from London and Paris. This was my first trip out of the country and it was interesting to see the difference in what people are listening to and purchasing. I found that even though vinyl is still a dying breed, even in Europe, it still thrives in comparison to the states, at least in the two areas I visited. I became immediately excited by how much people were into dance music and disco/italo in particular. Every record store, big or small, seem to have a disco section, seperate from funk and soul, full of classics and rarities. It was nice to see an area that really embraces the music I love and promote so much. Out of all the record stores, that successfully broke my wallet, my favorite spots were Vinyl Junkies in London and Croco Discs in Paris. Both had stacks and stacks of amazing records including House, Techno, Funk, Soul, Disco, and as well as some of the best world music selections that I’ve ever seen.

One of my favorite purchases on my trip was Motown Sounds 1978 LP Space Dance. I’ve always been a huge fan of the album cut, “Bad Mouthin”, however after listening to the whole record, I realized that this is more than a “one-hit wonder” disco record. With solid funky cosmic disco cuts like “Space Dance”, “Groove Time”, and “Rich Love, Poor Love”, Space Dance is a solid record. This record is also very different than what you would normally find on most Motown Records releases with the record having a very space or cosmic disco feel to it. Overall, it was a nice find in a disco goldmine that was my London and Paris trip.

Motown Sounds - Bad Mouthin’

Here you will hear a recent techno mix generated by the great Claude Young. Vienna (the wine city) is the setting for the mix, and it runs for over two hours. I listened to most of it last night and found it to have several dazzling moments, several enigmatic moments, and several deep moments.

Strut is one of the labels I’ve been following pretty closely over the past couple of years. You’ve probably seen the Disco Not Disco compilations, or possibly the incredible Block Party Breaks compilation which beautifully packages the vibe of the pre-hip-hop soul and disco era, with its impeccable curation of tunes and precisely written liner notes (with lots of pics! Which always makes comps like those worth every penny.)

For a while Strut was a self contained label, releasing its own comps by DJ greats like Danny Krivit and Ashley Beedle, often releasing those comps of hard-to-find classics on freshly minted vinyl, a hat tip to the many DJ’s that collected their records, voraciously devouring them, ingesting them and playing them out for the masses. Strut was a big player behind the scene of the Disco resurgence in the last few years.

Unfortunately, Strut couldn’t figure out how to keep releasing great value comps in the diminishing record business. So with little fanfare they closed up shop in 2003. Sadness.

Thanks can be given to German label group K7! who recently revived the boutique collectors label with a flurry of fantastic new compilations. Word to the wise, though. These comps seem to fall out of print VERY quickly. In fact, the below Kid Creole comp is already out of print and unavailable, so if you see a copy in a local record store (they are scattered throughout the city, I’ve checked!), pick them up!

The best of the new bunch starts with Going Places: The August Darnell Years, 1975-1983. August Darnell’s checkered past has him starting out in Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, where his brother Stoney Bowden, the bubbly band leader, vibe-man Andy Hernandez (aka Coati Mundi),and Cory Daye, the woman with the most effervescent singing voice in the late disco era, created some of the smartest most provacative music of the ‘70’s. Though the confines of the Big-Band/Disco group forced Darnell and Hernandez to search out ways of making bigger contributions to music history on their own.

With Michael Zilkha, owner of ZE records, Darnell began a string of productions that would be the foundation for much of what ZE became known for, including Kid Creole And The Coconuts.

This is not a “greatest hits” its more of a representation of the work that August Darnell put into these various artists, and the variety of sounds he got: from the post punk “Is That All There Is?” by Christina (which caused writers Leiber and Stoller no end of consternation), and the showtune disco of Don Armonado’s 2nd Ave. Rhumba Band and their hard-to-find cover of Irving Berlin’s “I’m An Indian Too”, to subversive Kid Creole classics like “He’s Not Such A Bad Guy After All”.

Full of great photos from the New York post-punk era, the only thing that bothers me about the compilation is the breathless essay by critic, Vivien Goldman, whose evocation of period throws actual history out the door, and makes Darnell’s past a flurry of confusing set points.

Outside that minor detail, this is a fantastic compilation. One every ex-punk who finds themselves tapping their feet to the sounds of M.I.A. or Ella Fitzgerald can get into.

Continuing with the newest compilation on Strut, Disco Italia: Essential Italo Disco Classics, 1977-1985. Compiled by Steve Kotey of Bear Entertainment (purveyors of Bear Funk Records) with sleeve notes by Bill Brewster of Djhistory.com this collection provides the opposite, a mixed bag of selections with killer sleeve notes.

Here we’re given gems, most for the first time available on CD - EVER! Claudio Simonnetti’s Kasso makes an appearance (although with the minor hit “Brazilian Dancer”) as does D.D. Sound (aka the Biondi Bros.) and Easy Going (another Simonnetti project, though once again, the less influential “Do It Again” is chosen). Even with those minor slips we’re given Five Letters “Tha Kee Tha Tha” for CD debut with the most incredible bass-line and brass fanfares. And what compilation of Italo Disco would be complete with out a track by Kano (my fave, “Now Baby Now”, which still is one of his lesser hits)?

A virtual goldmine, which could have been better with less obscure choices, but non the less gives you the essential feeling of “melody” that was so present in Italo Disco and what gave the genre its popularity in Europe as Disco started to wain here in the states. And with tracks like the Kano selection and “Tina Are You Ready” by Valentine, the connection to early house music is cemented in audio form.

One word about both these comps: iTunes.

Both are available on iTunes, but in edited formats. The Disco Italia is missing 5 tracks by the most influential names (so no Kasso, Easy Going, Kano or D.D. Sound or Firefly), but added on is the rare Gepy And Gepy track “African Love Song” (a favorite of TJ’s).

The Kid Creole download is missing Dr. Buzzard’s “Sunshower” and “There But For The Grace Of God Go I” by Machine.

One more thing: in a nod to its past Strut has released a limited 12” of 3 of the tracks on the Disco Italia compilation. It is already sold out and going for a premium in Europe, but there are at least four copies in Seattle. 3 at Easy Street on Queen Anne and 1 at Sonic Boom. So if you’re a fan of Italo, and a vinyl junky, invest today.

Did you miss the Raconeurs at Neumo’s about a month ago? Well now you have another chance to see them… at WaMu Theater.

THE RACONTEURS
With Special Guests The Kills
Friday, Sept. 19th
8:00 PM Showtime I 6:30 PM doors

Tickets are $35 and go on sale via Ticketmaster this Friday, June 6, at 10 am.

Dethklok - “Meaning of Life”

Metalocalypse: Dethklok, Chimaira
(Showbox Sodo) Everything about Dethklok is perfectly metal—the impenetrable fortress they live in, their underwater recording studio, sweep-picking ring tones, foot-pedal TV remotes. Fans are accidentally killed or mutilated at their live shows by molten lava, berserk killing machines, or giant mythical beasts. The band are their world’s 12th largest economy—international recessions are based on their record releases; civilization literally depends on Dethklok being metal. The bandmates are brilliantly typecast: two Scandinavian guitarists; a slow, hulking singer; an ugly, bad-tempered bass player; and a drunken, Midwestern drummer. The songs gallop with double bass and harmonized guitar solos, with themes like mermaid murder (“Murmaider”) and being electrocuted in blood (“Bloodrocuted”). Now, through creator/guitarist Brendon Small, Dethklok are a real band playing real shows, and though they may not actually be the greatest metal band in the world, it’s fun to play along. JEFF KIRBY

Firewater - “Hey Clown” (Live)

Firewater, the Bad Things, Conrad Ford
(Chop Suey) Aging indie rocker ditches everything and goes on a three-year trek to India, Pakistan, Turkey, and Israel, recording as he goes—if that sounds like a disastrous midlife crisis (and a cringe-worthy album waiting to materialize), then you’re obviously not familiar with Tod A., the driving force behind Firewater. The Golden Hour takes Firewater’s gypsy-punk carnival and adds Middle Eastern flourishes to a broader worldview, skewering politics and personal demons along the way. Its author doesn’t seem to have had a spiritual awakening so much as a creative one; this record is so lively and rambunctious it makes you want to run away and join Firewater’s multicultural circus on the spot. With a touring band that includes members of Skeleton Key, Balkan Beat Box, and the Lounge Lizards, it’ll be hard to resist that urge. BARBARA MITCHELL

There’s more—check our online listings for everything going on around town.

The pigs vs. the pig: OiNK users detained by police

Say it ain’t so!: Spiritualized opening for Lenny Kravitz

I just love your brains: New N.E.R.D. album out June 10

The sequel to Rockstar will not star Mark Wahlberg: Boston discovers new singer through YouTube karaoke

Good news during summer gas prices: Neil Young subsidizing research on an electric car

Destined to be more interesting than the originals: Genghis Tron snag some impressive names for remix project

The Sonics with Special Guests
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2008
8:00 p.m. | Reserved Seating | All Ages
THE PARAMOUNT THEATRE

Kurt Cobain-themed Converse sneakers, illustrated with snippets of his journals.

Last week, because I got sick of hitting ‘skip’ when my iPod was set to shuffle, I erased every last Nirvana song from my iTunes. I was a big fan, back in the day, and I knew every note of every song. That’s why I can’t listen to it anymore; it’s not entertaining, it’s not enlightening. There’s nothing new that I can scavenge from it. Less than a week later, here are these shoes. This seems like a sign that I did the right thing.

Fleet Foxes are one of the bands on the front page of Myspace right now, their new album streaming in its entirety to internet trolls around the world. Needless to say, their profile is filling up with comments every day. Here are some highlights:

Corey sez:

This sounds reminiscent of the 60’s, a little 90’s Rusted Root vibe, but unique all it’s own…I dig it!

Craig The Unholy™ sez:

Hey, thanks for being my friend. Please read my poetry in my blog and comment and/or subscribe. Also, if you want me to do anything for you let me know :)

helix nebula. sez:

I really, really, really hate this band.

I want to know what Craig The Unholy™ thinks Fleet Foxes would want him to do for them. Get them ice cream? Return their videos to Blockbuster? Be best fwiends?

Just announced, the Cave Singers are headlining this last minute show to raise awareness and rally voters for Gov. Gregoire in the upcoming election:

06.06 Friday Neumos Presents Oh Christine
CAVE SINGERS serenade Gov. Gregoire
Special Guests
Telekinesis! And Toy Gun
$15 adv.
8 pm doors

Buy tickets here.

Register to vote (in Washington State) here.

Watch the video for the Cave Singers’ “Dancing on our Graves,” here:

Joan of Arc, 31 Knots @ the Vera Project

You ever have that thing happen where you’re in a bathroom alone, peeing, thinking about Tim Kinsella, and then all a sudden Tim Kinsella walks through the door?

Weird.

Joan of Arc had pretty much the best t-shirt design I’ve seen all year. Green or gray, featuring a semi-retarded drawing by Tim of the greatest fictional vigilante since the Bat Man, Omar Little. Tim sang in tune real well all set. He had an unpredictable gleam in his eye, one where you couldn’t tell if he was going to start laughing uncontrollably or break chairs. They played a set that spanned their last several albums, but they left out most of my favorite jams like “Fleshy Jeffrey” off Joan of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain and “A Tell-Tale Penis” off Boo Human. At one tuning break Tim tried to lead everyone in a timed deep-breathing exercise. Once he realized he couldn’t lead the crowd and tune at the same time he pulled up someone from the audience who was steadfast in his dedication to everyone inhaling and exhaling at the same time. By the third interval Tim decided he was just going to start hyperventilating instead.

It was pretty hard for anything to top 31 Knots’ set last night. They killed it. I’m still not completely sold on newer tracks where a sampler replaces the bass and Joe Haege abandons his guitar to focus on singing and flailing around, but you can’t really blame them for wanting to switch up their style after being a band for as long as they have. Playing an entire set of math rock riffs has got to eventually get tedious - I guess Hague decided he wanted the focus to be on his body spasms now, not his fingers. They played an excellent new song titled “The Brakes” where they were able to perfectly use samples as well as keep the live bass, and they did a flawless version of my favorite track “Chain Reaction” off Talk Like Blood, though that one wasn’t much of a surprise as it’s a staple of their set due to its undeniable awesomeness (the version in this video is actually pretty sloppy, though):

31 Knots release their new record Worried Well on August 19th.

^{Joan of Arc (not pictured: Joshua Powell’s tacos)}

Joan of Arc, Henari Nation @ the Vera Project

“There’s lots of ways to spend your time, if you believe that time is something that can be spent,” said Tim Kinsella by way of introducing Joan of Arc last night to a not-too-crowded Vera Project. “We only ask that you do whatever you want. Stay if you wanna stay. Leave if you wanna leave.” He added, “Isn’t it weird, everything?” (It wasn’t that weird.)

This iteration of the band was a five piece, with Kinsella on guitar and vocals, backed by bass, another guitar, drums, and keys/percussion. They played mostly songs from the new record, Boo Human, and they played them well, sounding, you know, more or less like the album versions, guitars timid then electric, rhythms and timings odd but tight, keys lighting up the edges. But they didn’t play either of my favorite songs from the new album, “A Tell-Tale Penis” or “So-and-So.” Oh well. They did play the pretty stunning “Vine on a Wire.” They also played only one much older song, “When The Parish School Dismisses And The Children Running Sing” from 1999’s Live in Chicago. I realized that, casual fan of the band that I am, they have a lot of material I’m just not that familiar with. They played “Eventually All At Once” and “Many Times I’ve Mistaken,” although I only recognize them in hindsight. There were other songs I didn’t know. At one point, Kinsella, with some help from an audience member, led the crowd in an absurd synchronized breathing exercise, which caused someone to shout, “Less breathing, more rock!”, which is just awesome. At the end of the set, Kinsella told us to “live long and prosper.”

Local act Henari Nation opened. Henari Nation is one skinny, heavily-tattooed bike-punk-looking guy named Ian, playing an Akai MPC sampler and a Walkman, rapping and talking through a fuzzy microphone, dancing backwards like he was a midget in the Black Lodge, and occasionally handing out Fig Newtons to the audience. (Joan of Arc’s Tim Kinsella convinced me to stay to check out his set, rather than go get dinner, by saying this Ian character was an excellent elocutor, who spoke in a kind of Old Testament/hip hop dialect.) Some songs were poorly synchronized jumbles of beats, to which Ian would nod his head off-time or jerk his limbs and spar with some imaginary fencer; some songs were weird lounge numbers (the backwards dancing); some were pretty obviously anticon-influenced abstract spoken word glitchy post-hop. One song featured the lines, “If you’re passionate about photography / you should do it / and if you want to build a green house and start a commune / you should do it.” Another song was “inspired from” the giant boulder scene in “Indiana Jones and the Lost Temple of Doom.” During his last song, Ian twice suddenly, seemingly randomly killed the sound—the first time, there was only awkward silence; the second time, there was a baby crying.

For those keeping track, here’s the day-by-day, stage-by-stage break down of the 2008 Block Party. Recently added: Fleet Foxes, Menomena, the Cave Singers, Throw Me the Statue, Jaguar Love, Airborne Toxic Event, and Schoolyard Heroes.

The Main Stage and the Vera Stage are all-ages. Neumo’s and King Cobra are 21+, first come first serve admittance.

THE CAPITOL HILL BLOCK PARTY SCHEDULE FOR 2008

Friday July 25

MAIN STAGE
Vampire Weekend
Les Savy Fav
Girl Talk
U.S.E

NEUMOS
SING SING after party feat: DJs Pretty Titty and Four Color Zack
Jay Reatard
The Dodos
Thee Emergency
Past Lives
Black Eyes and Neck Ties

VERA STAGE
Say Hi
Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head
PWRFL Power
Black Elk
Talbot Tagora

KING COBRA
Lesbian
The Heavy Hearts
Pleasureboaters
Black Whale
Airborne Toxic Event
Truckasaurus
Champagne Champagne

Saturday July 26

MAIN STAGE
DeVotchKa
The Hold Steady
Chromeo
Menomena
Kimya Dawson
The Cave Singers
Kay Kay And His Weathered Underground

NEUMOS
SING SING after party feat: DJ’s Pretty Titty, Four Color Zack plus special guests.
Fleet Foxes
Throw Me The Statue
Jaguar Love
Darker My Love
The Butchers And The Builders
The Hands

VERA STAGE
Schoolyard Heroes
Akimbo
Grand Ole Party
The Physics
Man Plus
Little Party And The Bad Business

KING COBRA
Zeke
Book Of Black Earth
Feral Children
The Loved Ones
New Faces
Angelo Spencer

Buy tickets and get more info on the festival at www.thestranger.com/blockparty.

Oh, boy. If you missed the Wilders show at the Tractor that I Suggested for Saturday night, then I’m sorry for you my friend. It was a two-hour-plus dance party. The Wilders are officially my favorite band to see live (and, wonderfully, also one of my favorites to listen to at home). You wouldn’t think a country band could simply rock so hard, but they play country with rock ’n’ roll spirit. Fast, loud, hard… but happier. So, so good.

Fiddler Betse was amazing, and so talented. I can’t believe how hard she gets down on that fiddle. And let’s talk about the Dobro/mandolin/banjo player: First, who doesn’t love a multi-instrumentalist, but with those three particular instruments? God damn. At one point, he put away his slide and picked up a beer bottle, and played his Dobro with it, then proceeded to rock so hard that he whacked his Dobro with the beer bottle. Swoon! How much more can a country band rock? And that stand-up bassist: so tight (um, not tight like, “that’s tight, bro”). And of course there’s the lead man, Ike, who really knows how to wail and keep a crowd happy. They played mostly fast, danceable tunes, but added some slow songs here and there so we could all catch our breath. I requested a song (the gospel tune “Fourth Man in the Fire); they played it! They mingled around the crowd between sets; they’re all so nice! They seem like they’re truly happy to be playing together and having a hell of a good time doing so. They’re just perfect. I have no pictures from the show to offer you, so how about this from their website to give you an idea.

Oh, and the openers, the Gallus Brothers from Bellingham, were also amazing. One guy plays guitar (and has the looks/style of the mayor of a small, Old West town); the other guy plays spoons, forks, bones, various small metal objects. And they do acrobatic balancing acts while they play. Total vaudeville. (My boyfriend and I attempted some of their balancing acts the next day at home: not successful.) They apparently play often at the Can Can. You should probably check them out.

The Wilders play tomorrow night at Dante’s in Portland.

Who is next? Little Richard? Chuck Berry…or the better question might be…who is left?

I’m seriously heartbroken. As a kid I’d dance and sing endlessly to and with Bo… “Bring To Jerome” was my fave Bo song, my fave of Bo’s albums is Gunslinger, for “Drive On Josephine”… I’d replace my mom’s name for Joespehine and sing it to her! Then later when I began getting earfuls of the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, there he was again… and even later when I heard the Gories… um, wait, I dunno where I’m even going with this. This SUCKS, I can’t believe he’s gone… it’s like one of my uncle’s died.

Iron Maiden at the White River Amphitheatre - tonight! You better leave now to beat the traffic.

Iron Maiden has commissioned and converted a Boeing 757 for their current tour. The band, the gear, the massive stage set up, and the crew of 60 all fly together. The arrangement has enabled Maiden to tour on an unprecedented schedule. No separate flights and shipment of the crew and equipment. It’s cost effective and they say less of an impact on the environment.

The best part is that Maiden singer (and fencing champion) Bruce Dickinson, a licensed Astraeus pilot, flies the plane himself. He sings the show then flies the plane, which they call “Ed Force One.” That’s right, he severs the devil’s head, then operates a jumbo jet.

Check it:

I’ve stumbled into Monday morning feeling like the weekend was too short and too grey. My listening sessions included some of my favorite albums from the early 90s (Ultra Vivid Scene + Saint Etienne) and this classic from the 80s. Now that the clouds are breaking up and the sun starting to hurt my eyes, I feel the need to highlight this classic video featuring Donald Sutherland.

‘I just know that something good is gonna happen’

RIP: Bo Diddley dies at 79

Glasgow strikes back: Mogwai announce new records, tours, collaborations

Maybe he’ll turn up at SP20: Kurt Cobain’s ashes stolen

Tragedy upon tragedy: My Chemical Romance fans stage Daily Mail protest

The past vs. the future: Prince blocks his Radiohead cover from YouTube

The tragedy of the comments: Fear Before The March Of Flames recording next album in Seattle

Pitchfork unearthed this Microphones video made from the 2003 Mount Eerie EP, and though it’s not the greatest clip in the world, it is an excuse to post one of the best songs Phil Elverum ever put out:

In this week’s Stranger, I review Joan of Arc’s latest album, Boo Human:

For Joan of Arc’s 11th studio album, Tim Kinsella booked a week of studio time with some songs in mind and posted a signup sheet for his many musical collaborators to come and go as their availability allowed. It’s hardly the band’s first dabbling in oblique recording strategies—previous experiments have included an album featuring one single uninterrupted piece of music (The Gap) and an album of guitar duets arranged by drawing names from a hat (Guitar Duets).

Scheduling shifts sounds like a setup for alienated labor and a scattered, workmanlike record. But sonically, Boo Human is as cohesive as any Joan of Arc record —take that as you will—dominated by acoustic or gently electric guitars and Kinsella’s great, grating voice but accented with drums, studio effects, and the occasional odd instrument. Lyrically, it’s as densely tangled as anything the prolific Kinsella has written. Some familiar obsessions show up. “9/11 2” deploys war-on-terror terminology as personal dread (see also In Rape Fantasy and Terror Sex We Trust and Joan of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain); “Insects Don’t Eat Bananas” frames existential angst as tension between science and religion—man is an insect, man is a monkey, god is either a figment or a bug- squashing brat (see also The Intelligent Design of…).

Another theme emerges throughout the album, though: a fascination with those areas that are unexamined, and maybe ultimately unknowable, in ourselves and others. The album-closing solo acoustic number “So-and-So” is a terribly touching riff on anonymity in relationships, the impossibility of really knowing someone, and the inevitability of forgetting (“I’ll see you on the street sometime, So-and-So/introduce you to my new So-and-So”). “A Tell-Tale Penis” is deeper than its goofy Poe-biting title might suggest, simultaneously morbid and hopeful, romantic and base, circling around several times before getting to the meat of the matter (“You can end things with your boyfriend/I’ll quit chasing you around/but how long will the echo of the tell-tale penis sound?”). That song’s lyric about its subject giving in to “her most unlit corners too soon” echoes the refrain of opening song “Shown and Told”: “There are corners of your own home that you’ve never noticed before.” Boo Human is full of such dark corners, all well worth exploring.

What I forgot to mention, or failed to notice, while reviewing the album, was that, while the closing refrain of the song “So-and-So” is still very much about the things listed above, its first half is also very much about the dissolution of a specific romantic relationship. I guess the break-up part seems like such well-worn territory that it’s easy to kind of not even notice next to the song’s subtler sentiments, but it’s definitely there.

Also also: I don’t imagine they’re taking requests tonight, but I’d really love to hear “Post Coitus Rock” live.

Joan of Arc play Sun June 1, Vera Project, 7:30 pm, $10, all ages. With 31Knots, Henari Nannon, Alaskas.