Tuesday, February 3, 2009
??!! / Business Most Unexpected Passage in a Press Release Today
Posted by Dave Segal on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 4:47 PM
From those avant-gardians at Gallery 1412:
Citing such wide-ranging influences as György Ligeti, Meshuggah, Beck, Ben Monder and even Toto, Speak has crafted a truly distinct sound. Although the song "Rosanna" is not part of Speak's usual repertoire, any audience member can rest assured knowing that Speak will meet them all the way.
Bars / Photo / Upcoming A Peek Inside the Crocodile
Posted by Eric Grandy on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 2:38 PM
Last week, a familiar but lately uncommon scene was unfolding in Belltown. A van was pulled up outside the iconic Crocodile Café, and a band was loading their gear into the club.
The Crocodile, of course, abruptly closed in late 2007. Not long after, a cryptic website was launched for the club which featured nothing more than a dictionary definition of “elitism.” In September ‘08, the club’s new ownership officially announced plans to reopen in January or Februaury ’09, with Eli Anderson as talent buyer, Roy Atizado as director of live entertainment, and Jim Anderson helping with sound.
The band loading in last week was Ships, and they were at the still-under-construction Crocodile to film a performance amidst the rubble and renovation as part of a series that will appear on the Croc’s forthcoming website, kind of like a reverse Burn to Shine, where afterwards the building gets raised rather than razed (other bands that have performed for the series include the Moondoggies, Throw Me the Statue, and Black Whales).
While Ships were setting up and sound-checking in a gravel pit under the wooden skeleton of a stairway, Anderson and Atizado gave a tour of the site.
More photos by Kelly O after the jump.
Last Night Obits, Coconut Coolouts, and Unnatural Helpers
Posted by Grant Brissey on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 2:31 PM
In a move that surprised absolutely no one, Obits totally killed it at "Fen's Party Palace" last night. Rick Froberg and crew were tight from the get go, despite an early broken bass string, and it felt like seeing the Hot Snakes again (Unfortunately, I never saw Drive Like Jehu). The new material was every bit as promising as last year's One Cross Apiece 7-inch, the title track of which was a highlight of the show. The new album, I Blame You, is due out on March 23, and is sure to be absolutely ridiculous.
Also great were Unnatural Helpers, who've gone through some lineup changes since I've last seen them. They, too sounded, well, tight. I look forward to hearing more from them. They play next at the Funhouse on Friday. Go see it, or you'll miss out on their recharged smart-ass rock, as well as AFGCT, who Dave Segal wrote this about:
AFCGT, PWRFL Power, Linda and Ron's Dad
(Neumos), On their self-titled 180-gram white-vinyl LP for Uzu Audio, Seattle supergroup AFCGT (A Frames + Climax Golden Twins) create a species of antisocial rock that aspires to freedom through a coiled fury. The 10 songs here radiate a rancorous cacophony—thanks largely to at least three scabrous, wiry guitars—that often bleeds into the red, on more than one level. The quintet harbor a no-wave-like disregard for clean production values and conventionally "pretty" melody and the Fall and Flipper's roughshod repetitiveness figures heavily. I don't hear any hit singles. Linda and Ron's Dad favor rugged and playful funk productions tailor-made for adventurous MCs to rap over. PWRFL Power writes whimsical outsider pop songs that inspire mad love and vicious hate in equal measure. DAVE SEGAL
Here is the rest of Obits:
Bassist Greg Simpson and singer/guitarist Sohrab Habibion, formerly of Edsel.
Obits drummer Scott Gursky. All photos by me
News Ruminant to Grow: Introducing White Antelope
Posted by Dave Segal on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 1:47 PM
It’s come to our attention via Pitchfork that Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold has two new(ish) songs up on the MySpace under the alias White Antelope.
"False Knight on the Road” is a delicate, solemn ballad that sounds ancient, possibly from the 18th century, but was probably composed last month. "Guitar Duet” is a beautiful folk miniature. These stripped-down, well-crafted pieces represent no radical departure from the Fleet Foxes signature sound and should please the band’s ever-expanding fan base.
I put in a query to Pecknold to try to gather more insight.
UPDATE: Robin Pecknold thoroughly elaborates:
"'False Knight on the Road' is an old ballad from the Francis Child English/Scottish traditionals songbook that I first head on the Maddy Prior/Tim Hart record Summer Solstice. All I really did was change the 'tis' and 'methinks' to 'it's' and 'I think' and arrange an open tuning guitar part. Stroke of genius I know.
"The 'Guitar Duet' was a song that I wrote just so I could listen to it, the same way one would make food for themselves or put together a chair to sit in or something. That sounds pretentious but I was into the idea of making music that only you would listen to or where that's the intention from the beginning.
"This isn't really a 'project' in the sense of signing to a label and making records and doing interviews and shows and stuff... It will probably be just a myspace page for instrumental acoustic guitar stuff as I learn more about that Robbie Basho-type playing, and covers of old songs I like... pretty low investment. If I get enough 12-string guitar songs together with some covers I could put something out in some limited form maybe, but only if it sounds different enough from the full band to validate two things. Which I guess if it was just 12-string guitar the whole time it would. Hrmm.
"What's weird is that page has been up for like two years."
Pecknold recorded "False Knight" about two weeks ago and the "Guitar Duet" last spring. Now you know.
New Releases Street Dating: The First Listen Edition
Posted by Travis Ritter on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 1:17 PM
Today, I have a stack of CDs I haven't listened to prior to right now. I might love it, I might hate it. First impressions can be very interesting. Here are some of the new releases for Tuesday, February 3, 2009.
P.O.S. - Never Better
CD (Rhymesayers)
An intricately packaged album that draws attention to itself, Never Better, the latest from the young, black, masterful, flash quick spitter P.O.S., really deserves the spotlight for what's within - beats that snap and trap and entangle you in punchy, timely, motor-mouthed lyricism. On the record, P.O.S. did a lot of shit on his own, but his real aim is to unite and take back, arms linked together, fists up. Wow. I'm digging it. File under Heavy Rotation.
P.O.S. will perform live on Friday, Feb. 6 at Nectar.
Zombi - Spirit Animal
CD/LP (Relapse)
Prog is not a four letter word for Zombi. As one who first heard the band live, I urge anyone to make it their first priority to see this band live first. The Pittsburgh duo are an amazing live act, switching between a multitude of guitars and synths and drums, as the songs journey through light and dark, real and imaginary, epically. Fans of John Carpenter and other soundtrackers of that ilk might enjoy the keyboards, and King Crimson fans will surely have their minds melted by the technicalities of such a complex record. With five songs falling in just under an hour, I kind of wish I had some weed to get me beyond the first two cuts (the eight-minute second track, "Spirit Animal," is siiiiiiiiiicccccckkkk!).
Heartless Bastards - The Mountain
CD (Fat Possum)
I had friends down in Texas who were crazy about Heartless Bastards a few years ago. This sounds nothing like that band, at least from what I'm hearing. I don't remember them sounding some slick hybrid of Black Keys and Two Gallants and White Stripes. Maybe they always have been? Maybe I should be drunk? The Mountain doesn't do anything for me, but it will do wonders for a lot of people out there.
Marco Benevento - Me Not Me
CD (Royal Potato Family)
Pianist Marco Benevento, one half of the funky jazzniks Benevento-Russo duo, is back with another solo record, that is playful and charming. Seattle's own Matt Chamberlain plays drums on half the tracks (Andrew Barr on the other half), alongside bassist Reed Mathis and Benevento, who not only plays piano, but clavinet, tack piano, mellotron, and the fantastically quirky and unpredictable Optigan! This is certainly a hard-to-classify record.
Also out today: Ben Kweller Changing Horses, The Von Bondies Love Hate And Then Theres You, Dent May and his Magnificent Ukelele, Fatboy Slim's new The BPA project, and Eno and David Byrne's ...Bush Of Ghosts gets a fancy new LP reissue.
News / On Tour Natalie Portman's Shaved Head to Tour with Lily Allen
Posted by Eric Grandy on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 1:01 PM
Baffling, but good for them:
NATALIE PORTMAN’S SHAVED HEAD LANDS OPENING SLOT ON LILY ALLEN U.S. TOUR DATES BEGIN ON APRIL 1Band Makes SXSW Debut in 2009
New York, NY — Seattle’s own Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head (NPSH) will hit the road as special guests on the upcoming Lily Allen US tour this spring. The party caravan starts April 1 in San Diego, CA and includes stops in Los Angeles, the band’s hometown of Seattle, and NYC. (complete
tour itinerary below). NPSH will also hit up select cities along the Lily Allen tour with headlining solo dates.[...]
NPSH Tour Itinerary:
March 19 Austin, TX SXSW Music Festival
March 20 Austin, TX SXSW Music Festival
March 21 Austin, TX SXSW Music Festival
March 22 Austin, TX SXSW Music Festival
April 1 San Diego, CA House of Blues
April 2 Los Angeles, CA Wiltern
April 4 San Francisco, CA Warfield
April 6 Seattle, WA Showbox SoDo
April 8 Salt Lake City, UT In the Venue
April 9 Denver, CO Ogden Theatre
April 11 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
April 12 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre
April 13 Detroit, MI St. Andrews Hall
April 14 Cincinnati, OH Mad Hatter*
April 15 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
April 16 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506*
April 17 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
April 18 Philadelphia, PA TLA
April 19 Boston, MA House of Blues
April 20 New York, NY Roseland Ballroom
April 22 Toronto, ON Phoenix Concert
Theatre*Marks NPSH Headlining Dates. All Other Dates Outside of Austin Are Opening Slot Dates For Lily Allen
Last Night Grudge Rock: Helms Alee vs. Akimbo
Posted by Megan Seling on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 11:56 AM
Helms Alee totally kicked Akimbo's ass at last night's Grudge Rock. Final score in the Family-Feud style showdown? 573 to 170. It was a brutal beat-down. Helms Alee showed no mercy. Akimbo accepted their fate and started drowning their sorrows only a few minutes into the second round.
It was the most fun I've had at a rock and roll show in a long time.
Grudge Rock is set up like a punk rock Family Feud. For last night's game, each of the bands (both usually trios) beefed up their team with one extra member so it was four to four. They followed the same rules as the classic game-show—there was a face off (with buzzers!) to gain control of the board, and if the band got three incorrect guesses, the other team had a chance to guess correctly and steal their points. (Helms Alee stole a lot of points.)
All the questions were music related: They were asked to name musicians who are infamous for their attraction to young ladies (Jerry Lee Lewis, R Kelly); name popular all-girl rock bands (Sleater-Kinney, the Runaways); name bands who's lead singer went on to do bigger and better things (Police/Sting, No Doubt/Gwen Stefani).
The crowd cheered and booed for all the good and bad answers, and they loudly mocked both bands when neither of them managed to guess Def Leppard as a band with an animal in its name (even I got that one, dudes).
Blöödhag's Jake Stratton was the perfect host—as a know-it-all music geek, he had a fact about nearly every band that was mentioned, but he also played the part of cheesy game-show host perfectly. He even had a tag-line: instead of saying "Survey says!" to see if a response was on the board, he asked with each answer, "Does it ROCK?"
After the first round of play, the band with the most points (Helms Alee) had the choice to play a quick set right then or wait until after the game. They chose to play then, which was a wise choice—they totally slayed and that's probably what upped their momentum to sweep the last round. Akimbo didn't stand a chance. With the highest score, Helms Alee took home all the money from the door. But Akimbo didn't walk away empty handed—they got coupons for free haircuts and a bunch of condoms and porn.
Starting in March, Grudge Rock will move to the first Wednesday of every month. The next installment is March 4th with Sean and Fortress of Victory.
News Today's Music News
Posted by Brian Cook on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Feel like travelling to rural Tennessee?: Bonnaroo Festival line-up announced
Considered travelling to Miami?: Langerado festival cancelled
The ultimate Rick-roll: Rick Astley is writing a musical
Mark April 18 on your calendars: Second annual Record Stores Day, rare vinyl offers
Corporate rock still sucks: Major labels vs. Apple
Metal is officially your parents’ music: Becoming The Archetype start “prayer team”
Film / Last Night Notorious: BAD
Posted by Eric Grandy on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 11:19 AM
I went and saw the Biggie Smalls biopic Notorious last night with a couple of friends who had enough fondness for Biggie and/or really bad movies that it seemed like a good idea. I was going to do a Things I Learned Watching Notorious (With Apologies to Tom Breihan)-type post about the film today, only I'm not sure I really learned much of anything.
I do have to take issue with my colleague Charles Mudede's review of the film, though. Here is the central point of his review:
What is reflected by the movie's lack of substance, of insights, of imagination, is Biggie's own lack of substance, insights, and imagination.
I would argue that what is reflected in this admittedly lacking film is simply lazy and uninspired film-making—heavy-handed expository voiceovers, major plot points/periods swept up into spinning-newspaper type montages, weird grainy filters used to symbolize the hardness of the streets, and so on and so on—and that Biggie was, in fact, like him or not, a pretty fucking solid rapper (that Mudede furthered this argument by elevating Mad Rad above both Biggie and Tupac needs no further discussion at this late point in the game). So, I may not have learned anything last night, but here anyway are what notes I can remember:
-Within the first five minutes of the film, we see a young Christopher Wallace literally "read[ing] Word-Up magazine and listening to "Rap Attack, Mr. Magic, Marley Marl." Pinch yourself, it's not a dream.
-Also within the film's opening scenes: young Wallace develops (life-long) issues with the opposite sex due to playground taunts/overcomes said issues by taunting back, hinting at his later punch-line skills; he sees his absentee father leave his mother after trying to pay her off with a measly $100; he is tempted by the appearance of a shiny, tricked-out car with a license plate that actually reads "MONEY" in case you were missing the fucking symbolism.
-Unsurprisingly for a film that counts Biggie's mom, Violetta Wallace, and Sean "Puffy/P-Diddy/WTF-ever" Combs among its executive producers, Combs and Violetta are both portrayed as near saints. Combs doesn't have an exploitative bone in his body, of course, and only wants to see Wallace off the streets, out of the crack game, and legitimately wealthy. He talks of wanting to change the world; Combs is like Ghandi: "We can't change the world unless we change ourselves."
-The real-life Lil Kim was actually kind of awesome before she got truly scary/crazy.
-Someone conveniently tells Wallace that "when one of us makes it, we all make it," which is, of course, the central capitalist myth celebrated by commercial hiphop: that individual escape from poverty to wealth is as desirable as any broader social change addressing the wealth/poverty divide.
-"Juicy" really is a motherfucking jam.
-2Pac should be rolling in his (fake?) grave regarding his weak portrayal in this film.
-After his daughter hears him calling Lil Kim a bitch over the phone, Wallace explains to her that, despite his language, she is special, a princess, and that she should let no man ever call her this word that he has called women so many, many times. While receiving this dubious wisdom, the little girl is playing with and pressing together two plastic dolls: one is a barbie, the other is a dog. That's not even symbolic, it's just literal.
-On the night he's gunned down in LA, hours before his death, Wallace conveniently calls everyone in his life he has wronged or become estranged from and makes amends.
-Two hours is half an hour too long for a film of this caliber...it feels like the longest 24 years ever.
-That's all for now.
Merch A Hasty Nabbit
Posted by Dave Segal on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 10:40 AM
Media Oi! Ban the Death Tax! Oi! Cut Welfare! Oi!
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 10:35 AM
In this article, titled "Republican is the New Punk," conservative columnist Doug TenNapel (who, weirdly, is the creator of Earthworm Jim) argues that since rock and roll was "so central to the inauguration of Barack Obama," that means that, well, Republican is the new punk.
Lefty politics are no longer the fringe and no matter if the voters knew it or not they carved lefty politics into stone. Bill Ayers became the system he once fought against. Sure, they still wear the earring and say “fuck” a lot to maintain street-cred among the academics, but now rock has taken sides — it is for the establishment. Same with journalism, the university and pop-culture. The left has become a cliché. They’re not “Arrested Development” they’re “Golden Girls” with a soul patch. Snore.
Now that the art nerds and punks just became the football jocks and prom queens, a new rebel is emerging from the wilderness. They are the new anti-establishment. One minority force bands together against every other branch of government swallowed by the Democrat octopus. The last evidence of a check or balance against the popular people are now the Conservative Republicans.
The arts have failed. They no longer keep mass culture in check with thought-provoking art that challenges the establishment. Now they’re in charge of spreading the mainstream mandate of the Liberal Vatican. There isn’t an original thought among them, just a thousand-mile stare, a blue logo and the drone-like vocabulary of emotive, vaguely inspiring chants.
We’re the new rebellion against the majority juggernaut that doesn’t take kindly to dissent. Make a fist and show them what happens when they tell you what to think, feel and believe.
If you want me to unite to your cause, then end abortion, give the people back the money they earned, fight terror, keep your hands off free speech on the radio and enable job creators to make more jobs. Until then, screw your hope and screw your change.
Um, PUNK ROCK! It's kind of cute that Earthworm Jim guy, who is the lead singer of a band named Truck, thinks that rock and roll was rebellious up until Obama won the presidency. And I have been at punk shows where the audience started passionate chants of "George! W! Bush!" I'm pretty sure they were mocking the idea of punk being rebellious. Because if Kid Rock and Ted Nugent are the generalissimos of this revolution, their battle's been lost before it's even begun.
Politics / ??!! / Media / Out of Town The Vice Guide To Foreign Relations
Posted by Eric Grandy on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 9:15 AM
Two items in my inbox today concerning the once Canadian and now fully global enterprise that is Vice and their unique brand(s) of international diplomacy:
Like the Sex Pistols' January '78 tour of the Deep South, The Black Lips recent expedition to India was marked by a series of fairly seismic culture shocks. Everything from bottle-throwing fans at a gig in Pune, to livid show promoters in Chennai, all in response to a bunch of full-frontal punk rock provocateurs from Atlanta. For those that still haven't heard the story, the band was booked to play on India's equivalent of American Idol, The "Campus Rock Idol" Tour, a big-ticket televised series with large corporate sponsors. Last Saturday, in Chennai, the band entertained the crowd with what stateside fans would consider a typically raucous Black Lips show, replete with intra-band lip locking, and Cole de-pantsing, mooning the crowd, and attempting to play his six-string with, well, his privates. Barely okay in America, definitely NOT okay in India, the band was subsequently chased out of the country and the sponsors pulled the plug, effectively canceling the rest of the tour and the television season.
And, from the New York Times, concerning the stars of Hevy Metal in Baghdad finding refuge (and Metallica) in America:
Acrassicauda had been through hell as a rock band in wartime Baghdad. Its practice space was bombed. Its members were branded Satan worshipers and received death threats for making Western-style music. Then they suffered through two purgatorial years as refugees in Syria and Turkey, killing time and dreaming of rocking out in the land of the free. [...]“They were very fortunate to make it through the system,” Bob Carey, the vice president for resettlement and migration policy at the International Rescue Committee, said of the band. “Some of that is due to perseverance, some of it is advocacy and some of it is luck.”
Acrassicauda’s primary advocate has been Vice, the Brooklyn-based magazine and media company that made “Heavy Metal in Baghdad.” Vice is better known for wisecracking pop-culture commentary than humanitarian aid, but it has been working tirelessly on the band’s behalf for a year and a half.
Vice tried to help resettle the members to Canada and Germany, and kept them afloat with cash — as much as $40,000 paid from Vice’s own coffers, sponsors and donations collected online, according to Suroosh Alvi, a founder of the company and one of the directors of the film.
A trailer for Vice's forthcoming documentary series of the Black Lips tour can be seen here; the band's own account of their post-colonial yuks can be read here. Everything Heavy Metal in Baghdad can be found here.
Tonight Tonight in Music: Cradle of Filth
Posted by Megan Seling on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 9:00 AM
Cradle of Filth - "Nemesis"
Cradle of Filth, Satyricon, Septic Flesh
(Showbox at the Market) England's Cradle of Filth have been around for 18 years and surely have alienated many of their early followers by moving to a slicker, more sedate, and structured brand of metal (Metal Hammer calls COF the most successful British metal band since Iron Maiden). COF vocalists Dani Filth and Sarah Jezebel Deva form a kind of Sonny & Cher of hammy, gothic, heavy rock, but the overall affect of their music—although catalyzed by thrilling dynamics and deft playing—is risibly over the top, like a Halloween panorama designed by Disney. Norway's Satyricon, supporting their new album The Age of Nero, also reek of grandiosity, but they ground corniness into dust and radiate a more genuine terror. DAVE SEGAL
More options await in our online calendar.
Video / ??!! "Fuck!" It's the New Christian Bale Dance Track
Posted by Dave Segal on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 8:24 AM
Via NME.com
The interwebs are aflame with actor Christian Bale's f-bomb-intensive future club hit. Produced by RevoLucian, it's as pedestrian as you would imagine it to be.
No—fuck you!
??!! / Zzzzzzzzzzzzz Apropos of 2:26 AM
Posted by Christopher Frizzelle on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 2:27 AM
I can't sleep, and someone, somewhere, is blasting Four Non-Blondes. My windows are closed. Yet I can hear it.
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