Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Homo / Drinking / Nightlife / Dancing / Tonight A Completely Dead Celebrity-Free Thing to Do Tonight!
Posted by Adrian Ryan on Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 6:03 PM
Hiya. Sorry I've been so scarce. As you've doubtlessly suspected, I've been in deep mourning—YouTube-ing Thriller or whatever over and over, feathering my rich, leonine mane of sun-colored hair, Bedazzling happy silver and white sequins onto all of my right-hand gloves, wondering WHAT-the-fuck really happened to poor old David Caradine anyway, forgetting all about Ed McWhathisface, thumbing through my collection of Teen Beat Magazines (in a dirty way), weeping. (Honestly! I have!) It's quite emotional, and very time consuming. (Plus, I'm pretty sure I've developed some sort of Jackson-ish form of Turrets Syndrome—SHAMON! HEE!) I wish I had the time and/or wherewithal to go dance my weepy ass of at Hard Times at The War Room tonight:
It's brought to you by those beautiful queers that brought to you things like Hot Mess and so very much more, and it's a new thing, and you should check it out. DJs LA Kendall and Mathematix will be spinning. Drink specials, of course. $5 at the door.
Go. Have fun for me. I can't muster the emotional strength to leave the house just now...hee, HEE! OW!
The War Room (722 East Pike), doors at 9pm, tonight!
Upcoming Free Summer Concert Series at Seattle Center, KEXP BBQ Lineup Announced
Posted by Dave Segal on Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 4:38 PM
KEXP and Seattle Center are collaborating on a concert series at Mural Amphitheater running every Friday from July 31 to Aug. 21; the series will also include the radio station's annual barbeque-enhanced show Sat. Aug. 8. The surprisingly revitalized Dinosaur Jr. will headline the latter event.
Press release with full lineups after the cut.
Upcoming / Love Throw Me the Statue Announce Tour Dates
Posted by Eric Grandy on Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 2:06 PM
Indie rock softies Throw Me the Statue, whose forthcoming sophomore album Creaturesque (out August 4th on Secretly Canadian) will stand as one of the year's best local releases, have announced some tour dates:
7/11 — Seattle, WA — Neumos*
7/31 — Seattle, WA — Mural Ampitheatre**
8/23 — Spokane, WA — Empyrean Coffee
8/26 — Minneapolis, MN — 7th Street Entry
8/27 — Urbana, IL — Courtyard Café
8/28 — Madison, WI — The Annex
8/29 — Chicago, IL — Subterranean
8/30 — Toronto, ON — TBA
8/31 — Montreal, QE — Il Motore
9/1 — Boston, MA — Middle East Upstairs
9/2 — NYC, NY — Mercury Lounge
9/3 — Philadelphia, PA — Johnny Brenda's
9/4 — Washington, DC — Rock and Roll Hotel
9/5 — Durham, NC — Duke Coffee House at Duke University
9/7 — Atlanta, GA — Drunken Unicorn
9/8 — Tallahassee, FL — Club Down Under
9/9 — Baton Rouge, LA — Spanish Moon
9/10 — Houston, TX — Rudyards
9/11 — Austin, TX— Mohawk
9/12 — Dallas, TX — Cavern
9/14 — Phoenix, AZ — Modified Arts
9/15 — Los Angeles, CA — Echo
9/16 — San Diego, CA — The Loft
9/17 — San Francisco, CA — Rickshaw
9/18 —Sacramento, CA — Luigi's Fun Garden
All dates with The Brunettes unless noted
**w/Robin Pecknold
**w/ Blitzen Trapper
RIP Ron Artest's Death Wish
Posted by Sam Machkovech on Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 2:02 PM
NBA player Ron Artest announced this week that for his new team, the LA Lakers, he'll sport the number 37 on his jersey to commemorate Michael Jackson—Thriller was #1 on the charts for 37 weeks, DOY.
But he ain't done commemoratin', naw. Take this golden track, "Michael Michael":
(Google searches for "Ron Artest Michael Jackson" should work if this video is taken down soon)
When you can't even keep up with your fellow rapping Lakers, man, you got problems. And thanks to the apology posted at RonArtest.com, there's no doubt that the following awful rhymes and WTF lines are Ron's own:
red jacket, pimp leather glove / you used to show me love / I know you didn't know me, but you showed me love
MJ, MJ, you in my prayers / I know you in heaven, I hope to see you next year
...you should hip your new bosses in LA to the latter point, Ron. Might be a breach of contract.
News Sub Pop Smartly Signs Dum Dum Girls
Posted by Dave Segal on Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 1:39 PM
Sub Pop's latest signing is LA pop songstress Dum Dum Girls, aka Dee Dee. She's another musician working within that increasingly widespread, brief-bursts-of-euphoria pop aesthetic on which Slumberland Records seemed to have a monopoly. Fans of the Shop Assistants and Primitives (and, by extension, Ramones and Ronettes) should be ecstatic.
Show Review / Last Night Cataldo, the Curious Mystery at Nectar Lounge
Posted by Chris Govella on Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 1:23 PM
Last night at the Nectar Lounge a large crowd gathered to see some of Seattle's newest talents. I missed the free happy hour drinks but managed to catch two of the bands. The lead singer of Cataldo, Eric Anderson, stood tall and rigid in the spotlight, turned the pegs on his headstock and addressed the crowd: "This song is about the most brutal shit ever." Cataldo's guitar strums pierced the ambient din of the audience, not with discordant sonic blasts but with bright and steady sweeps across the body. Anderson's singing voice echoes Tali White in both timbre and in delivery, but where the Lucksmiths rush headlong into a revelatory song of love or heartbreak, Cataldo exact a more deferred brutality for a more temperate performance.
Before Cataldo took the stage, Seattle's the Curious Mystery entranced the audience with their blues-psychedelic tapestries. Singer Shana Cleveland lead the Curious Mystery most of the night with her eyes closed. Her body language and her performance exude loads of restraint: the way she pensively kept her distance from the mic, the way the bells she wore around her ankles literally shackled her to the beat of the music. Juxtaposed to Cleveland, drummer Faustine B. Hudson personified ambition in its wildest state. Hudson whipped her head as she struck every beat, enjoining the band's psych elements under her kicks and toms. Her command extended over the instruments and into the crowd, as she stepped off the stage to club her gong. At one point, a failed cymbal became a projectile when Hudson ripped the slice of copper alloy from her kit and flung it into the crowd. One can almost imagine the Curious Mystery traveling in the South and coming to the mythical crossroads where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for the ability to play the blues. For those that missed the concert, it's almost like watching the 1986 movie "Crossroads" (starring Ralph Macchio and Steve Vai—not the 2002 Britney Spears movie of the same name) but without the histrionic guitar solos.
Win It! Win Tickets to the No Depression Festival
Posted by Megan Seling on Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 12:09 PM
The No Depression Festival is this Saturday at Marymoor Park in Redmond, and it features performances from Gillian Welch, Iron & Wine, Patterson Hood & the Screwtopians, Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, and many more!
Tickets are $45 a piece and on sale now through Ticketmaster, but we have a couple pairs to give away! The festival is all-ages, so anyone is free to enter. The only catch is: they're hard tickets, so the winners have to be able to come to the Stranger offices on Friday to pick them up before the show.
To enter, email your first and last name to freetickets@thestranger.com by Thursday at noon. Put No Depression in the subject line. A winner will be notified shortly thereafter, and arrangements will be made for the ticket pick up. (Stranger offices are on Capitol Hill, and you'll be able to come by between 9 am and 5 pm. You could also pick them up at Slog Happy, should you be attending.)
Speaking of Slog Happy, I'll also be giving away one pair of No Depression tickets at tomorrow's Slog Happy! This month's Slog Happy is at Captain Blacks and it starts at 6 pm.
The No Depression Festival set times are after the jump, so you can start planning out your day.
Love This Morning in Rediscovery
Posted by Eric Grandy on Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 12:03 PM
This morning, for the first time in a long time, I put on Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens by Kelley Polar, and damn do I love that record! Kelley Polar is the avant disco alias of classically trained New Hampshire-based violist Michael Kelley. He records for the consistently quality Environ Records, both as Kelley Polar and with the Kelley Polar Quartet and as a player on many Metro Area releases. (He also records with the more traditional/less dance-floor oriented Apple Hill Chamber Players.) Like Metro Area, Kelley Polar's songs are marked by spare, straightforward nu-disco rhythms and tasteful touches of strings and synths. Unlike Metro Area, Kelley Polar Quartet also features Kelley's oddly arranged but perfectly agile and effervescent singing. The whole album is just gorgeous and groovy and pretty essential, but I'm currently really enjoying the (instrumental) "The Rooms in My House Have Many Parties," "Black Hole," and (from his following album, I Need You to Hold On While the Sky is Falling, but still) "Entropy Reigns (in the Celestial City)," a live performance of which you can watch here:
Business Capitol Hill Sonic Boom's New Location
Posted by Eric Grandy on Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 11:29 AM
As Line Out noted last month, the Capitol Hill Sonic Boom is moving from its current home on 15th to a new location on Melrose between Pike & Pine. Yesterday, Sonic Boom owner Jason Hughes sent out the store's official press release about the move and the new (bigger!) location:
Yes, the rumors are true. We are closing our location on 15th and moving it to the lower Pike/Pine corridor into a space double the size! That’s right, we’re moving and expanding! The new location is on Melrose between Pike and Pine, 1521 Melrose Ave Suite B1, and will total out close to 3000 square feet giving us more space for CD’s, 7”s and a ton more LP’s (new and used).
The move is scheduled to take place in late September/early October. We are also excited to have the same neighbors as our Ballard location, Velouria Boutique (owned by Sonic Boom Records co-owner, Jason Hughes’ girlfriend, Tes de Luna). Velouria is opening a 2nd location and we couldn’t be more proud. Don’t go spreading all that “cute” nonsense now, even though it is a little. Velouria is an amazing business that supports local and independent artists much like Sonic Boom.
While we’re on the subject, Sonic Boom donated over $3200 to Seattle City School’s music programs during 2009’s Record Store Day as well as $260 to Seattle School of Rock from t-shirt screening the same day. We're also proud to be a small business that takes care of its employees. All our full time employees have medical/dental insurance (that’s 11 for those counting) and everyone here has the option to sign up for our retirement plan with 3% company match. Take that Wal-Mart.
We are also excited to be surrounded by great neighbors like Bauhaus, Linda’s, the Pretty Parlour, Utrecht Art Supplies, Goods, 6 Arms, Victrola, Spine & Crown Books, the Paramount, Wall of Sound, Neumo’s and all the great businesses that make the Pike/Pine corridor an amazingly vibrant area. The north section of the Melrose building will house an amazing variety of locally owned vendors including a butcher, flower shop, cheese shop, Oyster bar and more. The south section will be a locally owned restaurant. Talk about think local/shop local.
Sonic Boom’s new store will have a permanent stage and we will be hosting more in-stores than we had in our previous location. We’ll also be booking in-stores around the grand opening and will announce the line-up closer to the firm date.
Song / Radio Damn, That DJ Made My Bout of Insomnia
Posted by Dave Segal on Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 10:20 AM
Thank you, DJ El Toro, for making my insomnia more pleasurable by playing this song on KEXP at 4:47 am. Somehow I wasn't familiar with this Belle and Sebastian gem, but now it's one of my favorite instant day-brighteners—even if I have to hear it before sunrise.
Tonight Tonight in Music: Mad Rad, Thee Satisfaction, The Pimps of Joytime
Posted by Chris Govella on Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 9:00 AM
The Stranger on Mad Rad:
Mad Rad, Thee Satisfaction, Tiffany Stedinsky, DJ Darwin(Funhouse) On January 11, 2009, two members of the Seattle "hipster hop" crew Mad Rad were arrested, jailed, and charged with assault following a physical altercation with security staff at Capitol Hill nightclub Neumos. Last week, Nathan "Buffalo Madonna" Quiroga and Ty "DJ Darwin" Finnan stood trial for these charges and were found not guilty. Here, for your edification, is a comprehensive list of other crimes for which the members of Mad Rad have been exonerated:
Theft of the Mona Lisa, 1911
On August 21, 1911, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was lifted from the Louvre in Paris, France. Mad Rad, who had recently called, in song, for the Louvre to be "burned the fuck down," were brought in for questioning; under interrogation, Mad Rad MC Terry Radjaw attempted to implicate his associate Pablo Picasso in the crime. However, the real thief, Vincenzo Perugia, was found two years later, and the painting was recovered.
In Up & Coming:
The Pimps of Joytime, Lucky Brown(Nectar) Their name sounds kind of like an Adult Swim cartoon or a nasty manga, and there's something indisputably cartoony about the Pimps of Joytime. Their track "Workin' All the Time" has enough of an old-school kick—scratches and horns and Casio doodling—to seem almost like a nostalgia act. And then "Joytime Radio" sounds like a lost Sly & the Family Stone cut and "Street Sound" has a laid-back disco feel. As you listen to them play, you begin to realize that the Pimps are great scholars of soul. A little while later, you want to rifle through their record collection, because they've schooled you in just about every way there is. Their knowledge is deep, and their skills are powerful. PAUL CONSTANT
Take a look at our online calendar for a complete listing of fun and exciting music happenings tonight.
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