Seattle Subsonic

The Builders & The Butchers (Dec. 11)

December 9th, 2008

The Builders and The Butchers, Portland via Anchorage’s form of story telling folk can be quite captivating – intense to say the least. The band was recently awarded Willamette Week’s best new band, a prestige that has been bestowed to bands such as Talkdemonic, The Shaky Hands, and Menomena, and they are certainly deserving of it. Poised to contend for the current pinnacle of the Northwest staple of story driven folk akin to The Decemberists, or even Neutral Milk Hotel, The Builders and The Butchers weave compelling dramas into their music, focusing on storylines involving the typical terrors of folk music; gallows, dancing with demons, bottoms of lakes, slow trains, and the like, but without seeming contentious, trite, or even like they are imitating a tried and true method. The Builders and The Butchers take on intricate, banjo driven folk is completely fresh. The absolute conviction of this band live is a sight to behold – and completely amazing.

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You can witness all this Thursday night Dec 11th, at the Showbox when The Builders and The Butchers play with Amanda Palmer and The Danger Ensemble. Which is an equally, though different, interesting form of folk pop that recalls a burnt out version of a former pop hit rattling around an old radio, they’re all songs you’ve heard before, but you never knew their name, and you could never remember how they went, but man, were they stuck in you head for days. That’s the best way to describe the music, but certainly doesn’t touch on the videos or book that go along so nicely with the music. And that doesn’t even touch on her work with the Dresden Dolls. Zoe Keating also performs.
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Thursday December 11
Amanda Palmer and The Danger Ensemble
The Builders and The Butchers
Zoe Keating

Doors at 8
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Bottom of The Lake - Builders and the Butchers
[audio:http://www.seattlesubsonic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/19-bottom-of-the-lake.mp3]

Leeds United – Amanda Palmer
[audio:http://www.seattlesubsonic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/04-leeds-united.mp3]