Seattle Subsonic

Get Yer Electro!

October 6th, 2009

Continuing on with the upcoming events, this weekend is a doozy for those less guitar-driven bands we all love so much.

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Remember that band Starfucker? Of course you do, I write about them all the time. Well, the man is sticking it to ‘em (not true), and they’ve decided to <gasp!> change their name. Apparently they’ve been clipped from several tours with cool bands (i.e. Passion Pit) because of the colloquial nature of their name. They even held a contest to come up with the new moniker (email your ideas to: newnameideas@gmail.com OR tell them in person at the merch table at a show). I’ve read lots of opinions on the matter out there on the interweb and the one that resonated most with me was that of Starfucker founder Josh Hodges:

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“I’d rather be eating dinner and paying rent than being cool, you know? And I’ve been poor my entire life. I’ve done every shitty job that you can imagine. I’ve been a security guard, I’ve parked cars, I’ve waited tables, I’ve bussed tables, I’ve sold coffee, I’ve painted houses. I’ve done seriously everything that sucks that you can do. So this isn’t work, it’s not fucking work, and it pays me. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do. …If I was a trust-fund baby then maybe I’d have the financial freedom to have integrity, if that’s even what it is. But I’m not. I have to work.”

I really like the name (and simply checked out their myspace because of it), but I respect where the man is coming from. To that end, see them perform as a fucker of Stars one final time! This Friday (Oct 9) at the Vera Project! With Nurses! I promise (based on last time) it’ll be awesome!

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As for Saturday, the choice is yours: do you don your leather and boots and head to Neumos for the psychedelic future of School of Seven Bells? Or do you slip on your Canadian cool and make your way to Chop Suey for the subtle and sexy synth-crooning duo Junior Boys? Gun to my head, I head to Chop Suey, mostly because I’m a HUGE fan of JB and everything they’ve done for smartly-executed, slightly cheesy, toned down R&B-inspired dance music. Jeremy Greenspan’s muted vocal MO is not unlike that of Fujiya & Miyagi’s David Best, though with more emotion and heart, and Matthew Didemus’ thump-and-run 80’s-style beats are simultaneously nostalgic and innovative. Begone Dull Care is a solid follow up to 2006’s So This Is Goodbye.

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Junior Boys – Bits & Pieces

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Junior Boys – Parallel Lines

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And if that’s not quite enough East Coast for ya, Sunday at the Showbox Market features Passion Pit, a highly enjoyable jubilant synth-pop group out of Boston. I’ve been listening to Manners consistently for a couple months now, and its rapturous glide to big beats and happy harmonies is lively, throbbing and a ton o’ fun. I could do without all the Christian imagery (angels, bended knees, swimming in floods, etc.), but this album hasn’t yet failed to elevate my mood. The tour slight to Starfucker is weird, but who knows what really happened.

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Passion Pit – The Reeling

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Passion Pit – Moth’s Wings

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