Seattle Subsonic

Seattle Subsonic - January, 2011

So, There’s Some New Fleet Foxes Song?

Sub Pop‘s most coveted signing of the past 10 years dropped a bomb today on all their fans. A pretty, guitar-driven folk-rock bomb that explodes into confetti and smiles. A new song, a new album release date, and tour information were the real goods from Fleet Foxes, however. Pretty much every blog/news outlet has this covered, but I’M posting this .mp3 for anyone who has trouble with Soundcloud. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.
.
“Helplessness Blues” is the title track to the much anticipated second record from Seattle’s favorite sons of 2008. It comes out May 3rd on the aforementioned bit-champing label. It seems like forever since I wrote about these guys, but that’s because they took some well-intentioned time to work on their follow-up to the EP/LP that can only be categorized as a “left-field musical blitzkrieg”. Or something. Not many bands take three years to continue their sweet ride, you have to admit, but Fleet Foxes (and more accurately frontman Robin Pecknold) are not your standard outfit. Pensive, resistant and swimming against the tide seem to be cogs of their thoughtful work machine.

.

The song is good and I have little doubt that the band will trump the sophomore slump, but out of all this menagerie of news, the most interesting piece I heard? Past Lives guitarist Morgan Henderson is apparently the newest member of the band. Veddy, veddy eenteresting, endeed.

.

Here are the first three tour dates:

04-30 Vancouver, British Columbia – The Vogue Theatre
05-01 Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
05-03 Seattle, WA – Moore Theatre

.
Fleet Foxes – “Helplessness Blues”

Download 2 New (And Free) Witch Gardens Songs

You have to admit (no, really, you HAVE to), this new Bandcamp website is pretty handy. It’s refreshingly simple, it focuses on the music and it gives the artist the ability to sell their tracks/albums/jam sessions right then and there, in addition to the always-present streaming and download format. Plus it allows lame bloggers such as I to embed the convenient little player for all ten of my blog readers. I say, Kudos to you, Bandcamp.com, kudos to you. Myspace: you can go to hell.

.

Anyhoo, local garage pop band Witch Gardens recently posted a couple new tracks to their Bandcamp page, and they’re definitely worth 5 minutes and 21 seconds of your time. You might remember Witch Gardens from countless house/art space shows around town and that Cairo Compilation I liked so much from last year. The song they contributed to that project was a rabble-rousing carny-rock shout-along (hope you like hyphens!); these two tracks are a bit more pretty, and rife with girl-group melodies and that vintage 60s sound we all love so much. But no less catchy, of course! Fun fact: these tracks were recorded by Flexions bassist Robin Stein, who also manned the helm for much of that Cairo comp. Please, sample.
.

Toro Y Moi’s New Single Will Be Your Friday Song, Today And Hereafter

SRSLY. So stoked for Chaz Bundick’s new LP, Underneath The Pine, out February 22nd on Carpark Records. The one man chilltastic Toro Y Moi slowly captured my soft n’ groovy side last year with the excellent Causers Of This (more on that here). Word on the ‘net is the two records are divergent from each other. Dudes…DIVERGENT.

.

The indelible first song has buckets of liquid soul, vintage 80s cheez steez, and a dope-ass bass line. Watch the bespectacled nerdlinger shake his groove thing in this retro 8mm Hipstamatic music movie below. You can catch TyM at the Crocodile March 27th.

.

.

Here’s the mp3:

“Still Sound” – Toro Y Moi.

Sera Cahoone at Columbia City Theater

Great show last friday at The Columbia City Theater featuring Sera Cahoone. Ghost’s I’ve met led by Indie folk artist Matt Watts, opened the night with some delicate and beautiful songs backed only by Faustine Hudson’s unique and eclectic percussive sounds.(washboards ,floor tom, bird caller…ect) The set remained appropriately sparse and intimate. From what I’ve heard of Watts latest release Payphone Patience E.P, I’d say it’s worth checking out. He’s at the top of his game in this particular genre. It features Darren Jessee of Hotel Lights, and can be found at Yerbird records.

.

.

The consistently impressive and talented Sera Cahoone pulled off yet another stunning execution of intimate, and moving folk songs. Maybe I’m just getting soft in my old age, but this lady never fails to sqeeze a few drops from my jaded tear ducts. Accompanied by a nearly perfect band, including violin, and one of the best pedal steel players I’ve ever heard, Jason Kardong, Sera Cahoone’s extraordinary live set was nothing short of breathtaking.

.
.
.

Lemolo

A turbulent psych-folk song from local band Lemolo (two Poulsbo ladies making music here in Seattle). Lotsa soul in this one.

.

Porterhouse, Kristen Ward, Heartache the Soars

I get to The Porterhouse in West Seattle on a Sunday afternoon. It’s my new favorite place for the extensive selection of beers that’s always rotating, for the list of brews waiting in the wings, the excellent chowder, the bartender who is a beauty and knows me by name, who welcomes me with a smile, “Hi, Dave. How’s it going?”

“Good, Nancy. You?

“A slow easy day thus far. What can I get you?” I look over the list. “How’s the Laurelwood Free Range Red?”

“A touch of hops, and I know you don’t like hoppiness, but you should try it.”

“OK, let’s do it up. I never had a free range beer.” She pours a pint. I take a sip, make the usual yummy sound. “I like it.”

“Thought you might.”

They stream music from Pandora here, and it’s a surprising mix, a wide variety, but at the moment it’s Guns and Roses, and that’s a band I just can’t stomach anymore. I know I mentioned that before, but it’s worth repeating. I don’t think their music transcends the years well at all. In the mood for something different, I pull a CD out of my laptop bag. I look at the cover, a heart with wings and roses, a bird’s head, very cool. It’s Kristen Ward’s latest, Charles. I’ve been stuck on it ever since seeing her perform an acoustic set at the Gibson Showroom in Seattle last week. It’s a beautiful CD of acoustic tunes, mellow stuff, songs of heartache and loss that make such feel real. Her voice is low key but more effective and beautiful for it. It blends with the music and the loss, the heartache therein is palpable. I hand the CD to Nancy. Read the rest of this entry »

Curtains For You, and Ivan and Alyosha @ Columbia City Theater

This will be Curtains For You’s (CFY) last show until this spring when they will be releasing a new album. Tonight though they are helping out friends Ivan and Alyosha who will be celebrating the release of their new EP, “Fathers Be Kind”. “Ivan & Alyosha’s soulful folk tunes suggest a band inspired, hopeful and longing; a band unafraid to probe their collective faith and doubts.”

CFY will get you moving to their sweet vaudeville Rock’N Roll and catchy pop tunes. It will be a great night of friends, and good times.

Check out some songs

Curtains For You – http://vimeo.com/15776810

Ivan and Alyosha – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO6htelTh0I

Sound On the Sound Presents

Ivan & Alyosha’s CD Release Show! with Curtains For You

Columbia City Theater

Feb 4th

21+

Fences @ Neumos

Start your weekend off right with Fences and Against Me! This will be one fist pumping, sing-a-long good time. I have heard most of the shows from this tour have been selling out, being that this is an all ages show Im sure Seattle will be no different. Get your tickets early. Fences hasn’t played in Seattle in awhile, so come out and sing-a-long to their songs, make them feel at home.
check out some songs
Fences – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g15_VtLZIxE&feature=related
Against Me! – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7RUeMCZL3Q

Neumos Presents: Against Me!, Cheap Girls, Fences
:: Doors at 8 PM :: $15 ADV :: Advance tickets on sale at: [ticket locations] :: All Ages, Bar with ID

Stream Gang Of Four’s First New Album In 15 Years

NPR is currently streaming IDR (intelligent dance rock) godfathers Gang of Four’s new album, Content. I think it streams until January 25th, so act fast if you feel you MUST sample. And, in my doing just that this morning, I have to recommend it. Maybe not as “required listening” or anything, but definitely as an interesting dub-inflected stark, sharp punk record from a band who deserves much more credit in the pantheon of pioneers than they’re often given credit for. Obviously, nothing will ever come close to the awesomeness of Entertainment! (nor should it, ideally), but if you’re wondering how the band has aged, cure that curiosity. The Gang of Four signatures—Andy Gill’s gritty, glassy and oblique guitars, Jon King’s voice, deep, funky bass lines, even the beloved melodica—are all present and accounted for, but I haven’t quite digested the lyrics yet. The song titles hint at a less acerbic take on the world, but they could just be euphemisms. I JUST DON’T KNOW AT THIS POINT, GUYS, I’M SORRY. If anything, the band seems to be still using their lyrics to impart purposeful meaning, rather than just sound. There is certainly that innate intensity that the foursome has, which comes through easily with these new songs. In short, I’m diggin’ it.

.

I will caution your ears against one song that uses a vocoder to no avail: “It Was Never Going To Turn Out Too Good”. They probably called that one right, didn’t they? Content will be out in the US January 25th on Yep Roc records. Yay for old bands who don’t suck.

.

Update: Here’s an interesting quote from King on the album’s title:

.

Content is a cliché of our days. TV programs, music, and literature all claim to be content. But then there’s another side, about being content. Just that slight pronunciation difference makes it incredibly interesting. Contentment is the last thing we feel. We’re actually pretty anxious and troubled. But from my perspective, we do actually write lyrics about things. They’re not meant to be words that are sounds. They’re meant to have meaning.

New Intelligence Video For “Bong Life”

Carlos Lopez, local and recently prolific (peep his Vimeo page) music movie maker, recently shot a video for a song from the Intelligence‘s Males, one of my ten favorite local records from 2010. It was one of those Kickstarter deals where people donate money to the project. It’s… “PRETTY COOL!” Kudos to YOU if you lovingly supported this little adventure. The song, of course is “Bong Life”, and the moving picture is every bit as rapid and zany as the song itself. I wonder where they rented those costumes from…been meaning to shoot a period piece myself.
.

Intelligence – “Bong Life” (Official Music Video) from Carlos LOPEZ on Vimeo.

.

In other Intelligence-related news, Puberty has recently signed a record deal with Toronto’s Telephone Explosion label. Apparently, a self-titled record is due out soon. Lars Finberg and his band/soul mate Susanna Welbourne, you might recall, hooked up with some other local musicians last year to put on Trainwreck, a drunken, debaucherous musical foray into SODO’s traincar chinese restaurant, The Orient Express. Read all about that trainwreck here and here.

.

Yeah, I’m bloggin’ today. So what?

Matt & Kim Beat The Crap Out Of Each Other

Seapony

I’m not terribly interested in anything that might be labeled “twee” — a word worse than “indie” — but cuddly local trio Seapony have some cute, carefree tunes that just might cheer up your morning. And while their sound might border on the saccharine, it also has that gauzy buffer we see bands so often cloak their sheen with. As well, there’s a welcome surf aspect to the giddy guitar work that really gives their songs some kick. Jen Weidl sings her lyrics in a flat, flirty and understated way that lends itself really well to the rest of the music. The softness of her voice keeps anything from being too over the top. The Raveonettes and Camera Obscura are good reference points, as well as The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, with whom they play April 22nd at the Crocodile. You can also catch them at Cairo on January 21st. That’s tomorrow, Einstein.

.

I’ve embedded their bandcamp players below. You can also check out their KEXP in-studio from back in November.

.

.