Author Archive
BEND got BURNED!
So I know I haven’t written in a while (writing music instead of about it) but I felt this is an urgent local musical matter. Remember the article I wrote a while back about the band BEND? Well front man Jay’s house burnt down with all of their gear and recording equipment inside…
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Please stop by their myspace and show them some love… this is a nightmare for any band, musician, person, place or thing… Nobody needs shit like that and I’m sure they’d appreciate the support… and pass it on to anybody else you think would care…
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Peace
C
BEND Is Your Friend
Every once and a while in Seattle a wave of artistic goodness saturates the community and envelopes everything we deem great about music in this city. We all have our faves. Some of us like hip-hop, some of us indie, singer/songwriter, alternative, etc… the list goes on and on. But one thing we all agree on is good music, and we strive to go out see, hear and support our local favorites in hopes that one day they’ll make it huge and we can say “I remember when I saw those guys play in the back-yard at a house party.” Well guess what, one of those unknown musical gems still exists and I watched them play in the back-yard at a house party last night. They are called BEND, and they are probably the best unknown local group I’ve seen in a long time.
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Never heard of them? Well neither had I until about 3 months ago when I was at a fund raiser at Fuel and saw them play. The sound guy had the vocals turned down but the songs shined through. I was really impressed by the writing and having never heard of them I tried to exchange information to do a write up but I lost the info. Little did I know 6 months later front man Jay would be the bartender at Shadowland next to my house and guitarist Ben is the co-owner (great happy hour by the way). Then I show up to a house party on a Monday night with a six-pack of high life tall cans in hand and watched BEND throw
the fuck down for about 2 hours. Here we are in a residential neighborhood, soccer vans and SUV’s with family’s all around, and nobody called the cops. And do you know why? Because they are that fucking good that’s why. Several of the neighbors came out onto their lawns to enjoy the show, it was a brilliant day.
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Describing them? Well that’s a little tough since pigeon holing a band like this won’t do them justice till you see them yourself. But imagine watching Mookie Blalok in the early 90′s and knowing your on the verge of something great. The band is simple, vocals, guitar, bass, and drums. And when you think you’ve seen every variation of that recipe a band like this comes along and reminds us, that’s all you need if its good and done right. Jay’s voice is strong and passionate with great range that embodies the power of the songs. No need for shticks, no need for antics, only really good writing with a group of guys literally gelling musically on stage right in front of you… Its a great thing to see.
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Special shout outs to Sara Starr, Monica, Simon, and Emily for throwing a great house party on an epic sunny Seattle day… fantastic!
Rye Rye, Champagne Champagne & Tigerbeat @ Neumos June 2nd
If your familiar with M.I.A. then you already know who Rye Rye is. Rye Rye is the first artist signed to M.I.A.’s record label N.E.E.T. Her debut album was set to come out in March 2009, but has not been released yet. Rye Rye collaborated with several artists on the LP which is set to feature artwork by M.I.A. With DJ Diplo, she worked on a song called “Wassup Wassup”. “Hardcore Girls” with The Count and Sinden, and “Reasons”. “Hardcore Girls” appears on the Hardcore Girls EP by The Count and Sinden via Domino Records. She has described her sound as “unique, hard-hitting,” saying “anything thrown I can handle it.”
Along with local hero’s Tigerbeat and Champagne Champagne? Oh this is gonna be good.
Double Tee and Neumos Present: Rye Rye, Champagne Champagne, Tigerbeat :: Doors at 8pm :: $12 adv :: Advance tickets on sale now at: www.ticketswest.com, Rudy’s Barbershops, Moe Bar, select QFCs, [Buy Tickets Online] :: 21+ :: MIA’S PROTEGE
Rye Rye, Champagne Champagne & Tigerbeat @ Neumos June 2nd
If your familiar with M.I.A. then you already know who Rye Rye is. Rye Rye is the first artist signed to M.I.A.’s record label N.E.E.T. Her debut album was set to come out in March 2009, but has not been released yet. Rye Rye collaborated with several artists on the LP which is set to feature artwork by M.I.A. With DJ Diplo, she worked on a song called “Wassup Wassup”. “Hardcore Girls” with The Count and Sinden, and “Reasons”. “Hardcore Girls” appears on the Hardcore Girls EP by The Count and Sinden via Domino Records. She has described her sound as “unique, hard-hitting,” saying “anything thrown I can handle it.”
Along with local hero’s Tigerbeat and Champagne Champagne? Oh this is gonna be good.
Double Tee and Neumos Present: Rye Rye, Champagne Champagne, Tigerbeat :: Doors at 8pm :: $12 adv :: Advance tickets on sale now at: www.ticketswest.com, Rudy’s Barbershops, Moe Bar, select QFCs, [Buy Tickets Online] :: 21+ :: MIA’S PROTEGE
Fischerspooner Lights Up The Showbox
You ever hear so much hype about a show that there is no way that it can live up to the expectation preceding it? Well guess what? That was Fischerspooner last night.
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An obviously Memorial Day 3-day-weekend-hung-over Seattle crowd slowly crept into the Showbox market last night to watch the New York based electro-duo throw down dancing, beats, and a lighting show that was… how do you say?… Eh? Don’t get me wrong its actually not Fischerspooner’s fault at all, its everyone who told me how over-the-top awesome the show was going to be that left a pair of impossible shoes to fill. Regardless, the show was pretty spectacular with props, dancers, lights, mirrors, costumes (between every song) and video projected into the backdrop.
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First, before I get into Fischerspooner’s actual performance, let me make a few comments about how the sound person (I don’t know if they worked for the Showbox or Fischerspooner) managed to fuck-up a world class act for at least 2 or 3 songs. And if your wondering why I drop the F bomb so many times throughout its because that’s the only way I can accurately describe in words how shitty it sounded.
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Second song, SECOND SONG! The clipping that was cracking through the speakers was so bad that you could barely stand it. People who don’t understand what was going on were looking around at each other and trying to get into the music but couldn’t, because the extra distorted cracking that was coming out of the mains was almost un-fucking-barable. I kept looking back toward the board to see if there was a look of shear panicking “OMG I’m totally fucking this group out of their show” look on the face of the sound person… but no. The dude was just moving sliders, tweaking knobs, and basically hoping it would go away… which it did, and then came back sporadically throughout the rest of the show. I know its a hard job running sound, but I know for a fact they run 45 minute sound checks for every show hours prior, I dunno what happened, but it fucking sucked!
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Fischerspooner however, did not. Casey Spooner danced and sung around onstage through the entire performance, being catered to, and handed off multiple props and wardrobe changes by his fashionably equal dancers. Four giant mirrors (like if one broke someone is loosing a limb and 100 years bad luck) on wheels were spun into different positions all night as the choreographed show crooned from song to song. Several times Spooner stopped to talk to the crowd, asking if everyone was confused enough yet, and asking what city was he in… to which the crowd cheered and wailed as if nothing that came out of his mouth would ever be offensive enough to stop the glee.
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Soon it came time for the hit single “Emerge” to which he obviously has played so many times he’s over it, but instead of faking a show to the audience, he played up to it. Saying things like “you really want to hear this? This song is so cliche, so 2000, you really want to hear cliche?” Finally yelling “YOU REALLY WANT CLICHE!” and the crowd went nuts… and that was probably the best song of the night.
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Look, its no secret I like electronic music, but if you’ve heard Fischerspooner before and are expecting more than what you hear, your probably going to be disappointed. Some of the material is fairly ambient, so its not as hard hitting as whassay… good hip-hop, but harder than the cool down room at a rave. The lights and entertainment factor were huge for the show, but honestly, they needed a bigger venue. The Showbox stage just was not big enough to really cater to the magnitude of show they were trying to bring. All in all it was really entertaining, but nothing really went “POW” at the show, I kept waiting to be blown away, and I just wasn’t. I do however recommend you see them next time they come through as its definitely entertaining, just not get off your ass and shake it till the sun comes up entertaining.
Handsome Furs, Cinnamon Band and Feral Children June 5th @ Neumos
Next Friday night, at around 8pm, drop what your doing, put cloths on if you don’t have them on (or don’t), and go to Neumos. If you don’t know why? Well I’m about to educate you, Handsome Furs, Cinnamon Band, and Feral Children are going to team up to fight the evil powers of bad music with deliciously bonafide super powered indie rock-n-roll. Well maybe that’s stretching it, but not by much. The Handsome Furs Sub Pop signed duo made up of Dan Boeckner from Wolf Parade and his wife Alexei Perry deliver some serious modernistic messages along with some fantastic songwriting in their latest album Face Control. You can read more about it from LB in our music calendar here. Along with our own local Feral Children, (who’s latest release on Sarathan can be found here!) and touring with HF is Cinnamon Band, this is gonna be a hell of a show.
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21+; $15 adv; Advance tickets on sale now at: Moe Bar, www.ticketswest.com, select QFCs, Rudy’s Barbershops
Fischerspooner @ The Showbox Market May 26th
Yea yea I know… Its the day after Sasquatch and Memorial Day weekend and most of you will be spent. But for those of you that are veterans and troopers and don’t let good shows slip through your musically delicious fingers this one you don’t want to miss. Along with groups like Daft Punk the Chicago duo Fischerspooner has been redefining the meaning of performance art with their live show for over a decade. The group incorporates photography, dance, lighting, special effects, film reels, smoke machines, theatrical props and Zoolander-esque costumes into each show it performs. Don’t let the electronic sound fool you, Fischerspooner is a full blown entertainment sight, sound, sensory overload and well worth the last $20 bill in your pocket till payday after Sasquatch.
Advanced tickets available through ticketbastard.
Fischerspooner at the Showbox Market
Tuesday May 26th 8pm
A Post-Grunge Reflective: Bent Richard
I have to do it. I have to write about all of the post grunge bands left in the wake of the 90′s mega-grunge tri-axis of power namely (and you know who I’m going to say) Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Soundgarden. There I said it, I said the three dirty words that have a tendency to be brushed under the carpet or left “unsaid” because of the enormity of influence they had on the Seattle music scene. So for a second get over your indie-rock and your hip-hop and whatever the fuck else your listening too and pay homage to a genre that basically opened the door for every tom-dick-and guitar playing harry to pack up and move to Seattle with the dream of “making it” in the music biz. And no I didn’t forget about Alice In Chains, I just chose not to exploit them… yet.
But lets not talk about those bands directly (we’ll leave that to regular spins at 107.7 The End), instead let’s talk about the local post-grunge music groups that jumped on the bandwagon literally, let the genre take the reigns and steer minions of musicians into the ultimate demise and release of post-grunge material. Like the fucking pied piper of grunge to post-grunge rats we have all heard these bands, and we don’t talk about them, or write about them, or give them any credit because well. 1. The genre is dead for now (even though flannel is back) 2. They usually suck. 3. Were a little embarrassed to talk about them because we don’t wanna break their spirit, and there are a ton of grunge nostalgia nerds in this town that will blog comment for fucking weeks about their knowledge of the genre. Well not anymore, I’m tipping the scales mo-fo’s in a running series I’m officially calling “A Post-Grunge Reflective.” My first band and album: Bent Richard – Copper Vocation.
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White Lies & Friendly Fires @ Neumos 04-07-09
So I roll in about 10 and The Soft Pack was already done. White Lies gear was staged and ready to go, and there was an obvious 15min break in-between sets so the next band could make an “entrance.” Plenty of peep in the Nuemos house and when the band took the stage the sound engineers were on point for sure. Neumos is great for that extra punch in the system that makes or breaks shows. The UK band White Lies started their set with “Farewell to the Fairground” the hit single off of their album “To Lose My Life.” The sound was huge, and so was the stage presence in the beginning. Vocals were strong and the instruments came off confident and solid all the way around, the band was very tight. This particular song is my favorite off this album so when the lyrics in the end came chanting “keep on running, there’s no place like home ” everyone was into it and you could tell the band had really captured the crowds attention. Anticipating the next song we all hung on to what the next song would be… and… not so much. Actually I shouldn’t say that they band really does pull out alot of stops, and its pretty big time rock and roll, but the first song kind of set the bar and didn’t really go past that for the rest of the show. All in all they sounded really close to the album, kind of reminds me of an earlier, heavier Depeche Mode with a Morrissey tinge. Songs like “To Lose My Life” remind me of a group that used to play in Seattle for a while called Martian Memo to God (check it). WL guitarist and front-man Harry McVeigh hits the notes, and has a strong voice but by the end of the set you could hear it.
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Look this is a personal note to Harry… from me… if he ever reads this. Every time I’ve ever played music in front of people, I wanted somebody, anybody with a good ear to tell me if I was sharp or flat that night. I have NEVER had anybody tell me even when I knew I was, and I needed to know, cuz that’s how you improve. Harry… you were flat. In alot of spots, and I know its gotta be tough touring and singing 6 nights a week, but the audience can hear it. Don’t take it personal, its the only show I’ve seen and I’m only speaking from one night. But like I said, if it was me, I’d wanna know, and I don’t know if anybody else will tell ya.
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I’d definitely recommend the album, the production is great (Interscope/Geffen) especially in a good system. And if you really wanna hear some good shit cruz on over to their myspace page and check out some of the remixes, sick! Bring on the Friendly Fires.
There’s been alot of buzz about Friendly Fires and for good reason their disco funk indie/pop is really addicting and the beat hits hard. Way more bodies were moving for FF than WL but the music is totally different, and FF singer Ed Macfarlane croons his way with the crowd constantly pulling the mic away from his face to automate vocal volume. All of which adds to a great performance, however I did notice 2 things about this band that I don’t know other people caught.
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1. Macfarlane half way through the second or third song, right in the middle of dancing around the stage, spun around and in one flawless movement put his hand to one nostril and blew out the hugest white snot rocket I’ve seen toward the back of the stage. The whole move was damn near ninja skill the way he pulled it off, I seriously don’t think anybody else noticed (not that anybody cares). But the flawless execution of the whole thing was nonless than a trained professional.
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2. They were backtracking, alot. Meaning they had a good portion of the music they play being pumped through the system while they just went through the motions. This is actually a really popular way of playing live performances these days, let the house system do the work instead of lugging all your gear around (we all secretly envy the DJ for this reason). But I just found it interesting that I heard everything from keyboard to backup vocals while nobody was playing them. I’m the last one to criticize this technique as I backtrack almost all of my show, just an observation.
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Great show overall, I like the fact that I saw human error out of both of these bands, that’s what make a live show “live.” FF just release a self titled album (click here to get it) in September of 08 and its definitely worth checking out, however with both of these bands make sure you listen to the CD on a good system otherwise you might miss that bottom end “thump” that really drives the point and production quality home.
The Dutchess & The Duke, The Pica Beats and The Drug Purse @ Neumos Saturday April 4th
Perhaps you remember SS doing a couple articles on a small Sub Pop spin off label called Hardly Art, and HA being a cordial guest at one of the many SS happy hours hosted at Moe Bar. Well, two of the band on the HA label are at Neumos tomorrow night, The Dutchess & The Duke and The Pica Beats. Joining them is Tacoma band The Drug Purse.
Jesse Lortz and Kimberly Morrison of the Dutchess and the Duke have great harmonies and almost indie-folk style song writing with an edge. Lortz has been in past Seattle bands such as the Flying Dutchmen and Fe Fi Fo Fums, among others.
Along with The Pica Beats poppy up-beat sound and The Drug Purse guitar driven ambient melodies that remind me of remnants of The Black Angels this proves to be a killer show for a Saturday night…
