Seattle Subsonic » LB

REVERB Sightings!

LB — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 03:07:00 +0000

Metal Chocolates @ Sunset

Charles Leo Gebhardt IV @ Sunset

Cops @ The Tractor

Mark Pickerel @ Conor Byrne

Com Truise

LB — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:33:55 +0000

I pretty much love this, too. Com Truise is definitely my favorite producer “right now” and has been for several months. Sci-fi noir is SO in.

Com Truise – “Brokendate” from stereogum on Vimeo.

Cut Copy Apes It

LB — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:49:40 +0000

So, I pretty much love this.

Cut Copy – Blink And You’ll Miss A Revolution from Cut Copy on Vimeo.

One of Zonoscope‘s best tracks.

Orca Team And Kissing Cousins

LB — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:19:19 +0000

So you’re out for a drink with your scenester pals in some hip locale with classically unfamiliar tunes playing overhead. And given the nasal male vox buoyed by a surf-y, smart-Alec (Firefox made me capitalize that) bass line and a snappy, clean, well-plucked guitar, perhaps you thought the Intelligence—beloved and zany Seattle glo-fi outfit—had recently released some new tunes. Or, at the very least, had some tunes you hadn’t heard before. Well, you’d be forgiven for that mistake (though if someone offers to flog you, accept!), since their tunes are generally awesome and ringleader Lars Finberg has recently been coined a STRANGER and a GENIUS, but, well, you’d be wrong. Yes, I’m in your head and the band you heard was the GGNZLA-approved Seattle via Portland Orca Team.

If this little bit of crazy sounds like something up your alley, Kissing Cousins is an album you should look into. Orca Team is a bit more committed to melody and song structure than that other band’s bizarro world, and the “Mod”-inspired sparse quirky pop with distant, tape hiss recordings just might make you wanna bust the Twist, the Swim, the Watusi or EVEN THE MASHED POTATO GUYS. Also, you might need a beach blanket. Leif Anders slaps the bass and sings, Jessica Baldauf runs the guitar section and Dwayne Cullen holds down the snare-heavy skins. The music is real good-like, but I think they could really hit it out of the park with some more polished recordings (gasp!). Blasphemy, I know.

Get the cassette or mp3′s over at GGNZLA’s bandcamp or check out a few highlights below:

Orca Team – Night Moves

Orca Team – You’ve Got Everything Made

Note: the band released another limited edition cassette through High Fives and Handshakes, which included—you guessed it—a cover of the Intelligence’s “The World Is Not A Drag”. Both came out in July.

Alan Palomo, aka Neon Indian, Is Sci-Fi Insightful; New Album “Era Extraña” Extra Excellent

LB — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 22:09:44 +0000

If you’ve at all followed the surge, praise, backlash, and evolution of the genre that became known as “chillwave”, the name Neon Indian is likely not foreign to you. In mid 2009, a then-21-year old Alan Palomo released Psychic Chasms and ushered in the era of 80s-indebted slacker lo-fi blurry electronica for all to either cherish (like me) or gulp the hater-ade. National artists like Toro Y Moi, Memory Tapes and Washed Out released better-than-outstanding debut albums, while local guys such as USF, Big Spider’s Back, and Beat Connection all stood tall within the flexible confines of a rather ignominious “movement” where laptops ruled and guitars drooled. In short, a metric shit-ton of great records have been made in this malleable mold. I know because I’ve heard many of them (you can read my 2010 roundup here).

Some have tried to buck the trend with their follow ups (Toro Y Moi), while others have stood pat (Washed Out). Palomo decided to do neither with his latest Era Extraña, which is both a marked improvement on Psychic Chasms, but also holds true to the sound that got him recognition in the first place. Was this due to his move from Texas to Brooklyn? The fact that he recorded it in isolation in Helsinki in the dead of winter? Or that his dad was a Mexican pop star? I think it’s prolly that last one, guys.

Anyway, all this is to say that the album is currently streaming over at Spinner and comes highly recommended by “this guy”. I’ve already spun it, like, five times in the last two days. I’m hooked! And because I’m way into the fictitious representation of science and spend a large portion of my day on the internet, I really enjoyed this interview with a surprisingly insightful, humble, and interesting Palomo. His thoughts on recording music in today’s non-stop cannibalistic cycle are of particular intrigue. In recording Era Extraña, he was influenced by J&MC’s Psychocandy, re-watching “Blade Runner” on painkillers and the future-now of trippy technology. Kind of a no-brainer, right?

Neon Indian plays the Crocodile with Com Truise (FUCK YES) Wednesday, Oct 5. Washed Out plays the Neptune the following night. Weird!

p.s. this one’s for you, Tyler J. Botts!

Blouse Is A Band Name

LB — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:07:07 +0000

I’ve kinda been digging on this band Blouse from Portland. They’ve, predictably, got the wistful and gloomy early 80′s emo-smear-pop thing going on. I’ve highlighted their labelmates, Soft Metals, a few times, and while the two don’t really sound that much alike, much can be gathered from those different than you. We should be more open-minded!

Below you’ll find a video for their single, “Videotapes”, which uses a bunch of Minolta stock advert footage from decades past. I also added a few mp3′s I found on some of those bigger, more successful music blogs. The self titled album will be out on Captured Tracks November 1st.

Blouse – “Videotapes” (Music Video) from Charles Griffin Gibson on Vimeo.

Blouse – Firestarter

Blouse – Videotapes

Megabats! Pt. 2

LB — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:31:16 +0000

Pt. 1 here. Megabats (aka Samuel Melancon & Riley Scott) are Seattle’s most oft overlooked purveyors of sun-craved sci-fi utopian 8-bit angst (<–oxymoron!), not completely unlike a cataclysmic cross between USF and White Rainbow. Dan Deacon and Fuck Buttons are also noteworthy peers. They’ve tagged themselves as “blissbeat chillwave drone experimental free improvisation glo-fi noise”. Can ya dig?

They’ve recently released a new album recently, Solaria, via Melancon’s own Debacle Records, and it’s a perfect soundtrack to any work you’re trying to get spaced out to. Get your head out of the clouds, you space cadet!

(bandcamp player embedded below)

Just 5 dollars! The duo plays Denver’s Goldrush Festival this coming weekend.

Cool Handsome Furs Video Interview

LB — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:38:29 +0000

Yeah yeah, I know. Always posting about the Handsome Furs. What can I do, they’re handsome! And furry!

Also, great verbal evidence that these two excellent knuckleheads are indeed Canadian. Aboooooooooot!

The Head and The Heart Frontman Chokes The Tractor’s Sound Engineer, Receives Appropriate Backlash

LB — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:50:36 +0000

Boy, success didn’t go to this guy’s head at ALL!

Line Out has all the details of this douche-bag’s major fuck-up. Eric Grandy weighs in over at Reverb with the collective club ban angle (will they or won’t they?).

Personally, I think their schtick sucks, so, whatever. Hope the guy’s neck is ok.

Can’t Deny CANT

LB — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:16:59 +0000

Just finally listened to a couple tracks from Chris Taylor‘s (Grizzly Bear bassist/producer) new solo record, Dreams Come True, and, man, was I sucked in fast. Syrupy and solid and soulfully ephemeral electronic tracks. They are sliding down my cerebrum right now and “hypnotized” isn’t entirely the wrong word for what I’m feeling. “Answer” has a particular brooding R&B aspect to it. He’s going with CANT (not the contraction) as his project’s name.

You’ll recall my overwhelming adulation for Veckatimest a few years back (or maybe you won’t, I don’t know you), and it’s now a bit more apparent why that album, and Yellow House, is so entrancingly awesome.

CANT – Believe (taken from Dreams Come True – Terrible Records / Warp Records) by Warp Records

CANT – Answer (taken from Dreams Come True – Terrible Records / Warp Records) by Warp Records

Where’s the Seattle angle you ask? Taylor is from this town originally, and according to Wikipedia, has a birthday in 3 days. Do him a gift and check out these tunes. The album comes out September 13 on Taylor’s own Terrible Records imprint. He’ll perform at the Triple Door October 3rd.