SotD 5/31/11 - Dan Mangan's Robots

I recently had the privilege of attending the fourth show by local house show producers Notes From Home. The evening's entertainment was Cataldo, Hey Marseilles, and Dan Mangan. Of the three of them I had only heard Hey Marseilles before.

I have little experience attending house shows but wow, what a way to experience music. The setting was intimate, the sound was good, the people open and friendly, and I just felt like I was experiencing something special. The highlight for me was that every band that night performed a sing-along song and they all successfully got the entire room singing. This song was Dan Mangan's sing-along contribution.

Happening Now: The Thermals

#sasquatch

Song of the Day, 5/28

I'm heading out to Sasquatch right now. Woo! We're playing Radiohead covers at noon.

Anyways, so, I missed yesterday too preparing for this adventure.

Sorry.

And I'm having a hard time pulling embed code from YouTube on my phone, so you're going to have to click through to this video of Pulp's first show after reuniting this year.

Song of the day 5/26/2011

The original brief for contributing to this blog was to write about Seattle-centric stuff, as you can see I live to disappoint.

Kerbdog – Sally

I still have the ticket stub for this show somewhere, October 1993 Manchester Academy : The Almighty, The Wildhearts, Kerbdog. Jesus tap-dancing Christ, this was a hell of a thing to unleash on a young man. I’d been to a couple of shows before this one, but this was the first gig where I got to stand at the front next to the speaker stacks (this and the endless repetitions of doing similar things almost exactly like this are why if you speak to me today you have to yell directly into my ear). Kerbdog were the opening act and were barely older than me. It was amazing.

Years later when I was in college I saw them again and after the show, because of poor transport links between “where I studied” and “where rock was at”, my friends and I had to wait for a train for a couple of hours, we waited in the bar, we met the band and they bought us drinks. Thoroughly charming chaps.

This song is off their second record where they became less metal and learned to write pop songs with crunching fuzzy guitars.

They did two records and split up. Their bass player went to university to study civil engineering and the other two formed Wilt who were quite good, but less good. People like me remained obsessed with Kerbdog to the point where for the last few years they they’ve relented and done an annual reunion show in Ireland around Christmas. I want to go to that. I owe them a drink.

Song of the Day, 5/15/2011, Part 2

It'd be pretty sad if I didn't come back and post a part 2, wouldn't it?

The new David Bazan record came out yesterday. When I was a teenager I went to a few Pedro the Lion shows, and I always thought they were weird and kind of horrible - one in particular (Pedro the Lion, Ida, and the Juxtapositions - I think) the entire crowd turned over between sets. The friendly indie rock kids rolled out, and the Christian Youth of the year 2000 rolled in.

I found this to be incredibly creepy, and it made me feel really weird and dirty about listening to Pedro. And liking it. I thought they were a Christian rock band, and they weren't for me.



Years later, I read a real article on David Bazan and his relationship with religion. And I sat down and actually listened to his lyrics. It turns out, I didn't get it. And neither did the armies of Christian kids that were creeping me out at those shows.


Bazan's new record sounds good. It sounds REALLY good. I highly suggest hitting up the audio page on his website and listening to the first track featured there - Wolves at the Door. It's been my jam of the last 48 hours.

Then skip 'Bless This Mess', which doesn't work for some reason.

And listen to Please, Baby, Please, which is another fantastic track.


And sit. Be cynical. But love. Understand love. Understand everything I didn't when I was 16.

Song of the Day, 5/25/11, Part 1

Part of missing Monday and Saturday songs of the day that is kind of terrible, is that I actually have a few songs I desperately want to share with you. I have. a. queue.

Well, here's the first, which I am severely enjoying right now.



Even though I have 2.5 WHOLE DAYS without a rehearsal or a gig, thus, a well deserved mental break from music, I might spend all night tomorrow trying to learn some of these fiddle parts. I want to play the fiddle like that so very hard.

Via friend John via Facebook.

SotD 5/24/11 - Chromeo's Don't Turn The Lights On

I'm not sure what took me so long to give Chromeo a listen. I distinctly remember an old friend recommending them to me. When we saw them at SXSW it was a bit of a relief because most of the bands weren't dance enough to get me moving. Chromeo is now on frequent rotation for my walk to work.

Song of the Day, 5/22/11

I've been a pretty terrible Song of the Day poster, lately, yeah?

Well, here's why:

Song of the Day 5/19/2011

I love The Hold Steady, but their last record was …meh. I’m assuming this is because of the loss of Franz Nicolay and his amazing moustache. Whatever the reason, I have a gap must be filled by too many smart lyrics yelled over crunchy guitar riffs.

Oh well would you look at this:



It’s Titus Andronicus, I got their 2008 record The Airing Of Grievances, which is good and has at least one amazing song on it:



But I found that the distortion/overdrive/supersaturation of the vocals made it really hard to listen to the record all the way through, and I’m delighted they seemed to have stopped doing that on the new(er) stuff.

Hey - there’s a lady in in the band, but she’s not playing bass. Clearly they have not read the Official Rules of Indie Rock (that’s Amy Klein, you should follow her on Twitter @AmyAndronicus and read this interview with her: http://guitareste.com/2011/05/05/interview-amy-klein/)

James Blake on KEXP at 1pm

We've done a fair amount of hyping James Blake on this blog lately, and it's probably safe to say that none of you - and certainly none of us - were able to score tickets to his show at the Tractor Tavern.

Well, you can catch a taste of it on KEXP at 1pm (10 minutes from now!).

Http://KEXP.org/. Do it hard.

SotD 5/17/11 - The Lonely Forest's I Don't Want To Live Here

The Lonely Forest came to Amazon recently for a recruiting event. My friend generously put together a resume just so I could get a ticket. It was definitely a strange place to watch a band - the sound sucked and the fluorescent lighting and office carpeting precluded any real ambiance. The singer joked that he felt like he was performing in a biology class.

Song of the Day, 5/15/2011

Okay, I know I've made several Fleet Foxes posts since their album Helplessness Blues came out a few weeks ago, and hopefully - HOPEFULLY - I'll get sick of it soon and this one will be the last.



But I can't help but post this song as the song of the day, since I've been listening to it nonstop. They lyrics are an anthem for everyone in their 20s trying to figure things out, especially in the middle of this recession - the desperation to be a part of something larger seems tangibly greater now for most of us.

That's not the real reason I've been so nonstop about this song though.

That moment comes at exactly 2:30 - the moment where the harmony breaks and all of the voices are unexpectedly in unison - "Why should I wait for anyone else?".



It rips at me each time. That's the moment of clarity from the confusion. And it's so unexpected, every time I listen to the damn song.

Happening Now: My gal Rhythm Turner

Song(s) of the Day, 5/14/2011

I'm really shitty at dealing when dating situations start to go south. A couple of years ago, I met the guys in The Globes through a guy I was dating - they were young (not even 21!), they had just moved as a band from Spokane, WA out to Seattle to focus and try and "make it", they were all working at the School of Rock to try to scrape up money to record their record. At the time a few years ago, the guy I was dating was trying to get them noticed by Barsuk.

Well, anyways, long story short, they're a fantastic band, and I remember them as some of the nicest guys I've met. Ever. Their full length came out on Barsuk this week, but I'm going to direct you to their bandcamp where you can listen to their Sinter Songs EP in it's entirety.



I wish I wasn't such an ass and I was able to keep in touch with these guys - regardless, I'm very excited to see their record come out (and it's great!)

Song of the Day, 5/13/2011

Just go listen to PSmoov's remix of Brent Amaker if you haven't yet already.

Just go do it and get it over with.

Song of the day 5/12/2011

[This was all revved up and ready to go last night, on time and under budget as always but there were some weird issues with Blogger and I couldn’t post. I’m using the opening paragraph of this entry to complain about that.]

Frank Black – Headache.

I’m exhausted. Today was long and eventful, there was music and talking, also bug fixing and early morning exercise. Thoughts on going to the gym first thing in the morning: you get to feel smug about having already worked out, but you also get to feel bonefuckingtired all day long – your mileage may vary especially if you’re healthier than I am (which, statistically speaking, you definitely are).

I’ve always really liked this song, and it always reminds me of the first time I heard it – in my friend Dave’s room in college. Then, as now, Dave drank a lot of tea from massive mugs. We later discovered that each of these mugs could hold an entire bottle of dead cheap white wine, and we put this to good use in between learning physics and watching “I Am Weasel”. I miss Dave – I wish unlikely circumstances would bring him, as they did me, to Seattle.

SotD 5/10/11 - Daft Punk's Something About Us

I was going through my posts and renaming them when I discovered that I didn't post anything for May 10th. I'm not sure how that's possible but I'm way too particular to let that stand.

In retrospect, I am posting one of the songs that triggers the strongest emotional reaction in me. "Something About Me" was the song I dubbed "our song" back when I was a naive teenager at the beginning of a 6 1/2 year growth stunting relationship. People used to tell me it was a depressing choice but I'm more appalled at how poorly the song represented our relationship. My romanticism was misplaced: there wasn't anything great about that relationship, I just didn't know better.

Song of the Day, 5/9/11

Whoa! Now this is a find—did you know there was a disco group called Nostromo (for the spaceship in Alien) with a club single that samples and homages Ridley Scott's seminal 1979 sci-fi/horror film?

Via Line Out - this is pretty much the best ever.

Make Up Post - Busby Berkeley's futurism and musical industry

Earlier this week, there was a great post on WMFU's blog about the popular music of the 30s and 40s that you should take a moment to read.

Then you should watch the above Busby Berkeley number Dance Until the Dawn. Watch the machine like choreography, listen for the whistling flutes and piccolos, and think of how this was all captured on film - an industry that is a machine propelling an industry that is a machine propelling an industry that is a machine.....

Song of the Day, 5/8/11

I apologize for being several days behind on this.



This song has been stuck in my head for weeks. Hypothetical country western side projects aside, I've been thinking a lot about the way we're socialized, how it relates to what we think we deserve, and how we get what we want.

One of the results of it is tales like this burning themselves deep into who we are.

Oh, and the hair. OH MY GOD THE HAIR.

Song of the Day 5/5/2011

Some accents work well for rock music, some might even make the music sound more "authentic", for some reason one that works in my head is a Scottish accent. Thinking about it, that probably says more about the state of my mind than it does about music so let’s not pursue this line of inquiry any further.

For whatever reason I've been listening to a lot of scotch* music over the last few weeks, probably the best record that fits into this category is Guide For The Daylight Hours by Ballboy, which is magnificent from start to finish. I love the first song, so I dug around on YouTube for a version to post here and found a lovely 2007 recording from New York. The first two minutes are funny story that turns into an explanation of the song.

Ballboy – Avant Garde Music

• That line "I wish the queen would leave me alone" has bothered me for ages – I'm delighted that this recording explains it.
• More guitar players should wear ties – I might start doing this.
• Never read YouTube comments about anything for any reason.

*Yeah, I know

SotD 5/3/11 - Aqueduct's The Suggestion Box

I feel so lucky whenever a band I like turns out to be from Seattle. The first time I saw Aqueduct I remember being surprised because they looked nothing like I expected, immediately followed by thinking that was really cool.

Song(s) of the Day, 5/2/2011

Today I am sharing more than a song - a whole album. I play with the Seattle Rock Orchestra, and today Shenandoah Davis released the full set from the show we played with her on 4/2/2011!

Give it a listen. It sounds fantastic, I can't hear any of the mistakes I totally know I made. The dynamic range is large, so don't be surprised if it gets a little loud.

(Yay! I did this! Yay!)

Summer Concert Report

OH, so apparently Doe Bay Fest sold out in about 20 minutes this morning. I wasn't real on top of it, so I didn't even try to buy tickets -- but even last year, when it took days to sell out, I ended up being the only person who I talked with about going that actually got a ticket. (Draaaaaag.)


Well friends. I guess we ought to get planning for What the Heck Fest, right? (Not that there really ought to be one or the other, but seriously. Let's not mess this up. Party in Skagit County!)


Lois
Liturgy
Wyrd Visions
Ben & Bruno (BB)
Earth
Angelo Spencer et les Hauts Sommets
For The Birds
LAKE
Arrington de Dionyso’s Malaikat dan Singa
Takhoma
Laura Leif
Bitpart
Broken Water
Sam Lohmann
The Drink Up Honey
D+
Lovers Without Boarders
Mount Eerie
Ô Paon
Mecca Normal
Thrones
Brave Irene
the Zaps
Purple & Green
the Violins
Stephen Steinbrink
Karl Blau

Song of the Day, 5/1/2011

I'm doing a terrible job of enjoying today, the most perfect beautiful day May Day that has ever happened. I had one short rehearsal for Queen, and have spent most of the day learning about iOS development. Aww. Nerd life.


I think the truth is that sunlight is inspiring - it makes me want to create. Produce. (I always want to create and produce in the darker times, but it can be such a battle to sit down and get started.)

Anyways. About creation and creating. Last night, I saw Boy Eats Drum Machine play at the Comet as part of the like, uber-Pop-Quadruple header. And I'm totally in love with this! He's my favorite one man band that I've seen to date. He's got turntables. He sings. And he plays the saxophone.



And he dances. I love when you can get a glimpse of what it means to really love something. He dances.



He was selling handmade vinyl, and I'm really disappointed in myself that I forgot to buy some before I stumbled home.

Happening Now: Throw Me The Statue

Happy to say they sound great.