Caught the Feeling today at a free instore performance at Easy Street in Queen Anne. The band's first album just got released in the States a few weeks ago with the worst artwork the record label could concieve of. Honestly, why did they not use the same cover as they did in the UK? Record companies must try to doom their bands. The band look like Spandau Ballet on the cover, not exactly a cover the makes you want to buy the record. Live they came off sounding a bit like the Delays with harmonies. I [...]
My 7″ collection, vol.11 Coming out of Sacramento by way of Iowa and the excellent Bus Stop label, Rocketship put out a string of singles and the excellent full length A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness . The one constant throughout was Dustin Reske, who wrote and sang most of the songs. The first Rocketship single came with the super catchy Hey Hey Girl as well as an ode to Galaxy 500. It was a slice of pop in the vein of Stereolab , but also had [...]
So I'm listening to the new Sondre Lerche record, Phantom Punch . Which I was totally surprised at how good it is, since I was never a huge fan of his more folk and jazz influenced earlier stuff. It immediately made me think of Jason Falkner , it's got that kind of power pop sensibility. Thinking of Jason Falkner, I wondered when the heck his new record is coming out, it's been 8 years since he's put out a proper album (Beatles lullabies, and demos don't count). He did release the Bliss Descending ep [...]
Gruff Rhys second solo record Candylion hit the streets in the US (it's been out for months in the UK) this week. It's an excellent record with songs worthy of being on a Super Furry Animals album, but this post isn't to talk about Gruff. The lesser known Euros Childs from the lesser know Gorky's Zygotic Mynci has also released his second solo record Bore Da . It's a UK only release for now on the excellent Witchita label. Bore Da, Good Morning in welsh is somewhat [...]
Void is the new single from the Mary Onettes . It's their second single on Labrador records and the precursor to their, as yet unnamed first full length record. Void is another blast of 80's nostalgia with a Cure -like baseline and guitars that remind me of the Three o'clock . Labrador being the killer label that they are have offered up a free mp3 of the single. Void mp3 If you buy the cd you get two more songs ( Everyday and Today and [...]
Malajube avec Snowden à Neumo's, 28 Février 2007 It was kind of a strange night at Neumo's hier soir. There was snow in the mountains causing a huge crash on the freeway in the mountains. Apparently Snowden were somewhere behind this crash on the 90 heading into Seattle. The pass got closed, and Snowden were, erm, snowed in so to speak. So I arrived at the show to see signs on the doors saying that Snowden weren't playing because they were stuck on the freeway. I walked in to the sounds [...]
The Wombats are set for their new single Backfire At The Disco . Their debut full length, Girls, Boys & Marsupials got released in Japan of all places late last year on Vinyl Junkie . Since they're from Liverpool and put records out only in Japan, it flew under the radar of most people. The record is a total rush, indie rock with lots of guitars, funny lyrics, shouted choruses and more woo-woo's than you can shake a stick at. They'll be heading over to these shores for SXSW, so that some right minded record label can start putting out their records in America. [...]
Math and Physics Club at Town Hall, Seattle | 17 February 2007 Town Hall has an ongoing concert series for kids they call Saturday Family Concerts . This is the inaugural season for the series that has seen John Doe of X perform as well as the Talking Vegeta bles . The concerts are geared for youngsters between 5-10, grown-ups can only get in, if they have a kid with them. I saw a bunch of 20-something [...]
12 February 2007 Camera Obscura came round for the second time promoting Let's Get out of this Country . A very smart idea given all the accolades that record got on last year's best-of lists. Neumo 's was really full, if not sold out, or maybe it just felt a little more crowded because the Bad Juju Lounge is closed for renovations, causing everyone to be in the main space. Tracyanne Campbell is an excellent front person for the band, she has this [...]
My 7″ collection, vol.10 Really blurred photo of Hopkirk & Lee Imagine that you have four perfect pop songs in your back pocket...no more, no less. What do you do with them? Well you put them on a slab of vinyl of course, but you don't tell anyone where they came from, or anything about who made them. If you did something like this, then you might be Hopkirk & Lee . Honestly, I've yet to find [...]
The Rosebuds will release Night of the Furies on Merge, 10 April. This will be their third full length and "best record yet" according to the band's blog. It was recorded in their home studio in Raleigh, NC. The band have promised to preview some of the new songs either on their blog or their myspace page , but nothing has appeared as yet. In the meantime they'll be doing a quick tour of the east coast, opening for Yo La [...]
The View , one of the handfull of overhyped and badly named bands from the UK at the moment will be playing the Crocodile on 9 March. On their way to SXSW they're stopping off in Seattle, most likely to do an in studio at KEXP and then play the Croc. They've been called the Scottish Monkeys and have also been compared to the Libertines . While I hear these influences, it seems their Scottish roots give them a bit of a different sound, that reminds me of the first [...]
I know it's a little late to be talking about best of lists for 2006, but I'm going to anyway. Seattle's go-to website for indie music is Three Imaginary Girls . This site focuses on mostly music from the Pacific Northwest, giving us record reviews, interviews and a comprehensive concert calendar for Seattle. Each year they they do a pole for the best NW releases, and each year that I've lived here I've voted. With the Decemberists , Pearl Jam and Band of Horses [...]
Labrador records seems to be the label for Swedish music. Granted they only release records with a certain type of sound, the eighties, synth pop, twee, and shoegaze all come to mind. Those are, at least, the jumping off points for a lot of the bands on the label. Over the years Labrador has consistently found Swedish bands that fit that sound and style. I find it amazing that there are so many bands like this in such a small country. Writing catchy pop songs must be a required class to graduate [...]
The Rakes , one of my favorite new bands from last couple of years have a new record coming out 19 March in the UK, and hopefully sometime not too much later here in the US. It's called Ten New Messages. The first single , We Danced Together will see the light of day a week prior. And as things go these days, it's likely the entire record will see the light of day before 19 March. Something of a teaser or stop-gap, I don't know, LA label Dim Mak [...]
14 January 2005 Ex-Shoegazer Rob Dickinson at the Tractor Shoegazers don't die, they pick up an acoustic guitar and get on with life. Mark Gardener of Ride has done it, Adam Franklin of Swervedriver has done it and so has Rob Dickinson of Catherine Wheel . In fact all three of them got together and did a show at San Diego's M-Theory records back in 2005. This [...]
It's not every day a record label just up and calls it quits, but that's what Australia's Candle Records is doing. The Melbourne label was originally started back in 1994 as a way for the Simpletons to put out their records. Later the Lucksmiths , Cuddlefish and the Mabels joined the ranks. I first found out about Candle when I got the Lucksmiths, A Good Kind of Nervous . I still remember biking home from the record store with A Good Kind of [...]
It's been five years since Cornelius put out Point on Matador . He put out an album remixing other people in 2003, but no new songs from the man himself since 2002. Late last year Australia and Japan saw the release of his new record Sensuous . According to Pitchfork he's shopping the record around the the US for a label to release it here. Point was one of my favoutite records of 2002. It had a good [...]
My 7″ collection, vol.8 Air Miami - Airplane Rider b/w Stop Sign (Teenbeat 147) From the ashes of Unrest came Mark Robinson and Bridget Cross sans Phil Krauth with a sound similar to their former band, maybe a bit more quirky and a bit more new wave. Airplane Ride r was an excellent first single for the band, two minutes of catchy as hell pop, [...]
Kate Jackson of the Long Blondes knows how to catch my attention. Give me a lyric like "give me a good film noir and a bottle of gin, and i'd be happy just to stay inside", do it over some chainsaw, post-punk guitars, and do it with style and you've got me. Actually it took a while to win me over. At first the whole thing didn't catch my fancy, but like any good infatuation, repetition breads lust...and now I can't stop listening. The band is fronted by [...]
the finest kiss
Monday Music – 28 May 2012
Bison - Quill
