Just like everyone else at Neumo’s tonight, Thunderbird Motel was enamored of Iceage Cobra and couldn’t help but sing along.

This Friday over at the Lo-fi Performance Gallery should be an entertaining one. Headlining the night is Discs of Fury, who are releasing an EP and who are also performers of their very own rock opera. Jeff of M Bison let’s me in on the deal:

Discs of Fury is a 5 piece rock group that performs a two-act Rock Opera about a warrior-prince, Marvin Lazer, saving the planet Ganymede from The Bat Lord (and his bat-minions). Complete with costumes, a narrator, actors and props - an absolutely amazing performance not to be missed.

Also, M. Bison will be doing something new - we’ll be playing the entire second half of The Beatles “Abbey Road” album - basically a 30 minute medley of all the best Beatles songs you may have forgot about.

Alright then Jeff, you’ve got me interested.

Also on the bill this night, are the always enjoyable self proclaimed “Mayors of Laser” WE Wrote the Book on Connectors, who have been diligently churning out new songs for us over the past few months. Their latest? “Hiding in my Pants.” Hear it at their myspace.

Thee Emergency ::: photo by Josh

Thee Emergency’s month-long extravaganza of live music hit the Funhouse Saturday, and despite the loss of their drummer’s right foot to injury, his usual bass drum foot, the band soldiered on and barely missed a step. Emergency went to lengths to recruit the best bills the city could offer, and this was the first in a triple threat of consecutive Saturday shows taking place all over Seattle and a better all local rock bill will be hard to come by this summer.

Wild Orchid Children ::: photo by Josh

Wild Orchid Children - Thomas ::: photo by Josh

Whore Moans ::: photo by Abbey

Whore Moans - Nikki ::: photo by Josh

Thee Emergency - Dita Vox ::: photo by Josh

Thee Emergency - Sonic Smith ::: photo by Josh

Flickr: Thee Emergency, Whore Moans, and Wild Orchid Children at the Funhouse in Seattle, May 10, 2008

Sasquatch will likely be Seattle resident J Tillman’s final solo show for a while. Recently enlisted to be the newest member of the Fleet Foxes, to help out on drums among other things, Tillman will be joining a band set to travel heavily through the rest of this summer, in Europe and beyond, in support of their soon to be released self-titled full length. Late in 2007 he joined David Bazan on tour, closing the dates by playing the Crocodile Cafe just two nights prior to the venue’s untimely closing. (Eerily, the Fleet Foxes whom he’s joining played the Croc the next night, the night before it closed).

Tillman’s solo work is a passionate folk effort, his slightly weathered voice and weepy harmonica giving this the mood of real life music played by a campfire. Tillman’s material is Americana in the best sense of the word, a solitary, dusty cowboy mystique and a distinctly American aesthetic to the sound. When playing locally Tillman is often joined by a backing band consisting of many members of Seattle’s Siberian who is playing the following day, so we might get a taste of that too.

I’m not sure whether Tillman will be joining the Fleet Foxes for their festival opening set on the Main Stage on Saturday at Noon.

J Tillman plays the Yeti! Stage, Sunday May 26 at 2:10pm.

Myspace - J Tillman

Tonight at Neumos continues the time honored tradition of holding a rock show as a fundraiser, and this evening’s beneficiary is super special. Members of each band playing are day-jobbers at Pagliacci Pizza and the night’s proceeds go toward fellow coworker Elise Kinnamon who’s been diagnosed with an inoperable form of cancer. Ice Age Cobra puts on one of the best shows around, so you won’t regret contributing to the hat, and Thunderbird Motel are finishing up a two week west coast tour, so they should be on the ball as well.

Ice Age Cobra ::: photo by Abbey

Seriously, Tom T. Drummer of Thee Emergency is my hero. Tom broke his right ankle (his bass drum foot) on Tuesday and still played an amazing set last night at The Funhouse. Sure, the drum set had to literally be built around him, and his broken ankle was propped on a stool…but true to his ridiculous talent, Tom even in his crippled state, played a set that would have out-drummed most healthy drummers playing today.

In the time it took to pull out my camera, it faded to just barely visible. It’s there, right in the middle. Look hard. Move back from the monitor and you’ll be able to see it a lot better.

You can find Mark’s entire tour diary at Buzzgrinder.com, but here’s his note about Seattle and the soup blessed by the gods — pho.

April 9. Arrive at 7am to our friend Abbey’s house. I slept till 2:00 p.m. and hit up the Coffee Animal. Down the street was a Vietnamese restaurant, Lemongrass, and I had the best Pho soup. Later that night, Abbey and Josh took us all out for Pho at another place downtown. It’s that good.

Cold War Kids at SXSW 2006, photo by Josh

Rock & Roll is full of performance, but not a lot of sincerity. What I mean by that is these days rarely do I witness a band who’s demeanor isn’t filled with ridiculous posturing, who’s singing isn’t riddled with completely unintelligible moments, or who’s overall dedication to the task of making music isn’t up to dispute. The Cold War Kids are not one of those bands though, or at least they don’t seem to be. Nathan Willett is an actual singer, a soul singer of rougher sort, and a storyteller. Rarely are songs muddles of thoughts and idea’s, more likely they are thoughtful parables, skillfully written and told. On stage, bassist Matt Maust and guitarist Johnny Russell threaten anything that might come within their reach with their fluid stalking, the voodoo beat of drummer Matt Aviero inhabiting their body’s (see above).

Last September if I recall correctly, the Cold War Kids were set to have the gig of their lives, warming up big sold out rooms and theatre’s across the U.S. for none other than the White Stripes for a month straight. Sadly just days into the tour, it was cancelled for health reasons on the part of Meg White, and 2007 was no longer the year that it could have been. In a way though it was probably good as it offered an unexpected break from the feverish international and festival schedule of the previous months, and the campaign of the previous two years. In the intervening few months they’ve kept a low profile, and currently look to continue that trend with only four festivals scheduled so far this year, no tour as of yet, and Sasquatch as their second date of 2008 (I think, Coachella was the first). Right now, apparently their working on a second album and shooting for a fall release, so maybe we’ll see a new song or two.

Cold War Kids are on the Main Stage at Sasquatch, Sunday May 25 at 3:10pm. Get up close.

Listen on Myspace - Cold War Kids

If your not familiar, I’d also highly recommend the 4 free songs at Daytrotter they did back in 2006, where each song has a bit of an explanation by Willett to go along with the download.