Blog Archives

December 15, 2010

Our Year in Photos 2010: The Moondoggies

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The Moondoggies ::: photo by Abbey Simmons

For a band that often seems of another era, The Moondoggies are about to embark on a strangely modern adventure today: being the stars of an MTV web-series. Filmed in the sweltering summer of 2009, MTV’s $5 Cover: Seattle is out today and The Moondoggies are at the center of the story. (And as the 60+ hours of extra footage will show you, the back-story too.) And with that backstage footage, $5 Cover is an endearingly authentic (though partially fictionalized) glimpse into the Seattle music scene and The Moondoggies, and we recommend you take the time to explore beyond the scripted episodes.

You can see The Moondoggies and $5 Cover cast-mates The Maldives this Saturday at The Showbox where they’ll be celebrating the holidays with Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives. Skip the webseries if you must/aren’t interested, but you’d be a damn fool to miss this show.

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The Moondoggies ::: photo by Abbey Simmons

November 25, 2010

$5 Cover Seattle Coming December 15th

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After nearly half a year of will-it-or-won’t-it, MTV’s $5 Cover: Seattle has an official release date: December 15th. The online mini-series and compendium documentaries follows 13 Seattle bands, including Sound on the Sound favorites The Maldives, The Moondoggies, Thee Emergency, The Lights and THEESatisfaction.

The Lynn Shelton directed project filmed in the blazing hot summer of 2009, is a suprisingly tender and deft love letter to the Seattle music scene, despite its soapy premises. Much to our surprise and relief, we found ourselves wrapped up in the stories at a March screening of the film and impressed by the central role the music played in the movie. And most of all by the earnest affection the camera captured between director and subjects. Even if the stories are fake, this is a slice of the real Seattle we know and love and we are so excited the rest of the country will have a chance to witness that.

In addition to the hour-long mini-movie, over 60 behind the scenes extras and the Amplified documentaries on all 13 bands involved in $5 Cover will begin releasing December 15th.

April 6, 2010

The First $5 Cover Documentary Starring The Moondoggies

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Even though we were just talking about The Moondoggies earlier today, we would be remiss not to share this with you.

Each of the 12 bands in $5 Cover: Seattle had short documentary’s made about them and the Moondoggies’ edition is appropriately the first. The “Amplified” documentaries are meant to introduce the real people behind the bands’ in $5 Cover: Seattle. It is an excellent picture of the band, and was shown prior to the premiere in early March. Though we didn’t know it then, it ended up being an important prologue to the complete story, since the larger plot does seem to swirl around the Moondoggies.

February 25, 2010

Dita Vox: $5 Cover Poster Child

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From moment one I knew Dita Vox was a rock star. The poster from $5 Cover Seattle makes me think movie star as well.

For me, an image of few people could be more iconic of my experience with the Seattle music scene than that of Dita Vox. (The first album I reviewed on Sound on the Sound was Can You Dig It?,  after all.)

$5 Cover Seattle premieres next Monday (March 1st) at SIFF Cinema. Ms. Vox will be there and so will we. I’m looking forward to reporting back to you after seeing lots of our favorite stars from Seattle stages on the big screen. Dita may be the poster child, but she’ll be joined on screen by The Maldives, The Moondoggies, THEESatisfaction, The Lights and more. I can guarantee it’s going to be surreal to see, but I’m can also guarantee there’s going to be a great soundtrack.

February 18, 2010

The Lights – “New New”

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The Lights have been steadily churning out dirty rock jams locally for a little while now, so it’s no coincidence that the Lights made an appearance in the much talked about MTV drama about the Seattle music scene, $5 cover, directed by Lynn Shelton. Back in 2007 Shelton also directed the video for their song “Setting Sun.”

The band’s newest effort Failed Graves comes out this month on WANTAGE USA, and for their third full-length they enlisted long-time collaborator Erik Blood to produce and mix the record. They way he’s been producing lately you could hardly make a better choice locally. They sent over the first single from Failed Graves called “New New,” and it’s fair to say they’ve plan to tone down their twisted pop sensibilities any time soon (which I heartily support):

MP3: “New New” by the Lights from Failed Graves courtesy of the Lights

February 26th at the Funhouse the Lights are having a record release show with Erik Blood and Partman Parthorse in support. In addition to being a great producer, you’ll recall Erik Blood also earned the #22 spot on our Top 25 Northwest records of 2009 for his own solo release The Way We Live.

March 1st, for a single night, SIFF will be having a local premiere of $5 Cover at SIFF Cinema. Billed as the cast and crew premiere, many of the local bands appearing in this partly true episodic drama about the Seattle music scene will be in attendance, including I’d expect the Lights. Entry is $12 for SIFF members and $15 for non-members and I suspect seating is very limited.

January 15, 2010

$5 Cover Seattle Trailer – Featuring Some Sound on the Sound Favorites

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$5 Cover: Seattle Trailer from MTV New Media on Vimeo.

We’ve been tweeting and talking about the trailer for $5 Cover Seattle  all week, but it hasn’t managed to make it on to the site yet. I definitely deserve the late pass for that, but on the other hand, it is now embeddable and you can watch it right here in the comfort of Sound on the Sound. Other than being extras, this is the first peek we’ve gotten of the Lynn Shelton directed project for MTV, which was shot during the blazing summer of 2009 and features a number of local bands Sound on the Sound readers should be very familiar with.

As the trailer reveals, the bands and the music are real (there’s  a thumping sample of “Magnetic Blackness,” a particularly sweet sounding “Don’t Be A Stranger” from the  Moondoggies in the trailer, and the original SOTS soundtrack Thee Emergency), but the story-lines are not. It looks like  it’s going to be all kinds of  soapy goodness and guilty pleasures, backed by a Seattle music blog’s perfect soundtrack: The Maldives, The Moondoggies, Thee Emergency, Champagne Champange, THEEsatisfaction & more! I can’t wait to see what comes next from this project…and to call Kevin Murphy a lone wolf at the Tractor this weekend.