Schoolyard Heroes ::: photo by Abbey Simmons

Sad news for the Skeleton Army, Schoolyard Heroes is returning from the grave from whence they came. The band has just announced their break up and final show on their website.

Friday November 20, 2009

After 8 years of driving, eating, rocking, driving some more, eating even more than we did before, and then rocking harder than god, Schoolyard Heroes will be returning to the soil from whence it came. This year’s Home for the Horrordays on December 19th at El Corazon will be the fourth and final installment of the series, and the final show by Schoolyard Heroes: Jonah, Brian, Steve, and Ryann.

We love all of you Skeleton Army soldiers and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support and love.

ROCK,
Schoolyard

P.S. Don’t freak out! If Schoolyard Heroes has taught you anything over the years, it is that death is always around you… and that from death shall emerge new channels of destruction. Loud, distorted, maybe even operatic channels

New Faces ::: photo by Josh Lovseth

Bad news on the great up-and-coming local band mortality front folks, angular all-age rockers New Faces  are also no more.  All scheduled future shows are cancelled, so if you happened to see New Faces at the Crocodile this Saturday (November 14th) you saw their final show. (Your 25$ plus tickets were totally worth seeing that alone, not to mention the charity you donated to.)

Here is the band’s statement on their break-up, which they posted late this afternoon:

New Faces Announce Break-Up

*11/16/09*

Due to irreconcilable conflicts, we have decided to break up. We want to thank everyone that supported us - there are too many to thank so we won’t start but hopefully we can thank you individually soon enough. Sorry there wasn’t a second album - If it’s any consolation we’re putting up some outtakes and oldies on myspace - more will be put up tonight and tomorrow. Please look out for future projects from Conor, Kyle, Sky and Nico in the future.

Logistical note - All shows that were upcoming have been cancelled. 

Cheers,
NEW FACES

We look forward to supporting the guys in their new projects, but tonight we’ll be listening to Two Years and feeling sad we don’t get another chance to hear Kyle’s bass-lines that strutted like a man’s first stroll in his most finely tailored mod suit, or the Brit-Pop bravado of Nico’s vocals. Tonight all we can hope is that from the end of New Faces comes a couple great new local bands. Considering how talented these kids are, we have no doubt there will be.

One Final Song ::: photo by Abbey Simmons

In the past three years of running Sound on the Sound, we’ve loved and lost a lot of great local bands. It’s the heartbreak no one warned us about when we started. Over the course of these three years, we’ve caught more final shows and sets than we would’ve liked, of some truly great bands. These shows are always bittersweet, because faced with the prospect of never playing together again, most bands bring it like never before.

Of all the final sets we’ve caught, none have come close to the emotional outpouring we witnessed and participated in for The Ironclads at the High Dive Saturday night. Rife with technical issues, it wasn’t the band’s best set, but it was unforgettable. People watched the set with quivering chins and tears streaming down their faces (and by ‘people’ I mean the Whore Moans, What What Now, this here music blogger and many others) as they sang along to every last word. The band itself fought back tears on stage and lost that battle, as a crowd full of friends and fans shouted requests, jokes, and “please don’t go’s.”  All bands have a cadre of friends, family, and significant others who come to their shows, but no band I’ve ever witnessed has had a more impassioned (and growing) group of followers than the Ironclads. Unlike any other group of supporters, their crowd mirrors the spirited verve that endeared us so to the band in the first place.

As the Ironclads finished what was set to be their final song, the bright, careening near chaos and infinitely sing-alongable “Bullet Train” — the crowd erupted into cheers of “one more song.” The audience’s cries for more were louder than anything amplified from the High Dive speakers all night. In a decision he probably regrets, but we are forever grateful for, the sound guy at The High Dive granted the audience’s wishes, by allowing the Ironclads to play one final song.

With the first frantic strains of “Cape Canveral,” the song that acted as my gateway to the addicting exhilaration of the Ironclads, it was clear that the crowd would not be contained. After some momentary mosh pit style shoving, a few brave members of the crowd stormed the stage to sing along to the ill-fated astronaut tune one last time. And after one person got on stage, the rest of the excited crowd wasn’t about to be left behind. The line of glasses hugging the stage’s edge, forgotten in order to better pump both fists in the air, tumbled and shattered with the rush of the crowd. It was chaos, but beautifully so. (Probably not so much for the High Dive, of course.)

With most mics pushed to the side by the storming crowd, the enamored audience, not the Ironclads themselves, sang lead vocals for that final song. Arms wrapped tightly around each other and heads tossed back in mix of a collective anguish and celebration, they sang louder with each repeated chorus of “CAPE, CAPE, CAN-AV-RALL. CAPE, CAPE, CAN-AV-RALL.” In that final bridge, with the plaintive a capella refrain of “I’M FREE, I’M FREE,” everyone laid bare their own overflowing devotion. And for one last wonderful moment, we were all Ironclads.

Phil and Thom ::: photo by Abbey Simmons

Thom and Nora ::: photo by Abbey Simmons

A Tearful Jamie tells the Crowd There Will Be One More Song ::: photo by Abbey Simmons

Jamie Enjoys Vocal Backing By Fans and Friends ::: photo by Abbey Simmons

One Last Song with The Ironclads ::: photo by Abbey Simmons

Flickr: The Ironclads at the High Dive, August 29th, 2009

The Trucks Finale ::: photo by Josh

The holidays are over, we’re back to our day jobs, and it’s still snowing…all things that make us sad. But nothing compares to the woe we feel about a number of our favorite local bands calling it quits during 2008.  We thought 2007 was brutal for our favorite bands (and it was!) but 2008 kept the brutality going–taking The Trucks, Hopscotch Boys, Iceage Cobra, Das Llamas, and Ms. Led to the big gig in the sky.

We were lucky enough to catch each of these bands finales (well, we will see Ms. Led’s final show on 1/23/09) and each and every one was bittersweet. On one hand we were seeing a show of one of our favorite bands that never dissapoint, on the other, it was the last time we’d ever see them share the stage (to our knowledge). So, we figured today, when you’re suffering the post-holiday hangover and wishing you were anywhere but work…we’d share with you some of the great losses of 2008.

Hopscotch Boys Finale ::: photo by Josh

Brad Kaufman singing Acid Pony at the Cobra Finale ::: photo by Josh

Das Llamas Finale ::: photo by Abbey

Ms. Led at GMF ::: photo by Abbey

See More Photos from these bands final shows by clicking the links below:

Hopscotch Boys
Iceage Cobra
The Trucks
Das Llamas

The Trucks are Still #1 in our Hearts ::: photo by Abbey

The latest great local band to announce their early demise? Local lovelies, The Trucks.  We got the sad news via an email from their booking agent extraordinaire, Carly of Starbird Promotions, first thing this morning.  We’re crying a bit in our morning coffee while listening to “Come Back” and “Shattered” on repeat… I know, I know, we’re a bit melodramatic about this all.

But fear not… we all have a few more chances to see these wonderful, ballsy, bratty, talented ladies in action:

Saturday, October 11th 2008
@ Chop Suey, Seattle, WA
….with A Gun That Shoots Knives (CD release) and Awesome
21+ / 9:30pm / $8

Friday, November 7th 2008
@ Wonder Ballroom, Portland, OR
…..with Northern State, The New Bloods, Lisa Papineau and Tahoe Jackson  [Siren Nation Music Festival]
All ages bar w/ ID / 8pm / $15

Saturday, November 8th 2008
@ The Nightlight, Bellingham, WA
…..with Sugar Sugar Sugar and one more band tba!
[no info yet on price, etc]

We will definitely be there next weekend at The Trucks last Seattle gig and plans are in the making for a PDX road trip for one final dance party with The Trucks.

Iceage Cobra, GMF 2007 ::: photo by Abbey

Based on Iceage Cobra’s myspace message — “Bands Breakup Every Day. Deal With It” — it would seem the band doesn’t want us to make a big deal or maybe even mention their final show at the Blue Moon tonight. But whatever the members of Cobra think, it is a big deal to us. Bands do break up everyday–but favorite bands calling it quits isn’t a daily occurance.

Iceage Cobra has been a big part of our Sound on the Sound experience and family. We fell in love, hard, after seeing the band for the first time on New Years Eve 2006/7 in the basement at Chuck Norris. We commented then that Cobra had the sound and skill for headlining sold out arena shows, sadly that doesn’t seem to be in the bands future. After that first show we’ve tried to make it to every local Cobra show and have largely been successful. We were there for the epic Cobra set the evening Jords’ became a father, Brad’s last show with the band and Ben’s first Seattle show. We watched like proud parents as Iceage Cobra attracted passers-by on the street with a gravity defying peformance during this years SXSW. We’ve screamed along joyfully to every rendition of Acid Pony and blasted on repeat Brilliant Ideas from Amazing People, which we still contend is a Seattle classic.

So forgive us for feeling a little sad about tonight and the demise of another great Seattle band. We’ll be there in the front row, soaking in every scream and high kick. You should be too.

Brad ::: photo by Josh

Mitch ::: photo by Abbey

Jords and Butterfly Knife ::: photo by Abbey

Ben Harwood ::: photo by Abbey

Cobra Kick ::: photo by Abbey

God damnit.  Couldn’t a shitty local band decide to call it quits, rather than the another one of the most promising bands in the Seattle scene? Just weeks after releasing their incredible sophmore ep–Class Wars: K-12–which we hoped would catapault Das Llamas in to the next Modest Mouse, the band has announced they are on an “indefinite break.”

I really have little to say about this other than–FUCKING SUCKS.