Black Whales have taken their hazy ’60s inspired pop and put it in an acid-inspired video form for “Elephant No. 2.”
Black Whales are celebrating the release of this far-out flick tonight at Neumos with Koko and the Sweetmeats and Us on Roofs.
Legendary Oaks ::: photo by Kevin Cirulli
One of Seattle’s more noticeable “up and coming” bands, Legendary Oaks play thoughtful Alt-Country Folk with a splash of Americana and then another dash of folk, followed a pinch of roots rock is a rock band that happens to have a fiddle. You can try and package it any way you’d like but that’s the fact of the matter. You listen to their self-titled album and there’s a chance you might reach for that over-used Americana label. However, once you see Legendary Oaks perform those same songs live, you’ll be the first one putting the “A-word” curbside with the rest of your trash. I am certifiably nuts might be crazy but this particular track reminds me of a Pixies song. Whoa, look at you, The Pixies with a fiddle? I think it’s the lead guitar that is playing tricks on my impressionable mind. Click on the link below to hear what I’m talking about. Legendary Oaks can go from erecting a city of stars to fiddle inspired barnyard bedlam at the drop of a hat. It’s very impressive to watch.
Witness their chameleon-like feats Saturday night at the Tractor on Saturday with Mal De Mer and Black Whales (cd release). Tickets are $8. Show starts at 9pm. Download “One Inch Plantation” with a right click & save
Since the weather’s not cooperating, we’re going to have to take cues from other places to remind us it is, in fact, summer. Things like a partial peek at KEXP’s always excellent free summer concert series at the Mural Amphitheater during the month of August.
There’s lots of Sound on the Sound favorites on the list – Pickwick, The Maldives, Ravenna Woods, Drew Grow & the Pastors’ Wives – but its the August 19th, all rock line-up that has me most excited. Headlining will be my favorite discovery of Sasquatch, Vancouver BC’s Black Mountain with two of the most solid rock bands in town, My Goodness and Whalebones, lending their support. Whether you’re in the front row (fingers crossed for a mosh pit) with me or in the very back of the beer garden, that’s a bill you’ll want to bring your ear plugs for.
August 5 – The Maldives, Hey Marseilles, Black Whales
August 6 – KEXP’s Summer BBQ: Fool’s Gold, Capsula, Virgin Islands, Mad Rad
August 12 – Seapony, Gold Leaves, Math and Physics Club
August 19 – Black Mountain, My Goodness, Whalebones
August 26 – No Depression Presents: Shane Tutmarc, Pickwick, Drew Grow & The Pastors’ Wives, Ravenna Woods
Tip of the Hat to SSG Music for the line-up.
The Doe Bay Sessions Team ::: portrait by Hilary Harris
Another Tuesday has passed with no new video, which means I’m sitting here missing The Doe Bay Sessions and reflecting in wonder that they happened at all.
For the folks involved with the technical side Doe Bay Sessions, they have another nickname: the serendipity sessions. Everything that could possibly go wrong did, but so did everything that could go right. Despite months of planning, the only thing that made the Doe Bay Sessions go as beautifully as they did was the kindness of strangers, phenomenal timing and two very talented men behind the scenes: videographer Tyler Kalberg and sound guy Chris Proff. While mine and Josh’s work with the sessions was all but done in August (other than sharing them with you) both Tyler and Chris spent hours upon hours the past couple months, editing, mixing and perfecting the videos and their sound. It is only due to their hard work and talents that the videos turned out as wonderfully as they did. If you enjoyed the videos, these are the people you should offer your gratitude to.
But it took more than Josh, Tyler, Chris and me to make the sessions happen. It took the support and approval of the folks who run the Doe Bay Resort and the Doe Bay Festival. No one has been bigger fans or supporters of the sessions than Joe Brotherton, Kevin Sur and Chad Clibborn both before, during and after the filming. And then of course, there was the serendipity and the hefty dose of Doe Bay magic that made the videos possible. When our brand new generator broke before our first session, the head of the Doe Bay grounds not only lent us his infinitely quieter generator for the entire weekend, but he delivered it to our distant campsite with a smile. The next day, when our “mobile” 80 plus pound soundboard died, a stranger who happened to be walking down the trail as we lamented our terrible luck, turned around and offered his mobile recording system for the entire weekend to total strangers. Not only did this allow the project to continue, it gave us more flexibility where we could record sessions. What could’ve been terrible, turned out to be totally for the better. From day one, though we’d never done anything of the sort before, everyone who came in contact with the project believed it could be done, put their whole heart into it and did everything in their power to make sure it happened. It would not be overstating to say, its the kind of thing that restores your faith in humanity.
And of course there was the bands who took the time to hike down the trails and share themselves and their songs with us. We could not have dreamed of a more talented (or pleasant) group of musicians to work with. Our sincerest thanks goes out to:
The Maldives Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives Kelli Schaefer The Head and The Heart Hey Marseilles Fences Ravenna Woods Curtains for You Tomo Nakayama Black Whales
Last and certainly not least, thanks to all of you for stopping by the site every Tuesday to check out the new videos, for sharing them with your friends and for all the kind words.
Stay tuned for two new video series coming soon from Sound on the Sound and the whole Doe Bay filming crew. And we’ll be back next summer with even more Doe Bay Sessions!
It’s hard to believe it’s already November and that we’re already having our fifth Sound on the Sound Presents show at Columbia City Theater. But here we are, damp externally, but feeling lit up from the inside. We’re so lucky to have a stage as grand as Columbia City to fill with favorites the first Friday of every month.
We know there are a ton of great shows happening this Friday (*loving fist shake at the Cave Singers/Moondoggies and Reykjavik Calling*), but we still think we’ve got the line-up of the night: Black Whales, Dan Mangan and Jared Mees & The Grown Children. A sample of the best of the Pacific Northwest, with offerings from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, we all but guarantee you’re bound to fall in love with a new band.
And one of you luck readers will be falling in love for free. Just leave a comment below and you’ll be entered to win a pair of tickets to this Friday’s show. We never share your email address, so please leave your real one! Can’t wait to see you all at Columbia City Theater this Friday! We’ll pick a winner Thursday at Noon.
Seriously, why would you miss this?
Or this?
Or for that matter, this?
Black Whales on the rocks ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth
Alex of the Black Whales, with only himself to mind, was able to take the idea of doing sessions in the unconventional setting of Doe Bay and run with it. He was the one to roll with the idea of going mobile and really do something with it. We took it all the way down to the furthest beach overlooking the bay where Alex graciously sweated it out on the hot rocks in the midday sun while his band on the hill above hugged cold tallboys. Then, more by his suggestion than ours he was ready to do a song while walking down the trail. With our final Doe Bay Session presented to you below as proof, both instances were glorious cases of seizing the moment and setting the bar for next year’s batch of sessions. This is what we were thinking of when we cooked this idea up:
Methinks Shangri La isn’t just mentioned by happenstance in the final song.
Black Whales headline Sound on the Sound Presents at the Columbia City Theater next Friday November 5th for their “Ragged Bones” 7″ release party. Vancouver’s Dan Mangan and Portland’s Jared Mees and the Grown Children round out this Northwest coast bill.
The Head and The Heart Sunset Session ::: photo by Abbey Simmons
As you will soon read here on Sound on the Sound, Doe Bay 2010 was one of the most magical experiences of our lives. (Narrowly edging out last years’ Doe Bay Fest for “best weekend ever.”) Not only were we surrounded by friends, family and incredible local music in one of the most idyllic and jaw-droppingly beautiful places you’ll ever see, we also spent the weekend working on an exciting project we’ve spent much of 2010 organizing: The Doe Bay Sessions.
The initial idea was to rent a yurt during the Doe Bay Festival and record acoustic sets with a couple of our favorite bands who were playing. We pitched the idea to the fine folks who organize and who own Doe Bay and from day one to the last day of shooting, they all bent over backwards to make sure the project could happen. What started as a typical DIY Sound on the Sound project turned into a professional video shoot inspired by the work of Vincent Moon and Yours Truly, complete with videographer Tyler Kalberg on the camera and sound guy extraordinaire Chris Proff manning our “mobile” sound set up. What we thought would be a couple yurt bound sessions, turned into 10 different video shoots all over Doe Bay with some of the best bands in Seattle.
For those of us who were a part of it and those of you who stumbled on to our sessions while hiking the trails or following the sound of the songs, The Doe Bay Sessions felt like a festival within the festival. Over the next 10 weeks we will be releasing videos featuring a candlelit session from Fences, The Head and the Heart (and the Doe Bay All-Stars) singing down the sun, Ravenna Woods using trees for percussion, a mid-trail serenade from Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives, The Maldives on a mossy knoll, picnic table perching with Hey Marseilles and many more.
We are so excited to share these videos with you and to usher in a new chapter of Sound on the Sound content. For now, we wanted to share a few stills from the sessions, as well as offer our sincerest thanks to Tyler, Chris, the bands, Doe Bay staff and maintenance crew, Artist Home, Bob from The Ballard Mine and the Doe Bay magic that made these sessions not just possible, but also so much more than we would have ever dared imagine.
Check back here on August 24th to see whose session we’ll share first!
Fences Candle Lit Session ::: by Tyler Kalberg
The Maldives on “Hobbit Hill” ::: photo by Josh Lovseth
Chris Proff ::: photo by Abbey Simmons
Ravenna Woods Session ::: photo by Abbey Simmons
See more photos from The Doe Bay Sessions on our Flickr
Georgetown ::: photo by Josh Lovseth
Without the fanfare that accompanies its local music festival siblings, The Georgetown Music Festival has quietly been introducing Sound on the Sound to some of its favorite local bands. Courtesy of Georgetown Music Festival we first heard: The Lonely Forest, The Globes, Skeletons with Flesh on Them and Kaylee Cole. In fact, no other local festival has that kind of track record when it comes to introducing us to new bands.
This year’s GMF — held on June 25th and 26th — offers an eclectic local line-up, including a heavy dose of hip hop and it is all free. We suspect, just as in years past, we’ll walk away with a previously unheard band to be excited about.
Skeletons with Flesh on Them Dark Time Sunshine Black Whales Brother From Another Candysounds Concours D’Elegance Fatal Lucciano Finn Riggins Hotels Pink Snowflakes Productionists Tea Cozies The Pica Beats The Way We Were in 89 This is Air Canada Webelos Suntonio Bandanaz Thunder Buffalo Lady Friend SilOHS SOTA Gran Rapids Victor Shade
Black Whales ::: photo by Abbey Simmons
Hope you all bought your tickets for Doe Bay Festival (like we told you to) because it has sold out just 10 days after going on sale!
Doubly hope you bought your tickets or this next part is just going to rub salt into the wound, Black Whales are the latest band to be added to what is yet again shaping up to be the local line-up of the summer.
This list represents the strongest 25 albums we heard in 2009 from bands based in the Northwest. We approximated the Northwest as Vancouver to the North, Eugene to the South, Boise to the East, and the Olympic Peninsula West. Even though we snuck in a few Portland bands and a Vancouver band, this is largely a list of Seattle releases. We did our best to feature the vast array of the Seattle Sound in 2009, though there’s no denying some genres fared better than others–genres that you might be surprised by, genres we were surprised by. If there was any doubt left, 2009 proved Seattle isn’t just a rock town.
2009 was an incredible year for local music in Seattle. There’ve been some unnecessary put-downs of Seattle’s musical output in 2009, because the scene didn’t spawn a new Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, or Death Cab for Cutie, and the biggest local record label didn’t sign a single Seattle band. That’s “the industry” and Sub Pop’s loss, not ours. Just because the rest of the world isn’t blasting The Maldives or Macklemore yet (or even if they never do) it doesn’t reflect poorly on the scene or the talented folks who call Seattle home. From our front row vantage point, Seattle had an embarrassment of riches in the local music department.
The local hip hop scene bubbled with excitement and slowly-but-surely burgeoned into a topic on everyone’s lips, thanks to the energy of head-turning acts like They Live!, Champagne Champagne, Fresh Espresso, Macklemore, as well as the notorious antics of Mad Rad. Across town from Pike St., Ballard Avenue continued to cultivate a tight-knit community of Americana and rockin’ country bands where pedal steel and fiddle were the instruments du jour. The Maldives, The Moondoggies, Sera Cahoone, Zoe Muth and so many others inhabited both the stages and the bars at the Conor Byrne, the Sunset Tavern, Hatties Hat, and the now 15-year-old environs of the Tractor Tavern, feeding a spirit of collaboration and verve. King Cobra, a rock club which opened up in 2008 in the wake of the Crocodile Cafe’s closing, shut its doors after barely a year of rough business–just in time for a newly revamped Crocodile (without the Cafe in the name) to reclaim its place in March as one of the premier venues in Seattle to see live local music.
While Seattle didn’t spawn a new Fleet Foxes sized success in 2009, we certainly won’t be surprised if a few of the many bands on this list find national attention come 2010. No matter what, we’ll look back on 2009 with warm nostalgia as a vibrant year of local music, when we saw these bands play in living rooms and local bars: the year Seattle knew the words before everyone else could sing along.
25. Zebra by Karl Blau (K Records)
Psychedelic shape-shifter Karl Blau creates an utterly Northwest soundscape that identifies strongly with the output of the Haight-Ashbury facilitated psych movement, as well as the more modern creative likes of Grizzly Bear. “Waiting for the Wind” reminds me of Esquivel’s avant, arty piano, while “Welcome in NW” sounds like it was banged out of an actual sixties basement, fueled by homegrown psilocybins. “‘Tha Ole Moon Smile” makes me do a “Is this a Sixto Rodriguez cut I haven’t heard?” double-take every time. Each new song turns in a completely different direction. By the end you’re left dazed, trying to decipher where you started and what just happened. What happened was Blau presented a reverent journey into musical history through a warped and hazy Technicolor filter. [Josh]
24. From Slaveships to Spaceships by Khingz (self-released)
Much like D. Black’s record this year, Khingz’ From Slaveships to Spaceships finds an MC ignoring hip-hop’s self-imposed strictures about toughness and content, and succeeding through sheer force of purpose and humor. Even though MC Khalil Equiano left town for a while and now lives in British Columbia with his significant other, he obviously loves his hometown scene and returned to the Northwest with this new album in tow, showcasing a rapid-fire rhyming style and spitting dense, wordy verses filled with references to science fiction and his former life on Seattle’s Southside. This is another record distinguished by its brazen autobiographical nature and the surety of the conclusions that follow. “Intellect is a weapon,” he says in “Escape Society.” “You’re at war, please respect it, your struggle is a blessing, embrace, don’t deflect it.” Hip-hop was once widely known as a vehicle for imparting social understanding, and Khingz’ latest is his contribution toward seeing it return once more to that primary function. [Josh]
23. Life On Earth by Tiny Vipers (Sub Pop Records)
Each time I listen to this record I’m reminded that I should probably mentally prepare myself before taking in a whole Tiny Vipers record, unsure if the tears that will inevitably form in my eyes are due to the inherent sadness being communicated, or if I can attribute it to the effect of the one-of-a-kind voice of Jesy Fortino. Four songs in, “Dreamer” hits the headphones; as she coos, “I’m dying for a way out,” I feel as though I’m vibrating on an inter-dimensional frequency, able to sense every haunting ghost, able to see each person’s natural aura of sadness in hues of deep blue. Even though I know this record isn’t for everyone, and though I can’t guarantee you’ll like this record as much as I did, I can guarantee it will change your perspective. If you let it, Life On Earth will overwhelm you. Whether you like it or not, the remainder of your day after a listen is liable to be heightened emotionally because of it. [Josh]
22. The Way We Live by Erik Blood (self-released)
It’s very possible that Erik Blood went around to every hot studio in London ,yoinked every good idea he heard and used it for himself. If he didn’t, maybe they should be coming to him, because he clearly has lots of good ideas. Early on, the title track, “To Leave America,” and “Home & Walk” all synthesize the best of the expansive guitar and organ Brit-rock sound (think Doves), while later in “Broken Glass” and “Too Early & Too Late” we’re notified Blood also has a handle on turning uncomplicated rhythms into sonically interesting pop songs that also sound modern. My one criticism of the record would be that the material is all over the place, and maybe he should have stuck to a rock record instead of including the final two R&B inspired cuts. But then again, “Better Days” is one of the stronger tracks on the record, fusing soul-ish singing with very rock backing to unexpectedly great results. There is something to be said for being able to do experiment with anything and make it sound not just good, but as good as those who do it best. [Josh]
21. Ali’Yah by D. Black (Sportin’ Life Records)
Though much of the recent focus on Seattle hip-hop has been tied to the so-called “3rd-wave” of party rap, one can’t ignore the continued influence of the second wave and its socially conscious approach to concept and performance. In his second album, Ali’Yah, D. Black does a 180 from his previous effort–a stereotypical rap record where he thought he had to be hard–instead opting to be completely REAL about his choices, his identity, and his mistakes. The record is an indictment of his former gangsta self, and by dropping in “The Return,” “I can’t associate with them fake ones/to add to their fake bullets coming out of fake guns,” he’s no doubt turning his back on old friends and the possibility of success by usual means. Yet one can only come away from this record with the conclusion that D. Black is not only confident in his conviction, but righteous. As I said earlier this year, “the force of his example on this record serves to quash any weak retorts that it’s not so easy to turn your back on the game. Not simply inflammatory words, he’s genuinely attempting to engage a nuanced conversation from the inside.” [Josh]
20. Shouting At A Silent Sky by Shane Tutmarc (self-released)
For almost the entirety of his musical career, Shane Tutmarc has been on a journey through history, beginning with an intense interest in classic pop lyricists before more recently being entranced by the gospel recordings of Elvis and the songs of the South. Billed as his first solo effort as Shane Tutmarc, Shouting At A Silent Skyis also probably the most complete, and therefore satisfying, of his recent records–though the Traveling Mercies records are notable themselves for their raw pre-rock quality. By recruiting a few ringers to form his studio support (local producer Johnny Sangster among them), Shane was able to focus on just being Shane at the mic, and the practiced performer really showed through. If Shane’s music occasionally seems styled from another era, just remember that when they came up with the term ‘Rock n’ Roll’, this is what they were talking about: dirtied up blues and church numbers warning about “Crimes of Passion” and the dangers of “Idle Hands.” [Josh]
Read the rest of Sound on the Sound’s Top 25 Northwest Albums of 2009 after the jump
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