Blog Archives

August 22, 2011

Star Anna – “I Don’t Blame You”

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After Hot Bodies In Motion got the crowd dancing extra hard to their cover of Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” this Saturday and The Moondoggies closed their pseudonymed set on Friday with The Byrds “Sweet Mary”, Josh and I got to talking about covers. About how a well-placed one can make all the difference in the world in a set for a newcomer or seasoned performer and how in the internet age, it seems that an unexpected or well-executed cover often draws more attention to a band than an original. Especially new bands. If you don’t know the band a familiar song serves as a connector and common-ground, while a well-done cover by a band you know often shows a different side of the performers or a glimpse to their own favorites or inspiration.

So I was pretty excited this morning when I stumbled on Star Anna covering one of my very favorite Cat Power songs, “I Don’t Blame You.” Star Anna’s bruised, beautiful delivery on grand piano doesn’t stray far from the original, but the crackling vulnerability in her voice is enough to conjure more than a few goosebumps. Which should come as no surprise to anyone who’s seen Star Anna perform live.

I can only hope that Star Anna might think of reprising it this Saturday when she takes the stage at The Triple Door with Widower. Considering we just saw Kevin Large play 3 hours of originals and covers ranging from Elliott Smith to Bruce Springsteen at the Brave Horse Tavern and his originals out-shined some legends, it’s bound to be a night of new and old favorites.

And since I clearly love a well-done cover, I gotta ask: What’s your favorite cover song?

August 24, 2009

Night After Night: August 24th to August 30th

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The Maldives (inspire Air Banjo) ::: photo by Abbey Simmons

This should just be subtitled: The Maldives edition. This week, Seattle’s favorite Wrangler headbangers are going to be everywhere. The band is celebrating the release of their new album Listen to The Thunder with three nights at The Tractor Tavern. We wouldn’t blame you if you caught all three shows. Not just because the band is that good live (they are), but they’ve created three nights of stellar local line-ups. Each  night should have a completely unique feel and show a facet of the many different sides of The Maldives. Plus, few folks know how to put on a party than The Maldives, so if whiskey and dancing is your thing…we recommend you catch at least one of the multiple Maldives events this week.

Monday – August 24th:

Who: The Maldives - “Listen to the Thunder” Listening Party Where: Hattie’s Hat How (Much): Free. But buy a drink for the band and tip your bartender. Why: Get a listen to Listen to the Thunder so you can sing along on whichever (or all) of the three consecutive nights of Maldives shows you see at The Tractor Tavern later this week. After you get a listen to soon-to-be Seattle Twang classics like “Goodbye”, “Time is Right Now,” “Cold November” and “Tequila Sunday,” the men from The Maldives will be spinning their favorite tunes. Expect an evening of stiff drinks,  a plethora of beards, and eclectic but enjoyable tunes.

Equally Awesome Alternative: Eyede & Abilities – Nectar

You have Tuesday off…

Wednesday - August 26th:

Who: Jay Reatard Where: Easy Street Records (Queen Anne)  – 7pm How (Much): Free Why: To see if all the blog buzz is worth it without spending a dime.

Thursday - August 27th:

Who: Final Spins, Battle Hymns Where: The Comet Tavern How (Much): At least 5$, but Less than 10$ (no price listed anywhere!) Why: To celebrate the Finals Spins debut EP and to hear a few songs from the forthcoming Battle Hymns release. Because you’re tired of all of your favorite local rock bands have broken up and you need to discover a couple of great new bands.

Equally Awesome Alternative: The Pretenders, Cat Power – Marymoor Park The Maldives, North Twin, 17th Chapter – Tractor Tavern Jay Reatard, Sonic Boom Records (Ballard) – 7pm The Spits, The Cute Lepers, The Ononos - Chop Suey

Friday – August 28th:

Who: The Maldives, The Moondoggies, Zoe Muth Where: The Tractor Tavern How (much): 11$ (and going to sell out) Why: Because there is no more perfect musical pairing in this city right now than The Moondoggies and the Maldives. Add the sweet country stylings of Zoe Muth to the bill and you have one of the best local line ups of the year.

Equally Awesome Alternative: Carousel Festival – Various DIY Venues The Avett Brothers – The Paramount Mad Rad, Chk Minus, Darwin – The Comet Tavern Harvey Danger (Last All Ages Show Ever) – Vera Project

Saturday - August 29th:

Who: The Ironclads, We Wrote The Book On Connectors, Doctor Doctor Where: The High Dive How (Much): 7$ Why: It’s The Ironclads last show before a very long hiatus and there are few places in Seattle more electric, dynamic, or exciting than the front row of an Ironclads show right now…especially if you know the choruses to a few of their songs. And the downer of the last Ironclads show will be handily balanced out by sets from two of Seattle’s most enjoyable and over-the-top performances, We Wrote the Book on Connectors and Doctor Doctor. If you want to dance, laugh, or sing along to your favorite new band you may never see again…this is the show for you.

Equally Awesome Alternatives: The Maldives, Thee Emergency, Shim, Pickwick - Tractor Tavern Carousel Festival – Various DIY Venues The Purrs, Black Nite Crash, Blood Red Dancers - Sunset Harvey Danger (Last Show Ever) – The Crocodile Star Anna, Gin Betty – Triple Door

Sunday - August 30th:

Who: Carousel Festival Where: a few of Seattle’s Finest DIY Venues How (Much): 5$ for one show/8$ for one day (proceeds benefit Hollow Earth Radio and the Urban Rest Stop) Why: To celebrate an integral part of the Seattle scene and some great local bands in a more intimate setting than you’ve ever seen them before…and all for a couple of great causes. (Beyond DIY music)

Equally Awesome Alternative: The Lost Episode, Ambulance – Skylark

September 9, 2008

Bumbershooting: Thao & The Get Down, Stay Down

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Thao Backstage ::: photo by Abbey

Thao & The Get Down, Stay Down  was one of my favorite discoveries of Bumbershoot this year. Despite her petite stature Thao is commanding on stage, with songs so catch you can’t help but sway–especially on a beautiful Seattle summer day. Thao has the voice of Chan Marshall/Cat Power without the instabilities that makes all Cat Power shows an utter crap-shoot. It is not the voice or the songs that you expect to come out of Thao and her band at all, but they own them–just as they did the Bumbershoot stage. The surprise of it all is also a huge part of the delight of Thao. The audience literally begged for more after Thao & the Get Down, Stay Down left the stage, clammering for just a few more cheery bars with a clever whiskey-throated woman.

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down ::: photo by Abbey

Thao & Her Adoring Audience ::: photo by Josh

April 11, 2008

The Weekend Approaches

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rock lottery seattle 2008

This weekend provides a bevy of offerings for your aural pleasure. They include but are not limited to:

Friday April 11

The Shackeltons at Easy Street Records (6pm, $FREE)

Cat Power at Showbox SODO

Saturday April 12

The Avett Brothers at Neumos

Katharine Hepburn’s Voice at the Blue Moon Tavern ($FREE)

Sunday April 13

The Rock Lottery at Neumos ($10) – 25 musicians are broken up into five bands, given 12 hours to come up with a 3-5 song set with a limit of one cover, and then asked to perform said songs in front of a crowd.

Whalebones, Feral Children at the Cha Cha ($FREE)

In addition to that, the EMP Pop Conference is going on at the EMP at Seattle Center through Sunday.

December 5, 2007

Tis the Season

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It’s the holiday season, and you know what that means… Strangercrombie time! That’s right, the fine folks over at the Stranger have put together a horde of items on eBay, which you can bid on to benefit FareStart. Strangercrombie is a special auction, featuring items and events of all kinds that you will find no where else. In the music category one can find auctions for show posters, parties at local venues, bands covering the song of your choice and even a Cat Power autographed acoustic guitar.

The sweetest item in the music section though is probably the “Your Band’s Big Break” item featuring a new guitar, studio time at Electrokitty studio in Seattle, mastering for that recording, styling by VAIN for a photoshoot by a Rolling Stone photographer, a couple dates at the Sunset and the opportunity to have someone at Sub Pop actually listen to your music. The band that gets that one will be lucky dogs.

I’m seriously considering bidding on this item, or event, rather: a night to have local rock photographer Charles Peterson critique what you’ve done and even tutor you at a live show. What a great idea. After looking at his page, I can safely say I want to be Charles Peterson when I grow up. I am also considering bidding on “Awesome” writing a special song. This blog desperately needs a theme song.

On the not music side of things… this. $10000 already? WTF? I don’t understand why he is so popular. At least it’s all for a good cause.

November 21, 2007

It’s Winter – Cue the Weepy Strings

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The temperature starts going below freezing, and out come the weepy string songs. This is of course, interspersed with the sparse acoustic tunes, which also dominate my winter listening.

Take a look at a few of my most played tunes as of late:

* the entire lovely album, Manressa Castle - The Solvents  here’s one of my favorite songs on the album, All Your Demons Pulling: All Your Demons Pulling – Solvents

* Majesty Snowbird - Sufjan Stevens

* Cold Wind - The Arcade Fire

* I Found A Reason – Cat Power I Found A Reason – Cat Power

* and a whole lot of Andrew Bird and Elliott Smith

August 28, 2007

Largely Local Music News Round-Up

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* Available to download, the first song off Seattle ex-pats Band of Horses forthcoming album, Cease to Begin. The song, “Is There A Ghost” definitely sounds like a BoH tune, and is available for download on the bands Myspace. The album isn’t due out until October 9th, but you can catch  Band of Horses  at Neumo’s on September 11th with Dinosaur Jr.

* The Cave Singers have posted a new song from their forthcoming debut album, also on their myspace page. If you’ve seen The Cave Singers before, the song (“New Monument”) will be a familiar favorite, and I’m pleased to report the recording does it beautiful justice. The band also just announced a huge tour in support of the album, so also check their myspace to see if they are coming to a town near you. If they are – go.

* Also debuting new tunes on myspace, Seattle behemouth of a band, “Awesome“. The songs are off the bands upcoming release, Beehive Sessions.

* And lastly on the new music on the myspace page is Jose Gonzalez. This guys voice couldn’t possibly be anymore beautiful. I had the pleasure of seeing him play for an intimate crowd at last years Bumbershoot and it was easily the best show of the entire festival.

* An unreleased live track, featuring Chan Marshall (i.e. Cat Power) on drums, surfaced today. It’s not a new Cat Power track per se, but it is 9 minutes of good, down and dirty blues. The track was recorded at a Parisian fashion show, with the aptly named “Dirty Delta Blues Band, and it’s worth a listen.

* One of our favorite Seattle bands, Shane Tutmarc and The Traveling Mercies have announced their first all ages show – September 7th at The Old Firehouse in Redmond. The Mercies will be playing with Speaker Speaker and one of Shane Tutmarc’s favorite local bands whose name he can’t mention. Which at this time of the year means only one thing … it’s a band that’s playing Bumbershoot. Speculate away!

* Another local favorite of mine, The Hands are looking for a violinist to play on some rough tracks they are laying down for their next album. If you know any good violinists send them to The Hands, and then send them to me! I want to know how The Hands are using a violin on their next record!!

* And lastly, this Saturday’s show at Bumbershoot will be Seattle band Lillydale’s final performance.

June 12, 2007

And The Shortlist Winner Is….

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Cat Power – The Greatest

We can fully support this winner. (i’m just thanking the hipster gods that it was BOH.)

Congrats to our favorite moody, brilliant chanteuse.

Chan is the first woman to be awarded the Shortlist.

May 2, 2007

Shortlist Nominee’s

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The Shortlist Award nominee’s have been announced. The award is peer-selected and “recognizes the most creative and adventurous albums of the year.” Basically, this is an award you will never hear about but one where you might actually see a few band names on it that you like. (The Grammy’s are a very foreign land to me….who the fuck are these people?!?)

And the nominee’s are….

Band of Horses Beirut Bonnie Prince Billy Cat Power Girl Talk Hot Chip Joanna Newsom Regina Spektor Spank Rock Tom Waits

The winner will be announced “in May,” which is um, now.

tip of the hat to Three Imaginary Girls Imagi-Blog  

March 18, 2007

Chan for Chanel

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Here’s the first batch of Chan Marshall’s (i.e: Cat Power) ads for the Chanel fashion house.

Chan for Chanel

Tip of the Hat to Purple Magazine