Because I’m a Northwest kid, most of Death Cab’s early efforts were notable records in my life. And Give Up via the Postal Service with Jenny Lewis associations is on another level even. Thus Chris Walla and Ben Gibbard and friends have been a significant presence in Northwest rock for nearly a decade now, and no doubt a significant influence on my perception of where the music is headed and what I like. At this point in my mind they’ve made their mark on the “Northwest Sound” just as much as bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Sleater-Kinney and Murder City Devils all have. Thanks to Owl City and a #1 spot on the iTunes and Billboard charts for whatever period, we’re all now painfully aware of the fact the Gibbard has been in the game for nearly 15 years and has spawned imitators, just as the other aforementioned bands have as well. This is all to say that it’s always nice to see when a band is building on what came before them and is remaking a sound for themselves, instead of simply repeating it back verbatim and unadorned. Colonies are the that band I’m speaking of in the context of Northwest modern rock, and their new record Thirty Thousand. In it they’ve harnessed their own perspective onto the roaming herd of the last decade of Northwest influences.

Instead of being imitators, they’ve largely taken their favorite elements of Death Cab or Built to Spill or New Pornographers, and re-purposed them to support a modern melodical pop point of view, featuring with vocal harmonies not unlike those of the the Local Natives. Guitar-wise in certain intro’s and breakdowns it sound’s like they love Built to Spill as much as I do, while In a number of songs they’ve replicated Gibbard’s loping style of arpeggiating his electric. They even recreate some of the same tonal qualities that Death Cab achieves, which is an element I also absolutely like. Despite references aplenty the one thing that remains constant throughout is vocals that remain consistently pop and adventurous with the melody.

I happen to think these guys are ably carrying the torch of Northwest rock into the next decade, and this is something I don’t say lightly. Stream Thirty Thousand right here, and see if you don’t agree:

If you like what you hear you can catch Colonies at Neumos March 25th with Conservative Dad, Lemolo, and the Mopes. I’m definitely going to be there.

Benefit bill’s aren’t usually this great… I wish I could go.

Second Annual
****PUGET SOUNDS - A Benefit Concert for the Marine Environment****

The Society for Undergraduate Resources in Fisheries (SURF) is proud to present a concert to benefit SoundCitizen! This year’s music lineup includes:

GRAND HALLWAY

and

THE MALDIVES

and

COLONIES

Tickets for the event will be on sale soon at the UW HUB Ticket Office, and will be available at the door for a limited period of time.

TICKETS
$10 for Students, Staff, Faculty
$12 for Public

SoundCitizen is a not-for-profit organization founded at the University of Washington Oceanography Department. They aim to explore the relationship between land and sea and how humans are effecting the marine environment. They use active citizen participation to conduct their research. PLEASE visit SoundCitizen at http://www.soundcitizen.org

This Saturday evening two up-and-coming local bands whom we’ve yet to properly feature, Colonies and Alligators, will be playing Piecora’s Back Room. Across the street from Chop Suey on Capitol Hill, Piecora’s back room serves as the New York-themed pizza place’s group room, the big screen room, and for the last few months on the weekends, as a performance room.

After noting they are currently recording their first full length record, Tacoma band Colonies are offering up their debut seven-song EP, titled Sleep Patterns on their myspace page as a free download. Shades of Death Cab are all over Sleep Patterns, a distinctly current sounding rock/pop effort that straddles the Atlantic with respect to its other influences.

MP3: “Berlin! Berlin!” by Colonies from Sleep Patterns (right now the entire EP is available for free at Colonies’ myspace)

For their debut album titled Piggy & Cups which first arrived last October, Port Orchard’s Alligators are now gearing up for a national release on April 7th. Showcasing boy-girl harmonies in a wild mish-mash of pop and rock styles, both vintage and modern, they tap into the timeless sounds of bands like CSNY on “The Conquerer,” in addition to having a slightly disco edge to them that makes them not like any other band I’ve heard lately. At their core, Alligators make inventive pop that’s upbeat and danceable.

MP3: “Where Does it Hide” by Alligators from Piggy & Cups

The show starts at 9pm and is $6. Piecora’s is on 14th and Madison on Captiol Hill, across the street from Chop Suey.

The Spinto Band ::: Photo by Josh

As I previewed the opening songs of the Spinto Band’s new record at Sonic Boom this last weekend, I knew lazy thinking would lead me and others to conclude that they were a boring copy of Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah! Something about the record though had me continuing to listen through the entire album at the listening station, and I decided to pick it up, feeling that these gents seemed to have an energy that CYHSY never provided. A visit to their set at Chop Suey on Tuesday proved me right, as the energetic six-piece tore through Moonwink with the enthusiasm the album was just hinting at.

Considering the sheer amount of unchecked energy being expended on stage during a Spinto Band set, they are a marvel of synchronicity. Co-lead vocalist Nick Krill is a barely contained roamer, his urgent vocals and punchy guitar rhythms, free from any metronome, carves the room the songs really need to breathe and swell and stretch and entertain. It’s too band the Frightened Rabbit crowd decide mostly to not stick around. Their loss I guess.

Frightened Rabbit out of Scotland were unusually sober (to their dismay) for their just-short-of-an-hour-long opening set, though they did have a fully activated fanbase, with one fan from back home offering up some good-natured heckling. Not being hip to the band before this night myself, I couldn’t to participate in the many sing-alongs during the quieter songs, moments which the crowd seemed to be melting for.

During the last quiet just-guitar song, one unruly talker decided to stand right next to the stage converse with her friend, her voice carrying throughout the bar (a metaphorical bull in a china shop you might call her), egregiously shattering the tranquil final moments of an otherwise great set. More than one patron had an extremely pained look on their face as it all went down, while they decided whether to wreck it even more for everyone else by yelling at the person to shut up, or to just suffer and hope the talking would stop quickly. In the end, as usual, the “Seattle Freeze” was the answer and nobody did anything.

Tacoma band Colonies had the local-opener duties, and the last three songs I caught were stunners. I’ve not heard of them before, but they’ve certainly got a new millennium pop feel to them a la Snow Patrol and Death Cab that is unmistakable. Definitely a local band we’ll keep an eye on.

The Spinto Band are on a US tour with Frightened Rabbit through November and into December. Tonight they play Portland. The remaining dates are below the fold:

Read the rest of this entry »