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August 17, 2012

We Celebrated Six Years Online with The Hounds Who Have a New Record

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Hobosexual Strong Killings Hounds of the Wild Hunt Columbia City Theater Sound on the Sound Presents Sound on the Sound Presents
Hounds of the Wild HuntPhoto: Josh Lovseth
Hounds of the Wild Hunt

This August marks six years of Sound on the Sound covering the Seattle music scene and beyond, and for the last two years we’ve been sponsoring the first Friday of each month with handpicked lineups at the Columbia City Theater. Our most recent Friday featured a few familiar faces from that time showing in support of the release of Hounds of the Wild Hunt’s new record “El Mago”

Opening in the Bourbon bar, Lonesome Shack’s country blues vamps proved us to be sleeping until now on one of Seattle’s best roots talents, who I’m told was at one point a Cafe Racer Tuesday night regular sporting tacks on his shoes for percussion. Any party with Strong Killings on the bill we’d be pleased to be a part of as they epitomize the irreverent attitude that brought Seattle’s version of rock and roll into view with the Sonics, and then some two-some decades later with Sub Pop’s efforts. Up third, Hobosexual doubled down on that humor, the hair and the skillz to lay their claim as Seattle’s shreddingist two-piece.

With their latest record The Hounds of the Wild Hunt are now fully engrossed in their more pop oriented ego. Though they might have shed some of the punk irreverance I loved so much with the loss of their old name (The Whore Moans), they’ve taken more control of their tones and now display a matured irreverance a la Paul Westerberg’s Replacements. Rock & Roll culture is as much a slick mainstream fashion statement as advertising angle in 2012; now any notion of counter-culture leanings among popular rock music is pretty laughable. The Hounds continue to ignore the memo by remaining a little rough around the edges, and so on their own terms are delivering provocative performances with an anthemic everyman grit.

Hounds of the Wild HuntPhoto: Josh Lovseth
Hounds of the Wild Hunt
HobosexualPhoto: Josh Lovseth
Hobosexual
Strong KillingsPhoto: Josh Lovseth
Strong Killings
Lonesome ShackPhoto: Josh Lovseth
Lonesome Shack
June 5, 2012

Columbia City Theater hosted Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band’s EP Release Show

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Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

All too often we place new things into a category or bucket of like things in our mind and expect it work according to the rules of the category we’ve come to know. Some artists try to fit the label to a tee and in the broadest possible way, others try to expand the acceptable meaning of their given label. Certain bands resist any easy label at all preferring to bushwack their own path through the wilderness. The three bands in our Friday showcase last week were of this category, where each is a category unto themselves.

Hand-picked by Mt St. Helens Vietnam Band themselves as an opener (it was their EP release after all), Olympia trio You Are Plural was a mesmerizing mostly instrumental effort. North of Northwest favorite Wintersleep on the other hand are a pop band in the loosest sense of the word. As the volume and pace kept increasing through their set I couldn’t help think they weren’t simply following forms but instead keeping their nose to the grindstone seamlessly texturing grittier long jams into songs without losing focus. Their rhythmic goodness had a few folks absolutely screaming for them to return to the stage though they weren’t the headliner.

Recently Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band themselves have maybe scaled back the BPM and twists and turns for some of their more recent songs on their new EP, and as a result they’re arrestingly on-point in supporting bandleader Benjamin Verdoes’ voice which still does twist and turn. Much like a Dave Longstreth or a David Byrne, Verdoes’ unique vocal meter and energy is the warp and woof to this band’s originality, to be danced around or danced with depending on the song. That is if you can imagine a perpetually zig-zagging partner leading you where only he knows the direction of the dance. Better to keep it interesting I say, even if it makes you sweat.


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Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

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Wintersleep ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

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You are Plural ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

March 6, 2012

Win Tickets to Vetiver, Listen to the New Cumulus Single

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Vetiver

Vetiver at Sasquatch 2010 ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Sub Pop’s many tentacles intertwine endlessly. Currently with Sub Pop, Vetiver’s Daniel Hindman recently contributed electric guitar to former Sub Pop artist Damien Jurado on his latest record Maraqopa. Gold Leaves is the project Grant Olsen, formerly of Sub Pop project Arthur and Yu. Now on Sub Pop imprint Hardly Art, Gold Leaves played the Seattle record release show for Maraqopa. Next weekend Gold Leaves is also opening Vetiver’s Seattle’s show happening Saturday March 17th. After spending a few days with Vetiver, Gold Leaves will do some dates with Sub Pop’s Fruit Bats in April.

Leading up to the next weekend’s show the first opener Cumulus has just released her own online single with a full band version of her song “Little Ghost,” previously recorded as the first song from her Cumulus EP on her own, it still retains it’s hushed lullaby qualites:



If you want to snag yourself a pair of tickets to this show courtesy of us, drop your name and a real email address in the comments and we’ll choose a random winner 12 Noon this Friday March 9th.

Get your tickets to the show ahead of March 17th via BrownPaperTickets for $10. This is a show your going to want to get there for all three bands.

March 6, 2012

Getting Close with the Cold War Kids at Columbia City Theater

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Cold War Kids

Cold War Kids ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

For nearly a decade the Cold War Kids have been pounding out dark, soulfully sung rock, the angular and sometimes sparse playing of original guitarist Jonny Russell constrasting strongly with singer Nathan Willett’s insistent gospel voice. Russell has moved on now and in his stead is Murder City Devils guitarist Dann Gallucci, and to my mind a finer pick probably couldn’t have been made. Where Russell always seemed to exist in his own chaotic bubble on stage, on the first night of their three night stay at Columbia City Theater, Gallucci was very much a part of the band interacting on the now small-for-them stage, an easy balance of bombastic and precise that you’d likely only find in a veteran player.

Viewing the original band on the main stage at Sasquatch from the upper lawn a few years back was an impressive sight, but unsatisfying. They were spaced far apart and the size of the stage sapped any dynamic from the “show.” Even their stop at the Showbox’s not large stage was a great show, but the room still felt just too big for a band I’d been introduced to live in a suffocatingly hot (old) Crocodile where nobody knew what was hitting them, and all this band was all you could think about for weeks after. Bassist Matt Maust staring down the crowd and dangerously swinging his bass neck just inches from the crowd’s faces. (I never actually saw him peg anyone though.) The relentless pace and ups & downs of the set list. The chaotic percussion. It all added up to what felt like a very unbridled expression of their music. Not just songs to be sung quietly these are parables to be performed with determination.

This band still brings an uncommon amount of determination to the table, but in light of what I’ve experienced before, I didn’t leave Thursday night with what I was hoping to find from them on a small stage again: an entire room all awestruck by what’s going on in front of them, or myself being overly impressed for that matter. Instead it was a good band playing a few decent new songs and mostly their hits to an intoxicated, raucous and disrespectful crowd who it seemed like they would rather talk and whine to each other than listen to the music. It’s hard to fault the band for that, though I was looking for the band to command the crowd. Superhumanoids opened the night and their Morrissey fronted dream-pop didn’t ever quite rise above the din either.

Small stages popping up the in the oddest of places is nothing new, and if it makes me a snob that I prefer those settings to larger one, then yes I am definitely a snob. For me though it’s not the fact that it’s small that matters. It’s the possibility of everyone in the room being on the same page, the shared experience that a intimate space can bring, the feeling of being on the inside looking in and not just a spectator. Truth be told, and though I’d not dare to admit to such nonsense just a short time ago, Macklemore’s triumphant showing at the Key Arena during Bumbershoot was the single most moving and powerful live moment of 2011 for me. Not because I’m a die hard Mack fan. But because of the accumulated energy being focused at Mack, and him throwing it back just as hard, and the electricity that was in the air because of that.

During those first few CWK performances I experienced the intensity and anticipation in the room was palpable. “What was going to happen next?” I count myself a die-hard Cold War Kids fan, but I have to admit I haven’t felt any anticipation about this band for some time now. Though Thursday night was probably my best possible chance to get some of that back, unfortunately I didn’t. The idea of established artists touring smaller than normal venues with three-night stays though, I am anticipating the coming of that day to no end. Let’s hope this is the start of something.


Cold War Kids

Cold War Kids ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Cold War Kids

Cold War Kids ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

January 20, 2012

Cold War Kids “Mininum Tour” brings them to Columbia City Theater for Three Nights

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I hope news of the Cold War Kids taking their act back to small clubs for multiple nights is the start of a larger trend of artists taking more control keeping them close to their fans. (David Bazan has been doing it with his house show tours notably for years.) Catching them in the old Crocodile was nothing short of a revelation back in 2006 and for others to be able to experience that up close experience again with this band who’s now reached a festival mainstage level of notoriety is a very special opportunity indeed. I wrote back in 2009 “a main-stage set at the Gorge makes that sort of intimate and affecting experience difficult, and I felt disappointed for all of the people who from now on weren’t going to be able to have that chance since the band was growing out of smaller clubs and into arenas.” Maybe they heard my request, since these three nights each in Portland, then Seattle, and then San Fransisco in late February and early March make for the size of show I would actually want to go to.

With the announcement of these plans also comes the online release of two new free songs “Minimum Day” and “Minimum Mistake” from CWK’s own site, or rather one set of lyrics given two different treatments. “Minimum Day” is represents about what we’d expect from the band who’s kept a continued emphasis on remaining raw, something evidenced further still by the recruitment of former Modest Mouse and Murder City Devils’ guitarist Dann Gallucci in place of original guitarist/percussionist Jonny Russell who has moved on. “Minimum Mistake” on the other hand is as spacey as we’ve seen with the same words, emphasizing singer Nathan Willett’s garage soul vocal style, and the band’s signature spooky falsetto echo. Both songs are identifiably of a Cold War Kids vintage in their own way, and so either could have been the definitive version and nobody’d be the wiser. Does that indicate in some way a special feature of what the band will be doing on the tour? Different versions altogether of some songs?

Tickets are on sale for the Columbia City Theater “Minimum Tour” dates today, Friday January 20th at Noon Brown Paper Tickets. “Tickets will be $20 a night or fans can buy tickets for all three evenings for a special discount of $50.”

The Cold War Kids 2012 “Minimum Tour”

02/26 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir 02/27 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir 02/28 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir 03/01 – Seattle, WA @ Columbia City Theater 03/02 – Seattle, WA @ Columbia City Theater 03/03 – Seattle, WA @ Columbia City Theater 03/05 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill 03/06 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill 03/07 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill

This is how this band is meant to be experienced. Will you shrink under bassist’s Matt Maust’s T-Rex staredown?

January 12, 2012

The Torn ACLs CD Release at Columbia City Theater

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The Torn ACLs ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

I won’t lie. I got pretty drunk last Friday (and into my waking Saturday). After a decidedly difficult first week of 2012, I needed some some bourbon and some pop music to put it behind me. And it worked. I had a good time. Actually, a great time. Booking shows that I’d want to go to myself has its benefits. Things are a bit hazy though, and I hardly took any photos as a result. What I do remember well is a band in their element, the Torn ACLs playing the strongest set of music I’ve heard from them yet. Though it’s suffered a short shrift for a few decades in these parts, methinks it was a great start to a year where indications are local pop could be getting its mojo back.

Make a Break, Make a Move. Pick it up. It’s flippin’ catchy.


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Horace Pickett ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

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Balloons ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

December 28, 2011

Sound on the Sound is Presenting the Torn ACLs CD Release Show

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Columbia City Theater Sound on the Sound Presents
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The Torn ACLs ::: Photo by Elliot Levin

Friday January 6th we’ve got a show to make us forget it’s winter. The Torn ACLs have a new record called Make a Break, Make a Move coming out and we’re making our monthly show its release party. This band is a happy-go-lucky pop-athon, cleverly making amusement out of the mundane and lead songwriter William Cremin’s own social awkwardness. They leave the akwardness behind as they step on stage though where booty-shaking rhythms and playful melodies that are built for a party take over, swelling as big as a modern Death Cab on a track like “Emergencies.” A wry humor is a constant and whilst considering the novelty of running a VP’s Beamer off bridge or anthropomorphizing a bass drum the newly-minted live foursome keeps the energy high for whatever’s your bag, a shy head bop or cutting a rug with a partner. If you want to impress a date by making a fool of yourself, this is the band to do it with.

“Friday” by the Torn ACLs from Make a Break Make a Move – download it for free at Bandcamp

“Emergencies” by the Torn ACLs from Make a Break Make a Move

Joining this pop bill are fellow light-hearted house party circuit veterans Horace Pickett and pop duo The Balloons. Horace Pickett has a player named Johnny Unicorn who does accordion, saxophone and bass clarinet? And that sax sounds pretty good.

RSVP on Facebook and snag a ticket ahead of time for a mere $7 at BrownPaperTickets.

December 8, 2011

Shaprece, Lucas Field and Prom Queen at Columbia City Theater

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Columbia City Theater Sound on the Sound Presents
Shaprece

Shaprece ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

2011 was a year full of navel gazing about a time two decades past, a golden age that’s redefined the city’s identity for all time afterward. Seattle wants to think of itself as a music town. And it is, but probably no longer in the strict way most people imagine in their heads, a mecca of garages and long-hairs to damage your ear drums night after night. If anything Sub Pop ushered in an era of interest in music-making in Seattle, an era that hasn’t ended yet. Sub Pop itself in the last year has signed Shabazz Palaces and the Head and the Heart, two diametrically different local bands who are decidedly not grunge or anything close. This fact itself speaks to a local shift in interest away from any specific aesthetic; quality music and musicians are coming from across the board. Continuing to name other nationally notable acts from our area in the last five years reveals no particular pattern at all. Or maybe the pattern is that each artist has developed their own space to exist in, independent of expectations. Last Friday’s bill at Columbia City Theater was a chance for us to make a showcase that quality in the area of R&B and Soul, a local angle we’re admittedly still discovering so much about ourselves.

With a looper and a few backing tracks Prom Queen set a mood from the very beginning. Prom Queen Leeni’s covers were well adapted, “Wicked Games” to start and “November Rain” to close were sultry and just as likely to appeal to men as women. Next time I’ll be laying down my money to hear her do originals though. Presenting a stylized retro elegance with a fur-detailed pink gown, sparkling shoes and hair done up in a tower of jet black, the forthright topics of her own songs reveal hardly a delicate personality. Don’t let the pink guitar and dress fool you. There’s a shit-kicking songstress in there.

Lucas Field never quite had a proper CD release show for his debut solo record Conquest of Happiness that arrived two weeks ago, so this night acting as a proxy had him pulling in a healthy crowd to cut a rug. Bandleader, entertainer, songwriter, soul singer. Each of these descriptions were highlighted at various times as Field, sporting heart-shaped sunglasses, shined in the spotlight and had real fun with his music, his band, and his audience. The ace pipes of duet partner Tiffany Wilson has to be acknowledged as integral to his songs, but Field’s own energy is itself contagious as his Rhodes playfully vamps and his voice flits about Wilson’s rich and steady tones.

When Shaprece and her 7 piece band took the stage ‘elegance’ was once again the operative word, and she wasted no time in showing us what she was capable of with her new single “Dangerous.” Backed by a 7-piece mini orchestra, she’s got an accomplished Gospel voice with a sassy personality to match. Mid-way through the set she asks “Who likes 90′s R&B?” leading into to back-to-back covers of Erykah Badu’s “certainly” and Groove Theory’s “Tell Me” that afterward probably had the mum crowd re-thinking their underwhelming answer. (At least it should have had them rethinking. I always fully endorse 90′s R&B covers.) Shaprece isn’t afraid of ballads either, though her take on a ballad often still fits the bill for bump-and-grind. Ballads in generally aren’t usually my bag, but she kept me interested. “Man of My Dreams” and “Waiting” both had folks finding a solid groove as the night closed out and demanding an encore.

This night was about proving that the likes of cover boy Allen Stone and the rise of Pickwick in our area is just the tip of the iceberg, and that the now popular perspective of pigeonholing Seattle as dominated by an “indie-folk genre,” whatever that amorphous designation (or under-the-breath epithet in some cases) means, is a mistake. The night proved all of that and more. I’ve got to agree with Tony Kay’s lede in his fantastic and lengthy review of the night:

It’s too hasty to really say that Seattle’s in the middle of some sort of original soul-music renaissance, but the groundswell’s right there for everyone to see and hear.

Indeed.

 

Prom Queen

Prom Queen ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Lucas Field

Lucas Field ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Lucas Field

Lucas Field ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Lucas Field

Lucas Field ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Shaprece

Shaprece ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Shaprece

Shaprece ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

October 24, 2011

Dude York, Pipsisewah and The Golden Blondes at Columbia City Theater

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Dude York Columbia City Theater Sound on the Sound Presents
Pipsisewah

Pipsisewah ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Surrounding the re-release of Nevermind and the PJ20 anniversary there’s been a whole lot of navel-gazing about what “grunge” means for Seattle’s rock sound right now. While there are many ways of answering the question of what it all means, I largely agree with the survey of artists done by the Seattle Weekly in the lead up to their REVERB Festival. The collected opinion seems to be that there is no singular “Seattle Sound” and that the legacy of that era is manifest in the intense independence of musicians in our area seeking to find their own way. Instead of a sonic influence, it’s an attitude and ethos that came out of that era.

To my mind the sonic legacy of the Sub Pop explosion was that this town continues to have a special appreciation for rock n’ roll of all stripes. Seeing and hearing bands that rocked but that nobody seemed to be talking about was the initial reason for this blog. Though in this space we’ve certainly been focusing on music of all kinds lately, there is something unusually satisfying to finding a resonance of that sonic legacy in current bands. Maybe it’s seeing that Seattle’s international reputation for hard rock remains legit. Or maybe I really do just love the music that much. Something of both to be sure.

The bill we hosted at Columbia City Theater on October 14th with Dude York, Pipsisewah and The Golden Blondes is the loudest show we’ve booked since our days first booking at The Blue Moon. The kind of music that keeps bartenders busy and the crowd rowdy. And we’re just as excited about that today as we were three years ago. Maybe more so. Dude York swaggers with the unlawful presence and surety of professional party crasher who’s been given control of the keg. Gonna drink your beer, in your face, and recklessly have fun doing it. Soon he’ll probably be making sure your having fun too. Live Dude York embodies the “grunge” ethos more than just about any band I’ve seen while covering Seattle music for Sound on the Sound, flippantly cracking jokes and diving head first into dangerous territory by sampling the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” solo in a song titled to the effect of “Wherein The Coward Dude York Murders Kurt Cobain.” It’s a bold gesture that says much about the bands LOSER attitude and the legacy of that era today. Certainly a helluva lot of catchy hooks are this band’s bread and butter, but still, no sacred cows here.

The occasion for the show was Pipsisewah’s 7″ release, and their hour of 70′s jamz graduated the audience from Manny’s to Maker’s before we closed with a tallboy and the Golden Blondes. To call Pipsisewah’s set a ride wouldn’t be inappropriate, as lead guitarist Tim Gadbois points his Gibson like he’s reigning in a stallion. Bassist Jesse Bonn mounts a rodeo bull. Among the night’s bevy of great slingers, Blonde’s frontman Josey O stood out most as the rock archetype while repping his “New Sportcoat.” Bouncing across the stage he swings his guitar about with such a naturally kinetic stage presence it’s a wonder he gets any singing done at all. Bassist Johnny Nails (Ryan Leyva) matching him move for move and pose for pose with first class harmonies to boot cemented the night’s quality and solidified our answer to the question of how much of an active verb “rock” really is in relation to Seattle’s musical identity.

We were looking to present one angle, a possible answer to the question of the state of rock in these parts. Friday proved to be a convincing answer, but we recognize hardly the only answer or even the definitive answer. If anything that REVERB questionnaire reveals we shouldn’t hang on to the notion of a singular “Seattle Sound” too tightly. The musicians who live here aren’t viewing this place monolithicaly, and never really did, so it doesn’t really make sense for the rest of us to view it that way either.

 

Dude York

Dude York ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Dude York

Dude York ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Pipsisewah

Pipsisewah ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Pipsisewah

Pipsisewah ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

The Golden Blondes

The Golden Blondes ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

The Golden Blondes

The Golden Blondes ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

October 6, 2011

Sound on the Sound Presents: The Golden Blondes, Pipsisewah, Dude York – Win Tickets!

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Columbia City Theater Sound on the Sound Presents
pips_blondes_dude

For our October bill we wanted to bring you something a little different: some sloppy swagger served with a side of straight up rock and roll. Some new bands for us to talk about and a chance to share the songs we’ve been playing so loud lately the windows have been shaking and the new neighbors are complaining.

And the bill we’ve booked for next Friday October 14th is exactly that.

The Golden Blondes Pipsisewah (7” release) Dude York

9pm / 21 + / $5 Columbia City Theater

Want to win tickets to this awesome affair? Just leave a comment below, with your real email address and name, and we’ll pick a lucky winner next Wednesday at noon.

The Golden Blondes:

On record, there’s a British aloofness to The Golden Blondes garage tunes. Now, that’s not a bad thing, spinning the band’s dual 7”s, my only complaint is having to run back to the turntable so frequently to flip them. These are the tunes I like to play when getting dressed up for a night I know I’ll be up to no good. They’re dirty, mischievous, hook heavy, they’re pawing at your buttons and pounding down you’re door. Plus, Micah Simler’s basslines make me a little weak in the knees. Live, The Blondes have been putting on some of my favorite shows lately, a perfect mix of reserved and rowdy, where you can’t help but spill Rainier as your fist shoots in the air to pump along.

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Pipsisewah:

Pipsisewah is all about the jams. Not the tree-dancing, hippie-twirling jams that have given the phrase a bad name outside of Widespread Panic fans, but the kind of jams that made bands like Thin Lizzy famous in the early ’70s. The muscle car of rock, before a crimped haired groupie was slithering on it thanks to hair metal, Pipsisewah is the simple satisfaction of worn blue jeans, cheap beer, summer days and lots and lots of electric guitar.

Pipsisewah will be celebrating the release of their new 7” Semi Gloss, which will be available for sale for the first time at the show.

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Dude York:

Listening to Dude York, which is all I’ve really wanted to listen to, I realize there haven’t been nearly enough 11 song, 24 minute long albums in my life lately. But Dude York have filled that emptiness with Gangs of Dude York a goofily titled album released this May that is no joke. Spastically catchy, Gangs of Dude York teeters and crosses the brink to chaos, but always comes back to a surprising classic pop center. Such a short and solid album only leaves the listener wanting more, but the minute play time does allow nearly three listens per hour. And, sensing perhaps that their fans would want more, the band has just released Satanic Vs. an EP of left overs that didn’t fit into the 24 minute master plan.