July 26, 2012

Friday is Flush with Options

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In Seattle mid-summer can be a dead zone for rad shows due the many festival’s onerous blackout periods but this Friday is a rare exception with a grip of shows choose from. The weather is nice, so you’ve got no excuse to stay in. Abbey’s already talked about the David Bazan Cathedrals show happening in Tacoma, and here’s a few I more wish I could split myself between:

At Barboza – Magic Trick, La Sera, Foxygen

The Daily Choice has been playing close attention to Tim Cohen‘s Project for years now and been constantly impressed. Now among Hardly Art’s cadre, Magic Trick takes hazy pop experimentation even further than his other band The Fresh & Onlys, Haight circa 2012. I dig. Opener Foxygen just re-released their debut on Jagjagwuar this week after a bandcamp release late last year where they did job of modernizing psyche for a new generation themselves.

Pantages Theater in Tacoma – The Sonics

The Sonics first hometown show since 1966!?! After reuniting in 2008 and doing stints in Europe seminal Northwest garage band The Sonics are finally coming back to Tacoma. How did I not know about this until yesterday?

 

 

At Jazz Alley – Ramsey Lewis & His Electric Band

He’s a legend.

 

At The Tractor Tavern – Fort Union, Cataldo, Widower

This is where I’m headed. Any opportunity to see Kevin Large sing songs as Widower I take. The criminally unheralded pop of Cataldo is always something to look forward to. Fort Union’s celebrating a new record chocked full of exactly the kind of rollicking acoustic numbers you expect to hear in Ballard on a Friday night.

 

March 7, 2011

The Daily Choice: La Sera – Devils Hearts Grow Gold (VIDEO)

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La Sera just keeps blowing my mind.  With tarot cards and dice rolling and a fat devil man and confetti and a jangly dreamed-out bit of bliss that’ll haunt me ears for days to come.

I DCed this soft son of a bitch a while back, but this video it deserved its own space.

Hardly Art has all the La Sera love you can get your hands on.

La Sera – Devils Heart Grow Gold

January 13, 2011

Fergus & Geronimo’s – Where The Walls Are Made Of Grass Video

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Hardly Art is going to have a mammoth year in 2011.  I can just feel it in my bones.  La Sera, Fergus & Geronimo, Woven Bones, and who knows what those tricksters have up there sleeves.

This video feels is like a scrap-booked version of your great-grandma’s first tropical vacation.  Take that as you will.

January 12, 2011

The Daily Choice: La Sera – Devils Hearts Grow Cold

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Lets be quite honest: the torrent of girl garage has worn me out a bit. Hell, the torrent of garage has worn me out a bit, left spinning in a strangely non-musical void as I fight to find foothold between the barrage of punchy synth and lo-fi guitar that seems to dominate music right now.  Thus La Sera, Kickball Katy of the Vivian Girls new side project, is a welcome surprise.  Still finely enmeshed in the 60s pop revival that there seems no escape from these days, La Sera manages to inject a certain sense of dreamy haze to the mix, especially on this upcoming 7″ “Devils Hearts Grow Cold”.  This one is a cosmic space odyssey of a track, eschewing grit and grime, for a free-floating balloon of morphined-grins.

This track will be on a 7″ from Hardly Art out on January 18th.  The A-Side is an album track, while the B-Side is a cover of an oldies standard. There full length releases in February.

La Sera – Devils Hearts Grow Cold

November 3, 2010

The Daily Choice: La Sera – Never Come Around

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La Sera – Never Come Around from Brady Hall on Vimeo.

La Sera feels like a breath of fresh air.  I’ve gotten so over-saturated with this girl-garage wave that has somehow managed to be slapped against the wall and stick, that when I see names like Dum Dum Girls or Vivian Girls or The Splinters I pull back a little bit.  Not to say that these ladies aren’t putting out solid material, I’m just a little bloated on the goodness.  A seven year old boy, chocolate faced and nauseous after Halloween.

Thus, the fact that La Sera has me tapping my feet and smiling again is a pretty big deal.  Katy Goodman has been slapping bass for the Vivian Girls for a while now and it’s nice to see here branch in to a different segment of the girl group revival.  This isn’t fuzzed out garage, this is early 70s melodic pop.  It’s so sugary it almost hurts your teeth, but I think Goodman and crew pull it off, crafting an homage to a really enjoyable era of music without completely imitating.  I haven’t had the enjoyment of listening to the album in full, but if “Never Come Around” is any indicator, I’m in for a pleasant listen.

La Sera’s Never Come Around 7″ is available here on Hardly Art.

La Sera – Never Come Around

La Sera plays the Hemlock Tavern with No Joy tomorrow evening in San Francisco.