Haven’t done one of these for awhile, but just in case you’re curious as to the tunes that kept me company this first month of 2008… here it is. 

Wild Orchid Children - Wild Orchid Children EP
J. Tillman - Cancer and Delirium and Minor Works
The Shackeltons - The Shackeltons
Blue Scholars - “Guns and Butter” (live on KEXP)
The Lashes - Thank You EP
Palmer, AK (anything written by Eric Howk, basically)
The Mountain Goats - “Sax Rohmer #1″ (cannot wait for Heretic Pride!!)
PWRFL Power - “Tomato Song” (i’m slightly obsessed with this song)
Ravens & Chimes - “Faraway Sound of Cars”
Modest Mouse - “March Into The Sea”
The Go - “Yer Stoned Italian Cowboy”
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Elvis Perkins - “Shampoo”
Vindaloo - “Death Stars Coming Baby”
Whalebones - “Don’t You Know”

I know I said I’d never pay to see Modest Mouse again…. but now that REM has announced that Issaquah’s own will be opening their next tour, in addition to The National; I just might have to eat my words. Even if that means having to drive to Vancouver, BC for the show. |Pitchfork|

A new species of Beetle, has been named after Roy Orbison and his widow. An entomologist made the announcement this weekend during an Orbison tribute concert. The beetle, which looks like it is wearing a tuxedo, will be called Orectochilus Orbisonorum. .|Yahoo|

One of my favorite discoveries of 2007, The Bowerbirds have signed to Secretly Canadian’s offshoot label, Dead Ocean. The band will be touring in support of new label-mates, Phosphorescent, including a couple shows at the years SXSW. |Pitchfork|

The Shortlist Award announced it’s ten finalists today. The ten chosen ones are: Arcade Fire, Burial, Feist, Justice, LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A., Spoon, Stars, Wilco, and Working for a Nuclear Free City. |Shortlist Site|

And lastly, if you paid thousands dollars to see Led Zeppelin at O2 arena in London, this may make you very angry. Jimmy Page says he wants to take Zeppelin back on the road for a world tour.  They’ll have to wait for Robert Plant to finish his tour with Allison Krause, but we might just be hearing Stairway in Seattle.|Yahoo|

For the purposes of this list the Northwest includes Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. I’d like to include Vancouver B.C. but I just don’t know enough to really say too much about it. Notable bands who hail from the northwest and released an album this year include but are not limited to the 25 chosen for this list. Should I have aggregiously missed an album that deserves attention, leave a comment.

25. Dept of Energy - Held By Waits

24. A Gun That Shoots Knives - Miracle

23. Das Llamas - World War

22. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

21. Aqueduct - Or Give Me Death

20. Solvents - Manresa Castle

19. Rocky Votolato - The Brag & Cuss

18. The Shaky Hands - The Shaky Hands

17. Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter - Like, Love, Lust

16. The Lonely H - Hair

15. Laura Viers - Saltbreakers

14. Feral Children - Eternity Emergency EP

13. Ms Led - Shake Yourself Awake

12. The Blakes - The Blakes

11. Ghost Stories - Quixoticism

10. David Bazan - Fewer Moving Parts EP

9. Shane Tutmarc and the Traveling Mercies - I’m gonna Live the Life I Sing About in My Song

8. Whalebones - Morning Man EP

7. Siberian - With Me

6. Ice Age Cobra - Brilliant Ideas from Amazing People

5. Tiny Vipers - Hands Across the Void

4. The Whore Moans - Watch Out for this Thing

3. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away

2. Cave Singers - Invitation Songs

1. Menomena - Friend and Foe

Give a listen. Buy an album.

Abbey will have her list of the best local Seattle releases shortly as well.

Seattle Sound Magazine’s latest cover story is about “The 50 Greatest Songs from Seattle,” a question that’s proved great fodder for  thought and conversation. Josh and I were both very flattered to be asked our opinions for the piece and to see ourselves credited as “Seattle music know-it-alls,” though I don’t think any of the songs we named made it in the top 20. Here were my nominations and reasonings, I’ll try and get Josh to post his as well.

Teeth Like Gods Shoeshine - Modest Mouse 
When I lived away from Seattle, this song made me terribly homesick. Every run-down mall in the PNW (which was all of them) had a Orange Julia’s Julius in the 80’s and until recently at least, the Seattle Center still had one. I drove past the buildings on the cover of the album, Lonesome Crowded West, almost every day of my childhood. The song, the band’s sound in this era - that’s the Seattle I grew up in.
 
Lithium - Nirvana
Iconic. What’s more Seattle than a song named after the number one treatment for manic depression? 
 
Cream - Thee Emergency
Thee Emergency is the band that made me fall back in love with Seattle music. I think Cream would be a stand-out song on any album, no matter the artist, it’s got the heavy soul of old blues.

Rearviewmirror - Pearl Jam
Vs. was validation that pearl jam wasn’t a fluke band, with a few great songs in them. A point they’ve continued to hammer home to this day.     

Jesus Lips - Hopscotch Boys
Acid Pony - Ice Age Cobra 
While they have distinctly different sounds and feels as bands, Hopscotch and IAC are what grunge could/would have become if it had a chance to grow up and evolve. The Hopscotch Boys also happen to put on the craziest live show in the city, they’re somewhere between crime and art.  
 
Praying Hands Make Fists - The Hands
A perfect mix of old and new sounds, recorded in their basement, a true accomplishment of the Seattle DIY scene.

Baby’s Got Back - Sir Mix A Lot 
The birth of the Seattle hip hop sound, in my consciousness. To this day I know every word to this song… and I’m pretty sure most of you do too. 

Not long ago I wrote about the best albums of 2007 so far. A couple of days ago I was in the car and heard a song that reminded me of the dissapointments of 2007. Or should I say dissapointment:

Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

My dissapointment in this album far eclipses that of any other lackluster release of 2007.

Their live performance to back the album, didn’t help either.

Be in a Gossip Video! If you’ve got nothing to do all day tomorrow, their looking for a few extras to film in downtown Seattle.

Modest Mouse B-sides record? Apparently there are a few almost finished tracks that didn’t make it on to the last few albums that might be turned into a record. Hmmm…

Flash Hawk Parlour Ensemble set tour. Chris Funk, of “Guitarmageddon” and Decemberists fame, has a Portland band called Flash Hawk Parlour Ensemble that will be playing in Seattle June 1.

Rock Photography exhibition focusing on nineties grunge scene. Seattlest points us to a photography exhibition (in Santa Fe) called Come As You Are: Seattle’s Rock Legacy. It has some of the best pics of Pearl Jam and Nirvana that I have ever seen. Hopefully the exhibition will make it’s way to Seattle sometime.

Update:

Sasquatch Updates… Annual Sasquatch Pie Eating Contest on Monday May 21 at Hatties Hat in Ballard. The Total Experience Gospel Choir has been scheduled for a mainstage performance on Sunday with details of a Sunday Morning Gospel Brunch forthcoming soon.

DJ FITS, i read your review of the Modest Mouse show from last Sunday in the new Stranger today, and I had trouble telling that we went to the same show. I took a look at the setlist you so kindly made up for us and indeed we did go to the same show. So why is it then that there is no mention of how poorly the show turned out? I was expecting a proper Stranger critic incited dressing down and I got none of it.

Maybe your expectations have been lowered by seeing them sound like shit too many times to realize just how bad they really were. Maybe you were in some secret seats where the music you heard was somehow better than what we in first level of the mezzanine were privy to, mainly constantly inaudible vocals and the impressively bad sound in general. All I could think was about the persistent feedback every damn song.  And the amazing thing about it all is that all of the fans were loving it and eating it up.

All I’ve heard is poor things about Modest Mouse shows, and this one gave me zero evidence to the contrary. I’d like to say that the band kicked ass, but I can’t, because I couldn’t hear anything properly. I was most definitely not overwhelmed by their “instrumental manpower.” I really wanted to like this show. But as my title states I was not impressed. Most bad shows I go to are just not worth of mention at all, but in this case I made an exception. Get it better next time boys.

I go to a lot of shows as a fan and music writer. (on average 2-3 per week)  I have stood through a lot of mediocre and a few down right awful acts, and to date I had never left a venue based on peformance alone. Modest Mouse’s performance tonight at the Paramount Theatre (which is still going on as I type) changed that. From the first song the sound was terrible, you could barely hear Isaac Brock’s vocals on most songs and there was a constant shrieking of feed back. Whatever the issue was, no one could be bothered to fix it or just turn it down,  no the feedback continued for over an hour, getting worse each song. While the feedback got louder and screechier, Brock’s vocals were quieter and more erratic. Though I’d been previously dissapointed by Modest Mouse live I was really hopeful for tonight’s show with the new line up, some decent new material, and a sold out home town crowd.

But I just have to come to grips that while they put out great albums, they stink live. I will never waste money on seeing Modest Mouse again.

Green Screen Wizards, your next challenge is … Modest Mouse. The green screen saga’s continue. MTVu is sponsoring a green screen challenge for Modest Mouse’s new song, “We’ve got Everything.” If your just into the remix stuff instead, you could give a Dntel song a try.

Grand Archives sign to Sub Pop. Formerly just Archives, this seattle outfit with current and former members from Fruit Bats and Band of Horses. With just one show under their belt, they will be opening for Modest Mouse this Sunday at the Paramount. Nice job gents!

The Cave Singers being courted in New York? Apparently, this last week the Cave Singers spent some time in New York, but have not signed with Matador (yet) as was rumored. This band is so good though they would be dumb not to. Just my humble opinion.

Frog Eyes announce spring Tour. This B.C. group will be hitting Seattle on May 1 at the Croc. I recommend checking out this mp3. Then you’ll decide you need to be there.

I thought I would do a short wrap up of a couple of new local albums that we thought were significant around these parts last month, March of 2007, but we have yet to do any significant writing about. Not coincidentally they will all be playing a gig within the next two weeks so you can check out one of these great bands for yourself.

Dept. of Energy - Held By Waits

Dept of Energy truck around a major organ setup with them to each show and when I first saw it, I definitely questioned whether it wouldn’t just be better to bring a synth around instead. But after hearing “Scuba,” the lead track off of their new album titled Held By Waits (which is also a line from the ”Scuba”), I now have to admit that the genuine organ is pretty filthy. Throughout the album, singer Robb Benson’s voice is a moving target, occasionally sounding like a John Roderick impersonator, and never sounding the same way from one song to the next. Other notable songs include “The Way You Pictured It” and “Lost Time.” Currently “The Way You Pictured It” has me in it’s grasp; it’s on repeat in my head. The backing three part harmonies sound so cool.

2 Songs - “Scuba” and “The Way You Pictured It”

Next Show - April 17 at the Crocodile (Opening for Kelly Stolz) 

Spanish for 100 - Say What You Want To Say To Me

Spanish for 100’s third long player release Say What You Want To Say To Me never lets up in its intent to be a thrilling rock album. At moments they venture into slow pop song territory, but it works, as lead Corey Passons isn’t shy about actually making an effort at melodic singing and his voice pleasantly reminds me of the Bodeans among others during the quieter songs. On the guitar end of things though, hard drivin’ Built to Spill is the most obvious influence (see “Say What You Want To Say” and “Attack!”), with even the slow songs dripping in distortion. Form my money ”Sweet Suprise” and “Limerance Be” are both highly polished songs that wouldn’t seem out of place among any number of current radio station playlists. In short, these gents have something special and this album demonstrates just what a force to be reckoned with this local band is.

2 Songs to take note of - ”Sweet Suprise” and “Say What You Want To Say”

Next Show - April 21 at the Sunset in Ballard

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