With the proliferation of iPhone videos and digital SLR cameras, you hardly need a Hammer sized budget to make a music video. Enter Posse and Don’t Talk to The Cops, two local bands who released delightfully DIY videos today.
Both bands are getting ready to celebrate the release of new records:
Don’t Talk to the Cops announced they’ll be releasing their latest Let’s Quit on local outfit Out for Stardom this Valentines Day. They’ll be celebrating the release with a rager next Saturday (February 4th) at The Baltic Room.
2011 wasn’t just a great year for local full-lengths, awesome releases abounded in all formats: EPs, 7”s and yes, even cassettes. In fact, Phil’s favorite local release of all of 2011 was Mercy Ties and Grenades split 12”.
Here are 15 of our favorite local EPs, 7”s and cassettes of the past year and our favorite nationally released EP with links to listen or look at each of them:
Having fallen deep down a used-vinyl sized hole this year, I managed to completely miss most of the national blog buzz bands and mp3s making the press release copy&paste rounds of 2011, those things that so often fill end of the year lists. But considering the immense output from our little corner of the country, I don’t feel I suffered or starved for new songs to keep me company. These are the forty songs from 2011 that were my soundtrack and that I played on repeat. I’m not bold enough to say they are the best songs of 2011, but they are my favorites.
While this list is not enumerated, my very favorite song of the year, Kelli Schaefer’s heart-aching-to-the-point-of-breaking “Gone in Love,” is at the top with some other absolute favorites. “Gone in Love” is a song that has not lost its emotional wallop despite hundreds of listens and many live performances over the last 12 months. And every time I see Kelli sing it, I can’t stop my chin from quivering. “Gone in Love” isn’t just one of my favorite songs of 2011, it is one of my favorite songs.
That’s hardly true for every song on this list. Every year has its one-hit wonder and I have no shame in saying I played the hell out of 2011′s. Whether its a song that stays with you for decades or a song you only blast until the end of the year, I hope you might discover a new favorite of your own by taking a listen to some of mine.
Like most of vitamin D starved Seattle, my desperation for sunshine and temperatures not requiring multiple sweaters is reaching previously unknown levels. I was born and raised in Seattle, I can deal with some gray and rain with the most stoic of people, but after last years summer fake out, I’m fiending for t-shirt weather like never before.
While Seattle has only physically offered us golden glimpses of sunshine, musically there are a number of new bands whose sun-washed sounds transport me from our long winter straight to summertime. Considering my craving, it should come as no surprise these are a couple of the local bands I’m listening to most.
Sounding more San Francisco than Seattle, Posse’s rough around the edges indie-pop equally satisfies my need for moody melancholy and toe-tapping catchiness. There’s a sunny slur to the songs, like the year’s first trip to the beach where its the brown-bagged booze that keeps you warm instead of the sunshine and Posse has me drunk. For your first sip, I suggest “Sarah.”
Posse is playing next Friday (April 22nd) at The Comet.
Smokey Brights by Dylan Priest
If Posse sounds like the beginning of the summer, Smokey Brights is a lazy August day gorged with sun. A new project two years in the making from Ryan Devlin, best known as the bassist for Hounds of the Wild Hunt, Smokey Brights featuring members of What What Now and Armed With Legs. Sounding little like the bands its members are best known for, Smokey Brights combines retro r&b sounds with a touch of Ballard Americana and highlights Devlin and Co’s skilled musicianship and his knack for catchy pop. Parts of “Everyday” sound like Seattle’s answer to The Hold Steady’s Boys and Girls in America era anthems, while “Waiting on A Light” is surprisingly delicate, like a sweet slow dance.
Smokey Brights play the High Dive this Thursday with Youth Rescue Mission (COI statement: I currently do PR for both the High Dive and YRM) and they’ll be celebrating their CD debut on May 26th at The Tractor.
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