Elvis Perkins in Dearland at SXSW 2007 ::: Photo by Josh

A new Elvis Perkins song. Actually not a new one in the sense that it hasn’t been heard before. And actually not an Elvis Perkins song. The band has been taking to playing “Weeping Pilgrim” at their shows for a while now, and the classic folk song was re-recorded by Elvis Perkins in Dearland for a Sacred Harp Songbook compilation. Download it over at Heather’s place, I am Fuel, You are Friends.

A new Sea Wolf song too… Also courtesy of Heather. The song was created as part of a companion soundtrack that is inspired by the book it comes with, which is titled A Wolf at the Table. The song is called “Song for the Magpie.”

Stream it! Merge, the label for The Broken West, have a full album stream of the band’s latest full-length, Now or Heaven. The album officially arrives September 9. Listen here.

And another new band with a new album… Islands side-project Human Highway are streaming their new record in its entirety on their myspace. Moody Motorcycle arrives in stores next Tuesday, August 19.

Here’s my first official Best of List for 2007. Unsurprisingly, local musicians and releases dominate it.

1. Tiny Vipers - Hands Across the Void

2. Thee Emergency - Live from Chuck Norris’ House

3. Sea Wolf - Get To The River Before It Runs Too Low

4. Whalebones - Morning Man

5. Vindaloo - Die Emo Die

6. Math and Physics Club - Baby I’m Yours

7. Grizzly Bear - Friends EP

8. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

9. Great Northern - Sleepee Epee

10. A Gun That Shoots Knives - Love 

 

Last week I sat down for a short interview with Alex Brown Church (pictured above), who’s solo project Sea Wolf recently released it’s debut LP Leaves in the River on Dangerbird Records. In it we get the skinny on the band’s origins, the Silverlake scene, his connection with Seattle and his take on the-word-’wolf’-as-a-part-of-the-band-name craze. They’re embarking on a nationwide tour this week which will see them at Chop Suey this Friday, October 5, which is tomorrow. I can’t recommend this show enough. We’ve gone to a few shows and been very impressed.

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Josh (J): I first wanted to talk about your seemingly continuous tour schedule you’ve had for the last few months since SXSW in March and then the release of your first EP it seems like you have been touring nationally quiet a bit. Before opening for Silversun Pickups had you done any national touring as Sea Wolf or had it been purely a local thing?      

Alex Brown Church (ABC): No it was totally local. The first time we left California was for South by Southwest. I guess we just started this year doing national stuff.

J: But Sea Wolf has been a project that’s been banging around for some time now?

ABC: Yeah I started Sea Wolf in 2003. And we only did a couple shows here and there. It was just me, and just I had some friends, whoever was available, play with me every time. Eventually i got sick of, you know… I was kinda looking at getting people together, but really not that so much as everybody had to write their own parts for the songs, so finally I just decided I had to write… I had to write a lot more songs because I didn’t have a whole lot of songs at the beginning… So I just started to write and start recording so I had stuff all ready for people to play when they played with me. That came about in 2004-2005 that I started to record.

J: It looks like your upcoming tour will be your third cross country trek in the last six months. How does the touring lifestyle suit you?

ABC: I don’t know… personally I’m not a huge fan of touring, but just cause I’ve done it enough, it’s not exciting anymore. It’s just a lot of time spent in the van. And you see the same places. But the shows will be fun, I’m excited about the shows. That’s the good part. I’m also excited because it’s Autumn. Being out there on the East Coast and stuff, you know, and the leaves and the weather. I’m excited for that.

J: How many miles have you put on the touring van so far this year?

ABC: (Laughs) Shit. I don’t know actually. I just got it in the beginning of the year. So before SXSW. At least like… I don’t’ know. I wanna say 15000 or maybe 20000 miles already. I don’t know.

J: You mentioned going out on the East Coast and things being beautiful out there. Themes and visions of nature are pervasive in your lyrics. As a person you’re inspired by nature?

ABC: Yes, very much so. I grew up in the country, the foothills of the Sierra Nevada’s until I was eight, and so I had developed a strong appreciation for nature growing up. And even after that when we moved to Berkeley, we would go camping, and do outdoorsy… skiing, camping and traveling.

J: Do any camping while your touring at all or do you guys like to stay comfortable?

ABC: I’ve done it before but we haven’t had a chance to on this last tour. It’s hard and you kinda have to plan for it and so we haven’t planned for it. And other thing with the band doesn’t necessarily have camping stuff, and even though I could totally camp somewhere, not everyone has a tent or a sleeping bag or whatever.

J: You mentioned you had a lot of support from friends in the initial stages of Sea Wolf. And you’re sort of associated with the Ship Collective and I read Brian and John (sic) from Silversun Pickups moonlighted as members of Sea Wolf for a time. How important is having that support group around …

ABC: Brian and Joe, not John.

J: I’m sorry.

ABC: I’d would say it’s really important. I feel like the part the of reason that the bands that are a part of that are successful or are becoming successful… Earlimart, Great Northern is starting to do pretty well, Silversun of course are huge now… I think that having that kind of support network, and just sort of talking about our friends when we’re out there, it has helped us. It’s given people more of a reason to pay attention to other bands that are friends with us. So I would say it’s pretty important.

And especially at the beginning, because those were the guys that were in Sea Wolf and playing at those shows, and I couldn’t ever have done that if I hadn’t known all of those musicians. And now the whole group is people that I’ve met over the course of time. These of course are members that aren’t in other Ship bands because I can’t use members of other Ship bands because their not available all the time. But it was definitely important especially at the beginning.

J: Any cameo appearances from friends on the new record?

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Spinner has a bunch of great new albums streaming for your perusal and pleasure. Extra excited to see Seattle’s Cave Singer’s getting some love on a national site. Espescially since I believe with the strong vocals of Pete Quirk, it will only take one listen for lots of folks to fall for The Cave Singers.

The Cave Singers - Invitation Songs

Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War

Jose Gonzalez - In Our Nature

Sea Wolf - Leaves in the River

Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon

Sea Wolf, Tiny Vipers, Molly Rose
The Crocodile Cafe
June 27, 2007

Each of the performances this Wednesday evening at the Crocodile were marked by a quiet intensity and the kind of personal and intimate moments that only happen in a quiet room. Starting out our evening at the Croc was singer-songwriter Molly Rose. We only caught the last two songs of her set. 

Tiny Vipers took the stage next and blew me away. You could hear a pin drop (or my camera shutter as the case may be) while these two created a moody soundscape with only acoustic guitars and a voice. I’ve never heard the Crocodile so respectfully quiet. Singer Jesy Fortino’s delivery is often beautiful and deeply sad at the same time. From the first notes of her singing it was clear she was a unique talent. She’s currently signed to Sub Pop and is scheduled to play a Bumbershoot on September 1st in the Skychurch so I bet we’ll be seeing a bit more of her in the near future.

We’d had the pleasure of catching a short opening set by Sea Wolf when they toured with fellow Silverlakers, Silversun Pickups. Their EP Get To the River Before it Runs too Low is a far too short five songs, and reminds heavily of Wilco, but a bit happier and less folky. Lead singer Alex Church’s vocals are curiously earnest and relatable and the live show reflected that sensibility as well. There weren’t any stage antics or anything of that nature, rather the band was quietly focused, giving the music a more practiced and lively feel that’s only hinted at on EP, and unexpectedly causing quite a bit of dancing. 

Sea Wolf’s set was a too short 45 minutes and the fans eagerly insisted on an encore, which the band obliged happily. But still left unanswered was the question that kept popping up in my mind: Does he really mean it when he wrote the lyric “I’m never going to sing another sad song again” in the song “I Made a Resolution”? Is it just a lyric in a song? Is this a nod to Woody Guthrie? I guess it seems like a strong statement of personal philosophy to me, one so strong I don’t know how to interpret it. They way it’s presented in the song it’s almost a mantra, and the repeats give it alot of weight in the presentation, so I’m curious about the history of that song, and whether Sea Wolf the band is the result of that resolution.

 

For those feeling nostalgic over Ben Gibbard’s visits to the the Showbox in Seattle this year, head over to UberDrivel for a live recording of the show (day 1, day 2).

I’m feeling ready for another dose of Sea Wolf tommorow at The Crocodile, but if you can’t make it, grab their set from this year’s SXSW courtesy of Lullabyes.

Missed Bonnaroo and won’t be able to experience the Police ever again? Head over the largeheartedboy’s Bonnaroo Download page and get that injection of Sting and friends and it won’t cost you $75. Lot’s of other bands to choose from as well.

In a year full of great new music, Sea Wolf’s Get to The River Before it Runs Too Low, is a stand-out gem. Officially released today, the ep features memorably pleasant tunes and is a great sleepy summer-time album, reminiscent of Wilco’s Yankee Foxtrot Hotel. To celebrate the release and their up-coming Seattle tour date (June 27th at The Crocodile) we’re giving away a Sea Wolf goodie bag which includes four gorgeous posters (seen below) and a kick-ass Dangerbird Records hoodie.

If we could win these… we would, we’re in love with the parchment paper simplicity of the posters.

To enter the contest, leave a comment below and make sure you include your e-mail address when submitting the comment (it is kept private). Deadline for comments will be 12 Noon (PST) of June 12. We’ll choose randomly, and let the very lucky winner by know by next week!

Sorry I skipped out on March, but I’m coming back with avengance for April. April went by pretty quickly but it was one of those months where everything goes awry. Seattle is in transition from winter to spring-ish weather and it’s a horrible tease the month of April. 25 days of shitty weather interspersed with 5 perfect days of sunshine. What appealed to me musically with similarly manic… here’s a peek:

* Come Back and Zombie - The Trucks
* La De Da- Link Ray 
* Praying Hands Will Make Fists - The Hands
* Squalor Victoria - The National (from the forthcoming, brilliant, Boxer)
* The Black Keys - The Big Come Up
* Nothing for Nothing - A Gun That Shoots Knives
* Heretics - Andrew Bird (playing the Showbox 5/5, WWU in B’ham 5/6)
* Carrie Ann - Hopscotch Boys
* Sea Wolf - Get To The River Before It Runs Too Low (ep, release date 5/8/07)
* Laura Veirs - Saltbreaker (the album, not the song)
* X-Ray Eyes - The Whore Moans
* Amy Winehouse - Live in Amsterdam at Paradiso - 2/8/07
* The Cave Singers - espescially Jacket of the Cave…
* Blues Song - Blair (i believe that’s the name, mine’s just listed as track 04)
* Wolf Parade - Live from The Showbox, Seattle (08/21/06)
* Sometimes A Blonde - Robyn Hitchcock
* Shake Shake Shake - White Denim
* Bang Bang - The Racounter’s (a Nancy Sinatra cover, saw it on ACL on PBS and it was perfection)
* The White Stripes - White Blood Cells and De Stijl

If a song or artist is linked above, the link will lead you to where you can listen to the actual song I’m loving.

Not a huge fan of the video, but I am HUGE fan of Sea Wolf’s. The band’s debut EP Get to the River Before It Runs Too Low doesn’t have a mediocre song on it and is one of my favorite debuts of 2007 thus far. Despite having a mellower sound and presence (I like to call them cello driven rock) the band has been wowing crowds as an opener for Silversun Pickups. We’ll be running a full review on the EP closer to it’s release date… in the mean time, get a taste with the video for “You’re A Wolf.”

(soon, really and truly it will be embeded, the computer is out smarting me tonight)

Los Angeles band Silversun Pickups has had a precipitous rise in popularity over the latter half of 2006 into 2007. Much of it is due to their relentless touring schedule that has had them on the road for the majority of the last two years. Their success though is due at least in part to their embrace of the internet as a promotion medium. They visited any number of small internet sites and played live sets for them and in late 2006 it was a common daily occurence to see sidebar ads for their most recent album Carnavas on nearly every established music blog. None of that mattered to me though, as I had become enamoured with them in early 2006 due to a song called “Kissing Families,” off of their 2005 Pikul (Pike-ool) EP, doubtlessly my most listened to song of 2006.

This was my first time seeing them, despite their coming to Seattle a number of times over the preceding six months. Key Arena didn’t interest me (although I heard they had no problem with the arena setting) and the other shows were sold out quickly, so this show definitely had palpable expectations for me. When I saw the set time as “Silversun Pickups 10:45-?” I thought “Damn, their preparing for a long one, this is going to be money!” I was right.

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