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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
July 9, 2012

Bryan John Appleby and Pure Bathing Culture at Columbia City Theater

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Bryan John Appleby ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Kicking off a west coast tour Bryan John Appleby and band issued a few brand new songs and a Harry Nilsson cover to a short-sleeved crowd who’d wandered in from the warmest day of the year yet. PDX 2012 #2 Pure Bathing Culture are continuing Portland’s trend of producing catchy, innovative pop bands, and this night they offered an entirely different atmospheric palette to Appleby’s own stylized folk yarns.

This bill gets a reprise tonight, Monday July 9th, in Portland at Mississippi Studios with Pure Bathing Culture in the headlining spot and the addition of Lemolo opening as they join Appleby and band as they begin a trek down the coast. That show is free.

 

Pure Bathing Culture ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Pure Bathing Culture ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Pure Bathing Culture ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Pure Bathing Culture ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Bryan John Appleby ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Bryan John Appleby ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

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

May 1, 2012

Sound on the Sound Presents: Mt. St. Helen’s Vietnam Band EP Release with Wintersleep and You Are Plural

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We’ve taken a few months off from booking and hosting Sound on the Sound Presents showcases, but we’re back! And we couldn’t be more excited for our first show of 2012: Mt. St. Helen’s Vietnam Band‘s Official EP Release, June 1st at Columbia City Theater. Joining the newly stripped down and better than ever MSHVB, will be North of Northwest favorites Wintersleep and You Are Plural, an intriguing duo from Olympia experimenting with classical and pop influences, to make a lovely, looped symphony.

Tickets go on sale RIGHT NOW at Brown Paper Tickets.

And we recommend you get ‘em. If you do, you’ll be treated to a night of unexpected pop, passionate performances and we hope we fulfill our mission statement of introducing you to your new favorite band:

Mt. St. Helen’s Vietnam Band:

Wintersleep:

You Are Plural:

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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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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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

November 15, 2011

Sound on the Sound Is Presenting R&B in December

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dec2-500

 

Since the beginning of 2010 we’ve been trying to widen this blog’s scope, at first attempting to give due coverage to the burgeoning 206 hip hop talent and now making an attempt to pay proper attention to our area’s R&B players. Admittedly we’ve got a long way to go in both areas and can’t claim too much authority in either yet but Friday December 2nd at Columbia City Theater we’re putting our money where our mouth is by bringing the quality to the people in our first ever R&B offering.

Headlining the night is REVERBFest standout Shaprece, who backed by a full band was a standout singer. “A standout singer.” Sadly, I don’t get to say that often. With that full band adding flute, violin, backup vocal and DJ layers in support of that rich and confident lead, Shaprece has built her own shapes-hifting dancehall sound that isn’t retreading any MTV norm. Her performance of “Waiting” (minus the recorded autotune) was the showstopper for me in the Sunset, and with her new single called “Dangerous” and produced by Jay Battle, Shaprece is now heading into Robyn territory:

 

 

On Sunday night Shaprece stopped by KEXP’s street sounds for a live performance. Plugin 8pm at 11/13 to get right to it.

In the solo figure of Lucas Field who’s got a new record called Conquest of Happiness out today, November 15th, we’ve found an ideal act to warm up the room. Formerly of Low vs. Diamond, the past year has seen Field developing his own take on modern dance-worthy R&B from a houseboat and honing it in the back lounge of Indian restaurant Laadla of all places. Having some fun with catchy boy-girl choruses and modern electronic layers, Field’s approaching R&B with a bit of personality but without any strict rules. Stream this week’s Featured Song “Givin It All You Got” on our frontpage this week and peep the video below for “Two Lovers” to get a glimpse into the Laadla lounge parties Field’s been presiding over.

 

 

Prom Queen (who we featured a cover of “November Rain” from last week) will open the night. Tickets are $10 advanced.

October 24, 2011

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

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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

August 17, 2011

Hacienda Hands

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Pickwick / Hacienda Motel ::: photo by Christopher Nelson

 

 

Since this video was shot, Pickwick managed to literally break a stage with their awesomeness (and the weight of a hundred fans), but we still wanted to share this special moment with you from our 5th Anniversary show at Columbia City Theater.

 

Thanks to YouTube user IssaquahWA for the awesome video. You can watch a playlist of almost the entire concert thanks to them!