The Builders & the Butchers ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

For this week only you can head over to AOL’s music section to listen to this Portland band’s entire new album Salvation is a Deep Dark Well. We suggest you give it a chance.

The Builders & the Butchers are also having a Seattle CD release show for the record this Friday June 19 at Neumos with Loch Lomond and the Globes. It is our Show of the Week. Tickets are $12 in advance at TicketsWest. We suggest you give it consideration in your plans as well.

Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground ::: Photo by Josh

We went out to the new Croc for the first time last Friday to The Builders & The Butchers sold out show. Actually, I think the crowd was at it’s biggest and most devoted for the Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground set. So many people were singing along! That’s new. Bets were flying about whether lead singer Kirk Huffman’s wife Rachel who sings backup and was very pregnant would have her water break while they were on stage. It didn’t, but not for any lack of her trying. Each time I see them, the band swells, and the new additions of multi-instrumentalist Jacob and bassist Laurie from Ships seemed natural picks. Nate Mooter even played an accordion tune as an intermission. Openers Dr. Helicopter seemed to impress the bro-heavy crowd with their heavy swamp rock, while into the night The Builders & The Butchers lead singer Ryan Solle presided over the crowd as few lead singers can. The “New Croc Buzz” was in definitely in full effect.

My first thoughts on the new Croc were mixed though after only one show so I’ll keep them to myself for now and give things a chance to work themselves out. The one thing I will note though is that new the Croc no longer a scrappy rock n’ roll bar with years of built up character and little details that make you smile. That little area in the back corner that was a step above so the short people in the back could see… gone. The opportunity to step away from the music to have a breath, a beer and a seat… also gone. (The new Tribunali being closed was a huge bummer for a party with a person on crutches). No more is it a stubborn misfit in a neighborhood that is rapidly changing and becoming more affluent. Instead it seems to have taken on the neighborhood’s modern aesthetic, becoming a large square room with exposed beams and high ceilings (so Seattle!). Instead of feeling like the Croc, it feels like just another modern dark club in the city. Of all the issues I might have with the new digs, this is what I was most disappointed about. I feel like it might just be pointless bitching at this point, but these little things are part of what made the Croc a special venue in my minds aside from all of great shows and memories that I have there.

Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground have just announced a summertime nationwide tour starting in Portland in late June and ending on the east coast in mid-July. The dates are at the band’s new website.

[P.S. Sorry about all the B+W photos. We prefer color, but the Croc was really red for most of the night; so red it made the pictures better to look at in B+W. -josh]

Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, “Orchestra Land” ::: Photo by Abbey

Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground ::: Photo by Josh

Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground ::: Photo by Abbey

The Builders and The Butchers::: Photo by Josh

The Builders and The Butchers ::: Photo by Josh

Flickr: The Builders & The Butchers, Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, Dr. Helicopter at the Crocodile

Dead Confederate ::: photo by Abbey

Here’s a few of the albums that kept me in espescially good company when I wasn’t listening to my locals. (Also, when it comes to this list, “non-local” includes everything outside of Washington State, including Portland.)

For what it’s worth, the number one and two albums are virtually a tie. I’ve gone back and forth between the two of them interchanging the top spot for the entire month of December. Today’s the day I decided to post and it’s a Dead Confederate Day, tomorrow may be more Bon Iver-y. But I could stand by either as the best of 2008 with conviction.

1. Dead Confederate - Wrecking Ball |myspace|
2. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago |myspace|
3. The Black Keys - Attack and Release |myspace|
4. Dodos -Visiter |myspace|
5. The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me  |myspace|
6. The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely |myspace|
7. Thao with The Get Down, Stay Down - We Brave Bee Stings & All  |myspace|
8. The Builders & The Butchers - The Builders & The Butchers |myspace|
9. Starfucker - Starfucker  |myspace|
10. Noah and The Whale - Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down  |myspace|
11. Ravens & Chimes - Reichenbach Falls  |myspace|
12. Land of Talk - Some Are Lakes |myspace|
13. The Shackeltons - The Shackeltons |myspace|

p.s. Just like Josh, my most listened to album of 2008 was The Avett Brother’s Emotionalism.

Since there were so many incredible local releases this year, it would’ve been negligent to not have a solely local Best Songs of 2008 list. I expanded the idea of ‘local’ to go beyond Seattle and include our musical neighbors to the south, Portland. Hope you enjoy my first Best of list of 2008, more lists coming soon!

1. The Moondoggies - Changin’

2. Wild Orchid Children - Birth of a Cabin

3. The Dutchess and The Duke - Resevoir Park

4. Kay Kay and His Weathered Undergound - Night of The Star Child’s Funk

5. The Whore Moans - Nerve Tonic!

6. J. Tillman - Steel on Steel

7. The Fleet Foxes- Mykonos

8. Sera Cahoone - Only As The Day Is Long

9. See Me River - Don’t Pray For Blood

10. The Hands - Praying Hands Make Fist (Or Be Chopped Off)

11. Blue Scholars - Butter & Guns

12. Bark Hide and Horn - Trumpeter Swan

13. Thee Emergency - Hopped Up For The Git Down 

14. The Builders & The Butchers - Bringin’ Home The Rain

15. A Gun That Shoots Knives - Stay in School

16. Shy In Sunshine - Recognition

17. We Wrote The Book on Connectors - Mimosas

18. Starfucker - Pop Song

19. The New Faces - Impulse

20. Hey Marseilles - Rio

(p.s.) According to my Itunes, my most listened to local track of 2008 is Kay Kay’s: Night of The Star Child’s Funk.