January 10, 2011
The Ironclads at Columbia City Theater [video]
God damnit we love this band. Here’s a couple videos from our Sound on the Sound Presents show with them to remind you why.
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We’re so excited that just one week from today one of our very favorite local bands will be cashing in their frequent flier miles and taking the stage for us at Columbia City Theater: The Ironclads.
We’ve spared no praise on this website for The Ironclads and next Friday is a rare chance for you to see why. With lead Ironclad, Jamie Cotton living in Colorado for grad school, the band’s complex pop punk tunes are only performed live in Seattle a couple times a year. This is a band that leaves their heart and half their body weight in effort and sweat on the stage after every performance and their rabid fans respond with similar verve and passion. An Ironclads performance is more than a set or a show, its a communal experience and we promise, you don’t want to miss it.
But next Friday isn’t all about The Ironclads, taking the stage before them are two of our other favorite unconventional local pop outfits: M. Bison and Joseph Giant. If you like your pop songs a little challenging, but still catchy as hell … this is the line-up for you. You can get a taste of Joseph Giant tomorrow night, when the band is the scheduled in-studio guest on Audioasis (8pm). You can pre-purchase you tickets for the show on-line or drop your name in the comments and we’ll choose two winners to see the show with a friend next Friday.
November 17, 2010
The Final Sound on the Sound Presents Poster of 2010
One of the best parts of 2010 was discovering that one of our favorite front men is also a talented artist. We loved him as Bradley Horror, but we are in awe of him as Brad Lockhart, Sound on the Sound’s trusted poster artist. Without question one of our favorite parts of putting on monthly shows has been working with Bradley and waiting with great anticipation to see what he comes up with every month. We have never once been disappointed and we certainly aren’t with his latest.
So here’s Brad’s final poster for us this year, but don’t worry, he’s already sketching something special for out for our two January shows. Until we can share those line-ups and posters with you, please enjoy this one and buy your tickets for the final SOTS Presents show of 2010 with The Ironclads, M. Bison and Joseph Giant.
November 11, 2010
Sound on the Sound Presents: The Ironclads, M. Bison and Joseph Giant
The Ironclads ::: photo by Abbey Simmons
There’s one Sound on the Sound Presents show left in 2010, capping off what’s been an amazing year of shows for us. Having moved from booking a show a year to a show a month has been a big adventure, but an incredibly rewarding one. From The Maldives at The Blue Moon this January to Dan Mangan at Columbia City Theater last week, we’ve been blessed to be able to bring our favorite artists of 2010 to you.
The tradition will continue December 3rd when three of our favorite local bands will be taking the Columbia City Theater stage: Joseph Giant, M. Bison and headlining after a taking a Red-Eye from grad school will be our much loved and missed Ironclads. Its a night of unconventional pop — with M. Bison’s 8-bit arias, the rollicking retro sounds of Joseph Giant and the electric storytelling of The Ironclads — and its not a night you want to miss.
You can pre-purchase your tickets on-line and to whet your appetite a little more, you can download Joseph Giants debut album for free! Hope to see you December 3rd.
There is one gigantic throbbing painful regret about attending this year’s Doe Bay Fest, it means we’ll be missing Salmon Thrasher’s final show. One of the most pleasant surprises of 2010, Salmon Thrasher came out of nowhere to satiate our hunger for no bullshit rock’n'roll, which we’d been practically starving for. We caught the band’s very first ceiling crumbling performance in December of 2009 and probably five other times in their short life, the fact we’ll miss their final show (and that their final show is happening so soon) will be a raw wound for some time to come.
If you’re not a 3 hour ferry and drive away, this is the show you should be at Saturday. Not only is it the last chance you’ll have to see the mighty Salmon Thrasher, you’ll also have the chance to be introduced to two bands that could fill the raw rock void they’ll leave behind. First is the phenomenal My Goodness, whose Black Keys go punk is one of the most sloppily satisfying sounds happening in Seattle today. With Salmon Thrasher gone, its easy to assume they’ll be taking the title of my favorite new local rock band of 2010.
Another solid option to fill the Salmon-sized hole in your heart are Birds of Paradise, who’ll be playing their first show. Made up of members of The Ironclads (including Sound on the Sound’s own Phil) and the Whore Moans/Hounds of the Wild Hunt. While the band’s sound is a departure from the member’s beloved previous projects, the three songs I’ve heard have kept my attention and sound like a promising Pabst-in-hand soundtrack for 2011.
Please Seattle, since we can’t be there, promise us you will be.
June 21, 2010
The Ironclads Return
Otherwise known as “things that make me ridiculously happy.”
Wrestling Team ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth
How does the saying go? “A new band is born in Seattle every time the sun sets…” Shit, I don’t know. Maybe I did make that up. Maybe it’s a truism that doesn’t even warrant a saying in this town. Anyways, last Friday, Seattle’s newest band was Wrestling Team, made up of two members of the now defunct Hands and two current members of the sporadically active Ironclads. Guitarists Eli Chuckovich and Thom Moht shared vocal duties, taking rock & roll back to the days when it was being directly influenced by a “punk” uprising and was beginning to gain a more sinister and confrontational edge. I’m talking about the era before popular music was over-intellectualized, mis-analyzed, and quoted as popular sentiment. (Like now.) When it still might’ve been considered a counter-culture endeavor. So that being said, I’m not going to do anymore of that. Instead I’m going to recommend you seek them out live. Because bottom line this is drinkin’ rock. No thinking required.
Wrestling Team ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth
April 21, 2010
What What Now CD Release Show this Friday with Baltic Cousins, God and Wrestling Team
Wrestling Team Makes it’s Debut at the Black Lodge this Friday
Great Goose Gossage’s mustache do I have a great show for you this Friday night! Great bands! Great venue! Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears…..
What What Now is having a CD release show for their new album, Fingers and Toes at the Black Lodge this Friday night at 9pm. Every time I attend a show at the Black Lodge I have a good time. Gentle reader, this is no coincidence. I’d even go as far as saying that the Black Lodge is my favorite venue in all of Seattle. The Black Lodge is the Wu-Tang Clan of show-spaces; it brings the ruckus. But what good is a venue when you fill it with bands that should be playing to seagulls that are busy stalking a landfill instead of people packed like a bunch of inebriated rats in a metropolitan area? Squawk. Squawk. Not a very worthwhile experience.
I’ve been a fan of What What Now since I saw them at a house party approximately a year and a half ago. The more time has passed, the better this band has gotten. I finally have my personal anthem “Right Angle” at my disposal whenever I wish. “The Ballad of Jamie Cotton” is no longer something I have to witness live to hear. Those two songs have made my life better. We’re talking small increments of happiness people, baby steps. We’re in the middle of a recession; happiness is expensive.
God, who just recently finished a brief West Coast tour with What What Now is rejoining their tour-mates for Friday’s monumental occasion. Besides having quite possibly the worst band name ever, I do remember seeing this band a few months ago at the Comet. And just like my rough draft of this concert preview, I’ve completely forgotten them. I do remember some cool guitar stuff from that fateful night at the Comet, but I also could be making that up.
Bellingham’s Baltic Cousins is a band I’m excited to see. I’ve been living with their EP, Seek No Further for the last five days. Listening. Driving. Listening. Typing. Listening. Grocery Shopping. Listening. Brushing my teeth. I liked it so much that I began to dislike it due to over-listening. We parted ways momentarily but we’re now a hot item once again. “Break Bread” is a song much too delightful to be without. I should have a review for Baltic Cousins EP by the beginning of your weekend. Unless your weekend isn’t really “the weekend,” then it should be up by Saturday.
Last, but not certainly not least, Wrestling Team will be making its public debut at the Black Lodge on Friday night. I’m intrigued by this four piece that consists of two members who were in The Hands and two other members who earn their chops in the Ironclads. (Which, full disclosure, I am the drummer for.) Will this newly minted concoction of a cocktail be worth a swill or thirty? Or is this the kind of musical tonic that will induce regurgitation? If I were a betting man, I’d go with the former. One thing is for sure, Wrestling Team makes rad posters.
February 1, 2010
An Invitation to Abbey’s January 2010 Listening
Dave Bazan performs “Bad Diary Days” – 1/08/10 in a Seattle Living Room
These are the songs, bands, and sounds that I’ve started off my 2010 with. Lots of new bands I’d never listened to before 2010, many who I think we’ll be sharing much of the year with. Take a listen and maybe, just maybe, you’ll find your first favorite new band, album or song of the new year! Thanks for starting 2010 with Sound on the Sound, we’re looking forward to sharing another great year of local music with you.
Sharon Van Etten - Because I Was In Love and “Love More“ Drew Grow & the Pastors’ Wives – “Colder by the Minute” and “Friendly Fires” Kelli Schaefer – “Gone In Love” The Ironclads – “Emily” (download here) Zoe Muth and the Lost High Rollers – s/t debut Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside - Myspace Demos and any YouTube I can find Moon Duo – “Stumbling 22nd St.” (from Noah’s Daily Choice) Whalebones – every new song on myspace and their Morning Man EP from 2007 Vic Chesnutt – “I Flirted With You All My Life” Ravenna Woods – Demons and Lakes Salmon Thrasher – Myspace Demos Emperor X – The Blythe Archives Pedro The Lion – “Bad Diary Days” (see a Sound on the Sound video above from 1/08/10) Goldfinch – s/t Phantogram – Eyelid Movies (out on Barsuk February 9th) Fences – “Sadie-” from GIVE Seattle The Moondoggies – “Side of the Road” from GIVE Seattle Beach House - Teen Dream The Maldives – “Go Back to Virginia” (new Maldives tune)
January 18, 2010
A Sound on the Sound Premiere: Two New Songs from The Ironclads
The Ironclads ::: photo by Abbey Simmons
Though The Ironclads are on an official hiatus from performing at the moment, that doesn’t mean the band isn’t still hard at work on their quirky, catchy, character-driven pop songs. During the brief week in December that guitarist and vocalist Jamie Cotton was back in Seattle, the band not only played three shows–they also wrote a brand new song (that rivals their delightful best) and recorded a handful of new demos. We’re thrilled that The Ironclads have let us debut two of these new tunes for your listening and downloading pleasure.
After seeing “Emily” performed live once, the strains of the chorus were the first things I heard in my head as I woke up for the next few days. By the third Ironclads’ show that week, I was singing along to every word.
mp3: “Emily” (demo) – The Ironclads
If you’ve been in the front row with us at an Ironclads show over the past year, “iii” will probably sound familiar. We’re just so glad the band took the time to record another one of our favorites.
