From moment one I knew Dita Vox was a rock star. The poster from $5 Cover Seattle makes me think movie star as well.

For me, an image of few people could be more iconic of my experience with the Seattle music scene than that of Dita Vox. (The first album I reviewed on Sound on the Sound was Can You Dig It?,  after all.)

$5 Cover Seattle premieres next Monday (March 1st) at SIFF Cinema. Ms. Vox will be there and so will we. I’m looking forward to reporting back to you after seeing lots of our favorite stars from Seattle stages on the big screen. Dita may be the poster child, but she’ll be joined on screen by The Maldives, The Moondoggies, THEESatisfaction, The Lights and more. I can guarantee it’s going to be surreal to see, but I’m can also guarantee there’s going to be a great soundtrack.

Macklemore ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

This party just get’s better every year. Two stages and a hip hop showcase? This is how Seattle’s party at SXSW should be going down. It’s happening Saturday, March 20th at the Beauty Bar, starting 12 noon. It’s no doubt free, but you’ll likely need an RSVP. We’ll keep you up to date on that info as it arrives. On to the good stuff. Peep this year’s lineup:

Main Stage
The Cave Singers
The Dutchess & the Duke
Fences
The Lonely Forest
The Moondoggies
Rocky Votolato

Second Stage
Grand Hallway
The Maldives
The Staxx Brothers

Hip Hop Showcase
Dark Time Sunshine
Dyme Def
Grynch
Macklemore
Mash Hall (formerly known as They Live!)
THEESatisfaction

Um… can this party happen in Seattle?

The second stage isn’t a side stage, it’s the stage where the big bands get more time to setup. And a hip hop showcase is long overdue. The organizers definitely made this a destination party that well represents the face of the emerging Seattle music scene at this very moment.

Follow the action on twitter with @sxswSeattleParT and be a part of the action by tagging your posts #TheSeattleParty and #sxsw.

Src: Austin Statesmen

Sera Cahoone ::: Photo by Abbey Simmons

“Pullman you say? A music destination you say??? Pffft…” Yes, I know you’re trying not to laugh. But Pullman resident, ardent Inland-Northwest music supporter, and the man behind Stereopathic Music Larson Hicks is gunning to make it exactly that. Looking at the lineup he’s confirmed for a weekend in late March for the 1st Annual Birds on a Wire Folk Festival, he looks to be on just the right track. Happening March 26th and 27th and taking place on three stages within walking distance of each other on Pullman’s main street, the festival is an outgrowth of a series of Birds on a Wire shows Hicks did last year with some success, which itself was an product of his need for his underserved area to realize it’s musical potential.

Hicks is not a corporation like Live Nation, just a guy with a dream to make his town as fun as it can be, and on the leading edge of a localism movement that is now even reaching the music business. Small local music festivals used to be cute getaways to take in some folk talent or something specialized like that. Now in many smaller markets it makes sense can put on a music festival that attracts current and in-demand talent. In our area: Birds on a Wire, Doe Bay Fest, Pickathon, Wintergrass (bluegrass and folk). There were a host of other Oregon festivals that many of the biggest local artists made a point of attending in 2009. I don’t doubt by the end of the year the size of that list of festival names will be doubled.

The lineup for Birds on a Wire looks like this so far:

Justin Townes Earle
Damien Jurado
Joe Pug
Rocky Votolato
Horse Feathers
Sera Cahoone
Frontier Ruckus
The Maldives
The Moondoggies
Cataldo
Laura Gibson
Al James (Dolorean)
Super XX Man
Goldfinch
Karli Fairbanks
Pablo Trucker
Mike Kelly
Hueco
Samuel Dickison
Tony Kevin Jr.
Low-Fi
more announced soon…

‘Current’ and ‘Northwest’ are two words that come quickly to mind when looking at this bill, and Hicks says he’s not done announcing national level touring acts yet.

Advanced tickets available via the birdsonawirefest.com site, and are $35, $25 for large groups. Day-of tickets are $45 at the door. Volunteering will get you an even better deal I’d expect. Since Hicks doesn’t a hefty amount of resources to put on this festival, he’s looking to make it happen smoothly and in a cost neutral way with local sponsors and a group of volunteers. He needs everything from sound and stage nerds to assist with shows, to people who are able to ferry bands from the airport day-of. It’s a great opportunity to be involved with a festival that is just getting off the ground.

Facebook: Birds on a Wire Festival on Facebook

Rusty Gold from michael jeter on Vimeo.

[Warning: Video above may be NSFW. If you consider out-of-focus penis NSFW. -The Editor]

This is a tour to phone dad about. San Fransisco Americana-tinged mega-group Or, The Whale have joined forces with Seattle’s own likeminded mega-group the Maldives to make the ride down to SXSW this March a whole lot more fun. These two bands both put out strong records last year, made friends after playing a few dates together, and now they’re hoping to ride each other’s coattails a bit. Since my pop had to jet a bit early for my birthday show, this will be the show I’ll be making him the sell on. I don’t think it’ll be a hard sell at all.

The video above is a song called “Rusty Gold” from Or, The Whale’s self-titled LP, released in September of 2009.

Or, The Whale Winter 2010 Tour Dates

Feb 27th - Solana Beach, CA Belly Up Tavern
Mar 9th - Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge ^
Mar 10th - Seattle, WA Tractor Tavern ^
Mar 11th - Cottage Grove, OR Axe and Fiddle ^
Mar 12th - San Francisco, CA The Independent ^
Mar 13th - Los Angeles, CA Hotel Cafe ^
Mar 14th - San Diego, CA Bar Pink ^
Mar 15th - Tucscon, AZ Club Congress ^
Mar 17th - Mar 20th - Austin, TX SXSW

^ = w/ The Maldives

The Maldives will be playing the SXSW Seattle Party themselves on March 20th, happening again this year at The Beauty Bar, where they’ll be joined by . Then they’ll looping around back into Utah and Boise for a few dates after SXSW. Those dates are below.

The Maldives at SXSW and beyond:

Mar 20th - The Beauty Bar - Austin, TX
Mar 21st - Lola’s Saloon - Fort Worth, Texas
Mar 24th - Bar Deluxe - Salt Lake City, Utah
Mar 25th - The Bouquet - Boise, Idaho

Tickets for the Tractor Tavern show on March 10th, a bill that also includes PDX band Weinland, can be had at TicketWeb for $10 adv.

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)

The Maldives at the Blue Moon ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

It’s fair to say we were tempting fate by trying to sneak The Maldives, one of the biggest bands in Seattle (both literally and figuratively), onto one of the city’s smallest and crustiest rock stages. Don Slack, host of KEXP’s Americana show, Swinging Doors dropped hints on his show heavily. Various other bloggers who were in-the-know made only lightly veiled references to a band that matched the secret headliner’s unmistakable description. Really all anyone really had to do was Google their alias “JD & the Schmidty Boys” and the answer would have been obvious. But we did it anyway. Come what may. And the night couldn’t have gone any better.

Opener People Eating People had her own contingent of super fans, ready to stand up at the very front of the stage and set the tone for the crowd from song one. Nouela Johnston sings as if pulling from a deep well of internal conflict and the sheer force of her emotion, accented by a piano she’s been playing for decades, can leave one feeling just as palpably overwhelmed as she must have been when committing these songs to paper. As soon as Nouela finished her set, a line of impressed audience members snaked to buy her debut CD.

If People Eating People is bold, Zoe Muth & the Lost High Rollers on the other hand, traffics in a more subtle expression of heartbreak and hardship. And the audience was enamored of  every moment, with plenty of appropriate (and some inappropriate) hooting and whistling in appreciation of her long set and her ace accompaniment on mandolin and pedal steel. Zoe took the opportunity to play a full hour and I don’t think a soul left the packed room while it was going on. Since the headliner was a secret, I’d venture to say most of the people who Sound on the Sound didn’t know personally were filling the very packed Blue Moon for Zoe Muth and her Lost High Rollers.

The Maldives didn’t get started until after midnight and, considering they were playing the next night in Portland (and the following night in Bellingham) and it was a set that they weren’t commanding their usual fee for, I fully expected it to be a short and sweet. Instead, they played until 1.45am on the demand of a still healthy crowd at last call.  Not a single solo opportunity was abbreviated or missed. I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever seen that many people in the Blue Moon past 1am. Someone else perfectly described the night as having “a special ‘packed in and we don’t want to leave till the sun comes up’ feeling.” For the night’s show, The Maldives were an eight-piece (sans keyboard) and managed to fit on the stage with just enough room for guitarist Jesse Bonn to get some good follow-through with his Gibson whilst rocking out (though he did knock out lead singer Jason Dodson’s guitar cable mid-song). That these gentlemen decided to shut the bar down, playing our dream Maldives set list with huge smiles on their faces,  when nothing of the sort was expected of them, well, I felt the love. Big time.

In a nutshell, this show set the bar for how we hope all Sound on the Sound Presents… shows can go. That we were able to bring onto a single bill three of Seattle’s most exciting up-and-coming  acts is a privilege and a something we’re continually striving for. We’re blessed to be so appreciated by those same bands we write about and for. We were beyond happy to just find them on our beloved historic Blue Moon stage,  but then the bands all went for broke and held nothing back, like they were headlining a sold-out Showbox.  Surrounded by friends, family and readers, embraced by our community and three of our favorite bands on stage… These moments remind us why we’re doing what we do and how worth all the time and effort we put forth is. I, at least, have got a bounce in my step because of last Friday night, and I suspect it’ll be there for a good while.

Thank you Maldives. Thank you Zoe Muth & The Lost High Rollers. And Thank you Nouela and Brian. I’ve got a feeling 2010 is going to be a big year for all of you. We can’t wait to share it with you and our readers.

People Eating People ::: Photo by Abbey Simmons

Zoe Muth ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Country Dave ::: Photo by Abbey Simmons

The Maldives ::: Photo by Abbey Simmons

The Maldives ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

The Maldives ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

The Maldives ::: Photo by Abbey Simmons

Flickr: The Maldives, Zoe Muth & The Lost High Rollers, People Eating People at the Blue Moon Tavern, January 15th, 2010

Video: The Maldives, Zoe Muth & The Lost High Rollers, People Eating People at the Blue Moon Tavern, January 15th, 2010

Since I’ve received a number of notices of the local music community coming together to have benefit shows where the proceeds are going to the humanitarian effort in Haiti, I thought I’d put together a super post of posters and dates of the various events going on. I love that the local music community isn’t shy about holding benefits for it’s members and causes of substance, and considering the number of shows coming together for the cause of Haiti, this disaster seems to have really brought out Seattle’s inner compassion like I haven’t yet seen. One show is happening at Neumos tonight. The Tractor Tavern show happening the 31st features the elusive Whalebones on the bill. All the shows are bills worthy of your time.

January 28th at the Moore Theater
Seattle Helping Haiti Benefit Concert & Auction with
Sweet Water, Vince Mira, Mike Herrera of MxPx and Tumbledown, The Maldives, The Classic Crime and The Memphis Radio Kings.
See more information and get tickets for $15 via STG Presents.
“All proceeds will go to the American Red Cross’ relief efforts in Haiti. “

Wednesday, January 20, 2010
NEUMOS PRESENTS:

Kore Ionz
Bakra Bata’
Big World Breaks featuring Gabriel Teodros, Yirim Seck (of Black Aries) and B-Flat (of GodSpeed and Hi-Life Sound System)
Tudo Beleza
DJ Tomas

$12 ADV : Doors at 8PM : 21+
ALL TICKET PROCEEDS DONATED TO HEARTS WITH HAITI AND ART MATENWA

January 21st
Navigator vs. Navigator - laters
Panther Attack /\
Eighteen Individual Eyes \/
Wah Wah Exit Wound - earliers

Starts promptly at show o’clock……..Comet Tavern - 922 E. Pike St.
“100% of merch and our door earnings from this show go to UNICEF (http://www.unicefusa.org/) to help the children of Haiti.”

1/28 - Hattie’s Hoot for Haiti
Performances by Kevin Murphy (The Moondoggies), Zoe Muth, and More
Cover: $10 - %100 of proceeds go to the American red Cross

1/31 - Luvin’ Haiti @ the Tractor Tavern
THE TRIPWIRES
THE CUTE LEPERS
WHALEBONES
EUGENE WENDELL & THE DEMON RIND
Cover: $10 suggested donation ~ 100% of proceeds go to Haiti Relief and Development
Time: 8pm

Feb. 4 at Neumos
Common Market, The Physics, Sol, and Dyno Jamz, and hosted by Khingz.
$10 Adv.
ALL MONEY FROM THE DOOR IS GOING DIRECTLY TO DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS.

Kevin and Jason ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Last Tuesday the 56th edition of The Round packed the Fremont Abbey to the gills, featuring some of Seattle’s foremost poets, a painter working throughout the night, and for this Round, three of the more notable names out of our area’s burgeoning Americana-slash-Country scene. The Moondoggies Kevin Murphy and the Maldives Jason Dodson guested on each others songs and after the intermission they jointly played medley of songs from a side-project they’ve been fronting called Cosmic Panther Land Band (see the video below). Zoe Muth brought along her mandolin player Ethan, who took the opportunity to guest on just about every song of the night.

Other than the Cosmic Panther Land Band material, my favorite group of the songs night from the night came from the Moondoggies Murphy. He played two new songs he said were just recorded for the next Moondoggies LP, including a stunning rendition of “Empress of the North” to start off the night. My favorite song of the night I don’t think I’d heard before and he intro’d it by saying “I don’t know if I’m ever going to doing anything with this song. But it exists.” It began “When you’re young, you think you’re better off…” Please do something with it Kevin. Afterward, Murphy who still get’s a bit wound up before performing in front of people (even after some time now fronting the Moondoggies), said that he was just finding his groove when it was time to end, and was ready to go for another couple hours. I was ready too. If only.

Watch a clip of the Cosmic Panther Land Band medley below the fold. And get thyself to a Round. The next one is a Valentines edition happening on February 13th at the Fremont Abbey, with Benjamin Verdoes of Mt. St. Helens Vietnam band and a string quartet, two painters, and a slam poet.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Maldives - “I Have Found”

We’ve had the whole weekend to ruminate on the awesome treat we were privy to for our birthday Friday at the Blue Moon, but words are still failing us.  Sometimes, especially on a night like Friday, surrounded by family, friends and the community we’ve come to think of as both, we really do feel like two of the luckiest kids in the world. (Of course, now that we’re 29 … we may have to stop calling ourselves kids.)

While the proper words are escaping us, we wanted to share these three videos of a few of our favorite songs from a night that I know both Josh and I will cherish for years to come.  “Thanks” doesn’t cover the scope of gratitude we feel for the Blue Moon for having us, The Maldives, Zoe Muth and the Lost High Rollers, and People Eating People for playing, and for all of you that came out and celebrated with us, but thank you.

People Eating People - “For Now”

Zoe Muth and the Lost High Rollers - “You Only Believe Me When I’m Lying”

$5 Cover: Seattle Trailer from MTV New Media on Vimeo.

We’ve been tweeting and talking about the trailer for $5 Cover Seattle  all week, but it hasn’t managed to make it on to the site yet. I definitely deserve the late pass for that, but on the other hand, it is now embeddable and you can watch it right here in the comfort of Sound on the Sound. Other than being extras, this is the first peek we’ve gotten of the Lynn Shelton directed project for MTV, which was shot during the blazing summer of 2009 and features a number of local bands Sound on the Sound readers should be very familiar with.

As the trailer reveals, the bands and the music are real (there’s  a thumping sample of “Magnetic Blackness,” a particularly sweet sounding “Don’t Be A Stranger” from the  Moondoggies in the trailer, and the original SOTS soundtrack Thee Emergency), but the story-lines are not. It looks like  it’s going to be all kinds of  soapy goodness and guilty pleasures, backed by a Seattle music blog’s perfect soundtrack: The Maldives, The Moondoggies, Thee Emergency, Champagne Champange, THEEsatisfaction & more! I can’t wait to see what comes next from this project…and to call Kevin Murphy a lone wolf at the Tractor this weekend.