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)

Whalebones circa 2007 ::: photo by Abbey Simmons

Back from the brink of what seemed like certain extinction is one of Sound on the Sound’s first favorite local discoveries: Whalebones. The band, who we attributed way back in 2007 with writing “the most perfect CSNY song not penned by Neil Young”  has reemerged with three new songs, a new line-up, and their first tour date since Sasquatch 2008.

Check the bands’ Myspace for three new tunes.

And mark your calendar for January 31st — where the band is playing a Haiti benefit show at the Tractor Tavern.

I’ll be there in the front row doing nothing to hide my overwhelming glee for the return of Whalebones.

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.

Whalebones at Sasquatch 2008 ::: Photo by Josh

I’ve wondered whether Seattle band Whalebones would weather the blow of band members moving off after the disastrous circumstances of last year’s Sasquatch appearance in which their drummer spent the set unconscious in the First Aid tent dehydrated and nursing a broken hand, while the band played on and tried to cobble together a few songs from the wreckage with limited results. To my glee, over the weekend three new songs appeared in the myspace player for Whalebones, and all three are in my humble opinion, money.

I remember hearing Whalebones for the first time, while slightly intoxicated in the back of a strangers car.  I remember being impressed and remember mentally reminding myself to right down the name of this rambling, near-epic, organ-exploding band.  I, of course, completely forgot the next morning.  There name again popped in to my perception after the broken-wrist debacle at Sasquatch.  I thought to myself, “I should give these guys a listen.”  And of course did not.

Recently, through sheer will power you might say, I was perusing albums and from the depths of my murky grey brain matter out popped one word: Whalebones.  And oh what a revelation it has been.  I implore you, check out the entire Morning Man EP - it is dark and strange and feels like the wrongside of a roadhouse bar fight.  But if you can’t muster the energy, you lazy bastards, to do the whole thing right, then please, for your sake and the sake of your children, listen to “Lady Fingers”.  It is the soundtrack to a surreal, booze-soaked gun fight in a bar your parents warned you not to frequent.  It’s a blazing sun, dry-cracked lips, and sweated-drenched sleeveless denim vests.  It is the beautifully seedy side of rock and roll, and it has to be one of the best songs I’ve heard in years.

Whalebones - Lady Fingers

While every other blogger covering Sasquatch will tell you Monday was all about the Flaming Lips, Wayne Coyne, and naked folks on stage, our Monday at Sasquatch was all about local artists.

With the only pre-noon set of the festival, Dyme Def started Monday right as if the momentum of the day was already in full swing. This was SOTS’s first time to have the pleasure of seeing Dyme Def, and we were kicking ourselves for not having done so sooner. Talk about seizing the moment!

We pretty much planted ourselves for the rest of the day up the hill a bit on the northwest artist themed Yeti stage. The Moondoggies have graduated from Seattle’s dusty tavern venue scene to being on Hardly Art, getting a festival slot, and then a headlining slot at Neumos this Tuesday. There’s no question in my mind they deserve it all too. Whalebones came to the Gorge ready to play, but unfortunately their drummer broke his finger and passed out in the first aid tent minutes before their set. The keyboardist tried to tough it out for three songs, but it wasn’t really working out so they called it. Siberian were next and were tight, as always.

In between Yeti stage sets I trucked it to the top of the hill to the Wookie stage to catch what I could of a few other great acts the new to me Delta Spirit, the I’m excited about Thao Nguyen with The Get Down Stay Down, and one of my favorite local bands ever, the Cave Singers. I thought that each of these bands were really great and brought their A game to the festival. The new Cave Singers songs were dare I say only getting better, and Thao Nguyen is charming.

In order to get back at a reasonable hour we made the very chidable decision to miss the Flaming Lips, and finish our Festival with Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground. With barely enough room to accommodate all of the members, the Yeti stage was transformed into a party on a spring porch, with hanging wind chimes and flowers strewn about, and the band members gleefully interacting. More than just a band, Kay Kay had their own “Kay Kay Fairies” to help entertain the audience and brighten up the mood.

And finally, to answer your inevitable question, yes, I was disappointed to have missed what I understand was a truly epic set by the Flaming Lips. Oops.

Flickr: Sasquatch Snapshots - Monday

Whalebones ::: Photo by Josh

Winner’s of Abbey’s favorite lyric of the year, as well as my 8th favorite NW release overall and 1st favorite EP of 2007 for their Morning Man EP and my 6th favorite song for “Don’t You Know”, Whalebones embody tradition and experimentation all at once. The immaculate decay conveyed in their particular brand of rock and song finds it’s roots in the past projects of Neil Young; in the resolute sadness of the lyrics of Young himself, the beautiful harmonies of CSNY, and the wandering experimental guitar of Crazy Horse. Yet while maintaining that link to the past, each Whalebones song feels like an original sonic mural, an embellished vision of a song consisting of massive shapes and long wide curves, thick tones and wide variances in volume. And just as a mural is a larger work made up of smaller component works and meant to be viewed both up close and from afar, as a whole work and in digestible pieces, individually each of the smaller component parts in a Whalebones composition have their own strange beauty and novelty, and from that pseudo-chaos a complete cohesive larger narrative somehow emerges. I’ll say it: I can’t get enough of this band.

Whalebones plays the Yeti! Stage at Sasquatch on Monday May 26th at 1:05pm.

mp3: Whalebones - Don’t You Know Whalebones - Don’t You Know

Myspace: Whalebones

This weekend provides a bevy of offerings for your aural pleasure. They include but are not limited to:

Friday April 11

The Shackeltons at Easy Street Records (6pm, $FREE)

Cat Power at Showbox SODO

Saturday April 12

The Avett Brothers at Neumos

Katharine Hepburn’s Voice at the Blue Moon Tavern ($FREE)

Sunday April 13

The Rock Lottery at Neumos ($10) - 25 musicians are broken up into five bands, given 12 hours to come up with a 3-5 song set with a limit of one cover, and then asked to perform said songs in front of a crowd.

Whalebones, Feral Children at the Cha Cha ($FREE)

In addition to that, the EMP Pop Conference is going on at the EMP at Seattle Center through Sunday.

Haven’t done one of these for awhile, but just in case you’re curious as to the tunes that kept me company this first month of 2008… here it is. 

Wild Orchid Children - Wild Orchid Children EP
J. Tillman - Cancer and Delirium and Minor Works
The Shackeltons - The Shackeltons
Blue Scholars - “Guns and Butter” (live on KEXP)
The Lashes - Thank You EP
Palmer, AK (anything written by Eric Howk, basically)
The Mountain Goats - “Sax Rohmer #1″ (cannot wait for Heretic Pride!!)
PWRFL Power - “Tomato Song” (i’m slightly obsessed with this song)
Ravens & Chimes - “Faraway Sound of Cars”
Modest Mouse - “March Into The Sea”
The Go - “Yer Stoned Italian Cowboy”
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Elvis Perkins - “Shampoo”
Vindaloo - “Death Stars Coming Baby”
Whalebones - “Don’t You Know”

J Tillman at KEXP’s Audioasis Benefit at the High Dive, November 2007

So I went to an actual brick-and-mortar record store this weekend (how quaint!) and dropped $80+ on something like 8 records, all new, none from the ‘Used’ bin. I finally remembered to get a few albums I’ve been meaning to purchase for sometime but for whatever reason, never seem to remember on my previous trips. Foremost among my purchases were the two most recent J Tillman releases, Minor Works and Cancer and Delirium. Tillman, whom I share the name Josh with, prefers to go by J, so we’ll just call him J Tillman.

Minor Works was released in late 2006, and had I been properly hip to this cat, it would have undoubtedly made my top ten best albums and Northwest releases of 2006. It’s a quiet masterpiece with a maturity that belies the youth of Tillman himself. His somber and simple acoustic arrangements harken to the Songs:Ohia phase of Jason Molina, weaving intensely emotional tapestries together with mostly his voice. Oh man, that voice. If I were to identify a voice that I would consider ideal for a man, both masculine and expressive with being overly either, J Tillman would be the model. Sometimes it just wraps you up like the warm blankly you never want to leave on Sunday morning, and sometimes my eyes become unaccountably wet. No, not because it’s sad. It is that sometimes. The reason is because it’s so damn beautiful.

Cancer and Delirium was Tillman’s 2007 full-length release, and though not instantly as moving as Minor Works on first listen, it certainly emanates the same understated and weathered beauty that made the previous album so successful for me. The minimal presence of drums, joined with plucking banjo’s and mandolins fortify his sparse but purposeful strumming and heighten the sense of resolute sadness inherent in his voice. The track you may have heard on KEXP, “Under the Sun,” is probably the most accessible song on the album, but the lead track “Visions of a Troubled Mind” is a stunner of a song that encapsulates the J Tillman I came to respect so after listening to Minor Works. This album would also have made a top ten local releases in my book for 2007.

Listen to what I’m talking about at J Tillman’s Myspace page.

J Tillman will be playing with Whalebones and the Cave Singers at Neumos on this Saturday, January 26. You won’t regret going. I promise.