The Lights’ Failed Graves

February 24, 2010 at 11:12 pm | Posted in mp3, Music, Seattle | 3 Comments
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The Lights have been a band for more than 10 years, but are just getting around to releasing their third album, Failed Graves. In this day and age when a lot of bands take on the publish or perish mentality, the Lights work at their own pace. It’s been four years since their previous record Diamonds and Dirt, but the band have been anything but sedentary. Besides opening for the Obits last year on their west coast tour the band have kept busy with other endeavors.  Guitarist and singer Craig Chambers has released records with  Matthew Ford of the Factums as Love Tan and solo as Le Sang Song.  Bassist and singer Jeff Albertson has his other group, the hip hop duo Lamborghiniz where he teams up with the Coconut Coolouts Pete Zaparty.

Taking an if it ain’t broke don’t fix it approach to the new record, they recorded it (like their previous two) with Erik Blood last year.  It could be their best, though it’s a little early too say that definitively.  The anti-war rocker Famous Gunshots seems like the centerpiece of the album.  Chambers’ lyrics provide stark imagery of dead men and bits of little girls in trees, to Alberson’s and Rogalski’s military march.  Gingerella, which Chambers included on his Le Sang Song record, also reappears, but takes on a much more intense and provocative personality, and there are more wire-y abrasive rockers in Craig Jr and Nervous Breakdown (Black Flag cover) keeping the pace of the album brisk.  The Lights don’t slow down too much, but the Alberstson sung Puerto Escondito does let them take a bit of a breather.  It’s got a gunslinger feel to it, starting Spaghetti western, Morricone sounding guitar and then goes into a big chorus that feels like you’ve been crawling across the desert without water for days.

The coolest thing about the Lights is how they are able to take their UK post punk influences, travel up to the mountains to some isolated shack and boil them down in a still and come up with something that sounds like wild mountain men doing angular punk rock.  Listening to the Lights reminds me of stuff like Gang of Four, Johnny Horton, Neil Young, New Model Army and Eleventh Dream Day, but they don’t really sound like any of those.  The Lights have done something that many before them often fail to do, distill their influences into something acerbically unique.

This Friday night (26 February) at the Funhouse is the official unveiling of Failed Graves with Erik Blood and Partman Parthorse opening.  It’s sure to be a great gig.

mp3: The Lights – New New (from the new album Failed Graves)

Place your order for the Lights new album over at their label, Wantage USA.

Global Warming Is Getting Me Down

February 23, 2010 at 9:40 pm | Posted in Global Warming, Music | Leave a comment
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Taking their name from the cost of a ride in zone 1 on you local public transit, Standard Fare have written one of my favorite songs of the year so far in Philadelphia.  Emma Kupa sings: Global warming is getting me down.  It’s making the the sea between us wider and deeper.  Now, I’m not Moses and I don’t know how to split up the ocean and drive right on over. From there the band turn into a mini Wedding Present with a strummed guitar maelstrom and a chorus about waiting a year to see a certain person in Philadelphia.  It kind of puts a new perspective of the whole global warming thing.  Maybe mankind start doing something about it when it starts getting in the way of love?

Standard Fare are a three piece from Sheffield, England who have released a string of singles on their hometown label Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation.  Besides glints of the afore mentioned TWP, they have a little in common with label mates Monkey Swallows the Universe / Nat Johnson & The Figureheads and seem to drink from the same well as Los Campesinos some of the time.  Having released the prerequisite singles, the band have readied their debut long player and as luck would have it, it’s getting released on both sides of the Atlantic. Thee SPC and Melodic Records will be doing the honors over in the UK and Bar None over here.  The record is called the Noyelle Beat, and was expeditiously recorded in a mere six days.  Pop seems to run thick in the blood of these youngsters, and the record delivers meaty hook after hook, with no concern for artery blockage.  As luck would have it the sea is apparently not too deep nor too wide at this point to stop them from making a trip outside their transit zone. If you’re in one of a handful of cities, the band will be making the trip over to the States for a string of dates that will lead them down to Austin for SXSW in March.

mp3: Standard Fare – Philadelphia (place your order for The Noyelle Beat)


The March US dates for Standard Fare:

Mar 11 – Cake Shop – New York City, NY
Mar 12 – The Ox – Philadelphia, PA
Mar 13 – Cafe 9 – New Haven, CT
Mar 14 – Death By Audio – Brooklyn, NY
Mar 15 – Great Scott – Boston, MA
Mar 17 – Music For listeners day party – Austin, TX
Mar 19 – SXSW Showcase at Mohawk inside – Austin, TX

Reviving the Revival

February 20, 2010 at 9:56 pm | Posted in mp3, Music, Revivals | 1 Comment
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A couple years ago when people were knee deep in their nostalgia for C-86 inspired girl bands, Chin Chin seemed to get looked over.  Maybe it was because their albums were long out of print and nearly impossible to find, or perhaps it was because they were from Beil, Switzerland and didn’t get a lot of press or exposure in the English language music rags when they were around.  Whatever the case, a couple of stellar labels are in the process of making sure that Chin Chin get their due.  Hopefully the process will be a three step one.

In 1984 the band released their first single We Don’t Wanna Be Prisoners, three songs that had a lot in common with the Shop Assistants who apparently were like a sister band to them, touring  together in old Europe.  Portland’s eclectic Mississippi Records has just reissued that first single which was hopelessly OOP.  Step one complete.  Soon after putting out their single, Chin Chin unleashed the 14 song debut album called Sound of the Westway which was amazing for it’s consistency and ability to sound like the Ramones and the Shangri-Las’ kid sisters at the same time.  This record has made the rounds on the torrent sites and leak blogs, but anyone actually wanting to actually own a physical copy of the album had to be patient and well funded.  Once again Mississippi Records, this time with the help of Slumberland (you may have heard of them) are coming to the rescue bringing this obscure jem to the general public.  A date hasn’t been set, but Slumberland’s site says it’s on the slate for this year and it will be a vinyl only reissue.  Step two nearly complete.

Up to this point Chin Chin had put out their records on their own label they christened Farmer Records, but after touring with the Shop Assistants, they caught the fancy of one Stephen Pastel.  At the time Pastel was curating his 53rd and 3rd label and released the band’s eight song  Stop! Your Crying.  Finally the stars had aligned and Chin Chin and the Shop Assistants were on the same label, and all was right with the world.  Except that is wasn’t.  The band never seemed gain much notoriety and like so many of the great ones sloughed off into obscurity.  I don’t know of any plans to reissue the Stop! Your Crying, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in the planning stages right now.  Step three anyone?

mp3: Chin Chin – We Don’t Wanna Be Prisoners (reissued on Mississippi)


mp3: Chin Chin – My Guy (soon to be reissued on Mississippi & Slumberland)


mp3: Chin Chin – Stop! Your Crying (hopefully getting reissued too)

Here is the video the band made for We Don’t Wanna Be Prisoners.  I’m pretty sure I never saw it on 120 Minutes.

Coastal Girls

February 16, 2010 at 10:25 pm | Posted in Gigs, Girls, High Dive, Music, Seattle | 1 Comment
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Vivian Girls, Best Coast & TacocaT at the High Dive, Seattle | 13 February 2010

It feels like every time  I click a link three’s a new lo-fi girl group that I’m smitten with.  It all started back in 2008 with the Vivian Girls and their reverb-laden harmonies that brought back memories of the Shop Assistants and Black Tambourine.  The Dum Dum Girls soon followed and grabbed everyone’s attention last year with their version of Phil Spector girl group who has a thing for the Jesus and Mary Chain.  Just to prove that things move pretty fast these days, Best Coast appeared late last year firing off three quality 7 inch records that are good enough to almost make you forget about Vivans and Dum Dums.

What makes Best Coast so good? There are the songs themselves with their aching hallucinogenic quality that seem to conjure sun bleached images of days gone by, but it’s Bethany Cosentino’s voice that carries it all home.  She uses reverb like everybody else these days, but she doesn’t need it.  Borrowing Vivian Girls drummer Ali Koehler Best Coast hit all the high points, and there are quite a few, of their four singles, they also played a few new songs from their upcoming album.  One of them was called Crazy, or some variation, and as Cosentino repeated the chorus, I couldn’t help but think of Patsy Cline.  Not because it sounded country or had twinkling piano in it, but because Cosentino’s voice sounded so good, transcending the lo-fi aesthetic that she’s chosen to drape the songs in for the time being.  Cosentino’s foil in Best Coast is Bobb Bruno who plays a baritone guitar which they thought was stolen the night before in Vancouver, but later found after the gig.  The band seemed quite bummed out by the loss of Bruno’s guitar and apologized more than once for not being able to deliver the full Best Coast sound.  Bruno tried to replicate on his riff’s on a borrowed bass guitar form Katie of the Vivian Girls, doing his best Peter Hook imitation.  He mostly persevered, but sometimes had to resort to playing tambourine.  It really didn’t matter, Cosentino’s voice and songs were more than worthy of taking center stage and no apology was necessary.

mp3: Best Coast – When I’m With You (from the Black Iris 7″)


After Best Coast, the Vivian Girls had their work cut out for them. The two bands are cut from the same cloth, but where Best Coast’s melodies prevail, the Vivian Girls bury theirs beneath heavy bass and guitar. Sometimes I don’t even think that there is a melody to be buried.  That wasn’t always the case.  I think their first album could be considered a classic, but the set they played focused mostly on their newer material which is a bit more difficult.  A lot of the songs seemed to blend into one another, with Katie’s bass dominating everything.  We got a break from the drone when they put down their instruments and did their a capella cover of the Chantals‘ He’s Gone. It was a break, but not a very good one, especially when you compare it to the original.  The set wasn’t a total bust, Lakehouse, Can’t Get Over You and Tell The World stood out, but it wasn’t their best. I worry that the band are struggling to come up with songs that match the magic of their debut and by focusing on their newer material it made that fact all the more painfully obvious.

mp3: Vivian Girls – He’s Gone (B-side to their upcoming 7″ on Wild World)
mp3 swiped from gvsb


TacaocaT started the night off with their updated, more humorous version of riot grrrl, sprinkled with a little bit of Young Fresh Fellows.  They played some new songs as well as old favorites Leotard, Dry Land Is a Myth (the Kevin Costner song), Volcano and Basement, an ode to their ‘condo’.  Great fun even if they didn’t play Peeps, which Katie from Vivian Girls kept shouting for.  If you haven’t heard their album Shame Spiral, do yourself a favor and get on over to their label Don’t Stop Believin’ and order yourself up a copy.

mp3: TacocaT – Peeps (from Shame Spiral)

Sing Sang Sung

February 10, 2010 at 11:11 am | Posted in mp3, Music, Seattle | 1 Comment
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Another one from Seattle: Le Sang Song is the low key solo vehicle of Craig Chambers who is also in the Lights (new album from them due out latter this month) and Love Tan. Apparently the record has been in the can for a couple years gathering dust. Min Yee of the A-Frames and AFCGT decided it was too good to not get released so he resurrected Dragnet Records to put out the record.

Recorded on Eric Blood’s old 8-track, the album is sparse and claustrophobic at the same time. The songs have a folk influence to them, but the big echoing drums,  and space in the recordings give the songs a tense feel.  Chambers is economical with his guitar, to great effect.  He seems to conjure a good groove in every song, not one you can really dance to necessarily, more of a hypnotic groove.  I think my two favorite songs on the album are the first and the last ones.  Gingerella starts the record off with a catchy riff that is then overlayed with a slithery lead part that quickly disappears when Chambers starts singing from what sounds like deep below the earth’s surface through some long hollow tube.  Aloha, the final song begins with a bass riff that sounds like it was lifted from Curtis Mayfield‘s Superfly, adds in some weird keyboards and guitar and then proceeds to groove over four blissed out minutes with Chambers singing over that skeletal structure about remembering swimsuits on sunny days.  The song and the record itself is not one designed to get you through the bleakness of winter, as much as one that feels your pain.

mp3: Le Sang Song – Gingerella (from s/t album 0n Dragnet 660 copies pressed)


mp3: Le Sang Song – Aloha (from s/t album 0n Dragnet – 660 copies pressed)

Thunder Buffalo

February 9, 2010 at 5:31 pm | Posted in mp3, Music, Seattle, Tatonka | Leave a comment
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I was kind of kicking myself the other day for not having gone out to the Cha Cha Lounge to see Thunder Buffalo this past Sunday night.  Their self-titled album has been rocking my world of late, but apparently not enough to get me out on a school night.  Lucky for me that they have a few gigs scheduled in the next two months.

The band are based here in Seattle by way of Austin and are a combination, of parts Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Gallon Drunk and Thee Oh Sees.  Main Buffalo Aaron Schroeder, the Austinite, has kind of a dark and mysterious voice that has elements of Nick Cave and Jim Morrison.  They released their debut album digitally late last year, but this week sees it get the physical treatment.  The album will send sparks out of your music player in whatever format you may favor with it’s in the red distortion and overmodulated vocals.  You might think, with song titles like Hymn of the Devil, In the Valley of the Scarecrow and Holly Ghost Haunt that they’re goths.  They may be, but they’re definitely more the salt of the earth kind who also know how to have fun.  It’s not all fire and brimstone, there are also magic carpets in Gloomy In Us All and BeBop Sing-a-long takes a trip to a bunch of local bars and has a rollicking good time.  Thunder Buffalo are a magic carpet ride of down and dirty lo-fi mayhem.

mp3: Thunder Buffalo – BeBop Sing-a-long (put your order in for their self-titled Sarathan release)

Trainwreck to Puberty

February 6, 2010 at 11:37 pm | Posted in Gigs, mp3, Music, Seattle | 1 Comment
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Books away, pencils out.  Pop quiz time.  First question, Puberty is:

A. The House Band for the new monthly Trainwreck dance-debauchery party at the Orient Express.

B. Side project of Intelligence dynamic duo Lars Finberg and Susanna Welbourne.

C. That awkward stage that all humans go through to reach sexual maturation, and that most would like to forget.

D. All of the above.

The answer of course is D, but for purposes here we’re (mostly) interested in A & B. The Intelligence could never be accused of being a slacker band.  Last year they released two albums and they have one ready to unleash on us this year already.  Besides being prolific in the albums department, they seem to be perpetually on tour. So where do Mr. Finberg and Ms. Welbourne find the time for this new side project?  Obviously some people need much less sleep, and don’t have a weakness for goofing off and wasting time surfing the internet like some of us.

Besides Puberty, Finberg and Welbourne have concocted a vehicle so to speak for their new band, a monthly party called Trainwreck that happens in a set of old railway cars from the 40′s that by day goes by the Orient Express, a restaurant where you can eat in the confines of the glorious past.  Setting foot in the place is like stepping back into a different time, they are all connected, but not in line like a train, so wondering around in them is kind of like going through a maze.  Finding the men’s room and getting back can be an adventure in and of itself. Just having this place as a divey bar you can go to and tie one on, is a good thing, but when you add a dj, a drag queen and Puberty you get something pretty damn cool.

Hosting the night was Kissee Simmons, the drag queen with a New Yawk accent.  S/he introduced the band with her 2 pack a day voice, making up new last names for Lars (I think she called him Lars Fishburn and Lars Fishburg) and offered Chex Mix to everyone.  The band, and it was an actual band, consisted of Dave Hernandez formerly of the Shins on guitar Curtis James (Old Haunts) on drums, Drew Church (Cops) on bass and Michael Jaworski (Cops) on keyboards.  This left Finberg and Welbourne to ham it up and have a blast.  It was pretty obvious that both or them were having a good time, they were decked out in all white and wore shades.  They shared vocals on every song while the band, all dressed in matching pink tuxedo jackets, held a solid groove throughout.  The sound isn’t much of a departure from the Intelligence aside from the shared vocals, but it was a pleasure to finally hear a full band behind an Intelligence project.  I was especially into hearing Churche’s nimble playing, which added the backbone that is often absent in an Intelligence gig.

They did an economical set of eight songs, including a cover of Generation X‘s Kleenex.  At one point Lars grabbed a giant strobe light that looked like weighed 50 pounds, and turned it on the packed train car.  It felt like we were speeding down a mountain side on a set rickety tracks, perilously close to going off the rails.  You definitely don’t want to miss the next Trainwreck.  Puberty departs on the Orient Express again on March 4th and April 1st.  All aboard!

mp3: Puberty – Parties


mp3: Puberty – Haunt My Trash


The mp3′s are courtesy of Puberty and the Stranger.  Also, a more in depth look at Puberty can be had at the Seattle Weekly, and you can see a few more photo’s from the night over at my Flickr.

Northern Portrait

February 2, 2010 at 10:27 pm | Posted in indiepop, Jangle, mp3 | 2 Comments
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Are you feeling a little dirty from listening to too much garage, punk, and lo-fi?  Well come on in, wash your greasy hands, take off your overalls and come into the parlour where the fire crackles and the hi-fi hums.  Don’t be put off by the smooth sounds coming out of the speakers or the tea and crumpets.  Try to refrain from demanding a PBR and have a spot of tea and a listen to  Northern Portrait‘s new album Criminal Art Lovers.  The songs are all Rickenbacker fueled jangling beauties, and  Stefan Larsen with his smooth tenor croon sounds like he is half Morrissey and half Frank Reader (Trashcan Sinatras).

Dear reader you must know that one can’t live on adrenaline charged shouted choruses alone.  Even if you think that you don’t need it, one listen to Northern Portrait’s debut will slip you into billowy haze of feathers and cause you to daydream of picnics in fields of daisies, or bicycling on the beach at sundown (or maybe it’s the tea).  Your life may not be such that those kinds of things are common day occurrences, but surely a kid can dream can’t he?  How do you get to that daisy field, or sitting room with the crackling fire, or the breezy beach at sundown you may ask?  It’s quite simple actually, more tea and Northern Portrait’s new album can take you there.

mp3: Northern Portrait – Criminal Art Lovers (from Matinee album Criminal Art Lovers)


mp3: Northern Portrait – New Favourite Moment (from Matinee album Criminal Art Lovers)

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