Lights Out

February 23, 2011 at 10:30 pm | Posted in Funhouse, Music, Previews, Seattle | 2 Comments
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A while ago I noticed that the Funhouse Concert Calendar stated:  The Lights Say “See you later… probably much later.”  I figured that could either mean they were going off on a long tour or they were calling it quits.  Unfortunately the later turned out to be the case when I got the email from the band that said while they were not officially breaking up the band, they were going an indefinite hiatus. Their album Failed Graves from last year was number 20 in my year end countdown and what I wrote seems apropos for enticing you to head down to the Funhouse one last time to see them live:

The Lights have been trolling around the seedy side Seattle for quite a while.  Ten years on and Failed Graves is only the band’s third album but my favorite so far.  There were more than a couple times this year when I was standing either in the Funhouse or the Sunset watching them storm through a set thinking that they were the best live band going in Seattle right now.  Craig Chambers in a suit looking like a huckster that plays a mean guitar, Jeff Albertson fiercely clutching his well worn bass while PJ Rogalski wailed on the drums.

The Lights can truly conjure cathartic energy at will with their songs and they will be missed. If you are in Seattle you should turn up at the Funhouse this Friday, 25 February to partake in their going away party.  Their demise seems to have been precipitated by drummer PJ Rogalski moving to Montana.  Albertson will still be around with his new band Summer Babes and Chambers has both Love Tan and Le Sang Song to him busy, but Friday night for one last time  it’s all about the Lights.  They’re planning an extra long set and are still taking requests over at their Facbook page. So hit them up for your favorite song and then be there on Friday to hear it.

Here are a handful of Lights favorites:

mp3: The Lights – Gingerella (from Failed Graves)


mp3: The Lights – Icy Run (from Diamonds and Dirt)


mp3: The Lights – Victims of the Pleasure of the Sense of Hearing (from Beautiful Bird)


Buy some Lights records from their label Wantage.

I See Your Schwartz Is As Big As Mine

February 21, 2011 at 12:16 am | Posted in Music, Shoegaze | 2 Comments
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There was time not long ago that everything was not available at the click of button and if you lived in some far of place away from a city with a cool record store  you would make these trips to go record shopping or you’d allow for extra time when you were road-triping for a show to hit the local stores for some record shopping.  In the early 90′s I was big into shoegaze, which back then was used a derogatory term. Any time I was in Pittsburgh, DC, or Cleveland I made time to hit up Eides, Wax Stax, Olsons or Smash! to look for the latest EP from the likes of Swervedriver, Sweet Jesus, Catherine Wheel, Boo Radleys, Ride, Revolver, Telescopes, Adorable, Pale Saints, Kitchens of Distinction or Chapterhouse, essentially any band that had been spawned by My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus and Mary Chain. That was the shoegaze heyday. There were singles and eps coming fast and heavy and a lot of it was crazy good but near impossible to get your hands on, so finding an new ep from any of these bands was always always a rush and something to bring back home as booty and laud over your friends.

Of course eventually the scene faded and fell out of favor with the British music weeklies and believe it or not even I got tired of it for a while.  Maybe it was my formative age, but that was a great time and one of the last movements that really had a lasting impact on music.  Look around today and there are still bands making records with effect pedals and the tremolo bar prominently featured.  The thing is, it rarely if ever gets done as good as it was done originally back then. Enter Ringo Deathstarr, a band with an obvious sense of humor and a way with the tremelo bar and a melody like none I’ve heard since that 90′s heyday.  Singles and EP’s have trickeled out from the Austin band for a few years that are nearly as hard to find as those afore mentioned EP’s (Most of them were compiled on the Japanese release Sparkler). The band finally have an album set to unleash on an unsuspecting public.  Colour Trip is so jaw-dropping good it will make you check the packaging date.  Delving into the shoegaze genre a band is sure to get called derivative, and trainspotters may pick apart Colour Trip for obvious references like opening track Imagine Hearts sounding like Soon, or Elliot Frazier’s baritone kind of sounding like William Reed and I will admit that you can place some things and pinpoint them to MBV, Jesus and Mary Chain, etc. but for the most part Ringo Deathstarr are taking the ball and running down their own rabbit hole.

Who cares if My Bloody Valentine ever release another record. The next generation has arrived and the one after that for that matter and Ringo Deathstar ain’t looking back.  They’re not ringing their hands about whether or not the tremelo bar was tweaked at precisely a 20 degree angle or if the vocals sound exactly like fish swimming through 60 degree water.  Listening to Colour Trip, you know they know it’s right and it totally instinctive.  The sounds are earsplitting, and euphoric.  The buzz saw guitars, butterfly tremelo,  the boy-girl vocals and melodies all combine to make a shoegaze record that can stand toe to toe with Nowhere, Whirlpool, Mezcal Head or  Loveless.

mp3: Ringo Deathstarr –  So High

In the US you can order Colour Trip from Sonic Union. Over in the UK Club AC 30 are the ones to hit up.

Thanks to the most excellent Chills for the image up top.

Lucksmiths: Not Camera Shy; Make a Movie

February 19, 2011 at 12:12 am | Posted in Final Farewells, Music, Video | 1 Comment
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I remember the first time I saw the Lucksmiths live.  I was living in Washington, DC and the band was over playing their first ever DC  show.  It was at the Galaxy Hut in Arlington, a tiny bar where they clear  away a few tables to allow bands to play when they have bands.  It was around the time of  A Good Kind of Nervous, their third album and the first one to be released here.  I also remember they had a new single they were selling too, their first single for Matinée, the Untidy Towns 7″.
Not sure what to expect, I had dragged my girlfriend, my sister and her boyfriend along to the show anyway. I don’t remember if the place was packed, but it was pretty full, and with people who may or may not have been fans of the band. The Lucksmiths proved to be charming fellows as I recall and their jovial infectious songs and personalities easily engulfed the tiny room. Tali sang and played drums standing up and with brushes!? Marty played his guitar like he was in the Wedding Present and Mark’s bass playing had a groove and adroitness to it that belied their twee songs. Marty was the main songwriter and he had a clever way with words that could bring the mundane to life. I hopped aboard the Lucksmiths train that night and never got off.
I had the opportunity to see them play and few more times over the years but I was still kind of bummed they never made it back to the States for a farewell tour after announcing that they were calling it a day. As a farewell to everyone that couldn’t make it to their farewell shows the band have released a DVD of their final show at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne. It features a cover painted by Mark Monnone, 30 plus songs few special guests and top quality sound. The DVD also contains a short film that follows the band on their run-up to their last shows and final recording session. So if you missed those final shows, or have been a fan but never had the opportunity to see them live, it is your good fortune that the Lucksmiths are not camera shy.  So, darling roll the window down, come round if you’re not too busy and get your copy today from Matinée here in the States or Lost and Lonesome in Australia.


Golden Grrrls Guts

February 15, 2011 at 10:50 pm | Posted in ramblings, The Letter G | 1 Comment
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Today’s music is brought to you by the letter G*.

Golden Grrrls are a trio from Scotland who have just released their first 7-inch single on Night School Records in the UK.  It’s an edition of 300 and sure to go quick as their noisy melodic boy-grrrl lo-fi sound is sure to pleasure at least 300 people’s ears enough into buy it. They kind of remind me of Sexy Kids which is no small feat.

mp3: Golden Grrrls – Beaches (order the 7-inch from Night School)


Coming off of two EP’s and a split single with Brilliant Colors are Girls Names who hail from Belfast, Northern Ireland.  Slumberland has scooped up the band for the US release and it’s not surprising since they have a similar dark sound to Crystal Stilts.

mp3: Girls Names - Seánce on a Wet Afternoon (out soon on Slumberland)


Speaking of dark sounds, Brisbane, Australia’s Slug Guts have a record called Howlin’ Gang out next week on Sacred Bones.  Sounding like a more accessible Birthday Party or early Hunters and Collectors, their  Hangin’ in the Pisser might just be the best song I’ve heard all week. Psychobilly goth is back with a vengeance.

mp3: Slug Guts – Hangin’ In the Pisser (order Howling Gang from Sacred Bones)

*mp3′s snagged from Pinglewood, Tough Love and Raven Sings the Blues respectively.

Keen on the Radio Dept.

February 13, 2011 at 10:19 pm | Posted in Crocodile, Gigs, Music, Radio Dept., Review, Seattle | Leave a comment
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Radio Dept. and Young Prisms at the Crocodile, Seattle | 12 February 2011

As the Radio Dept. left the stage after their main set, I wondered did we really need the band here?  They had left the stage, but crackling and frayed recorded backing was still blasting from the PA.  The song continued to Ebb and flow without the band even there. A minute passed and it peaked and then faded out, and I thought to myself, wow that sounded amazing and it was just a tape.   We were left standing there hoping that the trio would come back out for another song because even with their pre-recorded drums and sounds, the Radio Dept. had just finished a solid set that put to rest any lingering questions I had about them not being able to do the live thing without a drummer. They had effortlessly created the early shoegaze of Lesser Matters, the cinematic sounds of Pet Grief and their newer jazz and Ibiza era New Order influenced songs and had left me and the rest of the Crocodile wanting more.

Apparently the band played Seattle back in 2003 at Chop Suey, as singer Johan Duncanson mentioned that he ran into someone that was at the show.  That was after their first album Lesser Matters had come out here on Shelflife.  I’ve got to imagine that it was quite a different show than the one at the sold out Crocodile last night.  I doubt it had girls on their boyfriend’s shoulders looking like they were ready to throw undergarments on stage yelling for them and  I doubt it had guys waving lighters above their heads during songs. Obviously Radio Dept are on the cusp of leaving, or have completely shed  their cult status.

They pulled heavily from last year’s Clinging To a Scheme, but left out one of my favorites from the record, the noisy Memory Loss which sounds like it could have come off of Lesser Matters. A minor quibble really, and I’m sure everyone there could have easily named another five songs they wished they would have played, but they pulled highlights from all three records and some b-sided to try and satisfy on this rare trip over to the U.S.  The set may have lulled a little in the middle, but when Heaven’s On Fire kicked in everyone perked up and they didn’t lose our attention for the rest of set.  Duncanson and Martin Carlberg are both really good guitarists (Carlberg picked up his Gibson Bass for a few songs, but played it like a guitar) and Duncanson’s sleepy cool voice is no fake, sounding exactly like it does on record. I had heard reports that they come across as a bit reserved live and had heard some complaints about them being drummer-less, but the sound did the talking and more than made up for any Nordic stoicism the band may have.  A lot of their music is fabricated from electronics on record , so it wasn’t as if they were faking it live.  The opposite in fact, it felt as real as any show I’ve been to in the last year and hearing songs like David, 1995, Heaven’s On Fire and Ewan live was something I thought I’d never have the chance to do as this notoriously reclusive band rarely tour.

mp3: Radio Dept. – The New Improve Hipocracy (from Passive Aggressive)

mp3: Radio Dept. – 1995 (from Lesser Matters)

Buy some Radio Dept. music.

Set List (from memory so it may not be 100%): Freddie and the Trojan Horse | This Time Around | The New Improved Hypocrisy | David | I Wanted You To Feel The Same |The Worst Taste in Music | Messy Enough | Ewan | You Stopped Making Sense | Domestic Scene | Heaven’s On Fire | Never Follow Suit |Closing Scene | Encore: 1995

San Francisco’s Young Prisms opened and were way better than the impression they made on me with their EP on Mexican Summer and their recent album Friends For Now on Kanine.  The came across as confident and competent in the art of shoegaze as well as garage.  On record it sounds like it’s mostly a guy singing but live Stefanie Hodapp is the obvious singer and the band are much better for it.  She reminded me  more than a little like Rachel Goswell from her Slowdive days.  They only played about 30 minutes, but it was more than enough to make me want to give their record another spin.

mp3: Young Prisms – Sugar (from Friends for Now)

Webelos

February 10, 2011 at 11:26 pm | Posted in Seattle, Video | Leave a comment
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Seattle’s Webelos have just released their first album, Shadow Seasons.  It’s a quirky little critter that took a few plays to make an impact, but since that awkward first meetin Shadow Seasons and I have become quite comfortable with one another. Webelos sound like they could have been on Teenbeat back in the 90′s when Unrest and Eggs were around.   The record is half instrumentals, that the band really let loose on, creating little groovy numbers that are perfect for a little two-step in the kitchen.  They incorporate a vaguely TeenBeat/Factory groove with their tightly wound rhythms while at the same time maintaining an element of nerdiness to their songs that at times reminds me of the Monochrome Set.  This record is total fun in a music geek kind of way (they have a song called Yo La Mango), but even if you’re not one of those, the Webelos’ Shadow Seasons has way about it that could thaw the coldest of hearts and at the very least will put a bounce in your step as you walk over the frozen tundra.  Scouts honor!

mp3: The Webelos – Hansel and Gretel


Order up a digital download of Shadow Seasons at the Webelos’ bandcamp page or hit up Sonic Boom up for a CD, and watch a video for If You Choose To Stay while you’re at it.

Rock n’ Roll Pest Control: Basementcast #15

February 9, 2011 at 11:19 pm | Posted in Basementcast, Music, Podcasts | 2 Comments

Basementcast number fifteen was designed specifically to stamp out pests.  Be it the criter kind or the pesky rock n’ roll kind.  Oh, you know the type.  That song you accidentally hear down the hall, in the Gap or in your mom’s car that you can’t get out of your head.  You keep singing the chorus and then form a quizical look on your face that says why in the hell did I just sing that?  This baemenctcast was specifically desingned to erradicate those nuisance songs from your brain and fill it with ‘worthy’ songs to belt out at the stop light, in line at the coffee shop or any old place.

download: basementcast #15 (~175 Mb)

Tracklist:
Arabesque – Orchestre de studio from Apres Ski
Continental – Jonny from Candyfloss

Best Album – Vic Godard & The Subway Sect from We Come As Aliens
Landlocked – BOAT from Dress Like Your Idols
That’s Your Red Wagon – Anita O’Day/Cal Tjader from Time For Two

Speed Queen – Les Molies from Kumcat
A Hundred Days Of Snow – The Little Penguins from Shapes And Shadows
Unusual Sounds – The Sneetches from  Sometimes That’s All We Have

Springstung – Sweet Bulbs from Sweet Bulbs
So High – Ringo Deathstarr from Colour Trip
Fanci Pantz – Cotton Candy from Top-Notch & First-Rate

Get Away – Yuck from Yuck
U.F.O. – Jim Sullivan from U.F.O.
Drive Me To The Park - The Embarrassment from Heyday 1979-83

Shari Vari – The Dirtbombs from Party Store
Wanderlust – Chrisma from Chinese Restaurant
The Cuban – Honeydrum from Honeydrum

Nectar – Still from Nectar
Cameo – Boomgates from Bright Idea 7-inch
Golden Lights – Twinkle from Golden Lights

Should Be Gone – The Feelies from Here Before
Sur Ton Répondeur – Notre Dame from Chansons Françaises
Stiff Joints – Yuni In Taxco from Sanpaku

Go! – Mind Spiders from Mind Spiders
The Helicopter Spies – Swell Maps from Jane From Occupied Europe
Cement Surfboard – Sic Alps from Napa Asylum

Oh, The Divorces! – Tracey Thorn from Love And Its Opposite

Sons of Kong

February 5, 2011 at 11:25 pm | Posted in 7 inch, Kong, Music, Seattle, Vinyl | Leave a comment
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I have Boat news and bad news.  The BOAT news is the band have a new single out on Magic Marker, the bad news is that after landing in Federal Way, King Kong is in Seattle. He just busted down Denny, and has now climbed to the top the Space Needle. He’s plucked a Kenmore Air sea plane from the sky and is wreaking general havoc at the Seattle Center.  Where’s Fay Wray? Why does Kong look like he’s bigger than the Space Needle? Which version of King Kong is this exactly?  Obviously it’s a “B” movie version,  Plan 9 from Outer Space style. I think I see a zipper under Kong’s arm.

Ok, I’ll cut the monkey talk. The new BOAT single is called (I’ll Beat My Chest Like) King Kong and is available on glorious red, black, and  white 7-inch vinyl. It’s obviously their “A” list material and is a taster from their upcoming fourth album Dress Like Your Idols.  You can order up the single now from Magic Marker and put a reminder in your smart phone to buy the album on March 22nd.

mp3: Boat – (I’ll Beat My Chest Like) King Kong

Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?

February 1, 2011 at 10:19 pm | Posted in Feedback, Music | 1 Comment
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Photo from emmlpop’s flickr
Having quietly released three singles last year and inexplicably none of them making my top 40 last year, the Blanche Hudson Weekend have just put it in my face the glaring mistake I made by releasing a CD the compiles all three singles and throws on seven more songs for just the hell of it. Caroline and Darren of the Manhattan Love Suicides make up the core of Blanche Hudson Weekend, and if you were wondering whether or not the duo still have a thing for the Jesus & Mary Chain and 60′s Girl Groups, you need not fret, these songs crackle and buzz from the hi-fi. Not standing still though, the duo have added a bit of nuance to their sound, adding a new vice in Galaxy 500. So instead of constantly beating you over the head with blistering feedback Blanche Hudson Weekend switch it up and tickle you with some moody spacious numbers.

So the previous three singles are here and of the utmost quality, but the new songs are no slouches either.  Usually when a band puts out a compilation of their singles you might get one or two new half-backed songs, but the Blanche Hudson Weekend have been in the kitchen with my Grandfather and everything is well-done. Reverence, Severance and Spite is unabashed quality, or as they use to say all killer no filler.

mp3: The Blanche Hudson Weekend – Union Square Blackout


mp3: The Blanche Hudson Weekend – Let Me Go


Head on over to Squirrel Records to order your copy of Reverence, Severance, and Spite.

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