the finest kiss

Day two of the Sub Pop festival was an abbreviated one for me, so I missed the reunited Green River and Beechwood Sparks as well as Wolf Parade. Sacrilege, I know, but having kids puts a dent in my rock and roll lifestyle. Even having missed those bands, my day was still pretty good. Once again I got there early enough to see an empty Marymoor. This time though I walked in only a few minutes before the Ruby Suns were about to play. The band, if you can call them that, are down to two people. Not sure what happened to the third member, but Ryan McPhun alluded to this being he first time they’d played as a duo. I had seen them a few months back and been disappointed in their live show, so my expectations weren’t very high for them. The fact that their set seemed to be marred by sound problems with their backing tracks took away from any momentum they could muster with double drum attack. The sound problems weren’t audible to the small group of people watching, so they should have just played instead of making faces to the sound guy the entire set. The double drumming parts were good, but again it comes nowhere near their albums. What they need for their live show is a drum core, horns, strings, guitars and bass. Go buy their albums so they can afford to bring all that on their next tour.

In between Ruby Suns and Grand Archives I made my way to the beer garden for another tasty Snoqualmie Wildcat IPA. I know there were some complaints about the “expensive beer” but $6 microbrews at a festival is not expensive. People in Seattle don’t know how good they’ve got it, anywhere else you’d be paying $10 for crap beer. Oh yeah, Grand Archives. They look a lot tougher than they sound , but that’s not meant as a put down, it’s just that front guy Mat Brooke looks a bit like a kick-ass Hell’s Angel which belies the sweet melodies that come out of his mouth. I should have already seen these guys live, them being from Seattle and playing here a bunch, but this was actually my first time seeing them live. Until this day, I thought the album was a little underwhelming, but now having seen them live it puts it in a different light. Their set was so good it totally changed my opinion of them, and I’ve gone back and listened to their album three times in as many days. I’ve seen where they do Left Banke and Bee Gees covers in their set. The connection is a no brainer when you hear their songs up close, the melodies and backing harmonies are direct descendants of those bands. There weren’t any covers in their set, but they did include a couple new songs. Grand Archives’ set made me not so bummed to have missed the Beachwood Sparks later in the day.

Blitzen Trapper are the third band of the day and finally a few people are starting to arrive at Marymoor. It seems like the second day attendance is a little off from day one. I know that Saturday had sold out a week in advance, but Sunday still had tickets available. Hailing from down the I-5 in Portland, Blitzen Trapper signed to Sub Pop about a year ago, they have three albums to date, none on their current label, and none that I’ve actually heard. They seem pretty earnest, with their Dylan crossed with Creedence indie rock.

Seattleites, Kinski opened the smaller stage with a little shock and awe. Their rollicking garage jams have few lyrics, but none are really needed. Their (mostly) instrumental cowboy space rock was kick in the pants after a mellow morning and got the adrenaline flowing.

Foals didn’t let the energy created by Kinski drop even a little. In fact, the Foals came to play, and the totally lit it up. The band are just as tight as the first time I saw them back in February at Chop Suey on their inaugural visit to Seattle, except now they seem to have everything down a bit better. A much more confident band strode on stage Sunday allowing them to inject a looser feel to their wound up highly synchronized rock. Right from the start, Yannis Philippakis had a manic energy about him, grabbing the mic and bouncing it off of his drum, and then lashing out at his amp at the end of the French Open, slamming his guitar neck into his amp leaving a gaping hole in it. He then turned to the mic and smirkingly said This is the third time we’ve been to Seattle, and every time we come here, shit breaks. That’s why we like it here! He wasn’t kidding either, because a few songs later the drummer broke his snare drum. This kind of stuff would normally kill a band’s set, but they seemed to feed off of it. Later in the set guitarist Jimmy Smith hunched over, which is the way he normally plays, and blew chunks of vomit on the stage. Philippakis mocked him after the song, with some quip about stinking up the stage, but Smith persevered and the band seemed to kick the energy up another level. Their album is good, but live, these guys are playing at another level. The guitars ping-pong around the stage and the precise song arrangements are executed as if the band are in some kind of mind meld. Bruce Pavitt seemed to be impressed, because I saw him lunging through the crowd with his camera to get some shots of the clinic Foals were putting on. The Foals set could be summed up by saying shit broke, the band rocked, the guitarist puked and more shit broke!
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My friend Jim in Albany has a funny story about Les Thugs. He was at a CMJ Convention in New York and Les Thugs were on the bill, he overheard someone ask who was the next band to play, and the answer was (in heavy American stoner accent) It’s Less Thugs dude. Well as I turned to head over to the second stage I heard a guy telling his girlfriend Less Thugs is next. Poor French band, nobody can say their name right. No matter, after all these years they can still rock, even after minor technical difficulties at the start of their set. I always liked the songs where they would get into these long repetitious Can-like jams, that’s when they really clicked. They did that a few times in their set Sunday, seemingly putting everyone, myself included, into a French style punk induced trance.

No Age are the latest in a lineage of guitar and drum duos on Sub Pop. But unlike the Spinanes new wave and the Helio Sequence’s moody miasma, No Age are more akin to the SoCal school of punk mixed with needels in the red, shreds of noise from bands like Times New Viking. Their sound is geared more towards someone’s garage or basement instead or the huge outdoor setting of Marymoor. It seems like these guitar and drum bands always have a few really killer songs and the rest is filler, or maybe the dynamic wears thin over the course of an album making you just scream for a bass guitar by the end of it to fill out the sound. No Age don’t really prove any exception to this, their set was ok, and drummer Dean Spunt has kind of a goofy smart ass persona. He came out from behind his kit at one point and just sat on a monitor dangling his feet over the edge of the stage. I half expected him to do something crazy like kick a photographer or jump into the crowd, but he just casually got up and went back behind his drums. It’s kind of analogous to their music, you can see the potential for great things just under the surface and you keep waiting for it, but it never really arrives.

After No Age, I had to get back home, but even missing the last part of the day on Sunday, what a great weekend of music! I didn’t even mention the other extracurricular activities affiliated with Sub Pop’s 20th that were happening around town all weekend. You can read a couple Seattle and Sub Pop insiders’ run down of the weekend over at Blurt and General Bonkers. The Marymoor two day festival was just about perfect as far as festival go. The weather was perfect, not too crowded, beer wasn’t too expensive and you could actually walk around with a beer, you weren’t relegated to fenced off beer garden. The music was an excellent representation of the old Sub Pop and the new Sub Pop. The sound of the music being released by the label may sound different from 20 years ago, but the ideas and philosophy haven’t. People this weekend embraced both the old and the new from a label that looks like it’s never been better. So really, not much has changed, only now Sub Pop is 20 years old.

Sub Pop 20 started off with a gaggle of people in front of the main stage. Apparently the rest of Seattle was not as excited about this festival as I was. My neighbor Bryan and I got there a little early and walked in as the gates opened at 11:00, I guess most people couldn’t be arsed to roll out of bed for the first bands of the day. Marymoor park has regular concerts in the summer, but for this occasion they had added a second, slightly smaller stage to the left of the main stage, so that there was literally no down time between bands. Never having been to Marymoor park, I was surprised at how small the actual concert venue was. Not that I’m complaining, it made for a relaxed day, not too crowded, lots of shade, and pretty easy to get up as close as you wanted to see the bands. I also saw both Jonathan Poneman and Bruce Pavitt numerous time throughout the the day, not on the side of the stage watching the bands but down on the ground, just like rest of us.

All that I had heard about the Obits was that it was Rick Froberg of Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes new band. Thats pretty cool in and of it self, but when the band took the stage Saturday, I thought I recognized someone else in the band. I wasn’t sure at first, but a few songs in I was pretty sure that the other guitarist in the band was Sohrab Habibion formerly of DC band Edsel. For any Edsel fans out there, you’ll be happy to know that Sohrab took the lead vocal for one of the songs, and his distinct guitar sound was very present and accounted for too. The band knocked off the cobwebs from an early 6am wakeup and playing the Funhouse the night before to put in a solid set of what I would call punk with a twist. The angsty vocals from Froberg and the guitar interplay made me look forward these these new Sub Pop signing’s first record.

Toronto, Canada’s the Constantines were up next. Can’t say that I’m a fan, but their bassist is pretty animated. They had a couple guests come up and sing the final two songs of their set. First Julie from Eric’s Trip sang the Elevators To Hell (An Eric’s Trip offshoot) song Why I didn’t like August 93, which I thought was the best song of their set. Next they covered the Rolling Stones Street Fighting Man with Red Red Meat’s Tim Rutili. Rutili, hurried off stage before the song was even over, like he’d lost a bet or something.

The second Canadian band in a row and of the day were Eric’s Trip. They also hold the distinction of being the first Canadian band to be signed to Sub Pop. Back in the mid-90’s when they were putting out albums, I kind or ignored them. Not sure why, because their anthemic indie rock sounds pretty timeless. That was immediately evident with their set this afternoon. Bassit, Julie Doiron hit all the right buttons (even when she messed up her ohh, ohhs) with her backing vocals and Rick Whites catchy melodies over a bed of distorted guitar haze just sounded so right. White nailed it when he said, We sound really good, For not getting high.

Seaweed were the first band of the day to play on the smaller stage right. It seemed like all the bands playing that stage were the punks. Like a lot of the bands playing this weekend, they’re in semi retirement as a band. Though not broken up, this Tacoma band aren’t exactly active. They, like a lot of bands this weekend had gotten back together to play for Sub Pop. Apparently singer Aaron Stauffer’s daughter is big Helio Sequence fan and made it a point to say that her favorite song is their song Blood Bleeds. Helio Sequence took note of this and specifically played Blood Bleeds for her. It seems like, now that Sub Pop is 20 years old, kids, and I mean children are more a part of the scene. I noticed a lot of parents brought their kids with them to the festival. It was cool to see such a diverse crowd and mix of ages, old guys walking around with Rocket t-shirts and mom’s holding their hands over their kid’s ears while rocking out. I even spotted numersous youngsters sitting up on stage watching bands. Back the Helio Sequenc, who are a duo of drums and guitar with the aid of backing tracks. They seemed to connect with the much Marymoor crowd. I like the Helio Sequence, but live they’re kinda boring, stuck to playing against a pre-recorded backing track.

Pissed Jeans were Definitely not boring. These Pennsylvania hard core boys mosh to the beat of a different tune. Throughout the set the singer kept stuffing towels down his pants for no apparent reason, until he looked all lumpy. He also blew his nose into the mic, shot luggies out at the audience and smashed ice cream cones into the bass guitar. So, this must have been what the early days of Sub Pop were really like, except they had longer hair back in those days.

From the hard core sounds of Pissed Jeans straight into the pastoral harmonies of Fleet Foxes took a bit of adjusting. I can’t imagine hearing these two bands back to back any other place. The Fleet Foxes have been crowned with the next big thing status, their album has been getting gushing reviews nearly all around. I agree that the record sounds great and has some good songs, but these guys have about zero stage presence. Front man Robin Pecknold insists on sitting on a chair while playing in front of a few thousand people, and then there were the uncomfortable long silences between songs. Things livened up a bit when drummer Josh Tillman got into a drum off with the Fluid drummer setting up on the stage next door. You could tell the band were visible annoyed by the drums and guitar blasts coming from the Fluid setting up. It almost seemed like Fluid were doing it on purpose, which wouldn’t surprise me since the these Denver punks were raging against bands that sounded like the Fleet Foxes back in the 80’s.

You never would have know that The Fluid were reuniting for the first time in 15 years. Their set was as tight as a knot boasting big crunchy guitar hooks, and choruses that reminded me of the Buzzcocks, and early Nick Lowe. Singer John Robinson looked smart, sporting a pink shirt, blue vest and striped tie, these colorado guys know how to dress, and rock. Robinson also made the day’s first foray into the crowd to test the crowd surfing. He was successful!

By this time of the day I was starting to detect a pattern between the stages. A kind of a slow-fast-slow -fast thing with the smaller stage sporting the early punk/grunge/hardcore sound of the label and the larger stage showcasing the Sup Pop of today, a little more mellow and understated. Providing no exception to this rule, slowcore specialists Low were next up on the main stage. Low’s minimalist and at the same time extremely intense sound filled the outdoors. I’ve always avoided seeing themlive thinking that they’d put me to sleep, but the music has an intensity that makes them very engaging. The highlight of the set for me was their song Canada one of their was more upbeat songs. The band ended their set inviting everyone to come visit them in Duluth, Minnesota, because according to singer Alan Sparhawk it’s always beautiful in Duluth.

Mudhoney packed it in. In a forty minute set they pretty much played all the hits and everyone pretty much went crazy. I think the band were just as excited as we were, with both Steve Turner and Mark Arm breaking strings from their intense fuzzed out guitar playing. There was much slamming and crowd surfing throughout the set, and for a brief moment it felt like it was 1992 again. Mark Arm still has that slithery Iggy like thing going on, the only difference was that the band weren’t back bending in those contortionist poses that were immortalized in Charles Peterson’s photography from the early Sub Pop days.

If you were looking for Eugene Kelly based on the old album photos of him with long hair, you’d never recognize him today. He’s an older looking fellow, with short hair, and actually has a very ‘dad’ look. Francis McKee, on the other hand, doesn’t look like she’s aged a day since the Vaselines called it a day back in 1990. The duo were backed up by the Belle and Sebastian rhythm section and guitarist Stevie Jackson. With this stellar set of ringers (Jackson’s guitar on You Think You’re a Man was simply perfect), Kelly & McKee seemed totally at ease playing their songs that they hadn’t played in more than 18 years. To say that the Vaselines are about sex is putting it mildly, and their stage banter wasn’t about to change that impression. Kelly introduced Monster Puss as being about McKee’s pussy and then Francis feeling bad for not having any t-shirts for sale, offered dry humps for $20. The songs, you ask? They sounded pretty damn amazing. What more can I say really. It was such an honor and pleasure to be able to see the Vaselines live. Everyone else seemed to feel the same way with smiles all around and tons of people singing along to the songs from this little band from Scottland. Something like this never would have happened if it wasn’t for a little label that could from the Pacific Northwest and a guy from Aberdeen.

The Vaselines were easily the highlight of the day and worth the price of admission alone, but the day wasn’t over yet. Sam Beam or Iron and Wine as he call himself came out all by his lonesome and filled the night air with his wistful acoustic pop. I can’t help but think that he’ll be playing Marymoor by his lonesome in the years to come. It was just about perfect music for the clear night sky and the moon hovering over the stage. Flight of the Concords were the closers this evening, but we opted to avoid the mad rush for the exit.