A week ago Monday the 17th, I went to the Crocodile to see Emilíana Torrini. I can't now recall exactly why I picked up her English-debut album Love in the Time of Science, back around 2000 or so—it was an impromptu purchase, but I don't know what whim made me decide to check it out—but I've really enjoyed it since, and though I haven't picked up her more recent ones I've continued to be interested. So I took the opportunity to go see her and write another review for KEXP, which you can now read here on the KEXP Blog.

This isn't the only show I've been to in August—I've already posted a couple photos from the KEXP Concerts at the Mural series, which I volunteered for, but for most of them I didn't plan on writing reviews and so didn't take any notes. That said, I should do a writeup about the series, particularly as I fell in love with The Dodos. I also went to see The Animals At Night back at the beginning of the month and do have notes on that show, so I will try to write that up soon. Finally, just tonight I went to see Bat for Lashes at Neumos and was blown away by their amazing performance; I plan to write that one up as another KEXP Blog post, and hopefully it'll be posted early next week.

I have to say I found this year's Bumbershoot lineup to be rather lackluster—Hotels are playing on Saturday, which is very exciting of course, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are on Sunday, but overall just not really anyone I'm that excited to see. So I may still go if I can do any volunteering for KEXP but otherwise plan to skip it. (I hate to miss any Hotels show, but I do see them all the time already.) However, I'm excited as always that Freezepop will once again be in town for PAX and are playing a club show at El Corazón on Sunday Sept. 6. This will be the last show with founding member Kasson Crooker, aka The Duke of Pannekoeken, so it's definitely not one to miss!

Army Navy



The Dodos

More photos here on Flickr.

As mentioned in my previous post:



Three members of Sonic Youth being interviewed in Caffé Vita's Bean Room. From the left: Lee Ranaldo, the interviewer, Thurston Moore, and Kim Gordon.

Again, I'm catching up on my concert reviews, so here's a quick summary of June.

I've already posted before about seeing The Juan MacLean and The Field on Monday June 8 at Nectar Lounge; that review was written for the KEXP Blog and can still be read there. However, let me give a couple excerpts:

Last Monday night when I went to Nectar Lounge to see The Juan MacLean and The Field, I didn’t know that I’d be at the hottest show in town. These two groups played sizzling sets of electronica to a packed and enthusiastic crowd. DJ Nordic Soul warmed up the club with a solid mix of dance music.
[...]
The Field’s music is very cool stuff, and I could easily listen for a few hours; it seems tailor-made for airplane flights, and I’ll have to pick up the aptly-named album From Here We Go Sublime before my next trip.
[...]
While The Field kept the club simmering for an hour, The Juan MacLean brought it up to a full boil with their high-energy synth rock. ... They built up to a stunning conclusion with “Happy House”, extended to over 20 minutes and climaxing several times, and then cooled things down in the encore with the mellow and dreamy “Tonight”.

Also, I was right next to the stage for The Juan Maclean's set, so I was able to get some pretty good photos, including John MacLean in action rocking the theremin. See the whole set here in Flickr.

I went to two other shows that week: KJ Sawka at Nectar Lounge on Friday June 12, and Hotels at the High Dive on Saturday June 13. I had already decided I wasn't going to blog about those shows, so I didn't take any notes. However, I can tell you that Sawka's show was to promote the release of his DrumBanger app for the iPhone (read more about it in this post on Line Out, The Stranger's music blog), and that while I still enjoy his music, I found that I'm getting a little tired of hearing the work from his two recent albums and would like to see him pursue a new direction. Oh I forgot that opening for Sawka was first DJ NoiseMaker, who I can't recall anything about, but then DJ Crime, billed as "Las Vegas's #1 VJ"—he mixed videos, using both music videos and other footage, which was fun to watch as well as hear.

As for the other show, Hotels played third in a set including Anomie Belle, Born Anchors, and (ostensible) headliners Furniture Girls. I reviewed Anomie Belle for the KEXP Blog when she opened for Tricky back in March, and I don't really have anything to add to that: she's got talent and potential, but despite her use of live violin loops, her music currently is kind of bland soulful trip-hop. I can't remember anything about Born Anchors, which suggests I didn't find them that interesting, but I know I didn't dislike them and really I'd have to hear them again to give any kind of review. Hotels were awesome of course and I danced like crazy through their set; I've really just about run out of things to say about them until they release some more new music, which is why I had decided I wouldn't blog about this show, but here I am. Finally, my opinion also hasn't changed much on Furniture Girls: they're fun, the band is really solid, but they just don't quite win me over somehow. However, they did have a strong-voiced guest backup singer for most of the set, which made a real difference as the original Furniture Girls synth-player/backing vocalist doesn't have a voice strong enough to match the lead singer (that original member hasn't been replaced, just moved back to focus more on the synths).

The other two shows were good overall, but I do have to say The Juan MacLean and The Field were a phenomenal bill, definitely one of the best shows of the year.

I have a few more concert reports/reviews to do; it's been so long that I'm going to keep them brief, and in most cases I don't have much to say anyhow. However, I'm going to split them up in three posts just so it's easier for me to add them to my master list later on.

The first show is the "John in the Morning at Night" benefit for KEXP, held at Neumos back on Friday May 29. I attended this show as a KEXP volunteer, posting updates to the KEXP Facebook account, so the standard "these are solely my views, not those of KEXP" disclaimer applies. The show's lineup began with Throw Me The Statue, then Iran, U.S.E., and finished with Pela. Again, it's been two months, and I took cursory notes at the time, so I have just a couple quick comments about the bands.

Throw Me The Statue are an indie pop-rock quartet. Their sound was somewhere near Minus The Bear style modern rock, but more on the pop side; the Long Winters or Band of Horses might be better comparisons. They brought along a three-piece horn section to play some songs, and I felt that was a good addition to their music. In general, I thought they were likable, but I wasn't feeling their music very strongly.

Next up was Iran, another quartet but definitely on the heavier side of rock than Throw Me The Statue. They weren't quite metal; they focused on melody and good songs rather than noise, which I liked, but I still wasn't really sure they were my thing. They actually had a few softer ballads, but for the most part seemed to come out of the '90s heavy modern rock sound.

In radical contrast was the high-energy synthpop dance party that is the seven-member United State of Electronica (U.S.E.). They don't have a lot of substance lyrically: pretty much everything's about dancing and music and fun and love and Seattle. But they were very solid musically, with strong dance beats, big hooks, and sweet female vocals. As with a lot called synthpop, they actually had strong guitar and bass parts too. U.S.E. are pure summer dance pop, something Seattle needs year-round, and they're very good at it. Toward the end of their set they broke into an impromptu instrumental jam when a keyboard problem cropped up, and managed to fix the problem in time for one last song. Their whole set was really fun stuff, and I'm (still) looking forward to picking up their new album.

As it was Friday night and a KEXP benefit, KEXP DJ Michele Myers was spinning the tunes in between the sets. She really showed her stuff at this point, segueing from U.S.E. into the Cure's "Just Like Heaven", then Ghostland Observatory's "Sad Sad City", and then Daft Punk's "Burnin'/Too Long" (from Alive 2007). It was a great transition and just the sort of thing that DJ Michele pulls off all the time.

Headliners Pela are yet another energetic indie rock quartet. They had good catchy songs, very tuneful, and I liked them but again didn't feel very enthusiastic about them. Their "only have time for one more" three-song encore included a cover of "Guns of Brixton", which I liked. There's no disputing that they're a solid band and put on a pretty good show, a satisfactory conclusion to the evening.

I have a small set of photos here in Flickr.

Almost two months after the event, I'm finally finishing this summary... In late May, I was invited on short notice to attend the 2009 Sasquatch Music Festival, a three-day event happening over Memorial Day Weekend at the Gorge Ampitheatre in central Washington state. My role for the weekend was to post updates to KEXP's Facebook account about all the great bands I was seeing; naturally, I also took notes to write up a review of the weekend. With so many bands to cover, I'll do my best to keep this short and sweet.

Read about Saturday at Sasquatch.

Read about Sunday at Sasquatch.

Monday

Monday was the day I finally spent a substantial amount of time at the Mainstage, starting with Deerhoof's early afternoon set. Deerhoof were last-minute replacements for another act that had to cancel, and they're offbeat enough that if they'd been scheduled normally, they'd probably have been on the Yeti or maybe the Wookie Stage. Still, although their edgy post-punk rock is quirky enough that they'll probably always be something of an underground act, they're quite good and the audience was very appreciative.

After Deerhoof, I had something of a dilemma, as the next two bands I wanted to see had overlapping sets. I headed back to the Wookie Stage to give the first band, Black Moth Super Rainbow, a try. They are a heavy synthrock band, but featured live bass and drums in the set. Their music sounded laid-back and psychedelic, and they accompanied it with videos of over-the-top gory horror and time-lapse decay, all of which is to be expected at times in a nighttime club setting but which felt very out-of-place in a field on a bright sunny afternoon. Although I liked the music, I wasn't feeling the vibe and really didn't care to watch the video, so after ten minutes I headed back to the Mainstage to catch the other band I'd wanted to see.

That band was Grizzly Bear, and while M83's set on Sunday may have been the performance of the weekend for me, Grizzly Bear proved to be the sound of the Gorge. Their expansive, open style was evocative of the Columbia River Gorge behind them and captured the grandeur of the setting. Where some music sounds urban, Grizzly Bear's music sounds like the wilderness, vast and gorgeous. They were a much better fit for the hot afternoon than Black Moth Super Rainbow, and I was pleased I hadn't missed them. I also thought it was a nice touch when at one point between songs they stated, "It's an honor to follow Deerhoof."

Over the whole weekend, I stayed through only one whole set at the Yeti Stage, but it was one of the best sets of the weekend: School of Seven Bells. This trio combines electronic dance beats, glam guitars, and ethereal vocals into modern goth/dreampop electronica, with some shoegaze touches as well. Their sound is dark but sweet—not quite dark enough to be darkwave—and sometimes cool, often warm. As their set went on, I felt the shoegaze influence more strongly, to the point that I felt with solid bands like this still around, it's not such a big deal that My Bloody Valentine were inactive for the past 18 years.

After a short break, it was back to the Mainstage for Fleet Foxes. They made an interesting contrast to Grizzly Bear: similar in style, with that "open West" spirit, but more folk-sounding. Whereas Grizzly Bear felt like the music of the wilderness, Fleet Foxes felt like the music of the pioneers in the Western frontier. Their sound was still as big as the Gorge but the scale felt human. They were almost more orchestral in a way: chamber music, for a very large value of "chamber". Fleet Foxes were a little less satisfying to me than Grizzly Bear, as their music never really built to a climax, but they made a beautiful finale to the afternoon.

As with the previous two evenings, I finished my day in the Comedy/Dance Tent, this time to see electronic musician Tobacco. I'd only learned that day that he's also a member of Black Moth Super Rainbow, and like them he played psychedelic techno, but this time the music fit the hour and venue. The music reminded me more of Meat Beat Manifesto, though it was mostly laid-back and groovy, not as hard-edged as MBM. Also like both MBM and BMSR, Tobacco used the requisite weird film loops made from old films and video, but without the emphasis on gore and horror. Although none of the music really stood out more than "Hairy Candy", the single KEXP had been playing, it was still good stuff and a decent end to the festival.

Somehow, after a very long three days, I still had enough energy left to want to stay and dance for the final set of the evening by DJ Chromeo, which was rocking, but I only listened to a little before I had to catch my ride home.

See my Sasquatch Music Festival 2009: Monday photo set on Flickr.

Last month, I was invited on short notice to attend the 2009 Sasquatch Music Festival, a three-day event happening over Memorial Day Weekend at the Gorge Ampitheatre in central Washington state. My role for the weekend was to post updates to KEXP's Facebook account about all the great bands I was seeing; naturally, I also took notes to write up a review of the weekend. With so many bands to cover, I'll do my best to keep this short and sweet.

Read about Saturday at Sasquatch.

Read about Monday at Sasquatch.

Sunday

I meant to start Sunday morning by seeing Viva Voce and Point Juncture, WA, but we arrived back at the Gorge too late for either act. However, I was just in time to run into KEXP's DJ Shannon, walking over to the Wookie Stage to see Hockey, and so I joined her for that. Hockey's lead singer looked ridiculously young, like 15, but certainly sang very well. The band had something of a disco vibe, with funky bass lines and dance beats; as they sang in one song, "This ain't no Roxy Music." Rather, their clean, energetic sound was similar to CSS or New Young Pony Club, and very enjoyable. The singer described the last song as, "It's like a dance verse with an Aerosmith chorus," which was amusing and not too far off.

Next up was John Vanderslice. I'd never paid much attention to him until I was given a copy of his 2005 album Pixel Revolt last summer, and then kept being surprised to discover these good unfamiliar songs coming up in shuffle were from that album. That quality of surprising goodness also came up during this set. His music was mostly mid-tempo rock, sunnier-sounding more often than not but with occasional moodiness or hints of harder edges and darkness. It's more complex than it seems at first, and I believe it's that subtle complexity and deceptive sunniness that accounts for the factor of surprise. Vanderslice is definitely worth checking out.

St. Vincent, the stage/band name of musician Annie Clark, was one of the acts I was most looking forward to, and she did not disappoint. Although her music is rooted in indie pop, it has strong art-rock elements as well. Clark can thrash out or play sweetly, even doing both in the same song, such as "Now, Now" from 2007's release Marry Me. Indeed, featuring as it does violin, saxophone, flute, and even a little clarinet, her music might be better called chamber rock. "Marrow", which she described as the "dance track" from this year's album Actor, felt too off-kilter with its complicated rhythms to be considered an ordinary dance pop song. I thought her set was very cool, and really want to get her two albums now.

I finally left the Wookie Stage for a bit, just to get a bite to eat and wander around a little, but I made sure to get back in time for The Airborne Toxic Event. I first saw them back in February 2007 after hearing them live on KEXP, and really enjoyed their set that night. This time, they started out sounding harder-edged, more rock and less pop, at least for the first couple songs. However, they haven't left the violin out, and musician Anna Bulbrook knows how to rock it. The 'Event are not my dearly-departed Dambuilders, but they're still sounding good and I'm looking forward to hearing how they grow.

Another band I was excited to see was M83, but I hadn't expected it to be the performance of the weekend. M83's bright, summery synthpop was perfect for the late-afternoon hour, and their huge anthemic sound swept up the audience in a big loving embrace. Featuring several singles from their most recent album, Saturdays = Youth, their set bounced from trance to dance and built its way up to a heavy techno party track that had the whole audience hopping. On a day, a weekend, that featured numerous cool bands and good performances, this one was amazing and blew everyone away.

Wrapping up the day for me was Natalie Portman's Shaved Head in the Comedy/Dance Tent. Their high-energy synthpop, backed with a heavy rock beat, carried on the dance party that M83 had kicked off. I found however that they could have used some variety in their style for my taste: it was fine I suppose for a continuous dance party, but after a while it started to grind. "Shrill" also came to mind. Still, they were definitely bringing the fun for a lot of people, and offered a decent conclusion to the day.

See my Sasquatch Music Festival 2009: Sunday photo set on Flickr.

Last month, I was invited on short notice to attend the 2009 Sasquatch Music Festival, a three-day event happening over Memorial Day Weekend at the Gorge Ampitheatre in central Washington state. My role for the weekend was to post updates to KEXP's Facebook account about all the great bands I was seeing; naturally, I also took notes to write up a review of the weekend. With so many bands to cover, I'll do my best to keep this short and sweet.

Read about Sunday at Sasquatch.

Read about Monday at Sasquatch.

Saturday

As this was my first visit to the Gorge, I wandered about for a bit to check out the grounds, before settling in at the Wookie Stage (yes, that's what they called it, and yes the proper spelling for the Star Wars species is wookiee) to hear Owl City. Between the bouncy synthpop music and the lead singer sounding so much like Ben Gibbard, the band might as well be considered The Postal Service v2.0. I thought it was good stuff, but I could see them being criticized as too derivative. Still, if you're longing for more music like The Postal Service, Owl City are worth checking out.

My first visit to the ampitheatre Mainstage, with its gorgeous view of the Columbia River, was to hear modern-rock band Doves. Style-wise, I felt they sounded somewhat like Evan Dando (of the Lemonheads) leading the band Editors. Some of my friends rave about them, but their music never really kept my ear, or so I thought; I was surprised to find that I recognized more of the songs than I expected, and actually knew most of them. Despite that unexpected familiarity, I still felt most of the songs didn't really grab me, but I decided Doves were pretty good after all.

Back at the Wookie Stage, King Khan & the Shrines put on a blazing show that was hotter than the sun. Bare-chested and wearing a flamboyant feathered headdress and golden cape, King Khan led his band in a series of fast and furious party music that ranged back to fifties-style rock, rhythm and blues, and old-school funk. Crazy stage antics included a go-go cheerleader who danced for the whole set, a musician running forward to drop his trousers with his genitals tucked hidden between his legs and dancing in circles during "I Wanna Be A Girl", and Khan donning a Mexican wrestling mask at the end of his set. He balanced out the raucous songs with a slow and spooky blues tune and a silly and raunchy "psychedelic erotic gospel". Although this was not my favorite set of the weekend, it was definitely the flashiest for showmanship and a lot of fun.

I was up at least three hours earlier than usual in the morning that day in order to catch my ride to the Gorge, and between that and the intense desert sun, I was already feeling pretty wiped out by late afternoon. Fortunately the next band was Sun Kil Moon, whose quiet moody songs were perfect for chilling out. I recognized a couple from their first album, but I was so tired that I mostly zoned out through their set. Hopefully I can see them again when I have the energy to listen. Besides Sun Kil Moon, the other band I had really wanted to hear on Saturday was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who played the early-evening Mainstage set. Unfortunately I had developed a headache from tiredness, and felt too removed to get into their music, so after just a few songs I left.

However, I still had an hour before my ride back to the hotel was leaving, so I went over to the Comedy/Dance Tent to catch James Pants. James Pants is all about the good time party, and although it was pretty loud in the tent, his music still lifted my spirits despite my fatigue. He was funky! dancey! a little bit crazy! a little bit spooky! or, as he said at one point, "First what we do is make you feel good about yourself! Then what we do is make you feel better about yourself! Then what we do is make you feel creepy about yourself!" I never did get to the creepy feeling, which is just as well; instead, he helped me end the day on a high note.

See my Sasquatch Music Festival 2009: Saturday photo set on Flickr.

Last week I went to Nectar Lounge to see The Juan MacLean and The Field, two electronic artists I didn't know much about but remembered liking what I'd heard by them on the radio. I came away loving both bands, and wrote a review of the show which is now posted here on the KEXP Blog. Unfortunately I was up in the balcony for all of The Field's set and took only one photo that wasn't worth using in the review (too dark, too far away), but I got some decent ones of The Juan MacLean. 

I did actually take notes while I was at the Sasquatch Music Festival, but for various reasons I haven't got around to writing up a review yet. Hopefully I'll get that done in the next couple days, and post it here. Likewise I also have the "John In The Morning At Night" KEXP benefit show to review. I also have to write a new installment of "Know Your Subgenres" for the KEXP Blog, and that also should be done in the next couple days.