Pilcrow

My first show in February 2010 was on the 6th at Neumos, with the Album Leaf, Sea Wolf, and Anomie Belle. And honestly, I can't remember why I went to this show. I must've been hearing music by the Album Leaf on KEXP and decided to check them out, given what my very sparse notes say. I didn't jot anything down about Anomie Belle, whose style just doesn't work for me. Sea Wolf was an unremarkable but not bad Southern rock band—at least according to my notes—who turned out to be an "oh, those guys" band, as they finished with "that song". Having looked them up again on Myspace, I'm guessing "that song" was "You're a Wolf", which is actually rather good, and the rest of their songs on Myspace seem to be more folk rock than Southern rock, so I'm not sure what's up with my notes. Finally, the Album Leaf played cool prog/art rock on the mellow side, somewhere between the arty instrumentals of Do Make Say Think and the more pop-rock sound of Minus the Bear. 

My second show in February was a special event, the fifth annual "Dancing on the Valentine" benefit for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, held on Saturday the 13th at the Crocodile. These events feature a bunch of bands covering the songs of a particular artist or group, this year's being David Bowie. The line-up included Hotels, so naturally I went, but also had Lesli Wood of the Redwood Plan doing a set with Aaron Starkey, the bassist (edit: oops, not bassist) guitarist of Spanish for 100. The other bands at the show included Half Acre Day, Peter Parker, Legion Within, Exohxo, Motorik, and Sean Bates. I didn't take any notes at the show besides listing the line-up, so I don't have much to say besides it being a fun time, including a David Bowie look-alike contest. I did however take a lot of photos, which you can see in this set on Flickr.

My last February show was the next Saturday, the 20th, at the Sunset Tavern, and again featured Hotels, this time with Black Mercies opening and the Purrs headlining. Black Mercies sounded pretty good, playing pretty straightforward guitar pop-rock though with very '80s-sounding synth. Their last song, "Sparks in the Darkness", had a groovy bass line and different feel from the rest, which was a nice contrast; I liked it the most of their set. Hotels debuted a new song, "On the Casino Floor," which of course made me very excited, and in all honesty it did sound very good. Finally, I'd seen the Purrs a couple times before, and they've grown on me each time. But here's the thing about the Purrs: half the time they sound like a (stereo)typical bar band, and don't hold my interest, but then they rock out more with a harder/darker sound, sometimes almost shoegaze, and then I think they sound great. That said, I do really like "Miles Away", a bright pop song with a great catchy guitar line. They also played "Taste of Monday", one of the darker ones,  and "Stay Here with Me", which is practically Britpop. 

I'm including March in this post because I went to only two shows, and I've already written one of those reviews: on March 20th I went to see Alabaster at El Corazón, and after a few months' delay got that review done back in August. The other show I went to, on March 4th at the Crocodile, had CMYK headlining, with Hotels, the Fascination Movement, and Noddy. I'd seen all the bands but the Fascination Movement before, so I didn't take many notes. Noddy sounded really good; I recognized that I should've picked up their 2009 release A Seed (which I've just found out is available for free from Noddy's BandCamp page), and this show left me really looking forward to a new release in 2010—Remora, Remora, which came out later in July. Noddy introduced the last song by jokingly claiming "I wrote this song when I was on a lot of coke… sing along if you know it," and went into a cover of Stevie Nick's "Stand Back," jumping down to the floor to sing the lines "in the middle of my room." The Fascination Movement had a strong New Wave feel, evoking New Order and Depeche Mode, and a lead singer who sometimes sounded like Mark Hollis of Talk Talk. They had a good sound and I liked them. Finally, of course I ended up not taking any notes about Hotels or CMYK, as I was much too busy dancing to their great music. I did take some photos, although for no good reason didn't get any of CMYK; you can see what I have in this set on Flickr.

I went to five concerts in November 2009 and one in December 2009, but only took notes at two of them, and again not very extensive notes. So here's another summary post.

First up was Hotels at the Crocodile on November 2, with Alligators and Apes of Wrath opening. Alligators had a good modern art/pop rock sound; I spoke with their manager later, who aptly compared them to Supertramp. Apes of Wrath were on the punk side of upbeat post-punk rock, and played a tight, energetic set. Hotels of course were great as always, or at least I expect so; I didn't take any notes on their set, as there are only so many ways to keep saying I love their music. 

Next, I went with a few friends to check out KJ Sawka playing at Heaven on November 6, along with a DJ whose name I didn't get down. No notes for this show; I'm sure Sawka played his usual solid set, though I tend to prefer when he has guest musicians rather than playing solo. 

On November 18, I went to Nectar Lounge for an unusual show. Billed as a "musical journey," it began with Thione Diop & Yeke Yeke playing the music of West Africa ("departure), BeleBá playing Cuban rhumba ("layover), and finished with Tubaluba playing New Orleans funk ("arrival"). It was a lot of fun hearing great dance music from styles I don't usually listen to. I remembered writing something about Tubaluba, and thought I'd made a blog post, but no, it was just a comment on Twitter: "for a good old-fashioned N'Orleans party time, check out the band Tubaluba. Great stuff."

For another unusual show, Cairo and the Anne Bonney (now closed) held "Expo 87", a small three-day music and art event. I attended on Friday November 20 so that I could see one of my favorite local bands, CMYK, do their usual set of great soulful dance pop. I also went to see Rachel Ratner's "Seattle Band Map—A Cartographic Study of Musical Incest" project, a huge diagram showing the interconnections among as many Seattle-based bands as possible. Check it out, it's pretty cool. Besides the photos on that blog, I have a few photos of the map and my own contributions here on Flickr.

To finish November, I was back at the Crocodile on the 21st for Head Like A Kite, with Foscil and the Animals at Night. The Animals at Night not only had a full quartet of musicians, not only a trio of backup singers as well, but also brought out country-western musician Brent Amaker to sing a remix of his song "I've Got a Little Hillbilly in Me". The Animals at Night were groovy or soulful or even a little hillbilly, but they also brought the rock. Foscil was a band I saw back in 2005—or at least I thought I had, but I remembered them being a group of four guys at a table-full of synthesizers and electronic gear. This time, they were still a quartet but had a mix of electronic and acoustic instruments, including one player alternating on trumpet, clarinet, and bass clarinet. They played jazz/art rock with an electronic base, and I thought it was good but a bit odd placed with the other two bands. Finally, Head Like a Kite always put on a crazy dance party at every show, and did not disappoint this time with multiple guest backup singers and costumed dancers. Both Greg Markel and Brent Amaker came out for guest spots, as did a very heavily pregnant Barb Trentalange for lead vocals on "Daydream Vacation". From electroclash to funk, indie rock to trip-hop, Head Like a Kite played a killer set. I have a too-dark-and-too-far-off set of photos from this show here on Flickr.

Finally, December has proven to be a tough month to catch a show, even though there are often several good ones. 2009 was no exception, as i only made it out to the KEXP Yule Benefit on December 12, and only because I was volunteering to help. The lineup included Grand Hallway opening, followed by the Builders and the Butchers, the Cave Singers, and the Thermals closing. I wasn't particularly excited about any of the bands, but did like all of them well enough; unfortunately I missed Grand Hallway, the rest put on a good show. 

And that finally covers all the shows I went to in 2009. Now to get started on reviewing 2010… hopefully I can return to more timely reviews for 2011. 

Monday night I went to Chop Suey to see Beehive opening for Digitalism, with The Long Ranger in the middle. Beehive of course have been a favorite band of mine since I first saw them last year, while Digitalism have been getting KEXP airplay recently and I knew by name at least one song of theirs ("Digitalism in Cairo"). The Long Ranger, however, were completely unknown to me.

Beehive played a rocking set that included a cover of the Beatles' "Helter Skelter" as well as several songs from their new album Pretty Little Thieves and a couple from their first album Cycle A. They had some sound problems for the first couple songs, with some unintended feedback and excessive echo, the latter perhaps just a result of the sadly sparse audience - but more on that in a bit. However, the problems mostly cleared up for the rest of their set. One thing I enjoy about Beehive is their willingness to play around with the songs in concert and try different things, rather than attempt to recreate the recorded version every time. For example, in set closer "Better Than Lies", they cut the music back for the final chorus to just a simple beat, letting their vocal harmonies shine. With their fat beats and funky slide guitar, Beehive should be getting a lot of attention.

( a couple Beehive photos )

Which leads me into the audience problem. Granted that Beehive was the opening act on a Monday night, it's not surprising the audience was small at that point, but the people who had arrived were all sitting off the sides of the main floor rather than stepping forward to be closer to the band. Although this was disappointing, it didn't yet strike me as unusual for Seattle audience behavior. By the time The Long Ranger took the stage, a decent crowd had gathered - all at the bar or in the back seating areas, but notably not on the floor. Not until The Long Ranger's last song did some people start gathering on the floor, and it seemed they were split between a few people actually interested in the band and the rest who didn't want to stand with the now good-sized crowd on the sides and in back. Let's be clear here: the music of both bands was worth a good listen, and it was not a case of being seriously mismatched with the headlining band. Apparently, though, the crowd that arrived early was just too hip to be seen paying any attention to the opening acts, and the people that did eventually fill the floor for Digitalism's set were the dance crowd who don't come out before 10:30. I think it's a shame. Seattle has a lot of fine local musicians, of whom Beehive and The Long Ranger are just two examples, and they deserve visible support from the people who do go out to shows, not the cold aloofness of hipsters.

Besides, it makes me feel self-conscious to be the only one standing out on the floor.

The Long Ranger are an electro-pop trio, including a male lead singer (and programmer, according to their MySpace page), a female backup singer and synth player, and a guitarist. They played mid-to-up-tempo dance pop that seemed to mostly be romantic love songs. Most of the music (besides the guitar) was apparently pre-programmed on the laptop, as the synth player did not spend a lot of time tweaking her two machines, but this left both singers free to dance along as well. The lead singer even jumped down to the main floor for some breakdancing during one song - which seemed to elicit some more attention from the otherwise stand-offish audience. As I mentioned, by their last song some people had started gathering on the main floor and were even visibly grooving along with the music, but there was still plenty of room for all three band members to jump down and rock out on the floor. I enjoyed their performance, and although their music was light and fluffy in comparison to Beehive and Digitalism, I thought it made a nice counterpoint.

( and a couple Long Ranger photos )

Digitalism are the duo of Jens Moelle and Ismail Tufekci. They used two tables of synths and electronic gear, as well as a drum pad and cymbal set, to create one big electronic dance sound. All the love that was lacking for the first two bands was showered down upon Digitalism, as the packed floor pogoed and fist-pumped, and even the hipsters on the sides could be seen bobbing their heads. And to be fair, Digitalism delivered a nearly-continuous hour-long set of hot dance music, neatly divided into three parts by a couple very short breaks. The first part featured live vocals and live drums, while the second part used only sampled or pre-recorded vocals as both of them focused on playing the synths. The final part was a mix, starting with the crowd-rousing MC-style spoken vocals of "Homezone", and included current singles "Idealistic" and "Digitalism in Cairo" (with its nifty use of the chorus from The Cure's "Fire in Cairo"). Despite starting late and being awash in audience love, they did not come back for an encore, which was a bit disappointing. I would expect a bit more out of them next time - and I would expect them to play a bigger club, instead of being bumped from Neumos by a private function.

---

Still to come: New Young Pony Club at Nectar Lounge this Saturday, the 27th; Freezepop, also at Nectar, on Halloween; Battles return on November 3rd at Neumos; and Annuals will somehow crowd onstage at the Crocodile Cafe on November 10th. AND, I just found out today that Tara Jane ONeil is playing this Sunday, the 28th, at The Vera Project. My life has become full of music.