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Police Teeth, Mount Vicious, Steel Tigers of Death! @ The Funhouse

Brittney — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 06:33:53 +0000

Any evening that starts with four men in colored briefs and butterfly wings and only gets crazier is bound to be fun, and this show at The Funhouse was no exception. After the crowd got warmed up by the suitably-dramatic Steel Tigers of Death!, local faves Police Teeth and their “band BFFs,” Oakland’s Mount Vicious, traded-slash-shared sets. (Though technically Mount Vicious played first, followed by Police Teeth, at any given time any number of members of both bands were on stage.) These two hours featured crowdsurfing, dry-humping, whipping, stripping, and oh yeah, rock and roll. Technical perfection it possibly was not. A hell of a lot of fun? That it definitely was. I would go see either of these bands individually based just on musical merit, but next time they play together I will not only attend, I will bring all my friends.

The Rural Alberta Advantage @ Sunset Tavern

Brittney — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:16:16 +0000

When I woke up on July 6, I had never heard of Toronto trio The Rural Alberta Advantage. By the time I went to bed that night, they were one of my favorite bands. An amazing set at the Sunset Tavern – easily one of my top ten shows of this year – helped cement that status. The group, playing to a crowd that was enormous by Monday night standards, offered up little back stories to most of the songs off of their newly-released “Hometowns” LP, then closed their main set by walking out onto the floor for an intimate, unplugged performance of a “Goodnight Song.” When an encore was demanded, frontman Nils Edenloff surprised and delighted the audience with a solo acoustic version of Eye of the Tiger before the rest of the band came out for another tune. It was all smiles in the Sunset by the time bar tabs were settled and people started filing out.

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Fucked Up @ Neumos

Brittney — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 05:56:29 +0000

Toronto band Fucked Up was a band I’d been excited about seeing for many months when they hit Neumos Wednesday night. Their latest album, The Chemistry of Common Life, is one of the best I’ve bought in the past year, and I’d seen photos and heard talk of their awesome live show. The six-piece sound machine did not disappoint, unspooling their epic, classical-meets-hardcore songs with a perfect mix of playfulness and intensity. Lead singer Damian Abraham seemed to spend only half the concert on the stage, wandering freely in and out of the audience, screaming, hugging, kissing, and in one case undressing the crowd. It was a wild scene – this was the first concert where I’ve nearly had my camera stepped on, while it was around my neck – but definitely fun. In fact, my only real disappointment was that there were so few people there: the crowd was so small that Neumos closed off not only the balcony but also the back half of the club. Now that’s fucked up, people.

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Peelander-Z @ The Funhouse

Brittney — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:08:14 +0000

It’s obvious that a band that bills itself as “Japanese Comic Action Punk” is going to be a little bit wacky, but there was literally no way I could’ve predicted what I would see at last week’s Peelander-Z show. Sure, there were three guys dressed up in crazy bright-colored suits, just like on the webpage… but there was also limbo-ing, human bowling, and a giant red squid costume. It was utter, complete, joyous punk rock mayhem, and it was beautiful.

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Dateless’ Final Show

Brittney — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:12:16 +0000

Beloved Seattle pop-punk band Dateless played their final show last night at the Funhouse. The sentimental occasion, plus a great bill rounded out by Seattle’s Success! and San Jose’s The Pillowfights (who brought pillows to facilitate an actual pillowfight during their set), drew a large and boisterous crowd. After Dateless’ planned set was complete, the audience literally demanded an encore, and the trio was coaxed onto the stage for two final songs before falling into a series of embraces and thank yous from the crowd.

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Listen To This: High Class Wreckage

Brittney — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 01:34:39 +0000

High Class Wreckage makes big, sexy music. Full of thumping bass, growly vocals, and fuzzy guitars, they seem half seventies rock, half Mudhoney, and one hundred percent – to quote their MySpace page – sweaty fucking rock and roll. Live, they give their all, rocking their hardest even to a small weeknight room, screaming, rolling on the floor, and offering levels of hair-swirling not seen since the demise of Iceage Cobra. Luckily, their concert schedule is packed – offering eight shows between now and the end of April – so you have plenty of opportunities to see this spectacle for yourself.

Listen: High Class Wreckage, “Cash Fight”

Hell’s Kitchen Benefit

Brittney — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 06:17:52 +0000

You’ve heard of Hell’s Kitchen, Tacoma’s biggest rock club. Maybe you’ve been there. Maybe you’d like to go there again. If all works out according to plan, you’ll have the chance.

In the wake of the Great White fire several years ago. many clubs around the country have been forced to install costly new sprinkler systems to be allowed to say open. Now the city of Tacoma is commanding Hell’s Kitchen to do the same. In addition, the venue has to pay for upgrades to the water line so that it will offer enough pressure to actually operate the sprinklers.

There’s nothing wrong with patron safety, of course, but the financial demands placed by these improvements are beyond Hell’s Kitchen’s normal means. Therefore, the music community is coming together to help. Tomorrow night, March 12, seattlepunk.org is putting on a massive benefit show to help raise money for the new sprinklers. In addition to a six (!) band bill, members of the female tattoo community The Gypsy Queens will be on hand to help emcee and to pose for live photoshoots with me and two other photographers.

The cover is only five dollars, and Hell’s Kitchen is offering beer specials and free pool all night. Please think of putting aside your objections to “that other city” just for one night, and coming out to help the music scene stay strong.

Bands:
Space Cretins
Neon Nights
The Hollowpoints
Dateless
The Hershey Squirts
Hooker Farm

Caught In Motion: On The Edge Of A Dream

Brittney — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 01:39:13 +0000

On The Edge Of A Dream is the debut album from Portland band Caught In Motion. The record offers up ten tracks of delicate pop with piano leads and smooth vocals. Consistent, cohesive, and often very pretty, Dream is a solid effort that hints at the potential for even more.

Lead vocalist Banah Graf’s voice bears an almost distracting resemblance to Ben Folds, and his piano playing encourages the comparison. However, Caught In Motion takes a different approach to pop than Folds does, eschewing bombast or melodrama in favor of something subtler and more dependent on nuance. Each song is smooth and polished, like a river stone, and they flow seamlessly into each other, leaving you at track ten almost before you realized you had reached track two.

Sometimes Dream is perhaps too nuanced: while “Reaching Out” hints at the gothic mood of fellow Portlanders The Decemberists, the potential of this sound is never quite realized. “Why Can’t You Forget,” one of the best tracks on the album, adopts the loud-quiet-loud format that has propelled other pop bands, such as Weezer, to great success. (See the brilliant “Say It Ain’t So”.) The loud, though, seems to want to be a little bit louder; with a dozen decibels more worth of drums, it could’ve been not just big, but arena huge. The vocal acrobatics and the fuzzy guitars do add delightful texture, though, and it remains an enjoyable song.

All in all, On The Edge Of A Dream is not a bad album, if not a great one. It definitely has its place: it would be perfect for long summer afternoons, starry nights, or other quiet, languid times that call for a dreamy background track. In addition, the fact that Caught In Motion often comes so close to doing something really remarkable gives me hope that next time around, they will. This is, after all, their first album, and there’s nothing wrong with having a little growing to do. Maybe they are, in fact, on the edge of something — something great.

***

On The Edge Of A Dream can be streamed in its entirety here, and is available for purchase on iTunes or the band’s MySpace page.

Sasquatch Lineup Rumors And Predictions

Brittney — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:25:17 +0000

Tomorrow Sasquatch will finally break its silence and announce its 2009 lineup. Even though there have been no official announcements about the festival besides the dates (Memorial Day Weekend, May 23-25), and even though the event itself is months away, blogs and message boards have been aflame for months with speculation on who will grace Sasquatch’s multiple stages.

A few artists have already been outed as performers, some by their own loose lips, some by fans scanning myspace pages, and some by threegigs.com writers with nothing better to do than read tour announcements from every label they can think of hoping to hit Sasquatch gold. Most of the lineup, though, remains pure speculation until tomorrow morning, and so I’m taking this last chance to throw my predictions into the rumor ring.

Part I: Those Who Will Almost Certainly Be There

-John Vanderslice, who announced live on KEXP that he was playing Sasquatch (followed by an “Oops, I’m not sure if I was supposed to say that.”)
-Peter Bjorn and John, whose record company website at one point listed the show.
-Sun Kil Moon, who has posted the date on their website.

Part 2: Those Who Will Probably Be There

-Everyone seems pretty convinced about Kings Of Leon, but since I haven’t seen any sort of confirmation, I have to stick this one in the “probably” level.
-The Decemberists do have a few days open after an Oregon show, one of which overlaps with Sasquatch. They’re also playing Bonnaroo later in the summer, and bands that play one festival tend to play multiple festivals.
-The Walkmen – touring with Kings of Leon.
-Animal Collective is heavily rumored, and is playing two shows in the region around the time of Sasquatch.

Part 3: Those Who I’ve Heard Might Be There

-Rumors about regarding Monotonix, and the Gorge’s sprawling grounds would be an awesome setting for their wild, wandering rock and roll circus.
-Franz Ferdinand will be running around the world this summer promoting a new album. Their website shows dates in Europe two weeks before and one week after Sasquatch, but nothing during, and a back-and-forth jaunt with that timeline is not unheard of.
-Yeah Yeah Yeahs are oft mentioned and seem a solid guess. They release a new album in April and are already confirmed for both Coachella and Bonnaroo.

Part 4: Those Who Will NOT Be There

-One of the bands I’d most hoped to see, Wilco, will be touring in Spain during the festival.
-Some thought that The National would have a second chance to play on the big stage, but they’ll be playing on the east coast instead.
-Coldplay is getting their very own show at the Gorge later this summer, so the chances of them heading out there for Sasquatch seem slim.

Part 5: Shit I’m Just Making Up

-Green Day has a new album coming out in May.
-No Doubt has announced a tour of “outdoor ampitheaters” this May, but has yet to release any dates.
-Metric is also releasing an album this Spring.

Tomorrow our long thirst for knowledge will finally be quenched. Soon it will be time to buy my tickets, reserve my rental car, dig out my camping gear, and then transfer my brain power to other matters — like who’s playing Bumbershoot.

Why The Ticketmaster – Live Nation Merger Has Me All Charged Up

Brittney — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:01:40 +0000

Remember the New Era of live music? Those hopeful days when Live Nation’s launch of in-house ticketing promised to increase competition, decrease fees, and encourage new and more creative models of promotion, merchandising, and ticket sales?

You know, last month.

As you’ve certainly heard, Ticketmaster and Live Nation have announced their intention to merge. This unholy matrimony will be the culmination of a long, on-again-off-again relationship between the two companies: until the end of last year, Live Nation was simply a promotion company that used Ticketmaster for its sales. When the contract between the two expired, Live Nation launched its own ticketing service, with new pricing models (the dreaded convenience charges would be hidden, if not technically gone) and sales systems (buyers could pick their own seats, instead of letting a computer decide which were “best”). Fans rejoiced at the split, hoping competition between the two entities would result in lower ticket prices. Artists signed massive contracts with Live Nation. And then, six weeks later, the two ex-lovers suddenly spun around and announced their engagement.

It’s obvious that I’m ticked off about this, and I think you should be too. The most obvious concern is that the new entity, Live Nation Entertainment, will hold undue control over the US music industry. Live Nation doesn’t just sell tickets; they also manage artists, promote concerts, and are even poised to release recordings. The new company would fold all of these services in, and even the Wall Street Journal admits that “because it would be so vertically integrated, the new company would… be able to muscle out competing concert promoters and have more power to dictate ticket prices to consumers.”

“We still believe the venue, the artist and the fan would love an alternative ticketing company.” – Live Nation chief executive Michael Rapino, December 2008

Wired.com also speculates that Live Nation Entertainment may bypass fixed-price ticket sales altogether, and move towards an auction system that could ruin accessibility to tickets for those with lower incomes. Seats at shows by industry giants like Madonna have been impossible for most to afford for years, but the average fifty dollar concert ticket is within most people’s reach, at least once in a while. It would be a shame to see that change.

The aspect of this deal that bothers me the most, though, is the one with the least tangible implications. During the hullabaloo surrounding their split from Ticketmaster, Live Nation let itself be the good guy. It sat back, looking at all the glowing media reports of increased competition and decreased fees and blah blah blah, and smiled. Or maybe smirked? Because the only people Live Nation seems to be bringing positive change to are its executives. It’s hard to see how the consumer can possibly profit from this merger, except perhaps creatively. Maybe someone will write some really good angry songs about it.