Thursday November 10 brought LA Ska/funk masters Fishbone back to Seattle. Their first concert here in more than two years. The show was a sell out and Seattle’s Crocodile Café was packed. Fishbone is a very eclectic band as well as versatile Front man Angelo Moore played about three different types of saxophones and an …
The best of the best. Doctorate level Pop Culture Recombination studies:
On the evening of November 3, the Showbox Sodo hosted the triumphant and long awaited Seattle return of California punks NOFX. Lead singer/front man Fat Mike came out sporting a mohawk along with a short kilt and a new Bush/Quayle t-shirt. The significance of the latter was a mystery since much of the band’s songs …
The evening after Halloween brought dance macabre to El Corazon starring the Nekromantix. Singer Kim Nekroman, with his coffin shaped bass, held said bass above his head, held it like a guitar or straddled it all without missing a lick. On several occasions he even licked it. And he had high pitched screams down to …
On the evening of October 21 I experienced the sheer pleasure of seeing one of my long time favorites, Billy Bragg perform a two man show with pal Joe Henry. The venue was Seattle’s Neptune Theater. These two men gave a stellar and congenial performance of mostly old American blues artists songs including a lot …
On October 11 I ventured out to El Corazon to see LA’s the Interrupters headline their own show. And what a show it was. This ska/pop/punk quartet riles up the audience by standing on the monitors, or leaning into the crowd. This is particularly done by front woman/singer Aimee Interrupter. She constantly leaned into the …
On October 5th I had the utmost pleasure of seeing Robyn Hitchcock play at an old converted church, now Fremont Abbey Arts Center. This was a very intimate show, almost like having him play in your living room. He played two sold out nights. Robyn’s songs combine quirky, humorous lyrics with catchy melodies. This was …
As one who once loudly proclaimed my Dylan hatred, I thought it was wonderfully apt. A pleasant surprise from the Nobel committee rather than a cause for the usual mystifying Googling of an author I’ll never read. Here is a writer who actually means something to the lives of people all over the world in …
Last Saturday, Oct first, Seattle’s Highline Tavern hosted the Skatoberfest featuring five ska acts. The headliners this time was the Seattleites. This was my second time seeing them in a week, but they’ve already grown as a band. Added this time were some amazing vocalists with personality to boot. Their main singer (Joseph Quinone) not …
Hitch, A Wild Ride or Hitch, A Musical in 13 Parts A review of The Joy Formidable’s Latest Album By Peter Dysart As a preface, this album was released six months ago and from the week of its release, I’ve been listening intently. As the band’s third full release, Hitch was immediately a bit of …
Here’s how David Åhlén begins the one sheet for his new album, Hidden Light. The whole work is lovely. Check out the video above or the album sampler below: It’s 2016 and the world is (still) in darkness. Big or small, the hurt is hurting everyone and this does not simply passes by David Åhlén …
Hope Sandoval and The Warm Inventions will release their highly anticipated third album, Until The Hunter on November 4th. In advance of that happy day, the Warm Inventions – comprising Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval and My Bloody Valentine’s Colm O’Coisog – are releasing the first single from the album on all digital platforms. “Let Me …
On Sunday September 15th 1963, four black girls (11 to 14 years old) were murdered by a bomb placed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Just like Nina Simone, John Coltrane was inspired to compose a musical tribute/response. Recorded on November 18th 1963, “Alabama” is Trane’s most compelling commentary, inspired by a horrific …
Last Wednesday Sept 7, Seattle’s legendary Crocodile Cafe hosted a night of punk rock featuring Britain’s Subhumans. Subhumans didn’t come on stage as much as they ignited it. Front man Dick Lucas flitted about the stage like a lit firecracker, standing in one place no longer than a second or two. He didn’t sing as …
Samm Henshaw has shared the video for beautiful new track ‘Night Calls’, taken from The Sound Experiment 2 EP – which is out now via Columbia Records. https://www.facebook.com/SammHenshaw
This is from a Paris concert in 2005. An excellent piece. Very deep. Next level. Magnificent to see the late, great Ali Farka Toure and his backing players up close. They were one with the music and the universe.
Friday night Sept 2 brought another night of beautiful ska music at yet another Seattle club. This time it was Georgetown Orbits and Seattleites at The Royal Room in SE Seattle — a club I have never been to before. Of course if they keep booking ska bands I’m sure it won’t be the last …
Stuart Adamson of Big Country, Skids fame. Avid Scottish football and British motorcycling supporter. Notorious depressive and alcoholic who wound up hanging himself in a hotel room, for the maid to find. Met the legend backstage when I was 25 and not yet a notorious journalist. Had trouble finding words, at first. He’s asking ME …
Wednesday night August 31 Seattle’s Nectar Lounge hosted another night of wonderful ska bands. This time the evening was headlined by Butt Dial, a band I’ve been meaning to check out. Butt Dial are wildly fun. They have a gimmick that includes wild costumes, rotating musicians (as in some musicians leaving the stage and being …
Wanting to say this video was “how I spent my summer vacation” – although it has been decades since that really applied. Spent many a summer late night working out this piece. It was a labor of love. – Steve Gans
August 28 was a date I looked so forward to. The Living End, from Melbourne, Australia, were doing a US West Coast tour with a stop in Seattle. I have only seen The Living End at festivals. Once at End Fest on the Kitsap Peninsula in 2001 and at Warped Tour I think in 2006. …
You know that scene in “The Fly” where Goldblum is experimenting with steak, and has Geena taste a sample of teleported meat? “Not right?” I feel that way about a lot of modern electronica in music. I would’ve thought that with the advent of PCs with keyboards/ MIDI gear essentially replacing banks of synthesizers, new …
Musically, Toronto is the new Portland. Here’s another tough new tune from the rough and tumble Hogtown in Canada. Released just yesterday, it’s taking the internet by storm. https://twitter.com/jessiereyez https://www.facebook.com/MusicJessieReyez/ https://www.instagram.com/jessiereyez/
Based on his stellar work as the voice of Bob Belcher on Bob’s Burgers (the only show that matters) and Sterling Archer on Archer, it is clear that H. Jon Benjamin is not only the most gifted actor of all time, he is the greatest human on the planet since the passing of Mother Teresa. …
I’d love to go to a Stoned Soul Picnic right about now…… by the way – the four night run of shows by Miles Davis (with Chick Corea-Keith Jarrett-Jack DeJohnette-Steve Grossman and Airto) in June 1970 that become Miles Live at the Fillmore [East] was in fact, Miles opening for Laura Nyro each night – …
34 years ago today, REM’s Chronic Town EP was released and it simply changed the whole landscape of indie-rock, college-radio, clubs, touring, fanzines – it inspired a whole host of imitators (god help us!) but also tons of bands that sounded absolutely nothing like them (such as SST bands). During the first half of the …
On a hot August 19 night Darrel’s Tavern just north of Seattle hosted a night of Seattle hillbilly, celtic and folk punk bands. The headliner was Wages Of Sin. This Seattle quintet combined a bit of country, a bit of folk, a bit of punk and a heavy dose of Celtic and tossed it into …
Everyone’s favorite acid organ punk duo, Archie and the Bunkers, have returned from a massively successful European tour and released a new record, Mystery Lover. Below is a video they released a few months ago which will give you a feel for their electrifying retro sound. http://archieandthebunkers.com/
Strangely, this version of “Joe Cool” sung by Vince Guaraldi is NOT featured on any of the countless Peanuts soundtracks issued by Fantasy Records (their albums only have an instrumental version) – I had to buy a CD called Lost Cues from his family’s estate. – Pat Thomas is the author of Listen, Whitey! The …
“Credit must be given to the foremothers: the Shaggs. In 1969 they recorded an album that can stand, I think, easily with Beatles ’65, Life with the Lions, Blonde on Blonde, and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks as one of the landmarks of rock history. The Wiggins sisters (an anti-power trio) not only redefined the …