SHOW OF THE MONTH

U.S.E. / Siberian / Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground / Circus Contraption

Neumo’s
Seattle, WA
December 5, 2007

Lost to many amongst the important December holidays is Repeal Day, a day that celebrates the end of prohibition. But it wasn’t lost on the crowd at Neumo’s which hosted this mid-week gathering to celebrate the right to drink and be merry to a soundtrack of equally festive local music.

Circus Contraption kicked off the evening with its sideshow circus performance. The ringmaster led the crowd through a pair of juggling acts and acrobatics that set the stage for the bands that followed; a clever way to frame a show celebrating such a holiday.

Next on the bill was Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground who entered en masse. With a 10-person lineup and every stringed instrument imaginable, Kay Kay was a force of sound , playing a mix of ‘70s-style prog rock and modern indie rock. Though moving through different genres made the songs feel somewhat disjointed, the band’s sound was unforgettably unique, highlighted by the excited play of the violin section and Kay Kay’s soft, lilting voice.

Following an interlude from the Circus, Siberian calmed the crowd with their ballads about love and dancing. This local five-piece featured inventive bass lines, vocal harmonies and a crafty synthesizer. Their energy, though in stark contrast to the other acts of the night, was a refreshing calm in between the frenetic acrobats and the dance party that was to follow. However, there were times when their softer rock did feel somewhat out of place. If not for the stirring vocals of Finn Parnell, much of Siberian’s music would have been lost to the dance-hungry crowd.
The highlight of the night was United State of Electronica’s energy-packed performance. With giant letters proclaiming “U-S-E,” they entered playing “Party People,” a song that features their signature driving bass and group vocals. The crowd came alive upon this entrance, reacting like a family seeing a favorite uncle after many years apart. It was only U.S.E.’s second performance of the year, but no rustiness showed and they proceeded to lead the audience in a night of dance and revelry. Their set was tight and vivacious — hits like “Open Your Eyes” and “Umbrella of Love” sounded fresh despite being almost five years old. Along with these familiar tunes, U.S.E. played some new songs as well. The strongest of these was closer “It is On” which turned Neumo’s into a giant dance hall as the band invited as much of the audience onstage as could fit. It was a fantastic way to cap an evening that didn’t want to end and honored the right to party.

-Review by Rob Bergquist; photo by Fel Pajimula

Vampire Weekend / Grand Ole Party / Still Flyin’

The Independent
San Francisco, CA
December 5, 2007

For its winter U.S. tour, New York’s indie rock “it” band Vampire Weekend made a highly anticipated stop in San Francisco at The Independent. Though these guys have no problem filling a good-sized venue on their own, a number of showgoers came out early to see two praiseworthy performances from two highly entertaining West Coast openers.

Opening the night was San Francisco’s own Still Flyin’, and judging by the number of band members to take the stage, this seemed the place, if any, to start the party. Having shared the stage with the likes of Jens Lekman and Architecture in Helsinki, this 12-piece crew (give or take a few members at any given time) presents a medley of percussion, guitar, bass, horn, and a small chorus of singers and hand-clappers. Self-deemed a “hammjamm” band, the nature of its music is exactly what the word suggests to whomever’s listening. Still Flyin’ delivers carefree, dub-influenced beats with an equally happy-go-lucky spirit and lighthearted lyrics.

Next, accompanying Vampire Weekend for a string of tour stops, was San Diego’s Grand Ole Party. The first and most obvious reason this trio has gained popularity is powerhouse lead singer/drummer Kristin Gundred. Wearing a head mic with her drum set front and center onstage, Gundred is not only comfortable with a pair of drumsticks, but her stunning, bluesy, full-bodied vocals are impressive enough to sell records alone. Despite sipping on a large cup of tea through the entirety of the set and apologizing for having just got over laryngitis, she still managed to blow the crowd away. Backed by bassist Michael Krechnyak and guitarist John Paul Labno, the three had an excellent and seemingly seasoned stage presence. Gundred’s steady beat laid the foundation for Krechnyak’s funky baselines and Labno’s swift, Jimmy Page-esque guitar riffs, which especially shone through on crowd favorite “Nasty Habits.”

The evening’s support primed the audience perfectly, giving Vampire Weekend the task of simply taking the reigns from there and delivering a terrific set of their own. Mostly playing songs off what was at the time their soon to be released debut album (out in January), the guys decided to take it to the next level and treat the audience to a song from their second album. Ultimately, the loveable quartet put on a great live show and proved that it’s earned its street cred.

-Review and photo by Nicole Sheikh

The Thermals / The Big Sleep / The Scandells

The Echoplex
Los Angeles, CA
December 7, 2007

The Echoplex, a still relatively new showspace located underneath The Echo, is coming into its own as one of L.A.’s best music venues. And this evening was another damn fine showing. Getting the crowd in the mood with some catchy, bouncy girl-pop was now-defunct Riverside band The Scandells (who would announce their retirement a short four days later). Out of respect for the dead, the obvious Sleater-Kinney comparisons can be skipped in order to focus on what an enjoyable act The Scandells were live. They possessed the sort of airy, “garage band-light” that makes a crowd want to dance and sing along without reservation (or familiarity with lyrics). Aside from lead guitarist/vocalist Chelsea Brown struggling a bit to keep up on herslightly out-of-tune guitar, the band’s playing was technically strong, though a bit lacking in individuality. It’s a shame they’ve called it quits — when bassist Mia Cartwright took over on vocals, her throaty, bluesy voice added a lot of interest to their girly harmonizations.

Impressively, Brooklyn’s The Big Sleep immediately won over a crowd already clamoring for the headliner. The trio’s driving, atmospheric blend of shoegaze, psychedelia, and what has been aptly referred to as “bedroom-metal” captivated the audience, and the band seemed engrossed completely in the business of winding and crashing its way through an occasionally instrumental and entirely absorbing set.

After what seemed like an interminable wait, Portland favorites The Thermals took the stage and the crush of the all-ages crowd made evident its barely restrained excitement. The band made the most of its performance time, confidently blazing through its patented no-fi “post-pop-punk” material with all the swagger and sass of a group that clearly still loves playing its music as much as crowds love hearing it. The Thermals’ set was a virtual “Best Of,” and being that their most recent album The Body, The Blood, The Machine came out over a year ago, the audience never had to stop gleefully screaming along with singer Hutch Harris for lack of knowing the words. He and his bandmates, bassist Kathy Foster and drummer Lorin Coleman, contorted and bounced their way through the set, wrenching raw new energy from a sampling of some of their most anthemic, guitar-driven and balls-out rock songs. With very limited between song banter, the band allowed the rally cry of its fiery, poignant and politically-charged lyrics do the talking.

After several pounding, club-wide choruses of “ONE! MORE! SONG!” The Thermals returned to the stage. Not generally known for covers, they chose as an encore a rare exception: their well-loved, jaunty (yet faithful) version of Built to Spill’s “Big Dipper.” Finishing off the night with an impassioned performance of “It’s Trivia” from their debut, The Thermals left fans both new and old screaming for more.

-Review and photo by Jessica Watkins-McClain

Swim Party / Eux Autres / The Modlins / The Fresas

Silverlake Lounge
Los Angeles, CA
December 13, 2007

The closest L.A. gets to blistering wind blew through the open doors of the Silverlake Lounge as Swim Party tried to add a little warmth with their own pillars of bright lights. Yet there was a dark coldness to their music. Alex Devereaux’s bass echoed through Petro Halkowycz’s drums, bouncing off the cold walls of the bar creating a hollow atmosphere. Once Eric Tremblay’s guitar chimed in with a bittersweet melody, the hollowness turned into a mixture of enchanted hauntings on “McHank err Pariah.” Every song was a rollercoaster ride of pacing between soft and frantic that kept the audience intrigued as to where the band would go next. Tremblay struggled with a faltering mic but overcame the technical difficulty with suffering cries that chilled to the bone in the greatest way possible.

Brother/sister duo Eux Autres turned the tables with a few punk anthems before swaying into poppier territory with songs like “When I’m Up.” Nicholas Larimer looked to Heather Larimer for pacing and rhythm changes that generally came when she sang and drummed at the same time. They alternated vocal duties, often with a sort of call and response effect, and along with Nicholas’ guitar, the consistent background “oohs” and “ahhs” the other supplied filled out what could have been a much thinner sound. As their set came to a close, Eux Autres shared their original Christmas song, “Another Christmas At Home,” which Heather pointed out “is about us being alcoholics.” The audience cheered — Eux Autres found a perfect Christmas song for indie hipsters.

When The Modlins jumped on stage in matching grey suits, the energy in the room lifted to another level. The four-piece band was ready to party. Celebrating the release of their sophomore album With Friends Like These, The Modlins used every open inch of the stage to dance and jive to their own upbeat melodies. With several tricks up their sleeves, like the xylophone intro on “You Said” and a surprise harmonica jam, they also had plenty of witty banter coming from all three microphones at once. Right- and left-handed guitarists Eric Killian and Matt Sheridan (respectively) took turns on lead vocals, and bassist Alex Smith provided constant backups. Like a retro rock version of The Little Ones, it was these charming harmonies that gave The Modlins an edge over the rest of the night’s performers.

Minus a band member and faced with a fairly sedated crowd, closing band The Fresas still managed to rock out. Playing the loudest power pop of the night and almost perfect covers of Heart’s “Crazy On You” and The Pixies’ “Gigantic,” this all-girl band ended the show with the audience begging for that favorite “one more song.”

-Review by Megan Clinard; photo by Margie Genin

Rykarda Parasol & The Tower Ravens / Bellavista / Off Campus

Bottom of the Hill
San Francisco, CA
December 6, 2007

Off Campus blasted through the late start time with some furious but half-formed funk-infused tunes. Lead singer Christopher Appelgren had several pitch shifting incidents during a set that called to mind The Talking Heads and The Pop Group. Off Campus mixed the bass-heavy slickness of the former with the clannish backbeats of the latter on tunes like “Open a Window.” Plenty of maraca and cowbell were dispersed as Appelgren’s nasally voice sang over an agile keyboard riff.

Bellavista, the garage rock band that used to go by the name “Vue,” was next. Before disbanding in 2004, they played alongside acts like The Rolling Stones and Franz Ferdinand, and after a two-year hiatus, reformed as Bellavista and found a home on local indie Take Root Records. The three-piece made up for any fish out of water awkwardness with Cary LaScala’s tribal goth drumming and Rex Shelverton’s deep crooning and careening distortion. The whammy bar got a real workout on Bellavista’s piercing take on suffering, “Temptation By Your Side.” When Shelverton yelped, “I just wanted to hang out with you,” over fuzzy guitars it was easy to feel the tinderbox melodrama; the Jesus and Mary Chain gloom crept all over.

The time finally came when Rykarda Parasol & The Tower Ravens took the stage, Parasol decked out in her concert’s best: a yellow lightning bolt necklace, a fire engine red electric guitar and a dress with yellow splatter strokes all over it. Her gothic-rock tunes curled through the air like the warm smoke from a 9mm. Nick Cave definitely proved as an inspiration for not only the dark tales Parasol spun but also the guttural delivery that is often built into her song’s devastating codas. Her band’s name might as well have been The Bad Seeds as “Texas Midnight Radio” was dipped in the same murky ink that Cave’s output was no doubt penned in the mid-’90s.

A shout-out to the band’s new drummer Ryan Dylla was given beforehand and he responded with some clockwork percussion. On the swinging folk-rock tune “Candy Gold,” Parasol et al. truly turned to their Texas roots with soaring guitar reverb. They ended the night with a flourish as Wymond Miles played his guitar with a violin bow on the song “Covenant.” Then after that Spaghetti Western noir tune, the four performers turned their backs on the audience, revealing the succinct, painted message on Parasol’s back: “Hate.” As a sly joke they dove into a cover of The Corrs’ cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” — an unexpected breath of pop after a dark night of brooding music.

-Review by Kyle Lemmon; photo by Joshua Uziel

Speaker Speaker / Velella Velella / Immaculate Machine

The Vera Project
Seattle, WA
December 7, 2007

For the grizzled veteran showgoer used to clubs that check IDs, a night at a resolutely youth-oriented, all-ages venue like Seattle’s Vera Project can be like stepping into an alternate universe where unselfconscious audiences dance spastically and shout sincere questions at the bands between songs.

Victoria, B.C. trio Immaculate Machine is probably best known for being the other band of The New Pornographers’ keyboardist/vocalist Kathryn Calder. Calder’s busy schedule with her better-known band meant that Immaculate Machine had to recruit a replacement, Brooke Wilken, to fill in for their opening slot at Vera (the other opening band, Washington D.C.’s Antelope, cancelled altogether). With another Brooke onstage, guitarist/vocalist Brooke Gallupe, the band fit into the night’s double-name motif, though Gallupe still jokingly referred to his band as “Immaculate Machine Immaculate Machine.” Boasting an unorthodox guitar/keyboard/drums lineup and three-part harmonies, Immaculate Machine has a unique sound and earnest delivery. While there wasn’t anything identifiably wrong with their set, and Wilken filled in ably, it did seem as though they weren’t quite bringing their A game.

The four members of Seattle’s Velella Velella (Andrew Means, Michael Burton, Jeremy Hadley and Sylvia Chen) seemed like five as they were all over a stage jam-packed with equipment, swapping mid-song between Roland and Korg and Farfisa and Clavinet and Wurlitzer and vibraphone and flute (not to mention bass and guitar), backed by beats and other sounds played from an iPod. This whirlwind of activity produced a mash-up of the glittery electro-disco of United State of Electronica, the droning groove of Stereolab and the uptight post-funk of !!!, inciting dancing even amongst the most reluctant audience members. They came across as very likable and unpretentious, joking around with each other and with a gaggle of excited friends in the audience, and put their all into their set despite a modest turnout of about three dozen kids.

With all the keyboards out of the way, it was back to rock ‘n’ roll power-trio basics and plenty of stage room for the headliners, Seattle’s Speaker Speaker. The band’s influences are obvious (The Thermals, Ted Leo, Jawbreaker), but with well-structured songs that are non-stop hooks and melody, Speaker Speaker more than stand on their own. Guitarist Colin McBride, bassist Danny Oleson and drummer Jasen Samford are a tight unit, playing like a band that’s been together much longer than just over a year and a half. Gearing up for the February release of their debut full length Call It Off and subsequent tour, the band held a drawing to give away promised copies of the album. With great songs, solid performance skills and good fan-relations moves like that, Speaker Speaker are definitely a Seattle band to watch this year.

-Review and photos by Mike Baehr

The Program
Final night featuring Blue Scholars / Ohmega Watts / Cancer Rising / The Physics / DJ blesOne

Neumo’s
Seattle, WA
December 22, 2007

In what will hopefully become a yearly tradition, Seattle’s Blue Scholars closed out 2007 with a five-night summit of Northwest hip-hop known as The Program. Hosted and headlined by the Seattle hip-hop duo, the event took over Neumo’s December 18-22 and featured over 20 local hip-hop acts. Seattle hadn’t seen such a collection, both old and new, since the days when Sir Mix-A-Lot roamed Broadway.

The final night of the show kicked off with South Seattle’s The Physics, a group that had received considerable acclaim in the weeks leading up to the event. While their beats were tight, The Physics seemed to be enjoying the partying aspect of The Program a little too much and their flow was undermined by their rushed excitement. They performed with DJ blesOne, who also provided the beats in between acts, and were frequently upstaged by both his rhyming and spinning skills.

Next up was Cancer Rising, who took the stage with a definitive bravado. The Seattle-based crew matched the giddy energy of The Physics with its own intensity and tore through a 10-plus song set, hardly stopping for air. It is in acts like Cancer Rising that a local movement is defined — with their workmen-like lyrics, they embody the blue-collar nature of Northwest hip-hop. And in true Northwest fashion, they’ve released a limited edition self-titled EP packaged in old jewel cases with the original tray cards, saving money, the environment, and honoring the artists who have inspired them.

The Portland by way of Brooklyn MC Ohmega Watts is a true b-boy, exemplified in the samples he chooses and his verbose, lyrical flow. Watts’ genius production and lyrics didn’t quite translate to the venue as he was unable to rap and mix at the same time, but it was still apparent that his traditionalist hip-hop values and song crafting were right at home in the burgeoning Northwest scene.

One could sense the accomplishment in Sabzi’s posture once it was the Scholar’s turn to rock the mic. This fifth consecutive performance for him and MC Geologic seemed to be a culmination of each night that came before as the pair brought down the house with a little help from Cancer Rising and a few other guests like Mass Line mates Gabriel Teodros and RA Scion. They played a sampling of their entire catalog and almost every song was greeted with cheers and a sea of hands in the air. As with most Scholars shows, it began with a prayer and peaked with their performance of “Inkwell,” which live samples Modest Mouse’s “Float On.” A portion of the song’s chorus — “There’s an infinite inkwell high above the city” — took on special meaning in the context of The Program, as Blue Scholars proved the infinite quality of the area’s inkwell by serving up five nights of hip-hop greatness.

-Review by Rob Bergquist; photo by Fel Pajimula