October 21, 2008

Music

Up & Coming

This Week's Notable Shows and Parties

by Stranger Staff

Thursday 10/23

The Notwist

(Neumos) Founded by brothers Markus and Michael Acher in Weilheim, Germany, the Notwist false-started nearly 20 years ago as a punk- and metal-influenced rock band. They soon settled into a mellower, electronic-accented sound, finding some acclaim in America with 2003's Neon Golden. They've also been behind some of the best of the whisper-soft laptop pop of the Morr Music label, working with bands Lali Puna and Ms. John Soda, and collaborated with anticon. founders Themselves on the project 13 & God. The Notwist's new album, The Devil, You + Me, is more of the perfectly pleasant same from the band—careful indie-pop, soft-rock, and electro-shoegaze songs so gentle as to leave almost no trace, only the odd, haunting melody or persistent melancholic mood. ERIC GRANDY

Friday 10/24

Jeffrey Lewis & the Jackals, Arrington from Old Time Relijun, Daguerreotypes, Mighty Tiger

(Comet) See Stranger Suggests.

Against Me!, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Future of the Left

(Showbox at the Market) You're paying to see Ted Leo and Against Me! because you already know you love those bands. But you didn't know that tonight's show comes with a gift: Future of the Left. It was a sad day for rock and roll when Mclusky announced they were breaking up in 2005. The Welsh rockers had everything—biting, cocky lyrics, addictive guitar riffs, humor. But when one door closes, another one etc., and Future of the Left are rising from Mclusky's ashes. FOTL deliver some of the same playful humor and snotty rock as Mclusky did. For example, they have a song ("Manchasm") that seems to be about a cat: "Colin is a pussy, a very pretty pussy. Colin is a very pretty pussycat." I love bands that make me laugh and dance at the same time. MEGAN SELING See also Stranger Suggests.

Flo Rida, DJ Phase, Miguel Alvarado, Kippy

(Trinity) Fuck Florida, chief. Not only did Florida deliver Bush an election, but right now in 2008, the Sunshine State dominates "urban" radio with the shitty likes of T-Pain, Plies, Rick Ross, and the evil DJ Khaled. Near the top of the list of Khaled's offenses to humanity is his creation of the soulless club-rap robot known as Flo Rida. I really do think Khaled created him Weird Science–style—plugging a pile of Ed Hardy shirts, sunglasses, and tattoo sketches into Auto-Tune and letting it rip. Then, armed with the slickest of Top 40 production, the plum-dumbest of hooks, and the utter absence of a personality, Flo Rida's "Low" crowned the Billboard chart for 10 weeks—thus destroying the fabric of democracy and ensuring God's continuing wrath in the form of hurricanes. LARRY MIZELL JR.

Saturday 10/25

Expo '86: Flexions; Husbands, Love Your Wives; Kathryn Hepburn's Voice; and more

(No Space, Cairo, the Anne Bonny) See Underage.

Doc Martin, Sunshine Jones, Mister Leisure

(Neumos) Seattle collective United House Front celebrates its eighth anniversary with a stacked bill tonight. As far as West Coast house music goes, it's hard to find DJ/producers more skilled at crowd-pleasing and body-moving than Doc Martin, Sunshine Jones, and Mister Leisure (aka Matt Corwine). San Franciscan Martin has 22 years of gigs under him, from loft parties to megaclubs, and he can adapt to any setting with his voluminous crates and finely honed instincts for the deep, soulful, and bumpin'. Sunshine Jones made his bones with Dubtribe Sound System ("Mother Earth" is still the jam), so he knows how to rouse an audience with dreadlocked, psychedelic haus musik. And Seattle's Mister Leisure proves that music writers can indeed create excellent, challenging dance tracks, if you had any doubts. DAVE SEGAL

Velella Velella, These United States, Vandaveer

(Sunset) Why are Velella Velella still playing small spots like the Sunset? Shouldn't they be filling the Showbox by now? While fools cream over VHS or Beta, VV unassumingly meld festive dance music and intelligent rock with nuance, excellent musicianship, and sparkling production. Their music satisfyingly combines hedonism with instrumental geekery. These United States, by contrast, peddled understated, orchestral roots-rock on their debut, A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden; it's the sort of music that will appeal both to folks with mortgages and college students. The band's new album, the poetic, passionate Crimes, boasts more robust production and more rousing songs than the first disc, while lead singer-songwriter Jesse Elliott continues his quest to become this decade's brightest Bob Dylan acolyte. DAVE SEGAL

Nathan Wade & the Dark Pioneers

(Central Saloon) Like Nick Cave, Nathan Wade seems to have spent a lot of time reading the Book of Revelation (and a healthy dose of Cormac McCarthy) and then retooling those gothic, apocalyptic themes into musical form. Doom, dread, death, and destruction figure prominently in The Chroma Session EP but—like Cave—Wade finds beauty in the darkest corners. In fact, it's highly doubtful that another songwriter could've written an ode to convenience-store robbers like "Skoal Bandits" and had it come across so timeless and gripping. In the wrong hands, this kind of visceral country-noir easily falls into gimmicky territory; with Wade and his Dark Pioneers, it sends shivers down your spine in the best possible way. BARBARA MITCHELL

Sunday 10/26

Expo '86: Tiny Vipers, Karl Blau, Angelo Spencer, and more

(No Space, Cairo, the Anne Bonny) See Underage.

Earshot Jazz Fest featuring Cecil Taylor

(Town Hall) See The Score.

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Jenny Lewis

(Showbox at the Market) No disrespect to Conor Oberst's perfectly talented coterie of backing musicians and collaborators, but let's be honest: Conor Oberst, by any name, has always been pretty much a solo project. Bright Eyes? Desaparecidos? Sure, you're going to get wildly different musical backdrops, but the star attraction will always be Oberst's histrionic yet convincing range of whimpers, whispers, and wails; his prodigious songwriting; and/or his damnable boyish good looks. So, the Mystic Valley Band? The sound hews unsurprisingly close to recent Bright Eyes' calmer folk-country kick, and the lyrics continue with some of Cassadaga's quasi-spiritual seeking, with Oberst taking to the road—specifically, to the Mexican city of Tepoztlán, whose valley lends this band its name—in search of some solace that these modern times can't provide him. ERIC GRANDY

Chuck Ragan, Ben Nichols, Tim Barry, Kevin Seconds, Austin Lucas

(El Corazón) Punk rock is dead. And acoustic, emotionally scarred, country-tinged ballads killed it. Case in point: tonight's lineup. Nearly everyone on this bill has been touring for years (in some cases decades) in very respectable punk and rock bands. There's Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music, Ben Nichols of Lucero, Tim Barry of Avail, and Kevin Seconds of Seven Seconds. They've all sown their oats and had their fun—they've all shredded their vocal cords and flirted with tinnitus. And even though the years are starting to slow 'em down—they're opting for acoustic over electric guitars—fortunately, the aging punk rockers aren't too worn down to give up the road. MEGAN SELING

Monday 10/27

Fujiya & Miyagi, the Prototypes

(Chop Suey) See Stranger Suggests.

Tuesday 10/28

Collie Buddz, Rise of the Revolution, DJ Collage, DJ Kid Hops

(Nectar) See Data Breaker and My Philosophy.

Lady Dottie and the Diamonds, the Bluesuasions

(Funhouse) See Album Review.

The Spinto Band, Frightened Rabbit, Colonies

(Chop Suey) The Spinto Band hail from "you've been preapproved" return-address Wilmington, Delaware, though what they offer is more enticing than that tired line. The band cover a lot of ground, from upbeat, moony-eyed piano serenades jerked about by carnival-ride rhythms to bleary, last-call guitar ballads, all marked by sweet choruses. Frightened Rabbit hail from Selkirk, Scotland, a town of 5,000-some people whom Wikipedia describes, somewhat strangely, as having "an introverted approach to the wider world"—so, basically, a tiny burgh of terribly emo Scots, which sounds brilliant. More brilliant, though, are Frightened Rabbit's depressed acoustic ballads, ringing open-chord uplifts, and occasional blasts of orchestral/choral bombast, as well as singer Scott Hutchinson's wounded but resilient Scottish warble and bleak songwriting. Stick around for the headliners, sure, but don't dare miss these guys. ERIC GRANDY

Roky Erickson, Black Angels, DJ Mamma Casserole

(Showbox at the Market) Roky Erickson used to front the 13th Floor Elevators, a Texas garage-psych group fervently and rightly worshipped by heads worldwide. Their three albums—especially Easter Everywhere—still captivate with their fire and finesse; their striving for transcendence through sublime melody, earthy rhythms, and mystical poetry; and their electrified-jug bloops and bleeps. Roky's voice ranged from hellion howl to broken-soul quiver, inspiring fellow Texan Janis Joplin. Tragically, he gambled with drugs and lost. While Erickson summoned enough creative scratch to forge a sporadically brilliant solo career, his voice has faltered with age (whose hasn't?) and his songwriting prowess has dwindled. At Coachella last year, his pipes mostly shot, Roky gamely played his best-known material, backed by an earthbound band. It was very sad in an "oh, how the mighty have fallen" way, but many people loved it. You might, too. DAVE SEGAL

Crystal Castles, Lymbyc Systym, Expendable Youth

(Neumos) Toronto thrash-dance duo Crystal Castles (multi-instrumentalist Ethan Kath and singer Alice Glass) pitch-shift vocals, dabble with Atari game systems, and transform the dance floor into an 8-bit feeding frenzy of synth chum, shark-attack glitch, and flesh-torn flash. They move bodies en masse and stir the collective club mind into euphoric states of sweat-pore unity. Lymbyc Systym, the drum-and-keys sibling duo of Jared and Michael Bell, match their headstrong electro arrangements with pure musicianship. They meld big beat beats and walls of distorted clavinet sounds. Michael sits high on his drum throne and ranges with dynamics and division. He plays like he's throwing boomerangs of cutlery around an open prairie plain. He chops the air into tiger stripes and cycles it around. TRENT MOORMAN

Wednesday 10/29

Collie Buddz, Rise of the Revolution, DJ Collage, DJ Element

(Nectar) See Data Breaker and My Philosophy.

See Me River, Great American, Blind Pilot

(Tractor) See Me River— boasting several popular local music veterans in the backing band—is a vehicle for Seattle singer-songwriter Kerry Zettel's earnest, strummy tunes. Their second album, Time Machine, was released this summer, featuring Zettel's deadpan lead vocals among delicately arranged baroque-pop elements. Also from Seattle, Great American deliver harmonies and midtempo twang-lite with clear voices and lovely beards. Portland's Blind Pilot also released their debut album 3 Rounds and a Sound over the summer. They made the bold choice to hitch their gear to their bicycles and pedal up and down the interstate. Blind Pilot started small, but now have a rotating roster of live contributors; up to a dozen musicians can be found onstage. Maybe they use tandem bikes? MATT GARMAN

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