The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper: Josh Bis

Photos: MGMT at Showbox Sodo

Josh Bis — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:18:49 -0700

MGMT (Andrew VanWyngarden) at Showbox Sodo

A glitchy cosmic seagull was among the the interplanetary spirit guides for MGMT's set at the Showbox Sodo last night. Arriving in the middle of an "interesting markets" tour (Seattle and Portland are among the bigger/more standard stops) and in advance of a new album (due in June) they spent a compact set reminding audiences of some of the less famous songs from Oracular Spectacular, bringing out some (but not enough!) of the highlights from under-appreciated Congratulations, and rolling out some new songs for a crushed-to-the-front, more-comfortable-in-the-back sold-out crowd. The main set was sprinkled with three fresh tracks that will by now be familiar to YouTube tourstalkers: the disconcertingly upbeat "Your Life is a Lie", fuzzy psych throwback "Introspection", and noisy synth-heavy jellyfish jam "Mystery Disease", along with what sounded like some newish instrumental interludes, while Record Store Day cassette-only exclusive (now an "official lyrics video") Alien Days led the short encore.

Overall, the performance and accompanying constantly shifting, mostly intentionally glitchy, brightly colored, often hypnotic light show served as a mission statement that those kids who wrote a couple of insanely catchy pop songs had left the building and are now firmly on course to follow other ambitions: definitely in line with the previous material, but possibly a bit deeper instead of world-conquering. The kids up front seemed OK with it, in the absence of traditional pop hits, they were still happy to crowdsurf to whatever the band felt like playing and scrambled madly for flowers tossed from the stage when the show concluded.

crowd notes: seeing a woman hoisting up an child so that he can get a better view of a band reminiscing about playgrounds, animals, digging up worms from the vantage of rock stars growing tired of models and drugs, and realizing that the child was probably born after the song was written gives a whole new depressing spin on already secretly downer "Time to Pretend", doesn't it?

bar notes: I say this every time, but man, Showbox Sodo is pretty much the opposite of Showbox (original flavor) in just about every structural way possible. One has a bar with hundreds of perfect sightlines, the other has a bar with four barely adequate sightlines. Et c.

style notes: MGMT is the band that I (possibly unfairly) associate most closely with the dawn of the facepaint and featherwave period. About halfway through a deep instrumental jam in the middle of the show, Andrew VanWyngarden was miraculously wearing a floral headband; another indication that the signs at Coachella pointing to a new festival fashion era may have been correct.

(more lightshow soaked pictures after the jump.)

MGMT trippy color tour

MGMT (Andrew VanWyngarden)

MGMT (Benjamin Goldwasser)

MGMT

MGMT

MGMT (Andrew VanWyngarden)

these MGMT fans followed the tour from Spokane to Seattle

celeb hats are so hot right then

minor crushing hazard, nbd.

MGMT setlist [needs more Congratulations]

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Coachella Hangover: The YouTubes

Josh Bis — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:47:28 -0700

Speaking of videos from Coachella, I just noticed that the festival has catalogued choice selections from its weekend one livestream in one colorful, convenient-to-navigate YouTube microsite.

Here, for instance is Seattle's own Prom King, Allen Stone, performing "Sleep" for a tent full of people who arrived early enough to catch his afternoon set.

Like us, it sounds like Allen thoroughly enjoyed his time at the festival:

Playing Coachella was an honor. Not because of the "cred" but because of the other shows at the festival. I saw the 3 best shows of my life last weekend; Janelle Monae, James Blake and Father John Misty. It was a humbling honor to be on the same festival as such incredible performers.

Although you can check out things like that surprise R. Kelly—Phoenix live remix and the Postal Service showing a fresh audience their great heights are officially archived for posterity, it'll take only some entry-level googling to dredge up those top three performances (plus many more) through fan-powered channels.

A week coughing up dust from enduring that epic sandstorm during Wu-Tang Clan's closing set is among my less cherished Coachella souvenirs (this Kii Arens poster is a much nicer and — I can only hope — more enduring piece of memorabilia), but kept some of the weekend's performance preserved in internet amber for the posterity of occasionally revisiting the nostalgia factory.

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Saturday: EMP Pop Music Conference (Partially) Returns to Seattle

Josh Bis — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:07:22 -0700

Once you've finished trolling the bins for Record Store Day exclusives, consider further indulging your obsessions with a trip to Ye Olde EMP. This year, the conference that Sean Nelson once called a music nerd Valhalla (sort of) returns to the city that birthed it. After hitting the road for the last three years, the EMP Pop Music Conference fragmented itself into five overlapping events that are taking place approximately simultaneously IRL and online this week/end (the Los Angeles and New York sessions are streaming live right now).

Although other cities are letting their deep pop musical thoughts simmer over multiple days, Seattle gets only one day of in-person intellectualizing around the loose theme of "New Visions, New Sounds." The day alternates between a series of rapid-fire Ignite Talks and "Begging to Differ" debates (topics include the identity of the One Beatles Album to Rule them All, and a three-way throwdown between Austin, Seattle, and Portlandia on the city with the best scene), an appropriately-timed panel on "the Joys and Burdens of Record Collecting." Show up in the afternoon to hear Long Winters/Twitter frontman John Roderick talk about "weathering a firestorm", about that punk rock screed that has since disappeared from the internet and Rachel Flotard on the topic of "finding humor ... traversing a shit-bombed musical landscape." Or just drop in at any point in the day to test your endurance: Amanda Palmer's New York City keynote will be on repeat from 9 in the morning until 5 at night in the Rec Room.

The whole event is free; registration is open to the public. It's definitely worth dropping in, if only to study the various species of listening tics on display as hundreds of music obsessives react with deep thoughts to the music and ideas being broadcast over the PA.

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Savages: "Let's Make This Evening Special"

Josh Bis — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:09:10 -0700

Savages "... believe that the use of phones to film and take pictures during a gig prevents all of us from totally immersing ourselves"

Playing at Neumos last night, Savages joined the revolution sparked by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs last week at Webster Hall, by way of signs posted outside the showroom asking people to actually watch the shows with their eyes instead of their phones. Conveniently enough, my iPhone died just as I was walking into the club; so spending just under an hour in the company of their dark reverby guitars and droning vocals without even the temptation to gauge the time was kind of transcendental.

Appropriately enough, their album, scheduled for release next month on Matador is titled Silence Yourself.

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Coachella Sunday: Desert Lung Dust Bowl [Photos]

Josh Bis — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:46:53 -0700

Wu Tang Clan: Headliners for the rest of us.

WEATHERWATCH
I grew up in the midwest and live in Seattle; I should've known better than to gloat and/or revel in the near-perfect desert weather. The mere mention of the ideal nature of the Coachella weekend's weather was enough to summon an epic dust storm to the polo grounds late Sunday afternoon. By evening, the air was thick with dust and the constant wind grew more and more punishing. Although those arriving through the Do Lab's time-space portal from Burning Man were probably fine, the rest had to repurpose sunglasses as eye protectors and souvenier mank tops as makeshift respirators.

We braved the storm long enough for some essential celeb-watching (teen stars of an ABC Family series that is not Bunheads interpreting James Blake through dance; unlocking the true achievement of walking past Jared Leto and Paris Hilton within the space of 20 minutes), grounds-touring, taco truck-consuming, and band-watching (staying through most of Wu Tang Clan's [Outdoor Theater] headlining set), but when it was time to check in on Red Hot Chili Peppers, our lungs were so filled with dirt that we couldn't bear to do more than pause briefly for a glimpse on the way back to the car. From the perilous traffic situation on the highway, it seemed like we weren't the only ones to throw in the towel early.

While I'm still processing the whole weekend, enjoy too many photos after the jump. Let's chat up our Coachella/Couchchella experiences in the commentary section?

And see many, many more photos in this Flickr set!

DUST BOWL BANDS

Grimes, Totoro's Neighbor

Grimes Dance Team #1

Tanlines: "We flew here from New York in an airplane to play music for you."

Tanlines comedy/dance hour: "All my life I've dreamed of playing at the exact same time as Social Distortion."

James Blake: A kinder, gentler, dubworld

Vampire Weekend: Smoke machines or dust storm?

Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend: Modern vampires, holographic mirrors

Vampire Weekend

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (or, the final challenge for for all-day front-row RHCP fans)

The Bad Seeds (or, these kids have better wristbands than you)

Nick Cave: Wizard or warlock?

IN WHICH I WON'T EVEN INSULT YOU BY PRETENDING TO BE ABLE TO IDENTIFY MEMBERS OF THE WU TANG CLAN

Wu Tang Clan: "No disrespect to the rest of them, but we came here to steal this."

Wu Tang: "Music will rise ... but don't forget to get that money!"

Wu Tang Clan: "Can we get all the cellphones up in the air for O.D.B.?"

Wu Tang Clan: "... if you don't have a lighter, a peace sign will do."

Wu Tang Clan: Nothing to fuck with.

ALL THE PEOPLE YOU MEET AT COACHELLA

Bronies?

Chili peppers.

Fancy conceptual reptiles / industry execs?

Muppets

Celeb cutouts were so hot this year. Here's Swift on stick.

Shoulder sitters.

HOW ABOUT A QUICK STROLL AROUND THE GROUNDS?

Shadecone

Power Station / Hippo Improv Theater Experiment

All of these people were waiting for the Lumineers to play "Ho Hey."

LAND SHARK!

spirit gastropod

Your windstorm is no match for Recyclosaurus Rex.

See many, many more in this Flickr set!

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Coachella Saturday: Postal Service Delivers, R. Kelly to Phoenix

Josh Bis — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 16:29:38 -0700

Did you know? "R. Kelly" is French for "hologram".

TRENDPIECE: Blame Afghan Whigs. Ever since their duo with Usher at SXSW, surprise R&B guest appearances are the must-have accessory for the touring rock band. Although everyone was secretly hoping that the string of consistent denials about Daft Punk docking their pyramid starship to Phoenix's headlining set were just a convincingly elaborate ruse (Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo were allegedly spotted out-of-costume in the VIP holding pen while their teaser trailer opened for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs). Instead of French robots, the encore featured the truly surprising appearance of R. Kelly, who bounded on stage to perform an amazing live remix of "1901" with his own "Ignition." Kids in our immediate vicinity proclaimed it to be "the most random thing they'll see in their whole life."

Twitter reinforced my suspicion that watching them instead of cruelly simultaneously-scheduled New Order condemns me to music hell, but the heart wants what the heart wants. The rest of the exceptional set provided the blend of perfectly-performed high energy, danceable, electro-rock that we've come to know and love from America's sudden French sweethearts. We thought about splitting our time between the two stages, but the combination of the crushing crowds, their ultra-compelling stage presence, and the aforementioned R. Kelly encore that concluded with lead singer Thomas Mars sweetly serenading a dozen or so iPhones before summiting the sound booth (while still tethered to the stage by a glowing microphone cord) and crowd-surfing/swimming back across several dozen yards of fans kept us transfixed until closing time. We can only hope that the webstreams will be archived.

The Postal Service

RETRO INDIE HITS: Saturday's mainstage programming was a celebration of indie-electro. Sub Pop all-stars and self-described "imaginary band", the Postal Service brought back almost all of Give Up and then some. With some help from Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley) and Laura Burhenn (the Mynabirds), Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello satisfied a decade's worth of fan longings. It felt like they'd opened a time capsule from 2003; everything sounded just as good as when they sealed it away in carbonite and collective memory.

I'm terrible at estimating crowd sizes, but the densely-packed audience stretched almost the entire depth of the polo grounds appeared to be bigger than the sum of everyone who managed to catch the band playing during their initial club tour. Cex, however, was nowhere to be found.

CELEBWATCH: We arrived a little too late to catch all of the essential public canoodling and/or pre-staged appearances at frozen fruit smoothie stations, but off in the distance, Kristen Stewart was spotted, sprinting across the grounds to the relative safety of the backstage area in order to avoid ravenous paparazzi. This is why it's always a good idea to wear sensible kicks to a music festival, folks.

Earlier/elsewhere/after-the-jump: Hot Chip set the mood with an unrelenting sunset dance party, Yeasayer kept it just a little weird on the Outdoor Stage, Spiritualized spaced out for a small but devoted following in the Gobi Tent, Descendants savaged the Outdoor theater, Franz Ferdinand provided an energetic diversion from the always lovely (but not quite the right speed for my own personal evening mindspace) the xx, and Violent Femmes are still a band that plays shows. At 6:30 pm. On the Coachella Mainstage. To vast numbers of fans. In 2013. It's been six years, after all.

CROWDWATCH

Sound Guy Super Style

"We can't believe Descendants are playing Coachella either"

repurposed ballon art = coachella love

SOME BANDS, ROCKING OUT

Hot Chip: ready for the floor, safari style.

Hot Chip: Desert Chic

Yeasayer

Yeasayer

Spiritualized

Spiritualized: ladies and gentlemen we are floating in the desert

The Postal Service

The Postal Service: Jenny Lewis / Laura Burhenn

the Postal Service: initiate cute dance sequence

Descendants

Descendants

Franz Ferdinand: right action (to skip most of the xx for indie dance hits?)

Phoenix: Hello Coachella, we are from Paris France!

Phoenix: Christian Mazzalai

Phoenix: Laurent Brancowitz

R. Kelly

Phoenix's Thomas Mars, preparing to swim across the mainstage crowd.

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Coachella Friday: Goodbye Feathers, Hello Flowers

Josh Bis — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 20:31:45 -0700

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: the most crowded/best show of the night.

Blur

Greetings from sunny Palm Springs, where just down the street, Coachella 2013 is in full swing. In contrast to last year's study in extremes—both the coldest and hottest Coachellas on record—this one is positively temperate, which has perhaps encouraged higher-than-usual actual attendance (and/or more ambitious fence-jumping). For a few hours yesterday, absolutely every stage, beer garden, minor celebrity holding area, and parking lot felt absolutely swarmed. Although we're taking a LazyTown approach to the weekend—this dispatch comes to you from the Ace Hotel's Desert Gold (poolside blogging: cool look or super coolest look?), festivities for the ambitious, Day Two is already in full swing. Even if you're celebrating spring break #fucksunshine Northwest Style instead of basking in the gorgeous 85 degree dry heat, you can Couchchella from home and tune-in to the weekend's live stream to follow key happenings on the Polo Grounds.

Below, a few quick points from Friday. Expect a less unsubstantial and more photo-filled recap about What It All Means on Monday.

BANDWATCH: By far, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs put on my favorite set of Friday. Karen O is at the pinnacle of this era's most compelling triple-threats: performance artist, fashion icon, and utterly magnetic rock stars. The crowd for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was among the largest and most engaged of the mainstage sets I caught. The show alternated between previews the soon-to-be-released album along with old favorites, winding down with most of the audience belting along to YYYs love-song "Maps". The left the stage fully warmed for a seemingly happily-reunited Blur. Although the occasional moody deep cuts felt like gifts to the purists, they opened with "Girls & Boys" and including intervening rock-blocks of unassailable hits (e.g., a "Coffee & TV", "Song 2", "Tender", and "Parklife" complete with footraces around the stage) won near-universal acclaim.

The answer to Who Are the Stone Roses Dot Tumblr Dot Com: quite possibly the least-watched Coachella headliner in (my own) memory. Walking back after sampling Foals and Tegan & Sara on other smaller stages, the area around the mainstage was crickets. The audience looked smaller than most midday sets and we're going to musical hell for being part of the problem and not sticking around to see more than a song on our way out of the venue. Maybe no one had acclimated to the new later curfew.

TRENDWATCH: I'm happy to report that the #nativeappropriationwave may have fully and finally bottomed out: this year feather headdress "fashion" is rare-to-nonexistent. In place, every third girl is donning hand-made(ish) artisanal floral headbands. This satellite office of FashionTunnel (TM) approves.

CELEBWATCH: There was a moment during which the mere sighting of Paris Hilton caused the entrance to the main VIP cage to grind to an immediate halt, stranding a minimum of fifty vaguely important humans in a single file line outside the single narrow entryway as the line's bent to her resilient gravity and dozens of long-lensed photographers infiltrated the amateur cellsnappers from nowhere in particular to get a shot. Good for her! She is, after all the original Coachella celeb. Other sightings: Kate Bosworth, Alexa Chung, Whitney Port and her sidekick from the Hills. None pictured, because I never recognize these people until someone else points them out to me once they're a half mile away.

PROTIP: if you're electromagnetic field is feeling a bit fuzzy or your aura's a little broken down, a good way to prepare for a giant music festival is to arrive early enough to make a pilgrimage out to the magical mojave desert for a good old fashioned sound bath at the Integratron. A half hour in the company of a man tickling a set of giant quartz bowls is a great three-to-five dimensional experience that might just flip spacetime to timespace for a few minutes. Or was it the other way around?
More pictures after the jump.

BIG BANDS

Japandroids: the best way to start any music festival.

alt-J: brings all the folktronica kids to the middle tent

Passion Pit: always enthusiastic

Modest Mouse: #keepisaacweird #hakunamatata

Karen O: America's pre-eminent fashion icon/performance artist/rock star

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: happiest drummer/best facial hair in rock and roll.

Blur

Blur

CROWDWATCH

Japandroids crowdsurfer

last of the featherwavers

FASHION TUNNEL (TM)

There's a 99% chance this dog has a better wristband than you.

This Zebra Print.

Modest Mouse crowd: is that a Real Housewife?

D.I.Y. Glowstick GoogleGlass?

VIEWWATCH

View from the foodgarden.

Night falls over Coachellaville.

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Capitol Hill Block Party 2013, Spotified

Josh Bis — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 12:38:59 -0700

Still deciding whether to snap up a fast-selling weekend pass to the Capitol Hill Block Party? Perhaps pressing your ears to the music of the 62% of the lineup with a presence on Spotify will help you to make up your mind before it's too late to save yourself $20 or the hassle of dealing with craigslist when you, intoxicated by the warmth of midsummer and the allure of drinking with your 8,000 closest friends behind a chainlink fence, decide to go to the event at the last minute.

Never afraid to be servicey, I compiled the customary top two robotically selected tracks for each of the 46 bands that I could easily in my celestial jukebox of choice and put them into one handy playlist:

Note: To hear the sweet sounds of 18 Individual Eyes, Bear Mountain, Chastity Belt, Country Lips, Dave B, Deadkill, Dutty Wilderness, Ff, Grave Babies, Grave Matters, Grenades, Heavy Petting, Iska Dhaaf, Jk Pop, La Luz, Learning Team, Mass Games, Odesza, Rabbits, Rose Windows, S, Scream Queen, Stickers, Tacos, Tragic Valley, Trash Fire, Trashies, and/or Youryoungbody, you'll need to hit up their individual Bandcamps, Facebooks, Myspaces, Soundclouds, and/or Youtubes.

As always, use the comments to yell about whether I've missed an essential cut or hidden talent and I'll update accordingly.

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SXSW: Comfort Bands

Josh Bis — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:04:05 -0700

Vampire Weekend @ Stubb's

After four days of braving the hustle of a city under siege by music fans—with their invented economies of meaningless trinkets and oversubscribed RSVP lists, abundant scarcity, and constant crowding—all the while sticking to seeing (mostly) new (to me) bands, I have to admit to (convincing myself of) a sense of relief at not having schemed my way into one of Saturday night's last-minute ultra-mega superstar closing night parties. Instead of seeing three hours of Prince, Justin Timberlake dressing down, the latest iteration of the Smashing Pumpkins, Macklemore, and Fall Out Boy performing at the pleasure of Perez Hilton, keeping an ear to the ground to wherever Kanye West might or might not be parachuting in (allegedly during French Montana's Fader Fort set), I followed my heart to see Vampire Weekend close out SXSW in the big backyard of Stubb's B.B.Q.

Losing the keys to my backyard East Austin rental cottage found me spending the previous night (briefly) replicating Travis Ritter's 2012 adventures in temporary SXSW homelessness—cycling around town to retrace my steps and haunting the wonderful 24 Diner—so I was more than a little excited to hand over my sleep-deprived brain to the comforts of a known commodity with a side of Shiner Bock. I've seen the band maybe a dozen times on stages large and small and have yet to see them put on anything but a great show. Watching them continue this trend, busting out the parade of all the old crowd-pleasing favorites ("Oxford Comma," "Cousins," "California English," "Campus," "Horchata") while trying out three new songs (including "Diane Young," the first single from Modern Vampires of the City, which drops today) on the crowd, it strikes me that just being a really good band of technically exceptional performers who write approximately innovative yet still very pleasant music with short-storylike lyrics that nevertheless often motivate lots of people to dance and sing along is kind of a rare delightful commodity. And bless them for keeping weirdly moody gorgeous "I Think Ur a Contra" right there in the encore along with traditional get-the-eff-out-of-here closer "Walcott."

On the subject of staggering proficiency and sheer stage magnetism: they were well paired with openers HAIM. The Los Angeles sister act unleashed a treasury of great rock and roll faces while (each) singing, drumming, and playing guitar as if performing their own exorcisms. Wild, engaging, and referential without being derivative (as above), they may have been my favorite new band of the week. I knew nothing about them before last night, but can't wait to hear more.

Earlier in the day, I swung by much-beloved now-closed Austin club Emo's, which Brooklyn Vegan had temporarily resurrected for their showcases. Say what you will about the quality of comments on their blog, but the people in attendance, perhaps sated by free nachos and coconut water, were among the best-behaved audiences I encountered: Austra's glorious triple operatic harmonies over double synths and live drums was maybe the first show I saw all week where everyone in my immediate vicinity was too transfixed on the performance to strike up an inane conversation or shove their way through the crowd for a beer, or anything even borderline impolite. (Often during the course of this music marathon I found myself wondering whether there's any other entertainment where blatantly ignoring the show is deemed as apparently socially acceptable.) I stuck around long enough to catch a bit of Unknown Mortal Orchestra and eternally-fun Sub Pop act King Tuff. During all three sets, I'm pretty sure that tiny flakes of the building were crumbling loose.

Back at the Fader's railroad-adjacent Converse-presented (contractual obligation) East Austin fortress, Earl Sweatshirt, the once "lost" Odd Future child-prodigy, deftly dispatched lyrics with contained bravado to an always at-capacity crowd while Flying Lotus acted as DJ. Across the dusty alley, Ray Ban teamed with Boiler Room to turn an old warehouse into a sensory overload chamber—video screens covering half the walls and an in-the-round setup that placed performers on a platform in the middle of the cavernous space. I showed up hoping to see a bit of Mount Kimbie, but found Schlomo instead, due to a scheduling shuffle induced by Chief Keef's just not showing up. I sort of wish that the audiovisuals and vast crowds (in great part, refugees seeking the next fix after Fader's apparently surprise-guest-enhanced French Montana finale) hadn't sent me fleeing to Rio Rita's for relief: the Twitternet suggests that before Bauer came to Harlem Shake everyone one more time, Death Grips played a set that included Zach Hill Skyping-in drums from a remote location.

But, I guess that missing two thousand things to see a handful of others, including a band that you love, and— afterwards while grabbing your bike—getting to serendipitously discover that Delorean is a super-fun Spanish dance rock band that inspires crowdsurfing and patio parties, and not a sleepy Northwest outfit, makes the whole nonsense of occasionally loathsome crowds, huge piles of cash thrown into marketing and brand awareness (this morning, I noticed the absurdity of Spotify re-painting the cafe they took over for the week back from glowing green to a more sedate color and realized that's probably among the tinier expenditures of the festival), and over-exhaustion worth the trip? Plus, I've heard that the backlash was better last year anyway. It's definitely enough to make me think that I'll be tempted to return. After several naps.

(Some more photos, after the jump.)

Brooklyn Vegan showcase: Austra, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, King Tuff

Austra @ Brooklyn Vegan

Unknown Mortal Orchestra @ Brooklyn Vegan

Unknown Mortal Orchestra @ Brooklyn Vegan

King Tuff @ Brooklyn Vegan

King Tuff @ Brooklyn Vegan

Another visit to the Fader Fort.

Flying Lotus (w/Earl Sweatshirt)

Earl Sweatshirt

Earl Sweatshirt

Earl Sweatshirt

Earl Sweatshirt

Ray Ban / Boiler Room

Boiler Room:SXSW'::Room 23:LOST

This Los Angeles sister act was maybe the best new band I saw at SXSW?

HAIM

HAIM

HAIM

HAIM

Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend

Delorean + lasers = crowdsurfing on the Mohawk's patio.

Delorean

Delorean @ Mohawk

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SXSW: Dazed and Confused

Josh Bis — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 15:33:57 -0700

Usher w/Afghan Whigs @ "Fader Fort Presented By Converse"

Here's one of many surprisingly great things SXSW gives you that you never thought to want or need: an Afghan Whigs cover of "Climax" complete with "surprise" Usher guest appearance. This, brought to you by the Fader Fort and presented by Converse, closing out an afternoon at a wristband-required wonderland that managed to live almost exactly up to the (good and bad) hype mountain surrounding its manufactured exclusivity: free haircuts, drinks, kicks, and fresh-spun cotton candy showered with edible glitter (may include gluten additives), and a crushing crowd under the tent. It must've been just a little bit weird for Greg Dulli to transition his recently reborn band's headlining gig into an entirely different gear, but the band went on with the show (pausing occasionally to focus the crowd's thoughts and attention on Lil Wayne's dire condition).

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SXSW: Dazed and Confused

Josh Bis — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 18:30:41 -0700

Usher w/Afghan Whigs @ "Fader Fort Presented By Converse"

As the unstoppable forces of Spring Break, "the weekend", and St. Patrick's Day began to converge on the festival, one got the sense of a manic energy and the beginnings of a fraying at the seams: voices lost to exhaustion, epic twitter rants about the superficiality of it all, and hating yourself for being unable to resist the opportunity to "live mas" via a free Taco Bell bean burrito in the early afternoon.

Venturing outside the carnival-like core provided a brief escape from the intensity (if not the sponsorship) of it all: in the Rainey Street neighborhood Ducktails played a downright chillaxy set at Clive Bar (Filter/Tumblr/Gap) and East Austin felt more like a neighborhood block party than a mega-festival when I biked over to hear lightning-fingered Marnie Stern on the Hotel Vegas patio shredding and commanding her new Not Zach Hill drummer to shed his shirt to entertain the crowd. Eventually, though, I made my way back to Red River to find swamp punks Disclosure, springily assertive rock from Brooklyn's Parquet Courts, and dreamily atmospheric indie rock from DIIV showcasing various flavors of guitar music at the Mohawk.

The festival goes out with a bang tonight with decidedly non-indie behemoths—Prince, Smashing Pumpkins, Justin Timberlake—each headlining last-minute events that have had people selling energy drinks on Twitter, downloading apps, and re-joining the new MySpace for a shot at tickets. That said, if anyone has favors to spare with Samsung, I'd happily sell myself out for a spot at La Zona Rosa tonight.

Some photos from Friday after the jump.

METZ don't care if you need your eardrums working or your face unmelted

METZ @ Hype Hotel

METZ @ Hype Hotel

Sky Ferreria is treating her voice with tea

Sky Ferreria @ Hype Hotel

Sky Ferreria @ Hype Hotel

Sky Ferreria @ Hype Hotel

Inside the Fortress

FUTURE @ Fader Fort

avoid the crowd with this handy control booth.

Afghan Whigs @ Fader Fort

The "lost art" of guitar music
Marnie Stern

Marnie Stern @ Hotel Vegas Patio

Disclosure @ Mohawk

Disclosure @ Mohawk

Parquet Courts @ Mohawk

Parquet Courts @ Mohawk

the face of your revolution

DIIV @ Mohawk

Keeping Austin Weird

the looming tower

Rainey Snake

Mohawk Bear

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SXSW: Endurance & Reincarnation

Josh Bis — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:05:32 -0700

Stevie Nicks takes a bow

Perhaps my favorite thing that happened yesterday at South by Southwest was when Stevie Nicks spent a good five minutes just recounting, in intricate detail, the major plot points of Joe Wright's film adaptation of Anna Karenina. This was in response to a question from Ann Powers, I think, about her songwriting inspiration and process, and was only one of many fascinating digressions in an hourlong afternoon interview that included a glimpse into her entry into Fleetwood Mac, the role of women in rock music (and her general outrage at a sense of modern-day setbacks for women), and negotiating the dynamics of taking breaks from a band to pursue a solo career. Other fun facts: she really loves Beauty and the Beast both the Jean Cocteau and television version) and always wanted/wants to be a witch for Halloween.

SXSW: endurance & reincarnation

Josh Bis — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:46:00 -0700

Stevie Nicks takes a bow

My second favorite thing from yesterday was probably her duet with Dave Grohl at Stubb's as part of the his Sound City Players marathon. The delicate stripped-down acoustic version of "Landslide" almost quieted all of the inane side conversations in the audience for the first time in the evening. The follow-up, "Gold Dust Woman", Nicks fully witching out with the all-star band was a highlights condender, too. The whole event felt like an endurance contest for Grohl, who was onstage throughout the variety show rock lottery that included Alain Johannes, John Fogerty, Chris Goss (Masters of Reality), Brad Wilk (Rage Against the Machine, drums), Pat Smear, Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters, drums), as well as Fear's Lee Ving (who, earlier in day, Dave credited for his entire music career). By the time I left — nearly three hours into the rockistest event of all time — Rick Springfield had joined the crowd. With three hours left until curfew, they showed no signs of slowing down.

Snoop LION

Elsewhere, the fire marshall has Viceland on near lockdown for Snoop Dogg's "reincarnation" as Snoop Lion. Despite the reboot, his fashion changes have been more gradual. I could only peek through a side door over the shoulder of an increasingly frustrated bouncer, but it looked like he was wearing approximately the same outfit as when he played Coachella last year with Dre and Hologram Tupac (RIP). As for the sound, drop a reggae beat under "Gin and Juice" and you get the idea. People ate it up (along with the piles of free drinks).

Tegan & Sara

A more interesting, if less dramatic, re-invention was also playing out at the Austin Music Hall where Tegan and Sara were transitioning out of folksly singer-songwriting twin sisters to amazing pop monsters (via working with producer Greg Kurstin for this year's incredibly catchy Heartthrob). Having faced the assaults of a particularly invasive fire ant and staying up far past their usual bedtime, it was their end of their SXSW tour. Still, they challenged the crowd to stick around, holding off on playing party anthem "Closer" until the end of their set.

After that, I cycled back to the mess of Sixth Street, dodging bros getting tasered to catch my most favorite Swedish heartthrobs Shout Out Louds who were closing out the Merge showcase at the Parish. Like everyone else here, they seem to be playing a thousand shows, yet I keep finding it difficult to catch more than a few songs in this ongoing citywide treasure hunt.

A few more photos after the jump.

Ann Powers interviews Stevie Nicks

Tegan & Sara

Tegan & Sara

Tegan & Sara

Shout Out Louds

Shout Out Louds

Shout Out Louds

Shout Out Louds

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SXSW: #fomo ensues

Josh Bis — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:50:01 -0700

EDS NOTE: Josh Bis is down in Tejas! If you're like me, you're lamenting the
fact that you're not also there, watching a million bands in the sunny-sunny sunshine... What should he go see? Tell him in the comments! —Kelly O

I know that there are dozens of Seattle bands hustling around town, but let me know in the comments if there's something absolutely unmissable that I might have overlooked or tweet at me if you want to catch up to talk taco tips. —Josh

Café Tacvba at Stubb's

By the time I arrived in Austin last night, I'm pretty sure that Tardar Sauce had packed up his disapproving looks and Google Glasses to skip town with the rest of the moneyed Interactive set. Instead, the makeshift pedestrian mall downtown was already teeming with musicians, fans, and other hangers on in search of a[nother] free drink or tracking down the latest rumored ultra-last-minute surprise appearance. Apparently kids started camping outside the Myspace event based on a incorrect reading of a year-old Daft Punk prophesy.

Not that I was immune to the internal battle between herd mentality and seeking out flashy schedule additions. An e-mail from Dave Segal sent me chasing down an early, recently announced, Iggy and the Stooges performance at the Mohawk patio. Thousands of other people got the same memo, resulting in a city block transformed into one of those meditation labyrinths, hopeful attendees snaking around in an loopy yet orderly line governed only by the imaginations of the well-meaning volunteers giving it structure and providing hope that we might eventually be admitted. Instead, an hour behind two chain smoking Germans (whose only recognizable words included "Vampire", "Weekend", and "Stooges") passed with the line advancing only through attrition. Eventually, as Japandroids closed out their set, Iggy Pop parted the crowd with a white van, jumped out, waved to the fans outside, shed his shirt, and dashed through the back door and onto the stage.

Though plenty of fans turned street into a muffled listening party, I stayed outside for only a few songs and moved down the block to Stubbs, finding that I'd missed most of Nick Cave's set at the NPR showcase. At this point, I realize that SXSW is like a musical theme park except that sometimes you get to the end of the long line only to find out that the roller coaster has disappeared. Though the tech crowd at this conference long ago coined #fomo to describe the "fear" of missing out; the thousands of shows and hundreds of parties (all rsvp-able with a single click) pretty much insure the "fact" of failing to see even a fraction of the buzzworthy events playing a constant tug of war with your agenda.

Nevertheless, serendipity being the buzzword of the festival, I stuck around to see Mexico's Café Tacvba play a rollicking set that someone near me described as the perfect fusion of polka and ska to rows of screaming fans. They closed with some synchronized boy-band level dance moves and made way for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs who debuted a few songs from their upcoming album ("Mosquito") into a mix that included plenty of the hits ("Y Control", "Gold Lion", "Zero", "Maps"), Karen O presiding over the crowd in a brightly embroidered and studded costume.

Rather than lingering in the BBQ pit for Alt-J, I faced the streets and yet another surprisingly long line at Red 7 to find that synthy Glaswegians CHVRCHES were far less undiscovered than I'd imagined. Despite their album not coming out until much later this year — they may have said September — the strength of last year's "the Mother We Share" delivered an overflow crowd who were hanging on every note. Down the street, New Orleans's Hurray for the Riff Raff brought affecting americana to the base of a stairwell at the back of a bar and supergroup Diving Fits brought all of the the electro-intensity, searing vocals, and guitar heroics to a foggy neon-colored set that you'd expect from a fusion of Dan Boeckner (Handsome Furs, Wolf Parade) and Britt Daniel (Spoon).

This morning I woke up in time to catch Dave Grohl give a keynote address to a standing-room-only ballroom at the Convention Center. The pun-filled talk centered around the inspirational power of music in his life, reflected his intense desire for control (at one point, demonstrating his childhood primitive multi-track recording technique live onstage), recounting Nirvana's explosive trajectory and the cathartic birth of Foo Fighters, and arguing for the primacy of the artist. Throughout, one got the sense that he thought that punk rock ("ethically suffocating") was anything but bullshit.

By now, it's early afternoon and about a hundred events are calling: every time I start to look at the schedules, my head gets fuzzy, but I think that my main goal for the night is to witness what happens when Snoop Dogg transforms into Snoop Lion and/or to see the supergroup that forms from Dave Grohl, Stevie Nicks, and all of their friends. Aside from that, I know that there are dozens of Seattle bands hustling around town, but let me know in the comments if there's something absolutely unmissable that I might have overlooked or tweet at me if you want to catch up to talk taco tips.

Josh Bis
Café Tacvba

Josh Bis
Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Stubb's

Josh Bis
Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Stubb's

Josh Bis
CHVRCHES @ Red 7

Josh Bis
CHVRCHES @ Red 7

Josh Bis
Divine Fits @ IFC House

Josh Bis
Divine Fits @ IFC House

Josh Bis
Hurray for the Riff Raff @ 512

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Passion Pit, Matt & Kim, Icona Pop at the Paramount

Josh Bis — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 14:34:22 -0800

Passion Pit

Matt & Kim

Icona Pop

Tuesday night "felt like a Friday" at the Paramount last night with a show that ended in time to get everyone home in time to get a full night's sleep before reporting to homeroom on Wednesday morning. Although unnaturally happy Brooklynites Matt & Kim generously attributed this T.G.I.F. transformation to Seattle's especially game attitude, I think that much of the credit goes to the three bands who brought an surgical strike of electro-pop targeted directly at the bouncing region of the lizard brain to the Paramount's grand stage. Openers Icona Pop took the most gradual build into dance attack, saving "I Love It" to close their set, breaking a few times to turn up the lights, chat up the crowd, and get a look at the audience, perhaps to see if there were any Hannah Hovarth inspired mesh pennies, shirt trading, or glowing fashion in the house. (I can't confirm or deny, but there definitely was a Griz Coat). Matt & Kim dove headlong into plastering smiles on thousands of faces, pounding keyboards and drums in front of paired LCD screens showing their faces, words of encouragement, or synesthetic fireworks. By the end of the set, they'd staged a little "Harlem Shake" video, cheerleaded from atop multiple pieces of their equipment, concluding with Kim strapping on a medical boot to protect a twisted ankle while she walked and danced on top of the crowd. Passion Pit were similarly relentless in driving the audience to test the structural integrity of the venue's floating floor: always dapper Michael Angelakos wind sprinting across the stage all manic pixie dream vocals above the band's affectingly ingenious pulsing sound sculptures. Filling the air with bubbles during "Take A Walk" and flooding it with candy colored lights throughout, they set slowed to breath-catching pace only during "Constant Conversations" and when they opened their encore with a rarely-played track ("Where I Come From") they'd written for romantic vampires. Of course, they ended an evening of happy sounding sad songs with enduring hit "Little Secrets", finishing just as a line of chaperones pulled up cars on Pine Street.

More pictures of all of the bands and some of the crowd after the jump.

Icona Pop

Icona Pop

Icona Pop

Icona Pop

Icona Pop

Matt & Kim

Matt & Kim

Matt & Kim

Matt & Kim

Matt & Kim

Matt & Kim

Matt & Kim

Passion Pit

Passion Pit

Passion Pit

Passion Pit

Passion Pit

Passion Pit

Superfans

Passion Pit

Fans!

Front row fans.

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Dave B. Wins Sound Off!

Josh Bis — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 11:42:11 -0800

Dave B, Your 2013 Sound Off King

On Saturday night, the EMP's annual battle-of-the-underage-bands concluded by crowning Renton's own Dave B as the 2013 Sound Off champion. A wild card pick, his hiphop stylings won the judges affections over the three semi-finalists: electro-glam the Fame Riot (Tacoma), post-rock SHEBEAR (Puyallup), and introspective indie As It Starts (Bothell).

Photos: Sound Off! Finals

Josh Bis — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 10:33:17 -0800

Dave B, Your 2013 Sound Off King

Rather than a Hunger Games style bloodbath, the competition was mostly a positive vibrations celebration of local talent. The final result came as something of a surprise, leaving the excessively vocal—and raucously moshy—Shebear and Fame Riot fans quietly stunned, but as of this report it seems that no one burned the venue to the ground in protest. Perhaps this is because all of the bands left with some solid prize packagess including gear, studio time, and industry consultations, and high profile performance spots—plus Dave B gets a spot at Bumbershoot, Seabear won a place on Anacortes-based Catapult lineup—and because some of the the competition's most successful alumni haven't necessarily been the ones who claimed the top prize. That, and the fact that most of the bands already seem to have established themselves with EPs, iTunes releases, piles of merch, and dedicated fanbases. Still, as a fan of televised singing competitions—just how great has Nicki Minaj been so far as an Idol Judge this season?—I would've loved to hear what the panel of experts had to say about each band if for no other reason than to hear the endlessly quotable John Roderick drop some witty critiques on the young contenders.

The Fame Riot hate your Dance Tax

SHEBEAR - have a posse.

As It Starts #feels

more photos after the jump.

Sound Off 2013 Class Photo

the Fame Riot: hate your Dance Tax

The Fame Riot

The Fame Riot

The Fame Riot

The Fame Riot

SHEBEAR: with fan enthusiasm levels approximating an Improv Everywhere happening

Shebear

Shebear

SHEBEAR

Dave B: would like to see your hands in the air.

Dave B

Dave B

Dave B

As It Starts - all of the #feels, most of the instruments.

As It Starts

As It Starts

As It Starts

As It Starts

Fan City

This is how it feels when your friend gives you a T-shirt signed by all the bands

crowdsitting

crowdsurfing

SHEBEARshebearSHEBEARshebearSHEBEAR

at one point, a guard had to calm this fan frenzy

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Belle & Sebastian's Oral History of If You're Feeling Sinister

Josh Bis — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:28:25 -0800

Prepare to lose an hour of your morning: last night, Pitchfork.tv released this oral history of Belle & Sebastian's If You're Feeling Sinister, in which members of the band discuss the creation of the their [indie] world-conquering [second] best album along with archival footage and musical clips. I was only able to make it through the first ten minutes, which covers their superhero origin story (Stuarts Murdoch and David meet cute in a "beatboxing" program for ill/unemployed musicians, drunk Isobel Campbell in New Year's bathroom queue, etc.), before feeling overwhelmed with delight and an urgent need to share.

Let's all watch now and spend the rest of the day talking about our favorite parts in the comments?

A million thanks to Florian Duijsens (asymptote/neonresolutions) who posted this treasure in the groggy morning Facebook stream of cat pictures, baby memes, and sandwich tributes. This is already so much more exciting than the long/weird/good/awkward interview with Terry Gross.

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Getting to Know Sasquatch 2013 Via Spotify

Josh Bis — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 13:28:39 -0800

The Sasquatch lineup was revealed in person to the Neptune and to the greater internet universe late last night.

Because I had a spare hour this morning and wanted to get a chance to dig below the headliners, I put together this somewhat arbitrary* playlist of as many Sasquatch artists as I could find on Spotify. Let's all have a listen together?

^* Methods: for each band, choose two "top hits" from the Artist page. Bands not yet in the celestial jukebox: Reignwolf, Odesza, Nissim, Nacho Picasso, Let's Talk, Rose Windows, and Peace. Comedians Nick Offerman, Nancy & Beth, Brody Stevens, James Adomian, Jenny Slate, Joe Mande, and Brett Gelman also omitted.

Let me know if I've missed someone or make a case for inclusion of songs more representative of a band's true ultimate essence not captured by the robot algorithms within Spotify's dark heart.

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OMGMBV: My Bloody Valentine Actually Released a New Album Last Night

Josh Bis — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 11:30:27 -0800

Almost twenty-two years since their last album, and after nearly a decade of broken promises about the timing (or existence) of a follow-up to their iconic 1991 album Loveless, My Bloody Valentine made good on Kevin Shields's remark to a London concertgoer and put a brand new record on their website late yesterday afternoon.

Although the site was overwhelmed for the first few hours after they announced the album, m b v, on their Facebook, it eventually seemed to have summoned reinforcements (or was just less overwhelmed once much of the world went to sleep or went out to engage in activities more/less exciting than a Saturday night frantically refreshing their web browsers). The record is for sale as 180 gram vinyl ($30.50), CD ($22), both of which include a choice of various flavors of immediate digital downloads ($16, without the physical media). If you want to play before you pay, the whole thing is on YouTube.

Grab your copy, let it ravage your eardrums, and let's chat about it?

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Hello, Coachella Lineup Poster.

Josh Bis — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 23:29:08 -0800

Well, it felt like they certainly took their time (perhaps waiting for inauguration fever to cool?) doing it, but the curation heroes at Goldenvoice revealed the lineup for Coachella(s) 2013 this evening via their Twitter account. Confirming some badly kept secrets (Sigur RÓs, the Postal Service) and providing more than a few surprises, here's this year's poster:

Coachella 2013 (click to zoom)

As with last year, the festival to kick off festival season will take place over two weekends in Indio: Coachella Prime runs from April 12th – 14th, and Clonechella repeats the whole thing from April 19th to 21st. I'm still processing all of the small print, but my first thought is that this is the first lineup in a few years without one night toplined by a major hip-hop artist (maybe they needed a break after Hologram Tupac). My second thought is that Red Hot Chili Peppers closing out Sunday night will make it extremely easy to get a great spot at any of the secondary stages. My memory of their performance at the 2007 festival is that their popularity in Southern California is astonishing. At first glance, I'd also say that it looks a little bit light on the EDM that kept the dance kids occupied for hours on end, but I also realize that my ability to recognize tent-filling acts is limited to the very most mainstream acts. Finally, although rumors and clues had started to reach the level of near-certainty, its kind of surprising that the Rolling Stones aren't anywhere to be found on this poster. Given their denials earlier this week, it sounds like no one should expect their names to fill in any of that whitespace, Prince or Madonna-style, as a late-breaking addition to that blank space on the poster, either.

Other headliers include a reunited Stone Roses, Blur (Fridays) and Phoenix performing a few weeks after the release of hotly anticipated (by me, at least) new album Bankrupt!. They'll be supported by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Modest Mouse, Lou Reed, Jurassic 5, & Grinderman (Fridays); The xx, Sigur RÓs, New Order, Hot Chip, Grizzly Bear (Saturdays); Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Vampire Weekend (on the eve of their new album whose cover does not look like this), Social Distortion, and the Wu-Tang Clan (Sundays). Aside from Mr. Gibbard, other Seattleites on the bill include Allen Stone and Reignwolf. My head's already spinning while I reconsider whether it'll be possible to take it all in in just a single overstimulated weekend instead of taking a more leisurely pace through bothchellas.

After the presale sold out in less than a day last May more festival passes for both weekends will go on sale Tuesday, January 29th at 10 AM PST for $349. Perhaps an indication of ticket availability is that tickets for weekend one will only be available when purchased with a shuttle pass ($399) or a car camping pass ($434). Who do you among the headliners or magnifier-required microprint (they found Earl Sweatshirt!) that might convince you to make a spring break to Indio?

And what might this all mean for the Sasquatch! lineup — which will be revealed on February 4th launch party at the Neptune? Let us know your thoughts, gripes, and omgomgs in the comments.

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Critics Choose Frank Ocean and Carly Rae Jepsen as King of Pazz and Queen of Jop

Josh Bis — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 20:16:52 -0800

In what might be the most difficult arithmetic they'll do all year, 493 music writers managed to cast their ballots for the best albums and singles of 2012 by the December deadline. This week, the results of the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop survey have been tabulated and, by runaway margins, we have a new king and queen of the last year in music: Frank Ocean's confessional R&B crossover hit channel ORANGE handily won as the year's best album while Carly Rae Jepsen took the prize for best single with the inexhaustible "Call Me Maybe".

While Ocean was the decisive favorite—mentioned by 35% of voters—the albums list represents only a minor reordering of the medals platform that was Pitchfork's verdict on the year in records—their hivemind put Kendrick Lamar's musical memoir good kid, m.A.A.d. city on top, but both agreed that Fiona Apple's multifaceted return The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do in the number three spot. Beyond an indulgence of a certain level of textual creativity in album titles, though, the votes reveal a year of "weak consensus" or "inspiring diversity."

Beyond all of the accompanying essays and commentaries on "what it all means", my most favorite part of this annual tradition is the giant piles of resulting data. For instance, on a local front, the Village Voice's results disagreed with KEXP listeners' album of the year selection, with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis's platinum the Heist garnering just four votes (one of which was from Charles R. Cross). Two Sub Pop albums—Fear Fun by Father John Misty and Bloom by Beach House—cracked the top twenty. And, in contrast to my own terminally mainstream tendencies, Dave Segal maintained his place among the "least centric" of all critics.

While you peruse the full results, possibly making this face at the injustice of how your own favorites fared, here's a playlist of the critically-endorsed top forty-one singles of last year:

Let us know how you would have voted—being careful to apportion your hundred points such that no album gets less than five or more than thirty (see, math is hard!)—in the comments.

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Photos: Surfjohn Stevens Christmas Sing-A-Long: Seasonal Affective Disorder Yuletide Disaster Pageant on Ice at the Neptune

Josh Bis — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:40:15 -0800

Josh Bis
Sufjan Stevens, Christmas Unicorn

Sufjan Stevens and a band of misfit merrymakers (superman chicken, zombie nun, skeleton santas, Beirut's Ben Lanz as one of two trombone players, Rosie Thomas in the form a bass-playing snowwoman sidekick) landed their sleigh at the Neptune on Saturday night for the Seattle installation of Surfjohn Stevens Christmas Sing-A-Long: Seasonal Affective Disorder Yuletide Disaster Pageant on Ice. Once the early-arriving around-the-block crowd made it through the theater's door, they (we) were greeted with a unicorn-clad "Christmess" songbook containing the lyrics to several holiday classics, inscribed on its front cover with the fourth instruction from John Wesley's Select Hymns:

Sing lustily and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, then when you sung the songs of Satan.

The audience, many bedecked their finest reindeer antlers, fair isle sweaters, battery powered strings of holiday lights, santa hats, rosy cheeks, jingle bells or acoustic guitars, were the sort who won the mad scramble that sold out the show in a matter of minutes and who were very likely to have done their (OK, our) homework by watching the whole series of "bonkers" infomercials to arrive prepared to follow these guidelines to the letter.

Photos: Sufjan Stevens at the Neptune

Josh Bis — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:28:19 -0800

Josh Bis
Sufjan Stevens, Christmas Unicorn

Sing lustily and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, then when you sung the songs of Satan.

When Sufjan finally appeared at around nine, following a couple hours of listening to holiday dirges piped through the house mix interrupted only by a brief and confusing "performance" from "Sheila Saputo"¹, the audience was elated and Ready to Sing-Along. Although I am not particularly a "fan" of Christmas, or of Christmas music, or really of singing in general, my enthusiasm for All Things Sufjan² had me irrationally exuberant about this event and Fully On Board for Holiday Musical Merriment, particularly because the show opened with what might be my very favorite modern carol, "Come on! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance."

About half of the show was consumed by Sufjan singing highlights from the Christmas EPs, a mix of traditional and deconstructed classics as well as songs of his own creation. Some blocks were more Seasonally Affective Disorderly than others ("Sister Winter," Rosie Thomas as a psychotic snowman, "The Child with a Star on his Head" as the room filled with bubbles); others sometimes slipped in breaks for whispery delicate tracks from the non-holiday albums that nevertheless felt at home among them ("Vito's Ordination Song").

The other half was a singalong left to fate, in the form of the mind-bogglingly massive Wheel of Christmas that was often set in manic incongruously tracked—"Dallas," "Smells Like Teen Spirit"—motion by young guests from the audience. Appeasing the decision of the great wheel, the crowd vigorously and/or drunkenly belted out holiday standards under the guidance of confetti wands, inventive arrangements, and general leadership from the stage. The Neptune's sometimes troublesome acoustics were ideal for a room full of people belting out carols in surprisingly un-pitchy fashion.

The show culminated with Sufjan's transformation into the Christmas Unicorn—an amazing and ludicrous costume made mostly from balloons and a decked-out helmet, with a healthy serving of streamers an inflated mylar tail for good measure—and performing an epic manifesto about the struggle to reconcile this polytheistic ultra-commercialized globe conquering devoutly religious choose-your-own-adventure holiday called Christmas. As the song ramped up to its Joy Division mash-up finale, cannons filled the air with confetti while inflatable santas and rainbow-horned unicorns were hurled into a souvenier-greedy crowd. Though this must sound completely cornball and cultlike—but that doesn't mean that it wasn't also just utterly delightful.

After the magical main set, Sufjan returned to play a few non-holiday songs on his own ("To Be Alone with You" from Seven Swans and "Concerning the Ufo Sighting Near Highland, Illinois," "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." from Illinois) and finished with the whole band boisterously performing "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!"³ I counted it as a moment of personal restraint that I made it out of the venue without trying to steal or bribe a child to hand over one of those inflatable figures.

Notes:
¹Rosie Thomas performing a comedy routine as character whose history involves traumatic brain injury, the less said the better.
²Without setting aside the strict LineOut editorial position against the soul patch, even in minimal form.
³Though I was secretly hoping to hear something from Age of Adz, the only hint from that record was a tiny riff from "Impossible Soul" thrown into one of the deconstructed carols.

"continue reading" to see some more Sufjan glamour shots.

Wheel of Christmas

Josh Bis
Sufjan Stevens

J.B.
Sheila Saputo

Sufjan Stevens

tiny bubbles

guest wheel spinner

Christmas Unicorn

ok. just one more look at this unicorn suit.

Unicorn Spirit

inflatable prizes

all of the confetti

You'll find even more pictures in this Sufjan Stevens holiday flickrset.

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Photos: Deck the Hall Ball (M83, Metric, Passion Pit, and more)

Josh Bis — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 15:17:51 -0800

Key Arena Thunderdome

Nothing about a midweek music festival starting at 3 in the afternoon particularly makes sense, but the great(ish) thing about 107.7's annual Deck the Hall Ball is that, like yesterday's weather, if you're not into what's happening, stick around and it'll change. Nine bands were scheduled to play in the span of about eight hours; so the first half of the program flew by with the opening bands barely having time to warm up and play their big crowd-pleaser before being shuffled off to get the next act on stage while water and snack vendors roamed the floor to keep everyone in the giant bunker hydrated without losing their prime real estate.

All of the quick changes made for a lively start, though it was hard not to feel a little bad for the bands that had traveled a great distance across oceans and continents (the Joy Formidable, Of Monsters and Men) or through time (The Grammy nominated Lumineers) just to play three or five songs to an early afternoon crowd. But one has to hope that commercial rock radio and arena show piles of cash make the jet lagged sprints worthwhile. Even the bands at the top of the bill with more time got more time to stretch their legs still played pretty compressed versions of their usual sets. Part of the breakneck pace was all of the actual jumping around on stage (I suspect this was a term of the contract) as well as the impressive genre-hopping (within the framework of modern rock music).

Photos: Deck the Hall Ball (M83, Metric, Passion Pit, and more)

Josh Bis — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 10:30:39 -0800

Key Arena Thunderdome

All of the quick changes made for a lively start, though it was hard not to feel a little bad for the bands that had traveled a great distance across oceans and continents (the Joy Formidable, Of Monsters and Men) or through time (The Grammy nominated Lumineers) just to play three or five songs to an early afternoon crowd. But one has to hope that commercial rock radio and arena show piles of cash make the jet lagged sprints worthwhile. Even the bands at the top of the bill with more time got more time to stretch their legs still played pretty compressed versions of their usual sets. Part of the breakneck pace was all of the actual jumping around on stage (I suspect this was a term of the contract) as well as the impressive genre-hopping (within the framework of modern rock music).

As a fan of bands (shutting up and) playing the hits (at festivals), I have to say that what was essentially full day confined inside an arena without time to hunt down food or drinks turned out to be a surprisingly enjoyable survey course in a year in pretty-well-deserved hits: from neo-folkwave, various flavors of international rock acts, emotionally resonant pop, embarrassingly altest alt-rock, synthy spacedream nostalgia, and slick arena ambitions.

Stray observations:

A weird choice was that the between-set house mix was a combination of songs that bands had performed mere minutes ago and radio-type alt-rock (with the same song — e.g., "Radioactive" — often repeating during the course of the evening).

Whoever booked the event did an admirable job of balancing out the gender balance on stage. In addition to all of the talented women, they managed to dig up a few Men Who Rock.

The whole thing kind of felt like a summer festival flashback/compilation album: aside from the Killers, all of the bands played at Sasquatch, Capitol Hill Block Party, or Bumbershoot.

Photos of bands and fans after the jump. Tell us who "blew your mind" in the comments!

The Joy Formidable (deserve better than an opening spot):

The Joy Formidable Salute You

The Joy Formidable: insert cliche of starting festival with firecracker performance.

Of Monsters and Men

Fun fact: Approximately 1 of every 30,000 Icelanders play in Of Monsters and Men.

Of Monsters and Men: What's the Islenska for "... and the Magnetic Zeros"?

Of Monsters and Men appreciate a great sweater.

Grouplove

Grouplove

Grouplove: a parrot on her shoulder, saying everything while she talks

Grouplove pro-tip: when you get tired of playing your commercial hit, pour one out for Whitney and transition the ending into "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" .

the Lumineers (would like to tell you about a little thing called "call and response"):

The Lumineers wish you would put away your cell phones and just, like, be here with them.

The Lumineers

The Lumineers' drummer is a belt-and-braces kind of guy.

Passion Pit (are, like, my favorite band of 2012. For real.)

Passion Pit have the BEST spazzy anxiety sound effects. Now let's dance about the global financial crisis!

Passion Pit frontman Michael Angelakos's voice is some kind of miracle.

"This is" (not "We are") AWOLNATION

THIS is AWOLNATION

wondering about the visa requirements for a visit to AWOLNATION

Metric

Metric demonstrate their NW love by dedicating a ballad version of "Gimme Sympathy" to Bear Creek Studios.

Metric can't stop, won't stop.

Metric, raising a tambourine like antennas to heaven.

M83

M83 alien welcomes you to retro-futuristic nostalgia interstellar voyage, picked up some Party Rats at Archie McPhee's (for night blogging).

M83 don't care about your eardrums

M83 are just very pleased to spend this evening with all of you.

The Killers are better enjoyed on record than in person. (not pictured)

the fans (who mean more to us than you'll ever know).

Front row fans, not studying for their 8am exams.

Passion! Pit!

are we all AWOL nationals now?

came for the Lumineers, staying for the Killers.

AWOL!

OMGFRONTROW!

Even more pictures in this Deck the Hall Ball 2k12 flickrset

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Photos: Ben Gibbard at the Showbox

Josh Bis — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 14:11:34 -0800

Josh Bis
Ben Gibbard

Winding down his U.S. solo tour for a sold out hometown crowd, Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard played to a (mostly) reverently attentive crowd Friday night at the Showbox. In his words, it was a "coffee shop vibe with a rockshow audience" that remained so silent between songs that he could, for the first time, hear the gentle flushing of toilets in the men's bathroom from the stage's cozy singer-songwriter setup (rug, steaming cup of tea, music stand).

This is not to say that the audience wasn't vocally appreciative upon recognition of favorite songs. The main set was bookended by Postal Service hits: opener "Such Great Heights" and closer "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" elicited squeals of delight. Though I wouldn't have minded a special surprise guest appearance (perhaps Jimmy Tamborello could've been Skyped in?), Gibbard was more than capable of carrying the show on the merits of just his own voice and either acoustic guitar or upright piano to a room filled with so many scarves, caps, and sweaters. Because I didn't really follow Death Cab for Cutie into the dark and haven't dug into this year's solo album, about half the songs weren't super familiar to me. Along with DCFC staples, there was an ode to the Smith Tower accompanied by a pledge about never leaving again, a beatboxed explosion symbolizing a certain lack of box office success for Arthur remake soundtrack entry "When the Sun Goes Down," and a special bonus for-northwest-shows-only cover of Screaming Trees's "Bed of Roses." The show ended with an encore grab bag—"A Lack of Color" from Transatlanticism, upbeat/sad juxtapositing "Hard One to Know" from Former Lives, recently repurposed Dell-selling (and personal favorite) "You Remind Me of Home" from the 2007 Andrew Keny split EP, and then the mysteriously-adored "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" to send everyone off, satisfied by a chillaxy show, into the still early evening.

A few more photos after the jump.

always be youtubing

elated customers

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Postal Service's Give Up Reaches Such Great Heights

Josh Bis — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 15:00:57 -0700

via Sub Pop
Postal Service doesn't Give Up

Almost ten years after Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello sent their little correspondence course collaboration gently bleeping and blooping out into the world, the Postal Service's Give Up has brought a shiny platinum record back to Seattle. Famously produced through exchanging CD-Rs by mail up and down the I-5 corridor (looking back, doesn't using the USPS seem exceptionally precious? A world without Dropbox is nearly impossible to remember), the record was an endearing collection that made indie-rock longing vaguely danceable. Having sold more than a million (1,067,087) copies in the United States alone, the album has the distinction of being Sub Pop's second best selling album (after Nirvana's Bleach in the label's twenty-four year history.

A tiny bit of context to remind ourselves of the scale of independent music: this tremendous ten-year achievement represents approximately 100,000 fewer albums than Taylor Swift sold just this week. But rather than kicking themselves for not having thought about bundling CDs with Papa John's pizzas, I hope that everyone at Sub Pop is celebrating with a bit more than Halloween candy tonight.

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CityArts Fest: St. Vincent, David Byrne, Reignwolf, "the Rolling Stones," Two Door Cinema Club

Josh Bis — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:43:42 -0700

Josh Bis
David Byrne at the Fifth Avenue Theatre

My CityArts Fest began sipping cocktails inelegantly through glowing (HeinekenGreen, of course) straws in the lobby of Benaroya Hall while Ravenna Woods played their first of a dozen or three shows of the week for the festival's opening night party, but the fourth annual in-city music and arts festival didn't really feel like it began until I found myself filing into a fancy theater to see a rock show.

Placing bands in settings that make you wonder why they don't host bands more often feels like a hallmark of what makes the festival special (e.g., Belle & Sebastian or Ryan Adams in Benaroya, Cat Power at the Fifth Avenue); so I was really excited to see the pairing of David Byrne and St. Vincent from the comfort (and with the exceptional sightlines) of the gilded Chinese-inspired showroom. With the help of an eight piece sometimes-marching band, the pair essentially took turns rotating through their individual catalogs as well as performing together to bring to life music from Love this Giant, their written-by-email collaboration. Perhaps because of the setting, the staging felt a bit like a piece of musical theater without a plot: the band sometimes marching in circles around Byrne, menacingly advancing on Clark, or everyone dancing robotically or collapsing on the floor only to rise again when needed. Betraying my own personal fandom (and a headache enhanced by syncopated brass), I'd say the show felt most exciting when Annie Clark was in the spotlight, but acknowledge that the most dancing in the aisles occurred for Byrne classics. In particular, "Burning Down the House," which introduced Annie Clark to Talking Heads (by way of Revenge of the Nerds) brought down the house during the first encore as did second (and final) encore closer "Road to Nowhere."

CityArts Fest: St. Vincent, David Byrne, Reignwolf, "the Rolling Stones," Two Door Cinema Club

Josh Bis — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:27:31 -0700

Josh Bis
David Byrne at the Fifth Avenue Theatre

Reignwolf

Until CityArts, I never had a compelling occasion to experience Pacific Science Center's famed Laser Dome, but couldn't resist the chance to see Jordan "Reignwolf" Cook shredding along to a trippy lightshow. Even though Cook hails from the Saskatoon, the sold-out crowd's intense devotion makes his seemingly stratospheric rise feel like a homegrown phenomenon. In contrast (to my memory of previous shows), this one was, strictly-speaking, less of a one-man show with regular support from a drummer and bass player. However, even with a little help from his friends, Cook remained the main attraction of the near two hour shredding and growling marathon. In fact, with so many sparks flying on the makeshift stage (and sometimes encircled by an adoring audience) it was easy to forget to look up at the often antiquated special effects.

"the Rolling Stones"

Seeing "the Rolling Stones" at the Barboza made me wonder if I should take over Anna Minard's "Never Heard of 'Em" column when she graduates from boot camp. Obviously, I was aware that "the Rolling Stones" are a super(ish) group that play songs by The Rolling Stones, but out of my own baffling ignorance I didn't actually recognize a Rolling Stones tune until the third song. The eight piece nonstop onstage party and roadhouse atmosphere crowding the front of the room didn't leave me much room to ponder the existential quandary of how it is that I came to know only approximately five songs from my dad's most favorite band. Instead, I just got caught up in the microcelebrity-studded audience's enthusiasm for enjoying an American-accented British re-Invasion.

Two Door Cinema Club

For high pitched screams, though, were found at the Showbox SoDo for a Northern Irish invasion by Two Door Cinema Club. When I arrived, kids packed to the front shouting along with Beastie Boys classics were being sprayed down by bouncers with modified water bottles. As the band arrived to a choir of angels and a lightshow that rivaled or surpassed the Laserdome, the shrieks of delight reached ear-splitting levels and a sea of open palms ascending toward the spotlights. From there, the electro-infused trio (plus touring drummer) provided a near constant assault of ultra-danceable rock, all spiky guitars, darkly cherubic vocals, and spazzy synths propelling the all-ages floor into an occasionally crowdsurfing frenzy. I watched most of the show from the bar, reflecting on the sad paradox of how the club's older sibling manages to have so many great vantage points for watching a show while this one has so few (aside, presumably from its VIP island). Though I enjoyed the hooky earworms from a distance, I confess that I bolted out at the encore break to beat the rush for civilization-bound taxis.

More photos after the jump. Tell us about your CityArts Fest in ye olde comments.

Wednesday, Fifth Avenue Theatre: Annie "St. Vincent" Clark and David "Talking Heads" Byrne

David Byrne + St. Vincent

St. Vincent

David Byrne, St. Vincent, & Friends

Friday, Laser Dome: Reignwolf

Reignwolf

Reignwolf

Reignwolf

Lasers!

Saturday, Barboza: "the Rolling Stones"

"the Rolling Stones"

"the Rolling Stones"

"the Rolling Stones"

Saturday, Showbox SoDo: Two Door Cinema Club

Two Door Cinema Club

Two Door Cinema Club

Two Door Cinema Club

Two Door Cinema Club #1 Fanclub

Two Door Cinema Club

Even more photos in this little City Arts 2012 photoset.

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