GERALD COLLIER, MARC OLSEN, STEVE TURNER
(Graceland) See preview, page 41.
ROSIE THOMAS, SOUR MILK SEA, DEAR DARLING
(Showbox Green Room) Dear Darling is the newest band to jump into the comfortable company of lovely somber indie pop makers such as Damien Jurado and Gathered in Song. Jesse Smith, lead singer of the appropriately titled group (because the music itself really is awfully darling), used to perform around town solo, but now he's rounded up a full band, and together they make sweet, simple, and sometimes sad tunes that are well worth tonight's cover charge. Also on the bill is Sour Milk Sea, a band consisting of members from the Prom (Barsuk Records' great piano-infused pop outfit), and the sweetly delicate Rosie Thomas. MEGAN SELING
JUKE, JODIE WATTS, SWEET LOU
(Sunset) The newest Jodie Watts record, Six By Three (2002), is a quickly changing chameleon of different styles--a record overdriven with the Seattle trio's bust-right-outta-their-pants excitement that switches moods between power pop, glam punk, and playfully overdone cock rock. Their songs about making girls breakfast, dancing at birthday parties, rocking the mic, and being a robot slave (complete with effects-pedal takeoffs to some girlie never-never land) keep the subject matter as light and fluffy as their hooks. JENNIFER MAERZ
FRIDAY 1/31
JUNO, AVEO, ASAHI
(Vera Project) See preview, page 39.
ZEN GUERRILLA, JET CITY FIX, HEAVY JOHNSON TRIO
(Graceland, late) See Stranger Suggests, page 27.
THE BRIEFS, THE STUCK-UPS, THE EXPLODING HEARTS
(Crocodile) Just when it seems like Seattle's gloomy weather patterns permanently threaten to shade this city a permanent gray, along come the Briefs, back from a tour through Germany, to paint the town neon. Their spaz-pop sparks are enough to light up the Croc tonight with bright punk songs that will get everyone in the mood for a big old pogo pit--especially because this show is FREE. That's right, free. You can save all the money you would've given to the bands through the club and put it directly in their pockets by buying up some lovely Briefs, Stuck-Ups, and Exploding Hearts merch after the show. JENNIFER MAERZ
DAMIEN JURADO & GATHERED IN SONG, THE PROM, DEAR DARLING, EUCLID, THE BEN KENNEDYS
(Paradox) Damien Jurado is one of Seattle's best songwriters when it comes to haunting lyrics that tell stories with carefully crafted determinism. When he plays with a backing band (as he'll do tonight), things get even more intense. The Prom hauls an actual piano on stage for total authenticity when reproducing the gorgeous, 88-keys-in-the-forefront sound of last year's album Under the Same Stars. KATHLEEN WILSON
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, THE LOAD LEVELERS
(Tractor) There's a new greatest concept album of all time, and it's called Southern Rock Opera by the Drive-By Truckers. This double-LP of Skynyrd-inspired rock and full-throated meditations on fate is part masterwork, part absurd artistic Hail Mary, and all killer. Set in the time between the end of disco and the coming of MTV--just before rock became "as meaningless as the rest of the fucking world"--SRO is an odyssey into the heart of the hairy, sweaty, harmonized lead guitar line of the soul, where it's "okay to turn your three guitars up to 10." There are a million loose threads running through the lyrics, about topics like Southern pride and wrestling the legacy and setting the record straight on "the Southern thing"--and all of it is super smart, funny, and right on. But the main idea is swaggering, anthemic Ronnie rock played hard, ragged, long, and well. There's no way in hell this show could be anything but great. SEAN NELSON
SATURDAY 2/1
JUNO, THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES, AUTOMATON
(Graceland, late) See preview, page 39.
THE A-FRAMES, VIVA L'AMERICAN DEATH RAY MUSIC, KILLERS KISS
(Sunset) See preview, page 41.
GATSBY'S AMERICAN DREAM, ROCKY VOTOLATO, SUFFERING AND THE HIDEOUS THIEVES, 14 DAYS OF TERROR, THE SWEET SCIENCE, MARK BRUBECK, JEFRE SCOTT
(Paradox) See Underage, page 43.
VIVA L'AMERICAN DEATH RAY MUSIC
(Fallout Records) See Stranger Suggests, page 27.
PANTHER, ANNA OXYGEN, DJ ANGIE HART
(Kincora Pub) My life is filled with a singular purpose, and I owe it all to a man named Panther--for he is my solitary reason for living. Some folks out there, they've got their religion. Others, they've got their reciprocal love. But for me, this hopeless shell I call my "life" is simply the way I occupy my time between Panther performances. Perhaps the most important performer of our time, Panther (AKA Charlie Salas-Humaras, AKA the Second Coming) stalks the stage with holy fervor, contorting in Saint Vitus' dance and channeling the universal truths of infinity in a tongue that God himself has trouble comprehending. He is at once the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit--all in the form of a handsome man with tight pants and fancy feet. Now that everything else in your life has failed you, put your faith somewhere it's deserved: Open your soul to Panther. Also featured is the ever-so-adorable Anna Oxygen, who performs a similar karaoke-styled set on themes ranging from girls in test tubes to ill-fated boys in blue sweaters. ZAC PENNINGTON
DIVISION OF LAURA LEE, THE CATHETERS, BURNING BRIDES, THE RUBY DOE
(Crocodile) This might just be the bill of the year, if ass-kicking, crotch-burning primal rock is what you need. Division of Laura Lee are Swedes with garage band structures--but their sound is far more solid, informed by both the Stooges and shoegazer bands. The Catheters have matured (heh) into one of Seattle's (and the nation's) best rock bands, and the energy of their defiant punk edge translates live and on album. I don't know how many times I've answered an emphatic "YES" to the question "Have you heard the Burning Brides?!" since the Philly-based trio released Fall of the Plastic Empire. Burning Brides is THE reason to attend this show--not that the others are any less talented. The Ruby Doe will always have a spot in my heart, because they play the kind of rock I grew up listening to. They're that good. KATHLEEN WILSON
SWITCH, THIS UNCOMMON LIGHT BEARS A HOST OF PALE FORMS
(Polestar Music Gallery) Though I've yet to witness the rumored splendor of the chamber sextet known as Switch (whose revolving surnames tend to sound like misguided acronyms for nothing), the hoopla following their recent appearance at the Meme concert series is sufficient for me to comfortably recommend at least a trial run. Realizing that even the word "improv" is enough to make most audiences shudder, experimental saxophonist Gregory Reynolds and a mess of other freeform musicians got the crazy idea to form a "band" that actually sort of writes "songs." The result is a self-described union of Godspeed You Black Emperor! and experimental composer Morton Feldman, and judging by Switch's equipment list--which includes trumpet, cornet, harmonium, accordion, melodica, and a "prepared" Rhodes keyboard that makes curious use of the keyboard's tone bars--it would take an awful lot of work for them to craft something short of beautiful. ZAC PENNINGTONSUNDAY 2/2
INSANE CLOWN POSSE, 2 LIVE CREW
(Northgate Theatre) Every time I listen to Insane Clown Posse's music (always for review and not pleasure purposes), I think about the moon, the stars, and all of creation. Why, I wonder, is this band here on Earth, part of this solar system, the galaxy? What made them possible and even popular? Their beats are straight-up wack, their clown makeup is uninspired, their stage antics (which include spraying soda at their audience) are banal, and their "shocking" form of gore/porn-hiphop lacks the wit of Eminem or the art of the Gravediggaz. In short, nothing they do explains why they persist, why they draw large crowds, why they sell millions of CDs. Maybe the answer to all of this is up there, somewhere among all the drifting stars. CHARLES MUDEDE
MONDAY 2/3
Give me a freaky, kinky nation--I don't care about my reputation.
TUESDAY 2/4
JOHN RAMBERG, JAKE LONDON, BRADEN BLAKE, STEVE MACK, PAUL HIRAGA, TIM HOLLERAN
(Sunset) Here's another one of those nights where the Sunset sets out to throw some diversity into its lineup of solo performers. Tonight's showcase features John Ramberg--who has the Model Rockets, Neko Case & Her Boyfriends, the Squirrels, and the Infant Kings on his impressive resumé--while Braden Blake is the former lead singer of Super Deluxe. After heading up defunct UK band That Petrol Emotion, Steve Mack returned to his native Seattle, where he fronted Anodyne and continued producing albums for friends. KATHLEEN WILSON
NUCLEAR ASSAULT, ORIGIN, ALL THAT REMAINS, CREMATORIUM
(Graceland) Tonight's bill features four bands that will shove your guts into a thrash-metal blender and press purée. Nuclear Assault have been around since the '80s, careening their speed metal into both a politically antiestablishment stance and a fringe hardcore sound. Newer acts like Origin and All That Remains are heavy on the grindcore, while Crematorium--well, with a name like that, one can only imagine their goal is to incinerate whatever's left of your pulverized entrails with some beyond-the-limit thrash. JENNIFER MAERZ
WEDNESDAY 2/5
MORCHEEBA
(Moore) When compared with the best triphop of its time (Tricky, Massive Attack, DJ Vadim), Morcheeba's inaugural 1996 CD, Who Can You Trust?, is solidly second-rate. The album contains tracks that are either just below or just above interesting, with "Trigger Hippie" being its sole contribution to the nether parts of what has now become the triphop canon. The following CDs from the London-based trio--two brothers (Paul and Ross Godfrey) and a sista (Skye Edwards)--are also standard affairs that blend, with little effort and imagination, cinematic atmospheres with hiphop or pop beats. Yet at the end of the day, Morcheeba alone has continued to produce new CDs and remain moderately popular, while great triphop acts like Portishead, Smith & Mighty, Tricky, and Alpha are either dead or barely maintaining a pulse. Nevertheless, Morcheeba's latest CD, Charango, does have a demi-gem titled "Women Lose Weight," which features "The Ruler" Slick Rick in top storytelling form. CHARLES MUDEDE
DIRTY VEGAS
(Showbox) I must admit, as millions of other Americans must admit, that the song made famous by the Mitsubishi Eclipse commercial, "Days Go By," is fucking phat. More impressive yet, the commercial is better and sexier than the song's official video--it has a heartbroken black male who, it seems, breakdances the morning after the agile white girl popped and locked in the speeding sports car. "Days Go By" is not the first Dirty Vegas song to promote a consumer product; in 1999, "Dirt" was used by the "King of Beers," Budweiser, and in 2000, "Dirge," which featured Scottish singer Dot Allison, was used by Levi's... wait a minute, I'm wrong. Those songs were made by Death in Vegas, not Dirty Vegas. So far, only one Dirty Vegas song has been used in a commercial, and that song, "Days Go By," was commissioned specifically for Mitsubishi's ad campaign. Put more directly, Dirty Vegas is a concept designed by hipsters in a Portland-based advertising agency... wait, I'm wrong again. "Days Go By" was a hit in Great Britain months before it appeared in the American commercial for the Japanese automobile. Okay, I must admit something else: I know next to nothing about Dirty Vegas, and have not listened to their eponymous CD. But that one track, with its melancholy robot, has a glittery house groove that just makes you want to get in your car and move something. CHARLES MUDEDE
