From the May 6 – May 12, 2004 issue

Music

Up & Coming

THURSDAY 5/6


COBRA HIGH, POPULAR SHAPES, ELECTRIC BLANKET
(Graceland) In case you haven't noticed, Cobra High is going through a stylistic change of late, leaning more toward poppy punk while lightening up on the prog referenced on their excellent 2003 release Sunset in the Eye of the Hurricane. While the band won't entirely turn its back on the past, there is a definite progression toward messier, less quotable (in the musical sense) goodness among the new material. KATHLEEN WILSON

SEE IT FIRST: HEX COUNTY, HOLLIS BROWN, BOSS TWEETER, ANYBODY HUMAN, SMOOSH, DJ HALLIEMACK
(Neumo's) Noteworthy at tonight's NadaMucho.com "See It First" showcase are those young but talented keyboards-and-drums-girls Smoosh as well as the calamity-filled Western rock of Hex County. However, the main act to see is Anybody Human. This band creates such an emotional response that each time you see them, your desire for more grows exponentially. It's easy to get lost in their heartbreaking, pleading vocals, dark, moving bass runs, and 21st-century guitar rock. WILL WAGLER

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE, BEN KWELLER, PEDRO THE LION
(Showbox) As part of the three-night stand of Death Cab for Cutie (The O.C. 's favorite band to name check), tonight's opener Ben Kweller (anyone remember his band Radish?) stands out as a fine solo artist with a repertoire of songwriting styles ranging from hook-filled power-pop stuff to down-tempo, thought-provoking songs and freckle-faced, sunny, buoyant pop tunes. The new full-length, Sha Sha, and its elongated title track, "How It Should Be (Sha Sha)," even manages to turn a piano into an auditory sunbeam. KATHLEEN WILSON

GRAFTON, NEW FANGS, THE BUG NASTIES
(Sunset) This Columbus, Ohio trio started out as a duo in 1996, two teenaged developing drunks grown increasingly tired of the indie rock combos they had been floating in and out of for a couple of years. So they started mashing out a surging foot stomp sprung from the then-dissolving Amphetamine Reptile-style pound punk, retaining a cursory clutch on indie rock's lo-fi feel. But they kept getting heavier, via Jason McKiernan's wild drumming and Lou Poster's desperate vocal/guitar Sturm und Drang, all charging and stumbling like a man on the lam. So adding a bassist (Donovan Roth) in 1999 was natural, and they've since released two strong CDs, some EPs, and toured relentlessly. Now it seems they've stuck around long enough to get swept up in a '90s Am Rep/grunge revival that's banging on the revolving trend door. ERIC DAVIDSON

DEVOTCHKA, THE BAD THINGS
(Tractor) Devotchka is a sexy, Denver-based gypsy-tinged folk/rock combo (think 16 Horsepower on a wild, red-wine-fueled run through Eastern Europe) who managed to put a huge smile on my face on a cranky Sunday evening that started with me cursing out my friend for her quiet yet firm insistence that I come out for the show. Did I say, "Wow"? Did I mention the tuba adorned with Christmas lights, great songs, many bottles of vino consumed on stage, and the general spirit of good-natured revelry? I quietly--yet firmly--insist that you come out for this show. BARBARA MITCHELL

FRIDAY 5/7


COBRA HIGH, IN PRAISE OF FOLLY, DESERT CITY SOUNDTRACK
(Ground Zero) See Underage, page 57.

KID ROCK
(KeyArena) Know what's really funny? I've seen Kid Rock live. It's funny because I can't stand Kid Rock. But my friend Kristy? Oh, she loves him. And when her birthday rolled around last year, I got suckered into going to his show. Just as anyone could expect, the crowd was one-third mullets, one-third cowboy hats, and one-third frat boys--all drunk. When he said something about America being the best country in the world, the Tacoma Dome exploded with cheer. There were women dressed in itty-bitty bikinis whose only job was to dance around in a cage on the side of the stage while pretending to make out with each other. There was a lot of beer and a lot of pyrotechnics, too. And I never ever want to hear the words "I'm a cowboy, baby" ever again in my life. MEGAN SELING

NIGHT OF YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS FEATURING MEMBERS OF MUDHONEY, YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS, VISQUEEN, THE BLACK PANTIES, THE MINUS 5, THE MAKERS, GUESTS
(Crocodile) Twenty years after the release of Young Fresh Fellows' The Fabulous Sounds of the Northwest, there are still two things you can always count on from Scott McCaughey: (a) a ceaseless outpouring of hilarious, mind-bending songs, and (b) no matter what the hour, he'll be wearing sunglasses. But the folks at Bleu Disguise Records have no trouble recognizing genius, and that's why they assembled This One's for the Fellows, a 21-track homage featuring Fellows faves covered by colleagues including Stephen Malkmus and Robyn Hitchcock, along with many of the acts on tonight's bill: the Black Panties, the Silos, Mudhoney, and Visqueen (who turn in a rip-roaring "Still There's Hope"). The Fellows open, with uncharted mayhem to follow. This should be Seattle rock's equivalent of a Dean Martin roast: The A-list of the B-list getting tanked while skewering one of their own with good, if sometimes head-scratching, humor. KURT B. REIGHLEY

SOUTHERN CULTURE ON THE SKIDS, THE PAYBACKS, THE DT'S
(Graceland) From the minute I heard the roar of the Paybacks' Wendy Case shatter the Sympathy for the Record Industry's seminal comp Sympathetic Sounds of Detroit, I fell in love with her. While her band bangs out the punchy kind of rock 'n' roll that gives a night out at the local dive bar its proper lovin', leavin', and howlin' soundtrack, Case fronts a jukebox's worth of Cheap Trick-in-the-garage catchiness with a voice rough enough to sandpaper broken bottles into polished gems. Her Marlboro-cured style delivers both fightin' words and tender apologies with the strength of a dozen singers, giving this dynamic band an extra knockout punch. JENNIFER MAERZ

GLASS CANDY AND THE SHATTERED THEATER, MALIBU FALCON, CHROMATICS, THE FORMLESS
(Hideaway) Portland duo the Formless have transitioned from garagey to the same cave as Sonic Youth's Sister--which, at its best, is hypnotic in its repetitive drone and determined girl-screams. It's thuddy, modern primitive guitar noise that's as stripped down and primal as it is breaking a hole in your ear. JULIANNE SHEPHARD

SATURDAY 5/8


SOURCE OF LABOR, LIFESAVAS, NEW MEXICANS, DJ SUGAR BEAR, HOSTED BY SIR MIX-A-LOT
(Crocodile) See Stranger Suggests, page 23.

DIVISION OF LAURA LEE, THE CATHETERS, RUN RUN RUN
(Studio Seven) See preview, page 41.

STARS OF TRACK AND FIELD, ANABRET
(CHAC Lower Level) Stars of Track and Field is an unabashed reference to Belle & Sebastian, and the four-piece from Portland is obviously enamored with its namesake; a definite influence can be heard throughout the record. But you can also hear the lighter side of another influence, that being the faintest glimmer of shoegazer. Never heavy or ponderous-sounding, Stars of Track and Field is a band worth taking a chance on. KATHLEEN WILSON

JOEL R. L. PHELPS, TREASURE STATE, GHOST STORIES
(Vera Project) Teaming up once again with Moneyshot Records, Joel R. L. Phelps & the Downer Trio's Customs is an expansive exercise in all of its members' creative abilities--Phelps, William Herzog, and Robert Mercer glide effortlessly through somber tunes, wailing guitar-heavy rockers, and country-flavored tunes that are anything but formulaic and simplistic. While one might think this makes for a lack of cohesiveness, Phelps' distinctively reedy vocals tie it all together, making for a lovely, invigorating, constantly surprising album. KATHLEEN WILSON

SUNDAY 5/9


MUSE, THE EXIT
(Neumo's) See preview, page 35.

SEACHANGE, GOGOL BORDELLO
(Crocodile) After several of my friends recommended Seachange's album Lay of the Land as something I'd probably like, I was saddened to realize that the more I progressed through this CD, the more I disliked it. By the end I was so sick of the hodgepodge of unoriginality--fast then slow, violin dueling with guitars, predictable tempo changes--that I realized it had been only boys that testified to its greatness, and while I'm honestly not trying to be sexist here, I think that has something to do with their loving the band and my just finding it mildly boring. KATHLEEN WILSON

SKARP, SOD HAULER, SLIGHTLY LESS THAN NOTHING, GUESTS
(2nd Avenue Pizza) Tonight is the CD release for Skarp, a brutal hardcore/thrash act with a frontwoman who can hiss like scalding steam or lower her voice into a molten flow of undecipherable utterings. This local act spews instrumental venom in short, concise blasts, influenced, if Internet interviews tell it right, as much by Norwegian metal as by "playing as many styles of music possible in a three minute time span." JENNIFER MAERZ

GARY YOUNG'S HOSPITAL (EX-PAVEMENT), THE CHARMING SNAKES, NERVOUS EXITS
(Fun House) I haven't listened to Gary Young's Hospital's The Grey Album enough times to decide if Young--formerly Pavement's drummer/producer in the band's early days--is on to some cloudy, lo-fi, acid hippie art rock worth its weight in jewel cases (he's gotten Thurston Moore on board before, and according to his label's website, plans with Grandaddy are on the horizon) or whether this music really is so droning and flat that no future listening is required. Obviously, I'm leaning toward the latter end of the spectrum. The vocals can go off-puttingly off key, the tumbleweeds of feedback rolling through certain songs add only a cluttered element to an already disjointed album, and overall the material isn't dynamic enough to bring the music closer to the realm of interesting Fall-influenced acts, no matter what household-name experimental forces orbit Young's cracked planet. JENNIFER MAERZ

MONDAY 5/10


STRATEGY
(Mirabeau Room) See Data Breaker, page 54.

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, IN FLAMES, AS I LAY DYING
(Showbox) The End of Heartache, Killswitch Engage's brand-new disc, pulses with old-school thrash fury, offering all the cathartic kicks of a Slayer or Pantera show without the unpleasant guilt-by-association that results from swapping sweat with rowdy racists. Like many modern acts on the 10-ton-hammer side of the heaviness spectrum, this Boston-based group sacrifices speed and solos for chunky, chugging riffs. Howard Jones ranks among the scene's most explosive hardcore howlers, but Heartache proves he can croon a chorus with surprising grace. The group's syncopated down-tuned guitar lines could give headbangers whiplash, and its robust rhythm section makes every low-end rumble sound as if it's encased in lead. Opening act In Flames, also touting a recent release, continues its puzzling transformation from a vicious death-rock dog to an embarrassingly eager-to-please pop-metal puppy. ANDREW MILLER

TUESDAY 5/11


MY MORNING JACKET, M. WARD
(Showbox) See preview, page 39.

PEACHES, DANCE DISASTER MOVEMENT, DJ COLBY B, GUESTS
(Neumo's) I have nothing against Jewish Canadian women waXXXing pornographic on the mic; in fact, I strongly advocate it. But I do demand some imagination with my smut. And Peaches lacked that precious commodity on her last album, Fatherfucker (the creativity peaks with that title). Her 2000 debut album, The Teaches of Peaches, introduced some refreshingly tangy, estrogenic raunchiness to electro. On Fatherfucker, Peaches has unwisely decided to write rock songs as unruly as her bush, and her sneering, alpha-bitch shtick has worn thinner than her pink hot pants. This kind of pain you can't fuck away. DAVID SEGAL

MARY J. BLIGE, MUSIQ, GLEN LEWIS
(Paramount) Mary J. Blige has contributed absolutely nothing to the art of being a black singer. Nevertheless, she is important for having brought R&B down from the dream clouds to the realities of the streets. With her, the black elegance that defined '80s R&B (the sophisticated S.O.S. Band, the immaculate Alexander O'Neal, the impeccable producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and the dandy Morris Day) came to an end and the ghetto came in. Blige instigated this revolution in R&B by appropriating hiphop's themes and attitude but not its beats. In her songs, Blige was a ghetto flower, a sister who understood niggers and their everyday woes (police harassment, gang violence, frequent incarceration, troublesome bitches). However, this mode of expression or style only lasted two CDs, peaking in 1995 in a duet with Method Man, "You're All I Need." Since Share My World (1997), Blige has been working hard to revive (and be identified with) precisely the thing she helped to slay, black elegance. CHARLES MUDEDE

WEDNESDAY 5/12


OPEN CITY, BURNING STAR CORE, THE DEAD SCIENCE, DEACON YELLOW SWANS, SHARON CHESLOW
(Drone Hill) Tonight's lineup rides out beyond the boundaries of standard song structure. Portland's D. Yellow Swans perform open-ended noise acrobatics that have been compared to Throbbing Gristle and Severed Heads, while Open City's free jazz experimentations are equally formless acts of expression. Against this crew, Seattle's the Dead Science--a band that includes members of Degenerate Art Ensemble and that fuses elements of jazz into noir-ish, melodic indie rock--will seem much more beholden to standard formats, but there's room for the unusual within their sets as well. JENNIFER MAERZ

Buy Tickets for Other Events