BANGS (CD RELEASE), THE THERMALS, THE CINCH, THE CATCH
(Crocodile) See preview, page 39. Thermals and Bangs, Bangs and Thermals, Thermals and Bangs! What a great bill to demonstrate the multiple strains of pop-laden Northwest punk. Olympia's Bangs have traditionally ridden the new wave, and their Call and Response EP (released tonight) promises to sweeten the deal. The Thermals, now there's a band: Hutch Harris and Kathy Foster (of Hutch & Kathy fame) plus Ben Barnett (of Kind of Like Spitting) plus one kickass drummer equal speedy, simple songs that explode with lovelorn adolescent energy and tear the roof off all available houses. Plus, they're foxy as hell. SEAN NELSON
PLAN B, PAPILLON
(I-Spy) Plan B's 2002 CD, Like a Ship Sailing, is better understood when compared with Land of the Loops' 1996 release, Bundle of Joy. Both are similar in that they share a fondness for bizarre samples and beautiful sound effects generated by dusty equipment. But the differences between the artists (Plan B is James van Leuven; Land of the Loops is Alan Sutherland) are more instructive. As with Beck's album Odelay, Land of the Loops' hiphop beats are separate from and work in counterpoint to the alternative-rock melodies. Plan B's music has no such division; everything instead seems organic and indigenous. This is why van Leuven's music is startling: it's not novel (like Beck's) or experimental (like Land of the Loops'), but authentic. CHARLES MUDEDE
THE POSIES, ROCKY VOTOLATO, DOLOUR
(Old Fire House) The Old Fire House officially turns 10 years old tonight (they held their first show on September 26, 1992). For an all-ages venue, that's pretty damn impressive. What's just as impressive is the lineup of bands they've been able to confirm for the big anniversary blowout. Tonight will be the cozy warm-up before things get too crazy, with sweet acoustic sets from some of the sweetest musicians. The Posies headline the night (playing a set sure to be riddled with all your favorites); two Old Fire House alumni, Rocky Votolato and Dolour, open. Both the latter musicians used to attend and volunteer at shows at the Old Fire House when they were younger--and look at 'em now, all grown up with shows of their own. MEGAN SELING
NEW BOMB TURKS, GAS HUFFER, COOKIE
(Chop Suey) See Stranger Suggests, page 19.
MING & FS, DJ REID SPEED
(I-Spy) See Speaker Freak, page 47.
FOURTH ANNUAL CURE COVER NIGHT W/PURTY MOUTH, TAGGING SATELLITES, DEAR JOHN LETTERS, AARON SPRINKLE, JOSH WHITE, JODIE WATTS, THE LASHES
(Crocodile) It's always nice when your musician friends agree to cover your favorite band in honor of your birthday (I swear before I turn 40 I'll convince my talented comrades to grant me a night of Tom Petty's best) but it's even more flattering when they're willing to throw down four years in a row. Such is the case with one of Seattle's most adored gothic Virgos, Barbara Mitchell. A veteran freelance writer and band publicist, Mitchell is one of those extremely rare gals who can pull off a permanently ebony-hued wardrobe and an unwavering love of Manchester without seeming like a lonely dork--so perhaps that's why everyone feels so comfortable donning Robert Smith's persona for the evening. Highlights to anticipate include the country-loving homos of Purty Mouth tackling "Love Cats" and the appropriately inky-haired kids from the Lashes covering something that will surely kick ass. HANNAH LEVIN
KREATOR, CEPHALIC CARNAGE, DESTRUCTION, DECEMBER
(Catwalk) The West Coast may have ruled the thrash-metal world in the late '80s, thanks to bands like Exodus, Slayer, and Metallica--but Germany wasn't far behind, due in large part to the influential presence of Kreator and Destruction, the two bands headlining tonight's bill. While not quite approaching Metallica's epic sleight of hand or Slayer's pure evil heaviness, both knew how to crank out an over-the-top, whiplash-inducing frenzy. After hitting some rough spots in the mid-'90s, both groups are back on track--with most of the original members on board--offering slightly modernized versions of their classic-era sounds. Representing a more modern direction are Colorado's Cephalic Carnage, whose spastic grindcore-jazz-fusion attack outweirds even the likes of the Dillinger Escape Plan or Earache label signees December, who open the show. WILLIAM YORK
BUGZ IN THE ATTIC FEATURING AFRONAUGHT, DAZ I KUE
(I-Spy) Bugz in the Attic are the masters of a London dance movement called future jazz, which is a dense and driven form of space funk. Their music's Afrofuturism is not influenced by the information technologies of the 21st century, but by the space-age technologies of the late '60s and '70s. The result of this future/past (or projection/regression) is a strange and dizzying funk space. One feels like they are dancing in the distant future, but the music is inspired by the distant past. But when listening to Bugz in the Attic's Family Factory EP on headphones, for instance, one notices in the production an amplification, or even perfection, of the space funk that the technologies of the space age could never have achieved--revealing that the Bugz do not so much imitate as wildly liberate the fantasies and galactic energies of the '70s with the technologies of our age. As for Afronaught, his space funk is also fucking amazing. CHARLES MUDEDE
THE BLOOD BROTHERS, THE GOSSIP, AKIMBO
(Old Fire House) In all the 10-year anniversary hoopla for the Old Fire House, this show and Mudhoney's performance are my personal picks. The Gossip are great, but man, the Blood Brothers and Akimbo take hardcore-inspired punk to completely new levels. It's only a matter of time (February?) before the Brothers bust another lung barking out high-pitched taunts and scalding your flesh with guitar freakouts on their next album. (The current record got a recent ass-kissing in Spin.) Akimbo are no gentler, crushing standard punk/metal structures with pure sonic aggression. JENNIFER MAERZ
SLEATER-KINNEY, SHANNON WRIGHT, THE QUAILS
(Showbox) See preview, page 41.
THE IMMORTAL LEE COUNTY KILLERS, DAN MELCHIOR'S BROKE REVUE, THE MODEY LEMON
(Chop Suey) There are so many great shows happening in Seattle this week, but this one rides right to the top of my list. The Immortal Lee County Killers and Dan Melchior on the same bill? Prepare for rock stripped naked as a newborn. No fancy effects here, just good old-fashioned garage--and by good, I mean great. The Killers speed through their songs like criminals on jailbreak, with frontman Chet Weise a-hootin' about getting killed and killing cockroaches. (Expect a new record from this dirty blues two-piece on Estrus in January.) And Melchior, who has collaborated with Billy Childish, Holly Golightly, and other well-respected names in the primitive-rock playhouse, plays snotty, simple rock 'n' roll married to country blues, R&B, and '70s punk. It doesn't get much better than this guy. Check out his new record on In the Red, too. JENNIFER MAERZ
THE MOONEY SUZUKI, SAHARA HOTNIGHTS, YOUR ENEMIES FRIENDS
(Graceland) Sweden's Sahara Hotnights are the first female rock act since Betty Blowtorch (RIP) to really catch my attention--although the Hotnights have a much sweeter disposition than Blowtorch's fuck-me bedside manner. On their brand-new breakthrough U.S. record, Jennie Bomb, the Hotnights (whose members include the girlfriend of Hives frontman Pelle Almqvist) rock like both the Runaways and Elastica, making big, glammed-out songs that pop with sing-along choruses. Their music sounds refreshingly uncalculated, as these young women make a mad rush for songs about getting out of control. Together with the Mooney Suzuki, they're gonna play a rock show to remember. JENNIFER MAERZ
MUDHONEY, THE NOVEMBER GROUP, KENTUCKY PISTOL, LOGICPROBE
(Old Fire House) I can't get the new Mudhoney record, Since We've Become Translucent, out of my head. It's pretty impressive that a band who have (mostly) held together for this long can still sound so good. It's all still there--from Mark Arm's half-cocked sneer as he sings, to the looks the band members flash each other as they play, to the blend of old classics and new songs that pack a knockout punch and send crazed kids to the center of the pit show after show. Mudhoney sounds just polished enough to make for a seamless performance, without losing the edge that makes them still (and forever) one of the most interesting bands in the Northwest. JENNIFER MAERZ
POPS SPOILER AND HIS DEADBEATS
(Rendezvous) Are you oppressed by technological developments like packing peanuts, aspartame, and oxygen-enhanced water? Do CGI-enhanced studs and their starving wives make you feel like a homicidal eunuch? Perhaps you would rather ram hot knitting needles in your ears than listen to anything on the radio dial? Clearly you are suffering from a bad case of cultural ennui. Luckily for you, Pops Spoiler and his Deadbeats are playing at the (still lovably disheveled) Rendezvous. Join these greasy hillbillies as they turn the Jewel Box Theater into a time machine. Travel back with them to a simpler era, when exploitation was a compliment. When zombies, juvenile delinquents, and burlesque dancers ruled the earth. Return to a glorious epoch when whatever cocktails couldn't cure, penicillin surely could. Of course, the night can't last forever, but your memories of shimmying like a greased goat during an alcohol-soaked evening of gleefully unapologetic trash rock just might. TAMARA PARIS
MONSTER DEFIANCE HEADQUARTERS, BRĂśZED, NATURAL ORDER, THE EARWIGS
(2nd Avenue Pizza) Once again, Entropy Accelerator presents ://RELAPSE, an event that takes a sledgehammer to the outer walls of noise experimentation. Expect nothing to make logical, rhythmic, or musical sense, since these sonic sculptors pride themselves on making the most unusual productions of "harsh ambiance, power electronics, and art mayhem" possible. JENNIFER MAERZ
SLEATER-KINNEY, SHANNON WRIGHT, THE QUAILS
(Showbox) See preview, page 41.
ROY, 25 SUAVES, THE GUELLOS
(Graceland) See preview, page 33.
DEF JUX PRESENTS EL-P, RJD2, MR. LIF, CAGE AND COPYWRITE, FAKTS ONE
(I-Spy) Though lacking the wonderful Cannibal Ox--whose 2001 CD, The Cold Vein, offered the darkest hiphop since Mobb Deep's marvelous sonic cathedral Hell on Earth--the Def Jux tour is still a major hiphop event. El-P, who produced The Cold Veins and founded Def Jux Records, has with Boston's professor/rapper Mike Ladd (Welcome to the Afterfuture) constructed a hiphop universe whose capital city is identical to the one that fills the screen at the opening of Blade Runner. El-P has never hidden the fact that he is inspired by the movie; he has made a song with Mike Ladd called "Bladerunners," and the artists on his label are as persecuted and godforsaken as the androids of that future megalopolis--Los Angeles, 2019 A.D. The Def Jux show is for hiphop-heads who are searching for their maker/programmer "in the land of the aftermath." CHARLES MUDEDE
CINERAMA, BALLBOY, VHS OR BETA
(Crocodile) It's a well-established fact that all any band needs in order to achieve perfection is some good, VU-inspired drone progressions and a man speaking languid prose poems over the top in a thick Scots accent. This idea (let's call it the Arab Strap principle) gains further credence with the emergence of Ballboy, an Edinburgh indie-rock quartet whose record, Club Anthems, contains (among other pleasures) a little masterpiece called "I Hate Scotland" you must have heard on KEXP. It's not fair to relegate Ballboy to Arab Strap also-ran status just because both bands are Scotland-bred talk-singers--Ballboy has a much more versatile sound--but it is safe to say that if you like one, you're going to love the other. Speaking of the other, Cinerama is the other band of David (Wedding Present) Gedge! SEAN NELSON
PETE KREBS
(Tractor) Mr. Krebs returns from his Amsterdam sojourn with a new Gossamer Wings record (and band) in tow. I Know It By Heart (not to be confused with American Analog Set's Know by Heart) is a strong follow-up to 1998's Sweet Ona Rose LP, with skillfully played, country-dusted, swooning rock songs about all of Krebs' recurring themes: love, loss, loyalty, labor, and the bittersweet pangs of getting older. SEAN NELSON
