Fucking in the Streets

This Saturday, September 13, The Stranger and the Moore
Theatre host the annual Genius Awards party, this year featuring
Spokane’s one-man hiphop thrift shop James Pants in his debut
appearance with a live band, L.A. laptop dandy and Monome magician
Daedelus, and Seattle’s own Dyme Def and Emerald City
Soul Club. It is not to be missed.

There is no Stranger Genius Award
for music, but if there were,
last Sunday’s Dead Science show at Neumos, along with the band’s
recently released
Villainaire, would make a strong case

for nominating the band for such a prize. The album is a high
achievement, already thoroughly detailed in these pages, and their
performance was every bit the spectacle it deserved.

For their set, the Dead Science were joined onstage by Past Lives’
Morgan Henderson on keys, a harpist, and full string and horn sections.
Jherek Bischoff switched between upright and electric bass. Sam Mickens
crooned and played guitar, curling his left leg up off the ground,
cranelike, to the beat. Drummer Nick Tamburro flailed and pounded
wildly but always precisely in time, the culmination of a night full of
impressive drummers (more on those later). With the additional
musicians, the songs of Villainaire sounded as true to the
album’s carefully crafted moods as possible. “Make Mine Marvel” and
“Sword Cane” both sounded especially epic live, the former’s chorus
almost too big for Neumos’ room, the latter’s line, “last night’s not
fully revealed itself yet” sounding portentous and damning.

While the Dead Science were the obvious highlight, the whole bill
would be worth shortlisting for this column’s imaginary award. Openers
Talbot Tagora have significantly improved even in just the last
few months, sounding tighter and more aggressive than ever, especially
on drums, and looking totally confident and comfortable up on the
Neumos stage. I’ve made a case for their reverby, mumbling vocals
before, but now I think it may be time for the band to speak up a bit;
they’re just a slight voice change away from having totally grown into
their sound (maybe shortlist them for next year). Past Lives, on
the other hand, are fully formed and on fucking fire. Mark Gajadhar’s
athletic drumming dominates (and he’s now offering lessons),
Henderson’s rhythms wobble like the little walking dance he does
onstage, and Jordan Blilie and Devon Welch are magnetic forces on
vocals and guitar respectively. Cop their Strange Symmetry EP
out now on Suicide Squeeze.

Finally, rounding out the imaginary award shortlist are adorably
book-smart indie rockers Throw Me the Statue, the brain/gear
trust behind Foscil/Truckasauras (with a nod to Fourthcity in
general), the techno champions at Decibel, and Sabzi and
his MC partners in Blue Scholars and Common Market. (The
real Genius Awards are awarded after months spent narrowing down the
selections, whereas this comes off the top of my head; forgive me if
I’ve neglected anyone.)

egrandy@thestranger.com