LOCAL MUSIC SHOWCASE: BENOÎT PIOULARD, A WEEKEND AT THE
FEELIES, BARDO: BASHO
Get your hush on in the basement of the University of Washington’s art building with three incredible local ambient acts. A Weekend at the Feelies—the one-man project of Jordan Campbell—bridges dream pop with fractured lo-fi R&B/chillstep beats for breezy beach chilling and beyond. Campbell has no officially released material yet, but a visit to his Soundcloud page reveals agave-sweet proto-hit “Lonely Buzzard.” He’s an undeniably soulful crooner, and when he sings, “I’m just like you/A lonely buzzard searching for food,” you want to believe in something more than “glo-fi.” Also with underwater-folk daydreams from Benoît Pioulard and frothy, ghostlike soundscapes from Bardo: Basho, the evening doubles as a zine release party for Rainydawg Radio’s Favorite Music of 2013 and Mixed UW’s Please Tell Me More About Myself. Parnassus Cafe, 7 pm.
PILL WONDER, SECRET COORS,
MEDIUM SODA
It’s a stacked night for shows, but those interested in surreal electronic pop shouldn’t miss Secret Colors‘ last show as a Seattle resident. Under the alias, Matt Lawson last released the Days Off LP, a perfect summer album which hazes like a new age Another Green World, blending woozy, sun-drugged tropi-rhythms with ethereally melodic blurs. Fuzz-pop act Pill Wonder also disperse vitamin D to sunshine-starved ears at this especially gray time of year, and with Medium Soda—the collaborative project from the forces behind local pop bands Mega Bog and iji—be prepared to feel surprisingly rehydrated. Heartland, 8 pm.
DREAMSALON, MARRIAGE + CANCER, DREAMDECAY
Seattle garage-punk supergroup-of-sorts Dreamsalon released their debut, Thirteen Nights, last year—which I forgot to notice (whoops). Rife with twisted and snarled riffs and a subdued cantankerousness, the trio’s gently middle-finger-flipping, politely fucked-up stumblecore would appease Mark E. Smith on a good day. The night’s messthetics continues with Dreamdecay’s warped noise rock/”powerviolence shoegaze,” which contorts like a mythical beast of lopsided and aggressively sludged riffs. Rounding out the bill are Portland-based “pissed pop” band Marriage + Cancer. The Josephine, 8 pm. 