Live: Mi Ami, Explode into Colors (Pehrspace)

A week ago, friends and I went to Pehrspace in Filipinotown to see Mi Ami. Happening upon them earlier in the month, we were way blown away by their ferocious take on noise and dance-punk. For only three members, the sound is extremely full; they make cacophonous dance music, accentuated by yelps and spasms from the leader singer. And live, they totally rip. Openers Explode into Colors described themselves as "three chubby, grungy girls from Portland, Oregon playing krautrock," and, we have to say, that was one of the most fitting explanations a band has ever given for themselves. Both bands come highly recommended, so do check them out!

Signing and New Album: Talbot Tagora

Apparently my favorite Seattle band just signed to the Sub Pop imprint Hardly Art for a new LP called Lessons from the Woods or a City, to be released July 21. I'm very excited for these kids and I hope they keep things complicated and politically fraught. It seems likely that Talbot Tagora will continue to be completely guttural, gritty, and blindingly intelligent. I'll post a newish video as soon as I'm on a computer that has Flash/not at work. (update:)


Talbot Tagora - Internet Fixture from Mark Greshowak on Vimeo.

Venue Review: The New Crocodile Cafe in Seattle

I was having a slow night, intellectually and socially speaking, so I headed over to the recently renovated Crocodile Cafe for a little 21+ local music from the bands Hotels, New Faces, Globes, and Romance. Outside for a cigarette I heard the live director, Roy, saying something like, "I'm gonna call it an early night. This is our first really local show. Tom Morello made me tired." Locals action not as hot as it could have been Roy? Roy was actually right. I noticed that we left the club at the same time, around 12:10.

I wanted a little rock action. What I got was a little Joy Division/Interpol/She Wants Revenge action. This was to be expected and I had seen most of the bands play before, but the extent to which every band sounded like a terrible copy of a copy of a copy of Joy Division was a little disappointing, above and beyond the disappointment I expect when I go to Belltown alone, on a Wednesday.

The venue itself is a sparkling palace of renovated (perhaps misplaced) 1990s Seattle nostalgia: exposed wood beams, vintage-looking fixtures, soft and hard lights, and the annoying pillar of the old Croc in the far corner, torn to shit, with a few remaining band stickers. The new Corc has an unpleasant cleanness that reminds me of what happened when people in Seattle started working at Microsoft, getting paid a lot of money, moving into custom built homes, and putting their kids through college-prep private schools. Still, the location is cool and there's the undeniable history of the spot, which opened in 1991.

Compared to the old show space, the floor is huge (fire department rated at 500+. Isn't that the same size as Neumos?), with a fairly high ceiling. When the bands started playing, the audience seemed reluctant to venture close to the stage, which was about six inches too high, making the more sheepish acts tower above a chatty sea of drinkers. Everyone seemed stuck to the bar, which was well appointed and staffed.

The bands, as I said, were fairly unremarkable. New Faces was surprisingly energetic, almost funky. Though, they were the youngest people around, by several years, and maybe youth still has something to do with rock and roll.

not exactly new, but awesome nonetheless!

I just for the first time actually listened to the Dirty Projectors/David Byrne song "Knotty Pine" Its amazing. Really really good, not that much Byrne, but amazing. Here is a link to download the song. I imagine that the album will rule!!



yay Dirty Projectors!

PAM Mix March 2009

This is something of a 2008/2009 buzz-band-kill compilation. I'm so buzzed by these songs, that in six months, these bands will either be a lot more famous, or almost completely forgotten. Pop music is so wonderfully fickle. Oh, also there is a slight Spring/Summer theme running through the mix.

1. Air France - "June Evenings" - More perfection from Sweden
2. Weird Tapes - "The Heavens" - Their EP was one of the best of club-ready selections of 2008
3. Bridez - "Live 4ever" - One of the rawest pop bands on the West Coast, negative SF queens
4. Dent May - "Meet Me in the Garden" - Areil Pink + Dean Martin
5. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "The Tenure Itch" - [wistful sigh of pleasure]
6. Jimmy Buffet - "A Pirate Looks at Forty" - Dads everywhere know
7. The Virgins - "Private Affair" - Another great song about doing blow with old-money teens
8. Wavves - "No Hope Kids" - Biography of a generation via distortion pedal
9. Television Personalities - "Part Time Punks" - Beat Happening in London 1980

DOWNLOAD MIX

MP3: The Tough Alliance - "Hung up on a Dream" (The Zombies Cover)

Ok so, those Swedes I was talking about being all happy even given the lack of direct sunlight most of the year, well, they're back. Again. The Tough Alliance, everyone's favorite entirely serious bunch of jokesters have returned with a cover of The Zombies "Hung up on a Dream." Wouldn't you know, the song has cascading harps, plenty of reverb and gentle "la-da"s to transport everyone peacefully into springtime. As if the weather being 80 degrees and sunny wasn't enough.

The Tough Alliance - "Hung up on a Dream"

New Virgins Video + I'm On Spring Break

I just finished my last final. I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt, drinking a lemonade, and thinking about making a VHS home movie about spring break. I'm on Myspace and I see this new Virgins video, which is perfect retro-sweaty 1990s uptown vibes. It's time to party.

MP3: Grizzly Bear - "Cheerleader" (Stream)

Entertainment Weekly is currently hosting Grizzly Bear's "Cheerleader" for our streaming pleasure. Their upcoming sophomore effort, Veckatimest, is due out May 26th, and this beefy track offers quite a pleasurable taste of what's to come. Much more direct than most of the psyched-out Yellow House songs, "Cheerleader" still offers plenty of intricate elements and engulfing structure that will only develop upon repeated listens. Click here to listen.

White Circle Crime Club

Last night in Seattle I saw a Belgian band play at a little place called Holy Mountain in the newly re-urbanized South Lake Union neighborhood. The venue was packed, on account of it being marginally all-ages, and also because hometown-heroes Past Lives (ex. Blood Brothers etc.) were playing.

The Belgian band, White Circle Crime Club, despite having a forgettably terrible name, really impressed me with the kind of animal vigor that comes from old-world bands that've been touring the American underground for weeks on end. Still hungry for fans, they looked better fed than any American bands (better fed than their one-time tour mates No Age) and they gave the somewhat crusty Seattle audience their money's worth of liberal European politics (the keyboardist had a shirt that read something like "this society's days are numbered"). The darkness of the venue and the shadow-kissed chiseled features of the late-20-something Belgian urbanites gave their show a hardened, Joy Division vibe. All in all: a night of quite ominous notes from the old countries, echoing in the brutal frontier cave-clubs of the New World.

Expensive shit

Amadou and Mariam
Blind couple from Mali


Fela Kuti
The king of afro-beat.

I have been obsessed with African music lately. Here are a few artists and where to get them.

Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit
http://www.mediafire.com/?7x9zzyt5lll

J.A. Adofo & City Boys International
awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com
(download the second album on the first page, "adeasa" in its entirety)

Yoro Diallo Dit Fernando Moutchatcha
awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com

Victor Uwaifo
awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com
(back in the archives)

Fela is afro-beat, a well known style of jazz, funk and traditional music blended together. the story on "expensive shit" is that Fela became so popular and rich that he decided to run for president of Nigeria, and the government knew he would win, so they planted a joint on him (marijuana laws are crazy in Nigeria) and tried to put him in jail, he ate the joint and swapped shit with another inmate and escaped prison. he put out "expensive shit" shortly after

J.A. Adofo is from Ghana, and plays a popular genre from the 1970's and 80's called highlife. He is the best highlife I've ever heard. listen to "Enfa Odo Ndi Ogoro" and "Adeasa"

Moutchatcha is a little known musician from Mali. i cant find any info on him. check out "San Wo San"

Victor Uwaifo is another highlife guy, but more focused on funk.

Fever Ray - When I Grow Up (Dan Lissvik remix)

A few posts ago, Erik posted Fever Ray's beautifully haunting "When I Grow Up" Video. If you haven't watched it, do so. Studio's Dan Lissvik recently gave the track a cheerful face lift and though I don't know if either one is necessarily better, the edit certainly adds some joy to the melancholic original. I'm still blown away that a country (Sweden) that gets barely any sunlight (like 4 hours in the winter) sounds like a giant beach party where the music is more reminiscent of California than music actually coming out of California. But, whatever, I'll take it. As long as I don't have to wear any shoes.

Dent May

Dent May (who, until recently, attached And His Magnificent Ukulele to his name) brings to mind a boozy, drugged out time spent in some rural, forgotten southern town. The careless meandering music that Dent May is responsible for probably has something to do with the fact that he, well, lives in Jackson, Mississippi and probably drinks a lot of booze and maybe dabbles in the occasional psychedelic journey. His subject matter borders on the practical ("College Town Boy," which addresses post-graduation indolence), the boyishly fantastical ("Meet Me in the Garden" has the protagonist waiting for a beautiful blonde, down by the pond) and the truthful (where in "I'm an Alcoholic," Mr. May is over being sober), and his song structure never ventures much past the occasional percussive element and the strumming of one magnificent ukulele. His debut The Good Feeling Music of Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele it out now via the Animal Collective-founded Paw Tracks. Check out his video for "Meet Me in the Garden" below:

New Look = Barlectro

Here's a video clip by a band who seem to have zero new ideas. But, both members are extremely attractive. They're playing in a London club and you can hear the sound of people talking and drinking over the sound of the band. Is Barlectro a new genre or an old genre? I feel like maybe people were more impressed my creativity/music/fashion in general in the 70s and 80s. I get a strong sense that, in these hard social/economic times (Sparks+Ableton+Banking Crisis), most people just don't have time to do anything about this band but think about trying to sleep with one or both of the musicians. New Look (amazingly shallow name) will never sell albums or have "fans," so why bother? Talent buyers at clubs don't pay that well.
New Look from Those City Nights on Vimeo.