Spew

PHOTOS: Artifakt show at Jazzbones

RON SWARNER: ART AND HIP-HOP TOGETHER ON FRIDAY THE 13TH >>>

The Artifakt folks threw a dark but lively art and music extravaganza Friday, Nov. 13 at Jazzbones.

Local artists James Hume, Jeremy Gregory, Brook Pawlicki, James Bender, GRYM, Ann Koi, AcidTest, Laura Eklund, Matthew Scott and Ryan Loiselle displayed their dark art as part of the Friday the 13th Bogeyman Art Show.

Hip-hop group Nasty Left reunited to pay tribute to fallen member Danny "D Child" Cline, who died of cancer over the summer. The band put on a great show. I had to leave before headliner Mad Rad took the stage. How was their performance?

Click here to see more photos.

Shout Out: Sordid Sentinels

JOE IZENMAN: ENDED UP A ONE-BAND SHOW. OH WELL. STILL AWESOME >>>

There's no point in beating around the bush, so I'll just get right to it: Sordid Sentinels are awesome. They're really, really good. Maybe you'll think I'm saying this because I've become friends with the band, because I've played a few shows with them. But I'm not. I'm saying it because they are really frickin' good.

I really want Sordid Sentinels to play more shows with different bands. They are the kind of band that you see once because they are opening for your friends' band, and then can't stop seeing them, no matter whom they play with.

A couple weeks ago, writing about The Vile Red Falcons (who have played with the Sentinels in the past, I believe), I expressed my enthusiasm for what is best described as straight-up, balls-out rock music. It is that same love that keeps bringing me back to show after show with Sordid Sentinels.

So it was that I ended up at Bob's Java Jive Friday night looking for a rock show. I knew that two of the four bands on the bill had dropped off, leaving Riley Gratzer of the Sentinels in a scramble to fill up the bill. But at the very least they would be there, with touring group Siren and maybe one other band.

Well, no other band stepped up. And then Siren didn't show. Which was a disappointment of some degree, since I had listened to a few songs off their MySpace, and was excited to see another band in the world with a melodica.

The disappointment didn't stick. It wasn't long before Sordid Sentinels took the stage, and did what they always do, plus some.

Shout Out: Round Mountain

JOE IZENMAN: EXPECT AN EMAIL NEXT TIME THEY'RE IN TOWN >>>

See, I knew this was going to happen. When I started writing show reviews for Spew last month I sat down with editor Matt Driscoll and we worked out a schedule: second and fourth Thursday of the month, writing about shows from the preceding Friday or Saturday (mustn’t get stale, after all).

So of course it me took less than a month to find a show, a week and a half before my next piece, that I could not in good conscience avoid reviewing.

We went to the Mandolin Cafe Tuesday night on a whim. It was either that or take a nap, and Spew’s 5 Things description caught our eyes: “Bulgarian zydeco, klezmer and West African rhythms, wild bagpipes, trumpet and accordion.”

The brothers Rothschild have, in essence, my dream band. Which is to say, what I have always striven fore with my own band, Mr. Fusion. Not necessarily in genre, but in shape and principle. Two guys, surrounded by a dozen acoustic instruments, playing together, singing together, purely because they want to. So I was disposed to like them from the start.

Shout Out: The Vile Red Falcons

JOE IZENMAN: DON'T MESS WITH THE VILE RED FALCONS >>>

At a loss for any gigs with bands I actually knew on Friday night, I found the next best thing: a show featuring a band that had recently become my MySpace friend. That's almost like being their biggest fan, right? So I shuffled on down to The New Frontier to catch The Fuzz and The Legend Of Bigfoot at The Vile Red Falcons' CD release.

I've seen a lot of bands get upstaged at their own release shows. They stick themselves first or second, find another band to headline who will have a good draw, and promptly prove themselves the least interesting thing of the night. The Vile Red Falcons would have none of this. They played last, and rocked most, as it should be.

Shout Out: Bandolier

JOE IZENMAN: WENT FOR BATTERSEA; LEFT A BANDOLIER FAN >>>

Sometimes a band catches you off guard. Usually it happens to me at festivals. I'll see a band I've never heard of, and be absolutely hypnotized, by their show, by their music, by their everything. The first time I saw the Decemberists at Bumbershoot; Frank Turner opening for Gaslight Anthem; Ben Harper wailing his way through a weather-worn crowd at Sasquatch 2006.

Last night I went to The New Frontier Lounge to see Battersea, and Battersea was good. They are a band full of people who love English post-punk, and it comes through in their songwriting. There is a balance of driving guitar strums and melodic vocals to be struck in that kind of music, and they execute well.

Before Battersea was The Color Of East (celebrating the release of their EP In The House Of Endless Light), and The Color Of East was good, too. They delivered a solid set of what they aptly deem "psychdelic-garage-pop," and though it took some time, they got the crowd up on their feet at the end. 

But before all of that was Bandolier, and Bandolier absolutely blew me away.

Bandolier writes pop songs, and I mean that in a good way. They are floating somewhere in the ephemeral songspace between ‘50s bubble gum and modern indie, and making a kind of music that is far too rare on much of the local scene: music made of different instruments which you can actually hear. It is, put simply, musical. A hollow-body electric guitar sound that fails to utterly overpower the rest of the band. The sharp pop sound that doesn't come out of anything but a Rickenbacker bass. Noisy keyboard mashing eschewed in favor of constructed counter-melodies. A drummer with the skill to be interesting but the restraint to lie back instead of driving the volume to extremes (a frequent problem with mixing at the New Frontier). And two lead singers who can, who would guess it, actually sing. Not wail or scream or growl or moan, but just genuinely sing. It's hard to pull off two lead singers in a single band, but Lino and Ann do an admirable job balancing male and female leads while still continuing to sound like the same band, and spewing crafted harmonies all night long.

Shout Out: Ryan Purcell and the Last Round

RON SWARNER: CAUGHT THEIR SETS AT O’MALLEY’S LAST NIGHT >>>

With bands like Wilco, Califone, and so many others pushing alt-country/Americana into vital new (usually ambient or experimental) territory, it's nice to see a local act weigh in with its own interpretation. Ryan Purcell and the Last Round centers on the compellingly gritty songwriting of Purcell.

Singer/guitarist Purcell has a knack for making themes of disappointment and loss irresistible not only with his dry humor but also with the effortless beauty in his hooks. Nonetheless, it's his versatile accompanying cast — singer/guitarist/brother Evan Purcell, singer/drummer/comedian Doug Mackey, keyboardist Charley Rowan and bassist Peter Devidson that gives the music — a mix of country, blues, soul, folk and "drinking rock" — additional depth, personality, and edge.

Bravo.

Shout out: The Revengers

RON SWARNER: GRITTYSHOOT — LABOR DAY WEEKEND IN TACOMA >>>

Spending Labor Day weekend enjoying the sights, sounds, tastes and smells from our own backyard:

The Revengers
Where: Last night at Doyle's Public House, Tacoma
 
One of the hottest bands in Tacoma The Revengers performed an amazing show last night at Doyle's Public House in Tacoma. Confined to the corner stage, rapper Champion J, rapper Direct, bassist Dustin Riecan, drummer Hammer and guitarist Mason Hargrove filled the nearly packed bar with progressive hip-hop featuring elements of rap, funk, jazz, grunge rock, and soul and. Think early Beastie Boys with a little Chili Peppers, A Tribe Called Quest and Jamiroquai.

The only thing more live than Champion J and Direct's rapid-fire quick-witted acrobatic rhymes is their physical energy. They must be subdued by an electronic force field. Otherwise, I assume they'd bust down the door and take their mics to the street.

Guitarist Hargrove explores his pedals as much as Tom Morello. I can hear bits of Rage Against the Machine — not the screechy scratch sound but some of the rhythm work. Hargrove's jazz guitar work you hear in the Kareem Kandi Band plays here, too.

Dustin and Hammer lay down an amazing funky, rocking groove, which keeps this band ignited.

LINK: The Revengers MySpace

Music and Art in Wright Park: Photos

RON SWARNER: CONCERT RECAP >>>

While this will be my last post on Music and Art in Wright Park 2009, those of us who attended yesterday's Tacoma music festival are already looking forward to next year’s installment, so consider this, uh, a preview of Music and Art in Wright Park 2010. Yeah.

First, thanks to Cody Foster, Kenny Johnson, Bennett Thurmon and the volunteers who put on one hell of a great show. Impressive music, large crowds, happy vendors, lovely weather, professional production and no incidents made for an enjoyable day. The word is the festival broke even or better.

Between juggling cameras, sheer music overload and the occasional trip to Doyle's, Parkway and Hob Nob, I lost my black notepad. Stone Axe, Post Stardom Depression, C.F.A., Zook … they may have played some great music, and I might have photographic evidence of them, but the documented prose is gone. And thanks to the after parties, the cerebral prose is gone, too.

So instead of attempting to do a verbal recap, I’ll just let the photos do the talking. The majority are on our Photo Hot Spot.

LINK: Background

Phish at The Gorge, Aug. 7

JENNIFER JOHNSON: ONE GIANT JAM AT THE GORGE >>>

It had been 10 years since I had last seen Phish perform live; I was thrilled at the prospect of seeing them again and at one of the country’s finest locations. The weather at the Gorge last Friday was sublime — light breeze, warm air, no rain. I bought tickets from a “friend” in the parking lot though we could have gotten them for free if we’d waited. Tickets resting in the chain-link fence near the entrance were up for grabs. The show fulfilled my past expectations of a high-energy, ecstatically joyous experience — especially musically.

Read my full review here.

Shout Out: Shifter

STEVE DUNKELBERGER: KRYING INTO JAGER SHOTS >>>

The cover band Shifter had big shoes to fill last night at Jazzbones. Regular Ladies Night band Kry was on vacation. It was obvious. The crowd wasn’t the usual wall to wall hormonal 20-somethings rubbing up against everything in site.  However, Shifter held its own. The crowd was into it, as well as multiple Jägermeister shots.