READ: the portland mercury interviews tiny vipers.
after going what seemed like an eternity without a tiny vipers post, i have one for you! my friends over at the portland mercury has an interview with my boo, jesy fortino. jesy briefly talks about the progress of her forthcoming album (SQUEE ALERT), as well as the meaning of her songs. you should check it out; my only complaint is that it’s a pretty short interview, as i could read about jesy all day.
/swoon
BLUEPRINT 3 from kwest on Vimeo.
(via gorilla vs. bear)
chris, sometimes, i think you’re like the micheal jordan of music bloggers.
UPDATE: i already knew this, but should post for prosperity: the song’s being called “jockin’ jay-z,” and it’s from a forthcoming jay-z album(!!!!!!) that may or may not be called the blueprint 3 (which, if it is: !!!!!!!, even though blueprint 2 was really meh).
(taken by janine’s boyfriend lucas after he bought each of the three of us a shot of patron after i played my set opening for pwrfl power.)
so, today is a great day for two reasons. one is because it’s my good friend janine’s 26th birthday. the other is because although you probably don’t know janine, YOU GET A PRESENT, TOO! today is the unveiling of fresh cherries from yakima’s 2008 birthday covers single! every year, i cover a few songs from a friend’s favorite artists. last year, i recorded an EP of mountain goats covers for largehearted boy (in which i’ve said before is so rare that only two people have all of the tracks, and i’m not one of them). this year, i decided to do the same for one of my closest friends, due to her request for me to cover damien rice’s “9 crimes.” i’ve also thrown in a couple others.
my friend stacie over at recycled love songs wrote a very intriguing article about the blurry lines between a DJ and a “DJ,” and how a lifted sample without proper credit given can keep wonderfully-talented-but-long-forgotten artists as mere footnotes in music history. it’s a very interesting read, and deservedly casts a light on the gorgeous voice of donna hightower. enjoy the read!
here’s a little folk-rock for you today. remember back when i posted the video for david ford’s “go to hell”? well, here’s a status update: he’s alright, now. david leaves the looping pedals alone on this one, but there’s a nice 4-way camera split, all of which are taken up by david playing all of the instruments featured in the song, where his world-weary accent suggests damien rice with a little more muscle. speaking of damien rice, come back tomorrow. i have a surprise for all of you (but one person in particular).
okay, so it’s now august. that means summer’s 2/3 of the way over (yes, i know when the “official” first day of fall is, but we all know that summer goes down the tubes after labor day). it’s supposed to be a hot one this week here in seattle. so, let’s be brief and keep shit simple.
THIS WEEK’S THEME: get it! 1, 2, 3!: a few more summertime songs.
one: pj harvey- no child of mine.
two: vivian girls- damaged.
three: au- rr vs. d.
four: the muslims- bright side.
five: abe vigoda- skeleton.
six: high places- banana slugs.
seven: midlake- young bride.
eight: bright eyes- bowl of oranges.
nine: coldplay- strawberry swing.
ten: bloc party- so here we are.
eleven: sonic youth- peace attack.
twelve: belle and sebastian- judy is a dick slap.
okay, so there’s this label, right? it’s called borrowdeer. fresh cherries from yakima is on borrowdeer (and is selling buttons for north caroline as an mp3 download through their site). but the thing is, a whole bunch of bands are on borrowdeer, and quite a few of them are better than fresh cherries from yakima. so, as a purveyor of interesting and progressive underground music, my blog would be doing you a disservice if i didn’t direct you to borrowdeer’s first compilation. “flood party” is on it, but so are a lot of other songs by artists you may not have heard of, but very well should hear of.
LINK: borrowdeer’s first compilation.
and here’s the tracklisting:
1. khemo rabbit - examine your skull
2. leopard meat - a taller tale
3. deek hoi - california
4. fresh cherries from yakima - flood party
5. cemetery cemetery - dr. halifax
6. fast money music - senior spearhead-epic’s dream
7. ginger minx - load your gun
8. wrapping paper - hold up the neon sign
9. happy veterans day - you don’t hold back my rv
10. chauchat - old smuggler
11. animauled - nothing without los lobos
12. courtney short - the stars are ugly
13. accordion + tetris - fuck my wet cock
14. burnt shielafante - peep
15. queens college organs - mountain driving sunset
16. forsa - vibrate
17. samo - I wish I was a catholic painting
18. wooden nickle - lake
19. diacon-panthers - screecher
20. workhorse industries - don’t turn around
p.s. there’s going to be a borrowdeer records booth at music fest NW this year, over by the bladen county records showcase, so if you stop by it, you may be able to get one of these in CD-R for free!
in addition to becoming a completely engaging and entertaining live act, kaz nomura is a very, very smart dude.
at the helm gallery in tacoma on thursday, pwrfl power played a “t-shirt release party of sorts” for his shirts, designed by helm gallery owner sean alexander (no, not the football player; their names are spelled differently). when my best friend and i arrived at the venue, we saw kaz outside, so we walked up to him and i introduced the two of them to each other. after a few seconds of talking, spencer of generifus sees me and hurries over, greeting me with a smile. we all talk for a few minutes about various things (mostly about titus andronicus and how some dude in olympia didn’t know what pitchfork was), and head inside.
we missed the first band, but there was a pretty rousing set by don’t tell sophie (think control-era pedro the lion without the cynical worldview) that had a couple people in the audience (including kaz himself) nodding our heads in approval and silently wondering, “who the fuck ARE these guys?”
afterwards came a set from generifus (you may remember him from our show together at the vera project, and this just in: i’m set to open for him at the kirkland teen center on friday, september 12th), whose warm guitar tones and lovably nervous and awkward banter (and request that we be seated) gave the art space the intimacy of a living room show.
then, kaz arrives onstage, tunes his guitar, plays a short song about a baby tiger and inexplicably leaves the stage. after about thirty seconds of awkward silence, peter (the other half at the helm’s… um, helm) hops on the mic and says, “uh, kaz will be right back.” i jokingly yell for an encore, and he hops onstage with a cup of water.
with the stage light right next to his left side, kaz smiles and says, “i feel like i’m getting perm.” laughs fill the tiny art space. pwrfl power was in motion.
this being my first time seeing kaz play a solo electric show, i was expecting him to shred, and he sure didn’t let me down; those fingers were flying up and down the fretboard, as kaz strummed with fury through “cat song” and “soft boy,” and gleefully bounced around during “let me teach you how to hold chopsticks.” as you would naturally expect from someone who’s played 200+ shows, kaz absolutely hammed it up, whether it was comfortably bantering with the crowd, pulling charismatic moves like pointing at the air mid-strum, or performing an amusingly histrionic final verse of “nice jacket.” whether you like him or not, kaz is a consumate performer.
shit gets deep after the jump.
here’s something for the weekend: no age playing a nine-minute(!!!) version of “dead plane” at the los angeles library. regular posting will resume monday. i’ve let you have your break, internet. it’s time for douglas martin to start wrecking shit again.
are we not horses?, the 2006 debut album from toronto-based band/collective rock plaza central was a brilliant idea that was sort of uneven in execution. some of the songs were brilliant concept pieces that helped drive the far-fetched narrative of the album along, sounding like lost neutral milk hotel gems (”my children, be joyful”), others sounded like frontman/songwriter chris eaton was just ripping mangum off.
“i am an excellent steel horse,” the too-brief opener of are we not horses?, is also the album’s best track, with nothing but an acoustic guitar and eaton’s drunken newscaster croon carrying along the first half, with the second half swelling up to an emotional peak. the video, with its deftly-arranged televisions in foreground of an empty stable, excellently highlights the dichotomy between the natural and the man-made, much like the song itself, drunken newscaster croon and all.