ALive & Kicking
The Spits/Personal & the Pizzas/The Coconut Coolouts
Live @ Chop Suey
Monday, February 22

Monday night pretty much ruled.

Local punk rock legends The Spits played Chop Suey with Seattle virgins Personal and the Pizzas (NJ), party animals the Coconut Coolouts and early bird openers The Pranks. DJ Kurt Bloch spun records between sets keeping things loose.

Coconut Coolouts are always a ton of fun with their double drum party themed jams complete with Banana bass player. Tunes like “(Please Don’t Break Me Out Of) Party Jail” and “I Wanna Come Back From the World of LSD” stirred up a nice little dance party nicely augmented by the girls in local pop-outfit TacoCaT. They even jumped on stage for a song jokingly credited to Bill Cosby and the Pudding Pops.

The Lights – Failed Graves
Wantages Music

Over the nine years I’ve been directly involved in the local music scene, the Lights have remained the most consistently astonishing “local band” on my radar. Assumedly flying just below the national spotlight, they’ve released three stellar albums of discordant rock music that rock writers likely classify as “post-punk.” Minor chords? Check. A minimalistic approach that gives each part a chance to make a big impact? Check? Clamoring guitar and bass? Check.

2003’s Beautiful Bird cemented the band’s local cult status; EP Suge Night Sweetheart whet fans’ whistles while the band impressed at the 2005 SWSW festival in Austin before releasing the excellent 2006 full-length Diamonds & Dirt.

Which brings us to Failed Graves, the Lights’ latest 11-song slice of punk rock yumminess, which they will release tomorrow night at Seattle’s Funhouse.

Best of the 00s: Gabe Joins the 21st Century
Part 3: Basement Jaxx, Black Mountain & Blur

NadaMucho.com co-founders Matt and Gabe are listening to 197 of the music press's choices for "best albums of the 00s" for a series called Gabe Joins the 21st Century.

Basement Jaxx - Rooty
#33 on Pitchfork's list

Gabe: I swear to god I tried to listen to this album of "house" music on three separate occasions, but failed to make it through a single track without hitting skip. I don't know from house, but to my ear most of the songs on Rooty sound a little bit like Prince songs. Except, you know, without the Prince. One line even goes "She's an angel/she's a dove" in an echo of "I Would Die 4 U."  That line is from the song "S.F.M.", which is an abbreviation for "Sexy Feline Machine." Roowrrr! 

Interestingly, Pitchfork trashed Rooty upon its release in 2001, giving it a 3.8. I doubt the author of that review - Malcolm Seymour III - would agree with Pitchfork's reassessment of Rooty as the 33rd best album the 00s. I think they got it right the first time. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, Malcolm Seymour III is no longer associated with Pitchfork, although imdb.com says someone with that name played the role of "Pete Meyer" in a 1998 horror short called "The Obsessive Love Theme.")  

Grade: Do Not Like.

ALive & Kicking
Justin Townes Earle & Joe Pug Save American Music
February 15, 2010 @ The Tractor Tavern

If one wasn't aware of the tradition of the Grand Ole Opry, of Hank Williams or Gene Autry or Buck Owens, of Showmanship, then one could write off what Justin Townes Earle does as shtick. In an era where the fourth wall, the divider between performer and audience, has been all but dissolved, Earle takes the stage with his band (fiddle and stand-up bass), addresses the audience (often) as "ladies and gentlemen," and performs 90 minutes of blues, honky tonk, western swing and folk music with a Cheshire grin tattooed across his face. To those unversed in the history and tradition of country music, it must seem very, very strange and, perhaps, insincere. For those people, I feel very sorry, for they are missing out on an immense talent.

Earle's birthright as a performer notwithstanding, he has carved himself a niche as a torchbearer for American Roots music, and if Monday's show at the Tractor is any indication, Roots music is in capable hands. Earle gabbed and grinned and jittered his way through 90 minutes of high-octane history, mixing originals with samples from a century's worth of tradition (Woody Guthrie, Lightning Hopkins) for a show that can be described without hyperbole as “timeless.”

2010 Cumulus Festival
Talkdemonic to Close Festivities Saturday @ Cafe Venus / Mars Bar

The short bio on the Cumulus Festival's Website reads:

"The three guys at the core of the festival found a peculiar kind of inspiration in the grey chill and rain that Seattle winters are known for, and in the artists they found their own band sharing bills with. It only made sense to join the grey and fuzzy clouds with the grey and fuzzy sound of like-minded bands; to mimic the delicate drizzle and deluge of hail with guitars and drums; and to celebrate staying indoors, warmed by the tubes of dozens of amplifiers."  

Its a fitting premise for a Northwest music event, and Seattle has no shortage of talented bands making atmospheric post-punk. Boasting 12 bands over three nights, the festival kicked off Thursday at the Mars Bar before heading across town to the Funhouse - a bar known for its love of punk, if usually without the "post."

Said festival organizers Levi Fuller about the first night:

When he's not running the pawn the shop or giving Bret & Jemaine advice with the ladies, Dave, known in real life as Arj Barker, travels the world sharing humorous anecdotes through a discipline known as "stand up comedy." Arj, who has been featured twice on Comedy Central Presents and co-wrote the off-broadway show The Vagina Monolugues, is performing all this week at the Parlor in Bellevue's Lincoln square.

Knowing how much you kids like the jokes, NadaMucho.com has procured two free tickets for the Saturday, February 5 show. Just head over to www.twitter.com/nadamucho, follow us, and send us a direct message for a chance to win.

Best of the 00s: Gabe Joins the 21st Century
Part 2: Animal Collective, Antony & the Johnsons and At the Drive In

Nada co-founders Matt and Gabe are listening to 197 of the music press's best albums of the past decade for a new series called Gabe Joins the 21st Century.  

Animal Collective
Strawberry Jam 

Gabe: Strawberry Jam was my first exposure to Animal Collective. My expectations were high, considering that Animal Collective tied with Radiohead and Sigur Ros for most albums on the list, with four.

After two listens, I was intrigued. The songs have lots of different sounds and stuff going on. The psychedelic/experimental pop elements reminded me a bit of the White Album and Psonic Psunspot. But upon further review the novelty wore off. I just don't connect with the songs. On my most recent listen the only songs I didn't push skip on were tracks 5 and 7 ("Fireworks" and "Winter Wonder Land"). I don't dislike Strawberry Jam, but I can't say I'm excited to listen to their next three entries on the list.

Grade: LIKE