Tonight, Don’t Miss This!!!

I know its late notice but this will be amazing!!!  These is some quality sonic shit!!!  Google these musicians get psyched.   Or just show up and be exploded.

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SUN CITY GIRLS: FOLK SONGS OF THE RICH & EVIL AND IT’S TIE IN TO SOREN KIERKEGAARD’S “EITHE/OR”

 (Where are they now under random slapdash psych groove - demanding of the audience, “Don’t you see how short the distance is?  The nothing.  It’s not that the ruler isn’t there, or that it doesn’t correspond to a fact, or that this knowledge can’t have parcitcal and useful applications.  It’s just that we must admit”…”You think I’m kidding?”)…not to mention sick feeling’n'dehydrated and yes I guess I’m a pack through it today ’cause only bought that pack when Patrick [whose a 40-something ex-engineer of many years who goes to underground freak shows]…wait, why’d it break to some schizophrenic elf singing about gypsies,’n'what?  “I will give you daggers bright/And I will give you swords.”  “I will turn you onto death” => also references to little people’n'leprechauns, so maybe the elf concept makes sense.

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All the way from Brunswick, Maine…

It’s the pulsating sac of sound! Or in other words, that’s my old friend Chris Felax’s live radio show broadcast from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Chris spins new indie rock, electro, 80’s dance, pop culture snippets, new wave, techno and anything else that fits his fancy. Most music is so new that it hasn’t been released yet. Ever since I’ve known Chris (this goes back over 15 years ago) he’s been on the cutting edge of the music scene and owned more CDs than anyone else I knew in college (now having thousands of albums on his computer). He even taught me how to play Plush by the Stone Temple Pilots on the guitar. I know, I know, not cutting edge but I couldn’t resist mentioning. He also had this luscious long hair that would make the best of grunge rockers jealous. Oh, the early 90s! He was also in a short-lived band at the University of Michigan with Don Blum of The Von Bondies and Josh Tillingast of Transmission. Chris also goes by DJ Throatslice come October and has recorded his own home-brewed horror music made especially for Halloween and all things creepy that you can find on iTunes.

So lemme reel myself in here back to the point of this blog, the pulsating sac of sound! You should definitely check it out!

Station: WBOR 91.1 fm
Show Time: Tuesdays 8pm-10pm EST (or for us westcoasters: 5pm – 7pm PST)
Click here for the Live Webcast and here for the Show Blog

He even takes requests at: 207-725-3250. Chris, I want so more cowbell, play some LCD Soundsystem for me??? Please?

NOTE - 5/6/08. Just heard from Chris and he’s on vacation right now. He’ll be back on the airwaves beginning May 13!

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Up the Excaliber

This Saturday is the all-ages debut of the new four piece line up of Seattle’s The Abodox (myspace.com/theabodox).  A few months ago, the band’s three mulish founding members were joined by Blaine Patnode of the legendary Swarming Hordes (RIP).  This will be a damn good time.   The Helm, Heiress, and Carbon Arc open the show on May 10th at Ground Zero in Bellevue.

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Awesome Show, Great Job!

Everyone has always known that musicians are funny.  Even if it isn’t intentional (or even if its the second hand “smoke”), you will usually get more laughs in a rock club green room than you will at a local comedy club.  Lately, artists like Flight of the Conchords are inviting all of us into their world of rock gags by simultaneously having a comedy show on tv as well as a record on a rock label.  Tim and Eric are more subtle than that.  They most likely won’t be showing up on the SubPop roster anytime soon; but they have roped a rock booking agent into put them in rock clubs all around the country.  I saw them last year at the crocodile and I have never been so compelled by two dudes in make up dancing to inside jokes they recorded in GarageBand.  They have really tapped into the most wonderful aspect of things that suck.   If you think they are funny, you will become obsessed.  If you aren’t sure what the fuss is about, you probably never will.  Check out their antics at timanderic.com and if you love a good Kelsey Gramar quote as much as I do, you will be at Neumos tonight to witness this.

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Editor Kevin Leaving NWMB

Kevin LeDoux is, I’m sad to report, leaving NWMB as editor. We hope to see him grace these pages as an occasional contributor. I’ll be assuming editor duties once again. Thank you, Kevin. Your contributions to NWMB cannot be overstated.

The situation may leave NWMB with fewer writers, so if  you’d like to write here, contact us.

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Hip Hop Attack!

I am blown away this week. It’s been a little bit since I appeared here. Been inundated with new tunes, and this week has been no exception. If you’ve been spinning these albums, you’ve been offline, too:
First off, I got the second release from Gnarls Barkley, “The Odd Couple.” If you’ve seen “Austin Powers” you’ll remember those little goofy musical interludes (with the Posies’ frontman/part-time R.E.M. member Ken Stringfellow, don’tcha know?) with those goofy little early 60’s pop riffs. Producer/DJ Dangermouse appears to have been diving into those crates for inspiration. Fantastic album. And no “Crazy”-like song to be overplayed on every damned station. “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” is on KEXP and I don’t think I’ll get sick of it anytime soon. “Odd Couple” is in heavy rotation but it’s outshined by….

Lyrics Born’s “Everywhere at Once”. I tend to think the “where” in this case is the Eighties. And that’s no dig. He’s not chillin’ with Ronnie or Max Headroom or Spuds Mackenzie. I think he’s been tippin’ back cold ones with the Sugar Hill Gang and got Kool and the Gang or maybe Nu Shooz as his backing band. Give “Differences” a test spin at your fave music store. Longtime collaborator Joya Velarde (duh, she’s his wife) is there anchoring the song with the backing vox and keeping it sounding familiar, but there’s another vocalist (male) there. (Haven’t found his name yet - damned iTunes. -ed.) Tons o’ handclaps, funky deep background guitar riffs, snare hits, synth fills, all dope Casio keyboard stuff. ‘Cept in way higher fidelity than anything your older sister was rockin’ in ‘84. Spoiler Alert: Almost NO scratching. D-Sharp and DJ Shadow have LEFT THE BUILDING. Just like LB left Quannum.
This album is a natural, but totally unexpected, progression since LB started to implement the live-band show in the past few years. If I had been in town Sunday night, I would have been at the show. I really want to know how this new recording is performed live. If you’ve got his Quannum releases stuck on REPEAT, prepare for your mental CD to start skipping, because this is not “Send Them” or “I Changed My Mind”. His trademark rhyme delivery is here and just as fresh as when the first Latyrx came out, but it’s this new instrumentation. Totally unlike anything I’ve heard in the hip hop world. “Cakewalk” is spinning now, and I get the distinct visual of that last fade out shot in “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo” as the street’s full of dancers… Dunno, can’t shake that.

HowEVER, another live-band-backed hip hop outfit is rockin’ in my earphones now:
The Roots‘ RISING DOWN just dropped. I am working my way through it. Stomping my left foot as I type. Goosebumps. This is the freshest, and not by virtue of being newest. It’s tight. I’ll save you the played out metaphors. I am gotta listen really close a few times through before I can say anymore than _go_get_this_album. Talib Kweli is here. Peedi Peedi is here. Mos Def is here. (I hear white people LOVE Mos.)

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The Dollyrots punk El Corazón

Last Tuesday was an interesting night to say the least. I ventured out to review the band The Dollyrots at El Corazón and woke up the next day with a flat tire, a screaming headache, and a Dollyrot’s t-shirt I’m sure I didn’t pay for. And thats how I guess I can describe The Dollyrot’s show, it kicked my ass. On tour to support their latest album “Because I’m Awesome” the band was amazingly receptive and humble, and the Jäger at El Corazón is friggn tainted I swear…

Currently signed to Joan Jett’s label Blackheart Records, “Because I’m Awesome” is super punk-pop with catchy verses and solid hooking choruses. And at first listen (and I’m sure the band is gonna love me for this) it reminds me of Avril Levine meets The Sounds. But that’s because of the high production quality of the album, once you see the band live it all comes together. I talk with my peers all the time about how to capture on recording the ‘live” feel so the listener can “get it” in their car as well as they do at the show. But with The Dollyrots that wouldn’t work, the album is only one-up’d by the live show. The polished poppy recordings are great, and help you get the jist of the songs, but when you see them live, Kelly Ogden’s raw badass vocals with Luis Cabezas guitar and Chris Blacks drumming punch you right in the face and let you know the band is for real, and punk as fuck. It’s a great combination to help them break through the hard-crusted lining that is the major label scene. And along with playing SXSW the last two years in a row, and sharing labels with bands like Green Day, Rancid, Ted Leo/Pharmacists, and Pretty Girls Make Graves the band seems to be on the high road to success.

With all that in mind you’d think they’d be on a tour bus with a ryder like as thick as The Odyssey. But no, they travel in a van with a trailer, eat pink malt balls (sorry Kelly I forgot which brand), stick to the per diem and drink tickets, and keep a level head (unlike me at their show). I was highly impressed with how grateful and humble the band is about being fortunate enough to make a living playing music. I’m not sure how I ended up with a free T (like i said the Jäger at El Corazón is tainted) but I hope they can forgive me cuz I’m gonna have to mail them $15. If you get a chance to see them live, DO IT… compared to the album it’s totally not what you’d expect, proving once again, you can’t judge a Dollyrot by its album cover.

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