popwreckoning

As I mentioned yesterday in my Bumbershoot preview for Saturday, Seattle’s own Pickwick is amazing, fantastic, the next big thing. I haven’t changed my mind from yesterday, so I’ll elaborate.

Last weekend I saw Pickwick for the first time at KEXP’s Concerts at the Mural at the Seattle Center (it was free!) and I was flabbergasted. If you take one look at these guys, you wouldn’t expect the beautiful soulful jams that came from this group of white guys with great hair.

They’ve been all over local blogs like Seattlest, Sound on the Sound, Another Rainy Saturday, among many others.

The band started in 2008 when lead singer Galen Disston left Los Angeles and came to Seattle, and he established Pickwick as an alt-country band. Then spending the next couple years bringing themselves into the Seattle folk scene – finding dozens of like-minded artists. Needless to say, in Seattle, folk is the new grunge.

And it was when Disston began playing with his voice after hearing Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come,” that Pickwick made a name for themselves.

In the past year, they’ve been on the heels of the Head and the Heart, in terms of local buzz, and hopefully they can make their way to at least getting signed. It’s blasphemous to me that someone hasn’t picked Pickwick up yet, but I guess in Seattle that doesn’t really matter – seeing that they’re playing Bumbershoot with plenty of other unsigned artists.

Back to last weekend’s show. I cannot tell you how much my feet hurt at the end of their performance. I did not stop dancing. At one point they brought up several other local artists FROM THE CROWD and had a dance party on stage. There was even a little girl with a shaker dancing along to the effervescent soul beats.

I, for one, am glad that Pickwick found their current sound. It’s refreshing. I love the Head and the Heart and all, but we don’t need a dozen clones of them running around Seattle. We’re known for our innovation in this town, and sometimes the most innovative thing to do is to go back to our roots. And that is what Pickwick has done with their music.

One last thing, it’s come to my attention that Pickwick has posted something about “big news” today on my MySpace page. Once I find that out, you’ll hear it first from me.

Catch them at Bumbershoot on Saturday on the EMP Level 3 Stage tomorrow at 6p.m. You won’t be disappointed. And if you are, what’s wrong with you?

*EDIT* Here’s a video of one of my favourite songs from the KEXP Concert at the Mural last weekend.

Visit Pickwick on Bandcamp at http://pickwick.bandcamp.com/

While Saturday is my designated FOLK day, Sunday is going to be non-stop energy. I can’t wait.

1:00: Wayne Federman and the Gregory Brothers at the Intiman Theatre. I don’t really know anything about this Wayne Federman guy, but the Gregory Brothers (otherwise known as Auto-Tune the News on YouTube if you didn’t already know) are sure to be a spectacle. They played at the 2^nd Annual Vidcon in Los Angeles in July. And from what I heard, it was awesome.

1:30: The Lonely Forest on the Mainstage. I may have seen this band way too many times, but I don’t care, because they’re that good. It might be kind of weird seeing them on the mainstage, because they moved the mainstage to the Key Arena this year instead of Memorial Stadium (yeah, that happened).

2:15: Mad Rad at the Fisher Green Stage. This band is an anomaly – I think they call themselves hipster-hop. I don’t even know how to describe them. Their live show is not for the faint of heart, but definitely not one to miss.

3:00: Broken Social Scene at the Mainstage. I missed their performance at Sasquatch 2010 and I smacked myself so many times for missing them, and I’m not going to do it again.

5:45: Das Racist at the Fisher Green Stage. Whether or not this group’s stage antics is alcohol-induced (most likely is), they have so much hilarious charisma that you’ll be laughing through singing along.

6:45: Warpaint at the Fountain Lawn Stage. You don’t see a lot of all-girl groups anymore. Also, I have not been able to stop listening to Warpaint all summer, so I will be getting my fix this weekend.

7:30: Allen Stone at the EMP Level 3 Stage Sponsored by Mission Foods Artisan. Allen Stone hasn’t even recorded a full-length album and he’s already been featured in USA Today. Seriously? How can you not see his live show? I can vouch – he’s awesome live.

8:00: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis on the Mainstage. I was already in awe of his performance at Sasquatch, and I cannot wait to get back into that crowd full of energy once more. Plus, hearing “My Oh My” actually IN Seattle will be even more moving than before.

9:15: The Kills on the Fisher Green Stage. Alison Mosshart is fantastic, and anything she is apart of – I want to see. Plus, their last album released in April is a winner in my book. And since this will be my last show of the night, I wanna go out dancing.

Oh, but that’s not all! Tomorrow the festival starts, but it’s my final preview for Monday. So keep on the lookout for Bumbershoot coverage all weekend!

As Annastasia and I will be attending this year’s Bumbershoot Festival, we’ll be your trusty PopWreckers bringing you all the details about Seattle’s biggest festival of the year.

For now, here is my preview of Saturday’s lineup.

As much as people rave about festival headliners, this year’s mainstage lineup for Bumbershoot is kind of a bust, save Macklemore and Ryan Lewis on Sunday and Hall & Oates on Monday (but really, Hall & Oates is just for the nostalgia factor).

The best part of this year’s lineup is the overwhelming number of local bands playing the festival. For example…

12 Noon: Campfire Ok on the Fountain Lawn Stage. These adorable KEXP darlings released their first full-length this year, and I have yet to see them live. And I call myself a Seattle music geek. Pshh.

12:45: Yuni in Taxco on the Fisher Green Stage. I saw these guys open for the Builders and the Butchers earlier this year, and I’m interested to see where they’ve gone with their live show since then. Very interested.

1:15: Brite Futures on the… MAINSTAGE? What?! How did I not know they were playing the mainstage? Sure it’s at 1:15, but that’s pretty awesome for Seattle’s little band full of art students formerly known as Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head.

1:30: Kris Orlowski & the Passenger String Quartet at the EMP Level 3 Stage Presented by Mission Foods Artisan. One of many local musicians who has gone the grassroots route for building a fanbase – Kris Orlowski is friends with like every other music to grace small stages throughout the city. And he’s the one sending out all his releases, not a publicist.

2:15: Champagne Champagne at the Fisher Green Stage. This is my kind of hip-hop – fun and full of life, easy to dance to, and lyrics about Molly Ringwald. Tyler the Creator can eat his heart out.

2:45: Presidents of the United States of America on the Mainstage. Okay, so Presidents play Seattle quite often, since they do live here. They’re oldies but goodies. And if you haven’t seen them play live yet, it’s kind of like a right of passage in the Seattle music scene. So why not do it at Bumbershoot?

6:00: Pickwick at the EMP Level 3 Stage Presented by Mission Foods Artisan. This band is awesome. Amazing. Soulful. The next big thing. I’ll tell you more later (see my next edition of Fantastically Local…tomorrow).

8:30: STRFKR at the Fountain Lawn Stage. Enough with the name changes already! Thankfully, the whole Pyramiddd/Starfucker fiasco has ended and now we can just focus on dancing our skinny-jean-covered little asses off.

9:15: Minus the Bear at the Fisher Green Stage. For me, this time slot was a decision between Ray Lamontagne and Minus the Bear. For a closing act, I want something to keep my energy up, and Minus the Bear will do that for me over at Fisher Green. I don’t need sleepy folk soul at the main stage, because frankly it’s a bit boring at that point (i.e. Jason Mraz headlining at 10 PM two years ago, why? I don’t know.)

So you can either take my word for it or go build your Bumbershoot schedule over here at http://sched.bumbershoot.org/ But I suggest you take my word for it. More picks coming soon!

When coming up with a theme for this brand new feature of mine, I couldn’t help but think about all the open mics I’ve attended in the last year in Seattle and the surrounding area. One of them being at the Conor Byrne pub. If you live anywhere near Seattle, you may have heard of it – but if you don’t, I’ll fill you in.

Conor Byrne open mics are every Sunday night, in the heart of the laid-back Seattle neighborhood of Ballard. One band you may have heard of – the Head and the Heart – got their start there just over a year ago, and look at where they are now! So clearly Conor Byrne brings out some amazing musicians – including Damian Jurado, Tony Kevin Jr., the Local Strangers, Johnny Unicorn, and many others I can spend hours talking about.

One band that recently started playing Conor Byrne in the last few months is Bainbridge Island’s St. Paul de Vence, compiled of Benjamin Doerr as lead songwriter, Mike Sievers, Alex Malloy, and Justin Froese. The band plays lovely folk songs lined with banjo, ukulele, and accordion. Like the band’s name, St. Paul de Vence’s music has a French feel – filled with beautiful melodies and lyrics filled with history and longing. Perfect for a lazy summer night, and I love it.

Doerr says his songwriting began as a way to tell his grandfather’s story, “in particular his war experience in the south of France, where he grew up under German occupation and fought with the Free French to liberate his country,” Doerr writes on the band’s Facebook page. 

The first night I met Doerr was the first time St. Paul de Vence had played at Conor Byrne, and one thing I can say about this particular open mic – everyone there is incredibly nice and supportive and it feels like a community, even after playing there just once. As my boyfriend and I were leaving the pub, we passed by Doerr to tell him how great they were – and they were great. Doerr thanked us graciously and handed us both a little band flyer for their Bandcamp page.

Since that night, I attended one of their first shows in the U-District in Seattle about a month ago, the band released several music videos made by local filmmakers, and they’ve recently released their second EP, also on their official Bandcamp.

So why am I writing this right now?

St. Paul de Vence’s new EP, For Hummingbird, Heron, and Honey Bee, is available for a ‘pay-what-you-want’ on their Bandcamp page – so you can donate however much money you want to help pay for the band’s full-length this fall, or stream it and download it for free! I suggest donating just a little bit, because this band needs to put out a full-length. I heard plenty of amazing songs at their headlining show in Seattle last month that deserve to be properly recorded.

And hopefully St. Paul de Vence can follow a similar road as Seattle’s newest sweethearts the Head and the Heart. They have all the grand songwriting and awesome talent to warrant it.

For the full set of photos I got from their show last month, go here.

And for now, here’s a video from the show at Q Cafe last month I took.

Upcoming shows for St Paul de Vence are as follows:

Sept. 1 – Tractor Tavern – w/ Tony Kevin, Jr. and Sean Flinn & The Royal We
5213 Ballard Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
$6 | 21+
9pm

Sept. 16 – Q Cafe – w/ Noah Gundersen and Zach Fleury
3223 15th Avenue West
Seattle, WA 98109
$TBD | all ages
8pm

For more information on this wonderful band, visit St. Paul de Vence’s website at http://www.stpaulband.com

Also, while you’re at it, check out St. Paul de Vence’s first EP, When Our Boys Have Been Buried, which is also awesome.

Keep your eyes open for more ‘Fantastically Local’ columns in the coming weeks!

Following the release of his solo album in September, Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, under his solo moniker of CANT, will go on tour in North America in October. This comes after a short list of dates released for the UK in November with Blood Orange (Dev Hynes) opening. Now I don’t want to be presumptuous, but since Hynes will be opening on the UK tour, he has recently collaborated with Taylor on the CANT album, and Blood Orange is already on the bill for the LA date at the Troubadour, Hynes will more than likely be joining Taylor for the rest of the US tour.

We will keep updating this post if Blood Orange is confirmed, and if any other artists will be joining CANT. Tickets are on sale now.

Tour dates:

October:
01  Doug Fir Lounge Portland, OR
02  Media Club Vancouver, British Columbia
03  Triple Door Seattle, WA
05  The Independent San Francisco, CA
07  Soda Bar San Diego, CA
08  Troubadour Los Angeles, CA
11  Urban Lounge Salt Lake City, UT
12  Larimer Lounge Denver, CO
14  The Bottleneck Lawrence, KS
15  7th Street Entry Minneapolis, MN
16  High Noon Saloon Madison, WI
18  Lincoln Hall Chicago, IL
19  Magic Stick Detroit, MI
21  Garrison Toronto, Ontario
22  Cabaret Mile End Montreal, Quebec
24  Middle East Downstairs Boston, MA
25  Bowery Ballroom New York, NY
27  Johnny Brenda’s Philadelphia, PA
28  Rock and Roll Hotel Washington, DC
29  Moog Festival Asheville, NC

For more information about the tour and CANT, go to http://warp.net/records/cant/north-american-dates-announced

Apparently 2011 is the year the Muppets will rise again.

Smurfs? Meh. Alvin and the Chipmunks? Oh please. But the Muppets – whether or not you were born in their heyday, will always be cool.

And this year will be the year they make their comeback. Remember when Tim Curry was a swashbuckling pirate in “Muppet Treasure Island?” Well I do, and what I remember the most is the soundtrack, even if it was sung by a bunch of puppets and Dr. Frank-N-Furter himself.

But with a new film out in November written by the hilarious Jason Segel and songs by Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie, and a new compilation of classic circa-1970s Muppets songs covered by some darn good artists, Fozzie Bear better dust off his bow tie.

The Muppets: The Green Album features the likes of My Morning Jacket, Andrew Bird, OK Go playing a groovy extended rendition of the Muppet Show theme song, and Weezer, who we all know has a history with the Muppets (see “Keep Fishin’” music video), along with Paramore’s Hayley Williams performing a charming version of “The Rainbow Connection.”

The Green Album, out August 23, doesn’t stray from any of the classic songs performed by the Muppets themselves, and manages to bring them all into 2011.

To listen to each song individually or to stream the whole album right now, head on over to NPR.org before you buy the album (because you really should).

If you haven’t heard already, Berkeley’s own The Morning Benders released a groovy cover of The Strokes classic hit “Last Nite.” The boys sent out an email earlier this week to their mailing list about the cover, and it’s available to preview and download over here at their Tumblr page.

Or to download it directly, click HERE.

I’m personally digging the Morning Benders’ slowed-down angelic take on the garage rock hit. It’s like they threw the song to the west coast, put it at 70%  speed, and slapped on some synthesizer. What do you think?

This was the first time I’d ever been to the Crocodile Cafe (or “the Croc” as it’s affectionately known) in Belltown, and I’m glad it turned out to be an insanely fun time. But then again, when has Sondre Lerche ever not put on a good show? Surely I didn’t know, but that’s what I’d been told.

Before the show began, I stepped outside for a minute – as it was some of the best weather Seattle has seen since last August, and as I walked back in, I was met with some of the most unique sounds I’ve ever heard in a live setting. This was Kishi Bashi, a friend of Lerche’s from New York, and he was amazing.

Seeing that Kishi Bashi’s recorded stuff is largely made up of layering and synthesizers, the loop pedal was his main instrument on stage – accompanied by a violin (sometimes played as a ukulele), a drum machine, and his unique vocals. He sounds like a mix between an Asian James Mercer and Ezra Koenig. Very hip, and very awesome.

Sadly I didn’t get any video footage of his performance, but there are plenty of amateur videos up on YouTube of his amazing on-stage looping. Here’s one I found.

One of my favourite parts of his set was a quite interesting song – you can guess what it’s about – called “Just the Tip.” I’ll leave that to your imagination – but I strongly suggest you check him out at http://kishibashi.bandcamp.com/

After Kishi Bashi’s awe-inspiring set, Nightlands took the stage, which to be honest, it took me a bit to warm up to them. They weren’t bad, they just didn’t have a lot of stage presence to start out with. Once they got through a few songs, Nightlands loosened up a bit and played more to the crowd rather than in front of the crowd if that makes sense. I liked their music – it was catchy indie pop with a self-deprecating tinge. It’s definitely something I’d listen to on record, maybe just not go out and see live again.

However, it was a nice little moment when Sondre Lerche and his drummer came out on stage to jam with Nightlands during their last couple songs. He just sneaked out onto the stage – he’s so tiny.

For more on Nightlands, visit http://www.nightlands.us/

Finally, once the crowd was comfortably inebriated, Sondre Lerche took the stage with his many guitars.

Let me tell you – this guy is a surprise on stage. When you listen to Lerche’s music on record, you hear a crooner with a voice smoother than a good cheese sauce. And on stage, he’s jumping all over the place rocking out. It’s like two different worlds, yet it all makes sense together and makes for a great Friday night.

Playing through an extensive setlist, he started out with the hugely catchy “Private Caller.” He also included in the set – “Domino,” “Two Way Monologue,” “Living Dangerously,” and “Coliseum Town.” Forgetting how big his catalog is, I hadn’t realized that Lerche had been doing this for ten years when he said it – but that’s maybe because he looks like he’s about my age, 22.

Lerche’s charming on stage persona was only made better when he started taking requests. At one point, he sweetly said to the audience, “I know I’ve been playing through all these new songs, but I completely forgot to ask if anyone had any requests.” And instantly people shouted out song titles somewhat incoherently, but one did stand out from the rest.

“Sleep on Needles!”

So Lerche busted right into the catchy tune and the whole Croc turned into a little dance party.

During the last few songs of his set, Lerche brought out several members of Nightlands and Kishi Bashi as his backup band, and it seemed like one big family on stage, and that infectious feeling spread throughout the Croc. I didn’t want to leave, even though some might say his well-over-an-hour set was too long. My philosophy is: a set is only too long when an artist doesn’t blow you away.

Sondre Lerche’s set was definitely not too long.

Seattle’s premiere mid-summer music festival the Capitol Hill Block Party is happening in less than a week, this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to be precise. If you live anywhere near Seattle and haven’t heard about it by now, you must have been living under a rock.

Last year’s festival had the likes of the Dead Weather and MGMT headlining the urban festival, set in the middle of Seattle’s South Capitol Hill neighborhood.

This year’s lineup includes: TV on the Radio, Explosions in the Sky, the Head and the Heart, and well you can see the whole lineup above – over 70 bands including some of Seattle’s finest local talents.

For the full festival schedule, go to http://capitolhillblockparty.com/schedule/

To purchase tickets, individual day tickets for $27.50 or 3-day passes for $82.50 are available here: http://capitolhillblockparty.strangertickets.com/Home

The Mountain Goats’ fan base is made up largely of nerds. Don’t deny it. That’s probably the reason that they didn’t sell out the Showbox – because nerds generally don’t like leaving the house and being in large groups. But the crowd was surprisingly large, considering.

Arriving in just the nick of time, I walked into the Showbox, with people sitting on the floor waiting for the opening act, Midtown Dickens. Clearly, people were taking ownership of their rightful places in the crowd. So naturally, I sat down because everyone else was.

Once the members of the openers, Midtown Dickens, took the stage, people instantly stood up. The North Carolina natives put on a fantastic energetic show, considering the fact that vocalist Kym had just arrived to Seattle 20 minutes before they went on stage. Her guitar wasn’t even tuned when she got on stage, so they filled up that awkward time with some of the wittiest storytelling I’ve heard in a long time.

Midtown Dickens had a great stage presence, what they call on their Facebook page “post-folk punk grass,” preempting several songs with the story of their origin. It was the perfect precursor to the Mountain Goats, with the largely narrative songwriting.

After the highly entertaining set that Midtown Dickens put on, the Mountain Goats had one of the weirdest introductions I’ve ever heard. As they took to the stage, very excruciating indistinguishable death metal played over the loud speakers (emphasis on the ‘loud’). I couldn’t help but laugh, because of the sheer irony of the death metal juxtaposed to John Darnielle in his suit, tie, and nerdy glasses taking the stage. It was perfect.

This was the point when I realized that this crowd was full of nerds – because a.) most people danced like dorks, and b.) personal space was honored more than usual. People were spread out, which made the venue much more comfortable for the night.

While I love the Mountain Goats music, I just love listening to Darnielle speak. He’s incredibly eloquent and quite funny. At one point, bassist Peter Hughes brought up the idea of narrating the set like a DJ would on the radio. “That was ‘You Were Cool’vby the Mountain Goats, and here’s another one from the Mountain Goats,” Darnielle said aloud with the quintessential radio voice.

Speaking of “You Were Cool,” that song really needs to be on an album, like legitimately recorded. Mainly because I feel like it is the perfect theme song for, well, life.

Seeing that Darnielle is one of the most prolific songwriters of our time, I had no clue which songs we were going to get. It’s definitely a different experience than seeing an emerging band with only enough songs to play a full set. While a lot of songwriters try and hide the muddle the meaning of a song with metaphors and vague references, Darnielle’s songs are painfully honest and easy to relate to – especially us nerds.

To end out the set, the Mountain Goats played my favourite song of theirs, “This Year.”

“If the members of Midtown Dickens are still in the building, would they please join us on stage?” Darnielle shouted to the audience. So Midtown Dickens quickly made it to the stage, and “This Year” turned into a joyous, triumphant dance party. Again, it was perfect.

But it wasn’t over yet, because we got not one, but two encores. Heck, there are enough Mountain Goats songs to fill almost an entire 24-hour day, so two encores wasn’t surprising.

In fact, I would like to see 24-hour Mountain Goats marathon. I’d be all over that.