Rusty Willoughby/Riffbrokers at Sunset

Two of SPB’s favorites, The Riffbrokers and Rusty Willoughby are playing acoustic sets this Tuesday night, 1/22/08 at The Sunset Tavern.

The Riffbrokers play powerpop with a rootsy twang and have a bunch of compelling songs by Nick Millward that should sound great in an acoustic setting.

Rusty Willoughby has been on the Seattle music scene for over two decades now, putting out brilliant records to varying degrees of success with Pure Joy, Flop and his current band Llama. Llama’s latest record Llama II is incredibly good (and can be downloaded for free at the Llama web site) but has gone almost completely unnoticed by the music press. From reading his web site over the past few years I get the impression that Willoughby is a little tired of promoting his music - that he’d rather spend his time and energy in more productive and creative endeavors. If fame was any refection of an artist's talent then Rusty Willoughby would be huge but we can be selfishly thankful that he isn’t and that we can still go see him perform in an intimate club for only six bucks.

More on Llama's new stuff

I've been listening to the new Llama recordings pretty much non-stop since finding them for download yesterday, and I've got to tell you that they're amazingly good. It's pretty straightforward in terms of instrumentation -- mostly drums, bass, vocals and percussion. But, the production (Sangster?) is wholly effective.

The songs are simple and short. But, dang, they're melodic and get under your skin without being overtly "hooky." If you didn't go get them yesterday when I posted the link, you should go do so right now and enjoy.

Rusty can write some brilliant tunes.

Now you can get free Llama mp3s

A few weeks ago I posted about Llama's new record being available for free download, and it looked like I had misreported.

Well, NOW it's out there for you to grab. In fact, they've made the first record available, as well. Act fast, because who knows how long this page is going to be available.

Llama's new record, streaming online

Llama has made their new record available in streaming form on their website. I'm listening as I type, and it sounds really good. I'm not really sure when this bugger is going to be release for real. But, you should keep your eyes open for it.

You should also note that they've made some of their first record available to download via their myspace page.

Llama, Lunds and Lynde on Friday

There's a great show happening on Friday featuring Llama, The Lund Bros and Paul Lynde Fan Club.

Llama is supposed to have a new recording coming out sometime this summer. Hopefully it's sooner rather than later, as I'm excited to hear it. Llama has just the worst myspace page whatsoever... it doesn't even mention the show this Friday. So, don't let their lack of marketing keep you from attending the show.

This show is a typical Seattle connect-the-musician-dots line up. Scott Sutherland is in both Llama (on bass) and Paul Lynde Fan Club (on guitar). Lisa King in the bass player in Paul Lynde Fan Club, and she was in Pure Joy with Rusty Willoughby (main man on guitar in Llama). And hat tip to Gwon, who pointed out that Jim Hunnicutt plays drums with both Llama and Paul Lynde Fan Club.

The Lund Bros, as far as I know, will only be on stage during the Lund Bros set. I'm sure I've posted this before, but here's some video of their Cheap Trick-esque stylings at the High Dive:

Llama's new website and album

I just cruised over to Llama's website, and they're totally redone the site. It's pretty spare on content right now (although quite pretty). But, of more importance, it promises a new record sometime soon -- "summer 2007," specifically. Another new record to look forward to!!

In the meantime, you can stream their previous release from their site. Their song "Right Now" from that disc is probably one of my top ten favorite locally released songs of the past several years.

Here's a shot from their myspace page of them recording:

Llama photos and write up

Gwon from the Lund Bros is becoming my unofficial Olympia/Tacoma correspondent... at least at gigs where the Lund Bros are performing. He wrote up his thoughts on his own So Yummy blog and forwarded them my way.

So, here are some photos he took, with a few words quoted from his original blog.

If you haven't seen Llama yet, you should check them out. Rusty's this wiry guy with stringy hair who is left-handed. He plays guitar and sings and when you see him play guitar, you'll be intrigued. It takes a few moments to notice, but he doesn't play a left-handed guitar; he plays it strung standard, just flipped over. In other words, the low E is away from him and the high E is closest to him. That causes his right hand, his chording hand, to play chords upside down. It's very weird. He's very diminuitive on stage, but he performs very well.

Scott on bass is very solid with his pickstyle playing and excellent backing vocals. Evidently he is in 3 other bands (fronts Doll Test, plays guitar and sings in Paul Lynde Fan Club, and plays rhythm guitar for the Riffbrokers) so he's quite the busy dude. He's the first guy from the crew to have approached me last fall when we played the Sunset together. He's very humble and down to earth.

Jim plays drums and he looks nothing like you'd expect. I joked with Sean last night that Jim looked to be the guy that would do your taxes in April. But he's quite good behind the kit. Very peppy player and always plays appropriate to the song.

Together, the three of them have a great group of pop tunes. Rusty's jangly guitar and Scott's backing vocals are probably the most notable parts of the songs, along with the actual songs themselves.

Download a full Llama album

I just got a note from Rusty of Llama in which he informed me that Llama not only has a new website, but also that one can download an entire album there. I suggest you head over there now and partake in the poppy goodness.

Llama/Tripwires/Lund Bros photos

I headed down to the Tractor Tavern to see the Lund Brothers/The Tripwires/Llama show last night. Good show all around. I think it's a sign of my age that I'm finding Friday night shows harder to attend than Saturday night shows, because I tuckered out about 6 songs into Llama's set. But, overall it was a solid night of music.

The Lund Brothers from down Tacoma way opened the night. I had been trying to catch them for a while but they (like The Capillaries) are one of those bands that always seems to have shows on nights when I've got alternate plans. But, thankfully, I could catch them this evening.

Those guys are pretty darn rock n' roll. I was riffing with my friend David about who they remind us of. The names we were throwing around included Cheap Trick, You Am I, and the more rocking side of The Posies.


The Lund Brothers' Gwon Chang


The Lund Brothers' Chris Lund

Second on the bill was The Tripwires. I've gushed about them plenty in the past. So, no need to rehash it too much. I just really dig their sound and their songs.


The Tripwires' Jim Sangster

Closing out the night was Llama. As I said earlier, I kind of ran out of steam during their set, so I wasn't digging it as much as I thought I was going to. But, I'm perfectly willing to chalk that up to being tired, because I've always enjoyed them in the past.


Llama's Scott 5


Llama's Rusty Willoughby

Llama mp3 & show

As previously mentioned, Llama is playing on Friday with The Tripwires and Lund Bros at the Tractor Tavern. Llama, like The Tripwires, includes part of the family lineage of the Model Rockets (namely one Scott [5] Sutherland also of The Doll Test), and is coalesced around the songwriting talents of one Rusty Willoughby (Pure Joy, Flop, etc.).

I haven't written much about Llama since starting the blog, and I don't have a good excuse as to why that is. They did quite a few shows toward the end of last year. But, if you've not had a chance to see them, this show on Friday is the perfect opportunity, since it's a strong bill.

To whet your appetite, here's an mp3 of their song "Right Now."

Monday (afternoon) mp3

Another busy start to the work week. So, this week's Monday Morning mp3 is hitting you right at the end of the work day. What better way to summarize my feelings about when I'd like to leave the office than Llama's "Right now."


Llama

Visqueen & Llama "secret shows"

I'm not sure exactly how secret they can be if we're able to read myspace bulletins about them. But, this just in from Visqueen:

Dudes:

A week from today Visqueen boards a plane bound for London to support Neko Case on a fall UK tour. Ben's language lessons are going great and he's got a real handle on "English" and “Irish”.

Starting tomorrow, Jules Maes in Seattle's beloved Georgetown neighborhood will secretly open it’s bar doors to host two nights of Visqueen warm up shows. Rusty Willoughby's master-threepiece LLAMA joins us on this very rare and special double-decker occasion.

Tuesday 10/24 & Wednesday 10/25
Jokes start at 9.

Love,
Rachel