Nothing like finding yourself on YouTube

I was doing my semi-regular searches of YouTube for stuff for the blog, and what did I happen to find? ME! Well, more correctly it's a 2 minute and 39 second compilation of The Scheme set at The Comet a few weeks back. It's kind of herky-jerky and cuts from song to song it pretty random places. But, nonetheless, it was funny/odd to find it, since I don't think we knew anyone was taping the performance.

Photos: IPO Day 1

The IPO kicked off at the Sunset Tavern last night with its typical early start of 7:30pm with Catfight! and rocked solidly (and efficiently on time) until The Tripwires shut it down about five hours later.

I had a great time (if a little woozy by The Tripwires, thanks to Ryan from the Young Sportsmen buying me two Red Headed Sluts... and I'm an alcohol wimp), and it was a good sized crowd, and they were enthusiastic about the rock emanating from the stage.

Rather than try to write a review about each band, I'm going to let the photos do the talking this year. So, without further ado, here is your photo guide to Day One at the IPO.

Garage pop duo Catfight! started the night off with a bang:



They were followed by Portland's Beyond Veronica:




The Scheme was on third, but there are no photos, because I was on stage playing bass rather than in the crowd taking pictures.

The Young Sportsmen were on fourth, and they put on what I thought was the best set of the night:





The Small Change is such a great band that even when they come close to coming completely off the rails, it's still a great rock show. I know I said I was going to let the photos do the talking, but I have to tell a Small Change story. I was snapping pictures and had a perfectly framed photo of Greg in mid jump. But, due to the delay of my digital camera, he landed by the time the shutter engaged, resulting in a perfectly framed photo of his ass. Sadly, I accidentally deleted the shot.







Stuporhero was the second male/female duo of the night, but their ace in the hole was a mannequin named Bubbles Chuckles (thanks for the correction!) on drums and a laptop computer:





The Sterling Loons followed Stuporhero, and did a number of tunes from their upcoming album, which they described as a "popera."





Closing out the night were the fabulous Tripwires. It took them a while to get on the stage, because Mark seemed particularly annoyed and frustrated by the drum kit. His frustration continued into the first couple of songs. But, once they all settled in, they killed it.

Model Photographer tonight at Mars Bar

Alex Rose is a busy man. Last I checked he was playing with Heather Duby, Minus the Bear and Model Photographer. The latter band is his own songwriting. But, due to the hectic schedules of the former, the latter hasn't been playing much lately.

But, that changes tonight as they are playing at the Mars Bar with The Scheme and M Bison (full disclosure: I play bass in The Scheme).

Model Photographer made a record that was intended to be a regularly released disc. But, as Alex got more and more busy with Minus the Bear, they decided to release it for free on the web. I posted about it about a month ago. But, here are some links to my favorite tracks.

Before You Drive Away

Secret Club

Seattle Musicians' thoughts on You Am I, part 3

Well, looks like I was able to hear from at least three Seattle musicians in celebration of the randomly deemed You Am I Day here at the Seattle Powerpop Blog. Not bad for a late morning idea.

David Thompson of The Scheme:

My ex-girlfriend introduced me to You Am I .... we had their "Lo Fi Way" recorded on a blank tape with the Lily's "Better Can't Make Your Life Better" on the other side and we played it to death while driving around Boston. Both are great albums that don't sound too terribly alike but I didn't know anything about either band and couldn't remember which was which until they both happened to come to town in the same month. Sadly, the Lilys were a mess live but You Am I completely blew me away. What showmen! My favorite bit was when frontman Tim Rogers would point to a spot on the floor, do a giant scissor kick and land on that spot. ROCK 'n' ROLL! My friend Paul imitated that move on stage for months later. Probably still does.

Show tonight (3/11) ....self serving

Hi all,

If you're free tonight, there is an early show at The Comet Tavern featuring The Scheme, The Zero Points and The Bug Nasties. of course, as the bass player for The Scheme, I've got a vested interest in saying "it will be a good time." But, don't let such conflict of interest prevent you from coming down and rocking out with us.

It's an early show, with The Scheme starting at 7pm on the nose.

Powerpop Night photos

I snapped a bunch of photos last night during the Powerpop Night at The Comet. I forgot how hard it is to take good photos with my camera there. In most venues I get better shots without the flash, but since The Comet has no stage lights, it's too dark without it. So, none of these are stellar. But, not horrible, either.

The night went quite well, overall. I think The Comet folks were somewhat befuddled by the running order of the night, which went band-solo-band-solo-band. For some reason this seemed to confuse them and resulted in longer change-overs than necessary.

They also wouldn't let us start until 10pm instead of the pre-determined 9:30pm, which meant the Young Sportsmen were going on as 12:30 instead of midnight. Sadly, the crowd of close to 100 had dwindled by that time. Their loss, however, as the Sportsmen rocked it out like they were in an arena instead of a sparsely populated club.

My band The Scheme started the night off, and since I was on stage, I didn't get any photos. But, trust me, we were very handsome. :)

Here are some snapshots of and comments on the rest of the bands.

James Hall, from Shake Some Action, came on second and did some nice solo acoustic version of SSA tunes. The songs hold up very well to that kind of stripped down setting, which is a testament to how good they are to begin with. I took a handful of shots of James, and he looks absolutely possessed by some kind of demon in all of them except this one.


James Hall - Shake Some Action

Up next were Ghosts & Liars, about whom I received more comments than any other band on the bill. I think lots of folks were surprised at how good they were. Descriptions of them from other folks to me ranged from "like The Decemberists without the sea chanties" to "like a folk-rock Jellyfish." Great songs, great sound.


Ghosts & Liars - Chris DuBray


Ghosts & Liars

On after G&L was Matt Southworth of The Capillaries. Matt played a lot of new tunes, as well as a Beatles cover, and sounded great. He was also pretty entertaining with funny in-song banter.


Matt Southworth - The Capillaries

Closing out the night were Young Sportsmen. As always, they rocked. As I mentioned earlier, it's to their credit that they played that show with all the heart and performance irrespective of the number of folks left in the house. Once again my friend David and I were trying to find decent comparisons for these guys. We settled on a little bit of Superdrag and a little bit of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists.

Perhaps the biggest compliment I can give them, however, is that my wife -- who normally doesn't like live music unless she knows all the band's songs -- enjoyed their set. That might not seem like much. But, she's a tough critic. So, that bodes well for their appeal to people who "like music" but are not necessarily music fans. Based on this, I say they have a hit record within two years.


Young Sportsmen - Richard and Wesley


Young Sportsmen


Young Sportsmen -- providing a very big ending to a fun night of music

Monday Morning Powerpop mp3(s)

This Saturday, 1/27, is the second SPB Powerpop Night. This one is being held at The Comet Tavern. So, this week's Monday Morning mp3 is a actually collection of mp3s from the bands on the bill. Enjoy a taste of this weekend's show and I hope you can make it. It's going to be a heck of a good time.

Young Sportsmen - Under The Rocks and the Stars

Ghosts & Liars - We'll Carry On

The Scheme - Sidewalk Soundtrack

I don't have mp3 links for James Hall (Shake Some Action) or Matt Southworth (The Capillaries). But, you can hear their respective bands on their linked myspace pages.

Monday Morning mp3

I'm still recovering from being gone for a week. So, I'm taking the lazy way out for the Monday Morning mp3 today. Not that the quality is low or anything, mind you. It just didn't require a lot of searching, because I'm in the band. :)

So, today's mp3 is from my band The Scheme and our song "The Sun Also Sets."

While I'm on the subject of The Scheme, we're in the market for a bass player. After looking for a 2nd guitarist for a while, we're considering having me move from bass to guitar. So, if you play bass and like what you hear, drop us a note.

The Scheme in the studio

I wasn't doing much in the way of blogging this past weekend, because I was in the studio with The Scheme, recording a new track with Rob Sharp (of New West Motels) in his studio The Playroom.

Rob does good work! The new tune, the title of which is still being debated but for now is now called "You Let Me Go," is up on our myspace page. This is an early CD burn. A higher quality version will be up in a day or so.

Here are some photos:


David lays down a guitar track


Although Chris was completely sober, you'd never know it from the photos I took!


David and Rob try to coax something cooler than static out of the ol' Korg.

The Scheme in the studio

I wasn't doing much in the way of blogging this weekend, because I was in the studio with The Scheme, recording a new track with Rob Sharp (of New West Motels) in his studio The Playroom.

Here are some photos:


David lays down a guitar track


Although Chris was completely sober, you'd never know it from the photos I took!


David and Rob try to coax something cooler than static out of the ol' Korg.

Day 15: Two mp3s per day for 16 days

Well, we're coming close to the end of the Two mp3s Per Day For 16 Days series. By now, you all no doubt know that the International Pop Overthrow is starting on Thursday with all these great bands. Today is "full disclosure" day, though, because I will be posting an mp3 of my own band, The Scheme.

The Scheme's "Sidewalk Soundtrack"

Jim Basnight Band with a song with a title I don't know.