The Riffbrokers CD Release Party

The Riffbrokers new CD Weight of Line and Intersection is fantastic and this is a great bill so don’t miss this show.

SPB 2nd Anniversary

We’ve reached an important milestone here at Seattle Powerpop Blog: our Second Anniversary. To mark the occasion I asked Gary Miller if he would write something pertinent and he obliged me with this very heart felt reflection. Thanks Gary!

What can happen in two years? Let's see. You could earn an associate's degree. You could walk around the earth a couple of times. You could even potentially have two children, like my sister did (I wouldn't recommend it). You could also start a blog with humble intentions, watch it take root, and then pack up and move away a few months before it hits that two year mark!

Given how much fun it was to start, it feels odd that the blog was created and maintained through what was probably the most gut wrenching time in my life. In the same span that SPB has existed, my wife and I lost two pregnancies and that's what motivated our return to the East Coast. That's probably too much information. But, I'm feeling sentimental. Cut me some slack!

Today, however, I find myself missing Seattle. Don't get me wrong, I love being in North Carolina. I can see my family anytime I want to. I can drive to Atlanta or take a quick flight to Florida and in no time have a niece and nephew on each knee. That's a reward all it's own.

But, on random Friday nights, I long to see Greg Collingsworth, drunk off his ass, singing at the top of his lungs at the Sunset Tavern. On hot, sleepless evenings if I close my eyes tightly, I can just make out The Boss Martians crammed into the corner at the Comet. And when it's quiet in my neighborhood, I swear I can hear the Young Sportsmen practicing.

It's hard to get too worked up over this little blog, of course. I mean it started as a diversion at work on a boring afternoon. It's not like it is a Seattle institution or anything. That said, it certainly has its place and has achieved more than I had ever anticipated. So, I was thrilled that Andy wanted to keep it going after I moved away, and thrilled for the same reason I started it in the first place -- there are bands on the scene who don't get attention corresponding with their talents.

But, it ain't easy. Andy, like me before him, struggles to find time to post -- fitting it around work and life and family and fun. It's hard to post consistently, and you'd be surprised how hard it is to get information from bands sometimes. That said, in two years there have been over 1000 posts, focused on good, quality music, and I'm proud of it!

So, this rambling post isn't a call to arms, nor is it a lament. Through my muddled thoughts, this is meant to be a celebration of effort. You know, it's easier not to blog than to blog. But, we do it anyway. It's easier to not write great songs. But, the bands do it anyway. Heck it's probably easier to not read this blog than to read it! But, some of you do it anyway. So, yes, this is a celebration of effort. Thanks to the bands first and foremost for doing what they do. Thanks to Andy for keeping this blog going. And thanks for whoever is out there reading. Happy second birthday, SPB!

Recommended shows for the week of 5/18/08

Sunday the 18th:
A Mod Garage Dance Party with The Black Hollies/The Bug Nasties/Autolite Strike and DJ Gort and Casserole at The Comet

The Posies at The Wild Buffalo (Bellingham)

Friday the 23rd:
Boat/Young Sportsmen/Mighty Giant/The Prawns at Kirkland Teen Union Building

Holy Ghost Revival/The Greatest Hits/The Spurts/Ben Funkhouser at King Cobra

Q: A Gun-Shaped Knife

A: Bright orange camouflage.

Young Sportsmen - If You Want It

An excellent record from Young Sportsmen, brimming with sharp songwriting, well-crafted arrangements and inspired performances, all superbly captured by producer Johnny Sangster. Like its predecessor, this is immediately appealing power pop with all the requisite energy, volume, hooks, harmonies and melodies the term implies but If You Want It also introduces an angular, highly rhythmic component to Young Sportsmen’s sound that was only hinted at on Death to Palaces and like sweet and tart it’s a great combination. This is power pop with an edge and plenty of substance, one of those rare albums that sounds great the first time you play it and only sounds better with each subsequent listen as you begin to absorb its various textures and ideas.

Wesley Nelson’s oblique, evocative lyrics leave plenty of room for interpretation but he seems to have a knack for turning out weighty lines that concisely express the tenor of our times, however bleak. On “Tomorrow Disappears” the centerpiece of the album, Nelson sings in his expressive, clarion voice “Everything we have today is resting on the shoulders of a maybe” and anyone other than an eternal optimist will reflect and agree. In “Sesame Street Fightin’ Man,” a song that cleverly incorporates the riff from the “Sesame Street Theme” and makes it sound driving and urgent, he sings, “Good-luck no longer means a thing/In this town you’re on your own” and in “Hey Gasoline” the refrain: “It’s true that the fools keep us choking on gasoline” makes an indelible impression. Pretty pessimistic stuff but not entirely devoid of hope, in “The Deadenders” Nelson looks forward to better days “Where truth is evident/And the worker gets a better wage” and its swelling, anthemic chorus “And on this day deadenders win” is as stirring as any Woody Guthrie ever penned. On the final track “Long Way Down” he only just admits the possibility of salvation: “You can throw me a line/But you’ve got to come a long way down” before the song ends with a cathartic extended instrumental coda.

Don’t get the idea that If You Want It is a downer though; it’s anything but. When I crank it through my stereo speakers I feel elated - the songs have so much momentum and lift. Jeff Roeser’s powerhouse drumming is amazing. Richard Davidson’s bass lines alternate between anchoring pulses and buoyant melodic flights. The guitars of Ryan Maxwell and Wesley Nelson riff, ring and buzz with power as their vocals soar over the top. Keyboards and percussion provide addition color and texture. Young Sportsmen’s myriad influences (The Beatles, The Jam, XTC and The Breeders to name a few) are well assimilated giving the band a fresh, distinctive sound. This is simply an outstanding album so go out and get it and go see Young Sportsmen live if you get the chance – they put on an incredible show.

www.myspace.com/youngsportsmen

www.myspace.com/unsmashablerecords

Recommended shows for the week of 5/11/08

Wednesday the 14th:
The Posies at Hell’s Kitchen (Tacoma)

Thursday the 15th:
Thee Sgt. Major III/Young Sportsmen/The Lund Brothers at The Sunset

The Posies at Winterland (Bremerton)

Friday the 16th:
Roy Loney & The Longshots/The Tripwires/The Fucking Eagles at The Sunset

The Posies at Dante’s (Portland)

The Evaporators/TacocaT at The Funhouse

Saturday the 17th:
The Small Change at University District Street Fair (1:00 pm)

The Posies/Dear John Letters at Neumos

Roy Loney & The Longshots/The Tripwires/The Fucking Eagles at Java Jive (Tacoma)

Sugarcane Mutiny at Jules Maes

Young Sportsmen and Friends at The Rendezvous Saturday Night

Seattle Powerpop Radio Playlist #9

Playlist number nine, number nine, number nine…

More great power pop from a few of my favorite Seattle bands including a new song from The Young Fresh Fellows taken from a compilation CD called R.E.M. Jukebox that came with last month’s Q magazine. The track will eventually be released on a forthcoming Robyn Hitchcock produced Young Fresh Fellows album. I can definitely hear Mr. Hitchcock’s influence here.

I’m really excited to have a cut from Young Sportsmen’s excellent new album If You Want It. I’ll have a full album review up soon.

The Greatest Hits are aptly named since every song they record sounds like it should be a greatest hit. This is a new one produced by Steve E. Nix and Johnny Sangster.

James Hall sent me this great track from Shake Some Action’s soon to be released second album Sunny Days Ahead. Listen carefully to this song about an after school fight and notice how perfectly Gary Miller’s guitar solo colors in the action and emotion outlined by the lyrics.

The last song here is a classic from The Model Rockets off of their 1996 album Snatch It Back and Hold It. It’s a really great punky power pop song. John Ramberg’s hilarious social observation is right up their with Ray Davies’ and it doesn’t get any better than that.

Here's the playlist:

The Young Fresh Fellows - "Let The Good Times Crawl"
Young Sportsmen - "The Deadenders"
The Greatest Hits - "Electric Blanket Boogie"
Shake Some Action - "Half Past Three"
The Model Rockets - "Cul De Sac"

Recommended shows for the week of 5/4/08

Sunday the 4th:
The Cute Lepers w/ The Buzzcocks/Damned/Rezillos at Academy in the UK Festival (Birmingham)

Thursday the 8th:
Ms. Led at The Sunset Tavern

Marty Willson-Piper/The Moon Maidens/The Transmissionary Six at The Tractor Tavern

Friday the 9th:
Thee Sgt. Major III/The Pranks/The Doll Test at Jules Maes

Saturday the 10th:
Young Sportsmen/The Small Change/The Riffbrokers/The Lund Brothers/The Doll Test/The I Love Myselves/Rusty Willoughby at The Rendezvous Grotto

Andy Werth/Young Sportsmen at High Dive

Looks like a great show at the High Dive tomorrow night with Andy Werth, Young Sportsmen and Love Like Fire.

Young Sportsmen are a one of SPB’s favorite bands and their album Death to Palaces was one of the very best records of 2007 - if you don’t have it yet you really should pick it up. They have a new record (produced by Johnny Sangster) coming out in May and they’ll be previewing some of its songs tomorrow night.

Andy Werth is a very talented guy and his super catchy, upbeat piano and horn driven pop will remind you of the ‘70s AM gold of Elton John, Todd Rundgren, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Chicago and 10cc. He’s an exuberant performer and his set is sure to put a smile on your face.

I don’t know much about Love Like Fire except that they're from San Francisco and that Spin magazine called their music “beautifully orchestrated rock”.

Go check it out.

Recommended shows for the week of 3/23/08

Sunday the 23rd:
Visqueen at the Sunset (7:00pm)

Ms. Led/Siren’s Sister/Speaker Speaker at High Dive

The Greatest Hits on “Loud and Local” KISW 99.9FM (10:00pm)

Thursday the 27th:
Wig Pre-Bash with Blackie at the Comet

Curtains For You at the Tractor

Friday the 28th:
Wig Bash with Shim at High Dive

Cute Lepers/The Greatest Hits at King Cobra

Saturday the 29th:
Young Sportsman/Andy Werth at High Dive

Jon Auer at Fremont Abbey Arts Center (8:00pm)

Recommended shows for the week of 2/24/08

Tuesday the 26th:
Young Sportsmen at the Sunset Tavern

Friday the 29th:
Tullycraft at Easy Street Records (Queen Anne) at 8 PM

Thee Sgt. Major III at the High Dive

The Quit at the Comet Tavern

The Hands/The Whore Moans/The Earaches at Neumo's

A rock show note from Young Sportsmen

I just got this from Young Sportsmen via email:

Happy New Year Everyone!

You may have noticed that we haven't played a show in a few months. Well, I'm happy to say that it's because we've been working on our second full-length record with the one-and-only Johnny Sangster producing. We're absolutely thrilled with the way the songs are turning out and we can't wait to share them with you. You see, many of the songs on this record are brand new--we've never even performed many of them live. As of now, we don't have a release date yet. But don't fret! We're dying to share the new songs with you and rock on a stage, so we're sneaking out of the studio this Friday night to play a show at Jules Maes in Georgetown. Come on down to say 'hi,' celebrate the new year, and hear a live sampling of songs from the new record. We'd love to see you!

Friday, January 11, 2008
Peter Parker / Guns N Rosetti / Young Sportsmen (we play first at 9 PM)
Jules Maes Saloon, 5919 Airport Way S in Georgetown (Seattle)
Only $5 gets you in!

Ta-ta!

Young Sportsmen
http://www.youngsportsmen.com

New download from Young Sportsmen

Fans of the Young Sportsmen should jump over to their myspace page and grab their latest addition to their music player. They've added "Trucks and Snakes" and made it downloadable! It's a quality fave from their live show that didn't make their latest album. So, it's great to grab a recording of it.

[blogger edit... turns out it's NOT downloadable. But, you should go listen anyway]

[Blogger Edit #2... Now it's dowloadable again. YS are messin' with me!]

Young Sportsmen prep for new record

The mighty Young Sportsmen posted a blog recently that they're taking time off from live shows to begin prepping for their next record, slated to be recorded by Johnny Sangster (The Tripwires, Dear John Letters, producer of many). So, bummer that we can't see them live, but joy that we should get a new record sometime early (?) next year. If you didn't pick up their awesome Death To Palaces, then go get it, fool. It was only one of the best powerpop records of 2007!

Late breaking rock show

I hadn't heard about the show previously. But, if you're looking for some rock tonight, Young Sportsmen, Twink the Wonder Kid and Tea Cozies are playing at the Skylark Cafe over in West Seattle.

In related matters, I clicked over to see Not Lame's review of the new Young Sportsmen disc, and they were very complimentary:

Death To Palaces is undeniably catchy and punchy, bursting with huge sing along choruses and a general feeling of youthful enthusiasm high energy, razor sharp guitar riffs and clean vocals. The type of pop we love to begin and end our days with. EXTREMELY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

I couldn't agree more.

Young Sportsmen tonight @ the Tractor

Just a heads up that the Young Sportsmen are playing at the Tractor tonight (Friday, October 12) with Dept of Energy and a couple of other bands.

I say without hyperbole that they are one of the best powerpop acts in America right now. The overwhelming majority of Seattle (and the rest of the country for that matter) just doesn't know it yet. But, trust me, they are.

Don't believe me? Here's your homework: Go to the show tonight. Then buy their CD. What's that? You're too broke? Then download the four songs they have available for download on their myspace page. Now, listen to each one twice this weekend. If you can come back here next Friday and tell me that those songs were not stuck in your head for the entire work week, I'll eat my hat.

And I HATE eating hats. :)

Young Sportsmen tonight (9/13)

The Young Sportsmen are playing at the Sunset Tavern tonight (Thursday, Sept 13) with Psuedosix out of Portland and someone called Night Life, who have an absolutely ungoogleable name.

The YS guys are still out promoting their recently released "Death To Palaces" CD, which is nearly flawless in its execution of truly powerful pop. If you don't have it yet you're really missing out.

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.

IPO: Some band videos

As I have previously blogged, this weekend is the International Pop Overthrow at the Sunset Tavern. Here is a handful of random videos of bands who are on the schedule (with their time and night noted).

Young Sportsmen (Friday at 9pm), covering Guided By Voices:


The Tripwires (Friday at 11pm), covering Rockpile:


Amateur Lovers (Saturday at 11pm) from back in the day:


Phamous Phaces (Sunday at 10:30pm) live down in Oregon:


Green Pajamas (Monday at 9:30pm), doing their song "Kim The Waitress:"