Here’s how David Åhlén begins the one sheet for his new album, Hidden Light. The whole work is lovely. Check out the video above or the album sampler below: It’s 2016 and the world is (still) in darkness. Big or small, the hurt is hurting everyone and this does not simply passes by David Åhlén …
Hope Sandoval and The Warm Inventions will release their highly anticipated third album, Until The Hunter on November 4th. In advance of that happy day, the Warm Inventions – comprising Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval and My Bloody Valentine’s Colm O’Coisog – are releasing the first single from the album on all digital platforms. “Let Me …
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. –Dylan Thomas The San Francisco Giants’ even-year championship dynasty is coming to an end. It may seem premature to write their epitaph with two weeks left in the season, …
One of my sources tells me that Cub mania is heating up in Chi-town, “I’m seeing a lot more Cub attire these days, just like when the Hawks started their great run of success I saw sooooo many new Hawk fans. This town will explode if the Cubs win the WS. The other day a …
On Sunday September 15th 1963, four black girls (11 to 14 years old) were murdered by a bomb placed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Just like Nina Simone, John Coltrane was inspired to compose a musical tribute/response. Recorded on November 18th 1963, “Alabama” is Trane’s most compelling commentary, inspired by a horrific …
For those who may have missed it, the San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams 28-0 last Monday night. This was good news for their new coach, Chip Kelly, but the general media consensus suggests that the score reflected the putridness of the Rams more than a Niners resurgence. This article on Bill Simmons’s …
Last Wednesday Sept 7, Seattle’s legendary Crocodile Cafe hosted a night of punk rock featuring Britain’s Subhumans. Subhumans didn’t come on stage as much as they ignited it. Front man Dick Lucas flitted about the stage like a lit firecracker, standing in one place no longer than a second or two. He didn’t sing as …
Samm Henshaw has shared the video for beautiful new track ‘Night Calls’, taken from The Sound Experiment 2 EP – which is out now via Columbia Records. https://www.facebook.com/SammHenshaw
This is from a Paris concert in 2005. An excellent piece. Very deep. Next level. Magnificent to see the late, great Ali Farka Toure and his backing players up close. They were one with the music and the universe.
Friday night Sept 2 brought another night of beautiful ska music at yet another Seattle club. This time it was Georgetown Orbits and Seattleites at The Royal Room in SE Seattle — a club I have never been to before. Of course if they keep booking ska bands I’m sure it won’t be the last …
Stuart Adamson of Big Country, Skids fame. Avid Scottish football and British motorcycling supporter. Notorious depressive and alcoholic who wound up hanging himself in a hotel room, for the maid to find. Met the legend backstage when I was 25 and not yet a notorious journalist. Had trouble finding words, at first. He’s asking ME …
Wednesday night August 31 Seattle’s Nectar Lounge hosted another night of wonderful ska bands. This time the evening was headlined by Butt Dial, a band I’ve been meaning to check out. Butt Dial are wildly fun. They have a gimmick that includes wild costumes, rotating musicians (as in some musicians leaving the stage and being …
Wanting to say this video was “how I spent my summer vacation” – although it has been decades since that really applied. Spent many a summer late night working out this piece. It was a labor of love. – Steve Gans
August 28 was a date I looked so forward to. The Living End, from Melbourne, Australia, were doing a US West Coast tour with a stop in Seattle. I have only seen The Living End at festivals. Once at End Fest on the Kitsap Peninsula in 2001 and at Warped Tour I think in 2006. …
I’ve known a lot of “solo artists” over the years… people that used to be in bands, or musicians who were too cheap to split the take 4-5 ways in the first place. Oh, and they moan how hard it is. They complain about airplay, how their records don’t find enough audiences. They fail to …
You know that scene in “The Fly” where Goldblum is experimenting with steak, and has Geena taste a sample of teleported meat? “Not right?” I feel that way about a lot of modern electronica in music. I would’ve thought that with the advent of PCs with keyboards/ MIDI gear essentially replacing banks of synthesizers, new …
Musically, Toronto is the new Portland. Here’s another tough new tune from the rough and tumble Hogtown in Canada. Released just yesterday, it’s taking the internet by storm. https://twitter.com/jessiereyez https://www.facebook.com/MusicJessieReyez/ https://www.instagram.com/jessiereyez/
Based on his stellar work as the voice of Bob Belcher on Bob’s Burgers (the only show that matters) and Sterling Archer on Archer, it is clear that H. Jon Benjamin is not only the most gifted actor of all time, he is the greatest human on the planet since the passing of Mother Teresa. …
I’d love to go to a Stoned Soul Picnic right about now…… by the way – the four night run of shows by Miles Davis (with Chick Corea-Keith Jarrett-Jack DeJohnette-Steve Grossman and Airto) in June 1970 that become Miles Live at the Fillmore [East] was in fact, Miles opening for Laura Nyro each night – …
34 years ago today, REM’s Chronic Town EP was released and it simply changed the whole landscape of indie-rock, college-radio, clubs, touring, fanzines – it inspired a whole host of imitators (god help us!) but also tons of bands that sounded absolutely nothing like them (such as SST bands). During the first half of the …
Last Sunday, I paid a visit to the new statue at AT&T Park: Gaylord Perry, who spent the first decade of his career in a San Francisco uniform alongside Juan Marichal as a mainstay of the Giants pitching staff during the 1960s. Perry’s most famous pitch was a spitball, which he discussed at length in …
On a hot August 19 night Darrel’s Tavern just north of Seattle hosted a night of Seattle hillbilly, celtic and folk punk bands. The headliner was Wages Of Sin. This Seattle quintet combined a bit of country, a bit of folk, a bit of punk and a heavy dose of Celtic and tossed it into …
Everyone’s favorite acid organ punk duo, Archie and the Bunkers, have returned from a massively successful European tour and released a new record, Mystery Lover. Below is a video they released a few months ago which will give you a feel for their electrifying retro sound. http://archieandthebunkers.com/
Strangely, this version of “Joe Cool” sung by Vince Guaraldi is NOT featured on any of the countless Peanuts soundtracks issued by Fantasy Records (their albums only have an instrumental version) – I had to buy a CD called Lost Cues from his family’s estate. – Pat Thomas is the author of Listen, Whitey! The …
I twice voted for Barack Obama for President of the United States of America. Now that he has less than six months left in his job as President, and since I have been rightly critical of his predecessor (and Obama’s successor will likely be worse than Obama), I feel compelled to present some of his …
The Chicago Tribune has printed a four-part series on a subject I wrote about last year: https://www.eastportlandblog.com/2015/09/22/the-pope-pig-manure-and-minnesota-water-quality-by-mark-erickson/ Here’s one Tribune article regarding pig polluters: http://digitaledition.chicagotribune.com/launch.aspx?pbid=3e7227b1-e3b7-4fac-aa07-5f943e58b4c5 As I read the article that landed on my doorstep today I recall the book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, which exposed the production and sale of meat and the …
“Credit must be given to the foremothers: the Shaggs. In 1969 they recorded an album that can stand, I think, easily with Beatles ’65, Life with the Lions, Blonde on Blonde, and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks as one of the landmarks of rock history. The Wiggins sisters (an anti-power trio) not only redefined the …
This fine Carpenter’s cover was discovered by my lovely wife who tells me that when she grabs the mic to sing, her favorite karaoke jam is this song. As for this version, it’s marvelous. Ms. Ericks channels Karen Carpenter excellently. Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/user/ShaneEricks https://www.facebook.com/shaneericksmusic
On the eve of the Pitchfork Music Festival last month, I read the Chicago Tribune’s preview of the three day event. The article coded the entertainers by genre such as EDM, hip hop, indie, rock, etc. On day one, the first act was a rock band called Beach House. On day two, Brian Wilson was …
I have been on a Modest Mouse kick of late. Love the records Good News for People who Love Bad News and We Were Already Dead before the Ship Sank. I really love those records, pretty much in their entirety, but especially, “Ocean Breathes Salty.” My right now favorite lyric of all time is: “That …