Our previously scheduled in-studio performer for tonight, Tu Fawning, had to cancel at the last minute due to illness, and fortuitously, there was a last minute replacement waiting in the wings.
Red Dress was a Seattle band that formed in 1977 and was hugely influential in the city’s early, artier underground scene. Described by some as “James Brown meets Frank Zappa” and by Fantagraphics Comics curator Larry Reidas “art damaged R&B,” Red Dress played with everyone from Captain Beefheart to Steven Jesse Bernstein. They are currently the subject of a documentary which premiers on the Seattle Channel this Saturday night at 10 p.m. and will subsequently be airing throughout the month. Check the schedule here.
Frontman Gary Minkler and drummer Billy Shaw will be stopping by Audioasis at 8 p.m. to spin a couple of Red Dress songs and a couple other local bands from that era that they played with back in the day and to chat a bit about the documentary. It should be a pretty interesting history lesson. One of the things I love most about Audioasis is championing brand new bands, but it’s also important to tell the stories of the past and examine how they shaped the road that took us to where we are now.
If you’re curious about their sound, here is a fairly recent performance of their song “EIO” live at Nectar:
2 Comments
Love that drummer!
I saw Red Dress many times when they were playing regularly around Seattle, and this has to be the absolutely SLOWEST version of EIO. I wish there was a good live video and audio of The Ballad of Tucson Shorty, Bob Was a Robot, I Have a Tail (and I Love to Wail), Pterodactyl Teenagers, or I Like to Eat My Mousies Raw, or even better - Boss Man. All of which are vintage Red Dress. An absolutely amazing band to have seen live.