review by Travis Baer
photos by Kyle Johnson

This past Friday night The Paramount Theatre was converted from its usual majestic, golden state to a dusty southern bluegrass hall. The Avett Brothers, a folk-rock group from Concord, North Carolina, I feared would be at odds with the regal backdrop provided by the Paramount. Their sound has such a rustic quality to it that I had only ever imagined seeing them in a dirty bar or at some outdoor festival. But luckily this fear melted away the second they ripped into the opening song, “I Would Be Sad.” The crowd instantly recognized the track from Emotionalism and everyone began singing, dancing and jumping along with the show.

The set list was a mixed bag of b-sides, old songs, and cuts from their upcoming release I and Love and You. The brothers, Scott and Seth, were joined onstage by a cellist and upright bass player who helped fill out the sound as the band jumped from folk songs to bluegrass, to honky tonk, and everywhere in between. About midway through the two hour set Seth moved over to piano while Scott fingerpicked his way through “Laundry Room” from their upcoming September 29th release. The song starts out slowly with the brothers trading off vocals and slowly builds to a whipfast honky tonk breakdown which they milked for everything it was worth during the show, getting the already enthusiastic crowd back on their feet.

The set wound down to a close as the curtain they had been playing in front of rose to dipslay an enormous photo of the Brooklyn Bridge as they jumped into the title track of their new album, I and Love and You. The song’s slow organ and piano fit perfectly into the night and got the crowd geared up for the final encore which consisted of, “Head full of doubt, Road full of Promise” and “Pretty Girl From Matthews.”

The Heartless Bastards, a southern rock outfit from Cincinnati, started out the night. The frontwoman for the band, Erika Wennerstrom held her own in the large theater. Her vocals were mixed louder than any other part of the band, but she did not falter and kept the crowd warm for what was to come.

While it may not technically be October yet, the air outside is certainly starting to feel like it. So, whether you are excited for the change of seasons and feel like celebrating with a ton of great music, or if you are depressed about this and feel like drowning your sorrows in a beer garden, the 2007 Fremont Oktoberfest has it all.

Featuring two different stages and three days, there is a surprising amount of good local music. Saturday brings with it an excellent array of performers, almost all of which have been or are currently being spotlighted at KEXP.

Two weeks ago at Audioasis we sat down with Gary Miller of The Seattle Powerpop Blog and he played some of his favorite local powerpop, The Young Sportsmen was one of them. They will be putting their Elvis Costello like powerpop on display at the Adobe Mainstage at 2:30 on Saturday. They have a new album, Death to Places, that was released last month and is currently getting a respectable amount of airtime at the station.

Later that night at the Adobe Mainstage The Saturday Knights will be dropping in and doing their thing, a fresh blend of hip hop and rock. Their set is sure to have more hops than the beer you will be drinking. If you haven’t heard them yet, check out their video for 45:

There will also be many great bands throwin’ down the jams at the Carter Stage on Saturday, the first one up is also one of the best. Patience Please is a local act of quick, poppy, melodious indie rock that makes perfect Saturday afternoon music to bob your head along to. They have a sound that ends up being fairly similar to Boat and Math and Physics Club. And speaking of Math and Physics Club, Patience Please will be playing a show with them and Tullycraft on October 18th, and if that is not a good lineup, I don’t know what is. Patience Please’s new album, Fleeting Frequencies, is out now and well worth the purchase price. Find them at the Carter Stage at noon.

A couple hours later, Katherine Hepburn’s Voice will be at the Carter Stage, starting at 2:30. They have a sweet lo-fi indie sound to them that is well worth a trip over to the stage. Don’t believe me? Watch this video:

Finishing off the evening at the Carter stage will be The Lonely H, who although they may not have been alive during the time are channeling the hard hitting jam rock sound of the 70’s. Two weeks ago on Audioasis we were fortunate enough to have them come in and show us some of their stuff, you can still go back and listen to this dynamic performance for two more days if you go back to our 2 week Streaming Archive (goto September 8th at 6pm). The young men and their golden locks of rock will be starting at 5pm, closing down the Carter stage.

FRIDAY 9/21

ADOBE MAINSTAGE
7:00 - 8:15 Cuchata
8:30 - 9:15 Kissing Potion
9:30 - 11:00 Forgotten Sol

SATURDAY 9/22

ADOBE MAINSTAGE
12:00 - 12:45 White Trash Whiplash
1:15 - 2:00 Traumahawk
2:30 - 3:15 Young Sportsmen
3:45 - 4:30 Sleeping States
5:00 - 5:45 The Hands
6:15 - 7:00 Speaker Speaker
7:30 - 8:15 Slender Means
8:45 - 9:30 Thee Emergency
10:00 - 10:45 The Saturday Knights

CARTER STAGE
12:00 - 12:45 Patience Please
1:00 - 2:00 Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving Contest
2:30 - 3:15 Katherine Hepburn’s Voice
3:45 - 4:30 Skullbot
5:00 - 5:45 The Lonely H

SUNDAY 9/23

ADOBE STAGE
12:45 - 1:30 Conrad Ford
2:00 - 2:45 Anna Coogan & North 19
3:15 - 4:00 The Maldives
4:30 - 5:30 Maggie’s Fury

While they may have moved onto the big time, The New Pornographers still have local roots. Most of their members have either grown up or now live in Vancouver, Canada. They will be gracing the KEXP studio with their presence today at 1:30 continuing the trend of great in-studio performers today. Animal Collective played an amazing show this morning at 9, and The Quavers will be in at 3:30 Challengers is the name of their fourth and newest album, and they are currently on tour supporting it.

The band is a supergroup of Canadian musicians featuring Neko Case, Carl Newman ( A.C. Newman), and members of Swan Lake, Destroyer, Immaculate Machine, and Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire.

Here is a video of them performing their lead single, “My Rights Verses Yours” off of Challengers on the David Letterman show:

They are playing two shows this weekend (tonight and tomorrow night), both are at the Showbox, the show tonight is 21+, but on Saturday night they will be doing one for the kids. They will be accompanied by openers: Lavender Diamond and Fancey.

Be sure to tune into KEXP at 1:30 to hear The New Pornographers on the Midday Show with Cheryl Waters, and go to the Showbox either tonight and/or tomorrow night for what is sure to be an amazing show.

Friday September 14th is 21 +. Saturday September 15th is all ages. Tickets at Ticketswest and are $20.00 ADV / $22.00 DOS.

It has been over three years since the last time we have seen a release from Shane Tutmarc and his ever changing band of musicians that make up Dolour. Thankfully the wait has paid off with not only one, but two new albums (sort of) and a total of 19 tracks. The Years in the Wilderness is a double album contained within one disc, it is split up into two parts: Storm and Stress and Hell or Highwater.

The album was recorded in a very different fashion than previous Dolour albums. Shane gathered a group of musicians that he knew and respected, including many U.S.E. alumni, and headed into the studio where everything was recorded in 10 hours without the band having heard any of the songs before. This process ended up giving the new songs a much more organic sound than on previous albums. Storm and Stress has a fairly severe change in sound. Tutmarc moves away from his usual Brian Wilson-esque sound and creates songs that tend to have much more of a rock element to them, taking him to a sound that is along the lines of Weezer that can be heard especially well on the second track, Naïve.

The second half of the album, Hell or Highwater, goes along an even different route. It is much more jazz infused with more roots elements that reflect work he is doing in another band that he has, Shane Tutmarc and the Traveling Mercies, which is made up of him and his cousins.

There aren’t any Dolour shows coming up, but you can see Shane Tutmarc and the Traveling Mercies at the Tractor Tavern on October 5th with fellow great local bands: Brent Amaker & The Rodeo, and The Valley!

Here is a video of the third track from Storm and Stress being recorded in the studio:

photo by Chona Kasinger

I caught Andrew Bird at a jam packed Starbucks Stage at the Mural Amphitheatre at 8:30 last night. He brought along fellow Midwest native, Martin Dosh (Bird is from Chicago, and Dosh from Minneapolis). You may know Martin Dosh from his electronic solo work under the name of Dosh. Using many different loop pedals Bird, Dosh, and Jeremy Ylvisaker (on guitar) are able to create a sound that goes far beyond what you would expect from three people, or even for twice their number. Bird specialized in violin and is able to pluck and bow perfectly over martin DoshÂ’’s odd drum beats. One of the most noticeable parts of Andrew BirdÂ’s performance was his innate ability to whistle. His fast, sharp, fluctuating whistle surely makes Peter, Bjorn, and John cry at night, and allows him to truly live up to his last name. For all who were there the show was breathtaking and surprisingly intimate for a festival show. If you’re not down at the KEXP Music Lounge already, be sure to tune into KEXP at 1:15 to listen, or go back to our Streaming Archive for the next fourteen days.

You have an impossible number of local bands to see at Bumbershoot this year. Even if you wanted to, you wouldn’t be able catch half of them, so here are three recommendations from Travis to help you make some tough choices! Good luck!

Menomena

These Portland, OR, math rockers were in the KEXP studio on June 1st and if you happened to be listening at the time you know just how good it was. Menomena is a band that is hard to categorize, sometimes it sounds more like indie rock, and at other times it has much more of an experimental feel towards it. Either way Friend or Foe their 3rd and most recent album is one of the best I have heard so far this year. You can catch them on the Sound Transit stage at 6-7pm on Saturday or if you are listening to KEXP on Sunday at 1:15 pm they will be playing at our KEXP Bumbershoot Music Lounge.

Dyme Def

Breaking into the Seattle scene with their first album, Space Music, Dyme Def are quickly becoming an essential piece to Seattle hip hop. Space Music has a defining mixture of harder hip hop and pop which helps to make it one of the best hip hop cds that Seattle has seen in a long time. Dyme Def comes as a fresh voice in hip hop as it breaks out of the Blue Scholars / Gabriel Teodros sound that lingers over our hip hop. Dyme Def will be playing at the October 8th Audioasis High Dive Benefit with Common Market. If you want to get a chance to see them before October then head over to the EMP Sky Church at 1:15pm on Saturday. Or you could tune in to KEXP at 8pm on Sunday as they will also be a part of the KEXP Bumbershoot Music Lounge.

For Years Blue

As the winners of this years Sound Off! battle of the bands held at the EMP this band won the rights to play at Bumbershoot. For Years Blue is comprised of 5 underage kids from Spokane who are making excellent orchestral indie rock. To win the competition they beat out the rising Seattle band with a strong following, Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head. I highly suggest that you go and see For Years Blue at the EMP sky church at 12:15 pm on Monday, which should look a lot like this:

photo by By Jerry Morris

This week’s local pick is actually two different 7″ singles by the Seattle, punky, power-pop group, The Cute Lepers. The Cute Lepers is led by Steve E. Nix who you may recognize from fellow Seattle punk outfit, The Briefs. The band has a fair amount in common with The Briefs which is to be expected, but they are defiantly more on the pop side of the spectrum than The Briefs.

The first single is the Terminal Boredom / Prove It 7″. The first track on it (”Terminal Boredom”) is one of those rare pieces of power-pop perfection that begs you to sing and clap along. The song also has a great section filled with the gagging noises of Steve E. Nix. The second song on the single is a bit more mellow but still lots of fun.

The second single is the So Screwed Up / Cool City 7″. It follows in the same way as the songs of the first single, “So Screwed Up”, but it has more intricate guitar work than the others and seems to be faster, and shorter, more like a Briefs’ song.

You can find some of these songs and information on how to buy the singles on the band’s Myspace.

The Young:

This weekend Seattle’s makeshift all-ages venues kick into high gear with the 2007 Carousel Festival. Put on by Seattle DIY, the festival is sure to be promising. If you don’t know about Seattle DIY it is a collective of artists, activists, and all around awesome people whose mission is to promote all-ages, do-it-yourself art and activities within the Seattle area.

With a total of five shows held at five different venues over Fri, Sat, & Sunday there are way too many good bands to pass up. Highlights of the festival include: Membership, Little Party & the Bad Business, Yes, Oh Yes, RB Reed, Sugar Skulls and, Bird Show of North America

For a full listing of the bands, locations, dates, and times head over to the festival’s MySpace or simply look at this picture.

The Old:

If you just can’t stand those young hipsters and their silly “music,” or if you have just been aching for a chance to relive the glory days of the Seattle grunge scene, look no further than Geezerfest.

Geezerfest is a two night event happening at the Crocodile Cafe on Saturday and Sunday this weekend. The lineup is a medley of old and new bands that have helped to shape the Seattle scene, most importantly in the sense of grunge. The show features many a band that used to be signed to Seattle label, Sup Pop, as well as a smattering of bands that have not played together in over a decade. Some of even more noteworthy performances include Blood Circus, Catbutt, Love Battery, Valis, RC5, Green Pajamas, and The Bug Nasties. With ex-members of bands such as Screaming Trees, Mudhoney, Willard, Tree People, and uhhh…. Nirvana, the only excuse you have to not be there is if you are at the Carousel Festival!

Tickets are $13 in advance, 15 day of show. Lineup is as follows: