Between full capacity shows at Showbox SoDo this weekend, KEXP favorites Ghostland Observatory performed an exclusive set for our VIP Club Concert series at The Triple Door. Never ones to go half way, the Austin duo of electronic wizard Thomas Turner and electrifying guitarist/singer Aaron Behrens brought the full Ghostland package with thick fog and cornea-searing lasers. Check out the photos by Christopher Nelson now!

review by Carrie Rubens
photos by James Bailey

The Chop Suey Sunday night was filled with some amazing sounds and pleasant surprises beginning with Swedish singer/songwriter Anna Ternheim. Often playing with only with an acoustic guitar, Ternheim was backed up tonight by the band from Loney Dear to accompany her melodic folk music.

Co-headlining the show with Loney Dear was Brooklyn-based Asobi Seksu. Among a variety of twenty-somethings in the crowd, I spoke briefly to a guy sitting next to me who was visiting from San Francisco. He told me that upon hearing the word “shoegaze” to describe the band, he was sold on coming out tonight. As the band launched into their set, it was surprising how incredibly alive and rambunctious they sounded.

Their name comes from the Japanese term for casual sex, and Asobi Seksu has been sporting that moniker for three out of four album releases. Perhaps there’s just something a little more elegant about putting “Sportfuck” in another language. Asobi Seksu has often been compared with My Bloody Valentine, which in large part seems due to James Hanna’s guitar-playing, which toes the upper register sonically.

The petite Yuki Chikudate barely reaches bassist Glenn Walman’s shoulders in stature, as she bangs her head back and forth with the music against flashing strobe lights. At the helm of a synthesizer keyboard, she rocked out center stage to the landscape of heavy bass drumbeats and ambient pop melodies, switching often between Japanese and English lyrics. At one point, Chikudate mentioned that she was battling a cold, but it was hard to tell with her powerful soprano vocals over the pounding bass.

Amid their transitioning into each song with such ambition, “In the Sky” was a welcome change of pace with its slow start. But soon enough it too built into an exciting, accelerating tempo. Chikudate’s voice began to soar while the bass kept the band grounded — without it, it seemed like they would fly off like a thousand helium balloons strapped to a deckchair.

After watching most of the set, my friend from earlier recanted his statement about shoegaze because Asobi Seksu wasn’t so much gazing at their shoes but dancing with them. Their songs moved with, rather than against, the wall of sound.

For anyone who caught My Bloody Valentine’s 20-minute sonic assault at the close of their set last April, Asobi Seksu gave the audience their pint-sized version of that textural, noisy atmosphere to close out their final song, during which Chikudate pulled off her gold chain necklaces, which seemed to have gotten tangled in her hair amidst the headbanging and battled with them as the noise continued. Finally released from their web, she draped them on her microphone stand before taking Keith Hopkin’s spot behind the drum kit. As the lights went low, and she delivered a steady and powerful rocking beat. She killed it.

Co-headlining the show, Loney Dear, hails from the small city of Jonkoping, Sweden and has been creating the most beautiful compositions since 2005. Emil Svanangen the creative force in the group began by recording his songs on CD-Rs, until eventually getting picked up by Subpop Records. Having rarely toured in the United States prior to his most recent release, “Dear John,” Sunday’s Chop Suey show was Svanangen’s third visit to the states this year. Loney Dear has also brought back an original member on keys and tambourine that missed out on the last tour.

It’s all too easy to get wrapped up in the multiple layers of melodies that Svanangen has composed.They open up with “I was only going out,” which starts out quiet, drawing the audience in close, new details of music appear, and each element contributes to the texture and complication of the songs. Before you know it, you’re wrapped up in each beautiful composition and as it builds, and it’s carrying you away.

It can get so quiet that conversations in the back of the room are clearly heard. At “In with the Arms (I love you)” Svanangen, turning his microphone away, asks somebody to turn off a noisily blowing fan, and even the talkers in the back of the bar shut up to listen to him,

Svanangen is charming throughout the set with his unassuming, and modest stage presence. Announcing he has only two songs left to play, insists that everyone stick around for a while after the show for a drink - alcoholic or non - just to say hello. Then he asks the audience to sing along a simple melody that accompanies him as he leads into “Sinister in a State of Hope.” Closing the set with “Dear John,” the title track to his latest album, sounds appropriately like a lullaby when he shows off his impressive vocal range, and sings “sleep well, sleep well tonight.” Without playing an encore, Loney Dear left me wanting more, and I can’t wait to see them again the next time they come around.

Anna Ternheim:

Asobi Seksu:

Loney Dear:

For three nights, the 22nd Annual Shake the Shack Rockabilly Ball shook the Tractor Tavern in Ballard this past weekend. Already, you’ve seen the first night’s photos from photographer William Brody, and now Jim Bennett serves witness to the mayhem that ensued on Friday night. Stay tuned for even more photos!

The Star Devils:

Slim Sandy:

Captain Jeffrey & His Musical Chumbuckets:

Rockin’ Lloyd Tripp:

Misc.:

View the full set here.

more photos here

Several KEXP photographers roamed of the grounds of the Bumbershoot 2009 Music and Arts Festival, capturing the energy of the live performances, the sometimes bizarre spectacle of the artists and fans, and the enthusiastic spirit that makes Bumbershoot one of the greatest festivals in the country. Here’s one perspective, through the eyes photographer Jim Bennett:

view photos here

photos by Jim Bennett

Last Friday, while some of us were attending the last of the Concerts at the Murals, others were out at Marymoor Park in Redmond watching the ecstatic spectacle of The Flaming Lips, supported by fellow Oklahomans Stardeath and White Dwarfs. Part New Years, part Christmas, part Mardi Gras, and a whole lot of fun, the show featured fog machines, a human-sized hamster ball, dancing girls with furry masks, stuffed gorillas, bouncing balls, and tons and tons of confetti. KEXP photographer Jim Bennett was on hand to capture the visual celebration for you:

Stardeath and White Dwarf

The Flaming Lips

view the full set here

This past weekend, Fruit Bats, The Moondoggies, and Johnny and the Moon wrapped up a month’s worth of Concerts at the Mural, presented by KEXP and Seattle Center and consisting of four Friday evenings with nine total bands, plus six more bands during KEXP’s 7th annual BBQ. We’re all extremely sad that it’s over but also elated that we could help bring these free shows to the public.

Big shout out to Brittney Bush Bollay, who did an amazing job shooting all of these concerts. Here are her photos from the last concert:

Johnny and the Moon:

The Moondoggies:

Fruit Bats:

The sun finally broke last week for the fourth Friday in the Concerts at the Mural series, presented by KEXP and Seattle Center. Once again, a large crowd gathered at the Mural Amphitheater for another free show, this time featuring The Dodos and Army Navy. You can check out a few videos of the evening here and photos, courtesy of Brittney Bush Bollay, right here:

Army Navy:

The Dodos:

view more photos

Jim Bennett

by Chris Estey

Rock festivals can be an awesome, appalling joussaince — an embarrassment of riches in which most of its value is suffering. The 2009 Capitol Hill Block Party was a perfectly organic construct of balancing personal pleasures and community celebration within the city, without too much pain. In other words, it was a ton of fun — and it was cheap enough you didn’t feel too guilty, diverse and culturally ambitious so that it inspired joyful, music-inspired engagement, and you probably didn’t have to travel too far to get there. If you got too hot or moist there was hydration and libations everywhere to be found, and in the back of Caffe Vita, behind a massive pizza oven within walls of bags full of coffee beans, KEXP presented a sampling of just about everything presented throughout the multi-band, stacked tight with music fandom fest.

Friday July 24, 2009:

The line-up for the weekend was an expected indie rock buffet, with some glitch-streaked percussive punk edges and a healthy dose of exciting hip-hop poking into the spread. I could write an essay about how cool it was to often stand in the middle of it, and hear something operatic from the Main Stage bleeding into some chunka metal riffs at Neumos as you walked to hear noise-pop garble ahead at the Vera. (And that was actually a description of one of my actual moments there.)

The big names dominated the feedback I heard and the action I saw/heard such as The Jesus Lizard reviving the subculture of crowd surfing at the Main Stage’s first night apex with its leader David Yow inspiring droves to follow him upon a sea of upraised hands over and over again. His performance seemed often like an act of self-destruction, as if he knew why people loved the dangerous overplus of excitement at Block Party, while his bass player looked like a settled down married guy rattling away in a secret world, and the drummer kept up with his harassing lead singer.

They Live had the whole festival buzzing with love after their 10:45 PM set at Neumos (and the next day when they appeared for a anthem with Truckasaurus, who also street terrorized the Vita peeps with binary-fried busking just before in the afternoon as well), and since I’ve done PR for Gatsby and blesone, I’ll keep this tight: Read Charles Mudede’s excellent assessment of current Seattle-area hip-hop in a recent Stranger, and know that TL’s transmutation of rock damage and rap art will probably be the next retro-futurist aesthetic. That’s why I helped them out for awhile and will always support them.

Beloved hard edged pop art bands like Deerhunter at the MS and the Flexions at the Vera Stage didn’t disappoint, blending muscle with weird charm, and speaking of the awesome line-up of the Vera artists this year, special note must be made of how ferocious Past Lives got Friday night, according to several people I spoke with — keeping it strange, but still very strong. Wish I’d seen Wild Orchid Children; I’d heard great things about them (and some pissed off sound guys on Fullerton-based punk pop Audacity’s friends, one of whom puked in the hallway near their schmancy new gear set up for Vera — at 4:30 PM in the afternoon!).

The festival opened with The Duchess & The Duke on the Main Stage, and reports of their sweet rag-tag approach to simple song playing with touchstones in skewed memory genres like skiffle or doo-wop floated in mix. It was a gentle way to begin a day that ended with The Jesus Lizard trying to bring the world to an end.

photos from Friday by Katy McCourt-Basham:

Saturday, July 25, 2009:

Sonic Youth probably wisely mostly focused on recent material; this pinnacle of the evening was one no one should have missed, and yet I found myself pining for a big jam from their SST days (they went out with “Death Valley” and it felt like when the Sex Pistols did “Anarchy in the UK” as the last song at Bumbershoot back in the 90s — would have been nice before I was cab searching). I know, I’ll STFU and check out their new album, The Eternal.

Main Stage memories for life: I thought nothing would ever beat my first witnessing of The Gossip a few years back at the CHBP, on a steaming hot afternoon when some of us even started dancing a little (completely verboten back then). They may not have conquered that sexy, commanding performance last night with the more soulful pop elements brought up, but I’d be lying if I say they didn’t maintain my adoration either. I wish they had more songs to qualify this statement, but live for sure The Gossip take the wind out of me like The Clash once did.

Earlier in the afternoon, I wasn’t that much into The Thermals; they too played a lot of new songs, and maybe I needed that new album too to have more affinity. There’s a certain rage that’s been replaced by improved playing, it seemed — it was rock and roll all right though.

So I left before they finished for a taste of the Sportin’ Life Showcase at the comfy Vita backroom club, and heard three outstanding performances from their three should-be stars D. Black (can’t wait to hear the new album), Fatal Luciano, and Spaceman. Sportin’ Life then went a little up the hill and took over Chop Suey and I damn sure wish I could have been there.

I think the freshest set for me was The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, which was like about a thousand albums in my UK pop collection blended smoothly but with a very nice kick. “We Will Never Die” ended their set very powerfully; it’s not a cover of the Flesheaters’ song, but there’s something kind of hardcore about the band’s affection for wicked Scottish pop bliss. Their fine songcraft seemed a little stretched by the heat and noise of the crowd itself; not their fault, just make sure to seem that live at a less eventful-in-itself milieu.

This day’s line-up opened with an expanded version of Hey Marseilles, a band I think really benefit from its extension to nine players (including Thomas from Champagne Champagne and Kyle Bradford). Occasionally ostentatious with the boo-ba, that was actually in good fun, because those winding strings and melodic vocals bring you hack to the heart. Would love to hear this group variation recorded for posterity.

Near dinnertime in the open Vera area, The Lonely Forest played a beautiful sonic rainbow of sound and emotion; it was nice how the rain kicked in while they played, their colorful notes bending around us with the wet heat. Kids and older folks alike enjoyed this nook of just-hard-enough slightly psychedelic pop.

The crowd went nuts for both the Maldives and the Moondoggies, roots bands with slick, stick-to-your-ribs songs and slobbering followings.

Thanks to David Meinert, the amazing security staff, and especially the bands for an inner-city festival that often just felt like a country fair with a lot of fuzzy grooves going on all around you — till Truckaurus blew something up, someone very occasionally threw up, and The Gossip proved we can all still slam it out and still grow up. Bravo!

photos from Saturday by Jim Bennett:

Check out more photos from Katy McCourt-Basham and Jim Bennett

Thee Satisfaction:

Thee Emergency:

Telepathic Liberation Army:

TacocaT:

Leslie & The Lys:

Weekend:

The Redwood Plan:

GoonSquad:

Hunx & His Punx:

The Dutchess and The Duke:

Ben DeLaCreme:

more photos: