• White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights [of which the trailer is above] is being hailed as one of the best rock documentaries in the history of the genre. It follows Jack and Meg White’s 2007 Canadian tour where the band played remote towns and provinces, while finding time at each tour stop to make an unusual promotional appearance, playing on city buses, boats, bowling alleys (where they rolled a full game while rocking), and even one free daytime show in which they only played a single note. We in Seattle are pretty lucky to be one of only two cities in the world to get it before it’s March 16th DVD release. It will play 2/26 and 2/27 at the Northwest Film Forum… get tickets now before they sell out!

• A new charity compilation from American Eagle Outfitters and Filter Magazine [I know...] is currently available. They’re calling it Hear to Help and it will benefit Haiti relief via Oxfam America. It features rarities, covers, and remixes from, among others, Grizzly Bear, Beck, Of Montreal, Vampire Weekend, the Breeders, Julian Casablancas, Noah and the Whale, and Camera Obscura.

• LCD Soundsystem has finished their album. According to frontman James Murphy, on the band’s official website, “looks like we added another paris gig. oh, and something else. the fucking record is done.” Catch them May 30th at Sasquatch.

• Rumours are flying that a new M.I.A. album is going to be released in June. The following posts were tweeted by the singer: “BANNED FROM LEAVING THE U.S, FAMILY BANNED FROM COMING TO U.S TO SEE ME, BABY, RECORDING LP, SIGNING THE DOPEST ACTS THATS HITTIN 2010,” “I THINK IM READY,” and “JUNE 2010.”

• The Depreciation Guild, a band made up of Pains of Being Pure at Heart members, just announced a new record. It’s called Spirit Youth and is due out May 18th on Kanine. They’ll be playing at The Triple Door on March 26th.

Photo by Christopher Nelson. Taken at She & Him's KEXP in-studio in the summer of '07.

• She & Him, aka Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, are putting out their sophomore album, Volume Two, on Merge March 23rd. The first track off that record is below, via Pitchfork.

• Also coming out that day will be a live record from KEXP and personal favorite Bill Callahan called Rough Travel For A Rare Thing. Check out Drag City’s website for more info.

• This Week In WTF: A facebook group called “Can this pickle get more fans than Nickleback?” has attracted more fans in the past two weeks than the actual Nickelback fan page has accrued in its entire time on Facebook. The real WTF part of this: Nickelback has 1.5 million fans on Facebook.

photos by Brian Cullen
review by Jim Beckmann

Writing about a Bill Callahan show is like discussing an abstract or minimalist painting — there’s always the danger of saying too much or too little and any discussion diminishes the experience. And that’s not meant to be a cop out, though admittedly it has taken me well over a week now to get my thoughts together about his show at the Triple Door at the end of June. While plenty of other people have had no problem writing great things about Bill Callahan and his performances (as here), for me the nature of his music defies explanation. It’s like analyzing a Raymond Carver story — shit happens, it’s sometimes dark or painful or even hysterical, but the shit don’t mean anything, not at least beyond its own experience. I mean, there’s no giant billboard with great golden spectacles, looking down on the corruption below it — what, you never read The Great Gatsby? Anyway, in a Carver story, or a Callahan song for that matter, stuff is stuff, and events are events, and they may be weird or commonplace or depressing, and they may even lead to some new discovery, but they’re still what they are — parents whose child died after they ordered his birthday cake receive threatening calls from the baker, who wants his money, but there’s no green light at the end of the pier. You can read into the events all you want, but the lack of further signifiers let you flounder on your own. The words are spare, the details filed down to a bare minimum, but the stories live in themselves. In college, I could never write a paper about Carver’s work without it seeming like utter b.s., and talking about Callahan’s songs to me is just as hard.

Should I read into the lyrics of set opener “Diamond Dancer” (”She was dancing so hard / She danced herself into a diamond /…The one thing on her mind was / It’s time I gave the world my light / …Starting tonight”) and start making insupportable but quite possible assumptions, like is he giving his light for all of us tonight? Sure! On “Jim Cain” from his latest album: “I used to be darker/ Then I got lighter/ Then I got dark again.” Should I talk about how this might reflect Callahan’s career trajectory? Why not? And Cain is spelled like “Cain and Abel,” right? There must be something there? This is not to say there’s no meaning in his lyrics, at least no more or less than anyone else’s perhaps, but what has always appealed to me about his music is his spare and direct presentation. While his lyrics may be vague or suggestive — hell, he even strives for metaphor sometimes (”Somewhere between the wind and the dove / Lies all I lost in you”) — but they’re never epic nor preachy nor striving. They’re private moments and thoughts that we listeners and watchers have intruded upon, but they’re not necessarily ones that he’s hiding, nor are they necessarily even about him. In a slighter man, the songs would be sappy, pretentious, or overly vulnerable. Through Callahan’s directness, they seem raw and unfettered.

Even his physical presence and appearance lead you nowhere beyond the stage — his blue bluejeans, untucked white oxford, sockless boots, and later bare feet don’t ask you to wonder where he got them, what he’s intending, or even who he is, nor does his unstyled hair (although he did have something close to a mullet recently). If you weren’t enamored with him already, would you even recognize him on the street? I doubt he’s often asked, “Are you in a band?” And so you have to take him for what he does — how he plays and sings — which is itself often understated, made more so with his dry baritone voice.

And his band — consisting live of a cellist, violin player, drummer and guitar player — are all experts of understatement like himself, probably too good to be playing what they’re playing live with him — but that’s precisely what makes them so good! There’s nothing like hearing an insanely good drummer tap out a steady rhythm or an expert guitarist strum a consistent melody. If modern art has taught us anything, it’s what they’re not doing that’s important! But they do each get to flourish in the songs, which often exist somewhere between a drone and a groove, and in those explosive moments you realize just how great they are. Thankfully, a Callahan song can go on for minutes longer than you’d expect, so there’s plenty of time for those moments!

Anyway, I’ve probably said more than I should and definitely more than I wanted and yet really not much at all. I’d say you’d be a fool to not see him live, but I can’t exactly say why, and at this point you’d have to be in Europe to get a chance.

And what about the opener, Bachelorette, also on the Drag City label? Very charming, even when frustrated by malfunctioning electronics, and the harmonies that the 2/3 female band create over keyboards, guitars, drums, and prerecorded tracks are quite beautiful. Their new album is definitely worth checking out, especially if you’re a fan of Au Revoir Simone.

Chad Syme

The last couple of months have been jam-packed with extra-great band shows and sweat-worthy festivals and it’s only getting better from here on out. Below is only a mere smattering of what’s going on next week. For more shows and dates throughout the week check the Three Imaginary Girls calendar or the KEXP Club Calendar.

I will not recommend that you see the Wallflowers this Sunday. They are playing this Sunday at the Showbox, and you could technically go see them. But instead of selling your soul to the mop-topped husky-folkster wannabe you COULD go the KEXP Father’s Day Kids Dance Party instead!

Kid’s Dance Party Father’s Day with KEXP on Sunday June 21st

Apparently last year was a smashing success and tickets are selling out fast. So grab that baby out of her high chair, wash her face and get her on down to the Showbox SODO this Sunday to celebrate Dad’s Day at the Kid’s Dance Party! KEXP DJs Darek Mazzone, Kid Hops and Riz will be there to dance the day away with kiddos and adults alike and break dancing lessons will be available. Your kids can fill up on sugar-fuel (cupcakes will be provided) and participate in the many games and activities planned. Word to the wise: Dads, don’t break your back while trying to show off your break dancing skills. All proceeds to benefit KEXP.

White Rabbits & The Subjects Play the Crocodile Monday June 22nd

All gloomy piano, crushing drums and melodrama, White Rabbits impressed me with their first studio album in 2007, Fort Nightly. For their second release, It’s Frightening, they enlisted Spoon’s Britt Daniel to produce and help with songwriting duties. Daniel’s musical addition to the band brought out a stealthier White Rabbits, a little darker and a little more self-indulgent.

White Rabbits are eerie and solemn at times, creating a ridiculously large sound from a mere six-piece band. I’ve never seen them live, but I have spent long nights hunkered down over Fort Nightly. If their album sound is any indication, their live show should be lonesome and stunning, laced with piano and reaching fruition through the slight rough-hewn but melodic vocals of Stephen Patterson.

Major Lazer Feat. Diplo and Switch at Neumo’s Thursday June 25th

A dance party of ANOTHER kind, Major Lazer featuring Diplo and Switch, will shakedown Neumo’s this Thursday. Their superhero action-packed collaboration may prove to be the most entertaining music event of the week. Major Lazer’s album from this year, Hold the Line, features everything from bubbles to crashing glass to dial tones to horse whinny samples. Their sound is chopped and mixed, part Missy Elliott-infused dub and frenetic cyber-electro sounds. Dance music of the future perhaps? Future OR present, Major Lazer’s musical duds will rustle and tussle at Neumo’s. Be prepared to dance.

Bill Callahan plays the Triple Door Saturday June 27

If I could pick any voice in the world for my dream man to have, it would be Bill Callahan’s hands down. He’s THAT good. His sound has changed a bit throughout the years (he is very prolific). Some of his early stuff as Smog, like Julius Caesar, was all muddy distortion, grainy and unrefined, though not unlovable. In contrast, his later stuff like Dongs of Sevotion and A River Ain’t Too Much To Love took on a more emotive chamber-folk sound, truly identifying him as a lo-fi underground folk rocker. Post-Smog, as plain ole Bill Callahan, his band sound has evolved to include more instruments like cello, French horn and organ. Every album of his is like a self-portrait, repainted as he changes along with the cycle of life.

Bill Callahan at the Triple Door is my show of the week, by far. I’m getting excited just thinking about seeing him in such a private, lovely venue, and feeling his words more than just hearing him. He is truly a great American songwriter and singer.

“I wanna see it when you get stoned on a cloudy breezy desert afternoon” - Built to Spill

Shrie Spangler
*Three Imaginary Girls*

In high i-pod rotation:
Pica Beats
Sonic Youth
The Field

(Three Imaginary Girls is a Seattle-based website that showcases the great music of the Northwest and beyond to music lovers worldwide. We post a Seattle live show calendar to help you fill your day-planner with loads of great shows, as well as record reviews, live show reviews, and an imagi-blog to entertain you throughout the day.)

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection, chosen by Morning Show host John Richards, is “All Thoughts Are Prey To Some Beast” by Bill Callahan from his 2009 album Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle on Drag City.

It’s crazy to think that Bill Callahan put out his first Smog album nearly 20 years ago. To say that the records created during this span of time have had an impact on me would be an epically understated understatement. Over the years, Callahan’s prolific and meandering vision has provided me with the soundtrack to days both difficult joyous. Smog has always felt alive to me in its songs’ heartbreaking bitterness and disparity or blooming positivity and inspiration — there is a humanity to Callahan’s moodiness that is impossible to deny. It’s tough to imagine getting through some of life’s shittier moments without the support of The Doctor Came At Dawn (1996), Wild Love (1995), and Kicking a Couple Around (1996) crackling in the background. On the flipside, albums like 1999’s Knock Knock and Dongs of Sevotion (2000) are a testament to the simple beauty found just around life’s next corner (”B-L-double-oh-D-F-L-oh-W, BLOODFLOW! BLOODFLOW!”).

Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, Bill Callahan’s second album since shedding the Smog moniker, is his most ambitious work to date. Populated with all of the Smog mainstays — acoustic guitar, piano, cello and of course Callahan’s amazing deadpan vocals — Eagle is tighter and more focused in its instrumentation than previous efforts. While some may question an apparent loss of rawness in his new work, Callahan is simply maturing as an artist. The bent unpredictibility of the past has given way to purposeful arrangements and elegance. Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle contains some of the most amazingly understated guitar work I’ve heard in, like, forever. Country infused acoustics lay atop stringed arrangements to create a comfortingly orchestral musical backdrop. Callahan’s lyrics are accessible, yet delicate and introspective, as evident in the opening song, “Jim Cain”:

I ended up in search of ordinary things
Like how can a wave possibly be?
I started running, and the concrete turned to sand
I started running, and things didn’t pan out as planned

Today’s Song of the Day, “All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast,” is an Eastern influenced, dramatic throwback of sorts to the grittiness of Smog’s earlier albums. Lurching drums build below Callahan’s baritone and hints of distortion that recall “When the Power Goes Out” (Julius Caesar, 1993). Just as the song appears to near full-blown explosion, strings bring ‘er back down to earth and remind us of just how far Mr. Callahan has come.

While Bill Callahan’s MySpace page isn’t entirely up to date, you can find his current tour dates on his Drag City profile page. There’s not a better place to see him in Seattle than at The Triple Door, where he’ll be on Saturday, June 27, with labelmates Bachelorette. For now, enjoy this amazing performance filmed by Austin’s KUT of Bill performing the Smog song “Vessel in Vain” atop Mt. Bonnell: