The always-stunning Kithkin was let loose on Capitol Hill Block Party‘s Vera Stage. Easily one of Seattle’s very best bands (I won’t rank the great bands; that would just be icky), Kithkin has created its own magical, ethereal and absolutely whomping sound and way. All hail Kithkin.
Kithkin – photos by Dagmar
Xiu Xiu, Circuits des Yeux & Newaxeyes @ Barboza, 8/5/14
Review by Nick Nihil
Photos by Dagmar
Xiu Xiu
Before I get into the music let me first get this message out: if you’ve paid to get into a music venue for a show featuring live musicians, please SHUT UP. Music venues, particularly small ones usually featuring rock or other forms of music in a popular aesthetic, while often having a bar, do not serve the same functions of bars. A bar is where you go and talk loudly. A bar usually features some bullshit Pandora station being pumped through speakers, indicating that the purpose of the music isn’t necessarily there for the patrons to listen intently. For those who say that a musician’s job should be to command the crowd and shut them up, I’ll say yes, but with a caveat. When a musician plays in a bar, whose performance is a mere blip or outlier within normal operations, and NOT in a venue open solely for exhibiting performers, it’s on him/her to silence a crowd. When you’ve paid to get into a show and then decide to shoot your mouth off endlessly 20 feet from the stage, you’re wasting your money and doing a disservice both to yourself, the rest of the audience who actually cares to pay attention to the performers, and the performers themselves. If you want to talk loudly, go the fuck to a bar or step outside. Dropping $10 doesn’t entitle you to obnoxious behavior. Try actually engaging with what you’ve paid for – it does wonders for your experience. This, of course, also applies to the constant use of all of your electronic gizmos. Stop taking pictures and actually take in the show. Be engaged and responsive, otherwise you’ll have a ton of pictures from things you barely remember.
Circuits des Yeux
This miasma of clatter and din was most apparent during Circuit des Yeux’s set, a solo noise-folk performer combining elements of the Buckleys (both Tim and Jeff), PJ Harvey, and Nico. This was not a pretty, flowery singer-songwriter set. Often running her acoustic guitar through abrasive fuzz while, at one point, nearly swallowing the microphone while screaming into it, she brought an unusual but highly effective confrontational abrasiveness to the idea of the acoustic folk singer. Because her set was dynamic, the sound of the loud, drunk patrons often overpowered the quieter moments in her set. I would have loved her set a lot more had I not spent most of it choking on my own rage over the behavior of the crowd. In fact, just typing that sentence induced a rage flashback. That said, I haven’t heard anyone else really pull off what she pulled off.
Xiu Xiu
Xiu Xiu was everything I’d anticipated, though I missed the presence of Angela Seo. They’ve been one of my favorites for many years. First of all, they were loud enough to drown out all those assholes in the crowd, so YAY for that. Second, percussionist Shayna Dunkelman added an entirely different energy than Angela or her predecessor, Caralee McElroy. Whereas Angela held perfectly the brooding nature of Xiu Xiu’s graphically tortured material, Shayna bounced and whacked drums with a manic pixie glee that seemed innocently joyful but with a hint of fem-dom sadism. Her energy seemed to carry over to Jamie Stewart who, in spite of the traumatic nature of the material, also seemed to be having fun. The big surprise of the night was their arrangement of “Sad Pony Guerrilla Girl.” On both the new album and the subsequent tour, Stewart abandoned guitars in favor of synths, oscillators, and sample pads. It was stark, confrontational, harrowing, and explosive – almost diametrically opposite to the warm but wilting original. “Stupid in the Dark” hit with even greater indignation and ferocity, and “A Knife in the Sun” quaked the ground.
Newaxeyes
Seattle’s Newaxeyes opened the show in a compelling nature with heavy beats and noisy soundscapes, apparently weathered some hefty guitar technical difficulties throughout the duration. Whatever broke, it didn’t affect the show. This is another in a long line of of those badass Cornish kids who seem to spin gold everywhere they go. Don’t miss these guys.
Xiu Xiu
Circuits des Yeux
Newaxeyes
Youngblood Hawke, Shelby Earl, SZA and Poliça were just four of the acts performing at the first day of Bumbershoot. Poliça will return to the Pacific Northwest with 2 shows at Doug Fir Lounge on October 21st and 22nd. Youngblood Hawke was one of the first bands who played the End Zone Stage, which was a brand new future of the festival. Recent tour mates Panic! at the Disco and Walk the Moon were also at Bumbershoot this year.
Poliça – photo by Simon Krane
Poliça – photo by Kirk Stauffer
Youngblood Hawke – photos by Kirk Stauffer
Shelby Earl – photos by Kirk Stauffer
SZA – photos by Kirk Stauffer
Poliça – photos by Simon Krane
Poliça – photos by Kirk Stauffer
I rounded out my Capitol Hill Block Party experience on its second day with shows by two of my favorite Seattle bands, Fox and the Law and Pillar Point. Fox and the Law was on Neumos’ stage, and put on a sweatily great show for the packed venue. The group heads to the United Kingdom for a tour in mid-to-late September/early October – good luck guys!
Pillar Point, who has that good old dubious distinction of being the only band I saw twice during the event, played outside on the Vera Stage. Their music worked very well in the outdoors for the all ages audience. Pillar Point, who goes on a nationwide tour with of Montreal in October, will be in Seattle with them on October 12th – more proof of the solid programming of this year’s Block Party.
Fox and the Law
Pillar Point – all photos by Dagmar
Buddy – Last Call for the Quiet Life
by Ira Leonard
Sometimes it takes a band a few tries to figure out exactly what kind of album they want to make. And sometimes they need to give themselves a “mulligan” album in the process. Such was the case for the Los Angeles-based (yet Portland born) band Buddy. Less a band in the conventional sense than a songwriting collective led by a singer-songwriter of the same name, Last Call for the Quiet Life is the first full-length album from the project since 2007’s largely acoustic Alterations and Repairs. As previously alluded to, a sophomore effort was recorded in 2009, but Buddy was unsatisfied with the results and the album was ultimately tabled, although five tracks from it were released as Campfire EP. While it is anyone’s guess what the rest of that release might have sounded like, Last Call for the Quiet Life was well worth the wait for stalwart fans of acoustic-based Pacific Northwest indie rock.
From the opening chords of “Weak Currents,” the album’s first single, the hand of Phil Ek is immediately evident. Ek, who mixed the album, is best known for his work with acts such as Band of Horses, Built to Spill, and the Shins, all of which Buddy’s sound could easily be likened to. The juxtaposition of the simple acoustic guitar part with the distant, kaleidoscopic, feedback provides a lush soundscape that is the perfect bed for the pretty vocal melody to lie upon. On this song and throughout the album, the backing vocal harmonies (at times augmented by guest artists Michelle Branch, Cary Brothers and Holly Conlan) steal the show, betraying a bit of Crosby, Stills, and Nash by way of the Fleet Foxes (another Ek pet project). This song is followed by “Slow Light Down,” which, though it never strays far from Indie rock orthodoxy in terms of its chord progression and melody, does make memorable use of overlapping background vocals, haunting guitar trills, and one of the standout lyrics on the entire album: “Despite what they say it isn’t love if you’re not ashamed.”
Buddy has self-deprecatingly described his sound as “wimpy core.” Whether or not that is necessarily an accurate assessment of his musical style, it is fair to say that he is most at home in the context of a ballad. Nowhere on Last Call for the Quiet Life is this more apparent than on the stirring “Boxing Elbows,” on which Buddy jettisons the acoustic guitar in favor of piano peppered with an occasional flourish of Eleanor Rigby-esque strings. A few tracks later, “Behind It (Bad Advice)” sees the album’s first (and probably most successful) foray into electronic dance elements and demonstrates that the band is unafraid to experiment a bit. One of the most noteworthy moments on the back half of the record is the tune “Stare Too Long,” which evokes the dreampop sound popularized by bands such as Beach House, and contains a lyrical gem that will elicit an “Amen” from anyone who has ever been told to smile by a stranger on the street: “Nobody cheers up when told to.” Last Call closes with “Scrap Metal,” which creates a hypnotic atmosphere through the use of creative panning techniques on the opening organ and percussion. This is one of those recording moments that must be listened to through headphones to appreciate the full effect. As the piece unfolds, the synths and vocals combine to paint a sound mural that is at once colorful and somber. If asked to describe Buddy’s music using only two words, “colorful” and “somber” would be two very likely contenders.