Show Preview/CD Review: The Horrors @ Neumos 9/8

Since their formation in 2005, English band The Horrors have managed to emerge from an interesting chrysalis of garage-influenced fright rock into a fully-formed band with a true career of note. Newest release Skying finds The Horrors awash in dreamy, impassioned songwriting less anchored to their influences and more out to sea, creatively speaking, than […]

Interview & Video: a few moments with Virgin Islands

Seattle band Virgin Islands have perfected the nearly lost art of urgent, angular post-punk intertwined with lyrics as razor-sharp as they are eloquent. Front man Michael Jaworski has always worn his convictions on his sleeve in bands like The Cops; with newest project Virgin Islands, he’s perfected the language of poetic unrest with a mighty […]

Show Review: Seapony, Twin Shadow, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart @ The Crocodile 4/22

Seapony sounds like Seattle’s thoughtful answer to Lush, only more bubblegum and able to master a restrained “three minutes max” format better than the UK band ever could.   They’re definitely a sentimental-on-a-sunny-day type of outfit and the only band at The Crocodile last Friday night that contained no shred of eighties machinations.  Although Seapony is […]

Show Preview/CD Review: DeVotchKa Brings 100 Lovers to the Paramount, Sat. 3/5

If DeVotchKa did not exist, the world of music would be a much paler, less interesting place. It’s comforting to know that from time to time – most recently every three or four years – Nick Urata and his multi-instrumentalist friends and bandmates will put something new out there, something that’s been quietly aging like […]