Seattle electo-spazz group Truckasaurus’ new album, “Tea Parties, Guns and Valor,” got reviewed by the almighty Pitchfork, a.k.a. the hipster Bible of what’s cool in music, today.
Not surprisingly, the record got an impressive 8.2 rating.
If you read the CHBP coverage here earlier in the summer you already knew the Truck is a great live band and that they are one of the brightest out of the many rising stars in the local music scene. Now P4K and its zillions of reader know too.
I know it’s Bumbershoot season and that it might be difficult for some of you local music fans to focus on something other than the juggernaut that is the three days of awesome known as Bumbershoot, but check this out.
Seattle Weekly’s Reverb blog announced the lineup and ticket details for its second annual ReverbFEST last week.
What’s ReverbFEST?. Well, aside from being a festival named after a blog, it is the only music festival in Seattle that consists of all local artists. Last year’s fest went under the radar a little bit because it was overshadowed by Bumbershoot, CHBP, Sasquatch! and other local festivals, which is why you might not have heard about it.
I made the trek to last year’s inaugural event and I was blown away by how many great local bands were on the bill. This year’s lineup looks equally as awesome as 2007’s and once again ReverbFESt will take place in beautiful downtown Ballard.
Trust me, you should go because there’s nothing quite as fun as hearing band after band ask “Are you ready to rock, Ballard?”
ReverbFEST happens at various Ballard locations on Oct. 4. Tickets cost $8 in advance or $10 day of show for the 21+ crowd and $5 in advance or $7 day of show for the younger set. You can buy your tix here.
Here’s the lineup thus far (bold indicates either a band I am really interested in seeing live, or a band I recommend seeing live)
Greyskul – Onry Ozzborn & The Gigantics– See Me River – DJ B-Girl – The Braille Tapes – Wizdom – 17th Chapter –The Moondoggies – Red Jacket Mine – Elder Mason – Husbands Love Your Wives– Blood Red Dancers – Hazelwood Motel – Michael Vermillion – Kublakai – The Lonely Forest – The Curious Mystery – Neon Nights – Coffin Break – Emeralds – Black Whales – Thee Sgt Major III – Aqueduct– Knox Family – North Twin – Massy Ferguson – Piece – Blood Red Dancers – Man Plus– Orbitron – Canary Sing – Guns N Rossetti– Dragstrip Riot – Pufferfish – The Quit – The Rainieros– Zach Harjo – The Crying Shame – Bob Wayne & The Outlaw Carnies – C-Leb & A-Bro – Arbitron – Keg – Kate Tucker & The Sons Of Sweden – Little Penguins– Lonesome Rhodes & The Good Company – The Monday Mornings – Rypynt – Truckasauras – Shim – Panda & Angel – At The Spine – The Valkyries – Sage – Herman Jolly – Police Teeth – Team Gina – Gatling Gees – Bacchus – Mono In VCF – Ian Moore – Trombone Cake – Sweet Potatoes – Diminished Men
Early Saturday morning (around 3 a.m.) Bumbershoot announced its full lineup for this year.
The big announcement was that Death Cab For Cutie (whose singer, Ben Gibbard, used to live in Bremerton, I’m told) will be headlining one night of the festival. I think the last time Death Cab performed at BShoot was in 2004 when the band was part of the “Hometown Throwdown!” which also included the Presidents of the USA and U.S.E.
It was during that performance that I fell for Death Cab. I had seen the band three times prior to that Bumbershoot set (once at Coachella, once at Sasquatch! and once at a club) and I didn’t quite get what all the fuss was about. They just seemed like a regular indie rock band to me. After seeing them captivate the Memorial Stadium crowd and hearing “The New Year” and other DCFC classics in such a large setting, I was sold.
Death Cab will join T.I., Black Keys, Beck, Band of Horses, Stone Temple Pilots, Neko Case, Lucinda Williams, the Offspring, Paramore and others on the main stage during the three-day event.
Here’s the full music lineup:
Death Cab For Cutie / Superchunk / Tapes ‘n Tapes / The Weakerthans / Two Gallants / Sweet Water / Cheb I Sabbah & 1002 Nights featuring Riffat Sultana / Vicci Martinez / Black Eyes and Neckties / Tiptons Sax Quartet / Mono in VCF / Thee Emergency / Vince Mira / Manooghi Hi / Feral Children / Speaker Speaker / The Physics / The Tripwires / Sage / Grieves / Choklate / Das Vibenbass / The Valley / Velella Velella / The Maldives / Shim / Shane Tutmarc & The Traveling Mercies / Mariee Sioux / The Round (featuring Damien Jurado, Jen Wood, Buddy Wakefield and others) / The Lonely H / Nick Vigarino / The Staxx Brothers / Lushy / New Faces / School of Rock: Northwest All-Stars / Jazz Northwest: WSU Faculty Ensemble/ Beck / Stone Temple Pilots / T.I. / The Offspring / Keyshia Cole / Lucinda Williams / Neko Case / Paramore / Band of Horses / The Black Keys / Nada Surf / Ingrid Michaelson / Del Tha Funky Homosapien / Jakob Dylan / !!! / Mike Doughty / Old 97’s / Xavier Rudd / Anti-Flag / Minus the Bear / M. Ward / Lee “Scratch” Perry / Man Man / Joe Bonamassa / Saul Williams / Brother Ali / Battles / Aiden / Kid Sister / The Walkmen / Sons and Daughters / Asylum Street Spankers / Unearth / Estelle / Dan Deacon / Blitzen Trapper / Sondre Lerche / Bedouin Soundclash / Scary Kids Scaring Kids / Tim Finn / The Whigs / Dale Watson / John Vanderslice / Flobots / Thao with the Get Down Stay Down / Final Fantasy / Adele / The Fall of Troy / Orgone / Langhorne Slim & The War Eagles / Forro in the Dark / These Arms Are Snakes / The Blakes / Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby / Pacifika / Arthur & Yu / Darondo & Nino Moschella / Ian Moore / Mark Pickerel & His Praying Hands / Throw Me The Statue / Barcelona / Kinski / Tyrone Wells / Monotonix / J-Boogie’s Dubtronic Science / Howlin Rain / The Shackeltons / West Indian Girl / Ravens & Chimes / Hadley Caliman Quintet featuring Thomas Marriott / Star Anna / Grynch / The Hands / Joshua Morrison / Matt Jorgensen +451 / PWRFL Power / Chester French / The Girls / Kate Tucker & the Sons of Sweden / Beehive / Ashleigh Flynn
Last weekend on KUOW there was a great discussion about music, more specifcially music in Seattle.
Larry Mizell, Jr., Josh Powell and Dana Boss discuss whether there is a specific type of music that can be identified with “the Seattle sound.” All three panelists are some of the most knowledgeable people on the current music scene, so it was great to hear them all talk about local music.
Boss, co-founder of threeimaginarygirls.com, Powell, program manager for Vera Project and Mizell, member of Cancer Rising and Stranger columnist, came to the conclusion there isn’t one specific style of music that can be dubbed “the Seattle sound,” unlike the 1990s when grunge ruled the world.
The program is a great listen, especially if you’re unfamiliar with some artists in the current crop of rising artists coming from the Pac NW. You can listen to the entire program yourself by clicking here.
Various media outlets (including Billboard and Pitchfork) are reporting that 2007’s “Wincing The Night Away” by The Shins was the Portland band’s last for Seattle powerhouse indie lable Sub Pop.
According to Billboard Shins frontman James Mercer is planning on starting his own label and hopes to use it to release the group’s next record. However, this doesn’t mean The Shins are planning on completely ending their relationship with Sub Pop. The band could partner with a label for marketing and distribution purposes.
Although they were never officially billed as part of the upcoming Sub Pop 20 Festival at Marymoor Park, the band has been a major part of Sub Pop’s recent resurgence the last few years and advertisements for the two-day fest made by the Marymoor Park folks have included The Shins as part of the show.
It would be disappointing if The Shins did not play the birthday show because they are a big part of the label’s history, but there are still some “to be announced” bands on the bill and it should be a great show regardless considering Mudhoney, Seaweed, Iron and Wine, The Helio Sequence, Flight of the Conchords, the reunited Green River (the main reason I bought my tickets to the fest well in advance) and several others will be there.
