Tag Archives: H is for Hellgate

Vote and help book my Bumbershoot kickoff show

I’m putting together a show under the Ear Candy name to help kickoff this year’s Bumbershoot. You can help decide who plays the show by voting in the poll below. Here are the details from Ear Candy the Web site:

Ear Candy loves Bumbershoot.

How much does Ear Candy love Bumbershoot? Well, Ear Candy loves Bumbershoot so much that 1) it causes Ear Candy to refer to itself in third person and 2) and Ear Candy loves Bumbershoot so much that it is throwing an unofficial Bumbershoot kickoff party and Ear Candy wants your help with choosing a band to play the show.

While I’m not a liberty to divulge all of the details of the big soiree just yet, I will let you know that it is happening Sept. 4 at the High Dive and it will feature four of Seattle’s finest up-and-coming acts. Plus, it’s only going to cost you $10 so start saving your ducketts. Ear Candy has already booked three out of the four acts on the bill and my lips are sealed at the moment so I can’t reveal who those acts are (besides, I need something to write about in the coming months), but you, dear Ear Candy reader, can play a role in selecting the fourth act.

I’ve narrowed my list of potential fourth acts down to four bands I would like to play the show. All four of these bands have been written about on Ear Candy previously and I have been in touch with a couple of them to gauge their interest in playing the show. I enjoy each of these acts equally and I think each one would fit perfectly on the bill for Ear Candy’s unofficial Bumbershoot kickoff party so I want your help with choosing who to book. If you’d like to help me choose what band to book, vote in the poll below. I will contact the winning band and attempt to book them for the Bumbershoot party.

One point of clarification, just because a band wins the popular vote doesn’t mean they will play the show. It just means I will contact them and see if they are interested and available. I have no control over whether the band actually plays Ear Candy’s Bumbershoot kickoff show. Here are the four acts. The band names include links to their MySpace page so you can check out their music if you aren’t familiar with a particular group:

THE REDWOOD PLAN

ALLIGATORS

THE LONELY H

H IS FOR HELLGATE

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And on the fifth day, I rested

travis hay

I spent the last few days in a hectic state of musical bliss that involved traveling 350 miles, watching nine bands (and being somewhat blown away by one of them while stumbling across another great local group to boot), interviewing a rock star, celebrating the awesomeness that was Record Store Day and hitting up the Experience Music Project’s annual Pop Conference.

I am taking the next 24 hours off to recuperate, but in the meantime here is a listing of some of what you’ll be reading about the rest of the week here:

Portugal. The Man is the best band you aren’t listening to. Find out why I just made that bold declaration in the upcoming review of Portugal. The Man’s show at the Crocodile with H is For Hellgate and Alligators

Death Cab For Cutie is playing in Spokane Friday night at Gonzaga with Ra Ra Riot and Cold War Kids. Ear Candy chatted with Death Cab’s Jason McGeer about headlining Bumbershoot, the band’s new EP and the prospect of unreleased Death Cab being released from the Death Cab vault.

The Moondoggies played a few free shows in Seattle during the weekend. All three were completely different from one another in atmosphere and sound. Read about two of those sets soon.

The Pitchfork lovers orgasm double bill of The Black Kids and Mates of State played Neumos Friday. Their opener, a band out of San Francisco called Judgment Day, took me by surprise.

Saturday was Record Store Day and I felt like a kid on Christmas at the Queen Anne Easy Street Records purchasing lots of limited-edition candy for my ears in the form of some great vinyl.

Saturday was also the third day of EMP’s Pop Conference. Unfortunately I was only able to attend on day, but man the things I learned and the panelists I heard speak were fantastic. My brain hurts (in a good way) just thinking about all the cool conversations that I had the privilege to listen to during my 7 hours at PopCon 2009.

The weekend was capped off by dropping by El Croazon for a late-night set by Texas’ own The Toadies. I wasn’t able to stay for the whole show, but during the 75 minutes I was there they played almost everything off "Rubberneck."

So that’s what you’ll be reading about from me pretty soon. How soon? Well, that all depends on how much free time I have to write and how much I can write without getting exhausted again. In fact, I’m getting pretty tired right now just thinking about writing all of this so I am going to stop writing now.

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Chris Burlingame’s birthday w/H is for Hellgate @ Chop Suey tonight + other Inauguration Day events

travis hay

In case you’ve been living under a rock or recently woke up from a four-month slumber, a new president of the United States is going to be sworn into office today.

With the swearing-in of this new commander-in-chief (It’s some guy named Obama. You might have heard of him.) comes plenty of celebrating in the Emerald City. There is a good list of local Inauguration Day festivities penned by Jonathan Zwickel over on the Seattle Times’ Web site that is well worth checking out.

While JZ’s list is definitely a solid place to go if you’re looking for something to do tonight, there is one show that is not on his list that I encourage you to attend. Here are the details:

Chris Burlingame’s Birthday and an Inauguration Day Party
H is for Hellgate
Friday Mile
Benjamin Bear
Ed Wang
Guests
Chop Suey
7 p.m.
$7

For those unfamiliar with Chris Burlingame, he is a local music scribe and contributor to threeimaginarygirls.com Along with celebrating Barack Obama, the night will be a celebration of Chris’ 30th birthday and it should be a great show!

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