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KEXP's "Reykjavik Calling" showcase actually unites the talents of both Seattle and Icelandic musicians, but you scenesters are no doubt are familiar with Rachel Flotard and Rusty Willoughby, John Roderick, Jason Dodson, and Nathan Wade. (Really all we need is some more electronica and we have Iceland Airwaves South.)
But if you haven't been following the Icelandic Music Awards closely for the past few years, you may be wondering what's a Mugison? A Sin Fang Bous? A Lay Low? And who's this Pétur Ben character?
The beauty of this particular evening is that there's no barrier to simply showing up and finding out on your own--it's free. Doors open at 8 p.m., but depending upon how concerned you are with getting in, you may want to arrive early. (It's 21-and-over though, so don't show up earlier than your 21st birthday.)
Let's prep with a little tour down YouTube's Icelandic lane....
Despite the blustery weather, I'm heading downtown for a special evening at the Crocodile tonight because Apples in Stereo are headlining, on tour for their new album Travellers in Space and Time, "50 minutes of songs about the wonderful world of the future, where we’ll all dance in interstellar nightclubs with ambassadors from other worlds, while still worrying about whether our boyfriends/girlfriends/robotic-love-units are staying faithful," according to the A.V. Club.
Middle set is from L.A.'s Fol Chen, the "most whacked-out concept band since GWAR." Paste magazine praised their penchant for "electro-fey devices: cheesy '80s keys, propulsive beats, sporadic strummy guitars that bounce between channels and, of course, xylophone," but it's important to note that they're high-concept as well. Their album Part II: The New December picks up where John Shade, Your Fortune's Made left off:...
Grudge Rock with WE and At the Spine @ Crocodile
What do you get when you start with Family Feud and add a heaping spoonful of local music? Grudge Rock at the Crocodile, that's what. The night's agenda typically has the bands battling it out for the first round of feuding, then the band in the lead chooses whether to play their set right then or at the end of the night. After the first set, a second round of the game ends with one of the two groups receiving all the door loot and the other getting a bagload of goodies from local businesses. To top it off, The Professor Jake Stratton (also the announcer at Rat City Rollergirls bouts) hosts the evening with flair and a lot of rock knowledge of his own.
I've been to a few Grudges in the past and it was never a dull time. At the very least, they're really fun and there's some quality music. Even if the bands don't knock your socks off, the gameshow aspect will have you yelling, cheering, and booing along with the rest. Saturday night's Grudge Rock was a hell of a match with At the Spine versus We Wrote the Book on Connectors. Questions like "What does a glam rock star always go on stage with?" and "What's the name of a musician who is known for wearing glasses?" makes everyone want to yell out an answer....
Thursday night at the Crocodile was a bit subdued, but all in all an evening of quality music. The lineup consisted of Friday Mile, Ritchie Young (lead singer of Portland's Loch Lomond) backed up by a string section, and the headliner Grand Hallway.
The local group Friday Mile started the show off. They came together in 2005 and started touring up and down the West Coast. Most recently, they released Good Luck Studio with the help of well-known L.A. producer Dennis McKay.
As their website claims, "the new tracks showcase the band's keen sense of songwriting, lyrical imagery, and gratuitous use of melody and harmony." Friday Mile are a lot of fun to watch, and if the crowd was any indication, they already have quite the following.
This was Ritchie Young's second show at the Croc, as he sang with Loch Lomond in January, and made an impression. This time he was backed by a talented and well-dressed group of violin, viola, and cello players. His higher range makes for a haunting sound that seems to linger in the air after each verse. The strings fit right in with the soft melodic feel.
My favorite was his cover of the Bee Gees' song "Holiday." I'd remembered it from the January show and was excited he'd made it a regular part of his set.
Grand Hallway rounded out the show and then some. They're an eight-piece orchestral pop band that includes members from several other local favorites Voyager One, the Maldives, Sleepy Eyes of Death, Widower, and Shenandoah Davis....
On a mission to see more local shows, I randomly came across Pillow Army and Ravenna Woods. When a show popped up where they'd be playing together, it was added to my Google Calendar pronto. It promised to be a long Wednesday night with four bands on the bill, but luckily for this old lady, the two that prompted my trek out to the Crocodile were the first two up.
If you've been paying attention at all, you've noticed a huge movement of something called orchestral, symphonic, or chamber rock in Seattle.
My first taste of the local wave was Hey Marseilles and now I'm hooked. Pillow Army jumped on the bandwagon, and they ride it well--really well. The six-piece group (sans flute for Wednesday's show) consist of a guitar, distorted violin and cello, flute, bass, and drums.
As Seattlest put it, "If you’re a fan of deceptively bouncy pop songs with clapping hands and hollered choirs, the hard gnaw of strings, and/or The Starlight Mints and The Pixies, we think you’...
The crowd that showed up on Tuesday at the Crocodile was a mix of new Belltowners and old rock fellows older and more jaded than myself. The gentrifiers were there "just to see some music" while the old rock guys were there to see Polvo. There were people wearing Birkenstock sandals with no socks. One gentleman was overheard saying "I remember seeing Screaming Trees at..." I would peg half the crowd as Built to Spill fans (but maybe they gave up on going to shows after the early stuff). The collared shirts mixed with the scruffy characters and the ironic mustaches preened next to the girls in heeled shoes. For each person, the experience of the evening was undoubtedly new.
Music is constantly at a crossroads of innovation versus tradition. Polvo and Bronze Fawn represent two bands that have taken steps away from popular music traditions and, in Polvo's case, even defined their own genres. However, when contrasted against Bronze Fawn's beautiful and emotional compositions, the Polvo songs sounded old and tired....
Walking into the new(ish)ly-reopened Crocodile Café for the first time was a bit of a shock for me. The dilapidated old dive of yore’s been shined up and turned into, ahem, a genuine high-class venue, with a more audience-friendly main hall (no more wooden beams obstructing the stage view), fancy rock-star photos and gig posters lining the walls, an upstairs level, and an adjoining swanky pizzeria/bar. It’s right purdy, though the old knuckle-dragger in me sorely misses the funky, punky, ramshackle vibe of the old Croc.
Thankfully, the club’s continued to book quality local acts, three of which took to the stage on October 3. Newcomers Throw Me the Statue shared a record release party (for their sophomore long-player Creaturesque) with one of this town’s most beloved power-pop ensembles, Visqueen. Power trio Little Cuts anchored the opening slot.
The latter warmed up the audience capably serving up the kind of meat-and-potatoes loudness that this region breeds so well—...
To mark Icelandair's new direct flights to Iceland from SeaTac, Iceland Naturally is putting on a mini-Icelandic cultural festival, and that marks the most times I've typed "Iceland" in a sentence, ever.
For the foodies hungering for innovative tastes, you've got chefs Thorarinn Eggertsson (from Reykjavik's Orange) and Peter Birk at Ray's Boathouse. Their Icelandic menu is available today through the 13th.
Probably that menu will not include whale because of the potential controversy, disappointing fans of tremendously musky, salty, oily food. But if you want to talk about Iceland and sustainable fisheries, for free, then tonight you can weep salty tears of joy. Don't miss "The Icelandic Project on Documenting and Communicating Responsible Fisheries" (6-8 p.m., UW Health Sciences, Hogness Auditorium Room A420).
There's also a free Icelandic film fest at the Varsity in the U-District: White Night Wedding (6:30 p.m.) and Rafskinna (8:20 p.m.). For White Night Wedding, writer/director Baltasar Kormákur has updated and tweaked Chekhov's Ivanov, and the results are a distinctly Icelandic bittersweet sensation. A middle-aged professor is about to marry a former student on the island of Flatey, during the time of year when Icelanders all get a little crazy from the unending daylight.
The third episode of Rafskinna, a DVD magazine, is about music and features: "Animal Collective, Antony and the Johnsons, Olaf Arnalds, Dalek, Emiliana Torrini, FM Belfast, Retro Stefson, Ragnar Kjartansson, Michael Madsen, Finboggi Petursson, Nico Muhly, Psychic TV, and Curver Thoroddsen." That's a nice segué to our next item!
Friday night, September 11, singer Ólöf Arnalds appears at the Crocodile ($10, 21+, 8 p.m.). Expect "emotionally rich" folk music of the kind you can preview right here. It's her first West coast show. People Eating People open.
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