Recent Stories with tag hey marseilles

If you haven't been to the refurbished Columbia City Theater yet, what the hell are you waiting for? The venue hosts great shows in a cushy club, delivers tasty libations care of the bar, and the light rail can get you there on the cheap in no time. 

If you need another reason, Columbia City Theater has a big (and diverse) Halloweekend lined up, with Mash Hall's final (ever? or at least for a while) show on Friday, the orchestral pop of Hey Marseilles and the heavily tattooed, tiny dog-loving singer-songwriter Fences on Saturday (both of whom recorded Doe Bay Sessions with Sound on the Sound earlier this year), and the Cabaret Macabre on Sunday, with Bad Things, Baby Gramps, burlesque (natch), and more. COSTUMES HIGHLY ENCOURAGED--caps not mine, but I appreciate the sentiment, plus it gets you in for $2 cheaper on Saturday and Sunday.

The SunBreak has a pair of tickets to give away to Saturday night's show with Hey Marseilles and Fences.  The show is 21+, so you be that old too. We'll be drawing a winner on Friday at noon. Enter below for your chance to win.... (more)

If I'm honest, I usually hate multi-stage festivals. I don't like that you pay for the chance to see a bunch of bands and they all overlap and there's no way you can see them all. I don't enjoy waiting in line while I miss some of those bands.

That said, I still had fun at Bumbershoot on Sunday. Here are a few of my personal highlights.

I started the morning by visiting the Counterculture Comix and Flatstock displays. The Counterculture Comix collection was an impressive array of local comic art. I appreciated the old Rocket covers and Sub Pop cassettes and zines, in particular. Flatstock continues to impress with great poster art from both locals and out-of-towners.

Hey Marseilles drew a substantial crowd (the singer remarked that it was an "unnecessarily significant number" of audience members) and delighted fans with their feel-good orchestral pop. They've just gone national with their record, and I think fans of Death Cab or The Decemberists will be pleased with their multi-instrumental approach to songwriting. They sounded great at the festival and were the highlight of the early shows for me.

As a member of the press, I could not pass up the opportunity to get in to the Hole End Session. I waited in the requisite line with my press peers (Rolling Stone Brazil, for example!) and we made our way up the back stairs to a room in McCaw Hall to witness the crazy. We were not disappointed.

Courtney did play a few songs, but she also talked. For what seemed like hours, she rambled on and on in random directions, often changing thought in the middle of sentences. She mentioned she might not play later in the evening because of a death threat, she went on a strange rant about Jonathan Poneman, the founder of Sub Pop, and then about how her song "Samantha" was written to be as bad-ass as Trent Reznor's songs, even though she forgot some of the lyrics as she sang it. The End Session was difficult to watch and hilarious at the same time. (Sort of like Love's life, I'm sure.) She went on to chat with Charles Cross (who is working on the Kurt Cobain biopic) about cast members, mentioned how she remembers Cobain's "peen," and then she and current Hole guitarist Micko Larkin did a cover of Pearl Jam's "Jeremy." Since I want to share that misery with you, here's a video.... (more)

You've long seen Slightlynorth's work in our Flickr pool. This year we brought him in-house for Sunday at Bumbershoot, and he delivered the goods. Then he went to get a new tattoo. Rock photographers. The life they lead.

Hey Marseilles @ The Tractor Tavern

Saturday night I squeezed into the Tractor with the rest of the sold-out crowd to see Conservative Dad, The Head and the Heart, and Hey Marseilles. This show was a little while in coming, since Hey Marseilles has been in the studio re-editing their debut To Travels & Trunks for national release and on newly-pressed vinyl. 

Conservative Dad @ The Tractor Tavern

Con Dad started their set quickly before the crowd got too rowdy squishing into the main room. They've been likened to Death Cab for Cutie, but I'm not sure I'd put them in a box like that, especially since last year they put out four EPs, each with a different sound than the last. Sure, they've a familiar sound, and the typical rock band lineup (drummer, singer-guitarist, backup singer-guitarist, and guitarist-keyboardist-backup singer), but there's a little something else mixed in you can't seem to put your finger on that keeps it from being monotonous and boring.

The Head and The Heart @ The Tractor Tavern

The Head and the Heart has been getting a lot of hype around town, but I seem to have kept a wary distance between their music and my ears. Their sound is gorgeous, and they really show that off in a venue like the Tractor. The passion in each of their faces and the way they smile at each other, as if they're sharing some kind of secret, adds a lot to the experience. The overall feeling after their set is sweet happiness, like you're hanging out on the back porch during a warm summer's day with friends, drinking beer, and telling stories.

The night ended with a bang as Hey Marseilles took the stage. Every show they play has its own feel, and that has a lot to do with venue itself. Smaller venues bring the audience that much closer to the band, and that's when this group really shines. One of the best things about them is their enthusiasm for the music they play and the fans; in the intimate setting they're at ease, allowing them to just have fun.... (more)

doe bay festival image courtesy of doebayfest.com

What's that? You don't know what the Doe Bay Music Festival is? Why, it's a magical place where local bands converge to spread musical joy to a crowd of a little under one thousand fans basking in the mid-August sun. 

Okay, enough of that. Here's the lowdown: it's a two-day festival on Orcas Island comprised solely of Northwest bands that will blow your mind. It's at the Doe Bay Resort and Retreat, which opens their doors (and part of their 33-acre expanse) to campers and music-lovers alike for a two-day intimate music experience. It's a low-key alternative to the huge crowd-laden festivals that we know so well. The whole fest is limited to about 750 tickets, which go on sale this Monday at 9 a.m.

This year it's on August 13th and 14th, just in time for Seattle's weather sweetspot, that time of year when almost every day is heaven on earth: hipsters are puttering on their scooters, beach volleyball is an afternoon staple, and ice cream is an important part of every meal.  

Doe Bay Resort image courtesy doebayfest.com

You might be thinking to yourself, It starts on a Friday and ends Saturday night? Yes, it starts on Friday, but if it follows a similar schedule as last year's event, then the acts don't really get going till around 6 or 7 p.m. That leaves you just enough time to trek over to Orcas after work and catch the first act.

As for the logistics, there is really only one way to get over there, by ferry from Anacortes. Unfortunately it's pretty expensive: $44 for car and driver plus $13.45 per passenger, but at least it's free on the ride back! When it comes to sleeping accommodations, the cheapest option is camping out on the grounds, then there's a bed in the local hostel, a yurt that sleeps 5 to 25, or a cabin. If you'd rather have cushier arrangements, there are some beautiful B&Bs in the Doe Bay community.... (more)

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.

Pillow Army at the crocodile

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’... (more)