Tag Archives: Absolute Monarchs

Your Live Music Bets for the Weekend of August 23 through August 25

August 23, 2013 Tony Kay

After this weekend, you won’t have Absolute Monarchs to kick around anymore. (photo: Tony Kay)

The Dog Days of Summer are officially in place, so get ‘em while they’re hot. And if you’re of the opinion (like me) that the best moments of the soundtrack of your life should be set to live music, this weekend will not disappoint.

Tonight (Friday, August 23):

Pixies Cover Night (feat. members of Midday Veil, Ononos, Kithkin, Tea Cozies, and more) @ Chop Suey. 21+. $10 at the door. Show at 9 p.m.

The Pixies’ brand of mutant pop sports so many jagged edges, it’s easy to forget how many durable, honest-to-God songs they crafted. Tonight at Chop Suey, you should get plenty of reminders. Best of all, none of the bands whose members comprise the evening’s entertainment sound at all like The Pixies, meaning the possibility of hearing some radical reinterpretations of classics like “Monkey Gone to Heaven” and “Where is My Mind?” runs pretty high.

Luke Winslow-King, James Apollo, Annie Ford Band @ Columbia City Theater. 21+. $12 at the door. Show at 8 p.m.

It’s gonna probably be hot and a little humid tonight, and Michigan transplant-turned-New Orleans club vet Luke Winslow-King‘s variety of ambling, bare-bones blues should fit that kind of climate to a T. Winslow-King’s one of those roots musicians who sounds like he stepped from a 1930s Mississippi bar, straight into a time machine that spit him out in 2013 (the warm retro environs of Columbia City Theater should feel exceptionally apropos). That he never seems to be trying too hard to sound like he does adds immeasurably to his easygoing charm.

Men Without Hats, The Scarves, Color, Crooked Veils @ El Corazon. 21+. $18 at the door. Show at 8 p.m.

Synth band Men Without Hats will forever and ever be known as the architects of one obscenely-massive hit, “The Safety Dance,” but they actually cut a couple of pretty good pop albums back in the big ’80’s (Rhythm of Youth and Pop Goes the World) bric-a-brac with ploinky synths and propulsively catchy artificial rhythms. Their most recent record, Love in the Age of War, takes a solid step into the New Wave Wayback Machine, but you’ll be forgiven for biding your time until you’re able to do that scissor-armed spastic dance like Ivan Doroschuk and his dwarf buddy in the video.

Saturday, August 24:

Linda’s Fest, featuring Absolute Monarchs, Constant Lovers, Katie Kate, Tilson XOXO, Big Eyes, and Iska Dhaaf @ Linda’s Tavern. 21+. Free. Show at 9 p.m.

It’s the fourth year that Linda’s Tavern will be rustling up some choice local talent for a totally free show. This year, the Fest takes place in the parking lot behind Pine Food Market. The buzz set of the night belongs to post-punk/metal titans Absolute Monarchs, playing their (say it ain’t so) last show. But you’ve also got the similary-corrosive and awesome Constant Lovers, dance-music priestess Katie Kate, the soul-hip-hop-and-more polyglot of Tilson XOXO, short-and-sweet sugar buzz punk from Big Eyes, and jumpily-gorgeous echo-chamber pop music from two-man band Iska Dhaaf.

International Pop Overthrow Seattle Day 3, featuring Peter Fedofsky of Curtains for You, Irene and They Go Pop!, Smile Brigade, Lights from Space, and more @ The Mix. 21+. $10 advance/day of show. Show at 9 p.m.

International Pop Overthrow, a festival dedicated to celebrating pure pop music from all over the globe, landed its Seattle iteration at Georgetown’s The Mix yesterday, and it’ll be parked there tonight and tomorrow as well. Quality acts were/are scattered throughout the three-day fest, but the final night of the Fest includes sets from some of this town’s most choice pure-pop acts. Lights from Space play awesome, toothy power pop that sounds like Fountains of Wayne’s tougher kid brothers, while Smile Brigade‘s 60s-style sunny singalong ditties include a pinch of enchanting psychedelic weirdness. Best of all, Peter Fedofsky, keyboardist/songwriter/singer with Curtains for You, opens up IPO Day 3 at 7:30 with a set of sparkling pocket symphonies that roll Ben Folds, Harry Nilsson, and Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys into one lovely package. Get there early, and stay late.

Sunday, August 25:

Black Nite Crash, Dead Teeth, Yonder @ The Comet Tavern. $7 at the door. Show at 8 p.m.

The fact that Black Nite Crash named themselves after a song by Ride will come as no surprise once you hear ‘em. The Seattle band play their spattering and swirling mix of shoegazer rock and Brian Jonestown Massacre-style psychedelia so sublimely, you’d swear they were a bunch of pasty-faced Brits (that’s a massive compliment). Equal parts danceable and dizzyingly heady, their sound’s infused with just enough urgency to render the familiar ingredients wonderfully fresh.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Picking the 12 Best Northwest Music Releases of 2012

December 29, 2012 Tony Kay

THEESatistfaction in action. (photo by Tony Kay)

So what rocked your socks off this year? For me, there was a lot.

I won’t bother with clucking on about how so many great releases sprang from regional musicians in 2012 that I almost gave up on even compiling a list (even though it’s true). And as far as some far-reaching, all-encompassing summary of the Year in Northwest Music, here goes: A lot of really good two-person bands popped up in town, an exceptional bumper crop of local hip-hop releases surfaced, and a fair amount of bands looked to the sounds of the past (be it way back in the era of the original Girl Groups of the 1950s and ’60’s, or the retro pulse of 1980s new wave) for inspiration, with sterling results.

Enclosed, please find the twelve Northwest releases I listened to the most in the 2012 calendar year–the ones that stirred me most, and to which I’ve continually returned to since their release(s). That means it’s also subjective, informed by what I like and what I’ve been exposed to (much as I heard this year, I didn’t get around to every significant recording by every musician in the Pacific Northwest, for Pete’s Sake). Listen, thank me later, and discuss.

12) Atomic Bride, Dead Air: If you’ve ever wondered what The Cramps and the B-52’s knife-fighting in an alley with Cheap Trick, Dick Dale, and Alice Cooper would sound like, you need to hear Dead Air. Hell, even if you’ve never pondered said scenario you need to hear Dead Air. It’s the best soundtrack for a nonexistent B-movie that I heard in 2012.

11) The Good Sin, The Story of Love X Hate: Not every hip-hop record needs to be stuffed with empty posturing or gaggles of production tricks. Sometimes, all you need is a smart and charismatic MC with a knack for storytelling, some phat beats, and melodies that won’t leave your head. Good Sin delivers refreshingly honest lyrics in a resonant baritone that’s one of the best hip-hop instruments in this town right now. He’s got enough radio-ready tunes to back that voice up, too.

10) Absolute Monarchs, 1: Most new bands plumbing the depths of post-punk music lean towards tweeness, dutifully trotting out jerky rhythms and spiky guitars with precious little substance. Here’s to the Monarchs, then, who turbocharge those elements with undisguised ferocity and jackhammer force. Between his blues-rock growl with My Goodness and his unhinged screaming here, you’d think there were two different Joel Schneiders singing in two great Seattle bands.

9) Tea Cozies, Bang Up EP: Bang Up opens with one of my favorite singles of the year, “Muchos Dracula,” a quintessential slice of Tea Cozies hard-candy buzz pop replete with roller-rink keyboards and stuttering rhythm guitar. The band also deviates from their signature sound to wonderful effect on this EP: the sweeping psychedelia of “Cosmic Osmo” and the anecdotal melancholy of “Silhouette in a Suitcase” work so famously, you can’t help but ache for a full-length release something fierce.

8) Eighteen Individual Eyes, Unnovae Nights: There’s not much more to say about EIE’s terrific debut that I didn’t say earlier this year–except maybe that Unnovae Nights‘ dark animal passion and jagged power remain undiminished after God knows how many listens.

The Young Evils, Foreign Spells EP: Yeah, there are only four songs. But they’re great pop songs with teeth to compliment the earworm hooks, and they serve as a clarion call for the awesomeness that’s sure to come.

6) Erik Blood, Touch Screens: Blood’s impressive production credits in recent years have obscured his gifts as a musician and songwriter. This dense, swirling concept album about vintage porn–equal parts shoegazer headiness, pulsing electronic danceability, and gothic throb–brings those gifts back into sharp focus.

5) Radiation City, Cool Nightmare EP: I was going to make this year’s list all-Seattle, but then this amazing Portland band forced my hand. Somehow, they toss together cushions of gorgeous harmonies, Beach Boys-style kitchen-sink symphonic bursts, new wave keyboards, bouncy bossanova, and dreamy psychedelia to create catchy, haunting, and utterly indelible songs. If this were a full-length release and not an EP, it’d probably be my favorite Northwest recording all year.

4) Hounds of the Wild Hunt, El Mago: The hooligans formerly known as the Whore Moans have delivered a great rock record, sung with take-it-or-leave-it snarl and delivered with ambition to match its fury. How does a punk band reach for the stars, yet not come off like a bunch of sell-out wimps? This is how.

3) Tomten, Yesterday’s Children: Tomten leader Brian Noyeswatkins may wear his influences (Village Green-era Kinks, The Zombies, Pulp) on his paisley-print sleeve, but his catchy pop songs and playfully surreal lyrics cast a spell all their own. End result: a record that glitters like Seattle on an unexpected Indian Summer day.

2) Soundgarden, King Animal: Bigger than life, loud as hell, and long overdue, Soundgarden’s newest obliterates the notion that only youngsters can pull off epic, irony-free, truly heavy rock.

1) THEESatisfaction, awE naturalE: Nine months after its initial release, awE naturalE continues to shake my booty, activate my brain, and seduce my ears like nothing else I heard this year. It’s a treasure trove of surprises, packed into a lean 30-minute run time: Smooth Afro-and-female-centric rhymes that make their point without preaching, impossibly luminous singing, and a stripped-down production that nonetheless gains depth and nuance with each listen. Oh, and it grooves like hell. Most critics and fans point to the incomparably cool rubberized funk of “QueenS” as awE naturalE‘s high point–and it’s great–but me, I’m partial to “Deeper,” the most hypnotic and sensual three-plus minutes anyone, anywhere, committed to recorded posterity in 2012.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Capitol Hill Block Party 2012: A SunBreak Round Table (and Photo Gallery)

July 24, 2012 Tony Kay

John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees: Best spastic frontman ever. (photo by Tony Kay)

If you're bat-shit crazy and you know it, scream real loud: Thee Oh Sees at the Capitol Hill Block Party. (photo by Tony Kay)

A wink and a smile from Spac3man. (photo by Tony Kay)

You can bet he ain't crooning the Spice Girls' "Wannabe": Black Breath, doing damage at the Block Party. (photo by Tony Kay)

Guitar-slinging, hair-flipping bad-assery from Seattle's Black Breath. (photo by Tony Kay)

It's baby-makin' time: Allen Stone on the Capitol Hill Block Party Main Stage. (photo by Tony Kay)

P Smoov goes all Roy Orbison for the love of Fresh Espresso. (photo by Tony Kay)

Noelle Skaggs belts it out for Fitz and the Tantrums. (photo by Tony Kay)

They sound like this looks: Absolute Monarchs at the Capitol Hill Block Party Main Stage. (photo by Tony Kay)

Absolute Monarchs' Joel Schneider softly croons a tender lullaby. (photo by Tony Kay)

Lena of Pollens keeps time and harmonizes. (photo by Tony Kay)

Wanna dance? Spoek Mathambo got a 'Hells, yes' from the Capitol Hill Block Party Main Stage crowd. (photo by Tony Kay)

Spoek Mathambo's amazing percussion section ruled. (photo by Tony Kay)

So much for the black-hat jokes: Brent Amaker and the Rodeo. (photo by Tony Kay)

Sunny day, everything's a-OK: Beat Connection gets the Main Stage crowd moving. (photo by Tony Kay)

I heart new wave: Twin Shadow on the CHBP Main Stage. (photo by Tony Kay)

Local troubadour Kris Orlowski sings for his supper. (photo by Odawni AJ Palmer)

Meagan (or is it Megan? Silly Bandcamp!) of dream-pop sirens Lemolo. (photo by Tony Kay)

Porcelan Raft gets all mesmerized and dance-y. (photo by Odawni AJ Palmer)

Night Beats' Danny Lee Blackwell and his electric noisemaker. (photo by Tony Kay)

Tarek Wegner wears the shades for Night Beats. (photo by Tony Kay)

So heavy, even the camera cried uncle: Sandrider at the Block Party. (photo by Odawni AJ Palmer)

Sandrider shreds Barboza. (photo by Odawni AJ Palmer)

Cloud Nothings give everything at the Capitol Hill Block Party. (photo by Tony Kay)

Kithkin's Ian McCutcheon prepares to get interactive. (photo by Tony Kay)

Sarah Barthel belts it out above Phantogram's swirly wall of danceable noise. (photo by Tony Kay)

Dumb name, great power-pop band: King Tuff on the Neumos Stage. (photo by Tony Kay)

Neko Case shits your pants at the Capitol Hill Block Party. (photo by Tony Kay)

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[Your intrepid SunBreak staff has finally had a chance to recover fully from the extravaganza that was the 2012 Capitol Hill Block Party last weekend. Those of us who joined the throngs in music/food/alcohol consumption (myself, Andrew Boscardin, Josh Bis, and Odawni AJ Palmer) wanted to share, in the form of a super-sized photo gallery and SunBreak round table.]

Josh: I didn’t make it to the block party last year, but it felt like the infusion of new ownership brought all sorts of welcome improvements to the festival. Having art throughout the grounds and projected on the walls was a really nice touch that quietly signaled the presence of several minor changes.

Tony: I don’t have last year to measure by, either (this was my first Capitol Hill Block Party), but I had a chance to talk to a few veterans from CHBP 2011, and they all really appreciated the art presence. I definitely did.

Josh: I appreciated how more and more bars and restaurants have been brought “inside the fences” — this increased the number of music venues and improved food and drink options without expanding the footprint.

Tony: That was a canny organizational move. Not only did it widen out the scope of restaurant and watering-hole options, it made CHBP 2012 feel more like a neighborhood festival (albeit a gargantuan one), and less like a gang of drunk party-crashers stomping into the ‘hood.

Josh: Whether the result of limiting ticket sales, scaling back the lineup, or tweaking the layout, the block party rarely felt as dangerously crowded and physically unnavigable as I remember it being in previous years. But as usual, dropping a beer garden fortress into the middle of the grid induced some traffic bottlenecks (and kept all-agers out of all but two stages).

Tony: Most of the time the CHBP team kept their ducks in a row logistically, but the placement of that beer garden was one of the few genuine pains in the ass all Block Party long.

Josh: I can’t even imagine how complicated it would be to do so, but I’d really love to see those fences eliminated. If Sasquatch can do it, why not Seattle?

Tony: I agree. Traversing the entire stretch of Pike from Neumos to the Vera Stage woulda had agoraphobics in seizures. Then again, there was so much great music, walking that gauntlet proved to be worth the effort most of the time.

Speaking of the music, I saw over two-dozen bands at the Block Party, and was really surprised at how few of these artists I’d actually heard and/or heard of before. Even more surprising was how great so many of ‘em were. What stood out for you guys?

Josh: Overall, my favorite sets were Beat Connection‘s well-timed midday tropical calypso/electro, Cloud Nothings‘s epic Sunday afternoon frustration rock, and Silly Goose’s hilarious and charming Blink 182 covers.

Tony: Beat Connection were, unsurprisingly, tight yet wonderfully airy–perfect for a breezy summer day. And Cloud Nothings (one of many first-time listens for me) were aces. Andrew, I saw you at the Pollens set at Neumos. Did you enjoy them as much as I did?

Andrew: Full disclosure: I went to Cornish with several of the members of Pollens and have been a huge fan of the band for some time. Their new record Brighten and Break is wonderful and I try to catch them live whenever I can.

Tony: I love how they combine a strong rhythmic backbone with really lush multi-part harmonies. The Dirty Projectors sort of kicked off this sound, but you don’t hear a lot of Seattle bands mixing those elements so well.

Andrew: Their performance at Block Party was notable for me in that the band sounded looser and more spontaneous than I’ve ever heard them before. They gave the impression of transforming from a group that performs their repertoire live into a true live band which is truly exciting to see. I’m very much looking forward to what the future holds for them.

Tony: I heard a lot of satisfying dance music over the course of the weekend, for sure. Friday, Allen Stone’s brand of velour soul made for prime baby-making accompaniment, and Mad Rad mix maestro P Smoov’s offshoot Fresh Espresso pumped up the volume at Neumos in a big way–MC Rik Rude was an electric current through that crowd.

Spoek Mathambo‘s weld of hip-hop, electronica, and dance hall sounded great live (and his drummer ruled) on Saturday. Sunday’s rhythm-fueled highlights for me included New York electronic pop outfit Phantogram (sleek and sexy, with a hint of danger and a fireball front woman in Sarah Barthel) and Seattle young pups Kithkin (whose relentlessly percussive tribal rock literally had the audience joining the band onstage to pound on cowbells, drums, and sticks).

Andrew: Onuinu, a three-piece fronted by Portland’s Dorian Duvall, is my favorite new discovery from Block Party. Unadorned dance pop that floats on a cloud of synthesizer and guitar textures, their music had a packed house dancing all through their set at Neumos. It felt like a perfectly curated DJ set from a secret exclusive nightclub stumbled upon off of some hidden alley in Barcelona. I’m definitely looking forward to hearing more from them.

Tony: What about the rock? I got my loud/fast quotient from Black Breath, a local metal quartet who delivered Motorhead riffs, from-the-gut-growls, and glorious hair-flipping in equal measure. The loud-and-proud psychedelia of Texas ex-pats Night Beats stroked my garage-rock pleasure nodes in stunning fashion. And anyone who thinks the lock-step rhythms of post-punk and the screaming anger of metal can’t combine magically hasn’t heard Absolute Monarchs, who decimated the Main Stage Saturday afternoon. Still kicking myself for having missed Reignwolf, though.

Andrew: Any description of Reignwolf (aka Jordan Cook) fails to do justice to the experience of hearing him perform live. Combining high-octane blues-laced rock songs with crushing guitar licks and the showman theatricality of a classic one-man-band, Cook’s set in front of a packed house at Neumos was a thunderous spectacle in the best possible sense.

Tony: The Cha Cha Lounge hosted a lot of heavy/loud bands, too…

Josh: The Cha Cha turned out to be one of my more favorite venues, if only because of the high levels of enthusiasm from local bands and their enthusiastic fans. It would be cool to see that lineup unleashed into the more spacious light of day (or even the bar’s back lot), but that might rob it of a little bit of its dark margarita-fueled energy.

Tony: The Cha Cha shows were so packed that I was only able to squeeze into Crime Wave’s energetic set of post-punk (and even then, only barely). The band delivered live, and their driving goth sound went strangely well with the club’s coffin-lining-red lighting and retro-lucha libre kitsch.

Andrew: I didn’t see any Cha Cha shows, but I did catch Sandrider at Barboza. They’re easily my favorite band right now. Combining crushing riffs with lyrics inspired by Frank Herbert’s Dune, this power trio has seemingly inherited all of the best parts of their classic metal and hardcore forebears and distilled them into their refined and steely essence. They didn’t waste a single note of their 40-minute set, stirring the crowd into a hopping, head-bobbing frenzy.

Tony: All told, my favorite acts turned out to be the ones brimming with the most showmanship. Aside from the aforementioned sets by Kithkin, Phantogram, Absolute Monarchs, and Night Beats, I fell in even deeper love with San Francisco’s Thee Oh Sees after their Friday Main Stage turn. Vocalist Jon Dwyer is an amazing anomaly–an incredibly cool-looking frontman (thin, floppy-locked, sharply attired) who literally doesn’t give a rat’s ass what he looks like. Watching his face contort like some LSD-jiggered cartoon character as he and his band pounded out their sure-rocking variety of trippy guitar rock was as amusing as it was inspiring. And Neko Case‘s hilarious between-song banter (“I shit your pants!”) somehow never obscured that bell-clear siren song of a voice, nor did it diminish the dusky power of her songs. She, like a lot of the other acts that worked the various stages of the Block Party, knew the value of embracing your art closely while still acknowledging the ridiculousness of the revelry.

The SunBreak

Tag Archives: Absolute Monarchs

Your Live Music Bets for the Weekend of August 23 through August 25

Picking the 12 Best Northwest Music Releases of 2012

Curious Georges in a conversation with Seattle