Tag Archives: Chop Suey

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Your Live Music Bets for the Weekend of December 19 through December 21

It’s less than a week before Santa does the Down-The-Chimney Shimmy, so the fact that there are some seriously cool holiday-themed live shows going on this weekend should come as no surprise. What may surprise you (and what will surely make your live music choices true agony for the next three days) is how many great non-holiday shows lie in waiting. Consider this heads-up my Christmas gift to you. Happy Holidays, folks.

Friday, December 19 (tonight!)

Dancer and Prancer’s Xmas Extravaganza with Shannon and the Clams, La Luz, The Fe Fi Fo Fums, DJ Brian Foss @ Chop Suey. 21+. $15 at the door. Show at 9 p.m.

In case you didn’t know, Capitol Hill venue Chop Suey becomes the latest local music venue to fall victim to grabby developers come January. That means you’d better get your fix while you can, and this second night of holiday hijinks should be just the ticket. Shannon and the Clams play retro rock that plumbs surf music, rockabilly, and lo-fi pop, La Luz’s swaggering garage-surf remains crucial live, the Fe Fi Fo Fums bash out lovingly sloppy rock that makes the Black Lips sound like Yes, and hosts Dancer and Prancer do the Ventures’ surf-Christmas schtick with irresistible panache. All that, and pictures with Santa, and a DJ set by booking God/former Funhouse Santa Brian Foss? Smells like Christmas-palooza.

Kinski, Spoils, Low Hums @ The Blue Moon Tavern. 21+. $8 at the door. Show at 9 p.m.

Kinski have been kicking around Seattle for long enough (since 1998) to officially be taken for granted, but do so at your own peril. Their most recent full-length, 2013’s Cosy Moments, saw them pounding out some lean and menacing hard rock with vocals, but fans can rest assured that the band’s dreamy/gothy/atmospheric/freaky instrumental soundscapes remain intact–and mesmerizing live. Low Hums most definitely live up to their name, generating a slow-rolling and likewise-atmospheric wall of sound that adds some roots twang to the trip, as if Ennio Morricone’s slide guitar player dropped acid and joined a shoegaze band.

X, The Blasters, Girl Trouble @ El Corazon. 21+. $25 advance/$30 at the door. Show at 8 p.m.

If the words ‘seminal’ and ‘legendary’ didn’t already exist, some rock critic or music nerd would have had to invent them to describe X. The LA punk band influenced a couple of generations of indie musicians by draping a roots-rock canvas over punk rock. They still give it their all onstage and sport an astonishing back catalog. Roots-rock stalwarts The Blasters and Tacoma’s own Mount Rushmore of Garage Rock (Girl Trouble) form a super-powered opening one-two punch.

Funky 2 Death @ Seamonster Lounge. 21+. Free! Show at 10 p.m.

I’m a relatively late convert to Wallingford’s Seamonster Lounge, but it’s a great little scrapper of a venue with decidedly funky leanings. Local ensemble Funky 2 Death have pretty much served as the Seamonster’s informal house band for awhile now, and they’re capable funketeers with a surplus of chops. The grooves don’t come more organic and durable, and when guitarist Jabrille “Jimmy James” Williams begins firing off molten licks you best look out.

Saturday, December 20

Xmas Maximus, Cathy Sorbo, The Candy Cane Dancers @ Darrell’s Tavern. 21+. $10 at the door. Show at 9 p.m.

Last year’s Xmas Maximus Holiday Show provided some seriously good times, serving up plenty of holiday-themed original and cover songs that took plenty of goofball paths (yes, Christmas tunes and prog rock can be combined, if you’re as bent as these guys are). This year’s installment continues the madness, with the best dive bar in North Seattle once more standing in for the North Pole, an all-star cast of local musicians (including singer Barbara Trentanange, who belts out “At the Christmas Ball” below) populating the band, comedian Cathy Sorbo turning the air blue, and the Candy Cane Dancers bringing the burlesque.

My Goodness, Haunted Horses, Chrome Lakes @ Sunset Tavern. 21+. $12 at the door. Show at 8 p.m.

In case you haven’t gotten the news, My Goodness crafted what might be the best epic rock record of 2014 with their full-length Shiver and Shake (further elaboration here). Why they’re not filling giant venues at this point is one of life’s true mysteries, so enjoy seeing them in the cozy confines of Ballard’s Sunset Tavern while you can. The strong, stacked bill also includes the drony and scary Haunted Horses, and some potently forceful post-punk from local boys Chrome Lakes.

X, The Blasters, Boss Martians @ El Corazon. 21+. $25 advance/$30 at the door. Show at 8 p.m.

See Friday, December 19, give or take the very awesome stylings of another local garage rock ensemble, Boss Martians, in lieu of Girl Trouble.

Joe Purdy, OK Sweetheart, Sophia Duccini @ The Neptune. 21+. $29 advance. Show at 7 p.m.

Joe Purdy‘s tremulous folk stylings offer the requisite earthy charm, but for my money, the two opening acts make this bill damn near irresistible. Local girl Sophia Duccini‘s sidelong folk songs with pop tinges would impress even if she wasn’t a tender 18 years old, and former New Yorker/current Seattleite Erin Austin lends some powerhouse pipes to her ongoing project/band OK Sweetheart, combining sixties pop, folk, and Muscle Shoals soul to shimmering effect.

Santa Claus @ Scarecrow Video. 21+. Free. Show at 8 p.m.

Before you go to any of the above music shows tomorrow night, you’re cordially invited to visit the world’s greatest video store, knock back a beer, and watch Santa Claus score wacky dust from Merlin the Magician before going mano-a-mano with a devil. My sworn mission to make this bizarre bon bon an enduring holiday classick continues. First ten people receive a suitably bizarre door prize, courtesy of Santa!

Sunday, December 21

Piano Starts Here: A Charlie Brown Christmas @ The Royal Room. All Ages. $5 advance. Show at 6 p.m.

Gigantor, Lushy @ The Royal Room. 21+. No Cover, Suggested Donation $5 to $15 at the door. Show at 9 p.m.

Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas never fails to wrap a warm scarf around one’s heart, so hearing several talented local musicians wending their way through those jazzy chestnuts roasting on an open fire should be a treat. Stick around at Columbia City’s great new-ish venue for what will surely be sterling turns by Gigantor (fab reggae/ska fronted by Lynval Golding of ska legends The Specials) and Seattle’s finest cocktail/bossanova/space-age pop ensemble, Lushy.

Music

Photos from Shannon and the Clams’ show at Chop Suey

ShanClam2
ShanClam3
ShanClam4
PonyTime1

Shannon and the Clams performed at Chop Suey, 6/23.

Photo by Tori Dickson.

Shannon and the Clams performed at Chop Suey, 6/23.

Photo by Tori Dickson.

Shannon and the Clams performed at Chop Suey, 6/23.

Photo by Tori Dickson.

Shannon and the Clams performed at Chop Suey, 6/23.

Photo by Tori Dickson.

Shannon and the Clams performed at Chop Suey, 6/23.

Photo by Tori Dickson.

Pony Time opened for Shannon and the Clams at Chop Suey, 6/23.

Photo by Tori Dickson.

PlayPrev|Next

Last Monday night saw a raucous show at Chop Suey with garage rockers Shannon and the Clams coming through the hometown of their label, Hardly Art. Local fellow travelers Pony Time opened. New SunBreak photographer Tori Dickson was there to capture these photos.

Arts & Entertainment, Literature

Eight off-site AWP events not to miss this week

Late in our hibernation, a controversy erupted where the bookfair at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference was temporarily excluding the general public from the fair on its final day, Saturday, March 1. It was a break from tradition that AWP said was due to complexities in Seattle’s tax code, which, they say, differ from other cities that host the conference.

I’ll be attending the conference next week, and attending to as many readings and panels as I can manage on Thursday and Friday, but, like the final day of the book fair, there are a bunch of great events that happening off-site that are open to the public. Here are a few that I recommend checking out:

Festival of Language, Rock Bottom, Wednesday, February 26, 5pm-10pm (website)

I’m not familiar with most of the fifty (!) writers booked for this reading, and that’s part of the fun. The night will be divided up into three 90-minute segments. The readings will be short, forcing authors to grab listeners immediately and turn them on to their writing. And even if not, it’ll be just a few moments until the next one takes the microphone. The one author on the roster I am most familiar with is Alissa Nutting, who wrote the scandalous Tampa, one of the most talked-about books of 2013 (though I liked her gripping and unique short story collection Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls a little more).

AWP Event with Tin House Books, Wave Books, and Tumblr, Chop Suey, Thursday, February 27, 8pm, free  (website)

This party may actually literally have it all: readings from great writers (Dorothea Lasky, Peter Mountford, Bianca Stone, and Matthew Zapruder), DJ sets from Mas y Menos and New Dadz, and free drinks, provided by Tumblr. I recommend finding a copy of Mountford’s brand new novel The Dismal Science, and asking him to sign it for you. It’s the best novel you’ll read all year that features Paul Wolfowitz.

MFA vs. NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction, Vito’s Restaurant, Thursday, February 27, 7pm-9pm, free (website)

This is the launch party for the a new anthology that explores the two predominant “scenes” of American fiction, edited by Chad Harbach (with N+1 magazine and author of the popular novel The Art of Fielding). This is one of the books I’m most anxious to read, and I did find The Art of Fielding to be an entertaining read, so this is on my must-see list. There was also an excerpt from the book, about the famous editor Gordon Lish, on the New Yorker’s website.

Slate Live: Audio Book Club Podcast Recording: Hugh Howey on Kurt Vonnegut, Town Hall, Thursday, February 27, 7:30pm, $10 tickets. (website)

A live taping of the Slate podcast will include a discussion about the beloved Kurt Vonnegut, and will feature Slate writers Dan Kois (Slate Book Review editor), and Hanna Rosin, plus Hugh Howey, author of the popular WOOL series.

Sex Death and Memoir Reading, Babeland, Friday, February 28, 5pm-6:30pm (website)

This reading is hosted by former students who had taken Portland author Lidia Yuknavitch’s Ecstatic States workshop. The workshop’s aim is to “go beyond the clichés of sex and death” and that’s exactly what makes Yuknavitch’s writing so compelling. Her 2011 memoir, The Chronology of Water, is such a compelling book because whether she’s writing about abuse, sex, or swimming, Yuknavitch knows that the right words are often the most direct. It’s beautifully written because Yuknavitch is honest with her readers, even when it doesn’t paint her in the most flattering light. It is one of the books that has stuck with me since reading it. I can’t wait to hear first-hand how Lidia Yuknavitch directly influenced a subsequent group of authors.

Jazz and Poetry Soiree with Molly Ringwald, Heather McHugh, Robert Pinsky, and friends, Chihuly Boathouse, Friday, February 28, 5pm, $135 tickets. (website)

Tickets for this event are long sold out, and you really didn’t want to go anyway.

VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, Hugo House, Friday, February 28, 8pm, $10 minimum donation (website)

This is one of the higher-profile readings, and for good reason. It’s loaded. It features beloved authors like Cheryl Strayed (Wild), Nick Flynn (Another Bullshit Night in Suck City), Pam Houston (Cowboys Are My Weakness), Natalie Diaz (When My Brother Was an Aztec), Kate Lebo (A Commonplace Book of Pie), and more. The readings start at 10pm, I’d recommend getting to the Hugo House much earlier.

Bedtime Stories, Elliott Bay Book Company, Saturday, March 1, $15 tickets (which includes a copy of Suzy Vitello’s new book The Moment Before) (website) 

The theme of this evening reading at Elliott Bay Book Company is “adult bedtime stories” and it stars some very well known authors: Chelsea Cain, Chuck Palahniuk, Monica Drake, Lidia Yuknavitch, and Suzy Vitello (all of whom, I think, are friends in Portland). The EBBC website says the first fifty people to arrive in the bedtime attire (safe for bookstores, presumably) will be handed a heart-shaped box of chocolates by Chelsea Cain.

{Photo by Tom Murphy VII, from Wikicommons}

Arts & Entertainment, Music

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

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, Dance, Music

A Chop Suey Dance Party for Hurricane Sandy Relief

Rock-a-Raise‘Twas the night before New Year’s Eve — ’twill be, rather, but that come on, ’twill? We couldn’t do it.

We have been alerted to the good-hearted efforts of the people behind Rock-a-Raise, a dance party to be held at Chop Suey on December 30, with all proceeds going to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Hurricane Sandy Relief and Rebuild Fund.

Tickets are just $10, but for $25 you’re entered to win (15 times!) a two-night stay for two at the newly restored Villa Verde in Merida, Mexico.

The fun — oh, there will be fun — begins at 7 p.m. as emcee Alex Grindeland from Comedy Sportz joins DJ Mike Steve and DJ Chrispy and a themed selection of New York/Jersey bands that you know and love.

Also, enjoy the burlesque/lounge stylings of Gams Galore (“That Glamorous Gal with the Golden Gullet!”), Mitzy Sixx, and Nitara Ashling. We are told there will be even more prizes besides the Mexico giveaway, but they will not be announced in advance. You just have to show up and shake it, and be ready to jump on what turns up.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Kultur Shock 15th Anniversary at Chop Suey [Slideshow]

Seattle’s premier caravan of gypsy-punk-metal hellions, Kultur Shock, blew last weekend open with a marathon fifteenth anniversary celebration at Chop Suey Friday night, and it was a hell of a party.

A wonderful assemblage of humanity packed Chop Suey. Tippling Slavs gleefully sang along with singer Gino Srdjan Yevdjevich in their native tongue, even as energized punks and headbangers ricocheted against each other at the front of the stage (interestingly enough, a significant quotient of females seemed to be dishing out the slam-dancing). And the band, well, they couldn’t have been better. 

Yevdjevich, dreadlocks exploding from the back of his otherwise shorn head, commanded the stage with a potent combination of headbanging bad-assery, gypsy charm, and political-firebrand passion.  Guitarist Val Kiossovski threw fierce surf-guitar licks and Mideastern swirls atop the band’s heavy-metal crunch. The band’s bassist Guy Davis (also a member of storied Seattle rock trio Sage) and drummer Chris Stromquist kept the rhythms beneath the whole surging mass of sound lock-step perfect. Seattle multi-instrumentalist Amy Denio punctuated the songs with stabs of skronking sax and percussive vocalizing from another world. And if there’s another human being alive who plays violin with the artistry and uninhibited sensuality of KS’s Paris Hurley, please let me know their identity so’s I can crush on them, too.

Kultur Shock’s presence has been so ubiquitous on flyers and posters around town for so many years that it’s easy to pass them by. After seeing them live, that’s a mistake I’ll never make again. Nothing can beat seeing them work a stage in person, but pull up their website and play the stream of Ministry of Kultur while viewing the enclosed slideshow. That might come close. Maybe.

Gino Yevdjevich of Kultur Shock.
Paris Hurley of Kultur Shock.
Val Kiossovski of Kultur Shock.
Kultur Shock.
Guy Davis of Kultur Shock.
Amy Denio of Kultur Shock.
Val from Kultur Shock.
Kultur Shock.
Kultur Shock lead singer Gino.
Paris of Kultur Shock.
Gino of Kultur Shock.
Kultur Shock's Paris Hurley.
Paris and Gino of Kultur Shock.
Gino of Kultur Shock.

Gino Yevdjevich of Kultur Shock. (photo by Tony Kay)

Kultur Shock violinist Paris Hurley. (photo by Tony Kay)

Val Kiossovski, Bulgarian guitar hero. (photo by Tony Kay)

(photo by Tony Kay)

Sage bass player Guy Davis anchors Kultur Shock's bottom end. (photo by Tony Kay)

(photo by Tony Kay)

Paris Hurley and drummer Chris Stromquist of Kultur Shock. (photo by Tony Kay)

(photo by Tony Kay)

(photo by Tony Kay)

Gino looks evil. (photo by Tony Kay)

(photo by Tony Kay)

(photo by Tony Kay)

(photo by Tony Kay)

PlayPrev|Next
Gino Yevdjevich of Kultur Shock. thumbnail
Paris Hurley of Kultur Shock. thumbnail
Val Kiossovski of Kultur Shock. thumbnail
Kultur Shock. thumbnail
Guy Davis of Kultur Shock. thumbnail
Amy Denio of Kultur Shock. thumbnail
Val from Kultur Shock. thumbnail
Kultur Shock. thumbnail
Kultur Shock lead singer Gino. thumbnail
Paris of Kultur Shock. thumbnail
Gino of Kultur Shock. thumbnail
Kultur Shock's Paris Hurley. thumbnail
Paris and Gino of Kultur Shock. thumbnail
Gino of Kultur Shock. thumbnail