Tag Archives: Curtains for You

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, Music

Curtains for You Members Take Solo Flight on Saturday

There’s something quintessentially Seattle about the new recording by Michael and Matthew Gervais, better known as two-fifths of Seattle pop band Curtains for You — especially the way it charms without ever seeming like it’s trying.

The Gervais brothers, wearing the rather ungainly moniker of Mikey and Matty, have just unveiled Harbor Island, their first effort outside the Curtains for You umbrella. Don’t expect the seamless pop craft of a typical Curtains for You record here: Harbor Island isn’t meant to be that. It’s a treasure chest of rough diamonds, delivered with such loose-limbed ease that the beauty of the songs almost takes you by surprise.

Mikey and Matty get a little bit of help on Harbor Island – The Head and the Heart’s Charity Rose Thielen contributes some lovely violin on “Greyscale,” and “Sheryl’s Bane” gets an assist from vocalists Melissa and Stephanie Reese and Curtains bassist Nick Holman on trumpet — but by and large, it’s hand-crafted solely by both Gervais brothers. The tunes play like looser, stripped-down offshoots of Curtains’ winning pop mini-symphonies: There are luminescent melodies galore, but most of the percussion is gently-brushed drums or tambourine, and songs often amble to a close like a daydreaming kid wandering into a forest. Spare acoustic guitars and piano anchor the lion’s share of the melodies alongside Matt and Mike’s harmonies.

Those harmonies are what infuse these unpretentiously great songs with real magic. Few singers this side of Jonathan Auer and Ken Stringfellow harmonize with the telepathic effortlessness of the Gervais brothers, and their voices intertwine magnificently throughout Harbor Island. One of the unexpected joys of the record is hearing Michael (usually a background vocalist on Curtains’ releases) take the lead on several tracks with a limber, rootsy tenor that contrasts and blends with his brother’s pure-pop croon sublimely.

Harbor Island flows so wonderfully it makes singling out individual tracks almost moot, but there are plenty of moments that’ll take your breath away. “Aurora Borealis” fuses the earthy loveliness of a Fleet Foxes song with back-masked Beatles instrumentation, and a rolling piano and snare drum offset the exquisite melancholy of Michael’s and Matthew’s duetting on “Of All The Limbs to Cling To.” The track that’ll likely occupy the most repeat time, though, is the album’s opener, “Floor Underneath Us.” With its autumnal lyrical imagery, stately piano melody, and harmonies so subtly beautiful they ache, it meets romance squarely at the intersection of sunny warmth and bittersweetness. And like any great pop song, it refuses to leave your head.

Mikey and Matty celebrate the release of Harbor Island with a show at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center (Saturday night at 8 p.m.; tickets: $10 advance/$13 at the door). The strong bill includes preceding sets by Big Sur, Ghosts I’ve Met, and Not Amy, and with the headliners joined by members of the Seattle Rock Orchestra, those rough-cut pop jewels should be just a little bit more polished onstage.

Arts & Entertainment, Dance, Music

Folklife Festival Recommendations for 2012

Wheedle's Groove will surely, seriously funk up Folklife (photo by Tony Kay)

The Northwest Folklife Festival takes over the Seattle Center beginning today. It’s not the only music festival in the Northwest this Memorial Day Weekend (there’s some little thing going on at The Gorge about now, too). But it’s a Northwest tradition, admission’s free, and it’s always no end of fun.

Folklife’s never had much hipster cache (too inclusive, too family-friendly), but a contingent of local acts from Seattle’s indie rock, indie-folk, and soul scenes will be there alongside the traditional ethnic and folk musicians and dancers. Kudos to Folklife’s programmers for introducing Folklife’s broad demographic to some great original Northwest sounds.

Definitely take a gander at Folklife’s full calendar: There’s just too much great stuff going down. But here’s an incomplete list of some of the Folklife performers that we at the SunBreak are especially excited about:

Today (Friday, May 25)

Love Bomb Go Go (3:15, Indie Roots Stage at Broad Street), Orkestar Slivovica (6:30, Fountain Lawn Stage): Multi-culti marching bands with arch theatrical touches are becoming a genre unto themselves, and these ensembles do it right. Love Bomb is a very new Portland ensemble, while Orkestar invade from north of the border (Vancouver) to ply a more traditional brand of Balkan dance music.

Rambling Man: The Life, Times, and Music of Woody Guthrie (8pm, Intiman Choral Courtyard): Folk ensemble The Wanderers have been playing for longer than most of us have been alive, and they’re celebrating the life and tunes of America’s greatest folk troubadour by covering a slew of his songs during this set. Show some respect, kids–and get ready to sing along.

Bollywood Seattle Performers (9:35, International Dance Stage at Exhibition Hall): If you find nothing in the world more hypnotic than the spectacle of Bollywood dancers whirling in time to the mesmerizing rhythmic purr of traditional Indian music, stay late tonight for Bollywood Seattle’s presentation.

Saturday, May 26

Shelby Earl (1:30, Indie Roots Stage at Broad Street): Earl’s dusky and full voice–and her strong, rootsy songs–have been enlivening the local roots scene for a couple of years now, and those pipes never disappoint, live.

Dirty Scientifix (5:25, Vera Project Gallery): It’s always great to hear some hip-hop at Folklife, and this crew’s combo of dub, positive vibes, and Digital-Underground-esque old school beats and rhymes will get the Vera bumping.

Fort Union, Kris Orlowski, Smokey Brights, Big Sur (Indie Roots Stage, 7:00): This great cross-section of indie-folk artists covers the gamut, replete with tinges of the angularly-modern (Fort Union) to raspily-alluring (Orlowski) to heart-on-sleeve balladeering (Smokey Brights) to timelessly-resonant Gram Parsons-esque songwriting (Big Sur).

The Bad Things (9:20, Vera Project): Best drunken cabaret band in Seattle. Period.

Wheedle’s Groove (9:55, Mural Amphitheatre): Self-promotion alert: The SunBreak is proud to sponsor the stage for this sure-to-be-cooking set from the collective of legendary Seattle funk and soul musicians known as Wheedle’s Groove. Truth be told, though, we’d be shouting its praises even if our name wasn’t on it. If you ain’t dancing, you must be dead.

Sunday, May 27

Artist Home Showcase featuring Curtains for You, Koko and the Sweetmeats, Cumulus, and Dude York (3pm, Indie Roots Stage): Artist Home’s showcase slingshots between Curtains for You’s stunning power pop, the spare and enchantingly low-key femme-fronted Cumulus, and Dude York’s precise slam of a math-rock/garage brew. It’s also reputedly Koko and the Sweetmeats‘ final gig, so get their great echoey blend of rockabilly and mournful folk while you can.

 

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Seattle’s Best Pop Band Gets Its Moment in the Neumo’s Spotlight

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Curtains for You play, harmonize, and jump around like crazy men tonight at Neumo's. (photo by Tony Kay)

Curtains for You, The Pica Beats, and Tomten play Neumo’s tonight. Doors at 8pm, show at 9. Tickets, $8 advance, $10 at the door.

Headlining at Neumo’s has always been a Holy Grail for Seattle bands, so the fact that Curtains for You are anchoring a slot there tonight is kind of a big deal. The Capitol Hill venue’s been an inestimable buzz club for years, solidly drawing hot national acts while always keeping a prescient finger on the local scene’s pulse. When a local combo headlines Neumo’s, so the local parlance goes, they’ve arrived.

The gig’s a great validation for one of this ‘burg’s hardest-working (and best) bands. For the rest of us, it’s a thrilling opportunity to catch Curtains for You once more holding their own. At risk of thumping a tub I’ve pounded a lot in the last two years, you won’t see pure pop delivered in a live setting with a more perfect synthesis of peerless harmonizing, swoon-worthy melodies, and kick-in-the-pants energy.

They’ll likely be trying out some new material this evening, and if this all-around awesome number penned by keyboardist Peter Fedofsky is any indicator, the creative streak that began with 2009’s What a Lovely Surprise to See You Here and continued with last year’s After Nights Without Sleep continues unabated.

The bill’s bolstered by two other great local bands, so (repeat after me…) get there early. Tomten richly ply many of the same influences as the headliners (Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys, Beatles, Zombies), with a stirring of Morrissey-esque baritone bittersweetness. And Pica Beats sound like Interpol’s Paul Banks reconciling vintage pop sounds with here-and-now indie sensibilities. In non-music-geek-speak, that means it’s all good.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

The Posies Re-frost the Beater at the Neptune Tomorrow Night

As Mary Poppins once posited, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. And the Posies have spent over twenty years delivering the tartest, most intricate lyrical pills in the sweetest of packages.

That’s a bit of a gross generalization to describe Seattle’s greatest pop band, but it does boil down the band’s appeal–and it addresses the central reason as to why they alternately built a devoted fan base, yet never quite broke into the mainstream.

On the surface, it seems like some sort of major incongruity in the fabric of the universe. After all, band leaders/songwriters/singers Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow burst onto the Northwest music firmament as pop wunderkinds in the late 1980’s, brandishing peerless vocal harmonies and British Invasion-influenced melodies that lodged themselves into the ears with near-parasitic insidiousness. The Posies’ 1990 major label debut, Dear 23, still stands as one of the finest records to come out of this region in the last three decades: To these ears, it’s an epic (and near-perfect) pop album that mixed Auer and Stringfellow’s time-honored sixties influences (The Beatles and The Zombies) with a pinch of Cheap Trick and the acerbic wit of Elvis Costello. Hell, a year or two later, one of the Beatles even covered a song from the record.

The cathartic wail of Grunge was just beginning to emanate from this neck of the woods, however, and a band that couched smart lyrics about relationship angst and the mounting realities of an adult world within carefully-crafted pop songs seemed off-kilter with the prevailing tide. Simply put, a significant portion of disenfranchised kids found the primal scream of Nirvana and Soundgarden more relatable. Dear 23 gained a solid foothold on the College Music charts, but Nevermind became the accidental voice of a generation.

Frosting on the Beater, the Posies’ 1993 follow-up, sounded like a concession to the zeitgeist at first blush. Auer’s and Stringfellow’s guitars roared more often than they chimed, Mike Musberger’s drums thundered with almost chaotic force, and the several of the songs exceeded the five-minute mark with extended squalls of feedback, left-field tangents, and somber starkness. Ironically, the band derided by one local wag as the Northwest’s answer to the Partridge Family had cut an album that was–in its own way–messier and more unpredictable than Nirvana’s immortal pop-culture calling card, Nevermind.

In music geek parlance, if Dear 23 was the Posies’ Sgt. Pepper’s, Frosting on the Beater was their White Album. Critics smitten by the sonic perfection of the Posies’ 1990 platter griped about the inconsistent racket generated by their follow-up (Rolling Stone magazine, significantly, gave Frosting on the Beater a dismissive two-star review when it first came out).

Time has a funny way of vindicating misunderstood records, though. Today, Frosting on the Beater has aged famously, largely because it achieved a louder, riskier, gutsier sound without short-changing Auer and Stringfellow’s harmonic and melodic gifts one iota. And at least two-thirds of the record’s songs are stone masterpieces. “Dream All Day,” the record’s opener, swirls and careens like the best psychedelia. “20 Questions” counters its pit-of-stomach romantic jitters with power-pop feistiness. And the masterful “Lights Out” sounds like an angel’s lullaby, intermittently bum-rushed by a drunken pack of hooligans bashing out T.Rex riffs. More than any other Posies record, Frosting on the Beater cemented their rep as Seattle’s most significant power-pop combo.

The Stranglers' Hugh Cornwell guests on it, so it must be good: Blood/Candy, the Posies' newest CD.

Auer and Stringfellow have amassed pretty amazing resumes as musicians and producers since Frosting. They served a joint fifteen-year stint backing Alex Chilton as half of Big Star, and each released solo records of their own. Auer produced other artists over the last two decades, and Stringfellow did time as a touring member of REM. They’ve also released several other terrific records as the Posies, the most recent of which (2010’s Blood/Candy) shook the tree by wedding their impeccable harmonies with engaging detours into Beach Boys oddball lushness and adventurous instrumentation.

The band will surely touch down at multiple points of their catalog during their gig at the Neptune tomorrow night, but word around the campfire is that they’re playing that beautiful mess of a record, Frosting on the Beater, in its entirety. To paraphrase one of its finest songs, it should be a definite door to another dimension.

(Not to sound like a broken record, but that old mantra of  “Arrive early if you can” really applies for tomorrow night’s show, too. Star Anna and the Laughing Dogs occupy the opening slot with Americana that takes a few loud pop jabs of its own, and any fan of the Posies’ sound owes it to themselves to catch the middle set by this town’s other greatest pure-pop band of the hour, Curtains for You.)

Arts & Entertainment, Music, Visual Arts

West Seattle Summerfest is the Best Little Music Festival of the Season

Cabaret madmen The Bad Things will play in the sunshine at Summerfest Saturday. (Photo: Tony Kay)

The West Seattle Summerfest  (taking over West Seattle’s Junction this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) has been kicking it every July for 29 years, and it’s easily one of the best free festivals in these parts.

This season, the ‘Fest showcases an embarassment of  riches, event-wise. There’ll be a Sustainability and Garden Expo; an Art Dive, put on by the Twilight Artist Collective; HackCycle, a bike-frame re-jiggering project overseen by industrial arts madmen HazardFactory; a spiffy Super Fun Kids Area; and scores of wares being proffered by scores of local vendors.

But the big draw for a lot of folks in town (and this most emphatically includes me) is West Seattle Summerfest’s line-up of musical acts. Every year, the ‘Fest’s music programming gets better and better; and Summerfest 2011, in particular, boasts several astonishingly good Northwest bands and musicians. It’s like walking into one of this ‘burg’s best live venues on an extra-rich bill–only Summerfest offers free admission.  Here’s a rundown of the must-see acts hitting Summerfest this weekend:

Friday, July 8

Whalebones (4:30-5:15 p.m.): Whalebones sound, to these ears at least, like the Northwest’s equivalent of the Black Angels. Like the Angels, they work the lysergic side of the street with a greasy, swaggering batch of tunes that pick up the mind-tripping torch passed from Satanic Majesties’ era Stones to the Brian Jonestown Massacre. This could be the weekend’s best sonic accompaniment to baking in the sun–in more ways than one.

Thee Sgt Major III (5:45-6:30 p.m.), Cali Giraffes (7-7:45pm), The Fastbacks (8-8:45 p.m.): Call it Fastbacks Friday. TSMIII, Fastback guitarist Kurt Bloch’s current power-pop outfit, deliver a great, toothy sugar buzz, topped by Leslie Beattie’s Debbie Harry drone-snarl and an all-star rhythm section comprised of bassist Jim Sangster and drummer Mike Musberger. And based on the one song I’ve heard, fellow ‘Back Kim Warnick’s new group Cali Giraffes will likewise deliver loud-and-fast tartness with the fizzy sweet. Best of all, The Fastbacks re-form for the first time in nine years to continue the party. Who’da thunk that an important branch of Seattle music history could also make you gyrate like a top?

Caspar Babypants (6:30-7:15 p.m.): The Presidents of the United States of America pretty much wrote and played great, funny, weird songs with kid-like exuberance anyway; so it should be no surprise that Presidents singer/guitarist Chris Ballew’s kiddie-song incarnation of Caspar Babypants consists of great, funny, weird songs brimming with kid-like exuberance. Shed your jaded hipster goggles and dance along with the small fry.

Michael Jaworski of Virgin Islands also moonlights as one of The Cops. Photo by Tony Kay.

The Cops (9-10 p.m.): Michael Jaworski takes time from one of Seattle’s best art-punk bands (Virgin Islands) to abuse his six-string and declaim for a formal re-union of one of Seattle’s other best art-punk bands. The Cops shred live, and they’re working on a new record. God, life is good.

Saturday, July 9

The Bad Things (1:15-2 p.m.): If the Pogues could hold their liquor better; shared tequila, German brews, and Scotch ales with Tom Waits; and jammed with a mariachi band; they’d sound kind of like the Bad Things. This awesome kitchen-sink cabaret ensemble comes fresh from the den of debauchery that was the Columbia City Theater’s One-Year Anniversary show (go here for details) to bring mordant humor, alcohol-sodden moping, and killer musicianship to the ‘Fest music stage.

Curtains for You (7:30-8:15 p.m.): Seattle’s best pure-pop band are genetically incapable of playing a bad live show; so go see ‘em for free before they become massive stars, already.

The Bend (8:45-9:30 p.m.): They may be from Seattle, but they wear their UK alt-rock influences (U2, Doves, Elbow, pre-OK Computer Radiohead) on their sleeves. Fortunately, The Bend tread that path really, really well; with chiming guitars, throaty vocals, and songs strong enough to stand confidently beside their idols.

The Staxx Brothers (10-10:45 p.m.): With their fusion of garage-rock, soul, and snarky wit, the Staxx Brothers would make a mean pairing with the Electric Six.

Sunday, July 10

Gunn and the Damage Done (3:45-4:30 p.m.): Springsteen/Mellencamp-style heartland rock isn’t a favorite genre of mine, but Tommy “Gunn” McMullin and company know how to do it right. McMullin possesses a great raspy growl of a rock voice that sounds like The Boss possessed by B.J. Thomas, and his backup band The Damage Done play with snap and polish.

The Fuzz (5-5:45 p.m.): Clumsy, shambling garage rock with sprinkles of ripsaw punk; and vocals so awkward they sound like they were recorded by a passing vagrant? I’m there. Bet it’ll sound great live.