how could this be

How could it be that I have the center of Scottish punk/twee/rock here in my backyard and I have not heard anything about The Shop Assistants? How is this possible that a lead singer with a voice of milk and honey front a fabulously pop post-punk quartet and I was not aware?

Perhaps the reason lies in the timing of this wonderful mid 80's Scottish band to roughly the same period that Salem 66 was hitting the airwaves (small local college radio airwaves mind you).

I blame all my Scottish friends who happen to be sociologists in sabbaticals at UW for not introducing me to the sublime pop that is this band. Pop has gotten a bad name since the reigns of Brittney Spears and her ilk, but this is pure unadulterated joyful pop for the young and for the un-cynical (for those ur-cynical among us it is a chance to get back to that cool naive place of your earlier years when music was everything, and getting to the next show the most important matter ahead).

For comparison I give you our own American (Boston) Salem 66 and Scotlands own The Shop Assisstants.

The Shop Assisstants: Safety Net
Salem 66: Postcard

PS listen to the voices, listen to the inflection in their voice, that minor key melancholy dripping over the punk guitars... the key juxtaposition to post-punk pop.

Sunday Morning, Brings the Sun In...

It is Sunday Morning, the fog is in and the coffee is being made (fresh whole beans ground...) and the NYT awaits unfurled from its delivery. Hmmm, very idyllic scene. No Twinkies, Haggis, or other sundry foods to clog the palate. Nice morning, except for son number one complaining bitterly about typing his middle school essay application.

His complaints do add a slight cacophonous air to the otherwise stillness out there.

Alas, I did find the Pica Beats (a local Seattle band, in the above picture playing the small, acoustically changellenged Chop Sueys Venue) on Amazon mp3 download. This band are the direct inheritors of Olympia's K-records sound, that American version of twee including Beat Happening, etc. With staccato playing, young sounding voices and quirky lyrics they take up the reigns of that idea, that concept... that innocent and senstivie can be art too.

the pica beats: shallow dive

Oh by the way I used to write about music.

With the return of ever impudent RoaringMachine and the local visit of the infamous Colin ,destroyer of screen doors, I had to write something...

The local indie rock station were playing some songs that I had not heard of prior but had to know more about.

AC Berkheimer hail from Holland and that is all I know. They play an 80's influenced indie-rock with shoe-gazery guitars and soft female vocals making for a very cool combination. The guitars have a hint of My Bloody Valentine but much softer, and the singing reminds me of their countrymen Bettie Serveert (may all the dutch sound alike... or something).

Well nonetheless here is:

AC Berkheimer: Ordinary Days
AC Berkheimer: For He's not There

PS: I may try to post in a frequency of more often than every 6 months

PPS: not only does he like walking through doors he seems to now be an amateur pornographer

A request

It is not often we get requests on this little blog, so for ANON a first time event.

Also this is from a band that is under esteemed and under appreciated. Further, from a scene that happened in LA in the 80's that is almost becoming forgotten. The LA psychadelic revival that happened during that time lead by the Three O'clock and The Bangles' sunshine power pop but also fed by the underground sound of bands like To Damascus (I have both LPs and will work hard to digitize them).

So, again for your perusing pleasure the dark, the melancholic:

To Damascus: Night Surfing (From Succumb)

one more week, and yet here we are

I have not any new knife sets so my fingers survived another week unscathed. Son number one really wanted a ripstick-G so to keep him outside instead of watching the TV all day, I succumbed to his pleas and bought him one. It is basically a skate board but with two wheels rather than 4... so now he has all the scrapes and cuts.

Now, the new Scarlet Johansen single "hit" just last week... I will save you my invective against ego rich Hollywood stars who feel so "empty" by the vacuousness of her peers and her own career and thus being the rebel she has always been she will let the country into her private rich meaningful world where art, angst, ennui, but ultimately hope work together to make some sort of stew (perhaps a pot-au-feu) of her emotions, and now we the lovers of real music, are privileged to see it writ large on MTV as the new video by a misunderstood artist. Yes I must spare you my invective... it just isn't nice.

KEXP being perhaps among the best radio stations in the known universe introduced me to this up and coming band from Oxford England. They are Foals. They hail from Oxford and I suspect someone among the motley crew that reads my blog may have blogged about them, if so, then I apologize. They have some of the dance energy of the Arctic Monkeys but with a little more spare sound perhaps ala early Gang of Four. They include a strong percussion, synthesizer and the occasional brass instrument to make the mix work.

Foals: There Are Birds
Foals: Balloons

Late in the day... or is it night?

(the above picture is graffiti from a grain elevator in Minnesota, found here)

I spoke with a friend recently who has not been feeling as happy as we would all hope, in fact down right sad is the word to describe her. It is sometimes hard to find someone who is not sad out there who does not annoy the heck out of you (I have been blamed for a sunny disposition, but my friends, it is a but a facade for unrequited angst and ennui...). I have spoken to others as well, not as recently, and sadness is the main color of the week.

The above picture somehow captures sadness like Münch's "The Scream" encapsulates angst and fear. The context in which it was found, in some lonely grain silo in the middle of nowhere, where no one would likely see it just adds context to the sense of alienation and despair that the simple hyeroglyphic was meant to convey. Who was the author? I wonder if I would say "hello." I wonder if it would matter. 

I have been meaning to post a song from this band since I first heard them because it is energetic and has that pure rock joie de vibre that makes young kids pick up guitars to join bands (that and the drugs and sex of course).

The band is Girl in a Coma and they are from Texas. An all girl rock band of Tex-Mex kids who opened for the great Moz in the not too distant past.

I don't generally post videos but watching the featured hispanic kids dancing and listening to this indie band in the old rundown sketchy bar reminds me of me. The fun they seem to have, their dress, their dancing... all that makes me smile.

Hurrah for alterlatinos everywhere.

Girl in a Coma: Clumsy Sky

Interestingly Enough:

(a picture of Alki beach we took on a recent walk, kinda reminds me of Rothko somehow).

Today as I took a shower I heard the door ring and then silence. I guess whoever it had been was summarily dismissed by the kids watchful suspiciousness of all people knocking unannounced. 

When I got out, youngest daughter Luci told me that the Hobos had come to our door. "The Hobos?" I asked. Luci told me that two men Hobos and a younger kid Hobo (who made up the motley crew known as the Hobos) had come to the door to give us presents.

Daughter Luci however, was too wise and sent these Hobos home without so much as a welcome cup of tea.

After much deductive thinking and finding a copy of the "Watchtower" on our door we found out that "the Hobos" were in fact Jehovah's [witnesses].

I heard today's musical interlude as I perused other blogs. I was looking around the excellent MP3Hugger where I heard a new band from San Francisco that I don't know much about (they do have a blogger page though): The Empty Rooms. They evoke that beautiful guitar drone of their Southern neighbors from LA, the Meeting Places, but also have some of the psychedelic 60's guitar twang thrown in for a good atmospheric jangle and finally, and perhaps, most interestingly the sparse moodiness of the great band Ride (although the opening drums don't hint at this). Why is it generally when I leave a place (be it LA or San Francisco) that a great music revival seems to happen?

The Empty Rooms: We've Been Waiting for you.