Results tagged “neilyoung”

in the summertime

Above is a six-minute sampling of Melbourne-based noise quartet The Drones and their not-easily-classified dirty blues/swamp rock sound. Wikipedia makes a valiant effort, in describing the band as "The Birthday Party kick the shit out of Neil Young in Hendrix's garage." That's a start.

Melbourne-based quartet The Drones are a little bit country, a little bit blues, and a lotta bit rock 'n' roll. And check it out, they've got one of the most eclectic list of influences we've ever seen: Van Morrison or Dylan or Suicide or Bad Brains or Nina Simone or Black Flag or the Scientists or Ornette Coleman or Thelonius Monk or (australian)X or Townes Van Zandt or John Lee Hooker or Karen Dalton...

We tend to like Scandinavian bands, so it makes sense that we'd be fans of Denmark's Figurines. Christian Hjelm's whiny falsetto vocals remind us of Neil Young and/or Doug Martsch (same diff), while the musical underpinnings run the gamut from bluesy to psychedelic-leaning to the melodic pop of "Let's Head Out" (above) from their third and latest album When the Deer Wore Blue. Tomorrow night they play the Croc, along with catchy-as-hell Australian art-rock five-piece Dappled Cities. Figurines don't stop by Seattle often--once per album tour, it seems--so this is your lone chance to catch these great Danes.

If you would've told us back in the golden days of Heart, back in the "Barracuda" days, that Ann Wilson would one day record a version of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" featuring guest vocalists Shawn Colvin and Rufus Wainwright, Seattlest would've told you to shut the hell up. But now here we are in 2007, when Mandy Moore and Babyface have gone and recorded folk music records, or at least records that show off as folkie as Mandy Moore and Babyface can possibly be.

Whenever we claim that small-town Texas five-piece Midlake sound like Fleetwood Mac minus the chicks and the excessive coke use, people always think we're saying that as an insult. Nothing could be further from the truth. We hear "Roscoe" [mp3] and think "Rhiannon," and frankly that's a good thing. In other places, the band's partly cloudy sound may recall Neil Young or Jackson Browne or basically any other folk-leaning 70s rock outfit, but for us the fuzzy guitars and the transcendent harmonies can't help but evoke the Mac. And what the hell is wrong with that? Fleetwood Mac has a lot of great songs! "Go Your Own Way" and "Say You Love Me" are undeniable!

We hadn't been to the Comet for awhile, but everything looked just the way we left it. Everyone was just as scruffy and working-class-bluesy and it wasn't until we sat down and talked to them later that we discovered they were from Perth, Australia, and worked at Microsoft and Amazon. We holed up in the "Being John Malkovich" lounge upstairs (complete with 3/4-size red door marked "Private") trying to guess who that maddeningly familiar band was they were playing on the stereo (Social Distortion) until Prosser's melancholic indie-alt-country pulled us downstairs.

So the last two days we heard seven bands. And that was a Sunday and Monday night! Our ears are tired. Not that you care. Where the hell were you, anyway? About 20 people showed up for the El Corazon show. It was all-ages, but only four under-21ers skipped Sunday-night homework to come. A bunch of Euro-sausage arrived late to catch Starsailor at the Crocodile. You know, with their Euro-pop t-shirts and orange sneakers. It was like a tale of two night clubs: one gritty (i.e., an actual leaking ceiling) and over-amplified, with a fiercely indie audience, and the other gritty (the ceiling has various kinds of sound baffles nailed to it) and over-amplified, with a used-to-know-someone-who-was-fiercely-indie crowd.

It was a big day for Billie Burke Estate. The band's lead singer/keyboard player (and only member) Andy Liotta spent the afternoon at The Mountain talking up the release of his new album and trying to persuade listeners to come out to the Tractor to check him out live.

Our first film-going experience at Sundance got off to an inauspicious start. There we were, fresh off our flight, catching a film in Salt Lake before heading to the festival proper in Park City. We stood around in the wait list line for the requisite two-plus hours to guarantee we got a seat (once the actual ticket holders got theirs, of course). At long last, we entered the theater and took our seats. The lights went down, the credits rolled, this was it! And then---the film's sound went out. And it stayed out. For a half hour. During that time, the film kept running, sans dialogue, while the Sundance staff struggled to figure out what was wrong and the audience grew unruly. Trust us, you do not want to be in a crowd of pissed off Mormons. There were shouts of "this is bullshit!", "turn on the lights!", "turn off the lights!", and the ever-popular "start the movie over!" When we were close to ditching out (as many had), the sound came back, the film was rewound, the audience cheered, and our Sundance experience could begin. This time for reals.

Some things are gone, or going.

If you are more into reverb (and we think that you are), go see Built to Spill at the Showbox tonight. They are one of our all time favorite bands (Built to Spill fun fact: They often play a really long version of Neil Young's 'Cortez the Killer' which is a great opportunity to grab a beer or two. If you are not drinking, it is an excellent opportunity to grab a Shirley Temple or perhaps a Diet Coke).

For some unknown reason Moby's show at the Paramount is sold out. His most recent album, 'Hotel,' is amazingly bland and forgetable. Actually, now that we think about it the album before that was also amazingly bland and forgetable. According to Moby's website, 'Hotel' has gone gold or platinum in France, Germany, Uk, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, and Italy. Sure, the U.S. may have Focus on the Family's James Dobson, Bill Frist and Fox's 'Life on a Stick' but at least Moby's album hasn't gone gold. Frankly, that is enough to make us want to stand up and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. On second thought since Moby always sports cool glasses, maybe the crowd is just looking for some fashion tips.

Sometimes after a hard week at work, we turn on some Iron & Wine or Simon & Garfunkel and kick up our feet. Other weeks, we like to crank the Loverboy's "Everybody's Working for the Weekend" and RAWK.