Results tagged “peterbjornandjohn”

Seattlest is in Austinist territory for the next few days, experiencing the glorious clusterfuck known as South by Southwest. After debating coming down for the techier Interactive segment, we narrowed our itinerary to just the music portion of this huge annual media-centric event. There's no Seattle parallel to this, so we'll be sharing our thoughts on the music, the scene, and of course the food we're experiencing. Not to worry, we'll try to keep things on the brief side.

Silver-throated chanteuse Marissa Nadler is prone to sing a cover or two, whether it's Radiohead's "No Surprises" or something from the oeuvre of Leonard Cohen, like "Famous Blue Raincoats" (on her latest album Songs III: Bird on the Water) or "Chelsea Hotel #2" (see above).

Marissa Nadler makes weird and lovely folk-twinged shoegazey songs with one foot well in the realm of traditional English balladry. But before you get scared off, take a gander at the vid above, a performance of "Diamond Hearts," the first track off her latest album Songs III: Bird on the Water. What grabs you from the get-go is her siren's voice, heavy in echo and reverb and strongly reminiscent of Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star). That remarkable set of pipes ain't all Marissa's got going for her. Over time, she's refined and expanded her sound to incorporate mandolin, cellos, various percussion, electric guitars, and synths. Her atmospheric, melancholy songs led Pitchfork to call Songs III: Bird on the Water "one of the most focused and engaging singer-songwriter releases so far this year."

Hey, whaddya know? Ever since the Showbox upped the service fees and made a pact with the devil, their bookings have been less than stellar. In fact, we haven't been to the downtown venue for a single show so far this year, which is totally out of the ordinary.

Fucking Neumos. Every time we go to a show there, we swear it's the last. Then some amazing band comes to town -- to Neumos -- and we think, Maybe it won't be so bad this time, but then it is bad and not just bad, but worse than the last time. And so it is that whenever we see the N-word on the calendar next to a band we love, our lungs heave a heavy sigh, followed by a guttural and unearthly sound that can only be described as part groan and part, "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck."

There' a constant ebb and flow when it comes to the music we love. Sometimes it seems like there's just nothing interesting out there. Nothing to light us up when we listen at home, in our car or on the bus, eyes closed. And then sometimes we find ourselves hauling fist-fulls of new music to the counter of our favorite record store.