Results tagged “theseunitedstates”

If you haven't voted yet today, what the hell are you waiting for? But just in case you need a little musical enticement to get you to the polling place and/or post office, the lovely and talented Three Imaginary Girls have put together an Election Day podcast. Featuring a smattering of Northwest/indie/pop bands, including Damien Jurado, A Gun that Shoots Knives, and (the so appropriate) These United States, the Girls encourage you to download the podcast and take it to the polls. Even better? TIG will have a new weekly podcast from now till the end of the year. You know that's one Election Day promise that will be kept.

Idly we wondered, "Move on up where?" as we listened to Velella Velella shake the Sunset Tavern into percussed splinters of funk. But it seemed better not to ask questions. Velella Velella (named for a jellyfish) are Andrew Means, Michael Burton, Jeremy Hadley, Bethany Petersen, and Johanna Kunin, and we'd been meaning to check them out ever since we ran into Andrew at a party and he knew what Zork was. "Gonna move on up," the chant from "Do Not Fold / Do Not Bend," could be a band mantra. Up tempo, upbeat, they took us up where we belong--their enthusiasm is as infectious as the Santa's sack of hooks they're carrying around. They have a whole two albums out now: their Flight Cub EP and Bay of Biscay LP, but they played until they were short on material. The encore was just one song. Imagine a crowd of white Seattle hipsters wanting more dancetime. It could have gotten ugly, but Velella Velella is not about ugly--they are about a profusion of happy non sequiturs and a rock flute and a bunch of piledriving beats on an recalcitrant iPod. (Andrew was fiddling with it, Jeremy said, "iPods! What are ya gonna do?" and either new member Bethany or new member Johanna piped up with, "Buy a Zune!") If you're into it, you can jump down the rabbit hole of musical sources and influences (Curtis Mayfield, DJ Shadow, Timbaland), but the band's appeal is equally the five live people beaming with sweaty pleasure and the keyboards, bass lines, and that classic Fender sound, all producing a (mostly) irony-free, joy-filled groove that you're an equally sweaty party to. Crazy kids.

Break out the hackysack and butterfly wings, because former Phish bassist Mike Gordon is at the Tractor tonight in support of his new solo record, The Green Sparrow.

Seattlest has been uncharacteristically busy this week, so we were looking forward to a couple hours of mind-buzzingly beautiful harmonies at the Sunset. Little did we know that Johanna Kunin would be bringing an entire consortium of bandmates with her, and that they would be performing an entirely new repertoire of music from what we heard last time. Mind-buzzingly beautiful? Yes! But it was also crazier and louder than would fit comfortably in our old mental paradigm for Kunin. We're talking eight to 10 people on the Sunset's tiny stage, each playing an instrument, and at least a third of them singing along.

Take a break from harrowing five-year Iraq war retrospectives and political sex scandals to see the lovely Johanna Kunin and DC's These United States at the Sunset tonight! The first time we went to see Johanna Kunin, we left practically purring with satisfaction. We expect tonight to be no different.