Battle of the powerpop New Years shows

In this corner: The Lashes at the Comet

In the other corner: The Tripwires and The Small Change at the Sunset

What will you do, what will you do?

Croc employees benefit show

This in from TIG about a show tonight (Sunday):

Greetings!

Even though we're in the midst of a celebratory time of year, the shock of the sudden closing of the legendary Crocodile Cafe is still with us.

To help the stellar group employed there who found themselves suddenly without income, Chop Suey and Three Imaginary Girls have assembled a benefit show for those fine Ex-Croc folks this Sunday, December 30 at Chop Suey.

Join us this Sunday for an evening of fine songs from some of Seattle's rock star royalty, share your Croc story, and get a chance to say goodbye...

Unscrew the Crocodile Employees Benefit Show
with members of Fleet Foxes, Peter Parker, Siberian, Pale Pacific, J.Tillman, Damien Jurado, Pleasureboaters, Dave Bazan, Triumph Of Lethargy, Dave Terry (of Aqueduct), Sonny Votolato and many more!

$10 adv | 7pm doors | 21+

* Auction/raffle prizes too! Show your support!

Boss Martians performance videos

Here's some footage of the Boss Martians that was posted a few weeks ago. The actual performace appears to be a few years old, taken from a show in Chicago.



You can actually find a ton of footage of them on their fall European tour on YouTube right now, as well. For example, this footage was taken on 11/30 in Germany.

This week's post on KEXP blog

I put on my future-predicting cap in my weekly column on the KEXP blog. The weekly column is titled Rock n' Roll Pest Control, and you can access my posts by clicking the link over there on the right --->

to read this weeks' post directly, just click here.

More on Llama's new stuff

I've been listening to the new Llama recordings pretty much non-stop since finding them for download yesterday, and I've got to tell you that they're amazingly good. It's pretty straightforward in terms of instrumentation -- mostly drums, bass, vocals and percussion. But, the production (Sangster?) is wholly effective.

The songs are simple and short. But, dang, they're melodic and get under your skin without being overtly "hooky." If you didn't go get them yesterday when I posted the link, you should go do so right now and enjoy.

Rusty can write some brilliant tunes.

Now you can get free Llama mp3s

A few weeks ago I posted about Llama's new record being available for free download, and it looked like I had misreported.

Well, NOW it's out there for you to grab. In fact, they've made the first record available, as well. Act fast, because who knows how long this page is going to be available.

Happy holidays to all!

To everyone who might read SPB, I wish you happy holidays. I'm sitting here at work (what kind of university is open on xmas eve???), and it's quiet as could be. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. I have, however, had one student come in for advising. But, they didn't bring a mouse.

So, again, happy holidays. I wish you all the best.

Amateur Lovers video from this year's IPO

I didn't see this when it was originally posted.

Shake Some Action! lands on top records list

Steve at Absolute Powerpop has posted his annual picks for top albums of the year (the list ran to 125 this year). There is a lone Seattle entry for 2007, and it's Shake Some Action! coming in at number 27.

This week's post on KEXP blog

This week on my KEXP weekly column ("Rock n' Roll Pest Control"), I focused on the best of 2007. Head on over and take a look.

Performance video from Conservative Dad

The Croc as real estate

The Croc is now official a real estate listing. It's listed at $495,000. Here's the listing description at the John L. Scott site:

Approx. 6,400 SF Space with (2) Bars, Kitchen, and Live Music Stage. Brand New 10 Year Lease Term. Fabulous Location on corner of 2nd Ave & Blanchard ideal for any full service restaurant or bar concept. Character-filled single story masonry building. In the Heart of Chic Belltown Scene - Txori, Zoe, Mistral, See Sound Lounge and More! An excerpt from the Seattle Weekly raves:'A central meeting place for Seattle's world famous music scene.' Become part of the Legend that is the Crocodile Cafe.

The Crocodile Cafe - KUOW's "The Conversation"

There was a big conversation on KUOW today regarding the closing of the Crocodile. You can listen simply by going to their website and selecting today's date on the drop-down box. Guests and callers involved in the conversation include Pete, the former club booker, John Richards from KEXP and Liz from Three Imaginary Girls.

Shake Some Action! KEXP footage

Here's some newly acquired footage of Shake Some Action! in our appearance on KEXP sometime back in the early part of 2007. The song is called "Sound of Your Mind."

No Croc.... TIG party moved

If you're at all tuned in, you've probably heard that the Crocodile Cafe is closing. That's the word all over town. It's going to reverberate and have a trickle effect in a number of ways.

The first one for me to share with you is the displacement of the Three Imaginary Girls holiday party, which has been relocated to El Corazon. Here are the (new) haps:

Thursday, December 20th
at El Corazón
109 Eastlake Ave. East
Three Imaginary Girls present:

- Tullycraft
-Rachel Flotard (Visqueen) & Jon Rauhouse (Neko Case) and friends {Bill Herzog, Mark Pickerel, and Paul Rigby}
- Your Favorite Book

....The night also features INDIE-ROCK SANTA John Roderick (of the Long Winters)

All proceeds go to Treehouse4Kids.org

Tix: $8
8p Doors
21+

This week's post on KEXP blog

This week on the KEXP blog I focused on a newly-released powerpop book and the Seattle bands found therein.

My mailbox was a twitter this past weekend when I finally received my copy of the new book from Not Lame, titled Shake Some Action: The Ultimate Powerpop Guide (no immediate relation to the Seattle band of the same name, but no doubt inspired by the same Flamin’ Groovies tune). Aside from being a nice primer on powerpop for the newbie, the book is a nostalgic look back for long-time fans. Of particular interest to me, of course, were the Seattle-related entries, of which there were many.

You can read the rest of the post on the KEXP blog.

New & old videos from The Heats

Super duper thanks to Krys Lilly (wife of bassist Keith) for these videos, one newer and one older, of The Heats:

The booking agent merry-go-round

I didn't write anything about the recent "controversy" (I use quotations because I don't know how contentious it actually is, since all my info is second and third hand) over the departure of Pete Greenberg from his booking duties at the Crocodile.

But, I did just learn this from TIG, sent by Kris K the now-former booker at Chop Suey:

"I'm writing to inform you that I will be leaving my position at Chop Suey at the end of December. I'm very happy to announce that Pete Greenberg, who recently departed the Crocodile Café, will be taking my place.

I have been at Chop Suey for a year now and am very proud of my time here. I have navigated the club through a very difficult transition period. I have been pleased to work with all the promoters and artists that have come through such as The People's Republic of Komedy, the Broken Disco crew, Club Pop, Comeback and Neumos. I have come to this decision, which was made about a month ago, simply due to what I want in life and taking a look at my long term goals and working for a club isn't part of those goals.

Pete comes over with a vast amount of experience of professionalism. He will still be working in tandem with Steven Severin and Jason Lajeunesse from Neumos making sure the best possible programming happens at Chop Suey. All regular programs and nights (Laff Hole, Broken Disco, Club Pop, Comeback) will still remain for the foreseeable future.

Pete will start at Chop Suey effective tomorrow, Friday Dec 14. I will remain as long as it takes to get him up to speed and introduce him to all the necessary people so as to make as smooth of a transition as possible.

Thanks to everyone for a great year. I hope to still see and/or work with you in some capacity in the future."

While you're downloading

I just happened to be out on the Color Bars' myspace page, and it looks like they've got a handful of songs set for download now, including "Id Incinerator," which is a strong contender for my nomination as "song of the year."

New download from Young Sportsmen

Fans of the Young Sportsmen should jump over to their myspace page and grab their latest addition to their music player. They've added "Trucks and Snakes" and made it downloadable! It's a quality fave from their live show that didn't make their latest album. So, it's great to grab a recording of it.

[blogger edit... turns out it's NOT downloadable. But, you should go listen anyway]

[Blogger Edit #2... Now it's dowloadable again. YS are messin' with me!]

Shows for the week of 12/10

There's some rock to check out this week:

Thursday the 13th
Electric Tape at the Comet

Friday the 14th
Lund Bros, The Small Change and Guards of Metropolis at Skylark Cafe (West Seattle)

Conservative Dad & Sirens Sister at The Comet

The Blasters and All American Playboys at The Crocodile

TIG best of polling

Three Imaginary Girls has their annual "best of" voting happening right now. So, head on over and give your local powerpop faves some props.

Thusfar my ballot includes The Tripwires, Young Sportsmen and Andy Werth. I'm not sure about the other two just yet.

Speaker Speaker & some spazzy fans

The post title says it all. :) You can experience this first hand tonight at the VERA Project, as it's their last show of '07.

This week's post on KEXP blog

The third post in my new weekly column on the KEXP blog is now up. The column is titled Rock n' Roll Pest Control, named after the Young Fresh Fellows song of the same name. This week's post is dedicated to that band and that song.

Go see it here.

Llama's new record, streaming online

Llama has made their new record available in streaming form on their website. I'm listening as I type, and it sounds really good. I'm not really sure when this bugger is going to be release for real. But, you should keep your eyes open for it.

You should also note that they've made some of their first record available to download via their myspace page.

Wreckless Eric & The Tripwires, this weekend

This Sunday The Comet Tavern is hosting former Stiff Records sensation Wreckless Eric. The Tripwires are on the bill, too. So, it'll be a solid night of rock music. Here's some old school footage of Wreckless Eric.

Top albums of 2007: Vote @ KEXP

KEXP is doing their annual listener-driven voting for best albums of the year. So, head over there to submit your list of faves. There were a lot of great powerpop records coming out of the PacNW this year. So, give 'em some love.

One thing that's cool on the site is you can start typing the band name, and it will give you a drop down list of albums to choose from. Neato.

New Jon Auer videos

Michelle Auer does some really cool videos for many of Jon's songs. Many of them are stick-figure-ish-animated, very cute and often emotionally effective. That's true of this first one for "Four Letter Word."



She also did one recently that isn't animated. It's for the song "Bottom of the Bottle," and here's what Michelle had to say about it: I used the whole process of putting on make-up as the backdrop for this song because putting on that pretty mask even if things are messed up conveys that same idea of sadness/being lost to me. Wouldn't it be interesting if we always looked how we felt?