Dept of Energy/Immaculate Machine/Brides of Obscurity

This show is happening on Saturday at Mars Bar, and it's definitely worth checking out. I still have some free tickets available if you're interested. Just send me an email.

11pm - Gary Reynolds & the brides of obscurity
10pm - Immaculate Machine (from Canada)
9pm - Dept Of Energy

Replacements Tribute/Kim Warnick Benefit

The following is an excerpt from a message sent by long time Replacements fan and KEXP DJ Kevin Cole:

Tuesday night you'll want to head over to the Comet Tavern for Seattle's Got a Boner - A Tribute to the Replacements. The night features Thee Sgt. Major III, The Small Change, Love Battery, Andrew McKeag and Ben London, Joe Reineke (Meices, Alien Crime Syndicate), Scott Kannberg (Pavement, Preston School of Industry), Jared Clifton (Radio Nationals), Massy Ferguson, John Ramberg (Model Rockets, Minus 5, Tripwires), and Transmissionary Six. Most importantly, all proceeds go to pay Seattle music veteran Kim Warnick's medical bills. Check it out!

Should be a great show and a lot of fun. Kim Warnick is the former bassist/vocalist of not one but two of Seattle’s all time great Powerpop bands, The Fastbacks and Visqueen.

Here’s a video from The Fastbacks:



Here’s one from Visqueen:



And to give you a taste of what to expect here’s a video shot last month when Kurt Bloch and Andrew McKeag teamed up at a previous benefit for Kim Warnick:



And finally how about one from The Replacements (Tommy must have been all of 12 years old):

Mr. & Mrs. Riffbroker

Congratulations and best wishes to Nick and Heather of The Riffbrokers who recently became Mr. and Mrs. Riffbroker (Millward). It sounds like they had an awesome reception with performances by a bunch of their talented Powerpop friends including an impromptu reunion of The Model Rockets. You can read the details on The Riffbrokers' MySpace blog. Go see them play this Sunday 1/27/08 at the Sunset Tavern and next Friday 2/1/08 at Skylark and keep an eye out for a new record from them, coming soon.

This week's post on KEXP blog

This week in my weekly column Rock n' Roll Pest Control, I gave the spotlight to Mr. Steve Pearson and the Heats/Heaters. You can read it here or see all my posts by clicking that link on the right --->

I know my blogging has waaaaay slowed, and I'm sorry about that. We're working on getting our house sold, and it's soaking up my time!

Free Immaculate Machine tickets

Immaculate Machine is coming to town on Saturday, February 2, and I've got a handful of tickets to giveaway.

As if Immaculate Machine, a band with connections to New Pornographers, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Tegan and Sara and others, isn't enough to haul your butt to the club, also on the bill are the Brides of Obscurity and Department of Energy are also performing. So, it'll be a good night of pop music.

If you'd like said tickets, just send me an email and you can lay claim.

Here's an Immaculate Machine video as a bonus.

Rusty Willoughby/Riffbrokers at Sunset

Two of SPB’s favorites, The Riffbrokers and Rusty Willoughby are playing acoustic sets this Tuesday night, 1/22/08 at The Sunset Tavern.

The Riffbrokers play powerpop with a rootsy twang and have a bunch of compelling songs by Nick Millward that should sound great in an acoustic setting.

Rusty Willoughby has been on the Seattle music scene for over two decades now, putting out brilliant records to varying degrees of success with Pure Joy, Flop and his current band Llama. Llama’s latest record Llama II is incredibly good (and can be downloaded for free at the Llama web site) but has gone almost completely unnoticed by the music press. From reading his web site over the past few years I get the impression that Willoughby is a little tired of promoting his music - that he’d rather spend his time and energy in more productive and creative endeavors. If fame was any refection of an artist's talent then Rusty Willoughby would be huge but we can be selfishly thankful that he isn’t and that we can still go see him perform in an intimate club for only six bucks.

The Sea Navy performance video

Okay, so it's not fully The Sea Navy. It's actually a Jay solo performance at the offices of The Stranger.

A bevy of free downloads from Shake Some Action!

Yes, yes. I know I'm in this band. But, we've just made a whole buch of mp3s (26 to be exact) available for free download on our site today. So, if you're in the mood for some live SSA!, just head on over there and get to clicking.

Powerpop house for sale

For sale: 1800 sq. ft. split-level powerpop house

Okay, it's only a powerpop house because I live there. But, if you live there, it could continue to be a powerpop house. So, buy it! :)

This week's post on KEXP blog

This week in my KEXP post I focused on Sarah Shannon, former Velocity Girl frontperson and current PacNW chanteuse. You can read it here or you can click on the link to the right to see all my posts there --->

Friday Night at The Comet

There’s a pretty amazing line-up at the Comet Tavern Friday night: The F**king Eagles, The Hands, The Knast, Branden Daniel & Everybody Gets Laid. Powerpop, Garage, Rock, whatever you want to call it this is going to be good.

Me, rocking out a decade ago

About ten years ago I lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and played in a pretty rocking little combo called Gumption with my buddy Kurt Hagardorn. Well, that band's EP is now available via CD Baby and several online music outlets. So, if you find yourself wondering, what was Gary doing ten years ago? The answer is making a Gumption CD with Chris Stamey of the dBs. You can hear samples at the band's CD Baby page.

Ignore that page's bio, though. It looks like someone took something really old and removed every third sentence. It makes no sense!

Andy Werth & Curtains For you on Thursday

Here's a show happening tomorrow with two of my fave local pop bands. Go!

The Boss Martians in an E*Trade commercial

Just got this through myspace:

BOSS MARTIANS NEW ALBUM TRACK "HEY HEY YEAH YEAH" FEATURED ON BRAND NEW INTERNATIONAL *E-TRADE* COMMERCIAL!!!

Keep your eyes and ears out for a brand new E*TRADE commercial featuring a Boss Martians track called "HEY HEY YEAH YEAH" from our upcoming album "Pressure in the S.O.D.O." What better reason is there to stay glued to the old boob tube??? (Well, that, and WEEDS on DVD.) Park your ass in front of that TV, have plenty of ice cold Olympia on hand, and just WAIT for that mother to roll -- someone out there let us know when you see it will you?

Big ol' SPB announcement

You may or may not have noticed a subtle change to SPB last week. Namely, one Mr. Andy Miracle is now blogging directly to SPB. Andy has contributed in the past, so it's cool to bring him directly into the fold, which will allow him to post any time he wants to.

It is that note that brings me to the "big ol' SPB announcement" promised in this post's subject line.

Namely, I'm moving back to the East Coast.

There are a lot of things going on in life that demand a closer proximity to my and my wife's families. So, this week we're putting our house on the market (and taping an episode of HGTV's "My House Is Worth What?"... I'll have to tell you all about it after we tape the show tomorrow) and once it sells, we'll be off.

But, fret not. Rather than let SPB die, I'm turning over the reins to the aforementioned Mr. Andy Miracle. So, we'll probably have a few months of the both of us blogging, and it will then transition over to Andy when I'm gone. So, I won't say "bye" just yet.

The Tripwires on Audioasis

Be sure to tune in to KEXP 90.3 FM tomorrow (1/12/08) at 6 pm, The Tripwires will be playing live in-studio on Audioasis.

In the meantime enjoy this excellent video by Chris Force of The Tripwires’ rockin’ New Year’s Eve at The Sunset.

This week's post on KEXP blog

This week in Rock n' Roll Pest Control (my weekly column on the KEXP blog) I focused on the glammy side of Seattle powerpop. You can read all about it here to go to that post specifically or by clicking on that link on the right to see them all --->

The Cute Lepers performance video

Here's some video from The Cute Lepers performing their tune Terminal Boredom. Don't click play unless you have a high tolerance for distorted audio. If you'd rather hear it nice and "clean," just head over to their myspace page. Fun stuff, terrible band name. :)

A rock show note from Young Sportsmen

I just got this from Young Sportsmen via email:

Happy New Year Everyone!

You may have noticed that we haven't played a show in a few months. Well, I'm happy to say that it's because we've been working on our second full-length record with the one-and-only Johnny Sangster producing. We're absolutely thrilled with the way the songs are turning out and we can't wait to share them with you. You see, many of the songs on this record are brand new--we've never even performed many of them live. As of now, we don't have a release date yet. But don't fret! We're dying to share the new songs with you and rock on a stage, so we're sneaking out of the studio this Friday night to play a show at Jules Maes in Georgetown. Come on down to say 'hi,' celebrate the new year, and hear a live sampling of songs from the new record. We'd love to see you!

Friday, January 11, 2008
Peter Parker / Guns N Rosetti / Young Sportsmen (we play first at 9 PM)
Jules Maes Saloon, 5919 Airport Way S in Georgetown (Seattle)
Only $5 gets you in!

Ta-ta!

Young Sportsmen
http://www.youngsportsmen.com

Thee Sgt. Major III play The Who's Greatest

What happened to the lovely and talented Carmella? Sgt. Major seems to have become Thee Sgt. Major III. Well I suppose change is inevitable and not necessarily evil. A note on the Thee Sgt. Major III MySpace page has this to say about that, “The onslaught of 2008 will ring in changes far and wide to this and EVERY OTHER rock band you know, love, loathe and detest” and further declares that “THE SUBVERSION SOCIETY will PREVAIL and you won't remember what you liked in the past, as even YOU know, you can't change what’s already past: the FUTURE.... YOUR FUTURE.”

Also on their MySpace page is this nicely produced video by Chris Force of Thee Sgt. Major III and several special guests, most of whom should look familiar to regular readers of this blog, performing a great set of solid gold Who songs at The Sunset Tavern on New Years Eve. It looks like a fine time was had by all. Wish I’d been there.

Friday Mile performance video

Here's some video from Friday Mile's set this past weekend:

“Big Electric Light” NPR’s Song of the Day

[Here's another post from official SPB correspondent, Andy Miracle]



One of my favorite songs of 2007 The Tripwires' “Big Electric Light” was chosen as Song of the Day last Wednesday 1/2/08 on NPR.org. You can listen to a live stream of the song while reading Barbara Mitchell’s enthusiastic review, “…sounds classic to its core: Guitars chime, harmonies shine, and the rhythm section lopes along in an ode to making dreams come true. The result sparkles with such innocence and optimism, it's hard to believe it wasn't written 40 years ago.” on the Song of the Day site which also includes links to The Tripwires home page, their MySpace page and a link to Amazon.com where their fantastic new album Makes You Look Around can be purchased.

The Tripwires have also caught the attention of Joe Belock who has recently played several of their songs including “Big Electric Light” on his excellent Three Chord Monte show on New York station WFMU. You can check out his playlist and listen to an archived stream of the show here.

It’s great to see The Tripwires getting some of the national attention their music so richly deserves.

New video from The Blakes

The Blakes were one of the true breakout rock bands in Seattle last year. But, they have always been kind of hit or miss for me. Not surprisingly, I dig them more when they're being melodic than when they're being scream-y.

They just posted a video for their song "Don't Bother Me," which is one that I enjoy (in spite of the "caught up in your legs" lyric hook...)

New mp3 from The Doll Test

The Doll Test informs the world that their new record is almost done and might be out in a month or two. And to tempt us, they have made a new song ("The Decider") available for download on their myspace page.

Since we as a nation took our first steps toward picking The Decider's replacement yesterday, it's an appropriate song to download today.

This week's post on KEXP blog

The latest post in my weekly column on the KEXP blog (Rock and Roll Pest Control) is now up. This week is focused on a show that is happening tomorrow night at the Tractor Tavern, featuring Brides of Obscurity, Friday Mile and Central Services. You can read it here and read all posts by clicking the link over there --->

Facts About Funerals show and video

Facts About Funerals are headlining a show at Chop Suey tonight (1/3)! Here's some nice video of them perfoming with a guest pedal steel player.

Curtains For You show tomorrow

Curtains For You is playing at the Seattle Art Museum tomorrow, Thursday the 3rd. It's a free show and seems to be happening at 8pm [blogger note: There seems to be some confusion about the start time. The band's myspace page says 8pm, but a fan in the comments of this post says 7pm]

I've posted this video of them before. But, hey, it's a new year -- so it's like it never happened. :)

New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year, everyone! As 2008 begins, my thoughts are of resolutions. I'm not one for resolutions. But, for the purpose of this post, I am.

In 2008, I resolve to:

1. Get on a mac and switch to an iPod. I've been using this sansa 1gb mp3 player for however long, and it just isn't rocking for me anymore.

2. Get my lazy behind out to more shows. I was really good about seeing shows all year until around October. I've been to hardly any shows since then. I suck. Sorry bands, and sorry readers.

3. Do more band profiles and interviews. I haven't done one in a while, although they were common features during the first year of the blog.

That's it. No resolution to lose weigh. No resolution to be more social. No resolution to buy a new car.

But, I will have big news regarding my life to post very soon. So, keep your eyes peeled for that, if you care about such things.