Video from The Posies 20th Anniversary Show

Michelle Auer shot these videos of The Posies 20th Anniversary Show at Neumos on the 17th.

Dear John Letters - "Malkamus"



The Posies - "Definite Door"

Recommended shows for the week of 5/25/08

Tuesday the 27th:
The Color Bars at ToST

Wednesday the 28th:
TIG Presents: The Long Blondes/17th Chapter/Ms Led at Neumo's

Thursday the 29th:
The Color Bars/The Birthdays/The Little Penguins/The Webelos at The Sunset Tavern

Friday the 30th:
Black Eyes & Neckties/Das Llamas/The Fucking Eagles/the Hacks at The Funhouse

Wild Weekend Power Pop Festival

Those of you who plan your wild weekends in advance should note that the first annual Wild Weekend Power Pop Festival takes place Friday, August 29th and Saturday, August 30th at Emo’s in Austin, Texas. Looks like a great bill with an excellent mix of legendary power pop bands like 20/20, The Boys, Paul Collins’ Beat, The Pointed Sticks and a bunch of fresh young bands that are keeping power pop alive and kicking.

The Pacific Northwest will be well represented by Pointed Sticks and The Tranzmitors from Vancouver, The Boss Martians, The Cute Lepers and The Greatest Hits from Seattle, Olympia’s Avenue Rose and Clorox Girls from Portland.

Check out this nice homage to Rock ‘n’ Roll High School and George A. Romero from Clorox Girls.



And here’s some live footage of The Tranzmitors performing "Plastic Genocide."

Holy Ghost Revival/Greatest Hits @ King Cobra

Here’s some info on the show tomorrow courtesy of Nils Forever of The Greatest Hits:

HOLY GHOST REVIVAL LAST SHOW IN SEATTLE FOR 6 MONTHS!!!
FRIDAY MAY 23
@ KING COBRA (NEXT TO THE COMET)

HOLY GHOST REVIVAL
www.myspace.com/holyghostrevival

"ya know who they are. they play folky glam rock along the lines of THE SPARKS and GUNS N ROSES. they are moving in the UK for 6 months...last chance!"

THE GREATEST HITS
www.myspace.com/thegreatesthitsmusic

"these guys opened for THE NEW YORK DOLLS if that should tell you along what lines they are...THE SWEET cuddling with THE BEACH BOYS....they should tour with HANOI ROCKS!"

THE SPURTS (SANTA CRUZ)
www. myspace. com/thespurtsrockroll

"brothers of the Luxury Sweets (with 2 members) sounding like a cross of that and Richard Hell (love comes in....!)"

THE ROT AWAYS
www.myspace.com/therotaways

"from New Hamphshire to Denver to now Seattle and soon Portland, poppy ass 77 punk rock with snarl and energy"

$7
9PM SHARP

Recommended shows for the week of 5/18/08

Sunday the 18th:
A Mod Garage Dance Party with The Black Hollies/The Bug Nasties/Autolite Strike and DJ Gort and Casserole at The Comet

The Posies at The Wild Buffalo (Bellingham)

Friday the 23rd:
Boat/Young Sportsmen/Mighty Giant/The Prawns at Kirkland Teen Union Building

Holy Ghost Revival/The Greatest Hits/The Spurts/Ben Funkhouser at King Cobra

The Posies 20th Anniversary Shows @ Neumos

The Posies, one of the all-time great Seattle power pop bands, are celebrating their 20th Anniversary with two shows this Saturday night at Neumos. Here’s a note from Jon Auer explaining what’s happening:

The Posies 20th Anniversary Shows @ Neumos (full band!) 2nd Show added! The first show is sold out.

If you have tickets and you want to see DJL and Preston the bands start at 7:30 sharp doors are at 7PM!

They just added a second show and tickets are selling fast! Doors for show #2 on the same evening are at 11:10. No openers.

See you there!

The Posies are incredible musicians, great songwriters, they sing the most amazing harmonies, they’re pretty damned funny and quite entertaining too. The last time I saw The Posies, Ken Stringfellow ended up stripping to his briefs while Jon tossed his guitar into the audience – they also played a ton of great songs.

The Posies - Conversations

Roy Loney at The Sunset Tavern this Friday

When it comes to rock & roll, Roy Loney is the real deal. He’s wild, impossibly cool and maybe a little dangerous (watching him perform you get the feeling he could come unhinged at any moment) but he’s smart, articulate and has a razor sharp wit too.

Loney first came to fame in the late ‘60s as the frontman of the fabulous Flamin’ Groovies with whom he recorded two absolutely essential albums: Flamingo and Teenage Head. He started a solo career in the ‘70s, had a few inevitable ups and downs but always made consistently strong records. For over a decade now he’s been working with The Longshots whose members include Seattle pop/rock luminaries Jim Sangster, Johnny Sangster, (The Tripwires) Graham Black, Scott Sutherland, (The Doll Test) and Joey Kline (The Plaintiffs). His latest album with The Longshots, Shake It or Leave It was one of the very best albums of 2007.

Expect a fun, raw, exciting, 100% committed performance from Loney and his band and an explosive blend of rockabilly, British Beat and garage-punk. Hopefully we’ll get to hear a lot of songs off of Shake It or Leave It and I’m sure Loney will sing a bunch of his great Groovies classics like “Road House,” “Slow Death,” “Second Cousin” and the unsurpassable “Teenage Head.” This is going to be a great show.

Get there early because the opening acts are pretty amazing in their own right. Tacoma’s The Fucking Eagles carry on that loud, raw R&B/garage sound in the tradition of T-Town greats The Sonics and Girl Trouble and like Roy Loney they give each performance everything they’ve got. The Tripwires, one of Seattle’s premier power pop bands, always put on a great show too. Their album Makes You Look Around was another of 2007's best.

Q: A Gun-Shaped Knife

A: Bright orange camouflage.

Young Sportsmen - If You Want It

An excellent record from Young Sportsmen, brimming with sharp songwriting, well-crafted arrangements and inspired performances, all superbly captured by producer Johnny Sangster. Like its predecessor, this is immediately appealing power pop with all the requisite energy, volume, hooks, harmonies and melodies the term implies but If You Want It also introduces an angular, highly rhythmic component to Young Sportsmen’s sound that was only hinted at on Death to Palaces and like sweet and tart it’s a great combination. This is power pop with an edge and plenty of substance, one of those rare albums that sounds great the first time you play it and only sounds better with each subsequent listen as you begin to absorb its various textures and ideas.

Wesley Nelson’s oblique, evocative lyrics leave plenty of room for interpretation but he seems to have a knack for turning out weighty lines that concisely express the tenor of our times, however bleak. On “Tomorrow Disappears” the centerpiece of the album, Nelson sings in his expressive, clarion voice “Everything we have today is resting on the shoulders of a maybe” and anyone other than an eternal optimist will reflect and agree. In “Sesame Street Fightin’ Man,” a song that cleverly incorporates the riff from the “Sesame Street Theme” and makes it sound driving and urgent, he sings, “Good-luck no longer means a thing/In this town you’re on your own” and in “Hey Gasoline” the refrain: “It’s true that the fools keep us choking on gasoline” makes an indelible impression. Pretty pessimistic stuff but not entirely devoid of hope, in “The Deadenders” Nelson looks forward to better days “Where truth is evident/And the worker gets a better wage” and its swelling, anthemic chorus “And on this day deadenders win” is as stirring as any Woody Guthrie ever penned. On the final track “Long Way Down” he only just admits the possibility of salvation: “You can throw me a line/But you’ve got to come a long way down” before the song ends with a cathartic extended instrumental coda.

Don’t get the idea that If You Want It is a downer though; it’s anything but. When I crank it through my stereo speakers I feel elated - the songs have so much momentum and lift. Jeff Roeser’s powerhouse drumming is amazing. Richard Davidson’s bass lines alternate between anchoring pulses and buoyant melodic flights. The guitars of Ryan Maxwell and Wesley Nelson riff, ring and buzz with power as their vocals soar over the top. Keyboards and percussion provide addition color and texture. Young Sportsmen’s myriad influences (The Beatles, The Jam, XTC and The Breeders to name a few) are well assimilated giving the band a fresh, distinctive sound. This is simply an outstanding album so go out and get it and go see Young Sportsmen live if you get the chance – they put on an incredible show.

www.myspace.com/youngsportsmen

www.myspace.com/unsmashablerecords

Recommended shows for the week of 5/11/08

Wednesday the 14th:
The Posies at Hell’s Kitchen (Tacoma)

Thursday the 15th:
Thee Sgt. Major III/Young Sportsmen/The Lund Brothers at The Sunset

The Posies at Winterland (Bremerton)

Friday the 16th:
Roy Loney & The Longshots/The Tripwires/The Fucking Eagles at The Sunset

The Posies at Dante’s (Portland)

The Evaporators/TacocaT at The Funhouse

Saturday the 17th:
The Small Change at University District Street Fair (1:00 pm)

The Posies/Dear John Letters at Neumos

Roy Loney & The Longshots/The Tripwires/The Fucking Eagles at Java Jive (Tacoma)

Sugarcane Mutiny at Jules Maes

Young Sportsmen and Friends at The Rendezvous Saturday Night

The Pranks at Jules Maes

The Pranks are playing Jules Maes tomorrow night on a great bill with Thee Sgt. Major III and The Doll Test. Here’s a video of The Pranks doing a cool acoustic version of their song “Your World Falls Down” live on 107.7 The End. That's Erik's brother Evan Foster on rhythm guitar and second vocal - nothing like the sound of two very talented brothers harmonizing together. I don't think Evan will be joining The Pranks tomorrow as his band The Boss Martians are scheduled to play a show at Boondock's Bar & Grill in Sedro-Woolley before they head back out on tour to rock the rest of the Country.



If Georgetown's too far south and Sedro-Wooley's too far north for you, there’s also a good show in Ballard at The Tractor with Shim, Sunday Night Blackout and The Fucking Eagles.

Seattle Powerpop Radio Playlist #9

Playlist number nine, number nine, number nine…

More great power pop from a few of my favorite Seattle bands including a new song from The Young Fresh Fellows taken from a compilation CD called R.E.M. Jukebox that came with last month’s Q magazine. The track will eventually be released on a forthcoming Robyn Hitchcock produced Young Fresh Fellows album. I can definitely hear Mr. Hitchcock’s influence here.

I’m really excited to have a cut from Young Sportsmen’s excellent new album If You Want It. I’ll have a full album review up soon.

The Greatest Hits are aptly named since every song they record sounds like it should be a greatest hit. This is a new one produced by Steve E. Nix and Johnny Sangster.

James Hall sent me this great track from Shake Some Action’s soon to be released second album Sunny Days Ahead. Listen carefully to this song about an after school fight and notice how perfectly Gary Miller’s guitar solo colors in the action and emotion outlined by the lyrics.

The last song here is a classic from The Model Rockets off of their 1996 album Snatch It Back and Hold It. It’s a really great punky power pop song. John Ramberg’s hilarious social observation is right up their with Ray Davies’ and it doesn’t get any better than that.

Here's the playlist:

The Young Fresh Fellows - "Let The Good Times Crawl"
Young Sportsmen - "The Deadenders"
The Greatest Hits - "Electric Blanket Boogie"
Shake Some Action - "Half Past Three"
The Model Rockets - "Cul De Sac"

Recommended shows for the week of 5/4/08

Sunday the 4th:
The Cute Lepers w/ The Buzzcocks/Damned/Rezillos at Academy in the UK Festival (Birmingham)

Thursday the 8th:
Ms. Led at The Sunset Tavern

Marty Willson-Piper/The Moon Maidens/The Transmissionary Six at The Tractor Tavern

Friday the 9th:
Thee Sgt. Major III/The Pranks/The Doll Test at Jules Maes

Saturday the 10th:
Young Sportsmen/The Small Change/The Riffbrokers/The Lund Brothers/The Doll Test/The I Love Myselves/Rusty Willoughby at The Rendezvous Grotto

Tea Cozies on Tour

Congratulations to Tea Cozies who were recently named Venus Zine’s Band of the Month. There’s a nice article about them up at venuszine.com. They'll be kicking off their West Coast Tour this Saturday in San Francisco. Go check ’em out.