Doll Test Record Release Show at Skylark

The Doll Test – Mosque Alarm Clock

Here’s another great release from Unsmashable Records, another excellent Johnny Sangster production and another contender for SPB’s album of the year.

Unsmashable Records describes itself as “Northwest powerpop rock music from the seasoned over-30 crowd” and while the kids might enjoy it too, Mosque Alarm Clock is clearly an album for people who’ve lived a little: wry, poetic observations from someone who’s been around the block a few times.

The Doll Test is veteran singer/songwriter/guitarist Scott Five (Sutherland) and fellow ex-Model Rockets Boyd Remillard on bass and Graham Black on drums and Riffbrokers frontman Nick Millward on guitar and organ. They’re a formidable band and with Mosque Alarm Clock they’ve delivered an exceptional record. Five calls it “a concept record…about what happens between when the alarm goes off and when the wine runs out.”

I hear the classic ‘60s powerpop influences: The Beatles, The Byrds and The Who, but The Doll Test’s music never sounds derivative or retro, it’s timeless and relevant with plenty of great melodies, hooks and harmonies, skillfully arranged and played.

Lyrics touch on politics both personal ("The Last Rung") and national ("The Decider"), strategies - including denial and self-medication - for dealing with the pain and monotony of life ("Everything’s Fine"), bittersweet relationships ("Fall Away," "Every Night You Break My Heart") and life-affirming love ("The Bell, The Map, The Stars").

With its chiming guitars, gorgeous melody and succinct yet killer Roger McGuinn does John Coltrane guitar solo, “The Bell, The Map, The Stars” is possibly my favorite song on the album, but with a dozen songs of such high caliber it’s nearly impossible to choose one standout track.

“My Future Self” is one of those great originals that sounds like a cover - a song that you heard on the radio once when you were young, immediately fell in love with but never heard again. I can’t put my finger on who it reminds me of exactly, The Byrds singing Dylan maybe (a coworker suggested Tom Petty). It’s got ringing Rickenbackers, wheezy organ, half-spoken, half-sung repeated-line verses, a swelling, soaring chorus and lyrics “I saw my future self handicapping an Emerald Downs racing form” that might have made Charles Bukowski proud.

“Ballad of Your Blue-Eyed Boy” sounds like it could be a great, lost Beatles track from the Let It Be sessions – Phil Spector-like production, a Harrison-esque slide guitar solo, a terrific, expressive Lennon-esque vocal by Five and smart, sad, funny lyrics: “They handed you a suitcase and they shot the starting gun/now what’s the matter cupcake ain’t you havin’ any fun?”

I hear echoes of Buffalo Springfield in the jingle-jangle, harmony-drenched “Shoot the Tambourine Man” while “Amphetamine” reminds me of prime Neil Young & Crazy Horse with its drug related lyrics and cathartic guitar maelstrom via Five and guest guitarist Ryan Maxwell of Unsmashable label-mates Young Sportsmen.

The stacked harmonies, layered acoustic and electric guitars, woodblock and background oohs and ahhs in “One Lie Too Many” are reminiscent of The Who circa ‘68. This song starts with the great line, “First a thorn, then another/till the rosebush that grows from your side has made you fall.” It’s a powerful, vivid image, like something from a Frida Kahlo painting.

Scott Five has really come into his own as a songwriter and the excellent playing by the band and Johnny Sangster’s skillful, sympathetic production provide the perfect showcase for the twelve perfectly sequenced gems that make up this outstanding album.

www.myspace.com/thedolltest

http://www.unsmashablerecords.com/

The Model Rockets Reunion Show on SyncLive

All of you Model Rockets fanatics who couldn't make it to the reunion show on the 4th are in luck; SyncLive recorded it. It was an amazing show and this doesn’t really do it justice but still I think you’ll enjoy this.


Watch this show and more at SyncLive.com

Doll Test/Tripwires/Model Rockets @ Tractor

This is big. This is the equivalent of Son Volt and Wilco opening for an Uncle Tupelo reunion show – no wait, maybe it’s more like The Plastic Ono Band and Wings opening for The Beatles. Would you believe Humble Pie and The Faces opening for a Small Faces reunion? Anyway you get the picture. This is gonna be great.

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.

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

Seattle Powerpop Radio Returns w/ Playlist 8

Wow it's really been a long time since the Seattle Powerpop Radio has been updated, playlist 7 was posted by Gary last September, but I've finally figured out how it’s done and I think this new playlist 8 is an especially good one. New songs from three of my favorite Seattle bands, a new song from up and coming Seattle band The Shy Ones and a cool Big Star cover recorded a couple of years ago by the very talented Braden Blake.

The Eighth installment of Seattle Powerpop Radio includes the following tracks:

The Riffbrokers - "Evaporate"
The Shy Ones - "All I Ever"
Doll Test - "The Decider"
Shake Some Action - "Looking For Someone"
Braden Blake - "The Ballad of El Goodo"

Just click the play button on the red widget over to the right and enjoy.

Recommended shows for the week of 4/6/08

Sunday the 6th:
The Quit at the Sunset Tavern

Monday the 7th:
Dateless at Chop Suey

Thursday the 10th:
Steve Pearson at Finaghty's Irish Pub (Snoqualmie)

Friday the 11th:
Ms. Led/The Earaches at King Cobra

Saturday the 12th:
The Heavy Hearts on Audioasis, Live on KEXP

Doll Test at Rendezvous

Thee Sgt. Major III at Wildrose


Let me know if I’ve missed something.

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.

Review: Heidi & Nick's Birthday Bash at Sunset

Andy Miracle (aka "Full English Breakfast" on myspace) posted a review of Nick and Heidi's birthday bash in the comments of a previous post here on the blog. I felt like it deserved its own space. So, I'm bumping it here. Great work, Andy. Thanks for the report!

_____________________
"Heidi and Nick's Birthday Bash" at the Sunset last weekend was incredible.

The Doll Test sounded better than ever (and they’ve always sounded great) with the addition of Nick Millward on guitar and vocals. Unfortunately I arrived late and missed most of their set. They closed with Gasoline and Banks (such a great song) and left the crowd yelling for more.

Next up was an unadvertised but well received performance from a band consisting of Heather Burnett on bass, Jason Toft on drums and Nick's older brother (I can’t recall his name) on guitar and vocals. They weren't bad, played all covers including a cool version of "River Deep, Mountain High".

The Small Change played a really great set despite the fact that guitarist/lead vocalist Greg Collinsworth had had at least one too many drinks before taking the stage. He actually played a whole song with absolutely no sound coming out of his guitar amp. It didn’t really matter though because the band is great and Greg is such a charismatic performer with a great voice and great songs like “Cheating a Cheat”. The highlight of their set was when Ryan Maxwell of Young Sportsmen joined them on guitar for an awesome cover of The Replacements' "Can't Hardly Wait" and "Police On My Back" by The Clash.

The Riffbrokers were great but they kept their set short. Nick said he was getting tired of playing and wanted to get off and let the Tripwires take over.

The Tripwires where excellent per usual. They seem to really be hitting their stride, tight but at the same time loose in all the right ways. They opened with “Break It All” by Los Shakers (but I’d say the Tripwires pretty much own the song at this point) and proceeded to play a bunch of John Ramberg’s incredible originals including “Monument”, “Arm Twister” and the anthemic “Big Electric Light”. The crowd was very enthusiastic, dancing and shouting out requests that the band seemed happy to oblige. They played “She’s a Mod” after which John and Jim pontificated on whether or not one could be both balding and a mod, “One Note Joe” featuring an awesome one note guitar solo by Johnny Sangster, “Crawling from the Wreckage” and an NRBQ song, I think it was “It Comes to Me Naturally” but I can’t remember for sure.

John announced that their record will finally be coming out in November on Paisley Pop Records and that they will be playing a record release show at the Tractor on November 9th with The Young Fresh Fellows!

The night ended with Scott Sutherland joining the band for an impromptu rock ‘n’ roll version of “Happy Birthday” played in the key of A. Good times rock ‘n’ roll.

The Doll Test: performance video

I found another video that my man Chris over at www.forceweb.com took. Here's The Doll Test back in January at the Tractor Tavern.

Powerpop Night photos

Although it wasn't a particularly large crowd (given that we were up against Sloan and the 88, that's not a surprise!), a good time was had at the Powerpop Night held over in West Seattle at the Skylark Cafe. If you've never been to the Skylark, I recommend you check it out. It's super easy to find, and it's just across the bridge (literally at the bottom of the offramp at Delridge). It's a cool hang out with a nice vibe.

Anyway, as per usual, I snapped some photos during the sets.

Red Sky did another good job, as is the norm with them. The addition of the keyboard player was perfect for really giving them a lush, swirly sound to match the nature of the their songs. That said, I always have to hold myself back from jumping on stage with them and singing harmonies, because while their recordings feature backing vocals, Rob does all the singing in a live setting.

This first one was a so-so photo, so I did a bit of photoshopping to making it more interesting.


The next is a pretty straight forward shot of Rob, rocking out.


Doll Test closed the night out, and I really like their sound with Nick Riffbroker joining them on second guitar and backing vocals. They were already a great band, and this addition kicked them up a notch. They brought the rock. Unfortunately, I only got one usable photo.

The Sterling Loons/The Doll Test show 1/11

When compiling my shows for the week earlier, I somehow forgot to mention the fact that The Sterling Loons, The Doll Test and The Femurs are playing tomorrow (Thursday, 1/11) at the High Dive.

Here's an mp3 of The Sterling Loons' "Wilting In The Sun"


The Sterling Loons

The Doll Test in Top 10 ep's list

Steve at Absolute Powerpop has posted his Top 10 ep's for 2006, and The Doll Test landed at number 10. Congrats guys. If I had my own list of ep's of the year, you'd be even higher.


The Doll Test

Unsmashable Showcase show 12/28

The Comet Tavern is hosting a cool looking year-end powerpop show on Thursday of this week (12/28). The line up of mostly Unsmashable Records groups is:

Young Sportsmen
The Doll Test
The Riffbrokers
North Twin

Show starts at "2100 hours" according to the flyer... that's 9pm to the rest of us. And, it's an interesting line up, as you can see the line drawn from North Twin's alt.country to The Riffbrokers' americana take on powerpop to The Doll Test's straight up powerpop to the Young Sportsmen's more rocking pop. Good variety for the audience, while maintaining conherence. I like it. Count me in.

The Doll Test tonight @ Jules Maes (12/15)

Just a heads up that The Doll Test is playing at the Jules Maes tonight (12/15), they seem to be the first band on the bill, followed by goofy jokesters A Gun That Shoots Knives and quirky rocksters Dope Smoothie.

The Doll Test seems like the odd man out on that bill. But, it's still worth going to see them!

My underestimation of Doll Test

Why do I keep assuming things about Doll Test that prove to not be true? There is some weird disconnect with this band and my brain, and it always causes me to doubt how good they are. But, that's clearly my own shortcoming rather than theirs, because they just mailed me their brand new '06 release, titled Gasoline and Banks, and it has proven me wrong again.

I first heard these guys through their myspace page and I really liked the music. But, I hadn't seen them live. So, when the IPO rolled around, for some reason I thought I wasn't going to like them. But, I did... a lot. So, why then, when the CD shows up did I think I wasn't going to like it? I don't know. But, I've gotta get my head checked. I do like the disc. But, a little back story before I talk about it.

The Doll Test, if you don't know, was an experiment related to racial identity and was a factor of the Brown v. Board of Education decision on school segregation. You can read about this part of the story in other places.

That's the genesis of the band name. As to why they chose it, I don't know. Their website says they liked the story. But, the band story goes back further than the 2005 selection of this name, as these guys performed for the preceding decade as The Model Rockets (who put out records on C/Z back in the day).

So, enough history. This 5-song EP on Unsmashable Records is a great slice of what these guys are all about. It's driving and energetic without being overly macho or posturing. It's melodic and harmony-heavy without being strictly about the vocals. There's something really "American" about this disc. By that I mean except for "Scared Out of Your Mind" (track 3) I don't hear a lot of British influences, which is funny since they list John Lennon, The Jam and The Kinks as influences on their myspace page. The influence of the other bands listed on their site (Cheap Trick, Beach Boys and Sloan) are a little more evident on these recordings.

I'm going to end this rambling blog post and just suggest you pick up the disc or head to their myspace page to check them out. And, I promise you, Doll Test, that I won't continue to underestimate you.

Day 2: Two mp3s per day for 16 days

It's day two of the cumbersomely titled Two mp3s per day for 16 days series! In this series, you'll get two mp3s per day in the same order in which the bands are performing at the International Pop Overthrow later this month at the Crocodile Cafe.

The Young Sportsmen's Under The Rocks and Stars"

Doll Test's "Gasoline and Banks"

NOTE: In some instances, like the one above with Doll Test, I may have to pull songs off of myspace and put them into a linkable source (in this instance, it's putfile.com). If any of the bands don't want this to happen, let me know and I can redirect to another mp3 of your selection, or remove completely.