The Royal Pick: The Life and Times @ Barboza (Saturday, June 13)

As a kid growing up in Kansas City, I cut my teeth on the dissonant noise of a lot of our local bands; Season To Risk, Molly McGuire, Boys Life and Shiner (amongst others) were all in constant rotation around the house during my high school years. Shiner, in particular, seemed the most malleable of all of those bands, able to stretch their legs comfortably over the chasm of brutal noise and sparse, ethereal beauty. After Shiner's breakup in the early 2000's, singer Allen Epley's newest project (The Life and Times) carried on the torch into a bit more stripped down/spaced out territory alongside bassist Eric Abert (formerly of St. Louis' Ring, Cicada) and drummer Chris Metcalf (Stella Link). The result isn't terribly dissimilar to Shiner (who are back together again), but a bit more atmospheric and anthemic, bubbling over with melancholia laid atop deliciously dark hooks and some absolutely crushing drumming by Metcalf propelling it all. 

I'm always thrilled to have some folks from my hometown brightening our Northwestern doorstep, but I'm particularly thrilled this time to be playing in a band (Ghost Pains) opening up for some good Kansas City folk up here in Seattle. Come out and let's talk Royals baseball. 

The Life and Times & Ghost Pains play at Barboza on Saturday, June 13th. Early 21+ show (7pm). Tickets are $10. 

The Royal Basement Podcast #8: Alex Robert (BLACK WHALES) is up!

I've been playing catch up down here in the basement, and finally getting around to editing and posting this podcast and Basement Session that I recorded in December with Alex Robert of the Seattle-area band Black Whales. Run over to the podcast page and give it a listen and download some exclusive Basement Session songs that Alex recorded with me.  Black Whales are playing this Friday, February 20th at the Columbia City Theater in Seattle along with The Mama Rags and Prom Queen. 

I just recorded a couple new podcasts this past week, so be on the lookout in the next few days for episode #9 (Eric Slick of Dr. Dog) and #10 (Tony Ruland and Kyle Holland of the new band Soft Sleep, featuring former members of The Lonely Forest/The Globes/Cumulus/Death Cab For Cutie). Good sounds a-comin'. Keep hitting refresh. 

The Royal Pick for 1/16/15: Paul Collins Beat @ Lo-Fi Gallery

If you're deep into the world of classic power-pop, dropping Paul Collins' name into a conversation about as common as blinking. For the more casual fan who can't name everything Bomp! Records has ever put out, discovering the world of Paul Collins is the sort of rare treat that you don't find every day. Collins started out his career with Peter Case (The Plimsouls) and Jack Lee ("Hangin' On The Telephone") in The Nerves, honing his chops as a songwriter and a drummer before forming The Beat in the late 70's.

Without falling into the hyperbole-filled world of "what ifs", The Beat should have been a massive band. A pass through the band's 1979 self-titled debut release reveals a band firing on every cylinder, blowing through some absolutely perfect power-pop songs that don't have an inch of fat on them with crisp drums and guitar solos that cut through the mix surprisingly well for a 35 year old recording. Collins' voice leaps through the speakers, simultaneously charmingly clear-headed and chain-smokingly anxious, pining away for the planets to align and that perfect girl to find her way to him atop a bed of major chords.  Alas, the band found modest success in the days before MTV (appearing on the Merv Griffin show and American Bandstand, when those were cultural barometers), but ultimately, never took flight to the extent that those songs deserved. True to the loyal underdog he plays in his songs, Paul Collins has continued to soldier on, having released 15 records as The Beat/Paul Collins Beat/Paul Collins over his career. In another universe, Paul Collins Beat is selling out amphitheaters on a reunion tour. In this universe, we get to see him up close and sweaty, blaring through a duct-tape-infused PA system. The Beat goes on, indeed. 

The Paul Collins Beat play The Garageland Fest at Lo-Fi Gallery/Victory Lounge tonight alongside Rich Hands, Acapulco Lips, The Gods Themselves, The Knast, Loud Eyes, Bread & Butter, The Crush, Killer Ghost and others. Alongside the bands, there will be record vendors who are stocked up on all sorts of power pop and garage rock. Show starts at 5pm. More information available here. 

The Royal Pick for October 20, 2014: SLOAN at the Tractor Tavern

It's easy to use the term "Beatle-esque" to compare any group with multiple songwriters and a decent grasp of vocal harmonies to the Fab Four, but it's definitely not an unfair comparison with Toronto's Sloan. Having just celebrated their twenty year anniversary as a band, Sloan has a surplus of gems in their catalog that they could easily rest on; they've been around long enough to know their strengths and define their sound, but they're still ambitious enough to push at those boundaries and continue to re-define their own rich legacy in the pop universe.  

Take, for example, Sloan's new double LP (Commonwealth). Taking a conceptual nod from Kiss' solo albums, each member of the band takes on a side of the LP, with results ranging from pristine, baroque pop to gauzy shoegaze to the expansive 18 minute long "Fourty-Eight Portraits", which builds from the clanging clatter of machine shop parts up into a rolling, spacy boil and glides along through multiple mini-movements that form together seamlessly. While a lot of power pop artists have dedicated their careers to being fantastic at one particular trick, Sloan is a four-headed monster of songwriters. Those four distinct voices and approaches to pop songcraft compliment and conflict with each other, but hearing a band 22 years into their career embrace that struggle (especially with the segmented nature of Commonwealth) is a rare and beautiful thing indeed.

Basically, if you miss this show, you're a knucklehead. 

Also, please tune in next month for an episode of the Royal Basement podcast featuring Sloan!

Sloan plays at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle, WA on October 20, 2014. Tickets are $15. 

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The Royal Pick for October 16, 2014: CONSTANT LOVERS

For a while there, Seattle, it looked like the folk rock movement was going to win. Much like the cranes that dot our city skyline, building up yet another squared-off concrete and glass mixed-use monstrosity, the sincere "beardo with acoustic guitar" thing threatened to flatten out and homogenize Seattle's music scene for a while there. Sure, that sort of thing is fine when it's well done (and in small doses), but there's so much more to this place than coffee shop rock. 

Thankfully, there are bands like Constant Lovers who gnash and claw through the beige clutter. Sure, there's a definite tip of the cap to the sound of early 90's Seattle in there (along with a nice melding of some of the finer bits of the Amphetamine/Reptile catalog), but Constant Lovers manage to retain their urgency and freshness, all while writing frantic anthems for the restless and frustrated parts in all of us. This is the soundtrack to our condo apocalypse, Seattle. 

Constant Lovers play with Unnatural Helpers, SSDD and Corey Brewer at The Sunset Tavern tonight. Tickets are $8.