Two bands in one day, drastically different groups at that. Modest Mouse came to Seattle’s Paramount theater last night for a show. The band was really good, very entertaining, played a lot of their big songs as well as deeper cuts.

The sound was pretty bad, muddy, bassy, I could barely hear the vocals most of the time and couldn’t understand a word they said in between. The sound system was a bit underpowered, at least in the midrange, there was ass loads of bass to make matters worse. I was decently pleased with the overall volume as I didn’t go deaf or anything, but the mix/system could of been much better.

As for the show there was about 5 million 15 year olds that were more interested in moshing up front than seeing the show. Ignoring that it was a really good show. It’s a sort home coming for the band from Issaqua (sp not even close(tm).) They brought what was apparently, again i couldn’t understand what they said, their friends and family up on stage for their closing number before coming back for a 3 song encore. It was well worth the modestly priced ticket.

In what was the best musical fishbowl yet Nickel Creek stoppped by yesterday for a lunch time event. They were, as I would of expected, execlent. Very entertaining muscially as well as banter. They played several songs off of their soon to be released “Why Should the Fire Die?”
I nabbed a pre-release copy and have since given it a listen or two and recomend it. If you’re already a Nickel Creek fan you’re sure to enjoy it, if not and you’re looking for something a little different, but not too out there it will probably fit the bill.

So I had never heard of Tristan Prettyman before I saw an annoucement come across Amazon’s events mailing list. I read a little bit about her and decided to attend her event. I rode the shuttle down to Uwajimaya and grabbed lunch and walked on over to the building where it was happening. She was a bit late arriving, but things eventually got underway. She talked for a second, looked mildly nervous and then started to play. She was really good, had a great and interesting voice, was a decent guitarist and the songs where pretty interesting and fit her really well. It kinda had a Jack Johnson feel two it, perhaps not quite as deep as far as lyrics go, but a good soft voice with character and melodic and interesting songs.

She played two songs off of her soon to be released album and then finished with a cover of a Britney Spears song, of all things, which at the time I took as a joke, but was a hint of the dissapointment to come. There were pre-release copies of her album availiable. I didn’t manage to snag one, got there too early and they weren’t out as I came in, but one of my friends did. We listened to a bit of it (annoyingly DRM’d and bundled with a crappy/crashing player, but we managed to get them to play through MS media player, iTunes would not.) I was extremely dissapointed with it. After hearing her live I was expecting something much better. Her album was genric, like everything else on top-fourty raido, but not quite as catchy. It was way over produced, loud and pop-rock like, Avril Lavigne without the edginess that makes her slightly interesting. I was extremely dissapointed, I heard her play live and acoustic to boot. She’s good, I can’t help thinking that she’s a victim of the rubber-stamp top-40 record industy, she has the potential to be a lot better than what they made of her. I have to hope she’ll get a second chance and make better use of it, until then I’m going to move along and hope to find something better, I guess I’m just not in the record company’s target demograic.

Went to a show, possible the last of the troubadour series, at The Kentucky Theater last night. The opening band was The Hunger Mountain Boys a 1940/50′s style country duo, pretty bluegrassy. I was very impressed with them, especially for a couple of guys from MA. They had a good stage presence and were very talented musicians and singers. I wasn’t sure whether or not to expect an opening act, but i was very pleased as they began to play. They’re playing tonight at the The Dame, but i wasn’t in the mood to go out. They’re supposed to be coming back to town for to be on Woodsongs so i might have to suck it up and get over my dislike for the host and attend and check them out again.

I first learned of Taj Mahal when i found out that he was the original artist behind the Blues Brothers cover of “She Caught the Katy”. I love that song so i did a little bit of investigating about him then. I pretty much dropped it after that until a few years later, a few months ago, when i heard that he was coming to town. I’ve seen quite a few blues musicians that were supposed to be legends and i suppose he was the first to live up to the hype. His guitar leads and solo’s are amazing. Their seeming simplistic, even a single cord. The intricate feel and timing he managed to get out of the guitar should be enough to make all but the best want to give up thinking they’re doing something wrong. It was a great show.

My friend Misty was in town for a couple of days and we decided to go out on the town and had a rather enjoyable evening. We started off with dinner at A La Lucie which was really good, nice once in a while, wouldn’t go too often. We followed with my new favorite place, for dessert anyway, Natasha’s. We joined my friend Dave Frye at The Dame for Virgina Coalition and opening act The Chris Campbell Band. Both were good, better than i expected, but i’m not dying to own all their albums or anything. The Virgina Coalition were really good musicians and had good stage presence, but the music didn’t really do much for me. I was pleasently surprised to find this when doing a google search for Chris Campbell. The actual show we attedned is up here (jan 24th 2005). I’m in the process of downloading it now. i wouldn’t mind hearing a bit more of them, mainly b/c they’re giving away live stuff, i like the idea of that.

A night of music. We started out at Cheapside at a multi-purpose get together for various friends of Tasha (right). We hung out there for a while and towards the end of that Soupbone went on in the main room. They were kinda stevie ray vaughn style blues band, with a brass section (trumpet and sax.) They we really good, probably the best group we say though the night, had a really groovy feel and the atomosphere was pretty good as well. We’d planned on heading down to The Dame from the started so we left as Soupbone finished offed their first set.

It was rather cold, but luckily the dame isn’t very far from cheapside. As we got in to the dame an Afro-Cuban salsa band Big Maracas was on. There were pretty good, we only got to see their final two songs so they were kinda winding down. The dame was pretty crowded, above average anyway. They finished up and after some time for tear down and set up The Sexual Disaster Quartet took the stage with a jazz-funk style that was really complex and intricate. It seemed to take a few songs before the sound guy figured out what the hell he was doing, translation they sounded like shit. After then he halfway seemed to get things in order, but still never did them justice. The guitar was lost under the bass and drums and you could seldom hear anything besides the crescendos from the trumpet. The band was pretty good, something i’d probably sit around and listen to more than go to s show, but cool nonetheless.

Oh and apparently i need to see napoleon dynamite, or so says like the 10th
person (Alexa) this week so i’ll have to do that soon, i’l let you know what i
think.

I’d spent hours and hours at archive.org several years ago watching some really cool old films (especially this one) and browsing the various other things there. It’s actually the largest site on the internet, and grows at an astounding rate.

Ok, on to the actual point of this post, there’s an audio section which all sorts of free music and speaches. Under that is a section titled netlables. I spent several hours digging around there the other night and came up with two great finds. My favorite is Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka: Porn Music For The Masses Volume 1 check it out, seriously, porn groove style. The other is Two Zombies Later, don’t know how to classify it other than very cool, and huge. These are both free music albums, my new favorite finds. Check them and archive.org out.

It’s been a while since i’ve heard anything that instantlly caught my interest. Asylum Street Spankers did just that. I won’t bother trying to describe them as i’m not sure that i could. Pay a visit to their site and listen to the downloadable songs to get a feel. Man it’s awesome. A friend (Joel) sent me an email this morning suggesting i check them out. He said they’re playing at The Dame tonight. I’m definately going to try and go.