A couple of months back I went to the Vogue to see locals C’est La Mort play their own brilliant brand of trance/shoegaze. Luckily, I went early and caught the opening band which really knocked my eardrums around.  The band was Love in the Shadows.  This three piece makes me believe that local bands can actually pay homage to English bands without sound hackneyed.  I mean just look at the slew of Seattle bands (or national acts for that matter) that water down the likes of PIL or Joy Division!  But not Love in the Shadows, they have a snake-charmer’s gaze set on beautiful, dark drones that transports us back 25 years, yet looks to the future.  Listen to the damn guitars for chrissakes!  They have so much delay and so many effects on them that they sound just like an analogue synthesizer!

After their show, one of the Love in the Shadow’s member personally handed out copies of their demo.  I got my hands on one of these handmade gems.  Included on this demo are tracks called “Pop Song” and “As It Was” which remind me a bit of the bleak, early 80’s Brit band The Sound (check out The Sound’s 1980 release Jeopardy if you want some more pre-goth drone).  But I digress.

Keep an eye out for these fellas!  Their melodies are a bit monotone and droney, so if you have a short attention span may I suggest you go out and buy a Coldplay album.  But for the rest of us who truly cherish the slow dirges of a post-goth ensemble, Love in the Shadows will be your cup of strychnine. Contact the band to get a copy of their somber 4 song demo today!

“My name is Paul and I am a metalhead.”

“Hi, Paul.”

I used to be ashamed of the fact that I appreciated the fine art of air-guitaring and/or air-drumming. Now I’m proud! DAMN PROUD! As an air-instrumentalist, no music in the history of rock and roll is better than Black Sabbath! But I’m only talking about Ozzy Osbourne-era Sabbath, my long-haired-soap-dodging comrades.

In their heyday, Ozzy and Co. played some of the heaviest dirges ever cut onto vinyl. And we should be thankful these Birmingham burnouts introduced the world to the art of heavy metal with one wasted middle finger in the air. Furthermore, it’s important to point out two things Black Sabbath did for popular music: 1) They created some of the most influential sounds making an entirely new subgenre of rock. 2) They inspired a toilet-full of shitty bands who have recorded some of the worst albums in history.

Needless to say, their music is timeless and should, nay MUST, be rediscovered every couple of years. Thank the “Lord of this world” for cover bands like Supernaughty! Why? Because, instead of listening to abysmal Sabbath influenced pap at some metal bar in Tacoma, we can just cut the crap and listen to renditions of some of the greatest hits of heavy metal played by hardcore BS devotees! If you find yourself coughing along to the opening strains of “Sweet Leaf” or believe you’ve seen fairies wear boots at least a couple of times in your life, then you really should go to the free Supernaughty show at the Funhouse tonight (August 8th). The band consists of Matt and Tim (of Yam), Mary (of Waves, Mars Accelerator, et al.) and newcomer Miranda Sky.

Supernaughty’s musicality and loyalty to the originals are astounding. At the Funhouse a couple of months back, they played the non-radio classics! No “Iron Man” or “War Pigs” just gems like “Supernaut” (of course) and the bass heavy “N.I.B.” I actually lost count of how many hardcore Sabbath fans were there playing air drums/bass/guitar or just simply yelling along to these esoteric BS classics. From Supernaughty’s opening riff I felt as though I had an invisible Gibson SG around my neck and a phantom guitar pick in hand. I knew every riff by heart and I was there to jam with Sabbath. And I know the aromatic dude standing next to me felt the same goddamn way His smoky leather jacket smelled of piss and beer, but he was right there with me—headbanging, miming out solos, and partaking in a circle jerk of heavy metal worship. The altar was the stage and the crowd was the congregation. Black Sabbath’s music was the hymn and Supernaughty was the choir. I’m not saying their performance was a religious experience, I’m just saying that by getting in touch with my metal past this band helped me become a born again headbanger.

“Whatcha gonna do?/Time’s caught up with you.”

Supernaughty will be churning out the hits tonight at the Funhouse! I’ll be there handing out the air guitar sheet music with a huge, toothy smile on my face. And since this show is free, you won’t have to sell your soul for the rock and roll!

S will be performing in Seattle for the first time in a long time this Saturday, opening for Panda and Angel, and this is cause for no small amount of excitement. The outfit makes itself scarce, a rare quality amongst our local favorites, making its shows true events, because, well, who knows when we’ll see them up on stage again?

S is primarily Jenn Ghetto, former Carissa’s Wierd singer, with help from Josh Wackerly (also of Panda and Angel) and others. Ghetto and Wackerly are currently working on material for the group’s third album, due out in 2007. The development between the first and second albums was quite marked and it will be interesting to see what the third album will bring.

S’s first album, Sadstyle, was a remarkable release. I remember taking it home after seeing Ghetto perform the songs solo at the CD release, and, upon first listen, being very nearly angry. The quality of recording is miserable. The guitars sound like they were plugged directly into a cheap four track machine, and vocals sound like they were captured with your garden variety Radio Shack mic while sitting in a cramped closet. The songs were full of sloppy edits, tempo inconsistencies and gallons of low-grade reverb. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with any of this, but after hearing the live performance I was hoping for something more. Surely someone in a successful band like Carrisa’s Wierd would have the means to secure a slightly better kit with which to record. Then I listened again. And again. And so on for the next months, as the songs made their way under my skin and lodged themselves solidly at the front of my brain.

The songs seem to document Ghetto’s inner-world as she goes through the stuff of everyday life – the things that go right and wrong (well, mostly wrong) when you are only somewhat willing entangled in the world of other people. It’s not new territory by any means, and has made for some of the worst songs and poems of all time, but what separates Sadstyle’s songs from the maudlin emoting of emo-boys and girls is that they are not calculated or intending to impress or exact revenge. Rather it’s as if we were allowed to stumble upon the letter’s of a promising, if not great writer – informal and never intended for publication, but full of the insight and talent underlying the more public works. The songs appear to capture the precise moments of creation – the questions asked and statements made are actually being asked and made, rather than performed. And that’s what so many people got wrong about “lo-fi” in the 90s – it wasn’t about poor recording quality, rather it was about reducing the gap between the artist and recording medium.

And one should not overlook Ghetto’s guitar playing, which is as unique and inspired. She generally avoids the strummed chord stylings overused by generations of singer-song writers in favor of more complex plucked lines that provide the melody while establishing the rhythm.

The second album, Puking and Crying, upon first listen, was a delight. The sounds are clear and full while the material covers the familiar brooding territory. Subsequent listens did not reveal anything further, however. While the album is still enjoyable, the clicks du jour, computer generated tempos and crisp musical bits somehow rob the songs of their authenticity. The cleanliness of the recording comes at the expense of the spontaneity, and one can almost hear a self-consciousness absent in the earlier work. I can only hope that for the third album she either wrangles all of the production critters back into their proper cages or abandons them all together and lets her guitar, which she plays so well, and voice stand on their own.

Having said this, the fleshed out band is exciting to see. Hearing some of the older songs performed by a full band gave them entirely new life and the tension Ghetto brings to her performances is far more captivating than the white-belted acrobatics put on by your typical of-the-moment outfit. Highly recommended!

(Teeth and Hair pictured at a recent SSMA gig. Photo by Mindy Sisco)

Paul Groth:  What’s your role at the SS Marie Antoinette?
Malaki Stahl:  I am the leaseholder and manager of the space.  You know bills, rent, finding tenants…and I kind of make the SSMA a modest place for bands, visual artists, theatre, dance, comedy acts…to do their thing. My duties includes volunteering door duties, sound guy duties and keeping the calendar going with mild booking and lots of e-mailing.

PG:  Describe for us how the SSMA got its start.
MS:  I am not the best person to answer that. But from what i know, it goes like this…
The building is one of only a very few wooden boat making warehouses left on the West Coast. The rest burned down the night before fiberglass technology was released (that would compete with and destroy the wooden boat maker’s union)—insurance money or something—so that the guys who built boats could walk away with a little something and find other work…Skip ahead to about 1994 or so. I am not sure, but some artists convinced the owners to rent it out to them as artist spaces.  One of the first shows was Jason Webley Funeral, replete with Butoh dancers hanging from the rafters and shit. Must’ve been amazing. We still get people coming in talking about that show. That was before the interior walls went up. Skip further ahead, and I took over the space from Victoria Franklin (who is doing very well as a fine artist on the East Coast now), and ramped up how many performances and art shows there wer—from about one a month to 15 or so a month. The touring band set really seemed to take to us, as well as the locals who knew about us. People seem to like us, sound-wise and energy-wise.  Bands and fans alike.
 

PG:  What Makes the SSMA stand out from the other music venues in Seattle?
MS:  Well, we don’t ask for money.  We probably should and we just might start to soon, actually.  But for the time being we have a policy of only taking 30% of the door after it goes over $120.  Anything before that is gravy for the bands. That way bands on tour, who are really doing it DIY, don’t go broke trying to do what they love to do. Also, our booking policy is simple, we don’t really take demos and judge music.  We like variant bills.  And we don’t base our choices on what we like, what we think is cool, or what is hip right now.  In fact, the only policy about turning bands away is if I get a giant press pack on line or in the mail, and it has shit in there about how the bands music was used in a car commercial or on MTV.  I tend to ignore it or politely turn them away. Those bands don’t need as much help as others.

PG:  What out of town acts have graced the SSMA stage?
MS:  Oh man, do you want the list? or just my favorites? or other people’s seeming favs? There have beeen a ton. Big names, little names, bands now defunct, bands that won’t stop touring even to feed their cat…

PG:  Well how about some of your favorite SSMA shows. 

MS:  Uh that’s a good question.  I am so tired right now all of the shows are blending together.  So instead of actual bills, I will answer by saying who my favorite bands that have played are…Old Time Relijun, Japanther, Der Trasch, Knife Skills, No Things, Pure Horsehair, Mike Dumovich, Plentyface, Blue Light Curtain, Te, They Shoot Horses Don’t They, Corespondants, Bill Horist, Snowmanplan, Swaybacks, Nowbeast, Mikaela’s Fiend, Pterodactyl, Battleship, Jana Hunter, Telomere Repair, Constants, Tera Melos, Brilliant Red Lights, Calvin Johnson, SON, VIA, Girth, The Helm, Inhaste, Iron Lung, Kimya Dawson, The Pharmacy, Jascha Ephraim, Lake of Falcons, Assisted Living, Teeth and Hair, Last Slice of Butter, Owl Dudes,  Wet Confetti, We Quit, Chevron, Ooh Ah Ah, Patience Please, Angelo Spencer, Sea Donkeys, Worms, Johnny X and the Groadies, Elphaba, Health, Kickball, Silver Daggers, Jeppa Hall, Tender Forever, Titty, and uh let’s see…the list is random and getting too long.

The night that No Things and Knife Skills showed up to play, there was no local support.  They were bummed.  I was stressing out for them, cuz their booker must’ve spaced it.  Well at that point, only one guy had come to see the show and noticed us bugging out about the lack of a band.  He walks up to me and asks if we need another band.  I say yes.  He says he has a band that would play. I was like, “Seriously you have a band that can play in the next 45 minutes?  They can get here and everything?”  He said yes, I was like, “Ok, um, what is the name of your band?”  He said, “Teeth and Hair.”  I love that band! 

PG:  Is there any relationship between the Beep Repaired record label and SSMA?
MS:  Yup.  Now there is.  Beep Repaired was a seed in the hands of Olie Eshleman and I, plus a few other people—artists, musicians—and we decided that we were really fucking sick of the nepotism involved in getting your music heard.  So we gathered forces with like minded peeps (and it keeps growing) and started self-promoting each other.  Instead of competition, we used the cooperation model and now the SSMA is one of the places that the Beep Repaired bands have claimed as home base.  Actually, there are several houses and venues that have a little slice of the Beep Repaired pie.  In fact, it has spread to the East Coast and down the West Coast, making lots of friends, new members, and believers out of people. The SSMA is probably my way of doing what BR had in mind.  Which was breaking out of the shitty, money-based who-knows-who Seattle doldrums, and into an environment of music and musician appreciation.

PG:  Are there any exciting shows coming up that you’d like to tell us about?
MS:  Too many! Everywhere from Calvin Johnson to Teeth and Hair, my new favorite band. Plus a few that I have just been getting hints about reputation wise. Just get a myspace account and check our calendar.

SSMA LOCATION:  1235 Westlake
Seattle, WA 98109

Red Martian has landed back on familiar soil. The band has been rocketing around the UK for the past couple of weeks. From London to Glasgow (and places in between) they played 10 gigs in 15 days, gazing at their shoes and making finely woven blankets of sound wherever they went. They were “out there” in support of their latest release Glasses Cannot Go to the Puzzle Remixed by Severed Heads. MAN, that was a mouthful. Ok, so who are these crimson creatures of Mars?

Red Martian is a Seattle three-piece which has been playing around the scene for the past 5 or so years. Their music is a wash of dive-bombing guitars that swallow delicate (yet emotionless) vocals which are backed by droning bass and raucous drums. In their live set, the listener is bombasted with sonic sheets of fuzz and buzz: an appropriate soundtrack for any galactic trip.

To start off on the right (moonboot wearing) foot, I suggest you go out and get their 3 inch mini-cd, Glasses Cannot Go to the Puzzle (original, released in 2003). “Super Computing,” Misfigured Balloon” and the title track are all addictive examples of their dream pop drone. What label is this fine album on? Like all Red Martian albums, Glasses is released without the support of a label. Inside all of their albums a kind of manifesto is printed: “DIY-Record labels are obsolete.” In this super computin’ world, this makes total sense. I mean, who needs a damn record label when you’ve got “the internets,” home studios, and cheap cd duplication plants. But I’m straying off course here.

You need to know about this new Severed Heads remix album. Australian electronic eclectician and Severed Heads member Tom Ellard zaps a stun-gun-barrelful of beats and effects to remake/remodel Red Martian’s songs. You can dance to this ambient album if you want to, but your knees will be oatmeal by the time you get to the cut called “Megane” on the B-side. That’s right! I’m talkin’ ‘bout the B-side of an honest to God record kids! Glasses Remixes is a record-only release on pearly white, 180 gram vinyl. This is the stuff dreams are made of. It’s available in both 10 and 12 inch formats. And the 10 inch-er comes with a gatefold cover. Oh man I can’t wait to bring these babies to the first RECORD PARTY! I’m definitely gonna play the future club hits “Himitsu” and “Edo” back to back. You’ll know why, when you hear ‘em.

I’m at a loss for words when describing Red Martian’s sound. I could use Jabba the Hut’s language or flowery wookie-speak to sing the praises of such an extra-terrestrial band, but that jibba jabba would just fall on deaf ears. Instead, I know what I can do. I’m gonna give you the skinny on Red Martian using binary code. So here goes: 101011010010011010100010010010100111010…

(Dear Pencil Necked Geeks,

Please, no comments on the binary code I just typed out.

I know it’s not correct.

Thanks, PG.)

NOTE: Red Martian plays the Sunset Tavern in Ballard on July 5th, 9pm!

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