Neon Indian - Era Extraña

It opens with a feel akin to something from the 8-bit or chiptune scene in "Heart: Attack". While the rest of the album doesn't carry this sound  as even remotely heavily as the opening track , you can definitely hear the influence through it, which is nice, because as a lover of the 8-bit and chiptune genres, it's nice to hear a chillwave artist use influence from those genres and have such nice vocals over it. My favorite tracks on the album are 'Polish Girl' and 'Hex Girlfriend'. For a sophomore album, I feel that Neon Indian took a decent departure from Psychic Chasms, where PC was far more psychedelic in sound,  which may bother many fans, but I find it to be an interesting next step, and look forward to more work from him. As well, I also get to see them live on Oct. 5th, so yet another show to look forward to, and more exciting, Purity Ring will be opening.

The Drums - Portamento

As someone who rarely ever actually listens to lyrics, I initially just thought to be your typical indie pop, happy sounding album (as they all seem), until I was mulling over the lyrics on the way to work a few days ago and came to the realization while singing along in my head it was quite depressing. From my favorite song on the album, 'Book Of Revelations' where they talk about how "when we die, we die", and there's nothing more, so "let me love you to night". That said, it's very catchy. This continues throughout other songs as well like in "Days" which mentions "I killed myself" and "I sold my soul", or "Money" where "I want to buy you something, but I don't have any money". I could continue with how there is a song about how someone is just so "Hard To Love", and how  'I Don't Know How To Love', but I'm sure you get the point. Maybe it's the allure of this dichotomy I wasn't aware of 'til recently or just the really catchy tunes, but I'm a big fan of this album, more-so than their self-titled debut.

I haven't seen them live yet, but I'll get to see them on 12th of October, I'm looking forward to it.

How James Blake is awesome and both the Showbox venues are terrible

I'll start with the bad. Though I love the amount of tours that come through Seattle, there are two venues that I have had annoying experiences at, both the Showbox venues. I've been to shows at each now, and the primary problems I've seen are terrible sound quality, shitty crowd atmospheres, annoying ticket prices of  miserable Ticketmaster, and crowded to the point of it typically not being enjoyable for some people.

To address the sound quality, Showbox SoDo did significantly better than at the Market, but in both cases, it was far too loud to the point of distortion, and artists continually had issues with their mic levels. As for crowd atmosphere, Showbox continually seems to draw an annoyingly douchey crowd, full of people who think it's okay to talk through the entire show, hold up their cell phones to record terrible videos, and a large number of teenagers who wander aimlessly around the crowd in hordes of five and more, just causing a general annoyance. The ticket price fees for the showbox are through Ticketmaster, so you can typically expect to pay at least 12-25$ more than your actual ticket. And lastly, the place is crowded, and seemingly far more-so than other venues, whilst at most venues, it doesn't feel like a chore to simply visit one of the bars or use the restroom, but at both Showbox venues, it has required an unnecessary amount of effort due to the amount of people at either and the locations.

Now onto the good. Teengirl Fantasy played a decent set, better than I expected but nothing spectacular. As for James Blake, he was simply amazing live, watching him create the loops that he spoke over during "I Never Learnt to Share" was amazing. Another high point in the show of course was when he played The Wilhelm Scream, the portion of the song that makes you feel as if you are underwater about a half to two-thirds of the way through the song came across very well. He also played nigh every song from his upcoming EP, which I'm now happily looking forward to, most of the songs from it seemed to have the same style as his self-titled debut but with a bit more piano in a few places, which isn't a bad move, I really enjoyed it. And last to note, he seemed like a pretty cool person in general, really humble sounding when he was talking to the crowd (and amazingly the same age as me, only 22, and so damn talented). He is also ridiculously tall and British.

Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies and The Mall

The cookies I made tasted far better than I could have expected. They were far richer than anticipated and stayed soft even the day after. Everyone at the office gobbled them up, anyways, here's the recipe, I excluded the "chocolate chips" because I didn't care to add them.

1 cup crunchy peanut butter

(salted or unsalted)

½ cup vegan butter substitute,

slightly softened but not at

room temperature

½ cup maple syrup

¼ cup granulated sugar

(increase to cup if using

natural peanut butter)

¼ cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup nondairy chocolate chips

(optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and oil 3 baking sheets. Combine the peanut butter, vegan butter substitute, maple syrup, granulated sugar, brown

sugar, and vanilla extract in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the flour and stir until well combined. Stir in the op tional chocolate chips.

Note: If you prefer smoother cookies, use creamy peanut butter instead of crunchy.

Form the dough into 1½- to 2-inch balls and arrange them on the prepared baking sheets about 3 inches apart. Use a fork to flatten each cookie and

make a crosshatch design, if desired. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Cool on racks. Store in a sealed container.

And on the note of The Mall, they are a punk band out of SF, I recently found them after digging into the artist of the song that plays during the MashSF movie trailer from a few years back. And then started listening to more of their stuff, I really enjoy the combination of their relatively pleasant tunes that have a punk flair and a dash of keyboard with some wonderfully brutal vocals. It's one of my favorite albums of the time being.

And lastly, I'm pretty stoked for James Blake this weekend, I've only heard good things about his performances.

Kakkmaddafakka

Pretty cool band I started listening to, based out of Norway. The influences can be heard from many genres in this band, which makes them kind of exciting to listen to as you hear bits of jazz, funk, rock, rap, and pop, and such. Their album from February is pretty awesome, 'Hest', it was produced by Erlend Oye, from Kings of Convenience and the Whitest Boy Alive, who I'm a big fan of. My favorites off this album are 'Touching' (which reminds me a lot of  Oingo Boingo for some reason), 'Make the First Move', and 'Restless'. Overall it just makes me happy to listen to them because I feel they are actually taking the "I don't make a genre of music, I just make music" to heart with all of their influences. Now if they would tour the US.

How adorable...

I forgot how adorable the Moldy Peaches (or Kimya Dawson or Adam Green individually for that matter) could sound. When I was re-watching Juno, it took me back to fall of freshman year of college when it came out, their music is just too adorable. And how it was pretty damn neat to see her live in Gainesville, with not too large of a crowd. Her friend, Paul Baribeau, who is mentioned in a few of her songs, lives in Gainesville. So it was convenient that we could get to see her in such a setting.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Hysterical

CYHSY just released a new album after 4 years. And it's great, it's quite a bit different from their previous two albums, but not necessarily in a bad way. I don't think I'd put it up there with the same caliber of their debut, but it's still good. This one feels a bit more melodic, upbeat, and less folksy than the others, and their sound is a lot more akin to that of Arcade Fire circa Neon Bible. That said, my favorite song here is Maniac, followed by Hysterical, and then Same Mistake. I think I'll be hooked on this one for at least a while.

Alki and a new wallet

So one of my favorite rides at night is out to Alki beach and back, the views are gorgeous, the trail is pleasant, and it's flat so it makes you feel like you went no where in comparison to the hills in all the other directions.

As well, I got a new wallet, it's fanciful vinyl sewed together for the outside and then it has very comfy soft light blue cloth inside.

Olivia Tremor Control and the Music Tapes

This show took place at the Vera Project. It was my first time to this volunteer-based venue, and I have to say, I was thoroughly impressed, the snacks and drinks were cheap, the atmosphere was pleasant and I liked the way it was decorated, though I will say it was hard to find. it was nestled into a corner of the Seattle Center I didn't know existed and spent a deal of time looking for the place. I came in just after the first band played, and as the Music Tapes were starting. Julian Koster lived up to what I hoped for, from giving little explanations and awesome stories about how a song came about or about his life, and then playing a variety of instruments, from a musical saw to a programmed metronome and horns, I loved every moment of it.  The Olivia Tremor Control played well, though I think I may have over-hyped them a bit in my head/was coming off a high from watching The Music Tapes but I found them to be not as amazing as I'd hoped. The constant sound complaints/issues with the monitors didn't help the situation, but alas it wasn't a bad show, and I thoroughly enjoyed  The Music Tapes.

All this talk about this Athens bands makes me wonder how amazing it must have been for those lucky enough to have seen Neutral Milk Hotel live.

Crystal Fighters

I wish I'd listened to them sooner. I'm addicted, their album "Star of Love" is fantastic in it's entirety, while it is extremely hard for me to pick some favorites off the album for you to give a listen to, because the whole damn album is so good. I think you should listen to Plage, Xtatic Truth, and Champion Sound. They are just so damn catchy, I would love to see them live. They're difficult for me to classify in terms of genre, electronic-Basque-folk-dance is probably how I would best describe it, and I will end this by saying you should just give it a damn listen.

There music videos of what I've seen are pretty cool too.

Explosions in the Sky secret show and cameras at shows

So a midst my addiction to continuously go to shows here, I managed to get tickets to a secret show for Explosions in the Sky. They are by far my favorite band that I have seen live to date, just utterly amazing. And to see them in such a small venue (the Crocodile) was very intimate in comparison to the big settings I've seen them in previously (Lollapalooza '08 and Capitol Hill Block Party this year). So intimate in fact, that during Twin Sister (the opening band, which were really awesome I may add), I glanced to my left and noticed the EitS bassist standing next to me, when I turned around I saw none other than Munaf Rayani right behind me, so I gave a smile of acknowledgement and he returned the same. Another thing that's awesome about EitS is unlike other bands of their popularity, I've never seen them send out techs to set up everything, instead, they all come out and set up their equipment, and Munaf banters with us in the crowd, making it feel really personable. Then when they started playing, and it was fantastic, oh so fantastic. This time they played a lot more of  Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, which was nice to see, since I hadn't gotten to see all those songs before.

Now for a a bit of a rant against idiot concert goers. The only thing that could have made that show better was if their wasn't some idiot who came up to the front, barging through people about 2/3 of the way during the show and started propping his body in front of me on the stage to take pictures every five seconds, barely listening to the music. So I told him off and to stop ruining my enjoyment of the show, and then he no longer plopped in front of me for the rest of the show and took his pictures outside my field of vision. But really, don't go to these club/bar shows and just take fucking pictures the whole time. I'm not talking about those people who take one or two pictures to savor the moment, but the people who just are constantly taking pictures, it ruins the atmosphere, I doubt many people actually care about your pictures because they probably suck, especially in that lighting, and if you're taking it on your phone, doubly so. It's as if you were having a good conversation with friends and you pull out a camera to take a picture of your friend who is in the middle of telling a good joke, you just don't. Or to lay it out more for you, it's as if you're having sex and in the middle of it, you stop the intimacy because you think this moment is picture-worthy, you just don't. So just save yourself some effort of taking your shitty picture just enjoy the music.

Alas, I my experience was still awesome. =D

Bumbershoot Day 3

This day was pretty damn fantastic. I saw some more of the film festival (once again, great, I can't get enough of these shorts to be honest).

I saw Purity Ring perform, and let me tell you, I was going into it thinking it would be alright to pretty good, and they blew me the fuck away. I can't even fathom how to describe how awesome they sounded and looked performing live. I really hope they continue to make a bunch of music and become successful. He had this really cool synth-esque homemade pipe with bags and lights attached contraption along with a sampler (I'm such a sucker for samplers, see Nosaj Thing while we're at it) and she had an upright drum and a really awesome voice (w/effects).

Then I met up with a friend from work and her friends and we saw Fitz and the Tantrums, who, to say the least, were extremely entertaining. They really put on a good show, from their soul-like vocals, to spaztic tambourine slapping, they had the whole crowd clapping for nigh the entirety of their set.

Lastly there was Hall and Oates. First off, I will admit, they were  far less aged looking than I had initially expected, perchance thanks to the magic of plastic surgery and bouncy hair. But anyways, the sound quality in the Key Arena was terrible for them, and far too loud. Even simply speaking into the mic pierced my ears, and considering how many shows I go to, that's pretty bad, I wasn't even close to a speaker. In terms of their set and performance, it was on par I'd say, nothing spectacular, but not bad either. I was in slight disappointment that they didn't play "Private Eyes", but I'll get over it.

So go listen to Purity Ring, they're pretty awesome, but the recorded sound doesn't even compare to them live, goodness!

Bumbershoot Day 2

Pretty good, I got there late (1 or 2ish), caught the end of a few bands as I was walking around. I saw Broken Social Scene, they were fantastic, and I'm pretty sure it may be the last time I may ever see them. They made a comment about how this would be their last tour for a long while. So I'm glad I got to witness it. I went and saw a couple packages from the film festival, which were pretty impressive, and wrapped it up by catching a bit of the Kills. Best part of the day would have to be listening to BSS play "7/4 (Shoreline)"

Bumbershoot Day 1

was pretty cool. Better than I expected to say the least. I got to see a bunch of the film festival, which impressed me. As well I saw Brite Futures (used to known as Natalie Portman's Shaved Head), PS I Love You, Vetiver, and Starfucker. The only unfortunate thing was some idiot thought it would be funny to steal my bike's handlebar end cap, and cut part of my bar tape... classy. But they didn't steal my bike. As always, thanks Kryptonite!

Bumbershoot

Off to Bumbershoot. Should be fun. =D

Pleasant throwbacks and neat frames!

Today's selected listening was a pleasant throwback to Sufjan Stevens' Illinoise. I can never get over how elated I feel when listening to "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!", it just makes everything feel right for a bit.

And on another note, I think one of my next large purchases in the next few months will be the creation of a new fixed gear bicycle, and this is most definitely one of the top frames I'm considering, it's simply gorgeous, it  takes my breath away.