One of the best movies to touch on music obsession as personal expression, Stephen Frears’ High Fidelity, begins fittingly with a turntable spinning. A needle is dropped purposefully onto a record. Underneath the homey crackle and pop of the ancient vinyl, the 13th Floor Elevators garage rock classic, “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” begins. Four lone,…
Let’s just cut to the quick here, and explore a handful of notable releases that’ve emerged in the last few weeks. Virago, Virago’s Lament: Love and Fury bass player Jane Mabrysmith is a multi-instrumentalist who’s cut her teeth in several local bands, and she’s also been a member of Robert Fripp’s Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists…
There’s something tactile about the myriad shades of gray draped over the Northwest skyline. They generate an atmosphere that frequently seeps into the music coming from this region. Sarah Feinberg’s voice is a distinctive sound that just feels like this part of the world. It’s a dusky instrument that captures all of the surging layers,…
The Seattle International Film Festival kicked off its 2019 incarnation last night, and for the next three weeks the festival will present literally hundreds of films, from myriad nations, of all genres and stripes. To help guide you through the wealth of great music-themed films unspooling between now and June 10, enclosed herein is a…
If there were any justice in the world (and specifically in this part of it), there’d be some sort of monument celebrating The (Legendary) Young Fresh Fellows. Back when Nirvana was still just a gleam in the eye of some kid in Aberdeen named Cobain, The Fellows had already staked out a devoted cult following…
A devoted regional following has been building around The Black Tones since their beginnings almost a decade ago. But a succession of knockout live shows in recent years (including a slot on the Paramount Theatre’s 90th Anniversary concert alongside Death Cab for Cutie), an assemblage of killer tunes, and near-deafening buzz has put the Seattle…
From where I’m sitting, Big Bldg Records is doing the Lord’s work. The Seattle nonprofit indie label, created by co-founders Rob Granfelt, Pete Jordan, and Ben Schauland, was built to give support to great fledgling musical acts. That boost comes in the form of what’s perhaps the most costly aspect of making music: Big Bldg,…
Let’s just get right to it. The below releases merit your attention. Stop, look, and most crucially, listen. Terabyte, ¥€$ (Qentaro Records): Terra Marotz—AKA producer/writer/singer Terabyte—boasts some deep PNW connections. She called Seattle home for several years, running with this town’s goth and EDM scene. She also enlisted Portland boardman Adam Straney to master her…
Planet, the debut LP from Seattle band Love and Fury, marks a fertile collaboration between two of Seattle’s legit rock veterans. It’s smart but primal, wise but rawly emotional—powerful testimony that a band of functioning grownups can craft riveting, beautiful noise with the best of them. Love and Fury is the fruit of a collaboration…
It’s a universal given. If you’re a thinking, feeling human being, you’ve either been in love, or are in love now. Maybe you’re one of those lucky, happy few who managed to find that heady, joyous sensation reciprocated. Or maybe you bravely allowed your heart to reside unguarded on your sleeve, only to have it…
Rachel Angerman, lead singer of Seattle band Hel Mary, possesses one of this town’s most distinctive voices. It resides somewhere between a siren’s song and a low gothic purr, and she can deploy it in the service of narcotic allure, or dark malevolence, with equal effectiveness. Faint echoes of other voices thread through her dusky…
For five years now, Seattle singer/songwriter Nick Foster has been recording hand-crafted, finely-wrought folk songs with an air of disarming ease, and intelligent lyrics that hit home with bracing immediacy. The Glowing Heart, Foster’s 2013 debut, was an ingratiating serving of rough-hewn Americana. He then stripped things down to (mostly) spare acoustic songs with…
