Take an hour to relax and enjoy Stuart Arentzen's "a suite of recent synth fiddlings" via SoundCloud.
Listen in the title link above, or spin it in the embedded player below. What to expect? Let's say you're having a bubble bath with Carl Sagan and then you realize it's not a bathtub but a wormhole that shoots you out of the Milky Way, through a black cloud of dark matter and eventually into a nebula where juggling is encouraged.
Showing posts with label conflict of interest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conflict of interest. Show all posts
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Parkland Spawned a Monster
Aw yiss!
Shameless? Yes. Proud? Damn straight. Even some upstart music blog is pretending like they knew about this.
Shameless? Yes. Proud? Damn straight. Even some upstart music blog is pretending like they knew about this.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Let's Get Weird
Black Heel Marks' debut long player Feel Free will be available for purchase on June 25. In the meantime, stream the whole thing here.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Lava, Delta, Bravo
We were going to title this post "Do You Even Have a Blog Anymore?" but decided that was selfish. Also: Shut up.
Portland, OR duo LAVA make the kind of melted-ice-cream pastel pop that's perfect for putting through your headphones as you walk around and enjoy the pink perfume of spring.
Their new long-player, Wrest showed up on Bandcamp on March 6, so we're a month late in getting to this. And for that, LAVA (with delta/triangles where the "A's" should be), we apologize.
Do your ears a favor and spin Wrest here, then realize how deficient your life has been without it and buy it. They ain't doing this for free. Not intentionally anyway.
Portland, OR duo LAVA make the kind of melted-ice-cream pastel pop that's perfect for putting through your headphones as you walk around and enjoy the pink perfume of spring.
Their new long-player, Wrest showed up on Bandcamp on March 6, so we're a month late in getting to this. And for that, LAVA (with delta/triangles where the "A's" should be), we apologize.
Do your ears a favor and spin Wrest here, then realize how deficient your life has been without it and buy it. They ain't doing this for free. Not intentionally anyway.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Mr. Roberts Has Something to Say
Journalist Kevan Roberts has a new job writing about music, and we presume, other things for The Huffington Post.
Because The Typing Monkey was fortunate enough to have worked alongside Mr. Roberts for several years, we are super-pumped to have the opportunity to read his work again. We reserve the right to wonder how often he swore while composing his innaugural Huffington Post column, a fond recollection of grunge.
More please.
Because The Typing Monkey was fortunate enough to have worked alongside Mr. Roberts for several years, we are super-pumped to have the opportunity to read his work again. We reserve the right to wonder how often he swore while composing his innaugural Huffington Post column, a fond recollection of grunge.
More please.
Friday, October 28, 2011
The Only Way In
We turned you on to Andrew Monko's photography a while back. His preference for rural and urban decay, the ways in which nature takes back man made objects, and his penchant for experimenting with light all appeals deeply to The Typing Monkey aesthetic.
Check out the photographer's series Scary Dairy. With some solid historical framing, he takes the viewer on a brief tour of the defunct, decaying and possibly haunted remnants of an abandoned mental hospital in the vast farming valley of the northern Puget Sound region of Washington state.
We're particularly fond of "Murakami Silo" and you'll have a favorite too. Here's a detail from "In the Silence They Wait":
Check out the photographer's series Scary Dairy. With some solid historical framing, he takes the viewer on a brief tour of the defunct, decaying and possibly haunted remnants of an abandoned mental hospital in the vast farming valley of the northern Puget Sound region of Washington state.
We're particularly fond of "Murakami Silo" and you'll have a favorite too. Here's a detail from "In the Silence They Wait":
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Free Music: The Great Tribulation
The Typing Monkey is never too proud to admit terrible, awful, really unforgivable mistakes. Back in July we should have instructed you to immediately click over to CD Baby or various other online retailers and purchase a copy of The Flood Brought the Fire by The Great Tribulation.
But did we? No sir and/or madam, we did not. A grievous error we will attempt to rectify by pointing you to the band's BandCamp page where they are currently giving the 10-song LP away as a free digital download, thus saving you the hassle of ripping the CD and dropping it into the MP3 player of your choice.
We trust that you will do the right thing and buy the CD too, or even buy the MP3s from CD Baby. (Give one set to a friend!) Or just preview the album online and buy the physical CD.
What you'll get is a crackerjack bunch of tunes from the Ann Arbor "folk noir" quartet. Their particular strain of elastic Americana treads all over the 20th century without laying claim to a particular decade.
Flood unspools as a collection of short stories, evoking the same feelings as a tail lights shrinking in the dark or that weird mood you fall into when the leaves start to turn and coffee tastes a little better and dammit it's going to get cold soon.
As we discussed back in March, "Sure as the Rain" stands out among the crowd, a classic quiet storm that has likely already soundtracked the conception of a future generation of miserable registered voters. But pay close attention to the various stringed instruments circling one another at the start of "Better Left Unfound" and give yourself over to "When a Stranger Kisses Me." Lovely.
Go now.
But did we? No sir and/or madam, we did not. A grievous error we will attempt to rectify by pointing you to the band's BandCamp page where they are currently giving the 10-song LP away as a free digital download, thus saving you the hassle of ripping the CD and dropping it into the MP3 player of your choice.
We trust that you will do the right thing and buy the CD too, or even buy the MP3s from CD Baby. (Give one set to a friend!) Or just preview the album online and buy the physical CD.
What you'll get is a crackerjack bunch of tunes from the Ann Arbor "folk noir" quartet. Their particular strain of elastic Americana treads all over the 20th century without laying claim to a particular decade.
Flood unspools as a collection of short stories, evoking the same feelings as a tail lights shrinking in the dark or that weird mood you fall into when the leaves start to turn and coffee tastes a little better and dammit it's going to get cold soon.
As we discussed back in March, "Sure as the Rain" stands out among the crowd, a classic quiet storm that has likely already soundtracked the conception of a future generation of miserable registered voters. But pay close attention to the various stringed instruments circling one another at the start of "Better Left Unfound" and give yourself over to "When a Stranger Kisses Me." Lovely.
Go now.
Monday, March 14, 2011
"No point in running'"
... or Look What Dr. Fred Did
We are obligated to like things that our friends and family create. Knowing the artist behind a work of art makes us more likely to say "yes" to something we wouldn't normally seek out or pay close attention to.
Reader you have been there: A friend gets a gallery opening, publishes some writing, the band they're in plays a show, a dance recital. Love and pride and sometimes a desire not to wound makes us embrace the the effort if not the result and sometimes that's more important.
And then there are those rare instances when the result is good and worth sharing and talking about, not because you know the creator but because you know the creation.
The Typing Monkey enjoys a fair amount of kismet when it comes to talented family, friends and associates. We knew Dr. Fred Beldenstein's songwriting stirred at smoldering coals of heart-damaged music, and his previous efforts climbed closer and closer to that glow.
With his new-ish band The Great Tribulation, Dr. Fred has reached the light via his song "Sure As the Rain." It's a comforting bit of musical reassurance and understanding that these are, to crib a line from Jon Stewart, hard times, not end times. [How ya like that, Fred? -- ed.]
Singer Jeni Lee Richey doesn't sell the lyric so much as offer it because she understands that we need it. The voice, the words, the syrup of the slide guitar all reach out and pull you into an oddly personal shelter before Dr. Fred's quiet-storm guitar opens up and gushes. They call it "folk noir" and "dark country" -- sure. American to the core and as honest as a pair of dirty hands.
Go to the band's Facebook page and scroll down to the entries for Feb 23 to hear "Sure as the Rain" and visit their Reverb Nation page to hear more from The Great Tribulation.
We are obligated to like things that our friends and family create. Knowing the artist behind a work of art makes us more likely to say "yes" to something we wouldn't normally seek out or pay close attention to.
Reader you have been there: A friend gets a gallery opening, publishes some writing, the band they're in plays a show, a dance recital. Love and pride and sometimes a desire not to wound makes us embrace the the effort if not the result and sometimes that's more important.
The Typing Monkey enjoys a fair amount of kismet when it comes to talented family, friends and associates. We knew Dr. Fred Beldenstein's songwriting stirred at smoldering coals of heart-damaged music, and his previous efforts climbed closer and closer to that glow.
With his new-ish band The Great Tribulation, Dr. Fred has reached the light via his song "Sure As the Rain." It's a comforting bit of musical reassurance and understanding that these are, to crib a line from Jon Stewart, hard times, not end times. [How ya like that, Fred? -- ed.]
Singer Jeni Lee Richey doesn't sell the lyric so much as offer it because she understands that we need it. The voice, the words, the syrup of the slide guitar all reach out and pull you into an oddly personal shelter before Dr. Fred's quiet-storm guitar opens up and gushes. They call it "folk noir" and "dark country" -- sure. American to the core and as honest as a pair of dirty hands.
Go to the band's Facebook page and scroll down to the entries for Feb 23 to hear "Sure as the Rain" and visit their Reverb Nation page to hear more from The Great Tribulation.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Where Were You?
The End Times played their final show on Friday April 16 in a dark loft snuggled deep in the mixed-industrial spaciousness of Georgetown, a south Seattle neighborhood where the soot and jet-fumes set the right mood for the trio’s stark, Southern gothic sound.
Patrons sat quietly, leaning in as Abi Grace sang, supported by Fred Beldin’s acoustic guitar strums and the woozy curls of slide guitar from Tyson Lynn. The End Times show felt like a church service -- a little Robert-Mitchum-in-Night-of-the-Hunter, but mostly comforting in a “we share your pain” way.
Grace’s voice has the specific charm of the graveyard cherub -- she’s plenty sweet but the words she’s singing ain’t necessarily so. And as Beldin and Lynn hunkered over their instruments, the whole procession felt like the sharing of some secret that the audience knew they needed to hear.
Seeing this line-up of the band again is about as likely as seeing Elvis at the Stop-n-Shop, but that shouldn’t prevent those who never witnessed a live performance from picking up The End Times LP (or buying the download).
This is folk, for lack of a better label, but not of the life, love and unemployment variety. Sure, These Are the End Times could class up your local coffee joint, but you’re better served spinning this on those mornings when you sit in the kitchen and sip something stronger than French roast. It’s thinking music for the wandering mind.
Good work End Times. Seattle still needs you, so thanks for the document.
***
Post Script
Opening band Pillow Army did their Americana-pop thing -- a surprisingly loud collection of stringed instruments, drums and sometimes flute. If you thought the orchestra nerds from high school didn’t dig the rock, Pillow Army has something to play for you. Bookending The End Times on the late side of the night was The River Empires, an Albany, Oregon outfit (drums, bass, keys/guitar, vocals/percussion, vocals/keys/et al.) that knocked out an impressive set of chamber pop that edged into mid-‘90s Britpop territory. Quite good and a shame that they not only played to a mostly empty house, but had to pack up and drive for four hours back home after their set. Ah, the rock & roll lifestyle.
Patrons sat quietly, leaning in as Abi Grace sang, supported by Fred Beldin’s acoustic guitar strums and the woozy curls of slide guitar from Tyson Lynn. The End Times show felt like a church service -- a little Robert-Mitchum-in-Night-of-the-Hunter, but mostly comforting in a “we share your pain” way.
Grace’s voice has the specific charm of the graveyard cherub -- she’s plenty sweet but the words she’s singing ain’t necessarily so. And as Beldin and Lynn hunkered over their instruments, the whole procession felt like the sharing of some secret that the audience knew they needed to hear.Seeing this line-up of the band again is about as likely as seeing Elvis at the Stop-n-Shop, but that shouldn’t prevent those who never witnessed a live performance from picking up The End Times LP (or buying the download).
This is folk, for lack of a better label, but not of the life, love and unemployment variety. Sure, These Are the End Times could class up your local coffee joint, but you’re better served spinning this on those mornings when you sit in the kitchen and sip something stronger than French roast. It’s thinking music for the wandering mind.
Good work End Times. Seattle still needs you, so thanks for the document.
***
Post Script
Opening band Pillow Army did their Americana-pop thing -- a surprisingly loud collection of stringed instruments, drums and sometimes flute. If you thought the orchestra nerds from high school didn’t dig the rock, Pillow Army has something to play for you. Bookending The End Times on the late side of the night was The River Empires, an Albany, Oregon outfit (drums, bass, keys/guitar, vocals/percussion, vocals/keys/et al.) that knocked out an impressive set of chamber pop that edged into mid-‘90s Britpop territory. Quite good and a shame that they not only played to a mostly empty house, but had to pack up and drive for four hours back home after their set. Ah, the rock & roll lifestyle.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Christmas is Canceled
If you click on this, after Oct 31, 2009 it won't work. Good bye, Encarta. The Typing Monkey will miss you.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Eluding Fame Since 1984
A happy 25th anniversary to Girl Trouble, who've been bringing South Tacoma pride to audiences around the world the only way they know how: with hip-shaking beats, partial nudity and prizes for those who aren't so drunk that they can't catch a plastic toy hurled at them from the stage.
Tacoma is like the difficult girlfriend in a French new wave film -- she's alternately cold and distant or warm and flirty, beautiful in the right light, and sometimes she kind of smells funny. Oh, and the smoking. Who could convey her particular charms better than Girl Trouble? The video's not embeddable, so here's a link to "My Hometown."
And at no extra charge (and also because a YouTube link is easier than posting an MP3) here's a dull video of a spectacular song. I bet you thought The Banana Splits couldn't be any sexier. Well, you were wrong.
["My Hometown" courtesy Kathy C. Fennessy/BVMGrungeTV; "Gonna Find a Cave" courtesy dennisvanlith.]
Tacoma is like the difficult girlfriend in a French new wave film -- she's alternately cold and distant or warm and flirty, beautiful in the right light, and sometimes she kind of smells funny. Oh, and the smoking. Who could convey her particular charms better than Girl Trouble? The video's not embeddable, so here's a link to "My Hometown."
And at no extra charge (and also because a YouTube link is easier than posting an MP3) here's a dull video of a spectacular song. I bet you thought The Banana Splits couldn't be any sexier. Well, you were wrong.
["My Hometown" courtesy Kathy C. Fennessy/BVMGrungeTV; "Gonna Find a Cave" courtesy dennisvanlith.]
Thursday, February 26, 2009
On the Importance of a Band Mission Statement
Thanks to abundant media and new technology, everyone on the planet is in a band.
Few modern bands, however, issue a genuine mission statement. And we're not talking about some hardcore act or politically motivated band stating political intentions. That's a manifesto, and should have been left in the early 1980s along with your shaved head and G.B.H. patch.
Go to any band's MySpace page right now. Go ahead -- we'll wait.
Now scroll down a bit to the "About us" section. Chances are it's a band bio. With rare exceptions, band bios are dull and as rote as the story arc to the average slasher film. People meet and make music all the time. Few of the "how they met/who they are" stories are interesting to anyone outside the band.
But a mission statement is an opportunity for a musician to tell an audience what to expect and charm us into paying attention. Even clumsy attempts at humor in a band's letter of intent are better than telling us that they were born and raised in a small New England farming community but life really began the first time they heard a New York Dolls record.
Here's a good example of a successful mission statement from the thrash band Annihilation Time, verbatim from the quartet's MySpace page:
Quite simply the most powerful band in the world at the moment. Forget about the once-great dinosaur bands still roaming the earth (Metallica, Blue Oyster Cult, Winger): their time has past. This planet's future lays in the hands of the mighty Annihilation Time, who day by day, are slowly creeping their raunchy rock and roll across every inch of this dying heap of shit we call a world. Standing virtually alone in sea of garbage music played by garbage people for garbage people, Annihilation Time shines as a bastion of what was once great in rock music; Sex, alcohol, drugs, loundess, filth, and destruction. Taking cues from now deceased masters like the Sex Pistols, Black Flag, Thin Lizzy, and Black Sabbath, Annihilation Time sonically lays waste to your every brain cell and fiber of being. You have but two options: worship or be crushed.
Nice, huh? Is it true bravado, or self-deprecation disguised as impossibly lofty goals? It doesn't matter. The beauty of Annihilation Time's mission is in the group's directness. Move away old people and vapid entertainment, a scary group of white kids is here and they smell like sweat, beer and bong water. Also, they're loud and offensive.
Another approach to the mission statement comes from Girl Trouble's MySpace page, where they've made better use of the "influences" section by making a vow:
It is our solemn promise that we give you the most value for your entertainment dollar. In each town we will attempt to spread the goodwill of the Pacific Northwest and make sure we clean up afterwards. We sincerely hope you will enjoy our musical performance and manage to catch one of the complementary prizes that K.P. Kendall will distribute during each show. We will strive to be good citizens and obey all safety rules and regulations. Our goal is to entertain in a professional and courteous manner. This is our pledge to you!
The Typing Monkey has purchased consumer durables from paid sales staff who didn't try that hard. The Girl Trouble pledge forgoes the band's usual self-deprecation in favor of light humor and a genuine, almost church-potluck like level of sincerity. Yes, the band has a traditional bio further down the page, but it says more about them that they put the pledge as close to the top as possible.
Dear bands, combos, solo musicians and other musical entertainers: Try harder. Start by immediately removing the carefully crafted band bio you posted and replacing it with a mission statement, declaration of intent or oath. Your music is your product, and nobody wants to know how all the parts of their new sneakers came together. We just want to be assured that these shoes will help us run faster, jump higher and impress people we want to have sex with.
Few modern bands, however, issue a genuine mission statement. And we're not talking about some hardcore act or politically motivated band stating political intentions. That's a manifesto, and should have been left in the early 1980s along with your shaved head and G.B.H. patch.
Go to any band's MySpace page right now. Go ahead -- we'll wait.
Now scroll down a bit to the "About us" section. Chances are it's a band bio. With rare exceptions, band bios are dull and as rote as the story arc to the average slasher film. People meet and make music all the time. Few of the "how they met/who they are" stories are interesting to anyone outside the band.
But a mission statement is an opportunity for a musician to tell an audience what to expect and charm us into paying attention. Even clumsy attempts at humor in a band's letter of intent are better than telling us that they were born and raised in a small New England farming community but life really began the first time they heard a New York Dolls record.
Here's a good example of a successful mission statement from the thrash band Annihilation Time, verbatim from the quartet's MySpace page:
Quite simply the most powerful band in the world at the moment. Forget about the once-great dinosaur bands still roaming the earth (Metallica, Blue Oyster Cult, Winger): their time has past. This planet's future lays in the hands of the mighty Annihilation Time, who day by day, are slowly creeping their raunchy rock and roll across every inch of this dying heap of shit we call a world. Standing virtually alone in sea of garbage music played by garbage people for garbage people, Annihilation Time shines as a bastion of what was once great in rock music; Sex, alcohol, drugs, loundess, filth, and destruction. Taking cues from now deceased masters like the Sex Pistols, Black Flag, Thin Lizzy, and Black Sabbath, Annihilation Time sonically lays waste to your every brain cell and fiber of being. You have but two options: worship or be crushed.
Nice, huh? Is it true bravado, or self-deprecation disguised as impossibly lofty goals? It doesn't matter. The beauty of Annihilation Time's mission is in the group's directness. Move away old people and vapid entertainment, a scary group of white kids is here and they smell like sweat, beer and bong water. Also, they're loud and offensive.
Another approach to the mission statement comes from Girl Trouble's MySpace page, where they've made better use of the "influences" section by making a vow:
It is our solemn promise that we give you the most value for your entertainment dollar. In each town we will attempt to spread the goodwill of the Pacific Northwest and make sure we clean up afterwards. We sincerely hope you will enjoy our musical performance and manage to catch one of the complementary prizes that K.P. Kendall will distribute during each show. We will strive to be good citizens and obey all safety rules and regulations. Our goal is to entertain in a professional and courteous manner. This is our pledge to you!
The Typing Monkey has purchased consumer durables from paid sales staff who didn't try that hard. The Girl Trouble pledge forgoes the band's usual self-deprecation in favor of light humor and a genuine, almost church-potluck like level of sincerity. Yes, the band has a traditional bio further down the page, but it says more about them that they put the pledge as close to the top as possible.
Dear bands, combos, solo musicians and other musical entertainers: Try harder. Start by immediately removing the carefully crafted band bio you posted and replacing it with a mission statement, declaration of intent or oath. Your music is your product, and nobody wants to know how all the parts of their new sneakers came together. We just want to be assured that these shoes will help us run faster, jump higher and impress people we want to have sex with.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
And Many More ...
Hey you. Guess what? It's our birthday today.
Yes. One year ago today Typing Monkey Industries (a subsidiary of Typing Monkey Int'l) launched this blog, and it's been nothing but free balloons and kitten hugs ever since.
As print publications fall down the rabbit hole of progress, and a growing demographic eagerly anticipates the day The Wall Street Journal begins posting editorials via Twitter, The Typing Monkey soldiers on in an already unfashionable information delivery system of the Web 2.0 era. Hurrah!
December and January have been slow newsdays. So we solemnly vow, on this, the first anniversary of The Typing Monkey, to bring more fresh content to this creepy little rest stop on the information superhighway. And coffee too. We'll have coffee. Maybe.
To celebrate we present the best thing that the Web has ever provided to humanity. Once this video was posted to YouTube, the civilized world reached its technological zenith. So relax and stop trying so hard, it's all downhill from here.
[Courtesy Slackmaster2000]
Whew!
And, at no extra charge, we've decided to include a link to an informative article from Metal Inquisition, a site that's been around as long as The Typing Monkey, but has managed to post 400-plus items of high quality.
Please enjoy Metal Inquisition's primer on screamo-crunk.
Yes. One year ago today Typing Monkey Industries (a subsidiary of Typing Monkey Int'l) launched this blog, and it's been nothing but free balloons and kitten hugs ever since.
As print publications fall down the rabbit hole of progress, and a growing demographic eagerly anticipates the day The Wall Street Journal begins posting editorials via Twitter, The Typing Monkey soldiers on in an already unfashionable information delivery system of the Web 2.0 era. Hurrah!
December and January have been slow newsdays. So we solemnly vow, on this, the first anniversary of The Typing Monkey, to bring more fresh content to this creepy little rest stop on the information superhighway. And coffee too. We'll have coffee. Maybe.
To celebrate we present the best thing that the Web has ever provided to humanity. Once this video was posted to YouTube, the civilized world reached its technological zenith. So relax and stop trying so hard, it's all downhill from here.
[Courtesy Slackmaster2000]
Whew!
And, at no extra charge, we've decided to include a link to an informative article from Metal Inquisition, a site that's been around as long as The Typing Monkey, but has managed to post 400-plus items of high quality.
Please enjoy Metal Inquisition's primer on screamo-crunk.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
We pause now to bring you this important message:
Happy birthday to The Typing Monkey's most favoritest person in the world, The Amazing Mrs. Kendall.
It must be love.
It must be love.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Now You Has Punk
If you missed this:
You can read more about it all over the interwebs, including here, here and here. [Scroll down to the 3 p.m. entry in that last link.]
The Typing Monkey's most favoritest person in the whole wide world said: "If they weren't already my favorite band, they would be now."
You can read more about it all over the interwebs, including here, here and here. [Scroll down to the 3 p.m. entry in that last link.]
The Typing Monkey's most favoritest person in the whole wide world said: "If they weren't already my favorite band, they would be now."
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The Llama Barn Is Empty
[Yet another full disclosure: S.L. Kreighton, publisher of The Typing Monkey, may or may not have worked as a cleaner alongside Das Llamas' drummer, Thomas Burke, when Mr. Burke possibley worked as a security operative on the property of prominent Seattle family.]
Sigh. Seattle quartet Das Llamas has disbanded. Just after the release of their second LP, Class Wars: K-12. Here's some details from the press release:
"Frontman Kerry Zettel will continue work with his band See Me River, whose new album, Time Machine, is due to drop on August 26 via Aviation Records & Don’t Stop Believin’ Records. [Zettel co-owns Aviation, which also released Das Llamas' recordings. -- ed.]
Sigh. Seattle quartet Das Llamas has disbanded. Just after the release of their second LP, Class Wars: K-12. Here's some details from the press release:
"Frontman Kerry Zettel will continue work with his band See Me River, whose new album, Time Machine, is due to drop on August 26 via Aviation Records & Don’t Stop Believin’ Records. [Zettel co-owns Aviation, which also released Das Llamas' recordings. -- ed.]
Das Llamas evolved out of singer/bassist/keyboardist Zettel’s collaboration with guitarist/keyboardist Shawn Kock, beginning in 1999. The duo teamed up with Pretty Girls Make Graves’ Nick DeWitt and Nathan Johnson to form Beehive Vault, and from that band’s quickly-produced ashes arose stabmasterarson.
Named for Chris Rock’s character in CB4, this incarnation of Zettel and Kock’s project saw the release of two EPs and, at the departure of their original drummer and the addition of Thomas Burke behind the kit, would eventually become Das Llamas. Aaron Everett joined the trio in early 2007 and the band recorded its first album."
***
Now bands break up all the time, and life goes on. But the fact that some of our readers won't have the opportunity to see Das Llamas live -- where the band's true power blossomed -- is the real loss.
Aside from Burke's visceral drumming and Everett banging away on his guitar as if he were unaware there were other musicians in the room (it worked, really), the multi-tasking of the band's two founders made Das Llamas the best kind of working band: as fun to see as they were to hear.
Zettel played bass or keyboards while he sang, and when he was too busy playing the keys, Kock would stomp on a scroll of triggers to keep bass tones moving while he played his guitar. Any audience member who was tired from dancing -- or sadly, too uptight to dance -- could at least stand back, enjoy a beverage and watch these men work.
A Das Llamas performance wasn't silly athleticism for the sake of showmanship, it was energetic playing in the service of songs that made four players sound like six. They will be missed.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
It's a Free Concert From Now On
[Full disclosure: The Typing Monkey is related to all four members of Girl Trouble, by blood and by common-law precedent set by the number of times the entire Typing Monkey staff has seen the band -- which is more than we can count.]
SubPop, the label founded on grunge and currently living well on indie-pop and indie-comedians, is celebrating 20 years in business by having a festival in Marymoor Park in Redmond, WA on July 12 and 13. Somehow, the invitation sent to Tacoma, WA band Girl Trouble -- whose Hit It or Quit was the first LP SubPop released -- got lost in the mail. [Wink-wink.]
So Girl Trouble has decided to do the only decent thing -- go to Marymoor Park and play the entirety of Hit It or Quit It acoustically, for free, outside the SubPop fooferah.
Here’s the press release:
GIRL TROUBLE PLAYS MARYMOOR PARK ANYWAY
As you may know, the first Girl Trouble album, Hit It or Quit It, was released on K/SubPop in 1988. In fact, this was the first full-length record SubPop ever released. The record matrix number was K/SP-20.
This month SubPop is hosting a huge, two-day concert of SubPop bands in Marymoor Park on July 12/13 to celebrate their 20 year anniversary. It’s billed as the SP-20 event, one letter off from the old Hit It or Quit It matrix number. Coincidence? You be the judge. Of course, Girl Trouble awaited the invitation to join their old friends and label-mates on stage for this most festive occasion.
Unfortunately. the band now suspects that a mistake has been made. They have yet to be contacted by their old label! With only weeks to spare it was obvious there was some sort of unintentional oversight by SubPop.
Girl Trouble has never been a band to let a small detail like not being invited deter them from joining in on any celebration. That’s why they have decided to bring some instruments and play the show anyway, somewhere in Marymoor Park, as close to the venue as they can legally get. This will be the first all-acoustic Girl Trouble show, playing selections from their SubPop album, Hit It or Quit It, in order.
Feel free to look for Girl Trouble somewhere in the park (possibly by some picnic tables or a tree) starting at noon, where they promise to entertain anybody who happens by. Unlike the $30 ticket price for the bands inside the Marymoor Park venue - there will be no charge for this one-day-only performance. Please join us on Saturday, July 12 for this special event. Don’t forget your picnic lunch, blanket and sun screen. Complimentary bag of chips to the first 40 K/SP-20 attendees. Hope to see you there!
***
To SubPop's credit, they've posted the band's press release on their site. But, really, SubPop?
SubPop, the label founded on grunge and currently living well on indie-pop and indie-comedians, is celebrating 20 years in business by having a festival in Marymoor Park in Redmond, WA on July 12 and 13. Somehow, the invitation sent to Tacoma, WA band Girl Trouble -- whose Hit It or Quit was the first LP SubPop released -- got lost in the mail. [Wink-wink.]
So Girl Trouble has decided to do the only decent thing -- go to Marymoor Park and play the entirety of Hit It or Quit It acoustically, for free, outside the SubPop fooferah.
Here’s the press release:
GIRL TROUBLE PLAYS MARYMOOR PARK ANYWAY
As you may know, the first Girl Trouble album, Hit It or Quit It, was released on K/SubPop in 1988. In fact, this was the first full-length record SubPop ever released. The record matrix number was K/SP-20.
This month SubPop is hosting a huge, two-day concert of SubPop bands in Marymoor Park on July 12/13 to celebrate their 20 year anniversary. It’s billed as the SP-20 event, one letter off from the old Hit It or Quit It matrix number. Coincidence? You be the judge. Of course, Girl Trouble awaited the invitation to join their old friends and label-mates on stage for this most festive occasion.
Unfortunately. the band now suspects that a mistake has been made. They have yet to be contacted by their old label! With only weeks to spare it was obvious there was some sort of unintentional oversight by SubPop.
Girl Trouble has never been a band to let a small detail like not being invited deter them from joining in on any celebration. That’s why they have decided to bring some instruments and play the show anyway, somewhere in Marymoor Park, as close to the venue as they can legally get. This will be the first all-acoustic Girl Trouble show, playing selections from their SubPop album, Hit It or Quit It, in order.
Feel free to look for Girl Trouble somewhere in the park (possibly by some picnic tables or a tree) starting at noon, where they promise to entertain anybody who happens by. Unlike the $30 ticket price for the bands inside the Marymoor Park venue - there will be no charge for this one-day-only performance. Please join us on Saturday, July 12 for this special event. Don’t forget your picnic lunch, blanket and sun screen. Complimentary bag of chips to the first 40 K/SP-20 attendees. Hope to see you there!
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To SubPop's credit, they've posted the band's press release on their site. But, really, SubPop?
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