Posts categorized “My Famous Friends”

Cool? Cool.

Cool Cool by Electric NoNo (2018) ★★★½

What’s that? Are those the dulcet tones of the Cortese Brothers, Jared y Dominic, of Electric NoNo fame?

Nay, it can’t be, I say! For they released a collection of music naught but 18 months (or thereabouts ago). And everyone knows that it takes years and years and years and years for Electric NoNo to release new musics.

But my ears do not deceive me, nor do mine eyes: Electric NoNo have released two sets of music in two consecutive calendar years! I do declare: It’s a miracle there.

Yes, it’s true: here are six more songs of rock’n’roll goodness for us to… wait, only six songs? You mean this is just another EP, not a full-length album!

GOSH DANGIT ELECTRIC NONO! Why you gotta play me like that!?

Seriously, though, if your main complaint about a band is that they don’t release enough awesome music, then that’s pretty durned good.

Cool Cool pivots significantly from their previous release, Rain City Blue. Rain City Blue was a much spacier, more complicated EP. Cool Cool kind of strips all of that back so it’s just pure, fuzzed-up rock. And it makes sense; Rain City Blue was produced by the equally spacey and etherial Julia Massey, whereas Cool Cool was produced by Adam Prairie of the Hoot Hoots. Therefore it sounds much more like the Hoot Hoots than it does Julia Massey.

And it’s really very good rock. A standout is “Chased by Crows,” which Jared and Dom have been playing live for YEARS, so it’s nice to finally have a permanent record of it:

Strangely, the opening song of the album is Rain City Blue, which is the name of a different album. (??)

The finale, “Dreary Place,” is also a very good down-tempo ballad, which repeats just a single verse a few times. Anyone who lives in the Pacific Northwest will get a kick out of it.

The rest of the four songs are also very good, but none of them have the stand-out quality that, say, “Holiday” or “40 Foot Tall” (songs from Electric NoNo’s previous two EPs) have.

A minor quibble I have about Cool Cool is that (for my personal tastes) the guitars are mixed too quietly into the final mix. When you see Electric NoNo live, Jared’s guitar is right there in your freakin’ face. It’s like a second vocalist. But in Cool Cool there are some times where you have Jared singing right in your face and Dom banging the drums right behind him, but then it sounds like the guitar is being played by someone in the next room over. Maybe it got overproduced and washed out a little? I dunno, I ain’t no engineer or nuttin’.

So to conclude: too few songs, too-quiet guitar. Otherwise: excellent. Here’s the whole album to partake and enjoy:

Seriously, guys, you’ve been a band for about like years and you’ve only put out TWO full-length albums! C’mon, we’re starvin’ over here!

These guys again!?

Warren Dunes feat. Julia Massey are releasing a new single at a single-release show this Friday. But you can listen to it here before then if’n it pleases ye:

Oh, that single-release show? Here is the info:

Details:
Warren Dunes / Dweller on the Hill / Mirror Ferrari (Barboza event)
Friday, May 4th 7:00 PM
@ Barboza
925 E Pike St, Seattle, Washington 98122 (map)
$10 (Adv) $12 (Door), 21+

Show Show Show!

Oddly enough, I will not be seeing you at this show. I’m going to be going to a different show in a different part of Seattle that very night! More on that tomorrow…

(Via KEXP)

Described as “unhealthily pessimistic,” “morbidly morose,” and “crestfallen in the downtrodden extreme,” Trevor Peach has been writing and performing music since 2004, recording mixtapes for close friends, only recently releasing his entire discography online via Bandcamp.

Well, just a few days ago he surprised us all by releasing not one, but TWO albums!

The first is very punnily-named When In Art, Make Doubt, which Trevor recorded with the Foregone Conclusions backup band. It is 13 brand-new tracks that you can (and should?) listen to the whole thing RIGHTCHEA:

The second album, Wordless Speechless Voiceless, is an anthology of music created between 2014 and 2018, remastered without lyrics. So basically Karaoke versions of FIFTY-TWO FRIKKIN’ Trevor Peach songs so that you can “entertain” your friends by singing to them. In all seriousness, though, it sometimes gets lost in all the overwrought lyrics, but listening to the instrumental versions of Trevor’s songs reminds you that he is actually a rather exceptional guitarist… when he isn’t morosely strumming the same 5 chords in the same rhythm over and over again for three minutes.

There you have it. “Enjoy” these new musics!

That’s a lotta peoples around such a tiny desk.

If’n ye didn’t know, NPR has what they call their “Tiny Desk Concert” series, wherein they invite musicians to come in and perform at a very confined space in their office. Open Mike Eagle did one back in December!

Well, apparently they’re having some sort of contest to get in on that tiny desk action, as evidenced by this official-looking piece of graphic design:

See? Proof of contest!

My good friends The Gentlemen of Leisure (aka GOL) have entered the contest with their excellent song “Blessed and Highly Favored,” which you can listen to in its entirety!

https://soundcloud.com/leisuregents/blessed-and-highly-favored

They also maked a video of them performing it live:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZZg5VnR0BM

Wouldn’t that be exceptionally exceptional if GOL got to GO on NPR? The answer is yes.

Julia Massey (of Warren Dunes and The Five Finger Discount fame) was recently interviewed on the “Locals Only” show on 107.7 the End! They played two Warren Dunes songs and one FFD song. You can listen to the whole thang rightchea!

GOOD JOB LISTENING TO THAT YOU SHOULD FEEEEL SO PROOOOOUD!

You Know These Guys

Warren Dunes, the supergroup that exists when you mash together the two best Seattle bands in existence right now: Julia Massey & the Five Finger Discount and Electric NoNo (though drummer Dom Cortese already played for both groups, so it’s really not that much of a stretch), has released an official single!

You want to listen to it? No, no, no, that shouldn’t be a question. You WANT to listen to it:

There’s also a very nice interview over at Artist Home, so you should read that. It includes the very exciting tidbit that a full Warren Dunes EP album is coming this October!

Some of my friends are exhibiting (or photographing) at Emerald City Comic Con this year! Don’t take my word, for it, though; take the words of their Instagram accounts:

Booth is in full swing. Come say hi, yay! I'm at table NN4 on the 6th floor. #emeraldcitycomiccon #eccc #radiogosha

A post shared by James (@goshadole) on Mar 1, 2018 at 12:43pm PST

#eccc2018 Here I come! I will have over 100 different types of #tradingcards #forsale at Booth 2413! #weekendwarrior #vendorlife #comicon #emeraldcitycomicon #seattlewa

A post shared by Anne Nissila Smith (@sweetgyrldesigns) on Mar 1, 2018 at 8:23am PST

#eccc day. See you guys there! Have a blast and please come see me and have your photo be taken! . . This was from last year! . . . #releaseyouralterego #2manuallyfocus #elf #LOTR #cosplay #cosplayer #canon #canon5dmarkiii #cosplayphotographer #cosplayshoot #pnw #pnwlife #seattle

A post shared by Shiboney (@2manuallyfocus) on Mar 1, 2018 at 7:02am PST

I’ll be at @emeraldcitycomiccon today through Sunday! Come by booth 1218 and get your hands on Aton of cool posters and prints for only $10 each! See you all there! #comics #comiccon #seattle #movie #art #drawing #illustration #80s #style #digitalart #sale

A post shared by Bundymania (@bundymania) on Mar 1, 2018 at 6:01am PST

If you see any of these lovely booths (or a tiny Filipina woman taking photographs), be sure to stop and say hi. And buy something cool!