Freaky People, comin’ to your neighborhood… Freaky People, never up to any good…
I have two songs for your listening pleasure today. They’re thematically linked! First up is “Shape Shifter” by They Might Be Giants:
“Shape Shifter” is from They Might Be Giants’s most-recent full studio album from 2016, Phone Power:
Such a powerful phone.
“Shape Shifter” goes thematically well with another great song, “Mind Readers” by Electric NoNo:
“Mind Readers” is from Electric NoNo’s most-recent full studio album from 2014, The Zoo at Night. That’s way back when they were still calling themselves The Jesus Rehab!
There you have it. Two songs about weirdo freaks in your everyday life. Enjoy!
Video Game of the Month:
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
I mean, come on. This is most likely the game of the year. It’s so good, and I’ve been very good about avoiding as many spoilers as I can, so I won’t spoil anything for you, either. Except just take a look at this:
Daaaaaaaaaaaang.
Album of the Month: Rain City Blue by Electric NoNo
After almost a decade of stripping-down their sound to the two-man guitar/drums duo of their previous two releases, Drunken Hillbilly Fight Bar (2012) and The Zoo At Night (2014), this latest release sees them re-incorporating more soundscapes for a lusher, spacier feel. Literally spacier; more than half the songs are either directly about space (“Jupiter” and “Blue Planet”) or have spacey themes to them (“Spin Spin” and “Magician’s Dying Wish”). It’s a good set of songs, though some of them run a little long at over four minutes. The best of the EP are “40 Foot Tall” and “Blue Planet,” which are both impeccable masterpieces (and very different from one another). It’s just a little frustrating that it took three years to record only seven songs!
Show of the Month:
Southpaw Regional Wrestling
This is perhaps the greatest thing that the WWE has ever done. A short (4 episode) webseries of “discovered” video from the 1980s about a now-defunct wrestling promotion. Remarkably, it features absolutely no wrestling whatsoever. But it is a spot-on parody of the highest order, and some unbelievably good comedy from all the wrestlers involved, John Cena in particular (I know; I was surprised, too). You can watch them all right here:
The first release by Gentlemen of Leisure (or GoL.Life as they often call themselves—and which is coincidentally their website address) is a delightfully eclectic fare. There’s electronic hip-hop, there’s a latin-tinged soulful ballad, there’s a surf-rock zombie song. And then there’s today’s song, which is a decidedly different affair altogether. Vocals and cello by my very good friend Jen Hasson (the “gorgeous redhead cellist” I mentioned in my post about the album release), and the guitar work is by another very good friend, “Neighbor” Gary Lappier (of Terrapin Productions and NMVGPTS). It’s just lovely. Take a listen:
In case you wanna see GoL.Life in action, a small snippet of their SXSW set was recorded (by Electric NoNo, no less) and instagrammed here:
Here’s a photograph of a photographer photographing.
Last Friday Night my wife an I ventured (with several members of Gentlemen of Leisure) up to the Great White North of Ballard (the Sunset Tavern to be specific) to watch a rocks-and-or-rolls show featuring our friends to Cortese Brothers, who make up the band Electric NoNo.
Normally Electric NoNo consists solely of Jared Cortese on Guitar/Vocals and Dom Cortese on Drums/Backing Vocals/Every-Once-In-A-While-Keyboard. But this time they were sporadically joined by a whole bevy of additional musicians: a saxomophonist, an additional guitarist, and none other than Julia Massey on Keyboard/Backing Vocals!
As is my nature, I made some animated .gifs of the performance:
O Winged Jared!
It’s Skeletom Dom!
Julia + Jared Sharing the Stage!?
The show was a record release for Electric NoNo’s new EP, Rain City Blue. GET IT GET IT GET IT!
The only thing wrong with this album is that it’s an EP, and I wants me an LP! Hop to it, Bros!
Also, expect some exciting announcements soon from Gentlemen of Leisure, as well as a joint Julia/NoNo venture called “Warren Dunes.” Stay tuned, dear reader…
My pals Dom & Jared Cortese, who make up the entirety of the band Electric NoNo, appeared on a recent episode of The Spud Goodman Show (an episode which also had guests such as Anderson Cooper and Shep Gordon) as the musical guests. Well, here’s a video of them performing “Forty Foot Tall,” a song from their new EP, Rain City Blue:
Yeh, it looks like Julia Massey will be joining in a songwriter showcase this Saturday, March 11th, at Phinney Center Concert Hall just a few blocks north of Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. Surprise!
This show comes directly the day after her husband Jared’s show as half of Electric NoNo this Friday, March 10th, at Sunset Tavern in Ballard!
WOTTA WEEKEND AM I RIGHT FOLKS
Who knew this weekend would be so action-packed?
You can find out more about the artists in this show (Reggie Garrett, Julia Massey, Lana McMullen, & Kimo Muraki) at the Seattle Folklore Society website.
Details:
Local Songwriter Showcase (Website)
Saturday, March 11th 7:30PM
@ Phinney Center Concert Hall, Brick Building
6615 Dayton Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103 (map)
All-Ages, Tickets $8-$16 (Buy tickets)
I dunno, gang, one musics show per weekend might be my limit in my elder-statesman age. But this one is all-ages and kids under 6 are free… Hmm… I wonder… Oh, well.
Electric NoNo is releasing a new EP next Friday to be entitled Rain City Blue, but today they released the first official music video from that album, for the 1-minute punk-pop gem of a song called “Blue Planet.” STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND WATCH IT HERE:
Wow. Even though it’s only a minute long, director Jeff Larson and the Cortese brothers sure did pack a tonne of awesome in there. They apparently spent nearly a year animating the video!
Psychedelic YesYes.
Speaking of EP release, Electric NoNo is having a release party on March 10th to celebrate these new-fangled musics they’re putting out. It’s on a Friday night, so you should go!
Details:
Electric NoNo Record Release (Faced Book Event)
Friday, March 10th 8:00PM
@ Sunset Tavern
5433 Ballard Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107 (map)
$10, 21+
