Thanks once again to Eva & Cedric, the Walker Twins of The Black Tones, and their music video show Video Bebop for once again introducing me to an amazing music video that I’d have otherwise probably never seen! (Seriously, you should watch new Video Bebops whenever they are released).
This time it’s local (of course) band Smokey Brights. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them live at some point. But anyway, “Different Windows” is a fantastic song. It’s gots groooove to it. And the video is hilarious, full of dime-store costumes and bored musicians on their cell phones, all with a wonderful 80s VHS vibe to it. Partake and be pleasured:
Didn’t I just do a Black Tones song as my Wednesday Listening Pleasure at the beginning of this month? Oh, yeah, I did. Shut up: they’re good and I really enjoy their music. Plus they’ve released their first-ever official music video! It’s for “Ghetto Spaceship” and features a dramatized version of a time when the Walker Twins’ mother was pregnant with them. Since they’re in utero, they’re of course naked. The Walker Twins do seem to enjoy to be naked. Here’s Cedric on the cover of their album Cobain & Cornbread for example:
Who want some cheese?
Anyhoo, “Ghetto Spaceship” is from Cobain & Cornbread. Partake and be pleasured:
“I put him in my pocket, saved him for another time…”
Vanna Oh is a local Pacific Northwest musician whom I’m deeply ashamed to admit I had never heard of until this week. I heard of them thanks to Eva & Cedric Walker (of The Black Tones) and their new music video show called Video Bebop on The Seattle Channel! Thanks, Walker Twins!
So anyway, Vanna Oh simply shreds and I absolutely adore this song and the resultant video, which does great things with primary colors and also with film speed. Partake and be pleasured:
For this first Wednesday Listening Pleasure of 2020, I go back to late Summer of 2019 when local Seattleites The Black Tones appearead live on KEXP. Singer Eva Walker and her brother, drummer Cedric, have created one of the best local bands in existence right now.
Eva’s booming voice filters through Stevie Nicks by way of Joan Jett, with rounded, sliding notes that end in a delicious, warbling vibrato that has hints of Billie Holiday bubbling under the surface. “Mama! There’s a Spider In My Room!” is my favorite track from The Black Tones’s album, Cobain & Cornbread. Partake and be pleasured:
You have now been pleasured for the first time in 2020!
Three Seattle musical powerhouses, Eva Walker of The Black Tones, Julia Massey of Warren Dunes, and Alaia D’Alessandro of Tres Leches, have collaborated on a cover version of the Mister Rogers theme song. With twinkling pianos, sublime strings, and soaring harmonies, it is as delightful and pleasurable as you would expect:
Go grab a tissue to wipe your eyes. You have now been pleasured.
Sometimes you’re just in the mood for some good Seattle punk blues. So here’s The Black Tones live on Band in Seattle performing “Woman in Black.” Partake and enjoy:
Aaaah, yes, that’s the stuff.
Want some more? Yes, you do. So here’s the excellent mostly-instrumental “The Key of Black (They Want us Dead),” which includes a healthy dose of funk and some brief, timely, angry lyrics:
