A bunch of my favorite musicians and bands are having a bunch of shows in the area this Spring, so I’ve compiled a list here. There are a lot more shows than this happening, of course, but these here are the ones that I’m either going to attend or would like to attend:
I would love it if all of you could join us for some/all of these shows. Even the ones that I don’t end up going to myself. Can you join someone if they’re not doing the activity? Does that count as joining? THESE ARE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS SHUT UP.
When two of your favorite musicians who also happen to be two of your good friends collaborate on a song, it’s always kinda inspiring. Behold the majesty of Three Ninjas & Julia Massey together at last:
Some backstory: Polka Glocks is a hip-hop group comprised of three people living in entirely different parts of the country: Davy Hamburgers (Pittsburgh), Jason Sabbides (Tennessee) and Three Ninjas (Seattle). They also have some kinda members who live in Wales and Virginia. Their collaborations happen over the internets.
After Three Ninjas did some collaboration with them (and was then formally inducted into the group) I started listening to them and became internet-friendly with Davy Hamburgers. During that time I was ramping up my 8-bit chiptune Saucecore project.
I had composed a chiptune song that I liked but I had no idea what to do with it because it didn’t really fit the style that I was going for. So I thought, hey, I’ll send it to Davy Hamburgers; maybe he can figure out something to do with it. Gosh, that musta been about a year ago. And honestly I completely forgot that I’d done that.
And then last week to my delight a song suddenly materialized as if by magic out of the internets! Take a wissen:
I wrote the chiptune musics for that! It’s going to be on their next album, Secret Land of the Monkey Man. I am excite!
Remember when I posted about how famous my pal Jason is? Well, he just keeps gettin’ more and more famouser.
After his appearance on the Today Show, that TV show 20/20 flew him back to New York to interview him. And they lubbed him so much they actually agreed to fly a film crew out to Seattle to film him performing his musics as Three Ninjas.
So @NatheLawver and @tacomachickadee and picked me up and we drove the 40 minutes up to West Seattle to see Three Ninjas & Tangentbot (and special guest Pop Star Shannon O’Brien) perform their tiny open-mic set at the Skylark Café with a 20/20 film crew filming it, then we drove all the way back to Tacoma.
From left: Tangentbot, Three Ninjas, Pop Star Shannon O'Brien
Total drive time was 1hr 20min. Total show time was approx 20 minutes.
TOTALLY WORTH IT.
So there’s a slim chance that I might appear on a soon-to-air episode of 20/20 in an audience reaction shot. No biggie.
Busdriver started his set with a very cool visual effect: all the lights were off, but he had a blacklight that also emitted lasers in such a way that they made a starfield on the background. Then he stood in front of the blacklight and starfield wearing all white. He made Tangentbot very happy by rapping over an Aphex Twin song for his encore.
Two of the opening acts were women hip-hop artists, Night Fox and Katie Kate. They were both very good, though I kinda liked Night Fox’s energy a little more. They were unlike many women hip-hop artists that I’m used to, in that they weren’t full of “even tougher than a man” bravado (even though there was a fair share of cussing). Night Fox’s voice periodically had an almost-Billie-Holliday warble in it, and at times sounded like an American Miho Hatori. Plus she was tiny and kinda adorable. Katie Kate was a much more polished performer and technical musician — I learned later that she’s a classically-trained pianist and graduated from Cornish with a music degree! Anyway, the point is they had a really fascinating style of hip-hop. I almost want to call it “Cutesy Hip-Hop” but that sound a little degrading. The point is, it was fun and inviting instead of angry and aggressive.
As for the Chop Suey show the next week, Threeni & T-Bo (as they will now be referred to in the rest of this post because it sounds awful) were the opening act for the Fake Four tour, which is the same tour that Open Mike Eagle opened for last year. Good company! And Carrie actually got to come with me because for once she didn’t have to teach on a night where there was an awesome music show!
They completely killed their set. The highlight of the whole night was when Threeni and T-Bo performed an absolutely epic cover of Jewel’s “Foolish Games.” For realsz! Ch-ch-check it out!
Like what you heard there? About to commit seppuku because you missed it? Stay your blade, I say! For Three Ninjas & Tangentbot will be performing a Mardi Gras party at the Skylark Café on Tuesday the 8th! THAT’S TOMORROW, HOMESLICE!
Carrie & I didn’t stay for the whole show because:
We live in Tacoma
I had to be at work at 8:00 the next morning
We’re old
But another excellent act that we got to see was Abadawn, a rapper with an extremely young countenance (he looked like he was 15) and a fascinating style. He had two vocalizations: a hip-hop voice that had inflections and flow that reminded me somewhat of Eminem, and a full-on death-metal screech/growl voice. He switched freely between them. Also, his songs were short, which I really appreciated (a couple were only like 45 seconds long, I swear). They were like a little nugget burst of energy, like a hip-hop haiku of rage.
I decided it was about damned time that I made myself a new mix CD. For your convenience, I’ve included (when I can) links to where you can get these songs for yourself, should you so desire!
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– Palmdale
– Anya Marina
– JP Inc.
– Daft Punk
– Bonobo & Andreya Triana
– JP Inc.
– Mtume
– Palmdale
– Bitter:Sweet
– She & Him
– JP Inc.
– Cocorosie
– White Town
– M.I.A.
– Pomplamoose
