The Road to Sasquatch! is a semi-regular feature on Ear Candy that will help you get ready for the 2010 Sasquatch! Music Festival. Below is a YouTube playlist of some Sasquatch! artists for your listening pleasure.
Being that we are just days away, I know Sasquatchamania is running wild around these parts. I'm not here to harsh on your buzz, but rather stoke the fire even more, so I scoured everybody's favorite series of tubes and found 27 video gems from acts that'll take the stage this weekend. So behold, The Sasquatch! 2010 YouTube Playlist! Below are a few selections from the playlist to whet your appetite for the full meal deal that will be going down at the Gorge along with the full tracklisting.
Resident Twitter maestro Travis Hay (aka Sir Ear Candy) alerted me late last night that Chris Cornell had something interesting to say in 140 characters or less. It turns out Cornell is apparently done with his atrocious Timbaland-produced Scream album, and has announced that Soundgarden is back. The message reads: "The 12 year break is over & school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again! www.soundgardenworld.com"
At the Soundgarden World web site, you can sign up to (presumably) get the latest Soundgarden news -- and if you do sign up, they reward with the music video for the Louder Than Love gem "Get on the Snake."
Here they are -- the 20 songs I couldn't get out of my damn head this year. And just when you thought you knew me, I throw you a curveball at No. 1. I'm a sneaky bastard, I tell ya.
It's been a while since I've checked in, but I figured what with the year ending and all, it was probably about time I got my favorite albums of the year together. And that's exactly what I've done.
If you ever forget that rock and roll is supposed to be fun, pull out this record. MSHVB hardly holds back their energy on this 10-song set, and when they do ("Albatross, Albatross, Albatross"), it results in an epic trip though space, time, and random chicks playing instruments that aren't really instruments.
8. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
It's not quite Fox Confessor, but it's damn close. Though she's clearly grown into an excellent songwriter ("This Tornado Loves You" and "People Got A Lotta Nerve"), Neko's golden pipes are best in use on covers "Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth" (Sparks) and "Don't Forget Me" (the legendary Harry Nilsson).
7. Monsters of Folk - S/T
Hey look, it's The Traveling Wilburys, but with infinitely less famous members and definitely better tunes. Jim James plays George Harrison (because he's the MVP), M. Ward is Tom Petty (best songwriter), Mike Mogis is Jeff Lynne (for the "Who the hell is that guy?" factor), and Conor Oberst is Bob Dylan (Get it? Because both have annoying, impossible to enjoy vocal deliveries). In spite of Oberst (can you tell I don't like him?), the dudes put together the perfect CD for this era. And despite their name, they stray away from the folk tag just enough on the catchy "Say Please" and the amazing "Dear God (sincerely M.O.F.)" to keep you interested through a set of 15.
6. The Decemberists - Hazards of Love
It's one of those love it or hate it situations, and personally, I can't get enough of 2009's best rock opera (take that, Green Day). The key to Hazards of Love isn't the story or the progginess or the fact that Colin Meloy somehow manages to sound even more bookish than normal. No, the key is that you can pull out songs like "The Rake's Song" or "The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid," and they well stand on their own. Well, the Black Mountain-esque guitar heaviness during the second half of the album is pretty sweet, too.
5. Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
The band that every NME-reading indie kid gets a boner about ditched their foppish style from their first two albums, instead enlisting Josh Homme to produce and add some desert swagger to their sound. Mission accomplished. The riffs and atmospherics on "My Propeller," "Crying Lightning" and, most importantly, "Pretty Visitors" are without comparison in this day and age. Before, Arctic Monkeys were good. Now they're badass.
"Hope. A new beginning. Time, time to start living, like just before we died. There's no going back to the place we've started from."
Using all the subtlety of a brick to the head, this is the way Alice In Chains opens "All Secrets Known," the first track off "Black Gives Way To Blue," its first new album in 13 years. It's AIC, seven years removed from the death of beloved lead singer Layne Staley, drawing a line in the sand for the fans that have chastised them for continuing the band with new singer/guitarist William DuVall. Essentially, they're saying they're not about to forget their legacy with Layne, but they're not about to hang it up, either. They still have something left in them.
Anybody that ever wore out their copies of "Dirt" or "Unplugged" should be rejoicing right about now, because while we're not getting the same band that created those masterpieces, we're getting an assurance that 3/4's of the group responsible for those works of art is going to do its best to write the next chapter in the band's legacy.
Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears (at KEXP's Supersecret Lounge/video above): When you're absolutely beat after two days of strenuous concertgoing and spent the previous night singing "Sweet Caroline" en masse with the other patrons of Beth's Cafe, how in the hell do you get psyched for the third day of Bumbershoot? By kicking it off with Black Joe Lewis, that's how! He and his trusty Honeybears played a good 6-7 songs that were broadcasted on KEXP, but since they had a real set later in the day and I was still waiting for the effects of my morning coffee to kick in, this is all I wrote in my notebook about the set: "BJL&HB rocked the shit at KEXP Lounge." 'Nuff said.
Has it been nine days since this all happened? Damn. I guess I better stop being busy and get to it.
The Bumberdiary: Sunday
Cold War Kids: There is a common occurrence in today's musical climate for me — bands that I love that have fans that I not-so love. Groups that qualify for this unflattering group include Incubus, Tool, Band of Horses (hopefully that was just a Spokane thing), and, yep, you guessed it, Cold War Kids. It's just a sea of preppiness, like CWK are the group of choice for Kanye-loving (that's immediately a bad thing after this weekend) pseudo frat boys and co-eds to qualify them as hipsters (these are more or less the same people who don't quite know when NOT to raise the devil horns). But I digress. The Kids of the Coldest of Wars brought it live at B-Shoot.
I covered this year's Bumbershoot with one idea in mind: that I was going to post everything I remembered, stream-of-consciousness style, on Ear Candy. A lofty task, I know, but if anyone can pull off, it's me (I'm real good at modesty).
Alright, here goes part one of my Bumbershoot 2009 experience. The Bumberdiary, if you will. (BTW, I like how you can just throw "Bumber" in front of any word, and it totally works. It's like the inverse on "-gate." Maybe next year we'll get a scandal at Bumbershoot and call it "Bumbergate." That would be rad.)
The Bumberdiary: Saturday
Kristen Ward: The first act I watched at Bumbershoot 09 was this pretty alt-country chanteuse, and to be honest, I wasn't impressed. Yeah, she has a nice voice and blah blah blah, but in this current climate where Neko Case ripoffs are a dime-a-dozen, who gives a shit? (Yeah, it's gonna be that kind of diary.) Personally, for my money, I'd rather listen to Star Anna, another local female alt-country singer, but she doesn't get the kind of attention Ward does because this business called show is all about the looks. Damn shame is what it is.
Dyno Jamz: If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. I'm not much of a fan of the hipping and the hopping and the rapping of the words, but if you throw a little melody my way, I WILL get jiggy wit it (oh, I went there). Well, this eight-piece got my jiggy going ... or something. These guys won the EMP's Sound Off! competition and for a good reason. It's intelligent hip-hop, in the style of Common or Talib Kwali, but with an excellent horn section and keyboardist that could play in Stevie Wonder's band. Look out, Blue Scholars; Dyno Jamz is coming for your title as Seattle's best hip-hop band.
Everest (pictured above): Me and Ear Candy head honcho Travis (aka T-Money, who I hung with all weekend) are in agreement that this delightful rock act was the first "discovery" of Bumbershoot for the two of us. At times sounding like a rural Radiohead, other times like a heavified Crazy Horse, Everest rocked the shit out of the Broad Street Stage (probably the most reliable stage during the festival). The bassist's playing was super steady and always in a groove, and I couldn't help but notice how strong his fingers looked. He wasn't the star of the show, however. That was their lead guitarist, who played some excellently searing leads that lifted some of their tunes into the stratosphere. He's also homely as hell, which helps prove my theory that ugly dudes make for great guitar players (ex. Tom Petty, Slash, Keef, etc).
Seattle, get ready to fall in love with Band of Horses all over again.
The band that was bearded before beards were cool hit Spokane's underrated Knitting Factory venue (yeah, they actually have one decent place to see music in Eastern Washington) on Wednesday night, playing all the gems from their first two albums, a couple of excellent covers, and even giving a little preview to their upcoming album, which leader Ben Bridwell told the audience would be titled "Night Rainbow."
Anybody who knows me knows I love prog rock, which means I love The Mars Volta. But I just saw something that made me sad.
Apparently TMV has extended it's current tour in support of the excellent "Octahedron" album, and I couldn't help but notice that a certain Pacific Northwest city still hasn't had a show scheduled on this current jaunt. If there's one complaint I have about those proggers, it's that they don't play Seattle enough. Why don't they play Seattle enough? Probably because they hate us. And why do they hate us? Probably because of this.
