Jet Sparks is a serious songstress. She's emotive, ever-evolving and a careful crafter of song. Her sound is lilting yet precocious, gentle yet raw. I've raved about her talents before, and recently had a chance to catch up with her and talk about who she is, where she's going and how she feels about being a new member of the Seattle music scene. And add this doozy to your calendar, fair music fans, because Jet will be playing the drums and working the loop pedal for her show with Emily Jane White at the Sunset Tavern on Monday, June 7th ($7, 8:30pm).
What brought you to Seattle?
A boy named Kwab brought me to Seattle, literally, along with my dog, Butter, and my 18-year old cat, Cameron. I had been living in Austin for six years and wasn’t feeling very stimulated anymore (there’s only so much easy livin’ one girl can take). My Mom (back home in Massachusetts) had moved in with my terminally ill Grandmother to take care of her, and was still working full-time. I could tell that she was at the end of her rope, so I decided to make myself useful and head up there to help. I enrolled in a massage school that had a location in Boston as well as Seattle, so I could spend six months with my family, then transfer here to Seattle. Now I'm opening my own massage biz AND kickin' ass at the clubs.
It's a sad day in the Emerald City as the greatest sports icon is Seattle sports history, Ken Griffey Jr., called it a career earlier today. I had the privilege of seeing Griffey play in dozens of games and I can personally attest to his swing being unmatchable and smile being unmistakable. He is the greatest athlete Seattle has ever seen and he will go down in the record books as being one of the greatest players to ever take the field. So in honor of The Kid here's a YouTube clip of Kid Sensation's "The Way I Swing," a track featuring Griffey's rapping debut along with another video Seattle sports fans will be familiar with. Thanks for the memories Junior.
Portland's indie dance-pop act Hockey is a curious case indeed. Coming out of almost complete anonymity, the group signed two ultra-mega record deals (with Capitol in the US and Virgin in the UK), had their lead singles from debut album Mind Chaos featured on everything from XBox game soundtracks to JCPenney ads to the iTunes "free single of the week," and played festivals including Sasquatch!, Bonnaroo and Glastonbury. A Google search of "hockey band" returns hits of their Wikipedia entry, official band site and MySpace page. Said Wikipedia entry even has an alert emblazoned across the header reading that the article "reads like a news release, or otherwise written in an overly promotional tone" - a suggestion validated by its later assertion that Hockey has been "compared in their sound" to The Strokes and LCD Soundsystem. Fishy, no?
A little background info can be found east of the Cascade Mountains, where guitarist Brian White and drummer Anthony Stassi attended college in Spokane. They formed a band with two other classmates called Seaweed Jack, playing house parties, garage shows and Spokie dives (True story - they opened for a then-up-and-coming band called, um, Kings of Leon at a venue called The Big Easy once) and gained a small cult following who dug their oddball sound - best described as stoner-indie pirate-rock. Seaweed Jack treaded the line of mainstream acceptability and seemed capable of blowing up at any minute. They echoed the slacker aesthetic of bands like Modest Mouse but drew from all kinds of influences, creating an oft-convoluted sound that only worked at times and proved too experimental for the local scene. But they had just enough wacky, DIY style (the whole nautical/pirate shtick, banging around chains onstage and such) and musical chops to get noticed. Well, some of them.
Editor's note: Ear Candy's Brittney Bush Bollay is busy processing and editing the hundreds thousands of photos she shot during the Sasquatch! Music Festival. Her work will be featured here throughout the month. Until she completes her editing here's a look at some of the crowds to give you a feel for the festival's atmosphere.
The 2010 Sasquatch! Music Festival has come and gone and all we're left with is ringing ears, sore feet, sunburned midriff and lots and lots of photos. Ear Candy dispatched ace photographer Brittney Bush Bollay to capture the action through her lenses and her pictures will be featured prominently on Ear Candy throughout the month. Unfortunately only the big time national media folks (Spin, Rolling Stone, Amazon, etc.) were granted photo access for the main stage acts so Brittney wasn't able to take her camera everywhere on the festival grounds. But just because main stage access was limited doesn't mean Ear Candy won't bring you photos of the big name acts. Here's a selection what the house photographers captured during the festival.
The Capitol Hill Block Party announced its lineup a few minutes ago and it's looking like you'll want to be in Capitol Hill July 23-25. Atmosphere is sandwiched between Dead Weather and MGMT as headliners for the three-day festival. A limited number of three-day passes for $60 are on sale now. Single-day passes cost $23 and are on sale Friday. Tickets cost $25 day of show online or $30 cash at the door. Here's the initial lineup with more acts expected to be announced soon.
Friday:MGMT, Yeasayer, Holy Fuck, Shabazz Palaces, Bear In Heaven, Head Like A Kite, Macklemore, Unnatural Helpers, Jaguar Love, Champagne Champagne, Fences, Chris Pureka, Stay Hi Brothers, The Physics, Fences, Candit, J.Pinder, Hella Dope, Mahjongg, Police Teeth, Naomi Punk, US
Saturday: Atmosphere, Blonde Redhead, !!!, Blitzen Trapper, Mad Rad, Obits, Here We Go Magic, Zola Jesus, Night Marchers, Past Lives, The Redwood Plan, THEESatisfaction, Beach Fossils, Grand Hallway, The Drowning Men, Cold Lake, Air 2 a Bird, Black Breath, Grynch/Spaceman/State of the Artist, Eastern Grip
Sunday: The Dead Weather, Blue Scholars, The Dutchess and the Duke, Harlem, Cynic, Fresh Espresso, Victor Shade, Truckasaurus, Villagers, Flexions, Globes, Steel Tigers of Death
It was three days, 39 acts, sunburn, rain, feet pain, and awesome. That's right, my Sasquatch! 2010 was awesome. And now my trials and tribulations, or rather just tribulations (you'll get it later), are here in word form, band by band. Because really, if you don't have something to say about something you watched for at least five minutes, then you're not doing freedom of speech right.
The first day of Sasquatch! 2010 was certainly an eventful one, full of indie stalwarts, power-popping veterans, and the usual aches & pains that go with 12 hours of hoofing it up and down the hills of The Gorge. But without a doubt, any pain I may be feeling right now is well worth it after the unbelievable main stage-closing set by one of my personal favorite bands, My Morning Jacket.
MMJ immediately took the stage by storm, blasting a several-minute long power-chord jam before kicking into their classic "One Big Holiday." Frontman Jim James (or Yim Yames, depending on which day it is) was a ball of fire, and the rest of the group was in rare form as they tore through a two-hour set that was highlighted by an epic, 15-minute-plus version of the slow-burning "Dondante," and several other well-received cuts from their breakthrough album Z.
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