Saw Manooghi Hi at The High Dive last night – another great show! They also played a few new ones that aren’t on CD yet – should be good. It was kind of weird since we got there WAY too early – around 8pm – it looked at first like no one was going to be there – it was us, bartenders and M.H. hanging out.

But then people started filtering in (including the opening band, who seemed to be showing up a wee bit on the late side). The openers – can’t remember their name and they never actually SAID it out loud – played some forgettable stuff for about 45 min-one hour, then M.H. played not long after, getting done around 1130 or so. Despite being a Sunday night show, it was pretty packed out, and it looked like there were more than a few M.H. family members in attendance – veddy cool!

This show came on the heels of eating at Delancey over in Ballard (finally) – also very good, it’s a gourmet pizza joint – basically Seattle’s version of A Pizza Scholls in Portland. While my personal fave here is still the nearby Crash Landing (because ‘grease is the word’) and in portland – Escape from New York – this was damn good. And *this* came on the heels of a wedding the night before that was catered by Via Tribunali! Between friends, family, relatives, music and pizza – it doesn’t get much better than that. 🙂

I will upload some abbreviated, way-too-dark videos from my phone/the show shortly, but in the meantime, SEE THIS BAND!

candybowl

There were two concerts (among others I didn’t know about) in Seattle last night: ‘The Chameleons Vox’ (meaning the singer/songwriter Mark Burgess from the ’80s alternative group The Chameleons) and The Cult (likely no explanation required – they lasted beyond the 80s even though they also started back then). On the one hand, TCV was only $10 – The Cult was $30+ (which is more than ‘current’ bands like Ozomatli and others charge these days, making it a hard sell) – we opted for TCV – The Cult just seemed way overpriced for its potential rock value (and if that’s not a lame way to describe even lamer 40-something concert decisionmaking, I don’t know what is :)).

There were three opening bands, we missed the first and the other two were largely forgettable (sorry guys). I give Romance (last opener before TCV) an A for effort and they were definitely good musicians, but not super-distinctive otherwise.

Then, on to TCV. They started with the song ‘Swamp Thing’ – the band was playing several measures of the song intro before Mark Burgess (the main original member/singer) came onstage in a ‘grand entrance’ – Uh….yeah. They powered through several more songs – all played well – but the show got progressively weirder for me the longer it went on. We left before they were done, near the end of the set (I would presume they played a few more songs, maybe an encore, not sure). Some impressions:

1) When MB came out on the stage – the first thing I thought was ‘here’s young Ozzy’ (meaning Ozzy Osbourne). For some reason he just struck me as a younger version of Ozz – maybe the face? Not sure. When he talked a bit between songs, he SOUNDS like Ozzy’s normal speaking accent, although I’m not sure if they are from similar locations in England. He is also sporting a Moe Howard hairdo – not the most complimentary? Finally, I couldn’t help also thinking of many Mike Myers parody characters as he danced around during many of the songs – sorry Mark.

2) There was too much ‘unbalance’ for me between most of the band (20-somethings) and MB’s obvious age. It was like a father playing music with his kids or something? When we saw X, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Queensryche, Living Colour, Madness, etc. over the past several years – whether or not they reach the heights of their glory days (some do, some really do, some are slipping) they all look older – but they also all look ‘correct’, because the band are all the same age. This show just seemed weird to have an older guy playing with such a younger band. I wish he had been the bassist like before, that might have avoided it a bit, but oh well. The band was very good, as far as playing – definitely no issues there.

3) Could there be any MORE delay pedal/voice effects? On albums, fine – I listened again to a few Chameleons songs on the bus this am going to work and yes, delay effects are all over the place – but live, it just seemed to wash everything into mud – and it was distracting (at best, annoying at worst) as regards the voice? It really served to date the music quite a bit for me, unfortunately. Throwing in a few Beatles and Clash verses mid-song on at least a couple occasions didn’t help either – cheese!

4) A positive – Mark B’s voice sounds largely fine. He’s no Boy George, Rob Halford or Bono, but for his historical range he largely achieved it. He was a bit quieter on a couple songs he would have likely belted out years ago, but whatevs. And you don’t need the delay effect to sound good – just be yourself….

5) Another positive – MB was putting himself out there. He was definitely not phoning it in. That counts for a lot, especially when you consider The Cult playing across town in not much bigger a club at 3x the price, and the comparative obscurity of The Chameleons even back in the 80s(?) – MB’s not getting rich on this tour most obviously, but cared to put on a good show, and he seemed to be having a good time.

6) A weird thing – in one of the songs (can’t remember the name) there is a long guitar mellow ‘exit’ at the end – which this time around was modified by actual drums in it, unlike on the album – but MB took the opportunity to head offstage while the band played for several minutes without him. When he came back, it *seemed* (can’t say for sure) if he had taken an 80s ‘coke break’ in the back – he was sniffing it up a bit. Weird, and I could be imagining things, but my buddies noticed it too. There goes the profits on the tour if so….doh!

7) Finally, after the first several songs I just kept increasingly thinking – ‘you can never go back’. I hope the tour works out well for him and the band, and The Croc was pretty full, definitely as full as seeing Manooghi Hi there a month or two ago. But the songs really sounded dated and lacked oomph for me. It seemed like every time they were cranking it up to really ‘rock’ – the sound would kind of smooth out at the top end and they would proceed – kind of like a ’70s Caddy trying to punch it up a hill and then gliding along without incident once there.

By way of comparison, when we saw X at The Showbox last year – they really *rocked* and were one of the tightest bands in recent memory, despite their age. And the fact that all their songs (being a punk band) are only about 2.5 min. long, so they have to play a LOT of them to fill an average show-length set – no ‘coasting’ allowed there, to be sure.

Here is another review of the show, from Glen Boyd – he obviously saw a much different show than I did. I’m glad he enjoyed it – but I really don’t think TCV were ever in danger of tearing the roof off at any point. Now…..had the mighty Fishbone made a surprise appearance….hmm…. 🙂

If you were there, feel free to comment/agree/disagree/etc. I guess the show left me with mixed feelings, but I don’t regret going (despite being all but asleep in my cube today for lack of sleep).

candybowl

It’s always cool when you find a new band you like. It’s VERY cool when you find a band that seems full of promise and you can’t wait for their next disc. But it’s the BEST when you find a band completely out of nowhere that just hits it way, way out of the park on the first try? Saw Manooghi Hi last night at the Crocodile and there’s only one way to sum it up. Wow.

Turns out they have been playing since early 2008 – where have I been? Anyway, GO see this band live when you can and on YouTube in the meantime. looks like the next local date is Neumo’s on Fri Aug 13 in Seattle.

candybowl

Given the ending years’ of Genesis’ pop-based output, many people may not know their early sound was WAY different, with several more auteurs in the group (Steve Hackett and Peter Gabriel most notably). One of the great (albeit probably copyright un-friendly) things about YouTube is the persistence of five bazillion music videos of all types and stripes. So of late I’ve been checking out a few ancient (early 70s) Genesis videos up there, specifically The Knife, Dancing with the Moonlit Knight, and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (not long after this, Peter G. left the band, a couple albums later SH did, and Genesis morphed into a pop-outfit not long after that).

Historically I was really into Yes and King Crimson, two progressive rock peers of Genesis at the time – although both of them stayed ‘progressive’ arguably far longer. Each has a pretty different sound, although all of them (and others such as ELP) pushed the boundaries of what a rock song could be, including the scope, ambition and in some cases, pretentiousness of the music in the end – ELP ‘enjoyed’ probably the most slagging on this point during the punk era, pretty bad. But what’s interesting is to listen to other so-called ‘modern’ progressive bands since – I have been checking out Transatlantic on YouTube also – I like it, but I’m not sure if it ‘progresses’ beyond the 70s stuff – it almost sounds like they are largely paying homage to it in most cases, instead of trying to stretch the boundaries? As if I can tell anyway! 🙂 With Transatlantic specifically, the keyboards sound a lot like ELP or the big hammond organs of the time, if not played near as crazily or akin to classical music as the likes of Keith Emerson.

This music is definitely an acquired taste in many cases, but I’m definitely on the way to listening to more early Genesis to start – I already had nearly all the Peter G. stuff and/or Yes/King Crimson, so this will be a cool (old) new band to explore…..

candybowl

more LEGO video fun – these are all music videos – but surprisingly, they missed The White Stripes one (see earlier post)?

enjoy…

candybowl

Came across an amusing article on Salon the other day – “Why it’s OK to love Styx” – Hmmm.

So for me, this band hit it big about the time I was attending Cub Scout Camp around 6th grade – we were all ‘Renegades‘ that summer to be sure – there were of course the obligatory older Boy Scouts around with at least a few boom boxes blasting this out nonstop (along with Queen and the rest – what would American junior high schools have been without ‘We Will Rock You‘? I submit – unsuccessful at most sports! And to think, all those conservative hicks were cheering a song written by THE most flamboyant – in every sense of the word – rock singer of all time – Fredde Mercury – the man who wrote the book on ‘mustache‘ – life works in strange ways, no? :))

Anyway, back to Styx. This article uses too many big words (zeitgeist? This is STYX, for pete’s sake) to get across a great point – F the people who criticize your music taste! And AS one of those critics for nearly all of the time I’ve loved music (ask Kerewin about the never-ending slagging of Huey Lewis and Oasis – the latter being no-talent poseur turds who really DESERVE slagging) I certainly have no room to judge. There were some rocking Styx tunes, although later stuff like the attempted apocalyptic/Orwellian Mr. Roboto was done far better, later, by Queensryche and others – Styx was simply too cheesy.

Every so often one of their songs comes up though – semi-regularly over in K-Land where a local cover band plays at least ‘Come Sail Away’ every night I’ve seen them – and plays it well, despite lack of keyboards. I’m convinced ‘Suite Madame Blue‘ is a Judas Priest ripoff but whatevs. Steal from the masters, not from losers, I always say.

candybowl

Haven’t blabbed about music in some time, so here goes. What are people listening to? Of late, I’ve actually tried some new(er) bands out – since I never listen to the radio, and don’t drive very much – I tend to rely on album reviews from The Stranger, The Weekly, occasionally Willamette Week, or random articles from the ‘Net as they come along. Some good stuff of late includes

People Eating People (seattleite too!);
Fruit Bats
Le Loup
Blue Scholars

and for the old school, have been getting back into Saga (sorry, Kirk :)) and even good ol’ Wall of Voodoo. gotta love Stan Ridgway!

tried (and failed) – Owl City – but this review is way harsher than I would have been – I just thought he was too derivative of the original synth bands first time around.

candybowl

Generally speaking, I’ve loved animation since well, forever. Over the past several years, besides the rise of Japanese anime in US pop-culture, another worthwhile offshoot of animation has been a variant of (arguably) good ol’ claymation – except with Lego bricks. Saw this Lego Matrix homage today, reminded me of the White Stripes Lego video of several years ago – enjoy!

candybowl

Given that I suffer from a somewhat obvious malady probably fairly common among Americans – the ‘pack rat syndrome‘ – I accumulate things. Among these things, music is certainly essential. So, I keep adding and adding and adding songs to my iPod without always stopping to actually LISTEN to all these crazy songs. Of late I have begun trying to pre-screen the songs better before adding them, but with some bands, after hearing 1-3 songs, you simply add the entire album and enjoy.

Heartless Bastards are such a band – I suggest you check them out!

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A quick note that we had an excellent t-day feast (still recovering) – at a friends’ house here in Seattle with excellent company, conversation and food. The note is regarding the music playing in the background on someone’s iPod at low volume. What was funny was that every so often there would be a lull or break in the conversation(s) – and somehow a Led Zeppelin song seemed to rise up in the background every time to grab our attention. There’s nothing like stuffing your face to ‘The Immigrant Song‘, after all 🙂

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