August 6, 2013 by Dave
Glancing over my list of act’s to hit at block party my eyes immediately fell on Danny Brown. XXX was one of my favorite hip hop albums of 2011 and his recent single “Grown Up” reminded me of the XX/Biggie Mash up “Wait What? Juicy” in an almost eerie way. His performance was tight and his crowd was feeling it. What a killer way to start this festival. Listen below:
Category Live | Tags: capitol hill block party,Danny Brown,The Young Evil | Comments Off on Capitol Hill Block Party Day 1, Part 1
July 30, 2013 by Dave
Photos and Words by AJ Dent
Before the concert even began, I could feel the energy inside the Crocodile spilling out onto the streets of Seattle. Midwestern rappers in the birthplace of grunge on a hot Saturday night? I can’t think of a better venue in all the city for the intensity and intimacy that members of Doomtree always deliver. It’s no wonder that the show sold out.
As opener Aby Wolf began to croon, the already-slammed space inhaled sharply, with every person previously smoking and laughing outside suddenly rushing to get close. Wolf’s soul-baring voice seemed to almost shock the crowd with its richness, making us all simultaneously weak in the knees and whipcrack-ready for the entire evening. It was a treat to experience her bravado and vibrato twice, as she later joined Dessa’s set for quite the double whammy.
Following Wolf couldn’t have been easy, but Sims was all sizzle onstage. A perfect mix of swagger and silliness, he consistently made grins as big as his own break out across the audience. With his 2011 single, “Burn It Down,” the entire place was party central and kept begging for more.
More is exactly what they got when the powerhouse that is Dessa took over. As she and I both hail from Minnesota, I was extra excited to see her headline a packed house. Gone are the days when even my friends in the Twin Cities had hardly heard of her — and for good reason. Dropped on June 25th, her new album “Parts of Speech” slides with ease between pop-tinged ballads and her signature panache.
While the softer tunes scattered a few tender moments throughout the show, it was Dessa’s balls-to-the-wall rapping that marked the night like a branding iron. She read the atmosphere like a book, upping the ante with each lyric, drawing us more and more into the stories unfolding onstage. Talk about hanging on someone’s every word. She was breathing fire right in our faces, and when she jumped into the crowd, I felt the entire room swoon in the heat.
With great purpose, Dessa has proven her poetry slam prowess and hypnotizing jams worthy of national attention. So far, she’s still the sole woman in Minneapolis’ Doomtree collective, for crying out loud. And after all, she asks on her tune “Fighting Fish,” “If we all go round bowed heads, button-lipped — if none of us go for the bell, then who is?”
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July 28, 2013 by Dave
Here’s a first look at just a few of the amazing artists we saw at Capitol Hill Block Party this weekend (Danny Brown, Girl Talk, STRFKR, Young Evils, and Waxahatchee). More photos and reviews coming soon…
Category Live | Tags: capitol hill block party,Danny Brown,festival,girl talk,StrFkr,Waxahatchee,Young Evils | Comments Off on Capitol Hill Block Party: First Photos
July 20, 2013 by Dave
Dessa, photo by Bill Phelps
Tonight’s show at the Crocodile is just filled to the brim with incredible diverse and explosive talent. It’s one of those shows where the openers could be headliners and the headliner transcends.
Dessa is in no uncertain terms; a wordsmith. She has been described as a combination of Mos Def and Dorothy Parker due to her mastery of the written and spoken word and the dry wit with which it is delivered. She began in the world of poetry slam while earning both her BA and MA in Philosophy from the University of Minnesota before her incredible live performances brought her into the Doomtree hip hop collective where she quickly established a name for herself with the release of her solo EP False Hopes in 2005. Doomtree’s artists work together frequently and on track 3 (Press On) of False hopes you’ll find SiMs who we will be touring in support of her this time around. Dessa spent years appearing on many tracks in support of other Doomtree artists before releasing her first full length album “A Badly Broken Code” which was received incredibly well and cemented her as a voice in the indie hip hop world. (more…)
Category Live | Tags: dessa,Female Vocals,hiphop,Seattle,Sims | Comments Off on Dessa @ The Crocodile in Seattle with SiMs and Aby Wolf TONIGHT
July 8, 2013 by Dave
Said the Whale joined Seattle at The Tractor Tavern in Seattle recently touring in support of the recently dropped EP I Love You. It’s a three-track window into their most recent album effort still taking shape with a release due this fall. It’s a little more indie pop than before and it’s just as damn good. Said the Whale describes the tracks as “the most upbeat songs from a collection of 17 tracks that we’ve recorded since we began work on the album in January”.
Take a listen here:
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June 26, 2013 by Dave
Free Energy absolutely killed it on stage while in Seattle throwing down an incredibly energetic set. These guys are an unreal amount of fun on stage. They got the crowd going at what I’ve usually seen as a kinda calm joint. They played a bunch of tracks off their new album Love Sign as well as their older equally dance-infectious tracks from Stuck on Nothing. Definitely not a band to be missed if they’re in your town.
Another thing I have to call out from the show was The West, the opening opening act of the night. The crowd interaction for a group that early in the night was insane. Insane and also completely understandable with the driving dance beats and the fantastic vocals laid down by Darnell and Adrienne. It was very reminiscent to the energy of LCD Soundsystem. They were incredible! Take a listen below.
Photo Credit: Dave Endicott and AJ Dent
Category Live | Tags: free energy,photography,Seattle | Comments Off on Free Energy @ The Tractor in Seattle, WA
June 20, 2013 by Dave
Vancouver based indie rock quintet Said The Whale is midway through a summer tour after just releasing the very well received “I love you” EP (Spotify / iTunes only $2.99!). Luckily for us Tyler was able to take some time off from their very busy travel schedule to answer some questions for Addicted2Shows’ staff writer AJ Dent.
Audio of interview below:
Listen while you read:
AJ: It looks like you guys are down around San Diego today?
Tyler: Yeah, we will be there today. We’re just driving down the I-5 right now.
AJ: Awesome. Well, if we could first talk about the I Love You EP that just came out – very exciting. It sounds like in these tracks there’s some struggle going on for personal growth, and it seems like you frequently reference family dynamics. What was some of the inspiration behind those songs?
Tyler: Probably family is a huge influence on me and on Ben. It’s hard to say why all that stuff sort of came out at once. I really don’t know what it is; there’s never any real rhyme or reason why we write about what we write about. It’s just whatever happens to come out when we sit down with a guitar and a piece of paper.
AJ: It sounds very organic, just naturally coming out. (more…)
Category Interviews | Tags: canadian,indie pop,indie rock,quintet,Said the Whale | Comments Off on Exclusive Interview: Said the Whale’s Tyler Bancroft
June 17, 2013 by Dave
I just heard these guys for the first time about 30 minutes ago and they’re pretty fucking rad.
Described as “placenta drippingly new, a three piece sweetie and able to disable a pop melody with grit, fuzz, scuzz n feedback.” by Shane O’Leary over at Unpeeled.com
Enjoy their new EP “Topshop” below the fold.
Side note, “Placenta drippingly” might be my new favorite way to describe a recently formed band. (more…)
Category Features | Tags: Garage Rock,placenta drippingly,rock,Teardrop Factory | Comments Off on Teardrop Factory Releases Debut EP “Topshop”
June 10, 2013 by Dave
Those of you with a night to spare tomorrow would do yourself a favor to check out St Paul Minnesota natives “Free Energy” performing at The Tractor in Seattle. The band’s debut studio album released in 2010 and produced by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem garnered significant critical acclaim from Pitchfork, Spin, and Rolling Stone, who said the band “totally fucking rules.”
This lead to nearly two years of touring before beginning work on their second album that dropped in early 2013, Love Sign. Love Sign was produced by John Agnello (Social Distortion, Patti Smith, The Kills) and released independently on the band’s own “Free Energy Records”
Tomorrow there will be no shortage of catchy guitar riffs, cowbell and dance.
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