Seattle legends Blue Scholars dropped by KEXP’s studios yesterday to record a few tracks from their new album Cinemetropolis.  The duo, consisting of George Quibuyen and Saba Mohajerjasbi, have been a keystone of the local hip hop scene for over a decade, combining proficient, fresh beats with a deft lyrical style that is socioeconomically/politically hyper-conscious, and always infectious.   

And now, a word from Lemolo:

We are SO thrilled to announce that we have booked our first tour for this fall! We can’t express enough how honored we feel to be supporting our good friends, The Head and The Heart, on their first headlining tour. We are also excited to share the stage with the wonderful Thao with The Get Down Stay Down. Stay tuned for more dates to come, but this is what we can share with you so far!

10.13.11 – TBA
10.14.11 – TBA
10.15.11 – TBA
10.18.11 – WOW Music Hall / Eugene, OR / $15 / All Ages
10.19.11 – Crystal Ballroom / Portland, OR / $20 / All Ages
10.20.11 – The Commodore Ballroom / Vancouver BC, CA / $21.50 / 19+
10.22.11 – TBA

We also are excited to tell you that we have begun the recording process on our very first full-length album. We are on day two in the studio and can’t wait to share our tunes with you! We’ll be hard at work during the next few months, so be sure to check back in often for updates and further announcements!
We sure hope you all are enjoying your summer as much as we are, and we are looking forward to seeing you at Doe Bay Fest in August and Bumbershoot in September!

Cheers,
Kendra & Meagan

Seattle Shoegazers C’est la Mort have announced that they’ve been selected to contribute to a Smiths tribute album that is set to appear this October.  C’est la Mort have an ethereal, warbling sound that sails over a driving undercurrent of tight bass and drums.  C’est la Mort are reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine, with less muddy vocals, but more closely related to the likes of Comsat Angels, Slowdive and the Chameleons.  Their last album, Empty Words Fill Lonely Spaces, which sold out in hard copy form, is available for download at their bandcamp site for the skimpy price of $8.

And by the by, if you have not seen Les Savy Fav before, I feel that there is a tremendous void living within you that, though you may not know what it is, exists as a tiny voice or ache screaming for the wild antics of Tim Harrington thrusting himself into and onto the crowd, stripping down to his skivvies, and climbing buildings and trees whilst accurately howling every word in every song.  I saw them at the "Green Fest" in Chicago a month ago, and during a madcap run through the crowd, he hugged a friend of mine who was wearing a RISD shirt (Harrington’s alma mater) and handed said friend a broken half of sunglasses.  It made my friend’s night (Hey, Jon Fernandez!).  Plenty of local acts abound, see them all and use sunscreen.

Tonight at the Rendezvous Strong Killings are ripping through their new album "Annals of Animals."  This Seattle three-piece play an incendiary set, be there at 10 for the festivities.  Hounds of the Wild Hunt and Boom City open.

Annals of Animals by StrongKillings

The Unnatural Helpers have been banging around Seattle for a few years now as the perennial hobbyhorse of singer / drummer / songwriter / sole consistent member Dean Whitmore, who has also spent time with such Seattle outfits as the Intelligence, Welcome and Dipers.  Despite the myriad lineup changes over the years, the band has managed to retain and expand on its original sound in a steady and cohesive way – anyone who has witnessed the live show over the years will be well familiar with the band’s taut, muscular guitar-rock, driven by Whitmore’s whip-tight drumming and usually caustic, often self-deprecating vocals.  Oh, and the songs are always short.  Very short.
 
No words should be wasted listing off the dozen or so people that have passed through the ranks, and even as this is being typed it remains impossible to guess at who all is playing in the current lineup of the band, so let’s just agree to focus on the folks that played on the record.  Guitar and sporadic vocal duties are held down by Andrew Greager (Scraps, Popular Shapes) and Johnnie Heinz, while Andrew Sullivan (The Trashies) provides swaggering bass lines throughout, as well as some guitar and the occasional backing vocal.  All the way through Whitmore’s half sung / half shouted vocals and lashing drums seem to be racing the rest of the instruments to end of the song.
 
UNNATURAL HELPERS

07/20 – Seattle, WA – Funhouse !
07/21 – Portland, OR – The Know
07/22 – Oakland, CA – The New Parish #
07/23 – Fullerton, CA – Burger Records ^
07/24 – San Diego, CA – Eleven Bar ^
07/25 – Los Angeles, CA – Dark Horse Saloon ^
07/26 – San Pedro, CA – TBD ^
07/27 – Palm Springs, CA – Dillon Roadhouse ^
07/28 – San Francisco, CA – Hemlock ^ *
07/29 – Davis, CA – House party at the Hub ^
 
! – w/ Tit Pig
# – 1-2-3-4 Go! Anniversary Fest
^ – w/ Uzi Rash
* – w/ Eat Skull
 

Unnatural Helpers – Sunshine / Pretty Girls by hardlyartrecords

In support of a limited edition 7" recorded with the Kentucky rocker Mansions that is to be released on Tuesday, July 26th, Fences are gearing up to play a ten day tour.  The 7" was recorded in April at Avast Studios in Seattle, Washington.  The tour will kick off on July 22nd at the Capitol Hill Block Party.  The 7" will be for sale in select retail shops in Seattle, San Francisco, LA, Chicago, and Louisville, as well as being downloadable digitally through iTunes.  The Fences track on the split is called "Marketplace," and it’s a downbeat, self-deprecating, introspective slow-burner Fences have come to be known by and loved for.  

Fences and Mansions Tour:
Friday, July 22 – SEATTLE, WA @ Capitol Hill Block Party Main Stage
Tuesday, July 26 – Split 7″ RELEASE DAY & In-store performance @ Sonic Boom Records in SEATTLE, WA
Friday, July 29 – TACOMA, WA @ Hell’s Kitchen
Saturday, July 30 – SPOKANE, WA @ A Club
Sunday, July 31 – MISSOULA, MT @ Top Hat
Tuesday, August 2 – SIOUX FALLS, SD @ Latitude 44
Wednesday, August 3 – FARGO, ND @ Aquarium
Thursday, August 4 – MINNEAPOLIS, MN @ 7th St Entry
Friday, August 5 – MADISON, WI @ High Noon
Saturday, August 6 – CHICAGO, IL @ Reggie’s Rock Club (Official Lollapalooza After Party) w/Titus Andronicus
Sunday, August 7 – CHICAGO, IL @ Lollapalooza

‪Seapony’s debut full length, Go With Me, is out now on Hardly Art. This week they play a pair of shows in NYC and also unveiled a brand new video for "Where We Go." ‬

The music of Seapony is refreshing in its simplicity. Most songs on Go With Me use no more than three chords, with an average running time around two-and-a-half minutes. In lieu of a human drummer, the Seattle trio entrusts time-keeping to a vintage gizmo the size of a desktop calculator. The lyrics to "Dreaming," the track that catapulted them into the spotlight, are just six lines long. Like Young Marble Giants and Beat Happening before them, this young three-piece has generated excitement that belies their music’s modest means. And their back story is just as no-nonsense.

Seapony is songwriter Danny Rowland, singer Jen Weidl, and bass player Ian Brewer. Danny and Ian grew up and made music together in Oklahoma. In 2001, they moved to Olympia, WA. In 2004, Danny visited Cincinnati, missed his flight home, and ended up staying in Ohio for four years; he met Jen during his Buckeye State sojourn. After a period of work and study in Lawrence, KS, the happy couple came west in 2010 and were reunited with Ian in Seattle. Seapony was born.

If you were listening to KEXP’s Audioasis last Saturday, you already know about Sports, and you can kindly consider this post a refresher on something that rocks.  Sports has a solid, 80’s-style electro sound. The tempo is relaxed, and the synths are backed up with reverberating guitars and melancholic vocals. Comparisons to bands like Depeche Mode are unfortunate, but inevitable. Sports played a great set on KEXP’s Audioasis last Saturday, which you can listen to at http://www.kexp.org/streamarchive/streamarchive.asp, though it won’t be up forever.

I’ve got this big wool sweater and, on more than one occasion, I’ve sat back and thought about what I should be listening to when I’m wearing it.  I’d like something cozy, something with banjos, big choruses, and foot stompers.  Comfortably, Campfire OK has fit my musical wardrobe quandary.  They take the acoustic, rootsy sounds of Fleet Foxes and mesh them with the more orchestral elements of Grand Hallway to come up with some strong jams full of elaborate arrangements and woodsy, lonesome imagery.  Check out Campfire OK at the Capitol Hill Block Party July 24th.

Wonderful, the summer-soaked indie pop four-piece is back from a five year hiatus with their new album Wake up to Dreamland.  On first listen, their windswept soundscapes lean heavily on the stylings of Animal Collective guru Panda Bear, but considering the many places indie groups pull/lift/steal from, they could do worse.  To their credit, the songs on Wake up to Dreamland are grandiose, audacious pieces that are extremely catchy, and considering the recent lo-fi, bedroom sounds pervasive in indie scenes today, it’s refreshing to hear a band daring to do more with their tunes.

Youth Rescue Mission are currently wandering around California playing shows, but they’ll be back Seattleside soon- July 15th at the Columbia City Theater to be precise.  In March they released a tight, fragile, self-titled debut LP.  Youth Rescue Mission are at their best when they let the music breathe, creating large-scale atmospherics in the song structure vein of Arcade Fire.  But, instead of having the fist-pumping/pummeling swells of Arcade Fire, they show an impressive amount of restraint when crescendoing, giving their music a more delicate vibe.  Here’s a sample of their softy acoustica side.