Shout out to DJ Riz, who spins a show on KEXP twice a week, a variety mix, every Wednesday and Thursday on KEXP from 9PM to 1AM.  Forget Pandora or Slacker; just go to the KEXP streaming archive and search by DJ for DJ Riz. Then go to the playlist page and pull up the corresponding playlist, where there are DJ comments, etc. His taste is impeccable.   In Seattle, he's known for his live sets, which are more house and dance oriented.  His choices on the variety show go in a different direction, everything from indie rock to ambient shit to hip hop to other genres.   It is always tasteful, relevant, esoteric and classic.  And it flows. And when he does come on the air (which isn't often) his cadence, timbre and vibe are welcome.  A quick search on the web didn't turn up much about him, although this Seattle Weekly interview had some good info.  There is also this Justify Your iPod podcast from The Stranger, in which Riz holds court and makes David Schmader look lame.  Love that he doesn't even have an iPod but Schmader had to go to his house and paw through his vinyl.

What The Heck Fest 2008

Desolation Wilderness at Causland Park on Saturday indie rockers. 

Saturday night, Ô Paon in the City Hall gym.  Each song a looping a guitar part and looping vocal done on the fly, then  French on top like some sort of incantation.

Sunday morning, a ferry ride to Anderson's Store on Guemes Island featured The Solvents.  Venue looking out to bales of hay, mountains and ocean.  Accompanying violin..

Some lines from one of their songs:

Goin down to the basement
Listenin to the Replacements
Love to watch that record spin
With my tonic & gin

Mirah and Spectratone International on Sunday afternoon played, serious musical chops.  Accordion, cello, oud and percussion: nice.

One of three MCs from the BBB, Bryce Panic at Causland Park on a Sat afternoon, beats across Anacortes at What The Heck fest.  

Served up joints from the record  as well as Boom Boom Baby.  One man wordball rollin with the B.

Here's B w/ B-Wanna:

Ononos at the Josephine.  10 or 15 there to witness the spectacle as masked keyboardist played beats and loops while masked drummer thumped and the queen vamped.  Plus Yoko Ono masks doled out to the audience, which lent a creepy vibe to the whole thing.  The Josephine space is great: high ceilings, good sound and the best part: BYOB.  So a bottle of Traders Joe's champange came along (left over from New Years). It was downed while bopping around to the bomb that the Ononos laid down.  Oompa.

pleasure in sadness, a moment that's passed, nostalgia.  Blake/e/e/e make for a soundtrack. a spell they cast to invoke a a yesteryear.

Check out “Time Machine,” ain't so bittersweet.  And jams.

At The Comet they opened with “New Millennium,” anthemic. Harmonies between the singers. “Time Machine” shouts. Instrumentation configuration during the show, the banjo passed around, the bassist on percussion, the drummer with a cymbal with a bow. Ended with “Holy Yes To The Sun” into minimalist banjo melancholia into a full out jam.

Video from their tune "The Thing's Hollow" 

Photos by Adam Forslund

Thee Emergency are doing a run of shows promoting their new record this month -- a bunch still to be played.  Caught them at The Funhouse on Saturday May 10 rippin it up. Something kind of JC Superstar about them. And that's not a diss.

Dita Vox, pipes, has it going on.

The band rips the rock riffs and chord progressions straight up. There's lots of urgencies and emergencies going down in this music.  A good time live set.

Photos by Adam Forslund

Love when a band doesn't pretend to hide its influences, but lays it out right on its MySpace page -- nice to see The New Bomb Turks on there a Columbus, OH shout out.  Check out the track "Hopped Up For The Git Down." You know that's right.

Can't stop listening to North By Northwest by The Blues Scholars:

Killer beats, middle break, lines about The Stranger, the Mariners, zip code, area code and of course the chorus.  "It's that Northwest classic..."

Then, if you want to keep it micro-local, check out The Ave, this killer take from Bumbershoot 2006:

Good line up at The High Dive on Tuesday, April 15th.  Started out with The Tripwires.  A bunch of guys who are in The Minus Five and The Young Fresh Fellows, classic Seattle bands that opened up for Robyn Hitchcock the last few times he played Seattle. During those shows, Robyn would randomly yells "Kurt Bloch in the house!" at various points during the show and, eventually, they'd end up on stage with him . So there was Kurt Bloch in the house at The High Dive. The Tripwires have a version of rock and roll down. The bass, a hollow body Gibson, was choice.  The two guitars were also old school and played with an ear for a sound.   Last detail: the drummer kept kept chucking his sticks in the air.

Then, Flowers Forever.  Strange disconnect here, because the tunes on their MySpace page did not at all sound like what they sounded like live.  Experiencing them live, there was possibility. 

Photo by Adam Forslund

But listening to their recorded stuff was entirely different. They are on a pretty intense tour right now and it was a Tuesday night so perhaps it just didn't come together that night. If only the show could have been more like this:

But listening to their MySpace tunes, it sounds like a completely different band.  Check out this video to their pop anthem, Happy New Year:

They have a great sensibility.  They embody the canon -- or a canon -- so astutely.  The drawling tenor of the singer, so loose; the right keyboards; right fills; right keyboard sound.

Funny how a band can destroy you live and fall flat recorded and vice versa. Definitely props to them for their props during their live show:

Photo by Adam Forslund

Elf Power headlined.  Long live indie rock.  The structure of their songs have this perfect logical inevitability that never cloys. You know where they are going and it is so satisfying to have them go there.  So mellow somehow, never threatening, never needing to show off or show up anything.  Something humble about them and definitely about him, the lead singer, Andrew Rieger. 

Photo by Adam Forslund

He seems like the nicest guy.  Again, embodying a certain mode of indie rock being in his deference without deprecation.  Just genuine humility as he laid his vision down. And his twelve string Rickenbacker was deluxe.

Photo by Adam Forslund

The show itself didn't have peaks or valleys, but rather had this quality of head-nodding consistancy.  The encore was choice: first, a cover of Rory Erikson's "Walk With a Zombie."  Then, when the rest of the band seemed done, Rieger busted into Brian Eno's "Needles In The Camel's Eye" from Here Come The Warm Jets, playing it double time, perhaps the most fired up the show got.  Nice.

Photo by Adam Forslund

I saw Speaker Speaker at the High Dive on Easter Sunday for the Ear Candy birthday bash.  Much fun.  Loved watching the drummer tear it up, head tilted as he worked the ride, ripping these fills at break neck pace.  The songs were catchy, composed and masters in their genre.  That hollow body Gibson sounded sweet through the 4 12" Fender amp (I think that is what it was), the right sound.  One song in the middle of the set hit the right tone of bitter sweet pop ballad. I think the line was "no one's gonna let me down again."  The rest of the tunes were straight up power pop punk. And the banter between songs was great.  Best line: "What's the most rock 'n' roll holiday?"  "Well, Jesus did roll a rock on Easter..."  Oh, and you should check out their blog; it is pretty entertaining.  (Yes, I saw the rendition of Baba O’Reilly too; it was stunning.) 

So, it turns out, having poked around on their blog, that the guitarist, Colin McBride, and bassist, Danny Olsen, used to be in a band called Vermillion.  I actually have the Vermillion CD, which I bought at their show at the Paradox in the U-District around 2002.  Produced by Steve Albini no less. I love the cover, this Dali-esque painting by Roger Dean. And there's this great photo of the band in dress clothes in some kind of pool with really creepy lighting that I love.  Also that night seven years ago, Eyes of Autumn played, another math rock band who I liked a lot. Still have their CD too! Long live math rock.

• People look silly with their badges on when at a show.  Why not put it away once you are in?
• Austin pizza is good, especially the crust.Brilliant hangover prevention @ 2AM.
• Limes and beer make sense.
• Texting is ubiquitous. 
• Puking seems equally ubiquitious at 2AM on Sixth Street.
• Check out Cha Cha.  Text them any question to 242242 (which spells Cha Cha).  Better than Google on your phone because a real person is responding. 
• T9 is genius.
• Day parties are genius.
• I could never hire a pedi-cab, but god bless those who do.
• Walking in the street, even when it has been officially blocked off, still has a quality of transgression.
• Elijah Wood really is a hobbit. I know because I saw him at SxSW.
• The etiquette of taking someone's photo with a digital camera: you show the person the photo and he/she has the right to make it instantly disappear.  Gives the power to the subject.