Caught Hidden Number at Nectar as final act of a comedy show called Magical Heroine and Secrets of the Blue Moon which had some pretty off the hook comedians -- Dan Dan MacinTire going off on Back to the Future, Mauricio on Mexico, Jake Merriman on the Cheesecake Factory. 

Then Hidden Number took the stage in lab coats, with guitars, Korgs and a theremin. There is no simple verse-chrorus-bridge to their stuff:  every song was intricate and bounced between genres as it wound its way to its eventual conclusion.   Composed pastiche that rocked. Super smart. Loved it. Ending with an over-the-top cover of 'Don't Come Around Here No More'. 

Trip Audrey unplugged at The Josephine. First a guest appearance by BH going back to some old stuff from Pilar like 'mrs jones' and 'to the lake' from Noisy Midas.  Then they played a song about Dick Cheney working in the mines, in harmony. Last, they played some songs in Russian that were adaptations/interpretations of Pushkin poems.

Next, Psoy, rockin the Casio with Russian/Yiddish folk songs. He sang a great song about pizza backed by Trip Audrey's drummer.

The John's Guerrilla from Japan were rad:

Lead singer in foppish Hendrix-like digs with scarf and bell bottoms. And did it up, put on a show.  Howlin and flailin about. Making restraint in rock'n'roll look as sad as it is.   Last song was this epic number with about 12 different parts that was high theater.  Big Marshall's filled up the club. This weird refraction of rock that rocked. They are from Shibuya in Tokyo on their US tour. Dug it.

Then, The Wildcat Choir, just guitar and bass drums, cool stuff. Some rockin tunes.  Their MySpace page has tracks from their rehearsals, sounds good.  Like this flyer too:

Camera Obscura was pop pleasure, sugar candy, romance nostalgia.  Check out this over-the-top sap video:

Great to hear her sing in the Showbox to a full house that was appreciative. Her voice is mesmerizing.  Could have gone for more of their upbeat stuff instead of the slow stuff, but what can ya do?

Agent Ribbons in fluorescent wear.  Fav moment of their set: violin lets loose while the guitarist tuned. Give the violinist some! They had some rockin stuff, some stuff that was more like theater or vaudeville or musicals or something.  Again, more rock por favor.

The Lonely Forest, Anacortes representing, now they had some rock.  Those guys have that NW power pop, sincere sound down. Rising stars.  Megan Selig sums them up pretty good here.

Saw a bunch of bands at the Funhouse: 

SpinalCracker
Blank Its 
Smoke Jumper
Watch it Sparkle
The Camellias
Howlin' Houndog 

No pics or flyer but you can watch it On Demand via Comcast -- weird. They were there filming for "Battle of the Bands" not sure exactly what the battle was. Lotsa bright lights and cameras -- too bright, not right in the Funhouse.

Nonetheless, despite the lights, Camellias sounded tight and then Watch It Sparkle tore it up.  Missed some of the other bands for Funhouse bball, but then caught SpinalCracker. There was some modest moshing for that.  

Gotta love the way they pour at the Funhouse.   

Son Things in the fine tradition of indie rock. Keeping a torch burning for that certain sound, urgent yet restrained, sincere with a punch. Good tunes. Liking "Son Gone" on their MySpace page.

Dimples wrote these short songs, had a k punk thing going on, with stage banter and indie pop.  Kawaii.  That 50s drum beat.

Rad Touch was loud, like four times as loud as the other two bands. They were shredders, rock and roll.

The Monkey Pub, a fine Seattle institution.

Caught three of four bands at the High Dive on a low key Tuesday, April 28th:

Volifonix were funk from Eugene.  They were havin fun up there. Felt like college.

Guitar pedal board:

Then was The Color of East were next.  Definitely not funk but they were tight.  Lettin it all out:

Then was Ghostship.  Some good riffs and jams. No drummer, but bassist had bass drum and snare drum with kick pedal and guitarist had high hat, so they had a sort of primitive drum sound beat that thumped along with the metronome-like syncopation to their blues. Both guys had chops. One had painted fingernails.

(All photos except flyer by Adam Forslund.)

Arbitron opened with guitar noise feedback fuzzed out fat with layer after layer of extraction. Drum machine and bass.  Satisfaction.

Then a brief thing which wasn't REDNECK but rather someone subbing from Portland and the set was quick. Drench.

Next was NYC Dan Friel with XMAS lights illuminating his setup. Had a theremin sound going sometimes it was a major pentatonic chillout feelgood thing but then sometimes it got more heavy and hard with freakouts on the pedals deluxe and drum machine mania 32nd notes galore.

Then Oakland Chen Santa Maria more ambient texturific drone.

Sex Negative from Vancouver was next. They fuckin rocked. 

Ran outta gas so missed Totally Ripped. Here's another poster though:

Yep it's true three different posters for the show.

Caught some bands at the Showbox Green Room.

Blown away by austenitic from Seattle.  Just drums and bass, but not "drums and bass." Rather, explosive drummer outta control.  Singer fired up. Songs were amped, complicated, melodic, frenetic. Husker Du sticker on the bassist's amp, appropriate, as there was definitely an SST invocation, like Mike Watt and George Hurley on speed, 16th notes, 32nd notes, and overall non-stop. 

Best line of the night: "This one's called 'Dostoyevsky Whooped My Ass.' Don't read. It's bad for you. It makes you think." Could have been a Minutemen song title fer sure.  Love the rant on their MySpace page:

"there's a sound that's very popular at the moment. happily, we sound nothing like it. fuck you money. fuck you derivatives. fuck you radio (commercial radio! jesus, calm down already!) and all the wrong reasons. hello music for beauty. hello music for release. hello music because we simply have to."

Check out this YouTube video (although like most live videos it doesn't do justice to the force they wield.)

Them Hills, from Nevada City, California, was next. They had two guitarists, a big Marshall stack and a bunch of programmed drum tracks.  No bassist. 

Picked up a comp they are on: Dragon Slayers Vol. III by Thread Productions.   Bunch of great stuff on that comp. The Actionists with "Rats in the Baby Grand" was pretty choice, which is on their MySpace page.  Whole comp hung together well, sense of collective sincerity going on. And cool cover art by Jen Merrill:

Last up was By Sunlight.  Pretty guitars.

Caught Umber Sleeping and The Camellias at Cafe Venus/Mars Bar on Friday.  The Camellias are indie-rock big band thang with a great keys player who bounces around and rips some happy-go-lucky solos. Check him out:

The rest of the crew serves it up. Here's a shot of the singer, crooning, and the drummer, banging:

Umber Sleeping had a great new wave psych thing going on. Hypnotic. No bass but that was okay. The Korg made up for it.  Sounded right on. Got out of the seat and in front to absorb sound waves. Live sound is a lot different than the tunes on their MySpace page.  Check out the 70s-o-rific album art:

(All photos except umber sleeping album cover by Adam Forslund.)