Live Show Reviews

On my way to see AM & Shawn Lee at Missisippi Studios, I really had to give myself a stern talkin’ to. Despite the fact that I had muchos time to kill, I didn’t really feel like watching that evening’s opening bands. I’ve recently become kind of jaded about taking a chance on openers, because so very many are underwhelming. It’s a sad truth. So, in defiance of my journalistic duties, I travel across town as lethargically as possible, but still arrive in time to catch the last few songs from the first opener, Adventure Galley. There’s a lot that I might say about their set, including that the lead singer’s pants are hyper-confusing — but let’s just keep it [...]

“I think as we get older, that idea of magic is just taken from us. There’s just less of it and less of it… I really try to just kind of dabble in things that feel magical.” – Steve Ellison of Flying Lotus

Black Moth Super Rainbow make music for maniacs; misfits that don’t fit in anywhere but a Black Moth Super Rainbow show. The combination of lo-fi, surreal visuals with muscular funk rhythms and a battery of cosmic sci-fi synths transport listeners to a grainy interzone of abandoned playgrounds, rolling cemeteries, and haunted shopping malls. The music of Tobacco (vocals/vocoder), Seven Fields of Aphelion (synth), Iffernaut (drums), Ryan Graveface (guitar), and Pony Diver (bass) is both nostalgic, romantic & playful, while maintaining an air of menace and danger. In an insert that came with the album Dandelion Gum, there was talk of “vocoders humming amongst the flowers and synths bubbling under the leaf-strewn ground while flutes whistle in the wind and beats [...]

When a concert at Portland venue Wonder Ballroom manages to sell out weeks in advance of the show, it can only mean one thing: the most zeitgeisty of artists must be coming to town. And sure enough, when it was announced that James Blake would be making his second appearance in as many years at the magnificent east side venue, tickets went quicker than expected. If nothing else, it proves that James Blake’s new album was a success. April 24th, 2013 @ Wonder Ballroom – Portland, OR LIVE SHOW REVIEW CONTINUES BELOW  

This might come off as a bit fanboyish — but Django Django is the best band you probably haven’t seen live yet.I’ve made no secret about my love for the quartet from the English isles, and a cancellation on their performance at Iceland Airwaves only furthered my anticipation. Like everyone else in the Neptune Theater on a rainy Tuesday evening in Seattle, I eagerly waited and waited for Django Django’s jangly take on psych-electronic influenced rock — a wait which first began since KEXP started blasting “Default” nearly 15 months ago. March 19th, 2013 @ Neptune Theatre, Seattle, WA Night Moves Django Django chose Minneapolis-based Night Moves, fresh off of a whole lot of good press for the brand new [...]

for 2013, we’re bringing SXSW coverage into our personal lives. Rather than writing up simple show reviews, we hope to present to you an uncensored portrait of our exceptional 3-way mind-meld, as we navigate through the chaos that is SXSW in our own manic, sarcastic, and profound ways. Mostly, we talk about food, document idiosyncrasies, review music… and bring it all home with more talk about food.