<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" > <channel> <title>Seattle – Pop Press International</title> <atom:link href="https://www.poppressinternational.com/tag/seattle/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>https://www.poppressinternational.com</link> <description>Music Blog, Music News, Tracks, Reviews, Live Music, Photos & More</description> <lastBuildDate>Sun, 21 Jan 2018 18:59:45 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod> hourly </sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency> 1 </sy:updateFrequency> <generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2</generator> <item> <title>Mega Bog Opens for Destroyer at Mohawk</title> <link>https://www.poppressinternational.com/2018/01/19/mega-bog-opens-for-destroyer-at-mohawk/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Bryan Parker]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 19 Jan 2018 22:37:02 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[BLOG]]></category> <category><![CDATA[LIVE MUSIC]]></category> <category><![CDATA[#mohawk]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Austin]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Destroyer]]></category> <category><![CDATA[indie rock]]></category> <category><![CDATA[jazz rock]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Live Music]]></category> <category><![CDATA[live review]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Mega Bog]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Mohawk Austin]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category> <category><![CDATA[show review]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.poppressinternational.com/?p=23027</guid> <description><![CDATA[Touring behind their second LP, Happy Together, Seattle-based band Mega Bog opened for indie rock stalwart Destroyer for a knockout billing of music this past Monday at Mohawk. Historically, Seattle brought crunchy, discordant rock...]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-10.jpg"><img decoding="async" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-23050" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-10-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-10-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-10-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-10-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>Touring behind their second LP, <a href="https://megabog.bandcamp.com/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>Happy Together</em></span></a>, Seattle-based band Mega Bog opened for indie rock stalwart Destroyer for a knockout billing of music this past Monday at Mohawk. Historically, Seattle brought crunchy, discordant rock to the world while recent musical trends have edged toward chill, soft jazz tones in the city’s independent music scene. Fronted and conceived by Erin Birgy, Mega Bog unifies those worlds with sometimes powerful, sometimes relaxed song structures that frequently flutter into experimental jazz flourishes of brass and keys. At times, the tunes are melodic and perfectly accessible, and at others venture deeply into disjointed arrangements. On Monday, the band braved some light rain and rapidly declining temperatures to bring their songs to Austin, TX. The crowd’s warm reception and smiling faces at the sets completion should be an indicator of how well Mega Bog’s approach fits into Austin’s music landscape. They’re a band on the rise, so if you’ve missed either of their last couple of shows in town, keep your ear open for another return.</p> <p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-9.jpg"><img decoding="async" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-23036" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-9-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-9-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-9-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-9-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>Destroyer played an astounding set of songs culled from a few more recent albums including <em>ken</em> and <em>Kaputt</em>. Although the band remained, as usual, pretty aloof and standoffish, it didn’t detract from the sheer impressiveness of the band’s musical prowess. The only drawback for the evening came with the set’s brevity. Look, I would stand around all night and hear Destroyer play music, particularly from <em>Rubies</em> or <em>Streethawk: A Seduction</em>. By that I mean no discredit to the incredible work the band continues to generate, but those albums have my heart by a particularly nostalgic thread. Maybe one of these days we’ll get a tour chocked full of old tracks, but considering the tendencies of creative voice Dan Bejar, I’m not counting on it.</p> <p>All photographs © Bryan C. Parker & Pop Press International; all rights reserved. Click any image to open set in viewer.</p> <p><a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-11.jpg'><img decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-11-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-11-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-11-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-11-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-10.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-10-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-10-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-10-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-10-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-9.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-9-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-9-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-9-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-9-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-7.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-7-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-7-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-7-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-7-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-6.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-6-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-6-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-6-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-6-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-5.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-5-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Mega_Bog_011518-5-150x150.jpg 150w, 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href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-5.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-5-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-5-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-5-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-5-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-4.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-4-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-4-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-4-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-4-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-3.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-3-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-3-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-3-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-3-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-2.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-2-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-2-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-2-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-1.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-1-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-1-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Destroyer_011518-1-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a></p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>The Wimps Make Austin Debut at Cheer Up Charlies</title> <link>https://www.poppressinternational.com/2017/06/27/the-wimps-make-austin-debut-at-cheer-up-charlies/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Bryan Parker]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 27 Jun 2017 18:35:02 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[BLOG]]></category> <category><![CDATA[LIVE MUSIC]]></category> <category><![CDATA[#atx]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Cheer Up Charlie's]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Punk]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category> <category><![CDATA[show review]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Strange Mother]]></category> <category><![CDATA[The Wimps]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Wimpin']]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.poppressinternational.com/?p=22940</guid> <description><![CDATA[“We wimpin’?!” yelled Cameron Bina of Strange Mother during the band’s opening set at Cheer Up Charlies last weekend. He was referring to Seattle-based touring band the Wimps, who headlined the show. The...]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-3.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-22960" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-3-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-3-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-3-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-3-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>“We wimpin’?!” yelled Cameron Bina of Strange Mother during the band’s opening set at Cheer Up Charlies last weekend. He was referring to Seattle-based touring band the Wimps, who headlined the show. The question morphed into a chant: “Wim-pin’! Wim-pin’!” It was pretty dumb, but also pretty funny, and the right kind of silly for a Sunday night punk rock show with Wimps.</p> <p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-13.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-22970" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-13-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-13-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-13-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-13-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>Wimps were making their Austin debut—surprising for a band that seems to fit in so well here. The group’s lean punk at times feels idiosyncratic and light but has the ability to turn ferocious in an instant. Although Wimp’s can certainly get down with strummed, distorted power chords, they often look to slinky guitar lines and trebley bass interspersed in songs. The band’s streamlined arrangement allows these parts plenty of space within the songs, creating great hooks and turns.</p> <p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-17.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-thumbnail wp-image-22974 alignleft" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-17-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-17-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-17-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-17-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>Alternating, call-and-response style vocals from guitarist Rachel Ratner and bassist Matt Nyce provide both aural and visual components for the live set. All the members perform with intensity and physical energy making them a lot of fun to see. I’m hoping Wimps will find more reasons to get this far south sooner rather than later. Five out of five fans rocking out in the front row donned in Wimps shirts at Cheer Up Charlies agree, we were definitely wimpin’.</p> <p>Check out photos from the evening below. All photographs © Bryan C. Parker & Pop Press INTL.; click any image to open in slideshow viewer.</p> <p><a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-18.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-18-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-18-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-18-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-18-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-17.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-17-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-17-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-17-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-17-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-16.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-16-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-16-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-16-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-16-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-15.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-15-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-15-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-15-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-15-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-14.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-14-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-14-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-14-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-14-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-13.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-13-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-13-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-13-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-13-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-12.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-12-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-12-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-12-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-12-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-11.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-11-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-11-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-11-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-11-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-10.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-10-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-10-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-10-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-10-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-9.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-9-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-9-150x150.jpg 150w, 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href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-7.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-7-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-7-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-7-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-7-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-6.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-6-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-6-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-6-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-6-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-5.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-5-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-5-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-5-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-5-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-4.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-4-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-4-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-4-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-4-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-3.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-3-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-3-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-3-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-3-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-2.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-2-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-2-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-2-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-1.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-1-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-1-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Wimps_061817-1-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-7.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-7-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-7-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-7-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-7-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-6.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-6-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-6-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-6-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-6-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-5.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-5-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-5-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-5-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-5-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-4.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-4-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-4-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-4-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-4-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-3.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-3-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-3-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-3-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-3-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-2.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-2-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-2-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-2-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-1.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-1-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-1-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Strange_Mother_061817-1-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a></p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Wimps Play Cheer Up Charlies Sunday 6/18</title> <link>https://www.poppressinternational.com/2017/06/16/wimps-play-cheer-up-charlies-sunday-618/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Bryan Parker]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 16 Jun 2017 16:15:45 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[BLOG]]></category> <category><![CDATA[UPCOMING]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Beat Happening]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Cheer Up Charlie's]]></category> <category><![CDATA[lo-fi]]></category> <category><![CDATA[pacific northwest]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Pop]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Punk]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Show Preview]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Wimps]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.poppressinternational.com/?p=22871</guid> <description><![CDATA[Masters of awkward pop. Purveyors of no-frills punk. Ambassadors of lo-fi rock. However you want to describe Seattle band Wimps, there’s a lot to love about this trio. Carrying the torch of the style...]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Wimps_Sleeping_2.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-22872" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Wimps_Sleeping_2-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Wimps_Sleeping_2-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Wimps_Sleeping_2-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Wimps_Sleeping_2-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>Masters of awkward pop. Purveyors of no-frills punk. Ambassadors of lo-fi rock. However you want to describe Seattle band Wimps, there’s a lot to love about this trio. Carrying the torch of the style of unpretentious, nonchalant punk that stretches back to the Pacific Northwest’s Beat Happening in the early 80s, Wimps make songs that don’t have to try hard to be be infectious and endearing. The band <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/244468219368751/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">plays Cheer Up Charlies this Sunday</span></a> evening supported by Nike, Talkies, and Strange Mother. No better way to spend your Sunday night. Check out the Wimps’ video for “Old Guy” below, and check out <a href="http://www.thesewimps.com/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">more about the band here</span></a>.</p> <p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W4EhXRX-ti0" width="460" height="290" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>iji Preps Whatever Will Happen for Release on Team Love</title> <link>https://www.poppressinternational.com/2015/03/02/iji-preps-whatever-will-happen-for-release-on-team-love/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Bryan Parker]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 02 Mar 2015 17:53:50 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[BLOG]]></category> <category><![CDATA[TRACKS]]></category> <category><![CDATA[70s]]></category> <category><![CDATA[iji]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category> <category><![CDATA[soft rock]]></category> <category><![CDATA[weird]]></category> <category><![CDATA[weirdo pop]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Zach Burba]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.poppressinternational.com/?p=19949</guid> <description><![CDATA[Seattle indie pop band iji has announced that their new album Whatever Will Happen will see release via Team Love Records on June 2nd. Few details have emerged, but the band’s past endeavors and the...]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_16279" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 150px"><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-2.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-16279 size-thumbnail" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-2-150x150.jpg" alt="iji_081114-2" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-2-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-2-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a></p> <p class="wp-caption-text">iji performs at Cheer Up Charlie’s; photo by Bryan C. Parker</p> </div> <p>Seattle indie pop band iji has announced that their new album <em>Whatever Will Happen</em> will see release via Team Love Records on June 2nd. Few details have emerged, but the band’s past endeavors and the teaser video indicate iji’s newest musical foray will hinge on 70’s soft rock and breezy, weirdo pop as points of reference. When the band <a title="Seattle Band iji Wows Cheer Up Charlies: Live Review" href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/2014/08/13/seattle-band-iji-wows-cheer-up-charlies-live-review/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">played Cheer Up Charlie’s last year</span></a>, everyone in attendance came away significantly wowed, and we couldn’t be more excited to get our hands on more music from this upcoming album. Check out the teaser trailer below:</p> <p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NMGySNTMB5E" width="460" height="285" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>I Made Love To My Girlfriend While Listening To Father John Misty’s Baby-Makin’ Record I Love You, Honeybear: A Critique and One-sided Dialogue</title> <link>https://www.poppressinternational.com/2015/02/13/i-made-love-to-my-girlfriend-while-listening-to-father-john-mistys-baby-makin-record-i-love-you-honeybear-a-critique-and-one-sided-dialogue/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Rian Souleles]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2015 18:18:01 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[BLOG]]></category> <category><![CDATA[REVIEWS]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Father John Misty]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Pop Press Picks]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Rian Souleles]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sub Pop]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.poppressinternational.com/?p=19800</guid> <description><![CDATA[Included in the packaging for the physical LP of Father John Misty’s sophomore follow up, I Love You, Honeybear, is a thin pamphlet titled, “Exercises for Listening.” It’s an extensive instruction manual for...]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Father-John-Misty-I-Love-You-Honeybear.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-19801" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Father-John-Misty-I-Love-You-Honeybear-150x150.jpg" alt="Father-John-Misty-I-Love-You-Honeybear" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Father-John-Misty-I-Love-You-Honeybear-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Father-John-Misty-I-Love-You-Honeybear-300x300.jpg 300w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Father-John-Misty-I-Love-You-Honeybear-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Father-John-Misty-I-Love-You-Honeybear-50x50.jpg 50w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Father-John-Misty-I-Love-You-Honeybear.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>Included in the packaging for the physical LP of Father John Misty’s sophomore follow up, <em>I Love You, Honeybear</em>, is a thin pamphlet titled, “<a href="https://t.co/NcwBhYXmIe" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>Exercises for Listening</em></span></a>.” It’s an extensive instruction manual for the album, consisting of humorous lists for each song printed in an anachronistic aesthetic reminiscent of a sliver of paper you would find in a vintage novelty hypnotism record. This is the second time Father John Misty or Josh Tillman, the author of the text and music, has supplied a supplemental reading to the lyrics with his records. His first album, <em>Fear Fun</em>, included his surrealist, hyper-satirical novel, <em>Mostly Hypothetical Mountains</em>, printed in minuscule font on both sides of multiple, giant fold-out posters. Tillman is a frustrated literary writer, with an obsessively verbose and hyper-analytical philosophical style, but like his obvious influence, David Foster Wallace, he’s able to pull it off. He’s a gifted singer-songwriter and preternatural entertainer, using his albums as a Trojan horse for his writing—probably because it’s easier to him than undertaking the demoralizing process of publishing a book in the 21<sup>st</sup> century. Tillman’s supplemental texts are an integral part of the greater experience of his albums—although, I don’t remember how far I got in <em>Mostly Hypothetical Mountains</em>.</p> <p>In anticipation of the new record, manifestos on his grand concept were disseminated in various iterations on his corresponding social network accounts and multiple self-penned press releases. A brief summary of all this text: he attempted to write about falling in love with his wife, Emma, and the resulting profound self-transformation enabled by that event, without the use of sentimentality or other artificial conventions. <em>I Love You, Honeybear </em>is also a comedic deconstruction and examination of loving and living in a mediated capitalistic world.</p> <div id="attachment_19802" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 846px"><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/father-misty-married-846.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-19802 size-full" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/father-misty-married-846.jpg" alt="Josh and Emma Elizabeth Tillman" width="846" height="516" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/father-misty-married-846.jpg 846w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/father-misty-married-846-300x183.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 846px) 100vw, 846px" /></a></p> <p class="wp-caption-text">Josh and Emma Elizabeth Tillman. Photo from Emma Elizabeth Tillman’s Tumblr / Instagram user: @tennesseebunny</p> </div> <p> </p> <p>Or as Josh put it in his press release, “My ambition, aside from making an indulgent, soulful, and epic sound worthy of the subject matter, was to address the sensuality of fear, the terrifying force of love, the unutterable pleasures of true intimacy, and the destruction of emotional and intellectual prisons in my own voice. Blammo.”</p> <p>Not only has he achieved this ambition, but he transcended it.</p> <p>In the same way women listen to Beyoncé, <em>Fear Fun </em>became my swagger record, especially in the wake of difficult breakup. Although, I would never consider myself a ladies man as accomplished as Tillman, Father John Misty indirectly helped me learn to better interact and really love women. Women wanted Josh Tillman—even though he was perceived as a little bit of a jerk—and men wanted to be him. As a frustrated neurotic artist/slacker/philosopher, I aspired to that. And maybe, my realized self that emerged from my own searching could be a little more earnest than Father John Misty.</p> <p>Like the synchronicity I felt with <em>Fear Fun</em>, <em>I Love You, Honeybear</em> found me at just the right time and space, subjectively paralleling my own little romantic narrative, like a humorous, verging on profound, letter received from a friend. I don’t know how much this uncanny phenomenon has to do with metaphysics—or if it’s just my own construct—but the rare and exceptional book, film, or album can create an altered consciousness.</p> <p>Now, after false starts, fun misadventures, and ayahuasca ceremonies, like Josh, I by chance met a woman, who is Something Else. I wasn’t looking to be in a relationship, and, after years of feeling self-conscious about women, was just getting into the zone of living without attachment and enjoying the life of a space-age bachelor. Over idealizing and being dependent on a woman scared me, and was the downfall to more than one of my past relationships. Good women are rare, but we also have to be in the right place in our own life to appreciate them.</p> <p>Here’s my blurb: This album facilitated in the awareness of the deeper love I have for my girlfriend!</p> <p><em>I Love You, Honeybear </em>is described as a concept album about a guy named Josh Tillman. Miraculously, unlike most marketed “concept” albums, it has a definitive narrative structure and theme. The critical attention toward track order is highly evident and seems to be a blatant response to the culture of streaming and downloading. It implements the classic album’s dramatic arc that’s as old as Aristotle’s <em>Poetics</em>, Joseph Campbell, and/or <em>OK Computer</em>: Opening establishing song, slight counterpoint second song—usually the hit single—then a few songs playing with tension and release, climaxing to a violent orgasmic, cathartic intermediary song, next, two progressively unwinding tempo songs to take it on home to the last song. Fin. These are also usually ideal make-out/sex albums.</p> <p>On the day of the release, I decided this would be a good romantic record to put my girlfriend and I in the mood, and it had the potential to be yet another album I associate with a relationship. Yep. There’s that word. I’ve been with this woman every night for the last two months, and strangely, this isn’t exhausting or annoying. Kaley is this calm, but by no means passive, companion that will engage in endless conversation about everything, and when we’re not in deep discussion, it feels completely natural to sit in silence together and/or spend hours immersed in our own work. When dating an artist, it’s important to have mutual tolerance for each other’s temporary madness. There’s never a struggle for attention between us. We balance each other out. A romantic simpatico on this level is special, and, even though she is physically gorgeous, her mind and soul are what really attract me. This kind of love is what this record is about.</p> <p>After a domestic cooking exercise in my cluttered apartment with Kaley, I put <em>I Love You, Honeybear </em>on my turntable for the first time, while we ate on the couch among the stacks of books, empty bottles, and dirty dishes. We listened to the album about four times in a row, drinking and eating, discussing the record at length, interspersed with sex, and because of the weed we smoked, the precise timeline of the events and observations that follow get a bit hazy.</p> <p>Track 1: The title track, “I Love You, Honey Bear,” acts as the overture to the record. It presents the themes and their dualities: Josh and Emma’s love, their psyches, and the absurdity of the outside world that they sometimes want to tell to fuck off. Father John Misty and producer Jonathan Wilson comfortably twists the music tropes and lineage of the Hollywood Vampires of the 70s. Josh doesn’t hide his influences. We have Nilsson, Lennon, and Newman—but also Scott Walker, Dory Previn, and Neil Young, plus a multitude of literary and philosophical heroes such as Žižek, Sartre, Vonnegut, Allen, and Jodorowsky.</p> <p>The slightly deranged strings and ache of the steel guitar are instrumental signifiers that can’t be resisted. The girlfriend is really digging it. She’s familiar with Misty and the <a href="http://youtu.be/J5_6EUJNjCQ" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">YouTube video of his mocking post-post-modern performance at the Spotify offices</span></a>, with a mobile karaoke and light machine playing a cheesy MIDI version of the track from <a href="http://www.fatherjohnmisty.com/sap/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">SAP</span></a>, Tillman’s satirical response to the culture of music streaming services.</p> <p>The first audible chuckle from Kaley is to the lyric, “You’re bent over the altar and the neighbors are complaining. That the misanthropes next door are probably conceiving a Damien.” Although my favorite lyric in the song is: “I’ve brought my mother’s depression. You’ve got your father’s scorn and a wayward aunt’s schizophrenia.”</p> <p>It seems like an off-putting revelation to hear humor used in such a serious production—even though, a smattering of artists have done this effectively throughout the history of popular music. Kaley explains Tillman’s comedic timing with a brilliant observation: He creates a sarcastic tone by creating an illusion of improvisation—that is, the musical emphases (higher pitches, downbeats) often do not align with the lyrical emphases (emphasized syllables or important words within a sentence). It’s like my slightly, stuttered phrasing when I’m making up funny lyrics on the spot along to the melody of her ring tone. She just blew my mind again. I love this woman.</p> <p>Unlike many rock and roll lyrics, which are easily ignored, Father John Misty’s are integral to the transmission of the song. Like Dylan’s, they demand a close reading. Josh’s lyrics are raw and conversational, or as he put it to the <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/from-the-heart-father-john-misty-explores-the-messed-up-warts-and-all-side-of-love-1.2094040" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>Irish Times</em></span></a>, “I think that my loftiest ideal for my music is that by writing so intimately about myself that in some kind of counter-intuitive way, it kind of becomes universal.” He doesn’t shed the indirect, sardonic style of the last record, but hones it to use that same mode in a direct way. Like the raw sincerity of solo John Lennon, he is singing exactly what he is thinking.</p> <p>Track 2: We come to “<a href="http://youtu.be/A6NuYJ0RzRg" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Chateau Lobby #4 (In C for two Virgins)</span></a>.” The Spotify single. It’s the track that Emma and Josh defiantly made an abstract official video for on their iPad for their wedding anniversary. This is the first explicit indication that Emma is something Josh can’t explain because everyone else is boring, and, by the repetition of the phrase, “first time,” apparently, it’s the first time he has felt this quality of love. But like all good drama, Tillman’s conditioned cynicism and doubt provide the thematic tension of the record. Josh’s id and neurosis play the foil.</p> <p>As she unfolds the large poster of a photo collage that Emma Elizabeth Tillman designed for the lyric sheet, Kaley says,“They look beautiful,” in that uniquely feminine tone, which is uttered when a women is projecting her relationship on someone else’s romantic scenario.</p> <div id="attachment_19805" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 1200px"><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Emma-Elizabeth-Tillman-Collage-.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-19805 size-full" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Emma-Elizabeth-Tillman-Collage-.png" alt="Emma Elizabeth Tillman Collage from I Love You, Honeybear's liner notes." width="1200" height="905" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Emma-Elizabeth-Tillman-Collage-.png 1200w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Emma-Elizabeth-Tillman-Collage--300x226.png 300w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Emma-Elizabeth-Tillman-Collage--1024x772.png 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></a></p> <p class="wp-caption-text">Emma Elizabeth Tillman collage from <i>I Love You, Honeybear</i>‘s liner notes.</p> </div> <p>The dim light, provided by the few dead light bulbs I’ve been meaning to fix, set the unintentional romantic ambiance, and somehow let me better see the cosmic swirl of the sunflowers in Kaley’s irises: a shade of blue green that plays in a beautiful color palette with her dirty blond hair. It could be my contacts and crappy vision, but it’s difficult to directly stare in someone’s eyes without your focus blurring.</p> <p>Track 3: The synthetic “True Affection,” is Father John Misty’s biggest stylistic departure to date. It follows the organic Mariachi horns of the previous track. Tillman utilizes the laptop Moog sonics of trap beat-Postal Service/Bjorkish-electronic music, and is probably the closest thing FJM will ever come to EDM. Everything artificial is an intentional decision to convey the disconnect, and the human things lost in translation during an unavoidable, substitute digital courtship on the road with Emma using “strange Apple devices.” It’s not Aphex Twin, although listening to the weird soundtrack Tillman wrote for his wife’s intriguing film, <em>The History of Caves</em>, I eagerly look forward to his innovative future experiments. They might be like Scott Walker’s later albums that scare the shit out of me, but for now Josh is not radically re-inventing his own musical language. With his mastery of the King’s English, he seems to enjoy experimenting with established signifiers of the genres he inhabits.</p> <p>Around this point in the album my girlfriend and I put our forks down, and heavy petting commenced on the couch. I think she really likes this song. That sexy beat probably reminds her of Bjork. She notices while kissing me that she is laying on her iPhone, checks to see that it didn’t sex butt dial anyone and that it’s set on “do not disturb,” and throws it onto the ground. The “strange devices” have been banished.</p> <p>End of Side A. Just when we’re getting started. I get up bare-chested to flip the record. More wine, honey? Since <em>I Love You, Honeybear</em> is a double LP, there’ll be a lot of getting up to switch them. You couldn’t have made this a little easier for us vinyl fetishists, Josh?</p> <p>Track 4: “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment” implements manic pixie dream girl glockenspiel and a sitar. It’s an ode to the archetypical hipster ditz that desperately hangs out after the show to try to bang the lead singer of Foxygen or the drummer of the Fleet Foxes. Tillman sings, “She says, ‘like literally, music is the air [she] breathe[s]’ And the malapropos make me wanna fucking scream. I wonder if she even knows what that word means. Well, it’s ‘literally’ not that.” This song also begins the Felliniesque masculine thought experiment that becomes a psychological thread of the record. The ladies man uses the girl in the song to analyze all “other women” or past “other women” and comparing them to Emma, not superficially or aesthetically, realizes the rarity of his intimacy with Emma.</p> <p>Things are getting pretty hot and heavy on the couch now. We should probably move it to the bedroom, or we can stay on the couch. Novelty is good. Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll spare you the details—even though you had me edit the sex scenes in your romance novel.</p> <p>Track 5: The baby-makin’, slow soul song, “When You’re Smiling And Astride Me.” It <em>comes</em> at just the right time. Being a soul boy, I was <em>over</em>come by the muffled ‘70s snare sound. The slinky Harrison guitar. The dusty electric piano. After hearing the lyrics, “There’s no need to fear me. Darling, I love you as you are when you’re alone. I’d never try to change you. As if I could, and if I were to, what’s the part that I’d miss most? When you’re smiling and astride me I can hardly believe that I’ve found you. And I’m terrified by that…You see me as I am, it’s true. The aimless, fake drifter, and the horny man-child Momma’s boy to boot.”</p> <p>I looked to my naked girlfriend, bathed in lamplight, and said, “Oh shit, this is our song.”</p> <p>This is the sea change of the album and the self-described redemptive, transformation of Tillman in the story. Josh sings, “That’s how you live free. To truly see and be seen.” Josh and Emma accept and see each other for who they are, collectively trying to dismantle the bullshit. Their mutual connection allows them a safe place to be vulnerable and brutally honest with each other to do so.</p> <p>Like Josh, when it comes to romance, over analysis and skepticism can plague me. I read <em>Sex at Dawn</em>. Monogamy is just an enculturation. Blah Blah Blah. I’ve spent an exhaustive amount of time second-guessing my emotions. People say that when you’re with the right person there’s no doubt. You just know and everything is perfect. No. I don’t think it works this way, but I am aware that most of the doubt I experience is usually a distorted reflection of my uncertainty towards myself. Thinking to myself, this doesn’t look exactly like what I imagined in my head. I thought you would be French or at least have some kind of accent. What’s with this sick fascination Americans have with the foreign and the exotic? I know you ladies do, too. I’ve observed you ogle <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0305558/?ref_=tt_cl_t4">Gael García Bernal</a>. All of Kaley’s ex-boyfriends are foreign.</p> <p>Prolonged intimacy breaks down all the facades that are used to woo each other. When you first start dating, you’re on your best behavior, desperately trying to hide anxiety and flaws because of this irrational belief that maybe one of those flaws is a deal breaker.</p> <p>Track 6: “Nothing Good Ever Happens At The Goddamn Thirsty Crow,” is a country song with avant-garde flourishes. It’s content is self-explanatory: a relatively unheard depiction of a ladies man’s blue balls on the road amongst a sea of groupies. Then he reverses the scenario, grappling with his own jealousy when Emma is hit on at a bar. Josh exercises his god given right to brag about what he loves about his wife, referring to her as his genius. In Emma, Josh has found his intellectual and artistic equal.</p> <p>He sings, “But my baby, she does something way more impressive than the Georgia crawl / She blackens pages like a Russian romantic. And gets down more often than a blow-up doll.” Libido compatibility in a committed relationship isn’t everything, and subject to impermanence, but when I experience it, it’s awesome that it’s one less thing I have to worry about in this particular moment.</p> <p>Track 7: “Strange Encounter” is the precursor to the climax of the album. The background vocals vaguely echo the motif in Fear Fun’s “Misty’s Nightmares 1&2,” which was a haunting rumination on the ghosts of girlfriends past. In “Strange Encounter” one of Josh’s conquests overdoses in his house. He’s freaked out by the emptiness of his debauchery, and begins to long for something real, singing, “Don’t be my last strange encounter.” The phrase takes on dual meanings. He refers to a girl in the song, and as self-destructive as his empty dalliances were, fidelity means that he will never have another “strange encounter.” Emma is also his last “strange encounter,” collapsing all other possibilities, as Josh gains something real. True love scares the shit out of him, when he realizes the danger of being vulnerable with another person.</p> <p>Kaley glances down at the gatefold record jacket. Stacey Rozich’s artwork for the album features beautifully painted children’s book illustrations of anthropomorphic animals and creatures, acting as surreal symbols, archetypes of the characters and themes of the songs. Josh is depicted as a naked baby suckling at the breast of a Madonna figure on the cover. The Oedipal image was the only specific instruction he had for the art, and he feels it’s a summarizing articulation of the record. I didn’t buy the $40 deluxe Dioramic, Meta-Musical Funtime pop up edition, with colored vinyl, because I’m a starving artist. I’m not falling for your gimmicks this time Father John Misty.</p> <div id="attachment_19810" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 1457px"><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/I-Love-You-Honeybear-Cover-Art.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-19810 size-full" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/I-Love-You-Honeybear-Cover-Art.jpg" alt="I Love You Honeybear Cover Art" width="1457" height="1048" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/I-Love-You-Honeybear-Cover-Art.jpg 1457w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/I-Love-You-Honeybear-Cover-Art-300x216.jpg 300w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/I-Love-You-Honeybear-Cover-Art-1024x737.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1457px) 100vw, 1457px" /></a></p> <p class="wp-caption-text">Album cover artwork by Stacey Rozich</p> </div> <p> </p> <p>Track 8: “Ideal Husband,” enters with pummeling drums and bass, and a lyrical allusion to Julian Assange taking Tillman’s files. We can’t hide our dirty secrets anymore. Josh lays it all out for Emma with no filter. Every shred of guilt, insecurity, doubt, and loathing is exorcised and confessed, before taking the last dive into the unconscious oblivion of the male psyche. The song is a primal scream, a sonic equivalent to the aftermath of a reckless bachelor party. He shows up at Emma’s at seven in the morning singing, “Said something dumb like, ‘I’m tired of running / Tired of running / tired of running!’” It’s cliché, and maybe stolen from the monologue of <em>High Fidelity</em> or some other romcom. Then, the last lines, “Let’s put a baby in the oven!” which in the phrasing sounds macabrely funny, and, “Wouldn’t I make the ideal husband?”</p> <p>Track 9: The couple then resurfaces, naked and free, to comment on the world around them in the last two wind-down tracks of the album. I heard “Bored in the USA” in the Apple Store over the in-store speakers. I was waiting in an unnecessary Kafkaesque situation for a Genius to replace my MacBook’s frayed charger, which essentially failed as a product of planned inherent vice. As I looked around at the others with Apple products in their laps like sick pets, our collective dependence on these strange devices (marked with a half bitten apple: the sign of the fall of man) became increasingly apparent. The song provided ridiculous synchronicity to this moment. It’s not only a satirical cultural critique, but also a disclosure of Josh’s fear of commitment and the potential boredom of marriage. The utilization of a laugh track in the middle third of this song is a brilliant gesture.</p> <p>Our clothes and underwear are in a scattershot pattern throughout my small one bedroom. We are both completely naked. We need our lovers to escape the mundane and the tyranny of our thoughts, and through the acceptance we experience with intimacy, see reality for the way it really is. Josh and Emma’s mattress, and this unintentional, distressed leather couch, are sensual refuge from the insanity described above.</p> <p>Track 10: The second to last song, “Holy Shit,” is a unification of the two interdependent types of songs on the record. It’s a long list of contemporary hash tags for the human condition. Like Allan Watts says, it’s impossible to differentiate the individual from its surroundings. As much as Josh and Emma want to ignore the stupidity of the outside world, maybe their compassion won’t let them be so selfish.</p> <p>In <a href="http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9589-father-john-misty-how-to-make-love/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">an interview with Pitchfork</span></a> Josh called intimacy an “antibody to narcissism.” I would add: Love is a selfless act. It’s not all about YOU and what you want or think you need. The practice of love generates the fierce will necessary to transcend our selfish nature and care for another, and like daily meditation, this process can be liberating.</p> <p>To quote <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2014/dec/03/slavoj-zizek-philosopher-what-is-freedom-today-video" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Slavoj Žižek from a video for the Guardian</span></a>, “For me the highest form of freedom is love. Love means that you totally dedicate yourself to one other person. You renounce one of the key freedoms of choice: to exchange sexual partners and so on. This freedom is now gradually taken away from us…by online dating sites… I think our idea today is love without the fall…No! Free love is the fall! You are walking along the street, you slip on a banana peel, a lady helps you, and maybe it will be the love of your life, you cannot predict it. Without this fall love is not love. True freedom means looking into and questioning the predispositions of everything that is given to us by our hegemonic ideology. To question everything including the notion of freedom itself.”—Coincidentally, Josh now wears a banana pin on his black velvet blazer.</p> <p>I met Kaley in Real Life. My friend Brittney was bringing a “female” friend out with her to Soul Night. Although memory is creative in hindsight, I distinctly remember the exact moment I saw and checked Kaley out through the noise of the hipster crowd. It was significant. She believes it was a perceived blip of precognition. Later we bonded over our fascination with Ram Dass among other things, and it was apparent she was on my wavelength.</p> <p>Track 11: The last song is inevitably an eternal panty dropper. Much to Josh’s chagrin, it is destined to become the Cadillac of hipster wedding songs. The composite of track 4 might request it from her wedding DJ because she’s oblivious to the fact that there’s another song on the album that is about her. Although I call dibs on “When You’re Smiling And Astride Me” for my contingent, and, for the context of this review, potential wedding. (Sorry Ma, at least I’m deeply contemplating this monogamy stuff now, and that should make you happy.) It’s similar to that saccharine song Adam Sandler sings to Drew Barrymore on the airplane in The Wedding Singer, Ben Fold’s “The Luckiest,” or that Ben Gibbard song that was presumably written about Zoey Deschanel—except “<a href="http://youtu.be/cBYjAVqMtqo" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">I Went To The Store One Day</span></a>,” is so real and devoid of affectation there is a good chance that it will induce existential shivers, while you sit in the afterglow, listening to the sound of the record when it runs out of groove. It could have been a case of set and setting, but Kaley and I were both a little teary eyed.</p> <p>Josh arranges the song as a post-coital serenade with a single acoustic guitar, Italian tremolo mandolins, and a string section. The third verse features a humorous, futuristic, hypothetical tangent on married life, growing old, and his inevitable death, fully self-aware of his cynicism towards sentimentality: “Don’t let me die in a hospital. I’ll save the big one for the last time we make love,” he says in diminished croon, probably half-wincing, but satisfied in finding something genuine out of all things in those last words.</p> <p>Just like Slavoj’s banana peel, Josh by chance met Emma in the parking lot of the Laurel Canyon Country Store.</p> <p>As Lennon observed before him, only through love, do you see beyond the egotistical projections of a neurotic, and to the flickery dimension that’s much deeper, primordial, and ineffable.</p> <p>Writing about love without it sounding like a Hallmark greeting card is a slippery process. The challenge of writing this review must be just an approximation of the struggle Josh went through making this record. I lived with this album for a weekend, and like Kaley, am not sick of it one bit. <em>I Love You, Honeybear</em> deserves multiple listens over a lifetime. I close read the culmination of the text provided like a scholar, intimidated by the process of trying to say something about love that wasn’t already articulated more effectively by Tillman. I felt engaged in an intense one-sided Socratic dialogue with Josh about love and its ontological implications. In a meta-twist that might pleasure Charlie Kaufman, I became so enmeshed with Father John Misty’s simulacrum, I needed my identity back. My girlfriend observed the beginning signs of my anxiety, and provided the encouragement to build the confidence to finish this piece. Only you can save yourself from yourself, but a good woman can help.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Track Premiere: Smokey Brights – “Monster House”</title> <link>https://www.poppressinternational.com/2014/10/29/track-premiere-smokey-brights-monster-house/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Bryan Parker]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2014 15:53:08 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[BLOG]]></category> <category><![CDATA[FEATURES]]></category> <category><![CDATA[TRACKS]]></category> <category><![CDATA[folk rock]]></category> <category><![CDATA[premiere]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Smokey Brights]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Tracks]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.poppressinternational.com/?p=18560</guid> <description><![CDATA[We heard about Smokey Brights ages ago now from our good friends who share with them the city of Seattle. However, we first saw the band for ourselves this summer at Timber Fest,...]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Timber_2014-13.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-16100" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Timber_2014-13-150x150.jpg" alt="Smokey Brights" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Timber_2014-13-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Timber_2014-13-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Timber_2014-13-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>We heard about Smokey Brights ages ago now from our good friends who share with them the city of Seattle. However, we first saw the band for ourselves this summer at <a title="A Transcendent Weekend at Timber Outdoor Music Festival" href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/2014/08/05/a-transcendent-weekend-at-timber-outdoor-music-festival/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Timber Fest</span></a>, undoubtedly one of the country’s best small festivals. But what’s important today is that Smokey Brights are all set to release a new full-length album, <em>Taste for Blood</em>, come November 11th. And today, we are proud to premiere “Monster House,” a track from that album. The song is an epic folk rock number built on huge guitars and anthemic production. According to a statement from the band, the song is “about gentrification and the sensation of not recognizing your own home town.” We love sharing the music of up-and-coming bands with you, and we’re excited to bring you a premiere from a like-minded community a couple thousand miles away. Stream “Monster House” below.</p> <p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/168493785%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-pBcyf&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Upcoming: Shabazz Palaces September 16th</title> <link>https://www.poppressinternational.com/2014/09/10/upcoming-shabazz-palaces-september-16th/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Neil Lord]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 10 Sep 2014 14:20:13 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[BLOG]]></category> <category><![CDATA[UPCOMING]]></category> <category><![CDATA[#preview]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Austin]]></category> <category><![CDATA[blog]]></category> <category><![CDATA[hip-hop]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Lese Majesty]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Red 7]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category> <category><![CDATA[shabazz palaces]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sub Pop]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Upcoming]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.poppressinternational.com/?p=16902</guid> <description><![CDATA[Tuesday the 16th welcomes back Seattle’s hip-hop wunderkind Shabazz Palaces. On the tail of their most recent, excellent release, Lese Majesty, the duo of Ishmael Butler and Tendai Maraire will perform on the...]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/shabazz_palaces.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-16928" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/shabazz_palaces-150x150.jpg" alt="shabazz_palaces" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/shabazz_palaces-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/shabazz_palaces-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/shabazz_palaces-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>Tuesday the 16<sup>th</sup> welcomes back Seattle’s hip-hop wunderkind Shabazz Palaces. On the tail of their most recent, excellent release, <em>Lese Majesty</em>, the duo of Ishmael Butler and Tendai Maraire will perform on the outdoors stage of Red 7. A combination of both traditional and more eccentric production styles, Shabazz Palaces have proven over the course of two LP’s they are not a predictable project. 2011’s critically acclaimed <em>Black Up </em>was a masterpiece of sound collage, subversive sampling techniques, and rapid-fire lyrical control. In the same regard, <em>Majesty</em> keeps pace technically, but replaces the more complicated themes of urban decay with a hand gripped tight around the history of sci-fi in pop culture. It should prove to be an interesting evening, as they will share the venue with Seattle’s doom and gloom veterans <a title="Show Preview: EARTH at Red 7 Sept. 16" href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/2014/09/09/show-preview-earth-at-red-7-sept-16/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Earth on the indoor stage</span></a>. Highly recommended. <a title="Buy tickets here. " href="http://red7.queueapp.com/events/3752" target="_blank">Buy tickets here.</a></p> <p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/13291149&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Seattle Band S Releases Second Single from Forthcoming Cool Choices LP</title> <link>https://www.poppressinternational.com/2014/08/21/seattle-band-s-releases-second-single-from-forthcoming-cool-choices-lp/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Bryan Parker]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Thu, 21 Aug 2014 17:58:03 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[BLOG]]></category> <category><![CDATA[TRACKS]]></category> <category><![CDATA[break-up song]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Brunch]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Cool Choices]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Hardly Art]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Hardly Art Records]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Jenn Ghetto]]></category> <category><![CDATA[S]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.poppressinternational.com/?p=16467</guid> <description><![CDATA[We were excited when we heard the news that Carissa’s Wierd (yes spelled that way) member Jenn Ghetto had plans to release new material from her new(ish) band S. The first single had us...]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Jenn_Ghetto_of_S.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-15530" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Jenn_Ghetto_of_S-150x150.jpg" alt="Jenn_Ghetto_of_S" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Jenn_Ghetto_of_S-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Jenn_Ghetto_of_S-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Jenn_Ghetto_of_S-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>We <a title="S Signs to Hardly Art, Announces Cool Choices" href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/2014/07/02/s-signs-to-hardly-art-announces-cool-choices/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">were excited</span></a> when we heard the news that Carissa’s Wierd (yes spelled that way) member Jenn Ghetto had plans to release new material from her new(ish) band S. The first single had us interested, and the second, newly released track is even better. Built on electric guitar picking, driving snares and rim clicks, and minor key melodies, “Brunch” showcases all of the bluntness and stark pain one could hope for in a break-up song. “I know about the girl you fucked, and now I think I might throw up,” Ghetto sings. The song rattles forward until the slow-building, floor tom-centric breakdown provides an introspective conclusion. The Chris Walla produced <em>Cool Choices</em> is out September 23rd via <a href="http://www.hardlyart.com" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Hardly Art</span></a>. Hear “Brunch” below.</p> <p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/155714782&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Seattle Band iji Wows Cheer Up Charlies: Live Review</title> <link>https://www.poppressinternational.com/2014/08/13/seattle-band-iji-wows-cheer-up-charlies-live-review/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Bryan Parker]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 13 Aug 2014 18:50:58 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[BLOG]]></category> <category><![CDATA[FEATURES]]></category> <category><![CDATA[LIVE MUSIC]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Alex Napping]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Cheer Up Charlie's]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Daniel Francis Doyle]]></category> <category><![CDATA[iji]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Live Music]]></category> <category><![CDATA[live review]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Marvelous Good Fortune]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category> <category><![CDATA[show review]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.poppressinternational.com/?p=16267</guid> <description><![CDATA[I met Zach Burba on my recent trip to Seattle at a Lake / Bouquet show at Hollow Earth Radio. When I told Zach I was from Austin, he said he’d be playing...]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-2.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-16279" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-2-150x150.jpg" alt="iji_081114-2" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-2-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-2-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>I met Zach Burba on my recent trip to Seattle at a <a title="Wonders in the Hidden Cave of Seattle’s Hollow Earth Radio" href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/2014/08/07/wonders-in-the-hidden-cave-of-seattles-hollow-earth-radio/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Lake / Bouquet show at Hollow Earth Radio</span></a>. When I told Zach I was from Austin, he said he’d be playing Cheer Up Charlies in a few short weeks, and we discovered we were friends with many of the same folks, no surprise there. I <a title="Show Preview: Alex Napping with iji at Cheer Up Charlies Tonight" href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/2014/08/11/show-preview-alex-napping-with-iji-at-cheer-up-charlies-tonight/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">posted one of the bands tracks</span></a> prior to the show, and recognized the insanely catchy songwriting and no frills production style as characteristic of many of the bands I love in the Northwest. Certainly, I was looking forward to the show, especially since I’m already a fan of <a title="Alex Napping at Cheer Up Charlies: Live Review" href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/2014/04/02/alex-napping-at-cheer-up-charlies-live-review/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Alex Napping</span></a> and <a title="Exclusive Premiere: New Music From Daniel Francis Doyle" href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/2014/01/31/exclusive-premiere-new-music-from-daniel-francis-doyle/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Daniel Francis Doyle</span></a>, who were also on the bill. However, Monday night at Cheer Up Charlies vastly exceeded any expectations.</p> <p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-2.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-16270" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-2-150x150.jpg" alt="Alex_Napping_081114-2" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-2-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-2-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>The night began with a set from Alex Napping, who appeared more confident than ever, and rightly so in the wake of the success of their <a title="Show Preview: Alex Napping with iji at Cheer Up Charlies Tonight" href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/2014/08/11/show-preview-alex-napping-with-iji-at-cheer-up-charlies-tonight/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">first single</span></a> and the <a href="http://www.punctumrecords.com/shop/alex-napping-this-is-not-a-bedroom-12-vinyl" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">announcement of a debut album</span></a>. Under the direction of Alex Cohen, the band’s vision is vital to their appeal, but too, Cohen has done an incredible job assembling a lineup that can execute the aesthetic in her mind. Cohen’s songwriting, full of layered guitar parts and slow builds, provides a framework on which a cast of excellent musicians can build. Plus, as great as Andrew Stevens is at a variety of drumming styles, it’s likely that he’s most enjoyable to watch in this band.</p> <p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/iji/22605264690" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-4.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-16281" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-4-150x150.jpg" alt="iji_081114-4" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-4-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-4-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-4-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>iji</span></a>, a cast of five musicians, took the stage next. At the core of iji’s songwriting is something I’ve found among many of the bands in the Pacific Northwest: they aren’t afraid to try something a little cheesy, a little risky. Often that thing is a dorky guitar riff or hooky solo that feels just a little too smooth jazzy or a little too 70s soft rock. In most musical circles this would be a joke that gets laughed off before a band returns to the serious work of creating respectable indie rock. Instead, it seems that these centerpieces, which demand head-bobbing, toe-tapping, and playful shimmying, stick around. The songs are undeniably lighthearted, almost goofy, but then atop those cores is multi-layered, nuanced, dextrous pop music. The end result doesn’t sound cheesy at all, but that accessible, fun approach remains. iji is a band unafraid to experiment, to take risks, and the reward is a style that stands out in a sea of indie bands.</p> <p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-3.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-16280" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-3-150x150.jpg" alt="iji_081114-3" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-3-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-3-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-3-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>Before you draw the conclusion that I’m ragging on our own community here in Austin, rest assured, there are a slew of bands making great music here in town. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t up their game by taking a cue from iji’s playbook and letting a little bit of fun creep into their focused mindset; vulnerability is a big part of what turns good art into great art. Several close friends who are actively creating great sounds in Austin spoke to me after iji’s set and were overwhelmed, wide-eyed at how outstanding the band had been. Truly, iji has something special. I picked up two of their vinyl’s after the set, and I’ve been listening to them nonstop since.</p> <p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-1.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-16282" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-1-150x150.jpg" alt="Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-1" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-1-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-1-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>Consisting of the same five members, <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/MarvelousGoodFortune" target="_blank">Marvelous Good Fortune</a></span> followed iji, but brought an entirely different style to the stage. Still vague experimental and delightfully odd, the band’s style is much more mellow and emphasizes keys more heavily. Before the set, the group donned long, red robes and traipsed the perimeter of Cheer Up Charlies chanting. The quirkiest moment of the set came in the form of a dreamy, acid-trip-esque inter-band conversation where Zach Burba played the part of a snake lizard and Curran Foster expressed a desire to live the simple life of a lizard. Far out, for sure.</p> <p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-1.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-16276" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-1-150x150.jpg" alt="Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-1" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-1-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-1-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>Magical is the only way to describe Daniel Francis Doyle’s solo, nylon string guitar set that closed the night. I’m a huge fan of DFD, and if it’s possible, that fandom has expanded in the wake of Monday’s performance. Played on the classical acoustic guitar, the noodley elements of his songs were more pronounced and more impressive. “Aging Time” and “One Foot Out the Door” were particularly transfixing. I’d always sensed Doyle’s Talking Heads influence, and although it makes complete sense, it took this set for me to see how much he has in common with the legendary Jonathan Richman. Doyle is truly a treasure, a distinct voice in Austin music. Austin was lucky to be treated to a set by iji, but iji had their own luck to share a bill with some of Austin’s best musicians.</p> <p>All photos © Bryan Parker & Pop Press International; all rights reserved. Click any image to open in slideshow viewer.</p> <p><a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-1.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-1-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-1-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-1-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-2.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-2-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-2-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-2-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-3.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-3-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-3-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-3-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-3-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-4.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-4-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-4-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-4-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-4-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-5.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-5-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-5-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-5-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-5-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-6.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-6-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-6-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-6-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-6-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-7.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-7-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-7-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-7-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Alex_Napping_081114-7-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-1.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-1-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-1-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-1-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-2.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-2-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-2-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Daniel_Francis_Doyle_081114-2-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-1.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-1-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-1-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-1-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-2.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-2-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-2-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-2-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-3.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-3-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-3-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-3-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-3-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-4.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-4-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-4-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-4-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/iji_081114-4-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-1.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-1-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-1-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-1-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-2.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-2-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-2-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-2-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a><br /> <a href='https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-3.jpg'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-3-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-3-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-3-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Marvelous_Good_Fortune_081114-3-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a></p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Show Preview: Alex Napping with iji at Cheer Up Charlies Tonight</title> <link>https://www.poppressinternational.com/2014/08/11/show-preview-alex-napping-with-iji-at-cheer-up-charlies-tonight/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Bryan Parker]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 11 Aug 2014 19:41:51 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[BLOG]]></category> <category><![CDATA[UPCOMING]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Alex Napping]]></category> <category><![CDATA[beach party]]></category> <category><![CDATA[iji]]></category> <category><![CDATA[indie pop]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Land of Talk]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Show Preview]]></category> <category><![CDATA[smooth jazz]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Upcoming]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.poppressinternational.com/?p=16251</guid> <description><![CDATA[The Stereogum premiere of Alex Napping‘s debut single “Weak Knees” made such a splash, we hardly need to tell you about it, but in case you somehow missed it, we’re sharing it with...]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Alex_Napping_TS1_Release-Party-4.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-14728" src="http://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Alex_Napping_TS1_Release-Party-4-150x150.jpg" alt="Alex_Napping_TS1_Release Party-4" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Alex_Napping_TS1_Release-Party-4-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Alex_Napping_TS1_Release-Party-4-120x120.jpg 120w, https://www.poppressinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Alex_Napping_TS1_Release-Party-4-50x50.jpg 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>The Stereogum premiere of <a href="http://www.poppressinternational.com/tag/alex-napping/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Alex Napping</span></a>‘s debut single “Weak Knees” made such a splash, we hardly need to tell you about it, but in case you somehow missed it, we’re sharing it with you to today, in anticipation of the band’s show tonight with a cast of touring Seattle bands. “Weak Knees” utilizes layered guitar parts and grooving bass and drums to develop a steady indie pop track that eventually builds into a fully formed, undeniably great rock number.</p> <p>Frontwoman Alex Cohen has consistently cited mid-2000s band Land of Talk as a point of reference. For something more recognizable, we’d point you in the direction of a more mellow and melodic Pavement fronted with female vocals. Bass by Tomas Garcia-olano of Eastern Sea, drums by Andrew Stevens of Jess Williamson’s band, and guitar by Adrian Haynes of Major Major Major round out the superb lineup. They’re a band on the rise, and they’re <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/334910716685771/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">playing tonight at Cheer Up Charlies</span></a>.</p> <p>Also on the bill is Seattle band iji, who creates smooth jazzy beach party vibes. If you want a glimpse into some of the sounds being created in the Pacific Northwest, here’s your chance. Stream a track by iji below. See you tonight!</p> <p><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/160096104&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></p> <p><iframe loading="lazy" style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1962677640/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=1460757493/transparent=true/" width="300" height="150" seamless=""><a href="http://ijiiji.bandcamp.com/album/unltd-cool-drinks">UNLTD. COOL DRINKS by iji</a></iframe></p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> </channel> </rss>