Bloodhag's last show!

Stovokor

Klingon death metal warriors Stovokor oddly hail from the very human sounding town of Portland, Oregon. But for the glory of Qo'nos, their sound is mighty!

The Glad Girls

The Glad Girls are a Seattle band that travel down the gravel road between the land of country and the land of indie rock. One might call them Alt-Country, but that term leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, so I won't. It's the kinda mellow catchy music I love to listen to on a Sunday afternoon. The band features folks who done time in bands like The Young Sportsmen, The Riffbrokers, and Muzzle.

Band members: Heather on guitars and vocals, Wesley on bass and vocals and Ryan on drums.

You can catch a few of their songs and find out about upcoming shows here. The photos are from a show a few weeks ago at the Shanty Tavern.

Soundgarden

I know some of my friends think I'm crazy, but I had the password and info on buying tickets to Soundgarden's "secret show" at the Showbox on Friday and didn't buy tickets. Don't get me wrong, there was a time when I liked Soundgarden. Their first 7", Screaming Life ep, and about half of their Ultramega OK album on SST are pretty good. But the transition from original sounding underground rock band to updated '70s arena rock was already well underway by the time they signed to a major label. And those 5+ minutes songs with Chris Cornell howling, especially live, didn't quite do it for me. Here's my deal, if the songs are over 4 minutes long and have a guy screaming like a chick, it better be metal. It works for bands like 3 Inches of Blood, but not so much for Soundgarden, who to me became more like Led Zeppelin... watered down, drawn out, hair farmin' arena rock. So I passed on buying tickets, especially at $35 each and then with all the Ticketmaster fees tacked on (probably ended up being over $45 each). Friends that went said it was awesome, but today, listening to the recording, I'm thinking it was more an awesome experience, than awesome musically. Chris Cornell's voice still seems kinda shot and not so good. He's always sounded way better in the studio than live, but the disparity between the two has become more vast over the years. It will be interesting to see how his voice holds up through the full Lolapalooza tour. Oh, if you want to hear Friday's show, a live recording is here.

Android Hero pix from last week!

I've written about Android Hero before here, I just saw them again on Thursday. Excellent band worthy of checking out of you like heavy rock crossed with punk. They definitely have some of the heavy crunchiness of old Am Rep bands (I've been listening a lot of Helmet recently):

The Barfeeders and Lopez return to Seattle!

Great, almost Gibson's-worthy lineup (I think I saw The Barfeeders and Lopez actually play together at Gibson's) at Funhouse!

Irish Punk

When I walked into Trader Joe's yesterday and heard them playing The Pogues for St. Patrick's Day, it made me think I really ought to do a post about Irish punk. I love The Pogues, I grew up in a big Irish-American Catholic family with my dad playing Irish drinking records by people like The Clancy Brothers. The Pogues always seemed like the perfect blend of that music and punk rock to me. But there is a lot more out there. Most notably Stiff Little Fingers, who's first two albums are in my top 20 favorite records of all time. There also is a great bootleg Killed By Death album I picked up with a nice sampling of '70s era Irish punk called "Bloodstains Across Northern Ireland." A copy is stashed here if you want to download it. The bands and track listings are:

Rudi-Time to Be Proud
Ruefrex-The Perfect Crime
Midnite Cruiser-Rich Bitch
Electro-Motive Force-Conscious, Wanted
Ex-Producers-The System is Here
Androids-Bondage in Belfast
Detonators-Cruisin'
Ex-Producers-Behind the Door
Pretty Boy Floyd & The Gems-Sharon
Doubt-Fingers, Lookaway
Defects-Guilty Conscience
Xdreamysts-The Heat is On
Protex-I Wonder Why
Victim-The Teen Age

It's definitely worth your time to download it and dig deeper into Irish punk!