New Bomb Turks live at the Vegas Shakedown

This is one of my favorite bands, doing one of my favorite songs, at one of my favorite shows. New Bomb Turks covering Wire's "Mr. Suit" at The Vegas Shakedown August 12th, 2000. What a great weekend! I need to dig up my photos from it. Until then, I leave you with this killer video Gene Mullet uploaded to YouTube:

Come on Republicans, don't ban bacon!

More photos from that Avengers show!

A few people have been bugging me to put up more photos from The Avenengers show last month at Funhouse, so here they are! As usual, click on the pictures for a larger version:

Pansy Division

Pansy Division are a pop punk band that formed in San Francisco in the early '90s, and if you can't guess by their name, they are a mostly queer band that sings about gay themes. They are probably the most successful queercore band in part because of their fairly easy to swallow (ha ha) sound. They have piles of records out, having spent the first half of their career on Loookout! and now residing on Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles record label. Half of the current lineup is in the current line-up of The Avengers, hence why the bands toured together up the West Coast last month. These shots are from the show September 11th at Funhouse in Seattle.

Limited Edition signed Germs photo

In the early punk scene, Ronn Spencer ran White Noise Records (VOM, the Avengers), designed the cover art for the Angry Samoans' "Back from Samoa" album, and shot photos of bands like The Controllers, The Germs and The Gears. Spencer recently agreed to print 50 signed and numbered prints of this fairly legendary Germs photo. The press release version of this 1979 photo that's been used over the years was cropped, this is the full version. Copies are $110 postage paid and you should consider buying me one for Christmas! :) More info is here.

Jenny Jimenez photo opening on Thursday!

I met Jenny Jimenez back in the early days of my old publication Tablet, I think through my friend Amie. She and Justin Renney were shooting photos all the time at shows I was going to and soon started shooting for Tablet. They became the in-house photographers for the old Crocodile and shot for The Stranger, The Seattle Weekly, Rockrgrl, Paste, No Depression, Spin and more. Jenny has always had a great eye at capturing a moment perfectly, with all the emotion, energy, blood and sweat frozen for a moment in time. Her photos often have that wow factor for me and she's certainly one of the best Northwest live music photographers of the past decade.

Jenny Jimenez' new photo show is called "Show Me Your TIFFs: Ten years of music photography" and is hanging at the Skylark Cafe in West Seattle from now through December 14th. The opening party is this Thursday, October 8th, starting at 6pm. At 9:30pm there will be live performances by singer-songwriter Damien Jurado and ethereal songstress Amy Blaschke... and get this, an all male wet t-shirt contest. The opening party is 21 and over and free. The Skylark is located at 3803 Delridge Way SW in West Seattle.

Sleater Kinney by Jenny Jimenez:

Why you should go to Reverb today!

Reverb is a local music festival (in Seattle, WA for you global readers) that the Seattle Weekly has been putting on for a few years, each year seems decidedly better than the last. Critics might point out it doesn't have all the big names as The Stranger's Capitol Hill Block Party and they'd be right, but Reverb isn't trying to be like the CHBP, it is it's own beast. And the things it has going for it:

• Reverb takes place in Ballard, a great neighborhood with a bit of an older feel to it than Capitol Hill. The result is it draws less teenyboppers and hipsters, more real music fans (although really, there will be plenty of hipsters that are real music fans).
• It's cheap! Where many music festivals are pushing $30-$50 ticket prices these days, Reverb is $5 advanced/$7 at door for under-21 folks, $8 advanced/$10 at the door for those 21 and older.
• It has a great line up of all (or mostly?) local bands

This is my highly subjective guide to who you ought to consider checking out in Ballard on Saturday at Reverb, organized by time-

6pm
Trashy Trash DJ set at the Ballard Loft. So I never roll into festivals early, if I do I burn out early. I wait until they got it going on and ease my way in. A perfect way to ease your way into Reverb is at the Ballard Loft with the Trashy Trash DJs spinning a fun mix of trashy rock, soul and whatever grabs them.

8pm
Thee Emergency at the Salmon Bay Eagles club. Merging soul, punk and rock not unlike The BellRays and the Dirtbombs, foxy Dita Vox will wow you with her vocals as the band floors you with their heavy, dirty assault.

9pm
The Cute Lepers at the Salmon Bay Eagles club. Think the Ramones meet The Knack meet the Buzzcocks. Fast powerpop and catchy pop punk, skinny ties, spiky hair, female back up singers. They have a few records out and kill it live.

The Redwood Plan at the Bit Saloon. I loved Lesli Wood's punky previous band Ms. Led and am intrigued in the new direction she's pushing with fun danceable rock, synths, and a less angry sound.

9:30
The Girls at the Sunset. Mining somewhat the same territory as The Cute Lepers, but with a lot less clothes on, The Girls play great catchy punk with a little bit of sleaze thrown in. Always fun live!

10pm
The Shook Ones at the Salmon Bay Eagles club. Today's hardcore scene is mostly underground and takes place at somewhat out of the way all-ages clubs. A few of the new crop of bands have emerged out of that scene that even non-hardcore fans should take note of, and one of those is Bellingham's Shook Ones. They spent time on Revelation Records and have multiple albums under their belt, my fave being 2006's "Facetious Folly Feat."
The Keeper at the Bit Saloon. Total D&D wizard stoner rock, using the genre of metal to make fun of the genre of metal. Whereas 3 Inches of Blood claim they don't do this, The Keeper seem to proudly take things over the top.

DJ Taco Supreme at the Ballard Loft. If you need a break from the live music, take a trip South of the border because DJ Taco Supreme always brings the rock'n'roll dance party.

11:30pm
The Coconut Coolouts at the Sunset. Garage rock dance party! The Coconut Coolouts take everything fun from '60s frat rock, early Killed By Death punk, and garage rock and cook up one hell of a party on stage.

There is certainly a lot more going on at Reverb than this, I lean towards the punkier stuff and there is hip hop, rock, pop and more, check out all the details here.