The Mountain Goats - Portland, OR (6/24/12)

John Darnielle performed a solo show at the Mission Theater.  Dustin Wong opened with an interesting instrumental performance involving a lot of looping guitar effects.  John broke a string during the encore and finished on the keyboards playing the "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton".

Favorite Albums 2011 (Metal)

1) Blut Aus Nord - 777: The Desanctification

2) Yob - Atma

3) Red Fang - Murder the Mountains

4) Skeletonwitch - Forever Abomination

5) Absu - Abzu

6) Helms Alee - Weatherhead

7) Revocation - Chaos of Forms

8) Norska - Norska

9) Disma - Towards the Megalith

10) Smooth Sailing - xoxo

Favorite Albums 2011

1) Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

2) Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo

3) Girls - Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

4) Waters - Out in the Light

5) Bon Iver - Bon Iver

6) Blitzen Trapper - American Goldwing

7) Davila 666 - Tan Bajo

8) Radiohead - The King of Limbs

9) The Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck

10) Mister Heavenly - Out of Love

Favorite Songs

Atlas Sound - "Te Amo"

Fleet Foxes - "Sim Sala Bim"

Kurt Vile - "Baby's Arms"

Mister Heavenly - "Bronx Sniper"

Waters - "O Holy Break of Day"

Foster the People - "Pumped up Kicks"

Davila 666 - "Ese Nena Nunca Regreso"

Tom Waits - "Bad as Me"

Southern Lord Subscription 2010

I wasn't sure about buying into this subscription, but was pleasantly surprised by all the releases. I was most excited about the Yob release which is an amazing album and the vinyl comes with some exclusive bonus tracks. Considering the album is only 5 tracks long, 2 bonus tracks is a huge addition. I also enjoyed the Pelican and Twilight albums. The surprise 7th album was a live Sunn 0))) double record. All the records in the series got exclusive colors and were limited to 550.

Black Cobra - Chronomega (bonus track; blood splatter color)

Ascend - Ample Fire Within (two bonus tracks; clear color)

Pelican - What We All Come to Need (three bonus tracks; red, silver splatter color)

Trap Them - Filth Rations (vinyl only; grey/black splatter)

Yob - The Great Cessation (two bonus tracks; clear vinyl)

Twilight - Monument to Time End (red vinyl)

Sunn 0))) - Agharthi Live 09-10 (black/grey splatter vinyl)

Top 5 Records

I feel like this list needed to be done for the record. No particular order. It started at 5 but I wussed out. Interesting contrast to the last time I made a list like this.

Pink Floyd - Meddle

Queens of the Stone Age - Queens of the Stone Age

Blitzen Trapper - Furr

The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium

The Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine

Metallica - ...And Justice For All

Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica

The Shins - Wincing the Night Away

Neil Young - Live Rust

Quasi - Field Studies

Moondoggies Elkfest Warm Up

So the Moondoggies are supposedly playing in Spokane this Friday. They've been scheduled at the Empyrean for many months, but it has been closed for at least a couple months also. The Elkfest page claims they are playing an Elkfest warm up show. The Inlander seems to think this will take place at the Elk. Either way their should be some new songs like the one seen below.

Elkfest 2011 Lineup

Elkfest is now 2 weeks away and the lineup has been set. The Globes were previously booked but had to drop out because they are heading out on tour to support their new Barsuk records album.

Friday, June 3rd

The Camaros

Folk Inception

Blood Hot Beat

Shim

Saturday, June 4th

Mon Chéri

Crickets of Cascadia

Flying Spiders

Real Life Rockaz

Strength

Sunday, June 5th

Old Bear Mountain

La Cha-Cha

Whiskey Dick Mountain

Koontz and the Bullies

Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside

Red Fang - Spokane, WA 5/12/2011

Red Fang made a stop in Spokane on Thursday to start of a very long tour for their new album Murder the Mountains. There were three openers at the A Club downtown so Red Fang didn't go on until 10:45. Despite the late start, these guys put on a great show. I was able to pick up the old and new album after the show. Check out their new video for "Wires" and their old video for "Prehistoric Dog". You can tell these guys like to have a good time.

The Thermals - "Never Listen to Me" / "Separate"

New Thermals video plus an older song from a record store day split.

Random New Year Notes

Albums I forgot about/just listened to that should have been on my 2010 list:

Maserati - Pyramid of the Sun

Phantogram - Eyelid Movies

Local Natives - Gorilla Manor

My favorite song right now:

My winter Soundtrack:

Agalloch is from Portland, but I imagine them writing songs in a cabin on a wintry fjord. Pretty much everything song they write is about winter.

Favorite Metal Albums 2010

1) Black Breath - Heavy Breathing
2) Holy Grail - Crisis in Utopia
3) Agalloch - Marrow of the Spirit
4) Ihsahn - After
5) Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini
6) Melvins - The Bride Screamed Murder
7) White Wizzard - Over the Top
8) Withered - Dualitas
9) Twilight - Monument to Time End
10) Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier

Favorite Albums 2010

1) The Moondoggies - Tidelands

2) Fitz & the Tantrums - Pickin' Up the Pieces

3) Blitzen Trapper - Destroyer of the Void

4) Wavves - King of the Beach

5) The Budos Band - The Budos Band III

6) The Black Keys - Brothers

7) The Thermals - Personal Life

8) No Age - Everything In Between

9) Tame Impala - Innerspeaker

10) Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Elks Blood

Elks Blood sound like a promising metal band from Seattle. Their website says they have a demo. Check out "Dune" on their myspace.

The Maldives - "Go Back to Virginia"

Since I heard Jason play this song back in March, I've been looking for a recording of it. Not great quality, but I love this song.

Elkfest 2010 - Spokane, WA (6/4-6/6/2010)

The Booze Fighters

Finn Riggins

La Cha-Cha


The White Buffalo

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band

Blitzen Trapper - Spokane, WA (6/2/2010)

Both the Moondoggies and Blitzen Trapper were selling their new releases at this show. Blitzen Trapper played a lot of songs from that new album. Setlist was a little different than the one above.

The Moondoggies

Blitzen Trapper

Last.fm

Setlist:

1. Black River Killer

2. Laughing Lover

3. Fire & Fast Bullets

4. God & Suicide

5. Love and Hate

6. Destroyer of the Void

7. Evening Star

8. Heaven and Earth

9. Below the Hurricane

10. Lady on the Water

11. The Tree

12. The Man Who Would Speak True

13. Not Your Lover

14. Furr

15. Sleepytime in the Western World

16. Dragon's Song

17. Sadie

18. Wild Mountain Nation

Encore:

19. Jericho

20. Blackbird

Tracks 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 16, 17 from Destroyer of the Void

Tracks 1, 3, 4, 10, 13, 14, 15 from Furr

Track 18 from Wild Mountain Nation

Track 19 from Cool Love #1

Track 20 from Black River Killer

Metal Genres Explained

This is a pretty well done video. Too bad he stopped at ten.

Elkfest 2010 Lineup

Elkfest 2010

Friday, June 4th
The Booze Fighters
Finn Riggins
SHIM

Saturday, June 5th
Blood Hot Beat
La Cha Cha
Real Life Rockaz
Son Dulce

Sunday, June 6th
Whiskey Dick Mountain
The White Buffalo
Space Opera 77
Mt St Helens Vietnam Band
James Pants

Elkfest 2009 Pics

Blitzen Doggies

Blitzen Trapper and the Moondoggies both have new songs and new albums coming out. Blitzen Trapper will be releasing Destroyer of the Void, their fifth full length on June 8th. The Moondoggies are releasing an EP, You'll Find No Answers Here, on the same day. Both bands will be at the Knitting Factory on June 2nd.

Blitzen Trapper - "Heaven & Earth"

The Moondoggies - "Fly Mama Fly"

EDIT: Another new Moondoggies song performed live. Full length album called Tidelands.

The Moondoggies "It's a Shame, It's a Pity" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

The Booze Fighters - Spokane, WA (5/14/2010)

The Booze Fighters played at the MAC on Friday for BeGin at the MAC. They are also playing at Elkfest this year.