Music: This Week's New Releases

I only have one for you this week:

Brian Wilson: That Lucky Old Sun

If you still listen to the Beach Boys, or you think that Brian Wilson's album SMILE was one of the best albums of the last few years then you will probably want to pick this one up.

As for me? I'm going to give that Hey Marseilles album a proper listen this week. I will have a write up sometime in the next 10 days. I promise.

Music: Hey Marseilles Takes Over the World

If you were in Seattle last night and you missed the Hey Marseilles CD release party at Neumos, well it sucks to be you!

I have referred to Hey Marseilles as my favorite local band for most of this year. My friend Jimmer offered me a free ticket to see them at the High Dive back in January or February. That night I downloaded their 4 song EP and put it on while I was getting ready for bed. I was halfway through the first song, "To Travels and Trunks" when I stopped what I was doing and sat down to give the songs my full intention.

The band is a 7 piece that includes several multi instrumentalists as well as multi part harmonies. They have strings, an accordion, a trumpet, and the bass gets passed amongst a few of the band members depending on the song. All 7 are excellent musicians, and even the drummer steps out from behind the kit for some choice harmonies during the set.

The video above is how they opened last night's CD release party at Neumo's. They start off with the instrumental, "Marseilles" and transition smoothly into "To Travels and Trunks." The crowd erupted, and the energy continued to build all night long until they closed with, "Goodbye Versailles," which the crowd followed with mass applause and a very loud, "One more song," chant that unfortunately for everyone involved did not result in an encore. The band remained on stage breaking down their equipment, shaking hands, saying, "thank you," to fans, and signing copies of the newly released CD left and right.

Last night, August 21, 2008 is the night that Hey Marseilles broke through. Last night was the night that everything changed.

I have seen Hey Marseilles play at a couple different clubs around Seattle, in the foyer of the Vera Project(that's right, not even on the main stage), and at a house show at the Greenhouse. The show last night at Neumo's was at least 3 times larger than any other crowd I have seen for a Hey Marseilles show. There were people in home made t-shirts. Seemingly every group of people had brought at least one person a long who had never seen the band before. My friend Molly came along just for fun and she pointed to her smile and said, "Do you see this? I can't stop doing this!"

It was a super hot crowd who moved with the music, sang along loudly, and went crazy for the smooth transitions that occur when things like, the viola player puts down his instrument mid song to play the bass.

At one point Dan turned to Abby who I had just met and he said, "Look at Jon. He looks so happy!" I was Dan, I certainly was.

The band was obviously in awe of the crowd, and they fed off that energy in their live performance. Most of the between song banter was relegated to thanking us all for being there, thanking us for supporting the band, and oh yah by the way there are CDs for sale.

This was the second best live show that I have seen this year. I can only rank the Flaming Lips and their UFO show at Sasquatch ahead of last night's performance.

Hey Marseilles is about to become huge, and it's time that you took notice.

Their debut full length To Travels and Trunks is available via iTunes as well as the band's website.

They also have a myspace page. Though apparently they do not currently have any future dates scheduled.

Music: Seeing bands on back to back days

I have never been into jam bands. I remember a time when I was an intern at the Boulder Theater where some jam band, String Cheese maybe?, who played five straight nights at the venue. We sold tickets for each night as well as a 5 night pass. The majority of the tickets sold(and all shows were sold out) were of the 5 night pass variety. That just blows my mind, and as I attempt to comprehend it I understand why drugs are a large part of that culture.

This past week I had the pleasure of seeing Wolf Parade on back to back days. It was great, and they did the little things that make it possible to see a muti-night stand from a band. On Sunday at Sub Pop they continually put over the record label and the festival. It made their performance feel like a very special moment, which it was.
On Monday they varied the set list just enough to keep things interesting. In most cases, I never want to see the exact same show back to back.

It also got me wondering what bands I have seen on back to back days. Here is the shortlist:

1998: I saw Pearl for the first and second time on the Yield tour. The first show was in St. Louis and the second was in Kansas City. The St. Louis show was infinitely better. Again, these shows had vastly different set lists which was great- especially for a band that I was so excited to see.

2005: Bright Eyes. The second of these shows was a radio show taping for E-Town Live. I was so glad that I was there for that. Conor Oberst was so hilarious during the interview portions and it was edited to all hell for the actual broadcast. The E-Town people were not as impressed with his humor as I was. This is my favorite band, my longest tenured friend Mike Vallely came out to Colorado for these shows, and we hung out with the "Trees" girls. It's one of my favorite concert experiences just because Mike was there.

2006: Built to Spill. They opened both shows with, "Car" and I hope they play that song every time that I see them. They didn't vary the set list too much, and Radio 1190's Jonny Trash complained afterwards that he felt the shows were too similar. I was just excited to finally be seeing Built to Spill live!

Also in 2006: Sonic Youth. Sonic Youth didn't go on until after midnight, so technically this was two shows on back to back days. Earlier in the day was Lollapalooza and I was fortunate enough to be in the wings for their performance(I have a couple awesome pictures from this that I will try to find). Then around 1am they took the stage at a small venue in Chicago. Feist actually opened for them. After the late show is the first and (so far)only time that I have attempted to party like a rock star. From there we headed to a Lolla post show party, and my friend Dan Gaytan and I were driving east towards the Sears Tower as the sun rose behind it. Then we passed out for the rest of the day.

A few months ago I had attempted to see local Seattle band, Hey Marseilles, on back to back nights, but the second night I was going alone to a place I had never been. I got horribly lost and never arrived.

What bands have you seen on back to back days?