This Month In Photos: February 2014

Another month of great shows, art, and record shops. March is certainly shaping up to be a good one too; for those who haven't heard, our first NGD Seattle-presented show is taking place at Highline Bar on Saturday, March 22nd with Vibragun, Wind Burial, Nostalgist, and Levator. Amongst other things we'll be celebrating the release of our second local music compilation, "Send Me To Dream", which will be debuting soon. RSVP here and come hand with us!

Look familiar? It's the Fremont rocket! Which is also the inspiration for our show poster, below!

Hope you can make it out on March 22nd!

Now, back to business...

Dawn Of Midi, opening for Oneohtrix Point Never, at the Crocodile, 2/4

Getting ready for Oneohtrix Point Never!

Oneohtrix Point Never had very cool visuals and sounded amazing!

Vibragun (right), Balms (bottom left), and Red Martian (upper left), Lo-Fi Performance Gallery, 2/6

Art Walk installations outside of the 4-hour-long Stalebirth performance, The Inn, 2/13. 

More art at The Inn

Stalebirth aftermath. "They just played for four hours straight. Clap!"

We went record shop exploring in Tacoma. Shout out to Turntable Treasures!

Chung Antique and Mittens at Highline Bar, 2/24

Guitar Worship Service at the Josephine, 2/28. The merch table at these services is amazing!

This Month In Releases: January 2014

Welcome to our favorite local releases post for the month of January!! In this post we loving offer up the 11 EPs/LPs and 1 compilation that constituted our favorite local listens to emerge in the last month. As always, the rules are as follows: all records were released during the month of January by either a local artist or a local record company. They appear in no particular order and singles and 7" were not included (unless they were EP length). If I didn't include your release I either didn't like it, didn't hear it, or one or both of us has the wrong release date. Click the link in the album title for more from each artist. Enjoy!

EPs/LPs:

Julie Byrne, 'Rooms With Walls and Windows' (Orindal) -- folk

Julie Byrne's debut full-length is beautiful. Recorded live with only an acoustic guitar or keyboard as accompaniment, 'Rooms With Walls and Windows' is simple but never plain, engrossing but never needy. The most common comparison people have made is to the more folk-based recordings from Liz Harris' Grouper project, but I think Julie would find equally good company on a bill with Olympia's Eleanor Murray. Either way, her arrival is welcome news to us at NGD.

OCnotes, 'Rap Loops' (self-released) -- beats

107 mini, but not that mini, tracks of beats "for the cats that still freestyle with homies or all alone" from Otis Calvin III. They may have been intended as backing tracks, but 'Rap Loops' has a personality all its own. Airy, lo-key, funky beats that are perfect for a roaming mind.

VibraGun, 'VibraGun' (self-released) -- shoegaze, alt rock, dream pop

The perfect place to start that "best of 2014" list. VibraGun delivers on their long-anticipated masterpiece and the results are undeniable. Read our review here.

Kingdom of the Holy Sun, 'Pharmaco (revisited) EP' (self-released) -- psych, space rock 
More great psych goodness from Guido Anselmi and crew. This EP contains a selection of tracks culled from their 2012 full-length, 'Pharmacokinetics'. They seem to be the same recordings, but maybe with some of the levels tweaked? I don't know; whatever, these songs are great.

Bosnia, 'Bosnia' (Hanged Man) -- experimental hardcore punk, doom, noise 
The newest solo project from Ian Kurtis Crist (Health Problems, Bat). Take Reagan Youth and Black Flag, slow-em to an agonizing crawl and run em' through a blender and you have Bosnia. Really fucking good hardcore.

HOM, 'Bound/Somn' (MOTOR) -- mutant house, techno, kraut

The second release from the mutant house off-shoot of Debacle Records is a killer trance-inducing deep house single by Ashley P. Svn. MOTOR is one of the most exciting things brewing in the Seattle music scene at the moment; if you haven't been to one of their showcases yet you are missing out. Check out their next two events here and here.

Chung Antique, 'Sweater Weather' (20 Sided Records) -- post rock, math rock

'Sweater Weather' finds the Seattle-by-way-of-Olympia trio continuing their assault on the barriers that separate math rock and post rock. It's been a while since their last release, but they are stronger than they've ever been. Read our review here.

Deadkill, 'No, Never!' (Good To Die) -- punk, hard rock

Good to Die always brings their A game and the new Deadkill record is no exception. Two years on from the release of their debut 7" and this band is still razor sharp. 'No Never' is an unpretentious, 100% fat free, hardcore punk record. Period.

Wind Burial, 'Wind Burial' (self-released) -- prog rock, acid rock, ethereal pop

Easily our most anticipated album of 2013--so much so in fact that we put it on our best of 2013 list before learning that the official release date was actually January 1st of 2014. Read our review here. Check out our other best of 2013 releases here.

WIMPS, 'Party At The Wrong Time' (Help Yourself) -- punk? punk!

How can you not love WIMPS? No harder-core than thou, no real "look"; WIMPS write "asocial singalong anthems" that speak to the love/hate relationship we have with our obligations, and "Party At The Wrong Time" is every inch as therapeutic as its predecessor. Not for nothing, this is an amazingly fun band to support as well.

Sunn O))), 'La Reh 012' (self-released) -- ambient metal, noise, doom

Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson are a local institution and this disc contains all the smouldering, harsh static that you'd expect from one of the most venerated duos in ambient black metal. Also, don't forget to check out their new collaboration with Norway's Ulver here.

Compilations/Mixes:

Various Artists, 'Mixtape III: Airport Way', (CTPAK Records) -- ambient hip hop, beats

CTPAK's Richie Nelson (aka. Richie Dagger's Crime) and Madison Levine (aka Weapons of Mass Destruction) take on a series of remixes of songs from the CTPAK label including material by Moose Portrait and Death By Stars. Don't forget to check out the first two mix-tapes here and here.

Album Review: Chung Antique, 'Sweater Weather'

Photo by Victoria Holt

Like many of the sonically obsessed, I’m continuously on the hunt through a never-ending maze of Bandcamps, Soundclouds, and skuff racks to find new ways to soundtrack my daily life. There isn’t any quantitative way to measure success with such a compulsion, but, for me, nothing beats finding an artist whose work just sticks. Chung Antique's 2011 demo, 'Go Poetry!' had this effect on me almost immediately after I found it last year, so when I heard they were finally releasing a new record I knew that I needed to investigate.

'Go Poetry!' by Chung Antique. Self-released 2011

To back up a little, the group that self-released ‘Go Poetry!’ was still more or less a college band. Having formed at Evergreen State in Olympia, the Chung Antique of 2011 was honing their craft at local house shows--drawing inspiration from their peers, and finding their own voice.

Even still, the demo that resulted was remarkably well formed. In a three-member band there really isn’t any room for fodder, and every inch of ‘Go Poetry!’ showcased their talent for weaving complex, often syncopated melodies into a cohesive narrative. To say that it was a promising first effort is an understatement.

Following ‘Go Poetry!’ the band embarked on an ambitious west coast tour, and relocated from Olympia to Seattle. Playing only a handful of shows during 2012, the only indication that they were even working on new material came in the form of the stellar single “Baking Brad”, which surfaced on YouTube following a live performance at Hollow Earth Radio (also check out the new video for the track by Nik Nerburn). Then, last month “Baking Brad” and “Stop Making Synths” (get it?) appeared on Bandcamp in support of a new record, and soon after I got my first glimpse of the Chung Antique of 2014.

'Sweater Weather' by Chung Antique. Available now from 20 Sided Records

My expectations were pretty high, but ‘Sweater Weather’s’ strength is undeniable. It’s still Mike (bass), Charlie (guitar), and Whitney (drums), and they still play phenomenal, math-rock infused post-rock, but the band has matured considerably. The record, which features 5 new songs in addition to re-recorded versions of several demo songs, is the perfect capstone for 5 years of work.  

However, this is not an anthology; ‘Sweater Weather’ is just as much an evolution in approach as it is a celebration of the past. Comparing the album versions to their earlier recordings, the band has slowed the pace of the re-recorded tracks considerably, but their refinement extends to the songwriting on the new tracks as well. Whether utilizing negative space to emphasize the gorgeous guitar harmonics on “Baking Brad”; gentle, Appleseed Cast-eque ruminations on “Former Farmer”; or delicate synthetic accompaniment on the zenith of what is hands down their most beautiful song to date, “Bagel Blue Eyes”, ‘Sweater Weather’ finds Chung Antique opening up their range considerably. If I had any complaint about the first demo, it would be that the Go! Go! Go! that served them well with the college crowd occasionally limited their impact in the studio, but that is no longer the case. Chung Antique's self-proclaimed quest is to find "the perfect balance of math and melody" and this record finds them hitting the nail square on the head.



'Sweater Weather' is out today on SF's 20 Sided Records. Download, or grab your copy on doublemint vinyl here, and keep an eye on our Upcoming Shows Page for your next chance to see them live.