7 HOME MUSIC COLUMNS
Changing times close unfinished chapter
10/31/2008 | I wrote my first story for The Spokesman-Review when I was 15 years old. It was a Q&A with Sir Mix-a-Lot. That's when I learned that I could actually get paid to go to concerts and hang out with celebrities. So I stuck with the paper.
Heavy hitters join forces to open Casbah
10/10/2008 | This is the house that music built. The Casbah, a new night club opening next week downtown, was created almost entirely by the labor, love and vision of Spokane musicians. Located at 416 W. Sprague Ave a couple doors down from Mootsy's and upstairs from Chicken-n-More The Casbah is run by Skillet Jones frontman Dennis Henderson, who enlisted the help of local musicians to construct the club's stylin' interior.
What's the deal with Tambourine Guy?
9/26/2008 |
If you've been to a live rock show in Spokane even once in the last year, there's a fair chance you're familiar with the Tambourine Guy.
Everybody knows the Tambourine Guy; he's become a fixture in the local music scene.
He's the tall guy on the dance floor with long hair, often wearing a sleeveless button-up shirt with silver flames crawling down the chest.
What's up with James Pants?
8/22/2008 | This is as good as a time as any for a James Pants update. In a nutshell, Pants makes his full-band debut at his Hump Day monthly where the guy who shot his video rolls burritos. Then James Pants and the Royal Zodiac hop over to Seattle to play The Stranger Genius Awards before heading out on a month-long tour in Europe in September.
These guys don't rock
8/15/2008 | Fleet Foxes are not your typical toast of Seattle. For starters, they don't rock. At all. Not even slightly. Frontman Robin Pecknold describes the sound as "baroque harmonic pop." It doesn't sound like anything from this hemisphere or even this generation, as concertgoers will find out when Fleet Foxes opens for Wilco on Thursday at the INB Performing Arts Center.
Natural place for live music
8/1/2008 | One of the best-kept secret jewels for acoustic music doesn't even charge admission. There is a lot of talk about the local acoustic renaissance in Spokane, and it usually points to Caterina Winery or Empyrean Coffee House.
Music for the dog days
7/25/2008 | Lotta folks like dogs. Lotta folks like music. Only some folks like folk music. Some ambitiously open- minded folks like both dogs and music. If you flock to that last category then you might agree this is going to be an atomic dog show.
Indie infatuation
7/11/2008 | It was a typically bizarre Monday night open mike at Blue Spark this week when I ran into Aaron Bocook, who fronts the Spokane band Shantasina.
Campfire shows promote free exchange of ideas
7/4/2008 | American folk music, in its purest form, comes down to voice and guitar. There is no reverb to hide behind, no delay cover up, and no compression to beef out. It's the songwriter and the song, singing, strumming, and maybe some pats, stomps, and claps for rhythm.
Varela leaving the nest
6/27/2008 | Joe Varela is money. Local singer-songwriter Pat McHenry and I were sitting on the patio at Caterina Winery last week debating the coming departure of the Spokane music- ian/recording engineer and that was one thing we could agree on.
Time to party outside
4/25/2008 | Spring has to get its butt in gear at some point. We're banking on it. And by "we," I mean 7 's podcast showcase with Platform Booking, The P.A. System. With outdoor concert season approaching we thought we'd get a jump on things by running The P.A. System Patio Party series featuring outside shows all month.
New season, new music
4/18/2008 | I think we can put the winter clothes away. Spring is finally here. Yet another sign is Rolling Stone Magazine's spring music preview, with nearly 70 albums outlined in the latest issue (the one with Jack White getting all buddy-buddy with actual Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards).
Documenting Harry's spell
4/11/2008 | The effect that Harry Potter has on the real world now that's magic. It seems it takes the highest echelon of spellcraft to get young people excited to read anything that's not in the form of a text message.
Taking it down a notch
3/14/2008 | Who says St. Patrick's Day is a drinking holiday? Local singer-songwriter standout Kevin Long has thrown a wild party or two in the past.
Not trying to be a has-been
2/15/2008 | This is my hair piece. I promised myself I wouldn't write this column. Contrary to popular belief, I actually don't like the attention. But there was one side effect of laying waste to waist-length hair that I thought was worth sharing.
Rap from another universe
1/11/2008 | Hip-hop has seen a slew of subgenres in its short three decades of life, from the underground horror core of Gravediggaz to the whole international scene with Aussie hip-hop saviors Hilltop Hoods.
One subgenre I'm just learning about is spacerap.
Out of this world
1/4/2008 | The crew in the kitchen at The Elk has devised an escape from the boring and the mundane. It's called The Modac. It's a spaceship that looks sort of like an RV fueled on pure rock 'n' roll, and the crew consists of a visual artist, an actor, a musician and an exhibitionist (who happens to be a 6-foot-tall rabbit-man, but let's not get ahead of ourselves).
Time for Sominations
12/28/2007 | Danny Weber beat out Seaweed Jack for best live performance of 2006? Yep, that's what last year's Sommy Award says. But it turns out some people didn't agree with all of my calls for my annual music awards held in January.
Cross keeps it local
12/21/2007 | I caught myself chatting online at 3 a.m. with former Free Range Robot Jason Cross about the best Spokane bands of the year when I fell into the following interview.
On your toes, Spokane
10/31/2007 | Spokane bands: Ashley from the Wig is calling you out. This open letter to Spokane bands appeared in a MySpace bulletin last week from Ashley Graham, a music journalist, concert promoter, indie publicist and a loyal supporter of the Spokane music scene who lives in Seattle:"I'm taking time out of my work day to say this because it is important to me.
In pursuit of perfect venue the small Big Easy works
10/25/2007 | I've seen Modest Mouse twice before, both times at music festivals at The Gorge. I'm told by longtime fans that's nothing compared to seeing Modest Mouse back in the day, when the band played small clubs and Isaac Brock was known for his freak-outs onstage.
Spokane's night impresario stressing class in the clubs
10/10/2007 | When I met up with Noel Macapagal last week, he was hanging out at a table at Raw Sushi and Island Grill downtown. Sporting a baseball cap backwards, Macapagal was casually working at his laptop, as usual.
Live, from an apartment, NW rap gets wired
9/18/2007 | It might seem like reverse marketing, but local rap artist Cary Haze has a plan to increase visibility for himself by shining the spotlight on his competition. He's using the technology at his fingertips to create his own vehicle to showcase hip-hop talent in the Northwest.
A DIY evolution of metal breaks out
9/17/2007 | My Fatal Mistake is known for its staunch DIY ethic and solid musicianship. Moseley and Carroll have played in several bands together since high school. "Whenever he was in a band that needed a bass player he'd call me, and whenever I was in a band that needed a drummer I'd call him," Carroll said. "But this is the first time we got together and said, 'Let's build this together from the ground up.'"
Road trip spins into gonzo rock tale
9/11/2007 | After playing SXSW with Paper Mache, local singer songwriter Matthew Winters toured his way back to Spokane with a tour-bus load of stories. Let me give you a couple of examples. "We were completely broke in Hollywood. We had nothing broke, sad, hungry, and this completely flamboyant gay guy with some girl on his arm walks up to us and bought six tickets from us for a Whiskey a Go Go show, and he goes, 'Come on, I'll take you to a bar and get you drunk.' So he takes us to this bar and spends 200 and something bucks on us, just four guys, got us way drunk.
