Struggling to keep our heads above water

So, what’s new?  I’ll tell you about a band I’m excited about right now:  Kid Silver, featuring Luke Hogfoss on guitar, Cory Buddon on bass, and Alex Niedzialkowski on drums.  Nice, even tempo rock to tap your foot to.  I really want to see a show with them, Council of Lions, and So Adult.

In other news, mark your calendars for May 1st as Red Fang will be playing in Bellingham again at the Plan B with Dogshredder.  Should be an awesome show for your May Day.

In more random news over the past few weeks I’ve been working on engineering a split EP between Locker Beef and Celebra.  It’s shaping up nicely and could be featuring anywhere between eight and ten songs.

Anyway, that’s all the random music news I feel like dredging up right now.  If you know of anything let us know.

Record Store Day

Saturday, April 17 is National Record Store Day! Make sure to stop by Everyday Music and Avalon Music for some exclusive Record Store Day releases that you can’t get elsewhere. Last year Archives in Fairhaven was advertising Record Store Day, but they didn’t get any of the exclusive releases (and they aren’t listed in the database) so I doubt they are participating again this year, but you should still support them by buying stuff!

As I am sure most of you have heard by now, Avalon Music is putting on a free “Out-Store” show on the sidewalk in front. Music starts around 1:30 and it’s going to be badass.

Black Breath
Sugar Sugar Sugar
Baltic Cousins
Cherry Blossom Family Delivery
Chris Con Carne

Ladyfest Commercial

Check out this amazing commercial for Ladyfest, created by the talented Jessyca Murphy:

From http://ladyfestbham.tumblr.com:

Ladyfest Bellingham is happening June 18-20, 2010, and we need your contributions! Ladyfest Bellingham is looking for bands, visual arts, films, performance projects, skill share workshops, academic/nonacademic papers, and any other creative projects you can dream up.

Be especially welcomed if you are just a beginner or trying something for the first time!  Send us your ideas, regardless of your expertise or geographic location.

Submission deadline is May 31, 2010.

Ladyfest is a music/arts/ideas festival celebrating the creativity of women/womyn/wombin, transfolks, queers, grandmas, gender nonconformists and allies. The first Ladyfest was held in Olympia, WA in 2000, and since then, women have organized their own festivals in cities across the globe.  Expect to see concerts, art shows, skill shares, film showings, and games happening all over town.

Awesome Show Overload!

You really have no reason not to be out and about all weekend. Check out this list of shows that I would happily divide myself into little pieces (to see all of them) if I could.

Friday:

The Accused, Phreddy and the Nightmares, Meat-Bird @ Plan B
Council of Lions, Sourpatch, Kid Silver (Queer Punx Unite!) @ secret location
Rooftops, The Americas, Goodriddler, Todos Somos Lee @ Jinx Art Space
Cathoholix, Jon the Bastard, The Them @ The Cabin Tavern

Saturday:

RJD2, Busdriver @ the Wild Buffalo
David Bazan @ WWU
Police Teeth, Victory & Associates @ Cap Hansens
The Trutones, Poke Da Squid, Muppet Fetish, Anak @ The Cabin Tavern

Sunday:

Little Dragon, VV Brown, Cara Alboucq @ the Wild Buffalo

I am not playing favorites or anything, but I just wanted to point out VV Brown. If you haven’t heard of this UK musician / writer / fashion designer, you will soon. Check out her performance on Later with Jools Holland:

Internet? Shminternet! (Also, screw hiatus, I’m not letting the Subdued actually become subdued)

(These are the musings of an internet addict who’s forgotten what it’s like to not have internet.  Also, that title is a little ironic for this BLOG POST.)

So like, if telcoms turn the internet into cable television I think I’m considering abandoning the internet altogether.  That means it’s back to snail mail and phone calls, and press kits, which I’m not entirely opposed to.  The only truly useful thing about the internet for me has been finding new music and booking shows.  Everything else is superfluous information.  It would be a boon to “mix tape” trading, zines, phone calls to bookers and bands rather than the impersonal emails and messages, and networking with bands because you like their music, not because they have 5,000 myspace friends.  The reduction in spam would be really nice, maybe I’ll pay better attention to details and my internet instigated a.d.d. will go away.  I would probably read, write and do creative things more.  If I did have to use the internet I could simply go to a coffee shop or the library (I know, radical stuff, right?).

Discovering new music would be a little more difficult, maybe a little more spendy, but I won’t be paying for internet anymore.  That’s at least one to three shows a month I could be going to.  The college and community radio stations would become more important.  The internet has provided us with easier access to information, for sure, but it’s also made it easier to ignore a lot of information, causes procrastination for the sake of procrastination, and turned a lot of people into whores (I know I’ve become more of an attention whore;  if I weren’t I wouldn’t be typing this blog post).

Try imagining your life without the internet…  what’s that day like?  I kind of like that idea.  I think there may actually be a little more freedom without it… maybe a little more work, but it’d be quality work that leaves you with a feeling of satisfaction.  What I would miss:  the ability to read about obscure bands, Wikipedia, online banking and Turbo Tax, the Daily Show and Colbert Report, and audio engineering forums.

 Well that’s it for idiotic internet epiphany time. 

P.S.  I’ll see you at the show tonight.

The Show You Must Be At This Fucking Friday: Rooftops, the Americas, Goodriddler, Todos Somos Lee @ Jinx

via TSL MySpace

Seriously, do you know how long it’s been since I’ve been this excited to be in an audience?  Not only are Rooftops coming back from their tour but Todos Somos Lee is playing again!  Also the Americas will be up here and it will be my first time seeing them but their MySpace indicates I will enjoy it.  A healthy dose of live math rock is exactly what I need before I have to do sound for David Bazan, one of the most boring people still making music, instead of seeing Police Teeth on Saturday.

The show is at Jinx at 8:30 in the pm.  I don’t know how much it costs but who cares?

Rooftops, the Americas, Goodriddler, Todos Somos Lee

The Subdued is temporarily on hiatus.

While we look for more contributors.

Black Breath @ Jinx

So, I just now got around to looking at and editing the photos from Thursday.

Dog Shredder

The night started out at the “top secret” location which was the coolest garage, or ware-home, I’ve ever been in. People smoking indoors reminded me of what it was like back when venues allowed smoking indoors and Graceland gave everyone second-hand cancer.

After Dog Shredder played what I thought was their best performance yet (probably because I brought earplugs and could actually hear the music this time), the cops arrived. Jinx was then offered up as a venue and the whole crowd started their exodus across town. Heiress, who were just about to play, seemed rather distressed on having to move to a new venue.

I had never been to Jinx before. I’m not sure why. It’s rad.

Since Lesbian started setting up next, I’m assuming Heiress just decided to head back to Seattle. Bummer.

Lesbian

I spent most of Lesbian’s set trying to catch the guitarist’s hair flips. I was successful. I’m not too familiar with their music, but the new songs they played were really cool. I’ll definitely be checking out the new album when it’s released.

And then there was Black Breath. First time I’ve seen them, too.

Black Breath

Black Breath

Black Breath

Black Breath

The above photo = Casey falling on her face.

They obviously have a strong local fan-base and there’s good reason for it. I had a hard time not falling over and breaking my camera in the crowd, but it was worth it. Covered in sweat and a sore neck are signs of a good show. Black Breath, who recently signed to Southern Lord, have the potential to make it big.

You can find the rest of the photos from the night here.

WHAAM! Last Show @ the Old Foundry Tonight

After the show; photo by Paul Israel

WHAAM! won’t be disappearing altogether but will be moving out of their current location at the Old Foundry on the corner of Maple and Cornwall.  Tonight will be their last show hosted in the space until they can find a proper building that suits their needs.  You can read more about that here.  Playing tonight will be NoFi Soul Rebellion, Lumpkins, and Dog shredder.  Starts at 8:00pm

Photo of the Week: March 15-21

Demolition Derby Fight - Watercolor on Paper

Artwork by Andrea Heimer.

You can find more of Andrea’s work here.

This weeks photo comes to us from our Flickr Pool.

You can also submit your own photos & art by sending an email to:

subduedphotos@gmail.com