Bands to watch….. ELKFEST 2012
My Goodness
Guitarist Joel Schneider and drummer Ethan Jacobson epitomize the purest distillation of rock, blues and punk. They both hail from other notable Seattle bands, but their sonic chemistry became immediately apparent when they began playing together. Very quickly they were offered a show and needed a name. Since they both felt like they were finally playing music that they had kept to themselves in prior bands they referred to that feeling as their goodness…therefore My Goodness. Like their fated-meeting, their music grabs you from the very first impression and draws you in for more and more. These two have harnessed the essence of their influences in a most compelling and uniquely rich way that spills out of them and rips into the heart of rock and roll. My Goodness performs Friday June 8.
www.mygoodnesslovesyou.com
http://youtu.be/A217iXSLuLk
Nude
Fresh off their 2012 victory at Seattle’s famed Experience Music Project Sound Off! competition for under 21 age bands, Nude is poised to make more great early steps in the Northwest indie rock scene. Following in the footsteps of bands like The Globes, their witty and progressive sound laced with electronic drums and bright noisy guitars swooned judges, Catapult Records, and a nearly sold out EMP crowd. The band will perform with The Lonely Forest in June and Bumbershoot in Seattle later this summer. We are super excited for Nude to perform at Elkfest this year!
Saturday June 9.
http://lineout.thestranger.com/lineout/archives/2012/03/07/get-to-know-nude-this-years-sound-off-champions
Emily Wells
Emily recorded her first cassette at age 13 as a classically trained violinist. Swooned by record labels in her late teens, she opted to go the independent route and tour and record on her own accord. Blending handmade hip hop beats, graceful vocals, playing drums, melodica, violin and more, she has now finally signed with a label. Emily is releasing her first LP on Partisan Records in April titled MAMA, and her highly anticipated musical collaboration with Dan The Automater is due out late 2012! This one woman band can create more sound than many of the biggest bands. Emily Wells performs at Elkfest on Saturday June 9.
“Ms. Wells latest album, The Symphonies: Dreams Memories & Parties (creative control) is a warm, intriguing slice of avant-garde pop, and on stage shes a delight. ”
-Jim Fusilli
WALL STREET JOURNAL
“On her album The Symphonies: Dreams Memories and Parties, from 2008, the multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Wells layered her elfin voice over spectral string arrangements and brush stroked hip-hop percussion. The ten songs were symphonies only in the broadest sense of the term: the album is a highly theatrical labyrinth of rap, gothic folk, classical, and electronica songs.”
THE NEW YORKER
“Layering eerie strings, bleeping synths, and electronic beats under Biggie’s rags-to-riches lyrics, she sings and raps like a feral, streetwise Nina Simone.”
-Steve Appleford
SPIN
www.emilywellsmusic.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NOcebFE94E
Cody Beebe and The Crooks
Bound by their collective roots in Central Washington and Washington State University, Cody Beebe & The Crooks began performing together in February of 2009 in Seattle, WA. The band spent the following subsequent three years exploring music together and discovering what CBC was to become. The band calls it Roots Rock; some radio gurus have dubbed it Progressive Americana, and others have said “Steve Earle meets Pink Floyd.” Musically, strong elements of gritty blues, classic rock, country, and funk are obvious. More subtle are the splashes of jazz, R&B, and metal. Sometimes soaring above, sometimes smoothly crooning, sometimes twanging, and always deeply emotionally invested, their melodies and lyrics soulfully unite the sound. If their genre can’t be easily named, that says nothing of its approachability and timelessness.
Since the release of their debut album, “Friends of the Old Mill,” Cody Beebe & The Crooks have been touring vigorously and have played a number festivals and fairs from Washington to New York. Their single “Waiting on You” rose to an amazing #64 nationally (FMQB – Triple A) and they were one of only two self released and independently managed acts in the top 200 on the chart at the time. They have shared the stage with the likes of Buddy Guy, Stevie Nicks, Iron and Wine, Jimmie Vaughan, K.D. Lang, Augustana, Josh Turner, Little River Band, Jason Reeves, Randy Rogers Band, Allen Stone, Andy Griggs, Rooney, Afroman, Ari Hest, Drew Davis Band, This Providence, Tonic, The Clumsy Lovers, Flowmotion, and Elephant Revival. Cody Beebe and The Crooks perform Sunday June 10.
“They nearly blew the roof off the joint with their energetic, highly charged roots-rock assault.”
-Chris Senn, Melophobe.com
“It’s great to hear young guys making music like this.”
-Alan White, Drummer — YES, Plastic Ono Band, Ginger Baker’s Airforce
www.codybeebeandthecrooks.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcWQz2-_LHs&feature=related
Velella Velella
Velella Velella is a funk-influenced indie electronic band from Seattle. Influenced by classic funk such as Parliament-Funkadelic and the Mizell Brothers as well as modernist funk such as Stereolab and Beck (circa Midnite Vultures), not to mention crate-diggers such as Madlib and DJ Shadow, the band is a quartet of multi-instrumentalists comprised of Andrew Means, Michael Burton, Jeremy Hadley, and Sylvia Chen. They made their label debut in 2007 on Hush Records with the full-length album The Bay of Biscay (previously self-released in 2005) and the five-track EP Flight Club. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
Velella Velella come from Seattle. They make music that’s blissed out, tonal, enthusiastic and grooving. At their disposal is a mess of instruments: drum machine, drum kit, snarly bass, tremmy vibes, clean guitar lines, bassy Roland and overdriven Fafisa keyboards, drippy guitar washes, and on occasion vocals. This is a band that likes to settle into the song before they sing over it, and listeners are rewarded. Somewhere in this sonic melange there are influences being pulled out of the hat: The Sea And Cake, Out Hud, Stereolab… But, spending some time with The Bay of Biscay it becomes abundantly clear Velella Velella–named after a jellyfish–swims in it’s own sea. -Hush Records.
Saturday June 9.
www.hushrecords.com
Point Juncture, WA.
The fiercely independent creative culture that thrives in the Pacific Northwest has, of late, been receiving an upsurge of deserved attention, and for good reason. No band in the region embodies independence, practices innovative, artful living and is dedicated to their craft more than Point Juncture, WA., a collaboration between four Portland, OR. songwriters, instrumentalists, recording engineers, and friends: Amanda Spring (vocals, drums) Victor Nash (keyboards, vocals) Skyler Norwood (guitar, vibraphone) and Wilson Vediner (guitar). Point Juncture, WA live together in a house they purchased as a band and jointly own. Point Juncture, WA grows a lot of their own food, and camps on tour, cooking said food over campfires. Point Juncture, WA transformed a dilapidated barn on their property into a state-of-the-art, Dwell Magazine-worthy recording studio with their own hands so that they could have the perfect environment in which to create their newest full-length, Handsome Orders. Point Juncture, WA has always recorded their own albums, and they’ve printed their own records. Point Juncture, WA is not a band that is messing around, and it’s their time to shine.
During their years together, the band has toured extensively, playing with The Thermals, Stereolab, Dirty Three, and Britt Daniel. They’ve spent years touring the Western states under their own steam, playing festivals like Sasquatch and Bumbershoot and basement shows in towns you’ve never heard of, building a rich and devout network of friends and devotees along the way. They are a band who knows what a good record sounds like, and not just because they’ve been self-recording for seven years: members of the band have recorded records for Horse Feathers, Blind Pilot, Talkdemonic, and collaborated on recordings
with The Decemberists, Laura Viers, Thao with The Get Down Stay Down and several others.
www.riotactmedia.com
This gospel punk rock band from Spokane, WA. makes music to pay homage to God, the devil, whiskey, and rock and roll. Back by popular demand to perform the traditional Sunday opening services at Elkfest 2012, preacher Tim Lannigan will belt out the homily to all willing observers, surely a crowd pleaser rain or shine! The live performance has been time tested and polished, yet remains gritty and raw in the true essence of its punk and blues roots. Expect to be moved by classic blues harp and organ, wailing vocals, and hard hitting classic blues guitar.
Whiskey Dick Mountain performs Sunday June 10.
www.facebook.com/…/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHzLGgOwoU4
BBBBandits
Our opening band for Elkfest 2012 features punk driven surf rock instrumentals from one of Spokane’s most talked about new bands. BBBBandits have quickly made their name in the Spokane music scene with their energetic and raucous live shows in some of Spokane’s finest dive bars crafting a sound unlike so many others in the Northwest. The band will surely draw people in to the streets to kick off this years festival, some to shake their bodies and some just to get a better look at who is making these sounds of pure rock and roll in its rawest form, expressing a true west coast essence.
Friday June 8, 430 pm.
Cathedral Pearls
Cathedral Pearls is Karli, Caleb, Max, and Carrie. You may know some of Karli’s music from her days as a folk singer-songwriter (Karli Fairbanks), and you may know Max from an indie band called Ruby Parasols. Well after a time Karli grew restless and weary of playing music as a solo artist and was looking to work with a collaboration of artists. So after marrying a drummer named Caleb, they began some rough ideas for songs. As they began the journey towards becoming a full band, Max appeared on scene. Max’s band was on a sort of hiatus with bandmates scattered around Washington State, leaving him with a craving for some musical jams that didn’t require crossing a few hundred miles. After a couple practices, the trio realized they could benefit from another member and they very much wanted Carrie, Max’s wife, to be a part of the familial collaboration. Thus Cathedral Pearls was born in early 2011.
Musically, they find themselves on common ground with bands such as Wye Oak, Dirty Projectors, The Antlers, and Arcade Fire; bringing you a delightful mix of indie, pop, rock, and soul.
Cathedral Pearls perform Friday June 8.
cathedralpearls.bandcamp.com/
Folkinception
Folkinception is a six-piece rock n’ roll band featuring three-part harmonies, soulful piano and organ textures and rockin’ guitar. The band also features cello and fiddle providing a swooning, melodic identity rooted in folk and bluegrass. Round it off with some stellar drum and bass and some top-quality songwriting and the Folkinception sound is complete. It’s rootsy-americana-rock n’ roll! Folkinception performs Sunday June 10.
http://folkinception.com/
