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Holy North American Motor Highway (also known as Holy Motors, if you're into the whole brevity thing) make experimental chamber rock that comes steeped in an intangible feeling of dread. Their only release, Live at Paper Street, contains two epic-length songs recorded in a kitchen in Olympia. In the liner
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After a brief respite from holidays that are improved by the consumption of mass quantities of alcohol, we have arrived at another doozy: Fat Tuesday, and the kickoff of Mardi Gras. It is always my suggestion to avoid the crowds during amateur nights like St. Patrick's Day and New Year's
Music
When I first saw Ravenna Woods, it was in Austin, Texas, 2011, at a showcase that included the Pacific Northwest likes of the Nightgowns and the Tea Cozies. Unlike those bands, Ravenna Woods were built in the mold of Washington's growing obsession with folk music. However, unlike the infestation of
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Ravenna Woods have grown in ways that enter them into a different realm from those that consider folk revivalism the be-all and end-all of new indie expression. What began as a three-piece that created percussive folk has nor involved more electronic elements that expand their sound. Now, with their newest
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This festival of improvised music at Obsidian features a very special guest by the name of Mazen Kerbaj. Hailing from Beirut, Lebanon, Kerbaj specializes in the trumpet, taking that instrument many miles from any expectations you may have when I utter the words "improvisational trumpet." His style takes the trumpet
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The struggle of a one-man-band is that your defining characteristics are utterly your own. There's no flavor to be found from the inclusion of a wild drummer or a stoic bassist - everything comes directly from whatever you decide to include in your lonely presence on stage and record. Mig
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I sometimes feel jealous of those with upbringings that were strongly rooted in tradition. As a child of your standard white parents with no particular ties to religion, all I had to influence my world-view and sensibilities was the passing presence of the ever-morphing popular culture that would beam into
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It's not surprising to learn that Y La Bamba's records have been produced by the disparate likes of the Decemberists' Chris Funk and Los Lobos' Steve Berlin. The ornate instrumentation calls to mind the revivalist classicism of the Decemberists, as well as the Latin rock of Los Lobos, but the
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From the cacophonous pounding of the drums that open Golden Gardens' Bellflower EP, you'd be excused for thinking that a Spector-esque wall of '60s sound was coming your way. As it is, that sound almost immediately gives way to a gothic, Nick Cave-esque haze. Churchly piano and '80s synths waft
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If you can say one thing about Rogues Gallery (formerly Jipsea Party), it's that they're clearly devoted to the mad energy of their spectacle. Their gypsy punk is a familiar enough style, but they infuse it with a fervency and a momentum that raises them above some of their other
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There are some bands that telegraph what they're all about before you even listen to their music. As a person who's professionally written about music for almost six years, it's become a sort of game to figure out what the band's all about before even hearing their stuff. By far,
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Soul music has been a genre that's evolved steadily and uniquely, over time, with shining stars picking up the mantle of those who came before them, and then subsequently adding their own bit of unique energy to the form. Since blues, R&B and rock synthesized sometime in the '50s, there's
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Skates is a band formed almost on a whim, formed from the ashes of the recently defunct Redwood Plan. Frontwoman Lesli Wood made a move basically akin to Queen vowing to not use synthesizers on their album, or like Joe Jackson nonchalantly making the decision to not include any guitars
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The Soul Revue, coming to Jazzbones, will encompass the breadth and variety of soul over the generations. Featuring the songs of everyone from Aretha Franklin and Etta James to Frank Ocean and Janelle Monae, the Soul Revue will be covering selected bits of evolution from the world of soul music
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Considering how abrasive and corrosive solvents can be, the band Solvents may as well be a swimming pool filled with fluffy teddy bears. The Port Townsend duo are a master of controlled intensity, blending guitar and violin in ways that can attack as much as they soothe. The interplay between
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For those outside the ska scene (like me, I must admit), it can be a little bit of a struggle to keep the various "waves" in check. Are we up to 20 waves, by now? In any case, there's no denying the influence that The Toasters had on the ska
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Toronto's Hooded Fang have garnered their fair share of positive reception since their formation in 2007, even earning a nomination for a Polaris Prize (sort of like the Canadian Grammy's) and setting up a tour supporting Johnny Marr, and they're deserving of every bit of praise. As their sound has
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Alexander Anderson, a student of the Berklee College of Music, leads a trio of jazz fusion madness. Blending some of the spacy free form wildness of Sun Ra with the down-and-dirty textures of Miles Davis, the Alexander Anderson Trio take an egg beater to expectations, creating deceptively complex songs that
