Showing posts with label spokane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spokane. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Globes

OK, I owe it to my hometown to throw my support behind this band. The Globes are a four-piece group from Spokane who have been living together in a house in Seattle for a few years, and have been getting noticed enough around the city that they have finally reverted back to calling themselves a Spokane band – which is fucking awesome, because I was worried that if (and, I think, when) this band finally makes it, they were going to say they were from Seattle. Boise might have Built to Spill, but as far as Spokane is concerned, the best they've been able to muster music-wise in the past 50 years has been........Bing Crosby. Yeahhh....

But fuck that, now Spokane can rock your face off. The last time I saw this group was at a winery in Spokane, when they still called themselves Four Years Blue. Since that time, their sound has gotten far more polished, they've had real studio time (complete with John Goodmanson, the producer behind several Death Cab albums, amongst other things), and have put out a couple solid EP's, the most recent of which is called Sinter Songs and features four borderline-hypnotic Radiohead-esque (and yes I find that term overused, but whatever) songs, each with a bitchsmack of post rock epicness mixed into their very distinctive eastern Washington-inspired soundscapes. It's a sound that them big city folks can bob their heads to, but also something that truly clicks if it serves as the background music to a trip through the alternately barren and beautiful landscape that is the eastern side of the Cascades. You can tell these guys have been living in Seattle for a while; but you can also tell where these guys are really from, which is a really tricky balancing act to pull off, and which makes me appreciate them as an awesomely genuine group of musicians that I truly hope goes places. The Cheetah salutes you, guys.



The Globes - MS


Friday, February 26, 2010

The Dutchess and the Duke + The Cave Singers @ The Empyrean in Spokane!


The Empyrean is the one place in Spokane where the hidden hipster scene comes out of the woodwork. Up until November of last year, "The Empyrean" was across town in an ex-lamp shop, but had to move out for the same reason that The War Room in Seattle fell on hard times: Washington state bitching about the fucking sprinkler systems. So it moved into a building known locally as "The Big Dipper," which is owned by some 70-year-old ex-hippie and which has sat dormant for...my entire life. And I have no idea why it hasn't been used until now, because it's an amazing venue...and after a nice acoustic show by The Dutchess and the Duke (I think they had an equipment malfunction so they had to play unplugged), Spencer and I totally got to sit in what is basically a loft directly over the stage for the entirety of The Cave Singers' set:

The Cave Singers!!


And here are some shots from The Dutchess and the Duke:

(The Duke)

(The Dutchess). Hell yes. They both finished bottles, if you're wondering...



All in all, I was impressed. The venue and both the shows far exceeded expectations, and it was a lot of fun having such intimate access. I hope now that The Empyrean has resumed operations at this new (and better) location, Spokane will start attracting more shows like these. God knows the city needs them.

And if you like chill indie folk, both of these bands are worth a look. D&D is more intimate, while The Cave Singers sound as if David Gray went indie. Check them out!

The Cave Singers- MS
The Dutchess and the Duke - MS