[glocal scene] NXNE Music Festival 1

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Phil Heron

This is not a typo. I repeat, this is not a typo. This is: tpyo. NXNE is Canada’s equivalent of SXSW: a music and film conference/festival held in bars and cinemas across Toronto for one week. I shall do my best to be your guide for this bounty of new sights and sounds.

My preparation for this festival is a wee bit haphazard, having only discovered the festival was coming up a day before the music commenced (the industry conference, and whatever that entails, had started on Monday with music and film beginning on Wednesday). I’m sure that is was well publicized in all the weekly press, but being the glocal man that I am, I have neglected my own community and surroundings a little of late – choosing Hollow Earth Radio over any local station and reading odd reviews from places like Boulder rather than analyzing Toronto’s street press. Through briefly tuning into CIUT, the University of Toronto’s own radio station set in the historic and stunning oak-lined Hart House, I managed to enter a competition to win two NXNE passes, which I subsequently won. So here we are! I’ll be doing my best to get out to as many gigs as possible, but will also take the opportunity to sift through the list of artists on offer and share with you, the esteemed (and clever, and handsome) BoW reader.

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Posted in Community, Glocal Scene, Live Music | 1 Comment

Songs about Books Tickets on Sale Now!

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Levi Fuller

Yes, it’s true. We’ve been building up to this moment for several months, and we have reached one more milestone. We’re all still slaving away on the writing and/or recording of our songs (at least I am), but the show date is cemented and tickets are on sale. Ball of Wax Volume 25, Songs about Books, will be released on August 19th at the Fremont Abbey. Ryan, Alex, Johanna, Joshua and I will all perform our new songs with introductions from Paul, and you will leave with a brand new CD in your hands featuring 15 of those songs. Join us, won’t you?

Tickets are $12 in advance through Stranger Tickets or $15 at the door, and include a free copy of the Songs about Books CD.

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Lots of Ball of Wax Alums this Saturday at the Josephine

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Levi Fuller

Tied to the Branches tour posterI will most definitely be in attendance at this show at the Josephine this Saturday. Of the four bands playing, three are Ball of Wax alumni, and the whole night should be filled with a diverse crop of great music.

Tied to the Branches (heard on Volume 23), the San Francisco band founded by Marc Manning (Volumes 1, 6, 8, and 16) and Brad DerManouelian (Volume 24), has a wonderful new EP out called Light of Day, It’s OK. They also have a bass player now, which should nicely complement the already impressive wall of sound that Marc and Brad were able to pull build with a guitar, a shitload of pedals, and an electronic drum kit.

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Air Museum!

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Levi Fuller

Air MuseumThis is verging on being even more of a conflict of interest than my usual posts, but I’m excited about it and it’s certainly in the Ball of Wax wheelhouse, so I’m sharing.

Those of you who own Ball of Wax 24 (which should be all of you, right?) might have noticed that the first song is by a band called Air Museum, with vocals by yours truly. Here’s the deal with that: Over two days in February, I holed up in a house in Capitol Hill along with my friends Casey Alexander and Rick Wright (both of Wesafari), James Nixon, and Jen Wood. Over the weekend we wrote and recorded a 10-song album under the name Air Museum. We swapped instruments and vocal duties and collaborated manically on every aspect of the thing. Of course once we’d managed the logistics of clearing a weekend for five people for writing and recording, the mixing and mastering took quite a while to get done. Now, three months later, the whole thing is complete and you can check it out for yourself at bandcamp (the usual free streaming/download situation).

I hope you like it. I think it’s a pretty cool, diverse collection of songs, and I’m proud to have been involved in it.

[wp_bandcamp_player type=”album” id=”4106886493″ size=”grande” bg_color=”#FFFFFF” link_color=”#4285BB”]

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Album Review: The Shivers – More

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Jon Rooney

The Shivers – More
(2011, Silence Breaks)

The Shivers, whose many virtues have been extolled on these virtual pages, return with a new full-length, More, on a nascent Brooklyn imprint called Silence Breaks.  On More, Keith Zarriello and Jo Schornikow have honed the Shivers sound into a sinewy muscle of outsider indie R&B (perhaps the first of the genre?).

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Bright Archer Songs about Books Demo

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Levi Fuller

Johanna Kunin (aka Bright Archer) boldly leaked a demo of one of her songs for the Songs about Books project a couple months ago. And of course it’s gorgeous. I’m getting really excited to hear everybody’s work (and to finish my own, of course).

[wp_bandcamp_player type=”track” id=”3172821124″ size=”grande” bg_color=”#FFFFFF” link_color=”#4285BB”]

Join us August 19th at the Fremont Abbey to hear all of the songs and get a free copy of the Songs about Books CD.

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Casey Ruff and Sunset Tavern’s Memorial Day Weekend Show: Sunday May 29

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Bart Cameron

I hate to interrupt the Northwest FolkLife love, and the Sasquatch hype, but Ballard’s putting its own foot into the Memorial Day weekend music scene, and in a refreshingly appropriate way. Casey Ruff and a number of the more straight-ahead best live bands in Ballard are doing a charity show for wounded veterans at the Sunset.

The show first: Casey Ruff, Rachael Mae, The Smoke Brothers and The Resets (actually, last second change, it will now be Caleb and Walter, similar members doing bluegrass inspired country), Sunday May 29th at Sunset Tavern. Doors at 9 PM. All proceeds go to the charity Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund— an organization that assists catastrophically injured veterans and veterans suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Casey Ruff and the Mayors of Ballard are the definition of salt of the Earth around here in Ballard. If you’ve been in this section of Seattle, you’d know Casey just by seeing him– the genuine country rocker tends bar at Tractor Tavern, and his incongruous band of strangely gritty rockers close down the night at seemingly every proper concert in the neighborhood.

Anyway, talk is cheap. I could spend an hour explaining how good Caleb and Walter are.

Here’s them doing a Carter Family song:

Okay, the show will be great.

I asked Casey to give me some quotes about why he’s doing this. The quotes are obvious though. To paraphrase– it’s the right thing to do, and Ballard’s the proper place to do it.

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Ball of Wax Artists at NW Folklife This Weekend

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Levi Fuller

As I mentioned a while back, I’m pretty excited about the Northwest Folklife Festival, occupying Seattle Center this weekend. Of course there’s the Ball of Wax showcase on Sunday, which features myself and four other fine artists that have graced BoW over the year. But in fact there are Ball of Wax alumni sprinkled liberally throughout the entire festival. Here’s a little rundown, packed with music and videos, so you know just where to go all weekend:

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Live Video from the Ball of Wax 24 show (part 1)

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Levi Fuller

As I hope you know, we recently released Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly Volume 24. If you don’t already own it, I do hope you will pick up a copy of your own for the low low price of $5 post paid.

The release show, as always, was a blast, with great sets from a bunch of old friends: Casey Alexander, Sun Tunnels (Louis, formerly the Graze), Robert Deeble, and Amateur Radio Operator. (Oh, and I played too.) For the first time I brought a camera and shot some video, which I thought I would share here.

I’m pretty new to this whole Vimeo thing. One thing I didn’t know is that I can only upload so many videos per week, so I figured I’d start you guys off with two videos for now, and then share more as I upload them. Enjoy! Continue reading →

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Trips and Falls: “And in Real Life He Wears Corduroy Pants”

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Levi Fuller

Trips and Falls, whom we discovered with Ball of Wax Volume 23, have recently released a delightfully creepy video for their song “And in Real Life He Wears Corduroy Pants.” It’s a not-exactly-heartwarming tale of young love in its first flush and the perils of starting a relationship with someone who has a giant, very strange head. (Note: I found the audio to be very quiet, so you might have to turn your computer up louder than normal. It’s well worth it, though, as the song is very good.)

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