Charles Peterson

As part of my exploration of Seattle music, I have inevitably learned about other things, like record labels like Sub Pop and K, the popular places to perform, like the Crocodile Cafe, and the cool university to be at, Evergreen State.
One of the other interesting things I have discovered is the photography from the era, particularly Charles Peterson, who use to work for Sub Pop. Through Sub Pop, he had access to some incredible musicians, many before they were famous.
Peterson's website is here, and there's pictures of more current stars, like Andre 300, LCD Soundsystem and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Jane Austen as a Musical

Taking a break from the indie and rock music, this video has been going around the Internet, featuring music from Pride and Prejudice as a musical.
I really like what I have heard so far. I like all the violin being used. The music perfectly captured both the feel of Austen's world and musicals, which, considering how different these things can sometimes be, is impressive.
The above song appears to be when Elizabeth goes to Darcy's home and realizes that maybe her initial decision when it came to Darcy's proposal. Later in the song, Darcy confesses that he is embarrassed that he behaved the way he did in front of Elizabeth.
I would love to see this.

King Dude

The first time I heard King Dude, the first thing I thought of was how he had taken the emo, goth, and metal lyrics and added relatively low-fi folk. This turned out to be relatively close to how King Dude sees themselves, as I have read their genre as "death folk" and they list themselves on their myspace as combining folk and gothic.



They also conjure up the late work of Johnny Cash, especially his version of "Hurt." Their is something primial about their music that creates a world where people live alone in crushing rural poverty, praying for God to save them, and end up dying alone in the field where there was once a garden.



I particularly love the video of "The Black Triangle." The falling snow is so beautiful. His videos seem to include a lot of women with pixie-cuts. There is also both a fair amount of blood and Wiccan-style magic involved.

Yacht

During this project to get me to listen to, research and write about new music, I have generally liked what I have discovered. Some of it I have fallen love in, but none of it has rubbed me the wrong way like Yacht.
I'm not sure what it is about this band, but it makes my stomach curl up on itself in pain. Maybe it is the strange electronic stuff happening in the background, like the Skype-esque noises near the end of "Psychic City (Voodoo City)," which is above. Maybe it is the simplicity of their music. But I suspect it is the singing. Or at least mostly the singing, which seems just slightly off to me, and possibly off key. I dislike pretty much all of it, and I think it is the combination of the parts being less than the sum.
I would be curious to see what this band sounds like remixed because maybe that could improve it. But for the most part listening to this band makes me unhappy.

Pearly Gates Music

Pearly Gates Music is the creation of Zack Tillman, the younger brother of Fleet Foxes's J. Tillman, and unfortunately, that is probably what this band is most famous for. That is really too bad, because Fleet Foxes is far more slow folk, there is something more fun about Pearly Gates. "Big Escape," below, is the perfect driving music; it easily sounds like something the Beatles could have written around the time they were working on Abbey Road. Not until the end of the song they descend into the kind of distorted guitar that rock music loves so much.

The History of the Dead

Recently I was reading this article discussing mortuary issues. Among other things, it touches on the history of interning the dead, which is morbidly fascinated. In 19th century Britain, the London cemeteries got so bad that coffins were stacked on top of each other without much earth in between, and there was also a stench. I was recently reading Mary Olivier, a novel about 19th century Britain, and much of the novel takes place in cemeteries because (spoiler alert) almost everyone in the main character's family dies. And they allude, briefly, to this problem. There is also information about medieval burial practices. The poor, unsurprisingly, were buried in mass graves.
The article also talks about the recent problems. Apparently 70 to 80 percent of U.K. citizens are cremated and they still have problems with not enough space. Greece only allows people to buried in the ground for three years.

Fastbacks

Fastbacks were a punk band. They had a wonderful lo-fi sound, the sort of thing that any Ramones-listening punk band would have loved. I particularly like this song. There are not many great rock songs out there concerning birthdays, the only other good one being the Beatles's "Birthday."
Fastbacks have had famous drummers, and because of they have had so many, they have connections to bands like Mudhoney, Presidents of the United States, Dharma Bubs, and The Decembrists.