Martha Jewelle

​Phosphorescent, with J. Tillman, Grouplove. Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave., 441-7416. 8 p.m. $12. If Matthew Houck didn't stumble out of the top-floor bedroom of a Texas saloon, slide down the banister, tucking in his buttoned-down white shirt en route to the bar's upright piano to record the dusty, jubilant "It's Hard to Be Humble (When You're From Alabama)", the first track off Phosphorescent's May release, Here's To Taking It Easy, he did a good job faking it. "Humble," like the rest of the album--with its easy pedal steel, clinking piano chords, and drawled howls--is marked by its effortlessness, grin, and authenticity, not to a specific genre, but to the musicmaker himself. There's no indication that Houck is attempting to do anything here other than what comes natural to him when he rolls out of bed in the morning, or at least his hour between sleep and breakfast. CHRIS KORNELIS

Click to download "Mermaid Parade" from Here's To Taking It Easy

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Laura Musselman

Duff McKagan, left, at a Hoot For Haiti in February at the Showbox.

​After a sold-out "A Hootenanny For Haiti" at the Showbox in February, Duff McKagan (Guns N' Roses, Reverb) and Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) are getting some friends together for Hootenany For a Healthy Gulf, September 2 at The Moore. Friends on the bill include Star Anna, Ty Bailie, Justin Davis, Tim DiJulio, Chris & Rick Friel, Mark Pickerel, Jeff Rouse, Kim Virant, Kristen Ward, and Gary Westlake.

In addition to performances from the above artists, there will be a silent auction, and appearances by Edgar Hansen and Matt Bradley, two crabbers who will discuss the situation in the Gulf. All proceeds are headed to the Gulf Restoration Network.

I'm sure Duff will tip y'all off to a few of the night's surprises and set lists. Until then, tickets are available for $20 ($25 DOS) via STGPresents.org.

​If you've never seen the Metal Shakespeare Company perform live, then you've never seen Hamlet at its most dramatic. The Portland band (once known as Dagger of the Mind) perform what they call "Bardcore": it's Shakespearean soliloquys set to face-melting metal guitars and hardcore drums. The four musicians even wear tights, just like real Shakespearean actors. (Seriously: check out this video if you need proof.)

Unfortunately, this weekend is the last time the band will ever play Seattle: they're splitting up after four-and-half years together. It's an appropriately tragic end, as they detail on their Facebook page, with a bastardized quote from Hamlet:

Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!
Farewell the plum'd troops and the big wars
That make ambition virtue! O, farewell,
Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, th'ear piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious BARDCORE!

The band plays El Corazon at 8:30 p.m tomorrow night (July 31). Don't miss it.

I honestly don't think I've ever spent a full hour on the phone with a musician, but that changed today. The first thing we started talking about was the death penalty, and things progressed from that to the joys of thrift store scores, to the bizarre experience of recording the theme song for Adult Swim's Squidville and a random track for True Blood, to the inherent value of changing the locks both metaphorically and literally when one is trying to survive a break-up. The woman even spontaneously sang part of the Who's "I Can See For Miles" to me over the phone. Today is a good day.

Lucinda Williams plays the No Depression Festival on August 21.

Hannalee plays Piecora's Back Room with Pablo Trucker 9:30 p.m. Saturday night. Tickets are $6, and the show is all-ages.

​There are some bands that go well with pizza and beer, and there are some that don't. At Piecora's Pizza, this is actually a question. Pablo Trucker is definitely one of those pizza and beer bands--bluesy Americana, straight-ahead nod rock, ample amounts of honesty and lonesomeness. Hannalee is probably less pizza than a slowly finished beer or a warm dessert. They harmonize male and female vocals somewhere in between sweet home folk and the slower Simon & Garfunkel songs, indulgent with its oohs and hums. Either way, both bands go down slowly and smoothly at the end of a Saturday night.

Lo-fi and punk bands also go well with pizza and beer, and you can catch a whole slew of them and a whole slew of pizza for $5 at Pizza Fest at the Funhouse this weekend. See our preview of Pizza Fest from this week's issue

​Artist: Candy Claws
Album: Hidden Lands
Label: twosyllable records
Release date: August 3, 2010
Rating (Skip, Stream, or Buy): Buy
Download: "Sunbeam Show"

Hidden Lands finds Candy Claws as almost the Claude Debussy of chillwave, eschewing narrative and emotion for brilliant aural swaths of color and low-tide melodies that envelop the listener in a faraway space. There's a remarkable level of intricacy and study that goes into creating this dreamy, overwhelming rapture: Each song samples every other song, and the production was styled to mimic early stereo recordings from about a century ago.

Though deeply meticulous, Hidden Lands seems just a product of playtime. Almost the entire instrumentation is made up of keyboards, an instrument none of the band knew how to play. The lyrics (which, submerged in the sound, function more as instrument than messenger) are lines from Richard M. Ketchum's The Secret Life of the Forest regenerated through a meme, TranslationParty, which translates phrases in and out of Japanese until they reach "equilibrium," or a consistent translation. But its result is a sort of poetry askew: "Understory home half hidden / See it with love eyes looking lower / Glimpses in leaves see maybe / Something else is there." You can try to guess what the original words were, perhaps, but they seem so far from something out of a science text.

And in that sense, so much about the Hidden Lands experiment is a little bit askew--guitarists fitting themselves to keys, English fit to Japanese--yet gorgeous in that organic, idiosyncratic kind of way.

Would you be more excited about this Jaill T-shirt if it came with a digital download of their new album, That's How We Burn?

​Sub Pop art director Jeff Kleinsmith talked to us earlier this week about ideas the label is kicking around about selling physical products (like concert posters and T-shirts) that come with digital downloads of albums as a new way of giving fans a physical item to go along with their digital purchase, beyond the common practice of including a download code along with vinyl sales. Today, Sub Pop's general manager, Megan Jasper, sent us a statement with more on the ideas that are swirling around the label's offices.

"Although Sub Pop is primarily known for its many fine artists and their really very fine recordings (also grunge), we're not at all opposed to expanding into the fine world of t-shirts, hats, beer cozies, and key chains," Jaspers says. "We used to give many of these tchotchke items away for free in an effort to entice people to pay for the music, but we're considering flipping our strategy so that people pay for the toy and receive the music for free.  Just a thought."

It's certainly an interesting idea. Like Kleinsmith and I discussed earlier this week, album art has been a source of inspiration and entertainment from day one, and digital downloading is cannibalizing the visual and physical experience of the purchase, if folks purchase the album at all. A companion booklet or poster could help get a few more people in the habit of paying for music, or at least the limited-edition sweatband. And surely retailers like Sonic Boom and Everyday Music would jump at the chance to bring a few of digital music loyalists into their shops to get their fix.

​
You do, you do! The fabulous harp fairy Joanna Newsom is going to be at the Moore Theatre this Wednesday, August 4, playing songs from her stellar triple LP, Have One On Me, along with a special guest opener, Robin Pecknold. The show is all ages, at 7:30pm, and tickets are $27.50 -- but we have a pair of tickets we're giving away for free.

Email me by 5pm tonight at ethompson@seattleweekly.com to be entered in a drawing to win the tickets. The winner will also receive a signed and number print of this lovely show poster, created by the horribly talented Frida Clements.

Win, win, win!

​Artist: Pete Yorn
MP3: "Precious Stone," from Yorn's self-titled album, due Sept. 28
Rating (Skip, Stream, Buy): Stream
Download: For free at PeteYorn.com if you RT it.

Pete Yorn's "Precious Stone" is full of big, open, New Jersey chords, complete with Yorn's signature mournful reverb at the top. It's nearly raucous, held back by the fact that Yorn's never sounded this self-conscious. The guitars on this first single from Yorn's self-titled, Frank Black-produced record are begging him to let loose, but he doesn't. His voice is restrained and frustrated, even timid. It's as if he doesn't want the world to know that he's trying to lay it all out on the line. But that's exactly what he needs to do.

On his promising 2001 debut, Musicforthemorningafter, Yorn sounded like a nonchalant kid ("Black") with nothing to lose ("For Nancy"). And he was. But on "Precious Stone" he sounds like a guy feeling the pressure to break out or get out.

​Friday and Saturday nights are traditional party nights. Our parents and grandparents had their own swank party style. It was a world of "high-ball" cocktails, tiki tchotchkes and soft sounds coming from the giant console stereo. Here's my take on cocktail nation exotica with with modernity in mind:

Yma Sumac "Accla Taqui (Chant of the Chosen Maidens)" from Voice of the Xtabay. Yma Sumac is the heavenly voice of the Andes. I imagine her lore as the Incan queen whose vocal style rings between the peaks, falling on the ears of worshippers performing ancient love rituals. She's an amazing singer with a very wide vocal range.

Air "J'ai dormi sous l'eau" from Premiers Symptomes. This record from the French duo Nicolas Godin and Jean -Benoît Dunckel contains the remixes from Moon Safari. Nice Rhode keys couched in dreamy ambiance and cool beats.

Propellerheads with Shirley Bassey "History Repeating" from Decksanddrumsandrockandroll. Brit electronica duo team up with legendary diva. Bassey is the smooth voice on the Bond Theme "Goldfinger". She teamed up with propeller head's Will White and Alex Gifford for this memorable groove.