Weekend Video: Modern Kin's HELLO, WORLD

"HELLO, WORLD is ephemeral, like a live performance has been since the first musicians.  Each event will happen and then be gone - no recording, no coming back to it later.  In the moment across human hours, online, but not forever—not adding mass to the snowball of data we must process, remember, reference, link-to, protect, promote.  Events in time, across time, each one appearing everywhere at once and only once."

Catch this while you can! Portland band, Modern Kin, have been playing release shows at Mississippi Studios and live-streaming the performances on Youtube. At the present moment, there have been five shows over the past twelve hours, with two more to go. This is the gist of their HELLO, WORLD project. In seven different time zones, at their local 10PM time slot on either 10/25 or 10/26, you can tune in and hear the band play their release show over and over again.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it at 10PM my local time (UTC-4) last night, but it's currently a little after 10AM and I just watched the UTC+9 performance. I can't imagine a better way to start off my Saturday morning.

The project is ambitious, but we're five shows in and the band shows no apparent signs of wearing or slowing down. I also loved how it was 7AM in Portland  and there appeared to be a decent-sized crowd over at Mississippi Studios.

If you haven't watched any of the live performances yet, I highly recommend tuning in for the last two shows. There's one at 4PM EST and 5PM EST tonight. Considering that's prime pre-game time for tonight's activities, I'm thinking of having a few friends over for cocktails and having this stream.

Stream the shows from the video above (at the appropriate times) or check it out on their HELLO, WORLD site. The self-titled album was released on October, 22. It's wonderful. You can purchase it on their bandcamp page. 

Typhoon @ Rock and Roll Hotel

How many more instruments will appear?

Typhoon was arguably my most anticipated show of the fall. I fell in love with Typhoon, the boy I was falling for fell in love with Typhoon and neither of us could listen to anything else. There was a pact or a common idea that if/when the band played in DC, we'd both end up at that show at any cost. When announced in late June, after spending a month heartbroken, I had this grand realization that no one has the ability to ruin music for me.

I have emotional layers built into certain artists. With Typhoon, the surface layer involves a bit of heartbreak. I discovered Summer Home and it was immediately shared over g-chat and adored by the boy. We spent hours streaming it in the background of our conversations, I sourced The Tender Loving Empire NW Pale Ale from Seattle for us to share (we never did), and us finding out about White Lighter is still a day I remember.

However, the surface layer is just that. There's no depth, no actual substance and the layer is easy to flake off and forget about. Typhoon, to me, at the core relates back to the chronic illness angle and how easily I can identify with their music. That will always triumph over someone who was only in my life for a mere four months.

I didn't see the boy at this show. I won't lie and say it wasn't a relief.

Lucky for me, I had fantastic company no matter the outcome. My friend, Katie, had always loved Hunger and Thirst, but disliked A New Kind of House. She was a bit wary of how White Lighter would sound but streamed the album in anticipation for the show. I'm so happy she ended up back on the Typhoon bandwagon. We arrived early and managed to score front row spots. Unfortunately, front row meant right in front of the twin drum sets and I'm pretty sure I permanently lost hearing that evening.

Radiation City opened. I've tried countless times to love and appreciate their music in the past, however, their opening set ended up being the missing piece I needed. They played quite a few songs from their newest album and rocked them all. I found myself highly drawn to their catchy 1960's-retro vibe and it's a style that is not overdone right now. Above all, every member of this band was extraordinarily talented and really attractive to boot. We enjoyed their performance and how it ended up being enough to tide us over in anticipation for the main act.

Shortly later, one by one, we watched as all eleven members of Typhoon crammed themselves on to the relatively small stage at Rock and Roll Hotel. It was quite the sight to see. Kitchen Tile started the set off and I'm glad it did. For such a short song, there's a lot of punch. From here on out though, we'd primarily be hearing White Lighter, in order, in its entirety. I'm still not sure if I particularly enjoyed that aspect, but the album order is there for a reason.

When White Lighter initially came out, I honestly thought it sounded over-produced. I changed my mind hearing the album played live. Every sound, every instrument, every part of every song was organically created by one or more of the members on stage. There's no over production involved - just eleven musicians able to create many but cohesive sounds. The timing was particularly tight as well - I found myself anticipating certain little standout sounds from the tracks and hearing them perfectly executed on the stage.

Artificial Light was as spectacular as anyone would expect it to be. Young Fathers was the first anthem song, where everyone chanted that last portion, "I just called to tell you, I just called to say, learn all your mistakes, passed down through generations". I held onto the "two minutes of morbid bliss" that was Possible Deaths and remembered why it could be my favorite song. Summer Home, my first introduction to Typhoon, was played in the middle of the set somewhere. Unfortunately, I hated how this sounded live - compared to the White Lighter tracks there was energy missing.

During the later half of the set, Dreams of Cannibalism was the anthem song - I'm pretty sure the crowd sang the entirety but especially "unhand me, I am not criminal". Hunger and Thirst was more popular than I was expecting, as was Common Sentiments. This is proof that Typhoon can carry a whole album, as there is no where during White Lighter for anyone's mind to wander off. As I've noted before, Post Script was a gorgeous end to the album and to the live set. For the encore, Caesar kicked off. I didn't particularly miss it during the main act, but I did enjoy hearing the little clip. Rules of the Game, their latest b-side, was the final song of the night.

Through and through, I adored this show and three weeks later, I think I'm still riding the show high. This is the fourth out of five amazing fall concerts that I just can't stop daydreaming about. Someone, please, take me back to that night.

Headlights by Get Dressed

When I was only a lowly teenager, I began my delve into local music. One of my favorite Seattle bands from around this time was an indie-rock outfit, Get Dressed. A song of theirs, Headlights, became a favorite of mine. Throughout the years, this song has remained with me and has never quite been forgotten. On a sad day back before grad school, my desktop computer finally died. With it, I lost my entire music collection. Nowadays, that's not the worst thing in the world, with Spotify and other comprehensive music players. However, a few tracks were lost, to never be resurfaced. Headlights was one.

Get Dressed broke up in 2008. I remember seeing flyers for their last show at The Vera Project. To listen to this song, I searched everywhere (from Myspace to Lineout to ReverbNation). I even pleaded with my friends on facebook. No luck anywhere.

In a little twist of irony (or something), I reclaimed Headlights when my current computer crashed. I'm debating getting a Chromebook and decided to check out Google Play. When Google Music first came out, I uploaded much of my old music collection on a whim. I had forgotten all about this. Several scrolls down the page, Headlights was there.

I couldn't be any happier.

The opening riffs hook me every time. The repetition of the chorus is the portion of the song I used to sing in my head when I hadn't listened to the track in a while: "and, we move slowly and slowly and slow". The way they portray a mediocre relationship - it could be on every teenager's life soundtrack. We've all experienced this sort of lackluster, even if we're hoping for more. Get Dressed was easy to relate to, non-pretentious and the local act you hoped would make it somewhere.

Listen to Headlights. I did the world a favor and uploaded a copy to Grooveshark. It's worth the four minutes (and a few replays).

(image above via Lineout)

The Great Northwest by Mighty Oaks

There are two magical places on earth that vie for home in my heart. There's North Bend, Washington and the greater Snoqualmie Valley -- the actual area where I grew up. On the other coast, we have my current neighborhood of Columbia Heights in Washington, DC. With Snoqualmie Valley, I can talk for hours about Rattlesnake Lake, Mt. Si, Snoqualmie Falls, the outlets, the Twin Peaks references, my childhood home, George's Bakery and all the other spots I miss. However, despite those feelings, Columbia Heights generally wins the home battle, if only because of the people. 

Today, Snoqualmie Valley wins. 

My hometown area tends to be heavily influential on musicians, a thought that shouldn't come as much of a surprise. A few favorite examples are the band Snoqualmie (they'll get their own write up soon), The Cascades by the Fleet Foxes, and Twin Peaks by both Surfer Blood and Genders. I'm going to add a new favorite to this list today: The Great Northwest by Mighty Oaks. 

Mighty Oaks are based in Berlin but feature three musicians from three different countries (U.S., Italy and the UK). Together, they released a self-titled EP that went big on Soundcloud. The follow-up to that EP is the Just One Day EP, released on July 5th this year. The band is touring with large acts already -- they have that indie-folk sound and catchy tunes that could easily be played alongside The Lumineers, Fleet Foxes or Imagine Dragons. I have high hopes.

With three musicians from three different countries, I'm glad the Pacific Northwest is part of their inspiration. Not only are their lyrics reflective of this, their overall musical style is. I was honestly surprised when I realized they're neither a Seattle or Portland band. However, one of the members, Ian Hooper, is from the Pacific Northwest. I'm dying to know where. It has to be my hometown area, right?

Regardless, the band knows how to capture the magic:
we lost our sun in the rain // oh my love found me at the right time // my heart is yours, I ask you to be kind // we drove out east to the mighty Cascade range // to the place where the water falls from the heights of Snoqualmie // 

Today, I just want to go home and fall in love.

You can stream The Great Northwest and the entire Just One Day EP on SoundCloud. 

Mighty Oaks – The Great Northwest from Raffaele Mariotti on Vimeo.

(the picture at top is Mt. Si and was taken in my front yard the day before leaving on a plane out east)