Three Imaginary Girls - the Young Fresh Fellows

Recommended for tonight: Fastbacks mania at the Tractor

imaginary keenan — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:09:02 +0000

Oh man is tonight going to be a good one! Get thee to the Tractor tonight for a very, very special night, as everyone sings "It's Your Birthday" to two Seattle pop legendaries - Lulu and Kurt of the Fastbacks. The evening starts off promptly at 8:30 with a heavy dose of Seattle royalty - the Young Fresh Fellows. Then, as if that wasn't enough, a bunch of other, a bunch of Seattle pop royalty, like PUSA, the Tripwires, Thee Sgt. Major III, and tons more will join the stage to sing a bunch of Fastbacks covers. And then, Seattle's favorite Fastbacks cover band, The K-Streets (hint - it's basically just the Fastbacks) will perform all the hits and classics. To top it all off, the night is only $5. I can't possibly think of a better way to spend a fiver.
In honor of this wonderfulness, we at TIG decided to re-run this beautiful piece of Fastbacks nerdery, origially posted by a Dear Mr. Oswald a few months ago for the last K-Streets show at the Sunset.

Portrait of an Artist: Scott McCaughey of the Young Fresh Fellows, the Minus 5, R.E.M., the Baseball Project, and more

D. Crane — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:19:14 +0000

I was too young/too uncool to listen to the Young Fresh Fellows, but I got way into the Minus Five after seeing them play with the Posies at the Mural Amphitheater, when I was in high school. “The Lonesome Death of Buck McCoy” was my first Minus Five CD purchase, from Tower Records by the Space Needle. Since then I have been a constant fan. Their style of mixing playful lyrics with real emotion behind them, has influenced me to write songs. To that I say….thank you Mr. McCaughey. I moved to Chicago in 2002, to teach middle school on the south side of the city as part of Teach for America. It was a rough go, but “Down With Wilco” was one of the few things (pizza, Wrigley Field, and Thai food….oh did I mention burritos?) got me through. I am on my third copy of that album, now on reissue LP.

D. Crane: Down With Wilco is a special record for me. I remember where I was when I heard “The Days of Wine and Booze” for the first time. I still buy it/recommend it to my friends. It is up there with the White album on my favorite albums of all time list. Do you have any special albums like that? Albums that you give to friends? Albums that you think are severely underrated/are as good as Beatles albums?

Scott McCaughey: Yes, I have albums like that. Whenever I'm asked, I go blank though. I try to turn people on to the Bill Fay CD of his first two albums, which coincidentally, Jeff Tweedy turned me onto the night before we went into the studio to start Down With Wilco. I also pass on copies of the first two McGuinness Flint albums -- I stockpile them (at next to nothing, as no one wants them) and then pass them on to those I think might be susceptible to their charms. (John Wesley Harding took the bait and fell hard.) Nazz Nazz by the Nazz; Armchair Boogie by Michael Hurley; Wish You Were Here by Badfinger. Everyone knows Straight Up but WYWH is also a masterpiece! In The Air by the Handsome Family. It's tricky because you have to find stuff that people haven't heard. And in the end, no matter how great, nothing's as good as the Beatles. But all three Big Star albums come close.

I also really love the Gun album. What was the thought behind the “gun artwork?” I also love the rifle on the spine. It makes me feel uncomfortable to have it in my classroom, but don’t think it isn’t hidden beneath a grammar book! My favorite song is “Out There on the Maroon,” do you actually drink white Russians? Have you been to Russia?

I wanted the "Gun Album" artwork to be simple and stark. I wanted it to express the feeling that went behind the songs. That was my distillation of a couple tough years I went through. I HATE guns, but it was the central image that captured the feeling of the record. It's thematic and whatever a gun represents to me felt right in presenting that album to the public. "Out There On The Maroon" took a strange road to its realization on the album. My friend Bob Spires from the amazing and wonderful band The Possibilities (and lately, Nutria) send me a drunken email with a "song/poem" that started with the line about the White Russians. I took it from there and somehow, over a few years gestation, with a few different attempts, it became a song to my daughter. A guilt-ridden song, but one that I hope evokes a bit of positivity into a rough situation. I'm not sure. I love the song. I haven't had a White Russian for thirsty years, although occasionally people tell me I look like The Dude from The Big Lebowski. I love Jeff Bridges. I've been to Russia once, for about 18 hours. I have the furry hat to prove it.

Also, on that song, the guitar line is a musical highlight for me. Seattle is dying to know….who can shred harder…you or Captain Peter Buck?

The fantastic JOHN RAMBERG (currently fronting Seattle's Tripwires) played the nifty guitar leads on "Maroon". You know, neither Peter nor I would ever claim (or aspire) to "shred". Neither of us considers ourself a lead guitarist. Peter is actually REALLY good, and he could do it, but he doesn't want to, thus one of the defining characteristics of R.E.M. as an original and unique and undated band.

I play in a band called BOAT, and I also teach middle school. I can’t see a point where music would provide for me, my wife, and dog/cats. I also think spending my days working with kids in a creative way, provides me with much more to pull from if I am making songs. I think if I just did music I would be bored…and make boring songs. And conversely if I just did teaching, I would be a bored/boring teacher. Do you work any other jobs when you are not playing music? Does working other jobs help make the music more interesting?

I used to work lots of jobs. Luckily I haven't so much, since booking the Crocodile for a year 1993-1994. I've worked at Thrifty Rent-a-Car, a furniture factory (I got to be a pretty good sander), and of course many years in a record store. All of these jobs inspired songs, no doubt about it. Were they good songs? Hmmm, well, I still haven't recorded "I Don't Want To Live Without A Nose" -- probably for the best.

Where do you write most of your songs? Do you start with chords, words, an image?

It varies but more often then not I start with words, because they come to me when I'm driving or walking (I walk more than drive), and hopefully I'll remember them and jot them down at first opportunity. I've forgotten to jot down many of my best songs, which thusly remain unwritten. My best songs happen when I pick up an acoustic guitar or sit at the piano -- might happen more often if I had a fucking piano -- and start playing and the chords inspire a lyric and it all happens at once. That's the real serendipity of songwriting. Surprising how seldom it happens, mostly because I'm always somehow too busy to take the time to let that situation exist.

What is your favorite REM song to play? What is your favorite REM song to listen to?

Man, that's hard! I like playing "Circus Envy" though it doesn't happen that often. "Horse To Water" is a big fave. "Tongue" and "Kenneth". For listening I like "Beach Ball" and "At My Most Beautiful" and "Summer Turns To High".

If you had to put together a new band for the Minus Five, and could choose from any musicians living or dead….who would you choose? (Yes, you can choose Peter Buck.)

Irma Thomas on vocals. Peter Buck on 12-string guitar. Paul McCartney on bass. Allen Toussaint on piano. Jeff Tweedy on lead guitar and vocals. Steve Berlin on baritone sax and mellotron. I'm not sure my participation would be necessary at all! Except maybe driving the van (daytime only.)

What is the next project or project you are involved with?

Doing this incredibly fun Tired Pony thing. Me and Peter with Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol, plus Richard Colburn from Belle & Sebastian, and Iain Archer, and Troy Stewart, and Garret "Jacknife" Lee. New album out now, and it's amazing. Also hard at work finishing the next Baseball Project album and the next R.E.M. album!

{Don't miss Scott with the Young Fresh Fellows at the Tractor July 23rd!}

{Art by D. Crane}

redmccaughey.jpg

{Art by D. Crane, The Young Fresh Fellows play July 23rd at the Tractor}

Friday night plans with the Young Fresh Fellows?

imaginary liz — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:26:22 +0000

{Photo: Hot Avocados Photography from the Three Imaginary Girls Sparkly Flickr Photo Pool}

Being Friday night, there are so many stellar options of what to do! Thee Oh Sees at the Funhouse, The Pharmacy at the Comet, or Hey Marseilles all-ages style at Vera are all wonderful paths to take... but when the Young Fresh Fellows are in town (this time at the Tractor with Girl Trouble), I'd be remiss to recommend anything but a full night of their songs which, as our own Chris Estey poignantly wrote, connect the dots between "The Sonics and The Wailers to The Posies and Death Cab with that sweaty, fun, beer-soaked, Puget Sound-smelling, back-yard stomping garage band life."

Want to know all the options at your fingertips? Here's what we've got on the Friday imaginary calendar:

I Think This Is

Chris Estey — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:03:03 +0000

8.3

http://www.amazon.com/Think-This-Young-Fresh-Fellows/dp/B002BEXGFO/?=wwwthreeimagi-20

yffalbum.jpg

It would be enough for an artist to release a great album from his own group while helping out a huge, still vital band like REM create new, meaningful music since the mid-90s. But Seattle-in-Portland-exile (well, that's how I see it) indie rock originator Scott McCaughey simultaneously released a mighty fine Minus 5 full length just as his reunited OG band the Young Fresh Fellows put one out too. And it turns out that if I Think This Is was released by itself in any year, it would have been considered a come-back coup for the caustic troubadour. On top of that, McCaughey, Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate), Linda Pitman, and REM's Peter Buck (!) have just released The Baseball Project, a spritely whole album dedicated to their baseball fandom. That's sort of like McCaughey's version of Sandinista! separated into three different releases with three different bands and no Mikey Dread or kid's choruses. Wow. (Key tracks on The Baseball Project: "Ted Fucking Williams," "Sometimes I Dream Of Willie Mays," and "The Death of Big Ed Delahanty.")

The Young Fresh Fellows themselves, which according to their My Space has been "Tad, Jim, Kurt, and Scott since 1989," helped continue the evolution of The Sounds of the Pacific NW (name of their first release, BTW), connecting The Sonics and The Wailers to The Posies and Death Cab with that sweaty, fun, beer-soaked, Puget Sound-smelling, back-yard stomping garage band life. But not without topics that occasionally bluntly hinted at the dark streak of mold in the damp basement nearby. Though early light hearted romps like the hilariously flippant love letter to "Amy Grant" just as the CCM artist was getting Rolling Stone coverage, and songs like "Shake Your Magazines" and "YOUR Mexican Restaurant" filling out the second half of I Think This Is, hubris has always been the main target of the guitar-grinding, hand-clapping power pop anthems. McCaughey doesn't spare himself when going for the plump jugulars of inflated egos and moronic business as usual types. This venom may keep the sunny indie fans from following, but in spite of the sarcastic cheer in the YFF sound, it never stops rocking.

The surprise this time is, even with the self-referential black humor and inclusive odes to their own tenaciousness ("After Suicide," "Ballad of the Bootleg," respectively), on I Think There Is there are also realistic glimpses into goodly-humored survival and art-making with friends, as in excellent album opener "The Guilty Ones." Musically, the YFF probably wouldn't have existed without the Beatles, but the band they remind me of most is an Ecotopian Kinks; little details like McCaughey having ice cubes in his freezer ("not everybody does") for pals who come over to play his "thousands of tambourines" recall Ray Davies at his descriptive best. "Lamp Industries" and "Such Machine Crater," the vitriol against the assholes in the music business in the top half of this CD, are actually melodically more compelling than the more ballad-based simultaneous Minus 5 release (so that I recommend this one more). But my favorite track may be the giddy-sounding duplicitous cheer for "Go, Blue Angels, Go," which wishes the Air Force stuntmen would fly, fly, fly into the hydroplanes racing in the Emerald City waters nearby, killing them all and the touristy noise we have to endure every summer. Yeah.

News flash: the Young Fresh Fellows and the Tripwires will rock your face off

imaginary victoria — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:26:45 +0000

19 Jun 2009

yfftrip05.jpg

I've written up this review several times, abandoned a half-dozen drafts, and have decided that it's best to just give it to you straight:

The Tripwires and the Young Fresh Fellows rocked our fucking faces off on Friday night.

There, I said it. And pardon my choice of adjective, but there's really no other way to explain how good this show was. The bands were unbelievably tight, the choice of venue was perfect (The Tractor, obvs) and the sound was absolutely stellar. I mean, I actively sought out and purchased a poster. A poster. Do you remember the last time you did that? I do. It was when the Wrens and Okkervil River played two nights at Neumo's for the KEXP Yule Benefit a few years back. (Talk about getting your face rocked off!) And that's the kind of night this was, only on a smaller scale -- a well-matched bill, perfectly executed, with the three of us ambling down the sidewalk afterward, all reeling and sweaty and shouting over our ringing ears.

The night was part of a two-stop jaunt for the release of the newest Young Fresh Fellows album, I Think This Is, with shows in Seattle and Portland last Friday and Saturday respectively. Unlike a lot of long-standing rock acts, bands like the YFF seem to be immune from the progression of a steady album quality decline over the years -- or at least, that's how the related songs translate at their shows. Picks from earlier work, brand-new releases, and everything in-between were a cohesive delivery of the band's strengths, dialing up influences here and there as the songs called for them. We could hear the infusion of everything from surfer-punk to Beatles to grunge, old Who and Kinks records, strains of side projects and modern punk sensibility -- all shot through with the kind of delivery that only guys who have known each other for a few decades (or at least one or two) can give. And extra points go to the YFF for busting out a raging dirty guitar-noise cover of "Hang On Sloopy" toward the end of the set that just about put us all over the edge.

Although they were billed as the 'opening' act, the Tripwires blew us right out of our Chucks just as much as the YFF did. Everything in the paragraph above applies duly, with an extra serving super-sweet harmonies and all of the compliments paid double. And as is the case with both bands, everyone in them, and all of their other collectives and formations: any time you see any of these bands or any of their side projects playing anywhere, ever, break your plans and go see the show. You won't be disappointed. I mean, with Scott McCaughey, Johnny Sangster, Jim Sangster, Mark Pickerel, Kurt Bloch, and John Ramberg anywhere in the house -- you really can't go wrong.

{As per usual, a few snapshots to follow, with a whole set residing in the imaginary flickr pool -- enjoy!}

I've written up this review several times, abandoned a half-dozen drafts, and have decided that it's best to just give it to you straight:

The Tripwires and the Young Fresh Fellows rocked our fucking faces off on Friday night.

Play

Craig Vinyl — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 07:00:00 +0000

yes

6.5

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000NOKBJS/wwwthreeimagi-20

playcompilation07feb.jpg

If you've spent any time working with kids, raising kids, or just watching kids' TV shows, you may agree with what I've seen during a handful of years teaching elementary school, and now having a young one of my own: there are three categories of music entertainment "for kids."

Evil and Intent on Destroying All that's Good in the World. For an example of category 1, look no further than the TV Band The Doodlebops on the Disney Channel (surprise, surprise). And, of course, it feels like this is the most abundant category.
Hearts in the Right Place. It might not sound like anything a kid would understand or dig, but it's definitely fun and on the right track, or at least well-intended.
Folks Who Get Kids. Undoubtedly most under-represented category, this music is both beloved by kids and not abhored by grown-ups.

I'm happy to report that the new DeSoto Records compilation Play never comes close to category 1, and instead falls enjoyably between categories 2 and 3.

This is definitely kid-friendly music, led by standout tracks like "Nellie The Elephant," by Sgt. Major, and "Picnic," by the Young Fresh Fellows. There are other tracks like "Truck on Truck," by the Cassettes, whose unending refrain and bombastic rock star "yeeeaaaah's" would undoubtedly elicit a roll of the eyes and a smile from any tween (high praise in the tween world). Over the course of these songs, you'll find moer than one song in the batch that will work for the kid(s) in your life--be it student, child, or even a friend's child (let's face it, most adults who pick up this album will have some connection with kids).

Kids, in general, have a waaayyyyy higher sense of wit, sarcasm, and wry humor than the hapless fools in marketing give them credit for. This is especially true of the Seattle kids associated with the Vera Project, a grassroots music/arts center run by and for youth, which is the recipient of a portion of Play's profits. This compilation has that Vera feel--in both its art and edge. Play should be commended, if only because it could strike discomfort in the SUV-driving suburban Mom intent on sheltering her kids from all the world's ills with a monogrammed bedroom ensemble.

It would probably be too much to ask that all the tracks on a compilation could achieve that success of "getting" kids. Some of the tracks on Play, like Visqueen's serious improvement on the John Fogerty classic "Centerfield," are fun as Hell, and yet -- not sure that song's going to resonate with a kid, really. Again, who knows? I think that's the question for anyone who decides they want to make music, or any art, for kids. Who am I doing this for? The why almost doesn't matter. Just pick the kid, in your mind, see their wary gaze, and blow their doors off.

Kids are a hot, hip market right now, and Play definitely outdoes the khaki-shrinkwrapped marketing tools you find by the registers in Pottery Barn Kids (poor Louis Prima). Play clearly proclaims its intent to be cool rock for kids. There's not a suburban Bellevue backyard barbecue with matching dinosaur plates among this crop of edgy, rocking songs. It's music for the hoodie-clad Vera kids' younger brothers and sisters, and at least half the time, you can picture their specific eye-rolls, nods, and toe-tapping, as they relent and enjoy it.

Full track-listing for Play:

Anna Oxygen - "Born to Shake"
Channels with Damon Locks - "Always Check for Holes"
Georgie James - "The Grizzly Jive"
Sgt. Major - "Nellie the Elephant"
Mudhoney - "I Like to Make Noise and Break Things"
Mock Orange - "Holiday Dinner Song"
Mirah and Tara Jane O'Neil - "Green Up Time"
Young Fresh Fellows - "Picnic"
Mary Timony - "Clap Your Hands"
Soccer Team - "I'll Never Fear Ghosts Again"
Supersuckers - "Rubber Biscuit"
The Cassettes - "Truck on (Truck)"
Ben Davis & The Jetts - "Bouncin' Party"
Visqueen - "Centerfield"

This is definitely kid-friendly music, led by standout tracks like "Nellie The Elephant," performed by Sgt. Major, and "Picnic," performed by the Young Fresh Fellows.