Three Imaginary Girls - Pleasureboaters

Band breakups, Fall edition: The Trucks, Pleasureboaters

ChrisB — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:26:14 +0000

It's always at least a little disappointing when bands breakup and in the past weeks two popular Northwest bands have decided to call it quits.

First, Bellingham's The Trucks are splitting. Sound Magazine got the scoop:

The Trucks have run out of gas. Seemingly out of nowhere, Bellingham’s trashed-out queens of glammy gender-tweaking dance pop have suddenly called it quits.The band, consisting of Kristin Allen-Zito, Marissa Moore, Faith Reichel and super badass drummer Lindy McIntyre, had recently been playing a number of higher-profile dates outside of Western Washington (including a six-date stint on the road with Brooklyn’s ladies of hip-hop, Northern State) where they were testing out new material that was reportedly being written for the follow-up to the band’s critically-enjoyed self-titled debut. It seems that those songs will, sadly, be placed in the dump … truck.

The Trucks have one more Seattle show, on October 11, playing A Gun That Shoots Knives' CD release.

Capitol Hill Block Party 2008: Pleasureboaters

Chris Estey — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 04:56:22 +0000

25 Jul 2008

pleasureboaters08july.jpg

There is something defiantly wrong about the gassy, pushy skronk of Pleasureboaters, something shared between the band. This isn't the technically intense metal-punk of certain Seattle bands, and it isn't the Flipper sludge of others. It is a vocabulary created by the members of the band for each other.

This passion may explain why there was so much joy in the King Cobra for their performance, and its gender and status inclusivity was so liberal. There were lots of gals there, not just punk rock ones, and the usual drooling noise fanboys of course, but while the festivities of the Block Party may have been spilling into the club, the energy of Erik, Tim, and Ricky exponentially raised the fun and delivered it back outside. (In other words, people kept coming in and not leaving; a somewhat rare thing even on an ordinary night at a Seattle venue.)

It was interesting seeing music that at one time was raw power made for the faithful, in dank basements of the 90s, whispered about between book bag carrying zine writers, evolved into a perfect club soundtrack. The sonic scrawl of the damned has finally become party tunes, and it has lost nothing in translation save for the elitism. Seattle has an archetypal self-mythology about kids from the sticks (Kent and Renton, in Pleasureboaters' case) coming into town and dominating since before the days of grunge, and it's always a pleasure to see that energy played out Samsara-style over and over again.

!Gross!

Chris Estey — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:08:12 +0000

7.8

http://dontstopbelievin.net/

pleasureboaters08jun.gif

!Gross! is the kind of urban-versus-rural aural shit that oozes out of black holes like Kent and Renton (where Pleasureboaters happen to be from). Noisy boys chopping it up in the basement, deeply inhaling the grainy crank — it's all about the torqued bash clipping against the bass warble, avant-garage thrash-on guitar suddenly sputting into wavo inflections and radiation surf licks, spicy pulled up paces near the entropic end of each sausage-song chunk, rhythms and ranting till you're as blue in the face as the sixteen year old in the bathroom, cops being called by neighbors for the third time tonight.

Pleasureboaters do this out where there are pollution-withered trees and multiple miscegenated baby mamas, truck stop speed, and burritos as big as your head. Life's coarse pleasures are too much; laugh as we try to cram it all in, and how are we going to keep affording it on two hundred dollar unemployment checks and under the table housepainting jobs? You're sick of what your girlfriend's money can buy you at the 7-11 anyways. Ricky Claudon's voice is a still not too raspy manly yelp and sort of "Metal Box" all the way through, save for the almost-Pixies melodic "Elliptical Realism" (which if Top 40 was as possibly unpredictable as it was when New Wave first happened, would sound grat introduced by Casey Kasem — "Keep reachin' for the stars!").

This is a continual ranting complaint of debris-littered nothingness; there was once a comic called "Louis Reil" about an apocalyptic revolutionary who was martyred in the liberation of French Canada, and some guy got caught by the military and until he was executed he would keep profanely poking at his jailers till they finally just killed him out of infernal annoyance. A lot of bands tried for that sort of thing in the '90s, but Pleasureboaters give an awful lot of good company with that sputtering protest, driven by warm slinky bass and very excellent time changes that don't jar as much as seduce in peaks of form like "Andalou" and something-like-Flipper "Cigarette Song" (MY *pick hit of the week*, bump). "Cigarette Song" is pure stalking anti-soul, why punk drained white and sick, with its crisp string doodles and dabs. "Dear, I fear my time with you is growing short." Burning up time, as The Stranglers once threatened. "If I was a cigarette I'd burn you," another '80s underground dance hit once translated from the girls' perspective.

!Gross! takes you back to the mysterious chants and destruction of the previous decade's art-emo, but its the bottom end that helps it transcend nostalgia. "Unrivaled Subjectivity" is simply listener-pleasing enough to be a hit, till they make sure it bites the curb like the rest and bring the boot down. Again, "Rockpaperscissors" has that perfect melodic guitar-bass entwinement, suggesting we should "Meet at the Circle K." Then it goes apeshit again. There's definitely a bit more No Wave in this than the average Drive Like Jehu inverted funk. "Cockhair" even sounds like the best The Fall could do around 1981, and more. These three boys are doing their homework, or maybe they just know how to swing, so this isn't the flat noise-rock that certain media slobbers all over that spikes up every couple of years.

Speaking of nothingness (and I was, above there if you'll look), did you know they stored it and moved it last month? They've been working on the nothingness theory pretty hard since at least 2002 but now they caught the little bastard and are pushing it around. Not unlike Pleasureboaters.

These three boys are doing their homework, or maybe they just know how to swing, so this isn't the flat noise-rock that certain media slobbers all over that spikes up every couple of years.

Flickr photo of the day: Pleasureboaters

imaginary dana — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:12:40 +0000

I don't know who the photographer is behind Rabid Child Images, but after seeing all the glorious photos he (she?) posts to the TIG Sparkly Indie-Pop Photos pool, I want to!

Join us Chop Suey this SUNDAY for the Unscrew the Croc Employees Benefit

imaginary liz — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:57:18 +0000

Even though we're in the midst of a celebratory time of year, the shock of the sudden closing of the legendary Crocodile Cafe is still with us.

Help "Unscrew the Crocodile Employees" on Dec. 30

ChrisB — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 01:44:50 +0000

Chop Suey is hosting a benefit on Sunday, December 30 for The Croc (RIP) staff and Three Imaginary Girls is proud to sponsor the event.

Fests are upon us: Part 2: Noise for the Needy

imaginary dana — Wed, 02 May 2007 19:07:13 +0000

The organization is as worthy as their lineup is spectacular this year.