Three Imaginary Girls - The Shackeltons

The Shackeltons rock pants off at Neumo's

Deborah Barnard — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:55:53 +0000

10 Apr 2008

The Shackeltons rocked the crowd Thursday night, and the rest of the lineup at Neumo's featured local Seattle bands you should know more about too.

Openers Born Anchors played with enthusiastic hearts. The lead singer liked to wail more than a bit, and the drummer played with a maniacally-happy smile, as my plus one for the night pointed it out with a smile on his own face. The vocals tended to blur together and sound alike, but the band exceled at instrumentation with tight blends and a fast pace.

The guitarist used an e-bow (a nice little machine that lets you concentrate on fingering while it strums for you). Also, this band won for t-shirt design: a bird perched on an octopus tentacle that, from far away, looks like a peacock sitting on his own feathers. But no. So much more awesome than that. Plus, they're a super-local band: they hail from three blocks away from Neumo's.

New Faces are a trio of youngsters from Port Townsend who won the 2008 EMP Sound Off competition. They play catchy-as-hell, simple Britpop beats (think a local flavor of Franz Ferdinand), with Brit-kid haircuts to match. It's the kind of music that can get pleasantly stuck in your head, the kind that drives you to make converts of your friends so you have people you can gush with. While I was bopping along to their short set, I wish I could've heard their lyrics--but Neumo's sound quality is what it is and now I've got an excuse to snag their new EP.

It was a lovely set.

The first thing I noticed about the Hands was their interpretive guitar sex (aka the friendly antler-locking between the bass and guitar). The second thing I noticed was the best tambourine playah evah. The third thing was their solid commitment to rock your socks. Every time they screamed "I don't wanna die," my call and response instinct kicked in and I'd yell "neither do I!" The band's intense interactivity made their set a joy to watch. As much as Born Anchors impressed me with their playing, THIS was the band to study for instrumentation. I recommend them to the serious Rock Band players who enjoy playing intricate fingerings more than head-nods toward familiar songs.

When the Shackeltons took the stage, lead singer Mark Redding launched into a pre-play speech exactly as deadpan and random as King Missile's "Detachable Penis." He then started waving white blossoms and tree branches in the air, explaining that they were taken from a landscaping truck that had cut down a tree earlier that day. The branches were waved like incense then flung everywhere. This was a prelude to the only thing you need to know about Redding: he is super insane, maybe in a good way, maybe not. Dilated eyes and speeches about "Nyquil" that appears to be whiskey but "don't tell [his] mom" were followed by even greater show-stealing antics: he fell backwards, straight and hard, to sing while laid out flat on his back on-stage, "I want to fall in into love." Songs were mainly spoken or screamed.

Later, when he dropped the mike and left it lying on the stage, guitarist Erik Fisak gently/reproachfully put it back on the stand. You could tell the whole band is used to his antics. Mark Redding flies too high; if there's one thing I was sad about during this set, it was that there's a good chance The Shackeltons' singer will flail into rehab before they finally take off. Despite that, Redding held it together during the songs (for the most part) and pulled off what I've expected since I first heard the band's debut album: a punk-pop set that was one of the best I've heard in a long, long time.

The Shackelton's sole encore was the first song they ever wrote, a fast-paced little punk rock ditty called "Jenny" that wasn't half-bad. Afterwards, Redding encouraged everyone to "go to sleep."

The band pulled off what I've expected since I first heard their freshman album: a punk-pop set that was one of the best I've heard in a long, long time.

Mika could be anything you like, as long as it's glampop

Deborah Barnard — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:45:27 +0000

14 Feb 2008

mika08feb.jpg

In the beginning there was a large blue ball. Then it burst and an angel appeared, who danced & disappeared into the fog as Mika came on stage to sing "Relax, Take it Easy." High-pitched girlish screams rippled through the audience at this point; since it was an all-ages show on Valentines Day, there were a large number of high school girls welcoming Mika as their "date" that night. And so began the latest wave of super-hyped British glam pop-rock, with glowsticks imprinted with MIKA! flashing throughout the dancing audience.

When I say dance, of course, I mean vertically jumping or bobbing to the beat — the floor was so packed that there was only room for movement on the outskirts; however, it speaks well for the energy of a show when you can stand still and be moved up and down by the people next to you.

Up-beat, catchy sing-along sugar-petaled music was the main dish served up with confetti and strings of light bulbs on the side; one of the night's surprises was a cover of Eurythmics' "Missionary Man."

During "Love Today," the main drummer abandoned her station to dance around while a backup drummer played. Mika stripped his shirt off and performed a drum solo while standing on the bass drum, back/butt to the audience. Afterwards, he and the drummer pranced around and played drum solos on a center piece with two trashcans that were surrounded by flowers.

There were flowers all over the stage, actually, which reminded me of a bulletin The Shackletons had posted earlier in the day: "...if more bands used flowers on stage ... then florists wouldn't have to focus so much of their advertisement money on this specific day ... everyone should copy the smiths...." Yes. Flowers are pretty.

Another band similarity that popped up was during the song "Happy Ending." Mika's current popularity is similar to the position that Savage Garden held in soft hearts during the '90s, but he's improved it by quite a bit. Mika doesn't limit himself to emotional romanticky stuff and favors positive lyrics that focus on the self vs. how other people affect the self, yet he still pays homage to the way that love affects everyone — and not always postively. The lines "This is the way you left me / I’m not pretending / No hope, no love, no glory / No happy ending" received rousing applause that night.

While the performance plowed through most (if not all) of the songs off his debut album, Mika's vocals were impeccable — despite a sheepish apology mid-show for having a cold. With the way his voice clearly hit the high, soaring notes that were scattered throughout the song list for the night, though, you wouldn't have noticed otherwise. It's no small accomplishment: I went to a Harvey Danger show at the Crocodile once when Sean Nelson had a cold, and he had to go down an octave because hitting the high notes in "Little Round Mirrors" produced puberty-like voice-cracking. Kudos to Mika for figuring out the work-around to the common cold! Please to share with the rest of us, kthanx.

For the finale, despite being sick, Mika bounded back on stage. We just didn't know it at the time. The first song was done behind a large white scrim to the tune "Teddy Bear's Picnic" and had band members frolicking into a wolf-induced orgy by the end of it; Mika emerged at the end, tearing off his wolf-head. The final song of the night, "Lollipop," involved girls in Alice in Wonderland dresses dancing with suckers bigger than they were; at the end of the song, confetti and balloons streamed down on the audience like a New Years Eve countdown.

It was a good way to spend V-day and it was over by 10:30 p.m. to boot. Me and my plus one shuffled off to the Strangers' V-day Bash after that to see some dildos being macheted by Dan Savage.

And so began the latest wave of super-hyped British glam pop-rock, with glowsticks imprinted with MIKA! flashing throughout the dancing audience.

The Shackeltons

Mary for Certain — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:47:41 +0000

7.3

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000Z5LL8A/wwwthreeimagi-20

shakeltons08jan.jpg

Proceed with exuberance: The Shackeltons' new self-titled album may lead to blown out speakers and excessive speeding. The band has found that perfect indie-rock sound, with sonically charged, powerful post-punk beats anchoring lead singer Mark Redding's talking/screaming/pleading vocals.

These are eleven modern love songs. The listener is placed on a ship at sea (there are several references to ships and sailing on the album), and taken on a rocking, bobbing journey through waves of desire, yearning and heartbreak. The opening song, "Your Movement," has perhaps the best and most telling lyric of the album: "We held it in our hands/and didn't know it was love." The music that accompanies each song isn't especially wistful or floating, but offers layers and a buildup of sometimes frenetic energy. It's the kind of music I would love to hear live. Besides the first song, the other stars of an altogether strong album are "Yellow Cadillac," "The Ship" and "Emergency."

I knew the album met my approval as I drove to work and found myself continuing to turn up the volume further and further until I could feel the whole car rattling and humming. The Shackeltons is a vibrant, textured, emotionally intelligent album. I don't know if my speakers will ever be the same.

The band has found that perfect indie-rock sound, with sonically charged, powerful post-punk beats anchoring lead singer Mark Redding's talking/screaming/pleading vocals.