New (?) Music First ( ?)

Ok, so we have been hella busy up here in the Pacific Northwest, including heading back to the Midwest, so I have barely been able to take care of my life, let alone this blog (I think that may have happened to everyone, but you know, I don't think this blog is dead, just on vacation.)

So this is just a quick post to say what's I've been finding lately and hopefully prompt some others to post some new music as well. Hopefully our lives will slow down more and I can really get back to this, and maybe we'll get some momentum back before the end of the year lists.

So, items of note:

Went to Bumbershoot, which was incredible. The crowds were exhausting, I must admit, but we saw some GREAT shows, and a lot of partial shows as we walked around, too, including the Old 97's, Del the Funkee Homosapien, Battles, and Death Cab for Cutie, (and a pretty surprising performance from the Offspring). But the real show stealers for us were Vince Mira and Mike Doughty.

Vince Mira is a teenager from LA who was playing on the sidewalk near Pike's Place Market in Seattle when the local news evidently caught wind of his playing and gave him some PR. Even though he is under the voting age, his voice is a spot-on copy of Johnny Cash. Although this is somewhat gimmicky, there's no denying his skill, and he does a lot of great oldies, not just Cash. His EP was produced by John Carter Cash, Johnny Cash's son, which is interesting as well. When we saw him live we were totally impressed-- his voice was great, his guitar playing was good, and it was a very strange experience to hear Johnny Cash's voice singing in fluent Spanish (Mira used to sing classical Mexican music before his voice changed at the age of 13). Anyways, check him out, he'll be picking up more steam in the future I'm sure.



So my main goal was to go see Mike Doughty, formerly of the band Soul Coughing. Drew, John 87, and I saw him back in... hmmm, 2003 or so in Cleveland and were thoroughly impressed. His stage banter is hilarious and his "gangadank" guitar playing is pretty flippin' cool. He always gives the crowd a spiel about how he is about to lie to them and tell them the show is over, and then they are going to turn around momentarily, and then turn back around for the encore. Pretty funny. Anyways, he had a pretty big crowd considering Death Cab was playing at the same time, and he put on a great show with his new band (he has had a rotating group of touring members) and really had a few more jam sessions then he did last time, which was cool. Anyways, I'm biased because I love Doughty's work, but if he ever comes through town, I highly recommend checking him out, especially if you like any of his Soul Coughing stuff, because he does play a lot of older songs (Janine, Soft Serve, St. Louise is Listening). Even my wife was really impressed, and I had hyped it up majorly for her, so yeah, check him out. Oh, and stand by for a rant coming up about how Soul Coughing is one of the most underrated alt-rock band of the '90's.



Ok, that's more than I had time for today, but I have a few more posts I want to get out about some great new songs I've heard, so look for more later this week.