On this page you will find photos, band bios and links for NFTN 2011 artists.
The Detroit Cobras
Formed in 1994 and headed by the soulful, smoky voice of Rachel Nagy, The Detroit Cobras are a cover band who plays songs you would never suspect of being covers. The deep soul cuts reimagined by The Detroit Cobras convey the blue collar ethos and big city heartbreak that take you straight to the heart of the Motor City. As a live act,The Detroit Cobras are known to make a great party excellent and to leave no corner of the bar untouched by their raucous, hip-shaking sound.
Brendan Perry(Dead Can Dance)
Brendan Perry, formerly the male half of seminal neoclassical duo Dead Can Dance, has added two solo albums to his catalogue since 1999′s release of “Eye of the Hunter”, followed up by “Ark” in 2010. Relying more on synthesizers and samples in his latest work, Perry explores the effect of the human animal on our planet in a dystopian vision nonetheless studded with hope and optimism. He describes his work as an ambient neutral electronic soundscape, more similar to Dead Can Dance compositions than his previous solo efforts.
Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins)
Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band was conceived in order that 28-year-old songwriter Benjamin Verdoes could teach his younger brother, Marshall, now 15, drums. This almost seems like ancient history now — Marshall is an accomplished musician regardless of age. After all, the band has logged 150 plus shows since their first performance in July of 2008, touring both as headliners and in support of such bands as Cursive, Japandroids, Bishop Allen, and Frog Eyes. They visited festival stages at Bonnaroo, Sasquatch and Bumbershoot and actually performed at Mt. St. Helens itself. Joined by Benjamin Verdoes’ (guitar, vocals) wife Traci Eggleston (keys, vocals, miscellaneous percussion) and Jared Price (bass, guitar, drums, organ), Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band are a band stretching their ideas, expanding their vision into the undeniably satisfying album, Where the Messengers Meet.
Loch Lomond
The autumnal tones of Loch Lomond are haunted by their birthplace in a tumbledown basement, as singer/songwriter Ritchie Young‘s bittersweet lyrics soothe picturesque songs of love, reminiscing, and fate. The Portland, OR, group was completed in 2003 when Young‘s longtime friend Rob Oberdorfer(the Standard) joined him for what turned into a yearlong collaboration. WithYoung on guitars and mandolin and Oberdorfer on drums, Loch Lomond host a revolving cast of musicians including Kate O’Brien (violin), Jay Clarke(bass/accordion), Katie Schnepp (viola), and Peter Broderick (saw/slide guitar).When We Were Mountains marked the band’s debut release for In Music We Trust in 2004. A split 12″ with their pals Hurtbird followed on High Karate a year later. While writing and recording their second offering in mid-2006, Loch Lomond played shows with the likes of Horse Feathers, Nina Nastasia, andMolly Rose. ~ MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide
Kyle Kinane
Kyle Kinane has been up and at it for almost half his life, mostly searching for what “it” might be. He has performed in the Leicester,Vancouver, Washington D.C., Portland, Just For Laughs/Chicago and the USCAF/Aspen comedy festivals, and has been on the TV via “Last Call with Carson Daly,” “The Very Funny Show” on TBS, “Live at Gotham,” “Comedy Central Presents” and “The World Stands Up” on the BBC. He was called “bleak and misanthropic” by the London Evening Standard, which he still feels may be a compliment.
Armed with a droll wit, boisterous delivery, and an impressive beard, Kyle Kinane…makes even the most depressing stories funny. “Hey, anybody ever get so lonely that you sleep on your couch instead of in your own bed, ’cause at least that way it feels like you’re lying next to somebody?” he barks near the top of his new CD, Death Of The Party. And sure, it’s bleak stuff, with bits about friends who are afraid to let Kinane hold their babies, waking up at 8 a.m. to a digital alarm clock that looks like it’s flashing the word “boo,” and what Kinane describes as being “a stripped-bare toothless cog spinning freely and ineffectually in the working machine of society.” (By the way, he’s “selling gourmet cake decorations over the phone to strangers.”) But the material rarely drags; the depths of Kinane’s inventiveness is astounding, like his conspiracy theories about Trader Joe’s and the inane quandaries that contribute to his insomnia. Kinane’s Twitter feed—compiled on the appropriately titled “Shooting For Third“—offers a taste of his dark sensibilities. - A.V. Club
Ononos
Akimbo
Soft Metals
They are passionate about music technology and sound design. Their songs are made with electronic instruments from the 70s, 80s, and 90′s. Soft Metals make melancholic synth-pop inspired by love, lust, dreams, nightmares, cinema, nostalgia, tension, passion, aggression, introspection, and masculine/feminine dynamics.
Brooklyn, New York label Captured Tracks released their first five songs on “The Cold World Melts” 12″ EP (CT-69) in August of 2010. In January of 2011, Desire records (France) released their homage to industrial/electronic music pioneers, Throbbing Gristle with their cover of “Hot on the Heels of Love” on a split 7″ with Jewels of the Nile (DSR-011). Currently, the band is working on their first full length album which will be released this year (2011) on Captured Tracks.
Girl in a Coma
Sage
Big Sur
Fresh Espresso
These Michigan natives met in Seattle WA and quickly started writing music together. P Smoov (also of mad rad) has crafted a beautiful and gritty soundscape for Rik Rudes rich vocals to float above. Their debut album “Glamour” has been making its way to the top of citics best of lists.
Lizzie Huffman
“Huffman’s southern-fried folk-pop is perhaps a bit counter-intuitive to her West Coast roots, and so well contrived you’d expect to find her kicking up her boots in Nashville. The first moment the record player needle spun over Huffman’s voice, I was honestly blown away. She soulfully and magnetically vocalizes woebegone tales of passion, nerves and infatuation that are plaintive yet conversely empowering. Huffman’s Etta James-esque delivery is laid down amongst a mix of folksy instrumentation like a pair of misfit lovers, but the genre-bending seems genuine and even contemporary.”
Lisa Dank & Nark
Redwood Plan
The Redwood Plan features all veteran musicians fronted by vocalist / keyboardist / guitarist Lesli Wood, along with bassist Larry Brady, guitarist Sydney Stolfus, and drummer Betty ST. John Richards (90.3 KEXP) referred to The Redwood plan as, “just the kind of energy and attitude the Seattle scene was missing.” Megan Seling (107.7 TheEnd, The Stranger) calls the band, “one of Seattle’s newest and greatest dance punk bands”. Michele Khazak (90.3 KEXP) told listeners to “check out a searing set of aggressively catchy dance punk from Seattle band The Redwood Plan, with new songs from their debut full length ‘Racing Towards The Heartbreak’.” The Redwood Plan has impressed crowds with their high energy performances from Seattle’s Capitol Hill Block Party, Bumbershoot, through to Austin’s SXSW. Listen to Redwood Plan online. Redwood Plan performs sunday at Chop Suey with Fresh Espresso, Lisa Dank and Brite Futures.
The Tempers
The Tempers, of Seattle, describe their music as “psychedelic / glam / death metal.” Their first four-song EP is entitled Galactic Love, and they will have an LP coming out soon. They have performed all over Seattle – at the Black Lodge, Rebar, Neumos, and more, and they will be playing Underground Events Center in Belltown on June 10th with Ononos, Sports, Spurm, USF, Fly Moon Royalty, DJ Gin & Tonic, DJ Phil Pickens & Floyd Beastie The Tempers are James Bakker (key madness and manipulation), Chalia Bakker (jungle drums), and Corina Bakker (screams and howls).
Drew Grow & the Pastors’ Wives
Portland garage-pop band Drew Grow & the Pastors’ Wives are Drew Grow, Cookie, Kris Doty, and Seth Schaper. Grow has been making music since he started playing in a “god rock” band at 19. Born into a devout Christian family, he has always viewed music as a personal and spiritual experience. Grow caught his first break playing guitar for folk-pop outfit Five O’Clock People and later toured the U.K. with Vigilantes of Love. In 2002, Grow finally put together his own group, a five-piece band called Careen. “Back in Careen, I was doing pop music as rebellion, much like I spent a lot of my life fighting against my religious roots,” Grow said. “But music is sacred to me, and as I’ve searched for a sound that is what I want to hear, I find I’m drawn to the feeling of gospel and worship music reclaimed by people like Johnny Cash, PJ Harvey and Spiritualized.” The self-produced album, Next Lips, was released in 2007. Listen to Drew Grow online. See them live June 9th at Chop Suey with See Me River, Buffalo Death Beam, The Foghorns & DJ Zwickepedia.
Goldfinch
Tacoma band Goldfinch is Aaron Stevens, Grace Sullivan, Paul Hirschl, Jake Rohr, and Ryan Baker. The new album also includes Andrew Rudd, Luke Stevens, Josiah Sherman, Brian Wagner, Barton Carroll, and Samuel Anderson. In March 2010, they played at the Birds on a Wire Folk Festival in Pullman, Washington. Also that month, they joined join Jake Hemming and Steve Norman (Big Sur), Ian McFeron, slam poet Jodie Knowles, and two live on-stage potters at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center for The Seattle Round #58. They are currently working on a new album. “Goldfinch’s live performances have a perfect, tranquil quality to them. It’s like watching a well-oiled machine of melancholy, where harmonized vocals play with themes of forgiveness and loss while floating above tinkling music,” said the Seattle Weekly. Listen to them online. Golfinch is playing June 11th at Columbia City Theater with Loch Lomond, The horde and the harem and Big Sur.
Hobosexual
Though Hobosexual was formed in 2009, Seattle has loved Ben Harwood’s brand of rock-n-roll for years. Having shred his way through Vindaloo and Iceage Cobra, Ben has landed solidly with Hobosexual. Combining his talents in composition and an undeniable need to feed rock’s fire, Ben creates heavy music that is ambitious and infectious. Unhinged live shows are the key to Hobosexual’s magic. Ben and drummer Jeff Silva are seasoned players worthy the attention they demand.
Hobosexual began in a basement with Ben and drummer Matt Ehlers, who left the band in May 2010 after contributing to the self-titled debut CD and playing five shows.
Jeff Silva (The Beautiful Mothers, The Second Academy) stepped in and Hobo immediately benefited from his energy, knack for improvisatory feel around an unusually destructive drum beat, and history with Ben. Bandmates in Vindaloo and Gozer, Ben and Jeff quickly lock-stepped in Hobosexual.
This Blinding Light
The Blinding Light consists of members from Hypatia Lake and Joy Wants Eternity. Dave Segal of The Stranger wrote, “This Blinding Light aren’t trying to coax you into a cult; rather, they’re using their art as a bridge to help you perhaps attain the enlightenment they’ve achieved.” Lance Watkins told him, “This Blinding Light is about creating a mantra. It’s about tapping into the groove and pulling people into that zone with us. I think the volume we play at is also a big part of knocking down people’s defenses and making them just be there with us in that space. (We are) a vehicle of the Now. We can just get up there and play on a couple of chords and just be free in that moment, and shifting the focus away from the trappings of the negative ego and onto the magick that is inherent in the music. I think, very often, images and credits skew people’s perceptions and draw them away from just listening.” – mixed from Dave Segal
Operation ID
Operation ID is Seattle’s (the world’s?) only minimalistic, avant-garde, electro-pop, noise-cluster, synth-rock, free-jazz, experimental, dance-prog band. Originally interested in the spontaneity of free-jazz, Operation ID’s open mindedness has guided them to embrace a position of willingness when experimenting with new sounds and musical approaches. They have grown from being exclusively instrumental to frequently incorporating group vocals. Some well known influences include Steve Reich, Talk Talk, Hella, Prince, XTC, Richie Hawtin, and Deerhoof.
Midday Veil
Eluding tidy categorization, Seattle’s Midday Veil draws from an ever-deepening well of influences including krautrock, folk, drone, blues, noise, new age, metal, and various kinds of non-western and tradit ional music. The band began as the duo of David Golightly (synths) and Emily Pothast (vocals + guitar). The current lineup also includes Timm Mason on lead baritone guitar, Jayson Kochan on bass and Chris Pollina on drums and the occasional banjo. David and Emily are members of the Portable Shrines Collective. They are also the co-founders of Translinguistic Other Recordings and give occasional site-specific performances as Hair and Space Museum. Timm performs solo material as Mood Organ and Jayson performs as Airport.
Sports
Sports is a Seattle-based electro-pop band. They are often mistake for an indie rock band of the same name out of Canada, but, alas, they are locals.
Black Queen
Black Queen is the brainchild of Pete Jay (ex Wormwood, Oakhelm) and is a demented child indeed. More like Damien from the Omen if he went through his adolescence on meth, Black Queen is a unbridled motherfucking force to reckoned with. The plodding, sinister riffs, which remind me of early Incantation blended with Pete Jay’s old-school vocal attack, make Black Queen sound as if they were exported directly from 1985. If you have one ounce of metal in your blood, you will bang your head. (T.J. Cowgill, The Stranger)
Vultures 2012
“Initially brought to my attention by Your Village Sucks! Fest mastermind Andrew Chapman prior to their Audioasis benefit appearance back in December of 2009, Vultures 2012 has earned steady rotation and quite a bit of local praise due to their massive hybrid of crust punk, death and stoner metal. Vultures 2012 possess all the elements of an extremely heavy metal band, and these former and current members of Flamethrower, Murdock and Hearseburner certainly lather it on thick. Their dense and devastating sound has propelled them relatively quickly to the top of the local metal food chain, having even been featured live on Hannah Levin hosted KEXP radio shows twice. She’s a fan, Andrew’s fan, and I’m a fan — what else do you need? Vultures have been working in the studio laying down tracks for their debut full length, and their Conrad Uno produced 4-track demo EP s available on Amazon.com. Now is the time to catch these guys in an intimate setting as they fill the headlining slot of our little festival. Before they join the big boys of the metal world, a level they certainly have the chops to reach.” Nik Christofferson, seattlerockguy.com
Princess
New Seattle band Princess played their 3rd ever show back on Jan. 29th at the Josephine. During their set, screamer Andrew Chapman climbed furniture, and in some cases the audience while doing his bidding as one of city’s most entertaining front men. All the while Rod, Violet, and Sam laid down a seriously sonic back drop for Andrew’s mayhem, showing off some newly minted tunes only heard by a handful of wise local folks thus far. Princess had their claws out at the Josephine show and I was blown away by their set on many levels, but musically speaking Princess was very impressive. Add the live antics and you have the makings for an exciting new addition to Seattle’s heavy music scene or in the case of these veteran players– exciting new beginnings.
The duo of Rod Learmonth (they don’t call him Roddy Chops for nothing) and heavy handed drummer Violet Séverine Blanchard are a tight unit, steaming from their time as musical partners in Mobile Slaughter Unit. Rounding out the foursome is Sam Wilder of local rock band The Vexx. She not only joins Violet as part of the badass female presence in Princess, but holds down bass duties with gusto as well.
Princess is a heavy band no question, but their leanings toward faster more manic song structures put them more in the punk rock realm than true metal in my opinion. I can picture them rounding out a local heavy punk dream bill with the likes of Android Hero, Absolute Monarchs, and Deadkill, but that’s not to say they can’t hold their own in the metal realm also. (Nik Christofferson, Seattle Rock Guy)
Smooth Sailing
Brandon (Drums), Patrick (Guitar), Jake (Bass), Chris (Guitar, Vocals) and Ryan (Bass) formed Smooth Sailing in Seattle in September of 2008. Following the creed that nothing is out of bounds, the band began creating heavy music that attempts to combine the power of Akimbo, the dynamics of Explosions in the Sky, and the epic jams of Grand Funk Railroad. The resulting songs sound like reading every Goosebumps book at the same time while watching Are You Afraid of the Dark? with your flashlight batteries running low. They’ve played in and around the Seattle/Portland area in dive bars, apartments above dive bars, houses and basements that should be dive bars, and even a field in a rainstorm that smelled suspiciously like a dive bar.
Brite Futures
Defying all pre-conceived notions you might have that involve combinations of the words Seattle and grunge, rain, sadness, long hair and (capital R) Rock, Brite Futures (formerly Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head – ask the band sometime about the name change, it ain’t pretty) comes blasting out of the Space Needle, literally, armed with more sunshine and pop fun than a Technicolor cartoon on a sugar-fueled Saturday morning. Brite Futures are all about shiny disco beats, synth-drenched dance numbers, and audience participation, and as their star continues to rise, Seattle will soon be known as the least ironic of cities, the anti-Williamsburg if you will.
Kithkin
Kithkin is a band that love drums. Lots of drums. Patching together influences from The Dodos, Man Man, and The Talking Heads, Kithkin attempt to make catchy pop music built upon unusual rhythms and syncopated bass lines. The goal is to make people dance without realizing they’re dancing in 7/4 time, and get them singing, chanting and shouting along to all the group vocals.
Koko & The Sweetmeats
KOKO is the work of South African musician Garett van der Spek. Playing to drunks in the smoky bars of burning hotels since age 12 he has come a long way. Since dabbling in the dark arts of cover bands and pop rock, he has moved on to forming super groups and launching a solo career named after a gorilla. Collaborating with everyone from Afro-Jazz A cappella groups, Hip-Hop acts to performing at punk festivals. The KOKO project has been alive now for three years during which a full length album AS THE CROW FLIES and 3 E.Ps, GHOST VOCAL, CANNIBAL ANIMAL and THE INDESTRUCTIBLE SOUND OF KOKO have been released independently. The KOKO moniker was born out of necessity when Garett relocated from Durban, South Africa to Seattle, USA in 2007.
The Kilcid Band
The Kilcid Band are a Seattle area band. Fusing the finest American folk with British pop, they bring a signature sound that the whole family will love. Includes former members of Wallpaper, the Vells, New Faces, and current members of Abraham.
“USF (formerly Universal Studios Florida) is an electronic duo that began in the fall of 2008. Band members Kyle Hargus and Jason Baxter released their eponymous debut EP in January 2009, and followed it with the critically-acclaimed full-length Ocean Sunbirds in June 2010, both on Brooklyn’s Little Fury Things Records. Both were sell-outs, and Ocean Sunbirds is currently in its third pressing and available through notable online retailer Insound.com. Described as “primitive in its joy, and cosmic in its intention” (Chocolate Bobka) and “[a merging of] psychotropic house music with sonic textures long foreign to dance music” (Impose Magazine), Ocean Sunbirds was an attempt at maintaining a uniform feeling across a sixty-minute exploration of imagined landscapes, and was featured in a variety of online and print publications, including Pitchfork Media and international press in Italy, Japan, Germany, the U.K., and Spain. The band recently released their Jamaica Plain EP via Seattle label Highfives & Handshakes, and plan to drop their second full-length, the Spray, this fall.”
