Band Practice: Half Gift!

Yet another reason to love the Chophouse: Half Gift are BACK. After a year's hiatus from playing shows, they are back on the bandwagon as a three piece: Drummer Jessica (formerly of Eel Eater), guitarist James (of Footwork), and bassist Sam Pease. The band has been practicing nonstop--and has totally revamped their sound. Once snowpocalypse-induced cabin fever got the best of me a few weeks ago, I trekked to the Chophouse and discovered what a Half Gift band practice really looks like: 

God's Eyes

Drum Kit= Step Ladder? 

Drum Kit  Step Ladder.

Half (re)Gift 

So what is the last song they would listen to before the end of the world 2012? 

Jessica--"Killing In The Name Of" by Rage Against the Machine

James--"My Ship Is Coming In" by The Walker Brothers

Sam--"Decades" by Joy Division

ALSO...are playing their [second] DEBUT at CAIRO this Saturday Feb 25th, with DREAMSALON, and The Feeling of Love. HELL YES I'LL SEE YOU THERE.

Saxual Healing Tomorrow Night!

Tomorrow at 8 pm, we're hosting another badass show featuring Arrington de Dionyso's Malaikat dan Singa, Footwork, and WaMü. It's gonna be LOUD.

If you're not hip to Malaikat dan Singa, it's Arrington de Dionyso (erstwhile of Old Time Relijun) singing guttural love songs in the Indonesian tongue, splattering his vocalisms with verbal gymnastics and dancehall patois while blaring away on his saxophone, usually shirtless. Back-up musicians ply him with unfussy electronic beats that shudder and spasm beneath his flamboyant anti-melodies. It's awesome.



Footwork you should know by now if you don't already, and WaMü are a five-piece that is all about making as much eardrum-obliterating noise as possible. In their hands, even a saxophone is a terrifying weapon of aural assault. Besides being notoriously noisy, the band is something of a Seattle supergroup, with a roster that includes Garret Kelly and Brittnie Fuller of Hollow Earth Radio, Rachel LeBlanc of Wehrwolve, Eric Ostrowski of Noggin, and local golden-boy guitarist Kaz Nomura/ PWRFL Power.





Tickets are $5 at the door. See you tomorrow night!

Irony Ends Tonight 5/13/11

Weekend concert update: good news/bad news edition.

The good news: tonight, Cairo's bringing you an amazing show, featuring local dance-punks Footwork and Stickers (read about them here and here) and LA's resident mad scientist of musical potpourri, Captain Ahab, whose new album The End of Irony dropped last month (that's Brian Miller of Foot Village and Back to the Future the Ride with the, ah, umbilical cord there). Doors are at 8 pm, and admission is $5 but the vibes are going to be free, you feel me?

The bad news: tomorrow night's scheduled show with Wet Hair, Same Species, and U has sadly been scrapped due to an injury and tour cancellation. Our apologies to everyone who was looking forward to that show, it would surely have been amazing.

Last-Minute Reminder: Foot Village Tonight!

Be sure to get to Cairo on-time tonight (8 PM)for sets by locals Footwork and USF before the night's estimable entree: the legendary Foot Village of sunny Los Angeles! This will be their first Seattle show in nigh on two years, and if their last jaunt through town gives any indication, it will be incredibly memorable. RSVP on Facebook now. Remember: all of Foot Village's concert proceeds are going to Japan earthquake relief efforts.



Foot Village – http://footvillage.org

Foot Village are a thunderous drum-n-shout assembly from Los Angeles – a thick forest of whirling limbs beating out rhythms for whispers and hollers to leap and dive through. Featuring members of Gang Wizard, Friends Forever and the infamous International Voice of Reason, Foot Village are pure hardcore spirit without the spark of electricity. Erecting civilization with drums and voices alone, Foot Village are a concept band about the first nation built after the foreseeable apocalypse. Don’t get this self-imposed restraint confused with some neo-luddite stance however, as Foot Village only want to inspire others with the wide potential of rock music. When pretense has been banished, freedom can take wing and the doors can be flung open to everyone. Foot Village is a nation unlike any other and only by visiting can you really know.

This Weekend's Concert Action

Cairo's got a stellar line-up ready for this Spring Break weekend. For starters, Friday night we play host to LA's legendary Foot Village. On this "Totally Tour Tour," the band has elected to donate all proceeds from shows to the Japan Relief Fund established by the Boredoms' Shinji. Opening for Foot Village are USF and the fast-rising trio Footwork, which features members Secondary, Haunted Horses, and Wet Paint DMM (RIP).

Saturday night looks to be just as special, as it will be the release party for Secret Colors' new Lunar LP, which has been pressed to vinyl by Belgian imprint Aguirre. Opening are Firehouse faves Masters and Johnson and Zephyrs, with Firehouse impresario Casey Catherwood assisting Secret Colors with extra axe-work during his sure-to-be cosmic set.



RSVP to Friday's show here, and Saturday's here.

Who are Footwork?

This Friday, there's a great show going down at Cairo with Weed, Mega Bog, and Secret Colors that doubles as the Seattle debut of new trio Footwork. Just who are Footwork, anyway?

Footwork is a local trio comprised of Taylor Wingett (Secondary), Myke Pelly (Haunted Horses), and James Scheall (Wet Paint DMM, Half Gift). Their sound is—perhaps unsurprisingly—not unlike a weird, mutant hybrid of Haunted Horses’ grand guignol and Wet Paint DMM’s singularly clanging brutality. The bass and guitar shriek, stab, and throb with the distorted angularity of German Expressionism, and Pelly’s thunderous jungle drumming rolls and rattles throughout the band’s rapidly-shifting song structures with positively tidal force.

We're really looking forward to seeing these guys live. So should you! To RSVP to the event, click here.