My now 23 year old son Oz got me interested in the Gorillaz when he was in 7th grade. I had been familiar with The Gorillaz before but at that time they were the “Clint Eastwood” and “Feel Good Inc” band, I knew they kept releasing albums and would tour from time to time but I would never have called myself a fan. When Oz was in middle school the Gorillaz comeback album Humanz was released and his fandom was enough to get me a little bit more into them. We saw them live in concert together in the nose bleeds of our local indoor sports stadium style venue known as The Key Arena at the time and after the show he said that he felt jealous of the people in the front who were all able to dance like crazy and I said I’d make sure he was down there the next time they came to town. Continue reading “Album Review: The Mountain by Gorillaz”
Author: Davis
Show Review: KNOWER with Sam Wilkes at The Neptune Theater, 11/11/25
I have only been familiar with the electronic jazz duo KNOWER for a couple of years. I stumbled upon the video for their May 2023 single “I’m the President” and, directly afterwards, listened to it on repeat for weeks before becoming obsessed with their entire catalog. Last year, when singer, KNOWER drummer, and multi-instrumentalist Louis Cole announced he would be playing a show at Seattle’s Neptune Theater with his band’s other vocalist & multi-instrumentalist, Genevieve Artadi, I bought two tickets without batting an eye. The chance that maybe I’d get to see them play a few KNOWER songs (which they did) was the primary purpose, despite the fact that in my quest to hear as much of them as possible, I also had spent lots of time with each member’s solo back catalogue. I’ve spent a lot of time proselytizing the scripture of KNOWER, and on Nov 11th, I finally got to attend my first sermon. Continue reading “Show Review: KNOWER with Sam Wilkes at The Neptune Theater, 11/11/25”
Show Review: Japanese Breakfast with Ginger Root at Woodland Park Zoo, 9/3/25
I first became familiar with Japanese Breakfast when they were the musical guest on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live hosted by Natasha Lyonne back in 2022. At the time, they were in the middle of the Jubilee album cycle, and they played the singles “Be Sweet” and “Paprika”. I was impressed enough by their SNL performances that I searched out and listened to Jubilee a few times, and I enjoyed it well enough. However, it fell out of favor for other listening, and I never came back to it. Not because I didn’t like it, but because sometimes a piece of art gets listened to at a time when other things are going on, and maybe you’re just not ready for it. Continue reading “Show Review: Japanese Breakfast with Ginger Root at Woodland Park Zoo, 9/3/25”
Show Review: Wet Leg with Mary in the Junkyard at Paramount Seattle, 9/1/25
At first glance, it appears as if the duo consisting of Hester Chambers and Rhian Teasdale, also commonly known as Wet Leg, is having a moment. However, if you look past the surface, you’ll see that it’s more than just a moment. Their video for the single “Chaise Lounge” in 2021 was everywhere. This is where I, like many, first became familiar with them. The next three years were incredibly busy for the two, as they toured the world, won Grammys and Brit Awards for their debut record, which also produced five more singles. They also became a proper 5-piece band, writing and collaborating, and had their aforementioned debut album go gold. After taking a year off, they released “Catch These Fists” in April and began playing shows in May with new songs in their repertoire, before releasing their sophomore album, Moisturizer, in July. Since then, they have been hitting this album cycle hard. Moisturizer has already produced three singles with videos for each one of them, and this English indie band hailing from the Isle of Wight had already played 50 + shows around the world before landing in Seattle for their first time to kick off the American leg of their world tour. Continue reading “Show Review: Wet Leg with Mary in the Junkyard at Paramount Seattle, 9/1/25”
Show Review: Béla Fleck and the Flecktones: Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, OR 8/29/25
I’ve been listening to Béla Fleck and the Flecktones since 1995 and hadn’t seen them play live until this show. For whatever reason, over the years, the stars have never aligned just right for me to see them. A few months ago, on their website, a show opening for Dave Matthews Band at their annual Gorge Amphitheater Labor Day weekend run was announced. For a while, it looked like I was going to be heading to The Gorge to see a 45-minute set from a band that I did not want to miss out on for another year. When this show in Portland was announced, along with the rest of the tour, I knew I was going to go and finally get to see one of my most listened to bands of the last 30 years. I was not going to miss out on them again after countless missteps and near misses. What I got to experience was about as close to a perfect show as I possibly could’ve asked for. Continue reading “Show Review: Béla Fleck and the Flecktones: Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, OR 8/29/25”
Project Pabst 2025 Journal
Project Pabst in Portland, Oregon, has a long and nuanced history that most music festivals don’t share. Launched as a Fall festival in 2014, Pabst Brewing Company hoped for it to be a “love letter to Portland”. In 2015, the time of year was moved to July and has remained a Summer festival ever since. In 2016, they changed locations from Zidell Yards, just a short jaunt down the road from their current home at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Throughout the years, they have experimented with putting on evening shows at different clubs and bars around town and have reinvented themselves after a chosen hiatus and some forced years off. In 2017, they had their last show until an attempted comeback in 2020 that was halted by COVID, only to return last year finally. Continue reading “Project Pabst 2025 Journal”
Film Review: “Mononoke Hime” (“Princess Mononoke”) 4K Remaster
There are some movies where, at a certain point in my watching them for the first time, I’ve already decided that I’m going to purchase a copy for myself. In the last year, I had just that experience with the movies Paris, Texas, and the 1977 Japanese horror/fantasy film House. Over the years, many different movies have had this effect on me, but the first one that comes to mind is Princess Mononoke. When I was about 20 years old in 2000, I visited my parents’ home, and my then-just-teenaged brother took me aside and told me that I needed to “watch 10 minutes of this movie”. At the time, I wasn’t watching a lot of movies, and I was painfully judgmental of his interest in anime. It was mainly just giant robots fighting monsters, and my focus was elsewhere. He knew this and still fought uphill against my instincts, convincing me to sit and watch. Ten minutes into the film, I told him to turn it off because I already knew that I was going to go buy it the next day.
Continue reading “Film Review: “Mononoke Hime” (“Princess Mononoke”) 4K Remaster”
Show Review: Hiromi’s Sonicwonderland at The Moore Theater, 4/13/25
I have to admit here right out of the gate that I’m pretty new to the world of Japanese jazz composer and keyboardist Hiromi Uehara. At some point last year, the YouTube algorithm decided to recommend to me her solo piano composition “The Tom and Jerry Show,” and I instantly became obsessed. However, like many YouTube recommendations, it allowed me a point of entry into her vast solo piano compositions, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t find a way into her combo-based music. Maybe I just got too wrapped up in the aural aesthetic of her solo piano work, or maybe I just got stuck. On April 4th of 2025, her newest album from her quartet Sonicwonderland, Out There, a 9-song jazz fusion masterpiece that clocks in at almost exactly an hour. On this crisp Sunday Seattle evening, less than two weeks after her newest album’s release, I gathered with an excited all-ages crowd at The Moore Theater to hear her and her virtuoso band breathe a different kind of life into her brand new Out There compositions. Continue reading “Show Review: Hiromi’s Sonicwonderland at The Moore Theater, 4/13/25”
Show Review: Bit Brigade at Nectar Lounge, 3/23/25
“Virtuoso Musicianship via 80’s Nintendo Game Delivery System”
Long before I saw any live music or before I even owned an album on CD or cassette I listened to countless hours of Japanese composers that I didn’t know the names of as I fettered my preteen hours away playing video games on my Nintendo. To say that these songs had an impact on me would be an understatement. Experiencing Bit Brigade play two of the games I played the most often last Sunday night tapped into something more important to me and my development as a music listener than I can quite put into words.
Show Review: Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy and Friends with Dave Hill at The Neptune Theater, 2/21/25
Shannon, Narducy & Hill: Attorneys at Rock
When I told people that I was going to see Michael Shannon perform the music of R.E.M. fronting a band that’s the alt-rock world’s equivalent of Ringo’s All-Starr Band, their reactions, for the most part, were Doc Brown in tone, asking, “Michael Shannon! The actor!?” Yes, that Michael Shannon. This particular music project of Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy (more on him later) is ten years in the making, and this is the second year they’ve been playing REM-themed shows exclusively. Continue reading “Show Review: Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy and Friends with Dave Hill at The Neptune Theater, 2/21/25”