Death and Dismemberment makes its way through Northwest

ROSS RAIHALA

Originally published Friday, February 22, 2002

It may be the coolest name for a concert series yet: the Death and Dismemberment Tour.

The bill pairs Seattle's Death Cab for Cutie with the Dismemberment Plan from Washington, D.C. And if you don't already have tickets for tonight's show at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, you're out of luck, as it's sold out.

That said, there are still tickets available for Saturday's stop at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland. They're $12 from Ticketmaster.

Death Cab for Cutie is riding on the strength of its fab 2001 release "The Photo Album," which spent seven weeks at the top of the College Music Journal's radio charts.

The group plans to film tonight's show in Seattle for a documentary DVD.

In other Death Cab news, Seattle's Barsuk Records has just released the band's "Stability EP." The three-song mini- album collects three songs (including the Bjork cover "All Is Full of Love") that were originally available only as part of a limited-edition version of "The Photo Album" that sold out soon after its release.

While Death Cab for Cutie and the Dismemberment Plan are known to put on fiery shows, they just might get upstaged by the opening act, Aveo.

The Seattle-based foursome released its debut album "Bridge to the Northern Lights" last fall, and it's been in constant rotation in my CD player for much of the time since.

The ubiquitous Phil Ek (Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, Love as Laughter, Unwound) produced the album, which first came out on Brown Records before Barsuk picked it up for a second pressing.

The Smiths are an easy comparison, particularly if you give Aveo's "Neverhome" a spin. It's the sort of song that Morrissey would've killed for back in 1986 -- or, for that matter, today, if the reclusive frontman was actually interested in recording new music.

Anyway, "Bridge to the Northern Lights" suggests Aveo isn't too far from its own headline-grabbing package tour.

Barsuk.com, by the way, is offering deals on two- and three-packs of CDs from all three of the Death and Dismemberment tour acts, so bargain hunters should check it out.

Pazz and Jop

The final big best-of-2001 list arrived last week with the Village Voice's notorious annual Pazz and Jop poll.

The New York-based paper asked 621 critics to vote in the survey, which essentially makes it the definitive "best of" list for the music press.

Bob Dylan, the Strokes, Bjork, the White Stripes and Radiohead filled the Top 5 -- no real surprises there.

But plenty of Northwest acts ended up placing on the list as well. And the Web site doesn't stop at the Top 100 or even the Top 500 -- it goes all the way to No. 1461.

For a little perspective, Britney Spears' latest landed at No. 331 and the Dave Matthews Band all but dominated the No. 535 spot.

Among the rankings of regional interest:

- No. 17: Tacoma native Neko Case's other band the New Pornographers for its "Mass Romantic" album.

- No. 24: Sub Pop refugees the Pernice Brothers' self- released album "The World Won't End."

- No. 31: The self-titled debut album from the Moldy Peaches, a duo that features onetime Olympia resident Kimya Dawson.

- No. 35: Sub Pop favorites the Shins for "Oh, Inverted World." (The group's video for "New Slang" was directed by Lance Bangs, husband of Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker.)

- No. 57: The much-loved Kleenex/Liliput reissue on Olympia's Kill Rock Stars.

- No. 77: Former Bikini Kill frontwoman Kathleen Hanna's latest act, Le Tigre, for its "Feminist Sweepstakes" album.

- No. 79: Sub Pop's Gram Parsons tribute band the Beachwood Sparks for its second album "Once We Were Trees."

- No. 118: Idaho indie stalwarts Built to Spill's "Ancient Melodies of the Future."

- No. 132: Kill Rock Stars' amazing Unwound for its long-awaited "Leaves Turn Inside You."

- No. 168: The aforementioned Death Cab for Cutie's "The Photo Album."

- No. 172: The Microphones' "The Glow Pt. 2" on Olympia's K Records.

- No. 201: Former K star Sarah Dougher's "The Bluff."

- No. 218: Screaming Trees' main man Mark Lanegan for his Sub Pop solo album "Field Songs."

- No. 234: The oh-so-cool Quasi, which features even-cooler Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss, for its "The Sword of God."

- No. 270: Tracy + the Plastics' "Muscler's Guide to Videonics," which was released by Olympia's Chainsaw Records.

- No. 360: Kill Rock Stars trio the Gossip for its fantastic debut "That's Not What I Heard."

- No. 388: The long-overdue Heavenly reissue "Heavenly Vs. Satan" on K Records.

Ross Raihala covers music for The Olympian. Send news and Top 10 lists to rraihala@ olympia.gannett.com

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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