This Blinding Light

From one of the darkest rooms I’ve ever taken pictures in without a flash, come some of the grainiest pictures. Tacoma band Mono in VCF playing live at the Lo-Fi Performance Gallery last Saturday night in Seattle. Mono in VCF photo gallery.

The “All Wave” philosophy, which loosely stated, is that everything should be an analog sound recording of someone playing or singing, rather than using a computer to generate or digitally manipulate sounds separated from the dimension of time in which they were performed.

Okay. And newsletters should be cut and pasted together by hand using xacto knives, tape and over-caffeinated all night copy shop xerox sessions and solely distributed via pony express. Or maybe simply telegraphy will suffice.

I like records. And I like analog stuff. Although admittedly, I did not know music should not be made unless it can be created using technology innovated decades ago.

The note concludes with a quote from Steve Albini:

This should not be construed as a call to arms, but could become at least as significant as the Ska revival or perhaps the WNBA.

Touche.

Aqueduct played a great set outdoors at the South Lake Union Block Party this year. Who want to rock with the Aqueduct? There’s a new Aqueduct photo gallery online. The photos just posted, but already one has become the Three Imaginary Girls photo of the day. Cheers TIG!

A friend of mine Rudy plays drums for Bugs in Amber. Here is a gallery of their set at the 2008 South Lake Union Block Party.

King Cobra was busy, but it was a welcome retreat the street party that clogged the arteries of Pike street and the banks of its swelling tributaries. When The Heavy Hearts took the stage at King Cobra I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’d neither seen the band nor previewed any of their available tracks on the interwebs. Wow. A dual bass guitar assault of low end and a wave of trebled up post punk heavy rock washed over the room. Almost immediately (after busting out ear protection), I decided to pull out the flash and run it hand held off camera to try to capture some of the maniacal energy unfolding on stage. I took long exposures, about 1-2 seconds and set the flash to fire on the rear curtain. Some of the results are online in The Heavy Hearts photo gallery.

So, that’s it. That was the Capitol Hill Block Party for me. After experiencing the crowds on Friday, I skipped Saturday. I guess I’ll stick to taking photos of bands before they get huge… or don’t get huge. Fine by me.