I’ve been listening to them since I saw them a few days ago. Live they are fairly straight forward rock, but their recordings remind me a lot of of Montreal - kind of a dance-y alternative pop-rock.
Another great song from another great album!
Here’s another. You definitely got me on a kick this week.
I’m not sure I’ve ever whiffed more than I did when I first heard the PNW band The Blakes back in 2007. I was sure they were destined for hugeness beyond hugeness. They were young, incredibly telegenic, loud, raw, and wrote great songs. Their music could be heard in TV shows, movies, and even got copped for a commercial or two or three. Their debut album was paid for and released by one of the most prestigious indie collector labels out there (Light In The Attic records, and The Blakes were either one of a few or the ONLY new artist on a roster mostly made up of re-discovered cult classics). They made incredibly stylish, great-looking (read: expensive) videos using young filmmakers from the Portland and Seattle areas What could go wrong?
Everything, apparently. LITA decided after that debut album that they didn’t want to be in the business of putting out new music, only collector’s items again. So they dropped The Blakes. The band then zipped through a series of nondescript indie labels for their subsequent records, each one coming out on a new label. Since those labels were cash-strapped, they didn’t really pour scarce money into promoting a band with whom they’d made only a short-term commitment. Worse, some of the band’s music was only available to order direct from the label, or from the band themselves, and not necessarily stream-able or listenable on places like Spotify or iTunes. Which turns out is a bad strategy.
The last update on their Facebook page says they were mixing songs for a new record they couldn’t wait to share. But that was in 2016. The official band website long ago fell into the hands of domain squatters. Safe to assume that brothers Snow and Garnet Keim and drummer Bob Husak are at least on a very long hiatus, if not done as a band.
Which is a shame. Perhaps the band just fell between cracks. I think people heard them originally and figured: this is a garage-punk band. But…they always seemed to have an affinity for the UK postpunk scene of the 1980s, and their later releases featured tremendous songs that sounded like nothing so much as The White Stripes doing brilliant covers of some great, unheard New Order song. I will now prove the greatness of The Blakes to you. Sic transit gloria:
A couple of in-studio performances recorded for KEXP:
(remember that New Order influence I mentioned? Here it is in “Basket”, which is amazing.)
The incredible, but NSFW video for “Narwhal”. Nothing explicit, but your boss would probably have some issues if he walked by your computer screen at a certain point in this video. And yes, that is Chaske Spencer! That closing coda is about as New Order as you can get in a grungy garage-pop song.
When the money/will to do videos dried up, they still had amazing songs like “Chernobyl”:
or “Love You Like Me”:
And they could still out riff-rock any garage band on the planet:
Don’t forget this electrifying slab of incendiary rock!
Track 1, album 1 in which The Blakes come roaring out of the gate. Shake shake shake shake. Like putting Marge’s pepper spray on your eggs.
Am I right in remembering it was a Real Audio clip from that song that I shared on the OO forum way way back in 2K7 that first introduced you to The Blakes??
Yep, it was someone either here on on OO that introduced me to them, and yes, “Two Times” is just fucking godhead. It is the sound of ripping and popping and things coming unglued.
Just checked. It was indeed that clip you shared on OO! Awesome!
Yay!! You’ve introduced me to SOOO MUUUCH great music over the years/decades that I take outsized pride and tend to remember whenever I return the favor! Usually by way of Other Music.
To be clear, this would be you introducing me to music that is pretty much among my favorites of an entire era, music I come back to again and again and again. :)
So yeah. Thanks, I guesssssssssss…
I didn’t give their last couple albums enough attention so I’m gonna go rectify that now! Firing up my headphones and the power washer to clean the patio while I listen. Does that rock? (Don’t answer that.)
Ha! Until about a year ago, you couldn’t give them a good hearing, because they weren’t available to hear anywhere. Which was crazyshines
Still in the BOC groove. Or as those of us living in NYC back then knew them, Soft White Underbelly.
Buck Dharma FTW.
He’s a bad man. Tiny man too.
Ok, I sidestepped today from weird American 70s Metal to little known 70s American Punk.
Vengeance and Psychic Wars were both used in the Heavy Metal movie. An I’ll be honest. Vengeance makes me cry sometimes. Yeah, I know. But the part where her bird mount is first shot just hits my heart, then when it gets back up to save her…
I am a HUGE BOC fan, growing up they were my band. Tyranny and Mutation is still in the top ten of my favorite albums of all time, 7 Screaming Dizbusters is an awesome song. Here is a live version of Veteran of the Psychic Wars. The middle instrumentation still gives me chills (warning…poor video).
A band that seems to be forgotten here in North America (maybe they are still played in their home country of Australia) that deserves to be remembered is Angel City (or The Angels).
Still can’t find their albums on Tidal :(