Site: Do We Stand A Chance

chance of miscarriage after 12 weeks

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:14:48 -0400 - Posted in legalized game of chance

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5 Responses to 'I’m 7 Weeks, Is It Bad That I Haven’t Seen A Doctor Yet?'

Invisible Pink ~ RN - September 5th, 2010 at 12:06 am
No - most won’t see you before 9/10 weeks anyhow as there’s nothing they can do if you have a miscarriage before 12 weeks
Not everyone experiences morning sickness - and for those that do some don’t get it until later - mine always kicked in around 9 weeks
Bunny ~baby boy due dec 22~ - September 5th, 2010 at 2:58 am
I didnt have my first appointment until I was 9 weeks pregnant and they didnt put me on prenatals until I was 10 weeks, I’m 24 weeks now the baby is very healthy no problems, and I’ve never had morning sickness in my whole pregnancy. Just because you don’t get morning sickness doesn’t mean your going to have a misscarriage or that something is wrong. I was very tired all the time in the beginning of my pregnancy as well.
Britt - September 5th, 2010 at 4:58 am
My insurance won’t let me see a doctor until 9 weeks. So your fine. Your doing everything you should be doing and just keep doing it. Stressing over it isn’t going to help you or the baby. Sometimes morning sickness doesn’t even start until 9 weeks or even a little after that. So keep your chin up and be happy! Your insurance should hopefully kick in soon!
Coolmom 365 - September 5th, 2010 at 8:17 am
I did not see a doctor until I was in my 4th month with my first child. I don’t think you will have any issues. And the no symptoms thing is a myth. Be happy you feel good. Just make the appointment when you get the insurance going. Congrats.
Starshin - September 5th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
ive only had morning sickness 3 times and i am 11 weeks today. so nothing to worry about
i had my first appt when i was just over 5 weeks and then when i was just over 10 weeks, my next ultrasound is in 2 weeks.

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There is “no need to delay pregnancy after miscarriage,” according to BBC News. The BBC website reports that a large study has found that, contrary to current guidelines, conceiving within six months of a miscarriage does not pose a greater risk of a second miscarriage.

How long a couple should wait before trying for another pregnancy after a miscarriage has long been debated, with opinions varying. Current World Health Organization guidance recommends that women should wait for at least six months before trying to conceive again. This valuable new study examined the medical records of over 30,000 Scottish women and found that conceiving within six months was associated with lower risks of second miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy or termination than conceiving six to 12 months after a miscarriage.

However, the study has several unavoidable limitations. Most importantly, it cannot tell whether delays between miscarriage and subsequent pregnancies were due to couples choosing to wait before trying again or caused by difficulties in conceiving, which may also be related to problems when pregnancy does occur. Overall, the study suggests that pregnancy can be successful soon after miscarriage, although it should be remembered that prospective parents feel emotionally and physically prepared before trying to conceive again.

Where did the story come from?

The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Aberdeen and funded by the Chief Scientist Office in Scotland. The study was published in the peer-reviewed British Medical Journal.

The news stories generally reflect the findings of this well-conducted study, but in suggesting that waiting to conceive again is the cause of increased pregnancy complications they have not identified the important considerations that must be made when interpreting the possible reasons behind these findings. The tone of some newspapers might also suggest that the findings of this study constitute new advice on when to conceive again after pregnancy, but it should be noted that there has been no change in the official advice of the World Health Organization, which suggests women should wait at least six months before trying to conceive again.

What kind of research was this?

This was a retrospective cohort study looking at a large population of pregnant women receiving care at Scottish hospitals between 1981 and 2000. The aim was to determine the optimum time interval to leave between miscarriage and trying to conceive again, looking particularly at how this interval was associated with the risk of further miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, or other pregnancy-related and labour complications.

It is recognised that women who suffer a first miscarriage are at slightly higher risk of miscarrying again, and also possibly of other complications in pregnancy. How long a couple should wait before
trying for another pregnancy after a miscarriage has always been a debated issue, with varying opinions between different clinicians. Some believe it is best for women to wait in order to increase the chances of full physical and emotional recovery before trying again, while others believe that a delay will not improve chances of a better outcome and that getting pregnant again fairly soon could help the couple recover more quickly from the loss. The issue is further complicated by the increasing number of women who are having children after the age of 35, as waiting longer at this age can further decrease their chances of conceiving.

Current guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend that women should wait for at least six months before trying to conceive again. This study is reportedly one of the first to try to examine the evidence supporting this time interval in the developed world.

What did the research involve?

This research used data from the Scottish morbidity records that collect information on all hospital admissions in Scotland. The records are reported to be 99% complete since the late 1970s and undergo regular quality assurance checks.

The researchers collected data on women who had a miscarriage recorded for their first pregnancy between 1981 and 2000 and who went on to have a second pregnancy. They looked at the dates of the first pregnancy-related records and the second pregnancy records and divided women into groups according to the time interval between miscarriage and next pregnancy: fewer than six months, six to 12 months, 12–18 months, 18–24 months and over 24 months. They excluded women with multiple pregnancies (e.g. twins) and women with an interval of less than four weeks between hospital records, as these visits were presumed to relate to the same pregnancy. In their analyses, they used the current recommended interval of 6-12 months as the reference category against which all the other time intervals were compared.

The main outcomes of interest in the second pregnancy were miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, termination, stillbirth and live birth. Further outcomes examined included pregnancy and labour complications of pre-eclampsia, placenta praevia (placenta lying over the cervix), placental abruption (placenta detaching from uterus), premature delivery (less than 37 weeks) and very premature delivery (32 weeks or less), and low birthweight infants (less than 2500 g). In their analyses the researchers adjusted for possible confounders of mother’s age, socioeconomic status, smoking status (known for only 57% of women), and other pregnancy-related factors such as induction of labour.

What were the basic results?

A total of 30,937 women were included in the study. Of them, 41.2% conceived within six months of a miscarriage, 25.2% after 6-12 months, 9.6% after 12-18 months, 6.4% after 18-24 months and 17.6% after 24 months. In general, women with the shortest interval between pregnancies tended to be older (26 on average), be of a higher social class and be less likely to have smoked.

The highest rate of successful second pregnancy was among the women who conceived within six months of their first pregnancy, 85.2% of whom gave birth to a live baby. The lowest rate was among women who conceived again after 24 months, 73.3% of whom gave birth to a live baby. Compared with women who had the standard six-to-12-month interval between pregnancies, women who conceived within six months were:

34% less likely to have another miscarriage (odds ratio [OR] 0.66, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.57 to 0.77)
57% less likely to have a termination (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.57)
52% less likely to have an ectopic pregnancy (OR 0.48, 95% 0.34 to 0.69)

Women with more than 24 months between pregnancies were significantly more likely to have an ectopic second pregnancy (OR 1.97, 95% 1.42 to 2.72) or termination (OR 2.40, 95% CI 1.91 to 3.01) than women who conceived within 6-12 months. However, they were not at increased risk of second miscarriage.

Compared to those in the 6-12 months group, women conceiving within 18-24 months were at no increased risk of any adverse outcomes, and women conceiving between 18-24 months were at increased risk of termination only. The risk of stillbirth did not differ between any of the groups.

Compared to the 6-12 months group, women conceiving within six months were less likely to have a caesarean section (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.83 to 0.98), premature delivery (OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.81 to 0.98), or low birthweight baby (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.89). However, these were the only significant differences in pregnancy-related complications found between the 6-12 month group and any other group.

How did the researchers interpret the results?

The researchers conclude that women who conceive within six months of an initial miscarriage have the best reproductive outcomes and lowest complication rates in their second pregnancy.

Conclusion

This is a valuable study that appears to be one of the first to examine how the time interval between first miscarriage and conceiving a second pregnancy affects pregnancy outcomes in the developed world. How long a couple should wait before trying for another pregnancy after a miscarriage has always been debated, with varying opinions among clinicians. The WHO currently recommends that women should wait for at least six months before trying to conceive again but many believe that, given the increasing age of first-time mothers in the developed world, delaying pregnancy further could increase the chance of difficulty conceiving or having pregnancy-related complications.

The main findings of this study were that, compared with conceiving between six and 12 months after first miscarriage, conceiving within six months was associated with decreased risk of second miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy or termination. Conceiving after 24 months was associated with increased risk of ectopic pregnancy or termination.

The study is well-conducted and has strengths in its large size (over 30,000 women) and use of highly complete, quality-assured medical records. However, this study was dealing with a complex issue and there are several factors to consider, such as whether or not delays in conceiving were actually deliberate. While the time interval between pregnancies can be accurately assessed from records, this cannot tell us how long the couple actually waited before trying to conceive again.

This is an important issue because while a woman may not have become pregnant again until more than six, 12, 18 or 24 months after her first miscarriage, she may have actually been trying to conceive again within six months of the first pregnancy. Underlying biological reasons may be behind both difficulty in conceiving and the increased risk of complications when pregnancy did eventually occur. Overall, it is difficult to conclude that waiting , as opposed to struggling to conceive, is associated with increased risk of complications.

There are a number of other points of discussion, outlined below.

There may also be other differences between the groups of women who conceived at different times after their first miscarriage, which may be affecting the results (called confounding). The researchers adjusted for some factors that could affect results (such as age and socioeconomic status), but there may be other unknown or unmeasured factors having an effect.
Although the records were quality-assured and 99% complete, they can only provide information on women who actually presented for medical attention with their first and second pregnancies. For example, they may not include details of any women that became pregnant but miscarried within a couple of weeks and did not present to their doctor, either through not knowing they were pregnant or knowing but choosing not to seek medical advice.
There is some possibility that women were placed into the wrong time interval groups between miscarriage and their next pregnancy. Documentation of first miscarriage in medical records may not be precise as to the time that miscarriage actually occurred; also with the subsequent pregnancy there is the possibility of inaccurate recording of pregnancy duration due to thinking a pregnancy was of fewer or greater weeks’ gestation than it actually was (though current ultrasound technology makes this error less likely).
It is encouraging that for all women who had previously miscarried, a high proportion had a successful subsequent pregnancy, regardless of how much later the subsequent pregnancy occurred (the lowest rates were in the group who had a greater than 24-month interval between the pregnancies, but almost three quarters still had a successful pregnancy resulting in a live baby).

Despite the inherent limitations of the research, these findings suggest that a successful pregnancy can be achieved within six months of a miscarriage. The decision of when to try and conceive again is fundamentally the choice of the individual couple, and the most important point is that the prospective mother feels physically and emotionally ready to try again. As the researchers of this study have also said, it is important for women who have miscarried to receive support and counselling on how to optimise their own health before and during pregnancy. Part of this guidance should include information on the possible risks and benefits of delaying further pregnancy, which could help prospective parents to make their own informed decision on when to try conceiving again.

last chance garage raleigh

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:14:50 -0400 - Posted in love theme from chances are

Hard to believe after all the anticipation, but Hopscotch is only a week away. Like most of Raleigh’s music loving scene, New Raleigh is giddy with excitement for the music, parties, and general good times the weekend is going to bring. The best thing about this festival is that it’s not just our town that’s excited, but also music lovers from all over the country that will be flocking in to experience the greatness that is this line up.

With the 120+ bands that will be playing, it is impossible to catch them all. We thought it would be nice to compile a list of bands that, if you are looking for advice on what to catch, can serve as a guide of recommendations based on our various tastes. Out of all the bands playing the festival, these are the ones we are sure not to miss. We also checked in with a few members of the Triangle music community to see what they’re pumped about - start the countdown clock….now.

Jedidiah

Thursday:
While the All Tiny Creatures, Birds of Avalon, Sleepy Sun and Akron Family show at The Pour House will be a very sensory filled show, I’m gonna have to vote for the Collection of Colonies of Bees, Best Coast, Cults, and Gray Young show next door at Tir Na Nog. Cults are a very young band with not much recorded music to their name but have lots of buzz surrounding their slinky summer pop sound (I just wish they were playing alongside First Rate People). Best Coast has one of the most chatted about albums of the year that evokes the youthful grunge of both Hole and Liz Phair. And Collection of Colonies of Bees wrapping up the evening should be nothing more than a spectacular display of musicianship, both visually and audially.

Friday:
The 9th Wonder curated show with Raekwon at Lincoln is an easy pick for the most danceable event of the evening but a handful of other bands performing around town on Friday night will also put on a fabulous shows. The Atlas Sound, Ben Frost, Sightings and Jon Mueller show at Kings should be a show that from start to finish produces exceptional avant garde rock. Underdogs and my true picks for the evening are Active Child and Mountains at The Hive (at Busy Bee) or Harlem at Slim’s or The War on Drugs at Tir Na Nog. Not sure how to decide between each of these last picks but it’s good that Slim’s and Busy Bee are next to each other and Tir Na Nog is just a block away. Plus, the Whatever Brains, Harvey Milk, Double Negative, and Fucked Up show at Berkeley Cafe.

Saturday:
The Megafaun show could be one of the best venue shows of the weekend and is gonna be way sold out at Kings Barcade, which holds only around 250 people. So, the two shows I’d recommend on Saturday would be Nomo, Bear in Heaven and Tortoise at Lincoln (although I’m not a big fan of the venue, these bands should easily fill the space with beautiful music). On the other scale is the Kooley High, First Rate People, Lonnie Walker, I Was Totally Destroying It show at Deep South. With Kooley High playing, I can see this venue spilling out into the Amphitheater lot across the street so if you aren’t able to get in for Kooley at the end, try to pop in for one of the early local bands and especially the beautiful R&B pop of First Rate People, whose album It’s Never Not Happening is one of the best things I’ve listened to all year long. Oh yeah, and Woods, Dungen, Golden Filter, Washed Out and Pontiak.

Day Parties:
Ours of course (especially the record store Local Band, Local Beer at Tir Na Nog on Friday which will be a great event and Chris Tamplin’s last LBLB at TNN). But, if not ours, then the Hometapes show next door at The Pour House with Megafaun, Collection of Colonies of Bees and more on Friday is sure to be awesome (free breakfast and nachos). Saturday’s choice would be the Raleigh Times with The Flute Flies, NAPS, The Loners, Maple Stave, Red Collar, Des Ark, The Old Ceremony.

Megafaun

Ladye Jane

There are so many bands playing at Hopscotch I want to see. Too many, actually. While the idea of just enjoying the musical free-for-all and going with the flow of the weekend to the shows my group wants to go to is relaxingly inviting, I will not be going with that plan of attack. I will, instead, be following a highly organized and curated schedule that will drive my more laid back friends crazy. With the schedule as tightly packed as it is, if you dawdle, you will miss the band. I will not hesitate to break off and go it alone, because there are several shows that I will not miss.

Two shows that will undoubtedly have my attendence:

First Rate People: I can’t remember a time where I have had a reaction to a song like I did to First Rate People’s Film Star (For Museum of Bellas Artes), which you can listen to here. I was instantly dancing in my chair at work. Its infectious mood translates throughout their album, It’s Never Not Happening, with songs like Girl’s Night being just as catchy as Film Star. Since this is (I think) the first show that the Canadian band will be playing below the border, it’s probably my most anticipated band of Hopscotch since I have know idea what to expect. Well, that’s not true. I expect they’ll be a damn good time.

Washed Out: Life of Leisure has been the soundtrack to what has been my beach-filled/ traveltastic summer. A few months ago, he opened for Beach House at the Cradle, but many attendees (including me) missed it due construction traffic on I-40. I was able to catch the very last song, which was much more than I expected from a guy with a laptop. While chill, it’s completely dancey at the same time, and judging by this recently released video of his past tour, it promises to be great show.

Tentative schedule:

Thursday ::
Max Indian -> 30 minutes of Best Coast -> Javelin -> Akron/Family (yes!)

Friday ::
Panda Bear, Broken Social Scene, Rosebuds City Plaza Show -> Sharon Van Etten -> 30 minutes of Active Child -> The War on Drugs

Saturday ::
Whatever part of the City Plaza show that’s until 8:00 -> Megafaun -> I Was Totally Destroying It -> 30 minutes of Lonnie Walker -> First Rate People (if I could split in half, I would also be at Bear In Heaven, really bummed to miss it)-> Washed Out

Extras ::
Pretty excited about the Trekky Records day party because they have Lost in Trees and nachos for breakfast (whoa, awesome potential band name). Also, looking forward to the EdMcKay Artist & Author series all three days. The North Carolina music discussion on Thursday is gonna be awesome.

Bear In Heaven

Stacey

With the abundance of great bands playing at Hopscotch in such a compressed amount of time, the question for me is not “which bands do I want to see,” but rather “which ones can I absolutely not miss?” Thank goodness for the day parties, which will allow the flexibility to check out some excellent local acts that might be harder to catch after dark.

In terms of the evening shows, I’m probably most excited to see Best Coast on Thursday night, whose album “Crazy for You” has been my love-at-first-listen release of the year. Their songs are charmingly irresistible, catchy, easy, and fresh. Singer Bethany Cosentino sounds a little like Juliana Hatfield, backed by a low-fi surf pop, and her songs about post-breakup doldrums sometimes hit a little too close to home (don’t we all wish our cat could talk?). Later that evening, I plan to catch Future Islands at the Berkeley to get my dance on, where hopefully I won’t get hit in the head with a glowstick again like at their record release a couple months ago. Even if I do, the performance is sure not to disappoint.

The City Plaza shows will be awesome, but there’s more fun to be had in the clubs afterwards. Friday night there’s Harlem, for a one night stand with some jangly guitar, garage band pop. Saturday night I’m really looking forward to unabashedly cheesing it up to Tigercity’s neo-disco tunes. The Brooklyn-based band’s recent full length album “Ancient Lover” plays like the lovechild of Hall and Oates, The Cars, Duran Duran, and the BeeGees: totally fun! Following that is The Golden Filter’s seductively dreamy electropop; if you’re a fan of Goldfrapp, St. Etienne, or Ladytron, they might be right up your alley. Overall though, thanks to the great programming of such diverse acts, no matter what shows you end up at during Hopscotch, you’re most likely going to find something you enjoy.

Best Coast

Khaner

I remember first listening to 9th Wonder while blending ice and frozen fruit at the Planet Smoothie on Hillsborough St. in the early 2000s. One of the lead emcees of the Justus League, Cesar Comanche, was the manager of the store at the time and fortunate for me, 9th was in-house producer for the group. Needless to say I was hooked. 9th gained wide recognition for his role as the main producer for hip hop group Little Brother on their debut 2003 release, “The Listening.” His work on that album lead to an eventual meeting and production for Jay-Z’s “Threat” for the 2003 “The Black Album,” followed by work on Destiny’s Child’s 2004 “Destiny Fulfilled.”

9th’s smooth, almost classic hip-hop verve, will meet with a studded line-up Friday night at the Lincoln, and as excited as I am about 9th and crew, I’m just as much for Raekwon. Albums like “36 Chambers,” “Forever” and Raekwon’s solo work speak for themselves and I’m hopeful that wherever one member of the Wu-Tang Clan goes, one (Ghost Face) or two more follow…

While I love the Rosebuds and normally never pass on one of their shows – I plan on seeing just how much jumping up and down the floors of the Lincoln can take Friday night. Luckily I won’t be too far from City Square to catch some of Broken Social Scene and then Panda Bear and be back to catch the end of what is sure to be a fan-freaking-tastic set. Whether you’re a hip-hop purist, you bought a Wu-Tang CD in junior high or simply are looking for an electric show and amped up crowd, check out the Lincoln on Friday night.

9th Wonder

Acree Graham // New Raleigh Editor Emeritus

I’ve never seen Broken Social Scene live, and, in fact, I wasn’t too interested in ever seeing them until I heard 2010’s Forgiveness Rock Record. With male and female vocals as well as about a million instruments, this newest album rocks the spectrum of stuff I like. In “Texaco Bitches” I can feel a throwback to Architecture in Helsinki. “All to All” channels my weakness for Metric. You can take this album from the club to the bed, and I’m stoked to experience that excitement and variety at Hopscotch.

Future Islands I saw just a few months ago, touring with Ear Pwr and Atlanta favorite The Coathangers. I find few activities more boring than standing and swaying along with a live band; fortunately, Future Islands will rev you up.

So will Max Indian. I saw them in 2008 at the Pour House, when they were opening for the Old Ceremony. A hip, high-energy, alt-country band, Max Indian stole the show for me when they made me dance. I’m excited to find out what they’ve been up to the past couple of years.

Broken Social Scene

Kelly Crisp // The Rosebuds

KELLY’S PARTYYY PICKS!!!
(as of today)

Fridayyy
The Friend Island party is going to be nuts. Megafaun is coming in straight from their European tour to party like crazy assholes and play beautiful music… slick genius. They’ll be performing new material from Heretofore, their upcoming EP. It’ll be my first time seeing Collections of Colonies of Bees (who are cited as influences by Megafaun and Bon Iver so I mean GOOD LORD). Gonna be tons of running around because Cellar Seas and Bellafea are also playing parties.

Saturdayyy
Local Time party on Saturday. Flute Flies (The side-project Ivan started with friends for CyTunes). They’re really good. Like, actually and not just because I’m an Ivan fan. I’m looking forward to hearing the song “We Came Alone.”
My pals Old Ceremony and my favorite Raleigh band NAPS are also on that bill so, I mean, you know. I’m going to eat a nachos plate and wil’ out.
Problem is that the Trekky Records party is at the SAME TIME and that bill is stacked like crazy. Sharon Van Etten among others so I probably try to run back and forth.

Collections of Colonies of Bees

Brad Cook // Megafaun

Brad Cook’s guide to Hopscotch:
THURSDAY SEPT 9th

I will begin my night with the band ALL TINY CREATURES. For fans of Volcano Choir (ahem….they sort of lent the single, “Island, IS “to Volcano Choir through the luxary of shared members) , Neu, early Kraftwerk and contemporary post-rock.

From the pour house I will head over to Kings to catch LOCRIAN. Incredible Noise/Metal. We are very lucky to have them. This should sufficiently get my endorphins rolling.

This is where shit gets a little hairy. If that BEST COAST record starts to sound any better, you’ll find me at Tir Na Nog. Otherwise, I will be firmly camped out at Kings for the next little bit.

As soon as I get word that COLLECTIONS OF COLONIES OF BEES is about to begin, I will be front and center at Tir Na Nog for what is sure to be a pretty astounding and loud as fuck performance. Recommended for fans of all things powerful and pretty. It doesn’t get much better than this in regards to post-rock. As soon as they finish I will back at Kings to catch a brief part of OCEAN, Portland, Maine’s very own doom metal powerhouse.

I will conclude the first night with the one and only, AKRON/FAMILY because if I know the Akron’s, they will be playing well into the night at the Pour House and giving us all a place to blow it out at the night’s end with one of the most exciting
bands on the circuit.

FRIDAY SEPT 10th

No brainer here. JON MUELLER at Kings is where I will be catching my first sounds of the night. Jon does a solo drum and noise performance that sits on par with an Iron Man triathlon in regards to the physicality of what he does. Trust me. Not to be missed.

I will follow up that set with personal favorites, HARVEY MILK. No adjective needed. The Berkley will be pretty raw by the end of this one. Recommended for fans of all things heavy.

After sheer power of the first two bands, it’s all about SHARON VAN ETTEN. This may be one of your last opportunities to catch Sharon in a venue of this size. The girl is poised for indie stardom. Picking up where Cat Power left off, Sharon will demonstrate what it means to write amazing songs in this day and age. If you don’t feel like getting all emotional, go see BEN FROST back at Kings. Dude put out one of the most fine tuned “noise” records that came out last year. We are lucky to have him.

I will be finishing up night two at Tir Na Nog for personal favorites, WAR ON DRUGS. Been waiting a long time to bliss out to these vibesmiths. War on Drugs is mostly meditative, mostly loud, mostly pretty and mostly amazing. This will be a great way to close out the night.

SAT SEPT 11th

Now, I’d be kidding if I didn’t say we had a small hand in organizing our dream bill for this festival. The goal being that you can come in and out at any point and reset the gages via some power drone brain erase as well as the gorgeous songbird, Marissa Nadler. Don’t be scared off by the unfamiliarity of this line-up. This bill is seriously loaded with some of the most premier and highly respected talents working worldwide in the field of contemporary electronics and improvisation. In other words, THIS IS A VERY SPECIAL LINE UP. I will be sitting front and center for this whole thing. We are just here so no one has to play first or last. However, if you get there early you’ll see Megafaun like you’ve never seen us. No songs, all improvised. Come late and you’ll see our last show of the year.

Akron/Family

Chaz Martenstein // Bull City Records

Here’s a little rundown of what I’m hoping to achieve through this year’s Hopscotch. Thanks for asking me to write something for you! Honestly, I’m planning some sort of loose schedule, but I still know I’m being way too ambitious in my planning. These things are always 100% more chaotic than what you’re already expecting. I hope to see at least one half of the bands I’m dying to see, but I’m sure I’ll catch a handful of pleasant surprises in the process of missing things on my list. Gotta just go with the flow at these kinds of festivals. That being said, whether you see them now or when they come back through town, these are some bands not to be missed (I hope to catch as many as I possibly can!). Please keep in mind, considering the caliber of this fest, I’m leaving off a ton of bands that I’d still love to see at any time.

THURSDAY

9:30pm - BURNING STAR CORE :: Been catching word of this project for some time now from all kinds of different trustworthy directions and sources. Could this be the chance I finally catch this experimental/drone/psych wonder?? Hope so!

10pm - PLAGUE vs. MIDTOWN DICKENS :: Hometown heroes both. Do I need more crushing, evil, riffy hardcore or soul-soothing ramshackley beautiful twang??

10:30pm - DOUBLE DAGGER :: Angular, nervous-energy postpunk on Thrill Jockey. Sounds like the heyday of Dischord punk. Seen a live exorcism lately?

11pm - BRUTAL KNIGHTS vs. BEST COAST :: Brutal Knights put on one of my favorite shows of the past 5 years in a Raleigh basement not too long ago. Fast, sweaty, DIY rock’n’roll played at break-neck hardcore speed. Brutal indeed. Best Coast is the new darling of the girl group revival/beach-wave scene. Summertime pop. This one is gonna depend on my mood and I’m anticipating needing some speed.

12am - LUCERO :: How have I never seen this band? No excuse and now I think I can remedy it. Loose, raw, falling-apart, twang-riddled rock’n’roll…the closest I’ll get to seeing a Replacements show this decade. Unless you know something otherwise?

1am - AKRON/FAMILY :: Yes, I like a party. Great way to end the night.

FRIDAY

1pm-5:30pm - JOHN WESLEY COLEMAN III / LAST YEAR’S MEN / WIGG REPORT / PINCHE GRINGO / SUPER SECRET SPECIAL GUESTS :: FREE Day Party thrown by the Layabout and Churchkey Digital. Wes Coleman is one of the songwriters for the legendary Golden Boys, and while his stuff is similar in its garage twang slant to the Boys, he’s approaching his solo work from a more acid-fried, Roky Erickson-esque angle. Blow-your-mind kinda stuff. Last Year’s Men are a new Triangle band that is about to stun the entire area. Get ready is all I can say. Fuzzed-out and fast doowop-inspired garage. Wigg Report is consistently one of my favorite Durham bands. Lofi DIY acoustic punk/garage/improv…bikes to the majority of their gigs (because they own no car, not because it’s cool)...makes up songs on the spot…prone to guerrilla shows…watch out! Pinche Gringo will fuzz and stomp the worries right out of your life, guaranteed. 60s style garage. The Special Guests are great.

5:30pm-9:30pm - PANDA BEAR / BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE / ROSEBUDS :: Duh.

9:30pm - WHATEVER BRAINS :: My crush is so huge for this band that it inspired me to press two 7"s for them. Manic, weirdo, jittery garage pop with a penchant for writing some of the fastest, hookiest songs you need to hear.

10pm - SPIDER BAGS :: Easily one of the best bands in North Carolina right now. Twangy, stomping, slightly psychedelic garage rawk. Their shows have been known to spike the surrounding air with hair-frizzing, spine-shivering electricity. I cannot describe the thrill of seeing this act live.

11pm - THE GOLDEN BOYS :: The S’Bags’ brother band out of Austin, TX. They recorded the best garage record released in 2009. Swaggery, electrifying, earth-shaking, swamp-draining rock’n’roll set out to prove that all is still not right in the world and it’s wonderful. Sleazily, heart-throbbingly wonderful. Just the thought of seeing these guys live again brings a big dumb grin to my big dumb face. Seriously, make room in your night to experience the gospel of the Golden Boys.

12am - HARLEM vs. THE WAR ON DRUGS :: This is the hardest decision of my life…this month. Harlem put out one of my top 3 albums of the year. It’s beautifully brash, immature, fuzzy, jangly, breezy rock’n’roll. The lyrics are stupidly brilliant and the melodies are childishly genius. 16 tracks were crammed unto their latest Matador Records release and there’s not a dud in the batch. The War on Drugs boasts Kurt Vile as a co-writer. I have never seen them live and stand in awe of their record. The music is drifting, Neil Young-esque twang tangled with hypnotic, kraut rock inspired psych. Holy crap…to get lost in these songs….

1am - FUCKED UP vs. MOUNTAINS vs. ATLAS SOUND :: Shit.

SATURDAY

1pm - 5:30pm - If I can get out of work, you’ll find me running frantically between :: Mann’s World Day Party with HOG, MAKE, BLACK SKIES and DEATH CAME DOWN THE MOUNTAIN...Churchkey III Day Party with LURCH, FREE ELECTRIC STATE, LAST YEAR’S MEN and HAMMER NO MORE THE FINGERS...and Trekky Records’ Day Party with LOST IN THE TREES, MIDTOWN DICKENS, SHARON VAN ETTEN, BUTTERFLIES and EMBARRASSING FRUITS.

5:30pm-10pm - PUBLIC ENEMY / NO AGE / LOVE LANGUAGE :: Again, no need for a write up. See you all there.

10:30pm - US CHRISTMAS :: From many friends and shop regulars, I have heard about how amazing US Christmas is. I will now go see them finally and experience the heavy, dirgey amazingness of which I have been warned.

11pm - BEAR IN HEAVEN :: Hometapes Records awesomeness! Their newest record is a dark, trippy, 80s-reminiscent mess of greatness.

11:30pm-1am - DUNGEN followed by WOODS :: The pinnacle of my weekend happens in the last two hours of the festival. My entire frantic, anxiety-fueled festival experience explodes in front of my eyes as I get to see a Swedish psychedelic masterpiece of a band lead into my current favorite psych band in existence right now. Is that a little too dramatic? Perhaps. It’s nearing 1am and my eyes are blurring so I’m allowed it. Dungen’s music swirls, slides, burns and twists in free-form, hypnotic, dubby wonder. They are one of the top modern psych bands touring right now…and they don’t really tour much. Woods released what will probably end up being my favorite album of the year. This Brooklyn group layers meandering twang, blissed-out psych, rhythmic repetition and eerie drifts of white noise into starry-eyed songs full of innocence and wonder. Underneath these bleary, sun-stained melodies, there’s a strain of sadness and despair running right through their hearts, lending them a sense of inescapable brutal realism. Go see this band and buy their records.

Woods

Ross Grady // TriangleRock

des_ark (Local Time Day Party) - Sure, I’m biased; I’ve known Aimee Argote since she was 16 years old. But facts are facts. #1: The new des_ark record, “Don’t Rock the Boat, Sink the Fucker” is going to knock you on your fucking asses, most particularly those of you who’ve seen both the “quiet solo” and the “loud rockband” versions & think you’ve got it sussed. And #2: For her Hopscotch Day Party show thingy, Aimee’s bringing yet another different trio, this one featuring Pissed Jeans drummer Sean McGuinness. Surprise!

Double Dagger - Their 2009 album “MORE” made my top-5, due in no small part to the endless power of “The Lie/The Truth,” featuring NC expat Sam Herring (Future Islands) on guest vocals. Hear it here: http://hopscotchmusicfest.com/band/double-dagger/ The rest of the time, they’re a bass/drums/vocals [punkrock? typography-obsessed postpunk?] trio, with frontman Nolen Strals spending as much time bearhugging random audience-members as he does singing. And yeah, the miracle is that he actually makes that shit work in their favor. Hugely so.

US Christmas - If you heard their 2008 album “Eat the Low Dogs”—layer upon layer of dense, swirling, paranoia-inducing psych-metal, frontman Nate Hall’s backwoods freakout vocals so drenched in reverb you start to feel like you’re falling—you probably figured there’d be no way they could pull it off live. You were wrong.

Double Negative - These fuckers are older than me (and twice as old as 95% of their current hardcore peers) and they just released one of the best hardcore (or, fuckit, post-hardcore, post-EVERYTHING) records I’ve ever heard, “Daydreamnation.”

Harvey Milk - Sweet Jesus.

Wigg Report (Layabout Day Party) - Durham’s best-kept secret, probably ‘cause they’d rather set up on a streetcorner or at somebody’s house than go through the hassle of booking actual gigs. Gtr/drums/sax and/or keys; popsongs about drinking & the long slow difficult process of trying to learn not to be stupid; stripped down to their essence, then expanded into effortless 8-minute workouts. Like if Yo La Tengo were the amateurs they’ve always claimed to be.

Double Dagger

Grayson Currin // Curator, Hopscotch Music Festival

Writing about the bands I’m looking forward to hearing at the inaugural Hopscotch Music Festival feels a tad uncomfortable for two reasons. First, along with help from festival director Greg Lowenhagen, festival booking agent Paul Siler and a few bands I trust and love, I picked all of these bands. I had the great luxury, then, of drafting bands I only like a lot. This festival has, then, at times felt a little like a map of the way my brain thinks about music, and it’s hard to appreciate one portion of that phrenology without considering its neighbors.

Second, I probably won’t see most of the bands playing Hopscotch. Like Greg and Paul and the handful of other folks that’ve worked since last June to assemble these three days of music, I’ll be running around, making sure bands, fans, sound guys, club owners, stage hands and volunteers are happy. I’ll hear a lot of songs by being in a random place at a random time, but I doubt I’ll be able to stand still and watch many sets in their entirety. That said, there are four sets that I’ll try and do whatever it takes to see, for one reason or another.

A: THE WAR ON DRUGS: I ignored the first LP, 2008’s Wagonwheel Blues, from the Philadelphia band The War on Drugs for the better part of two years. At first, it sounded like psychedelic rock simply sundried on some Dylan-loving kid’s ’90s alternative rock youth. And then I noticed the way the band warped the simplest elements of rock ’n’ roll, fucking with drum beats and guitar solos and layered arrangements in imaginative, somehow profound ways. And then I noticed that frontman Adam Granduciel didn’t just sound like his lyrical heroes, but that he was actually writing stuff that compared, dropping existential, hopeful nuggets in the last brilliant verse of “Buenos Aires Beach,” the veteran of his own crises eyeing the future. No fooling, but The War on Drugs is sort of my favorite good ol’ American rock band in the world right now, and they will completely poke holes into your definition of what it means to be a good ol’ American rock band in the world right now.

B: PUBLIC ENEMY: I suppose, if griping is sort of your thing, which by trade it is mine, you might wonder why a band that put out its most legendary works two decades ago is headlining a festival that, musically, was programmed so heavily with a focus on the future. If you watch Public Enemy’s set Saturday night and you aren’t stunned by the most energetic, aggressive and charismatic hip-hop show you’ve seen maybe since the last time you’ve seen Public Enemy, I’ll possibly entertain that question. Until then… Seriously: I saw these dudes play for 20,000 kids at some über-hip festival presented by another website for which I write, and it was completely shocking. I wasn’t expecting it, and maybe now you aren’t, either, but these aged dudes still have a lot to teach modern hip-hop, especially about how to rock a show.

C: FIRST RATE PEOPLE: I’m not sure where I first heard the indulgent co-ed pop of Toronto’s First Rate People, but I do know I was immediately charmed. The band’s little seven-song introduction, It’s Never Not Happening, mixed splashy dance tracks and weepy ballads with chiming jingles and dreamy odes. I got a little obsessed with it around the time we were booking the festival, so I wrote the band and asked if they might be interested in driving south. Little did I know that Hopscotch would become their first American show, a prelude to the band’s run through the north with Born Ruffians.

D: LOCRIAN: I spend the bulk of my time listening to, for lack of a better descriptor, weird music—harsh noise and power electronics and doom metal and electronic drone and too much Current 93. Maybe that’s not the most logical starting point for booking a music festival that you hope is accessible to a lot of people, but I hope it worked well here. Indeed, one of my favorite things about the first year of Hopscotch is that, though it certainly brings loads of pop and indie rock and hip-hop and hard-nosed rock and heavy metal to Raleigh’s stages, there’s some genuinely out-there music, too. From the drone of Burning Star Core to the odd horn work of Ned Rothenberg, I hope this festival pushes some people’s expectations of sound. Few bands are doing that more for me right now than Locrian, a Chicago duo that blurs the boundaries between radiant drone, roaring noise and black metal. Harsh blends with halcyon, as the band’s love of power meets an obsession with finesse. Glad to have these guys in town.

The War on Drugs

While VIP and Club wristbands are sold out, there are still single-show City Plaza tickets and a limited number of All-Show wristbands left. Details on how to pick up your wristbands were released yesterday.
All images from the Hopscotch website

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modest mouse one chance

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:14:53 -0400 - Posted in love theme from chances are

Rather than the usual one album review, I think I'm going to try and change it up a little bit. I've listened to quite a bit of new music recently, so I'll go over each of them in about a paragraph or two.

Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News

Rating: Mellow/Good Natured - 3.5/4.0
So this was Modest Mouse breakthrough album, big singles being "Float On" and"Ocean Breathes Salty". It's relatively mellow as many indie rock albums seem to be, but we have tracks that have a faster tempo, staying true to the alternative rock genre it has also be classified under. The album is solid, there aren't any weird throwaway tracks that throw off the pace or flow of the music. It's good, although it doesn't grab me as a "must listen to all the time" album. Tracks to listen for are Float On, The Devil's Workshop, The View and One Chance. Special mention to Satin in a Coffin.

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

Rating - Moody/Dramatic-4.0
The follow up album to their first album "Funeral" that happens to be a big favorite of mine. Many people have said that this album surpasses their previous success, I feel it is about the same (although I like Funeral better personally). Four singles on this album, "Black Mirror", "Keep the Car Running", "Intervention" and "No Cars Go", all of which are good tracks. There seems to be strong religious overtones and the questioning of free will in this album, a lot of brooding dramatics that make some tracks like "Neon Bible" a tad too mellow for my usual tastes. However, almost ever song has a good ending that picks it up right before it ends. This sense of religious commentary is reinforced by tracks like "Intervention" with the church organ in the background. Regardless, a good album. Tracks to listen for are the singles mentioned above, "Black Wave / Bad Vibrations" with special mention of "The Well And The Lighthouse"

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Rating - Varied - 3.0/3.5
This one is filled with a cavalcade of nice sounds, music provided by Beck (doing the music for Scott's band Sex Bob-Omb), Metric (For Clash at Demonhead), Broken Social Scene (For Crash and the Boys), etc. Since this a soundtrack I don't there there is much a flow to it unless you see the movie, each song pretty much played during a specific scene that makes you go "Oh yeah, this played when X happened." But what was cool about this album was how it brought the music played by the band in the comic, "Sex Bob-Omb" to life. As with all soundtracks, all the songs have their place in the movie. However, when listening to the whole track rather than just a 30 second cut of it, you begin to wonder why on earth it's there in the first place (I'm looking at you T.Rex). Tracks to look out for are "Scott Pilgrim", "Threshold", and "Ramona". Special mention to "Boring By the Sea", "Sleazy Bed Track" and "Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl".

Now, I have listened to more music than this, but I figure 3 is a good number to stop at. Triforce logic has never steered me wrong. Unless there is a story behind an album, I think I'll just do a condensed review like this. If you, the reader, have an album you think I would enjoy then feel free to make a suggestion. The late days: Ben Bridwell, Jeff Hellis, Sarah Standard, Jenn Ghetto,Mat Brooke and Sera Cahoone
I saw Carissa's Wierd for the first time this July. It was at the Showbox Theater here in Seattle - a venue the band never would have packed when they were actually together. Seven years have passed since they recorded their last album, went on their final tour, and played their farewell show at the Crocodile Cafe (the only one they ever came close to selling out, until this summer's Showbox reunion). Since then, CW's members have gone on to form some of Seattle's best exports - Band of Horses, Grand Archives, Sera Cahoone, S - an array of bands which runs the gamut from low-core to indie rock to Americana-country, and beyond.

Like I said, I never saw them play when they were actually a band. I never even heard their music until I was tasked with the below article for Seattle's CityArts Magazine - after all, their albums were out of distribution and unavailable pretty much everywhere. Nonetheless, I came to be a believer, due in no small part to the bands which CW's members later became, and the legend of their music, which has taken on a life of its own in these parts. Happily, the live show - and the reissues of their albums, courtesy of Seattle's own Hardly Art Records - sealed the deal.

The below piece ran in the July issue of CityArts Seattle, and I'm reprinting it here in full. Visit the CityArts website for more of the features I've written for them, as well as plenty of other great info on Seattle's vibrant arts scenes.

The Band That Got Away
by KIM RUEHL — July 1, 2010
Seven years after calling it quits, Carissa’s Wierd returns, for a moment, with the same old heartbreaking songs and a brand new fan base.

One dark and stormy night in 2003, a van rolled up to a house party in Baltimore. As they’d done at numerous house parties across the country, the members of Carissa’s Wierd – a band from the other side of the continent that had been touring in support of its third album – got out, loaded their gear into the basement, checked the sound as best they could, and lit into their set. It was pouring outside, and before long, the water started dripping into the basement, forming puddles around them and their equipment. No doubt, long-time friends and lead singers Jenn Ghetto and Mat Brooke exchanged looks and shrugged. After all, the band had self-released three albums in the past six years and played countless gigs in dive bars. They had long since become accustomed to the unglamorous life of an indie rock band. Still, something happened as the quartet powered through its set despite the threat of shock. After the show, they packed up their gear and headed home to Seattle. “The third record felt pretty good,” singer and guitarist Brooke recalls, “until it wound us up in that basement. Then it was like, ‘Okay, I’ll bet we can call this one quits.’” Two months later, the band was done.

Until this month, when Ghetto, Brooke and many of the artists they played with throughout the band’s eight-year run will return to a much larger stage, the Showbox Market in Seattle. They will play music from their three records, all of which have been remastered and are being rereleased by local label Hardly Art, to what promises to be a larger crowd than the band ever played while active. It proves that, even though the music stopped, the evolution of the band and of Seattle did not.

Seven years after that evening in Baltimore, Brooke is preparing for happy hour at the Redwood in Seattle. The bar, located in a residential enclave of Capitol Hill, is dark and quiet. Inside, wood booths and rural imagery line the walls. The menu features comfort food – meatloaf, mac and cheese, beer, whiskey. A pinball machine goes mostly untouched near the bathrooms. A jukebox spins classic rock and old-school country. There are no Carissa’s Wierd albums on it.

The bustling activity on Broadway, Olive and the Pike-Pine corridor is a few blocks away in each direction, situating the bar so that nobody would just stumble upon it. People have to seek out the Redwood, and they do. Outside, an old man bends over and blows his nose into the bushes. Inside, bar owner Brooke stacks and unloads boxes of beer, before filing into a booth with Ghetto and recalling those last days of the band and the years since. In that time, the bandmates have broken out into other projects that have earned them fans and acclaim, while creating a posthumous notoriety for Carissa’s Wierd.

“We all had our own things going on,” Ghetto explains. “We had already done all the wrong things, so the entire band knew what they had to do differently [to be more successful with their new projects].” No doubt the fans – few, but devout – were eager to hear anything the band’s members would release. Ghetto went on to form S, the band that is the most faithful to the Carissa’s Wierd sound, with the addition of electronic drum loops. Brooke and Carissa’s Wierd bass player Ben Bridwell formed Band of Horses, a group that took a decidedly more rocking approach on its way to becoming the most widely known CW spin-off – as of press time, the band’s 2010 release Infinite Arms sits at number 31 on the Billboard albums chart. Though CW drummer Sera Cahoone also played with Band of Horses initially, she and Brooke both left after the first recording to pursue their separate interests. Cahoone leaned hard on the twang and self-released her self-titled debut before signing to Sub Pop for its follow-up (both feature CW’s Sarah Standard on violin). Brooke, on the other hand, went the indie-pop route with Grand Archives, whose Sub Pop debut was praised by indie music’s online authority Pitchfork and others. He also turned an old Capitol Hill laundromat into a bar, and has maintained a close friendship with Ghetto, one that started in the mid-’90s when the two met at a goth club in Tucson.

Soon after Brooke and Ghetto first met, the then-teenagers began collaborating on songs. They recorded their early demos while Ghetto’s grandmother slept in the next room, so the music naturally evolved to be as quiet as possible. Within a few years, the duo – now called Carissa’s Wierd – and their straggler friend Ben Bridwell (who wasn’t in the band, but with whom they worked at a Tucson pizza place) picked up and moved to Olympia. There, they hoped to tap into the vibrant music scene that had grown up around the independent label K Records. What they found, though, was that the music scene in Seattle was even more exciting. So they moved again and started playing music with a rotating roster of collaborators. “Talent wasn’t a prerequisite to joining the band,” Brooke recalls. “You didn’t have to have any talent at all. If you were willing to drink whiskey with us and hang out with us, then you could be in the band.”

The first incarnation of Carissa’s Wierd following the move was as a trio, with Robin Perringer on drums. Bridwell eventually took over the rhythm section when Perringer left to play guitar for Modest Mouse. But the greater story of Carissa’s Wierd, which would later become a local legend in the Northwest music scene, started in a side room at the Showbox, the band’s first show in Seattle. Ghetto remembers it well.

“It was free hot dog night,” she says, “and we were super excited. But then [our friends] started throwing hot dogs at us.” It was the first of many unglamorous gigs that would slowly build buzz. With the grunge era on its way out, Carissa’s Wierd offered a respite from the directionless ride Seattle musicians were taking in its wake. For one thing, its music was often whisper-quiet and intensely personal. It meandered and grooved, a far cry from the distorted electric guitars of Seattle’s then-recent musical past, though not yet fully invested with the urban hush and twang to which the scene would eventually steer (aided in no small part by each of Carissa’s alums). In other words, between the influence of Kurt Cobain and that of Ben Gibbard and Neko Case, there were a handful of years when sparse pockets of die-hard fans knew what the rest of us have since learned: quiet is the new loud.

***

Among Carissa’s Wierd’s early fans was Greg Martinez, who, along with Dana Bos and others, started the influential indie music blog Three Imaginary Girls in response to their enthusiasm for Pretty Girls Make Graves, the Long Winters and Carissa’s Wierd. “I really thought they’d get signed [to a major label],” Martinez remembers. “They could’ve been number one on the college charts. I didn’t think they’d ever break into the mainstream unless it was through a single song, like Low or Elliott Smith, but from a critical standpoint I thought they were excellent.”

Though Carissa’s Wierd didn’t sound quite like anyone else in town, Martinez and others have had trouble pinpointing the secret to its allure. The music was quiet out of necessity at first and then out of habit. The group’s open-door policy on bandmates meant the sound was eclectic and constantly evolving. There wasn’t time to get too comfortable with any specific thing before a new instrument showed up in the mix or a new drummer hopped behind the skins.

Cahoone, who had previously played guitar with an indie rock outfit called Primrosa, took over the Carissa’s Wierd drum kit from Jeff MacIsaac in 2002. But she was a fan first. “I loved the sadness and the simplicity [of their music],” she recalls. ”When I went to their shows, I knew they mattered to me, and they did to a lot of folks. Their music hit me: the lyrics, the voices, the violin and piano, everything. Emotionally ... Lord knows I like emotions.”

It wasn’t just future bandmates who became enthralled with CW’s hyper-emotional, quiet groove early on. Cheryl Waters, a DJ for influential Seattle radio station KEXP, remembers the first time she ever heard the band. She kept getting calls from “a nice kid named Ben [Bridwell],” who wanted her to listen to a record his band had made. “I always did a double-take on the spelling when I was filling out the KEXP playlist, which was a paper playlist back then. I had to cross it out and rewrite it every time. It was hard to get used to that spelling, but it made the band stick in my mind, and I played them a lot.”

Not everyone was susceptible to the band’s inexplicable charm while it was still together, though. Carissa’s Wierd hardly ever played to packed houses. The band spent so much time on the road playing dive bars, splitting single hotel rooms six ways and smoking in the van with the windows rolled up, it could be argued that their local following never had a chance to grow too big. Though their name was easily recognized and on posters all over town, Brooke maintains, “Everyone tells us that we [got really popular], but I don’t remember that happening. Everybody tells us we were huge, but we weren’t. I was there, I know we weren’t. We couldn’t have sold out the Showbox. I think the only time we ever sold out the Crocodile was for our farewell show. If we only sold out the Crocodile once, then we obviously weren’t very huge in Seattle.”

Nick Heliotis might disagree. An employee of Hardly Art, the label that is reissuing Carissa’s Wierd’s three albums this month, he remembers the band’s final show at the Crocodile as if it were last week. He was in college at the time, and he and his girlfriend made the pilgrimage from Bellingham just to catch their favorite band’s final set. “[Carissa’s Wierd was] a big deal to me,” he says, “and I was surprised to see them casually walking around the bar. I introduced myself to Ben Bridwell and thanked him for sending me a CD that I’d had some trouble finding. The show itself was really great. They opened with ‘Heather Rhodes’ and played their cover of Avril Lavigne’s ‘Complicated.’ If I remember correctly, they finished with ‘Blessed Arms That Hold You Tight, Freezing Cold and Alone,’ a song that still totally breaks my heart. There were a ton of people there. I remember everyone just sort of hung out afterwards – I think no one wanted it to be over. I bothered Mat for a few minutes after the show, and he told me he and Ben were planning on starting a band together, which was exciting.”

The local music community has been abuzz with excitement since Hardly Art’s announcement this spring that it was reissuing all three CW albums, along with a compilation to introduce newcomers to the band’s work. The announcement of the reunion concert at the Showbox has only added to the anticipation. Local blog Sound on the Sound titled its post regarding the announcement “Carissa’s Wierd and Hardly Art Just Made My Day.” The Stranger’s Eric Grandy led his by exclaiming, “Fuck yeah!” The Portland Mercury even invited the band to follow the Showbox reunion with one in Portland, should the mood strike.

Maybe Brooke is right that during its run, Carissa’s Wierd wasn’t the superstar band everyone seems to remember. Regardless, given time and lore, it’s what the band has become. When Hardly Art reissues those albums and the band reunites at the Showbox, there is no doubt that its latecomer fans will be at the ready. Even Brooke won’t be terribly surprised to see a significant turnout. “We had an amazingly loyal fan base,” he says. “As small as they were, they were as true as a fan could be. They really subscribed to the whole style of music and what we were doing. We realized that was happening. And that was amazing for us, we loved that, but there was never a point in our career when we said, ‘We’ve made it.’”

Perhaps one reason Carissa’s Wierd never quite “made it” has to do with the fact that Seattle’s music community was fractured. Multi-instrumentalist Jeff Fielder, who now plays in Cahoone’s band, was part of a different scene entirely. Based in Ballard, Fielder was more familiar with Mark Pickerel’s post–Screaming Trees projects and bands like the Radio Nationals. “It was more of a rock ’n’ roll thing, as opposed to shoegazer, or whatever they were calling Carissa’s Wierd,” he recalls. Participating in a fragmented local music scene at that time meant that even plugged-in members of the community like Fielder saw and disregarded CW’s name when it appeared in ads and the local indie press. There was just no need for that swath of music fans to search outside their own neighborhood. “If I remember correctly,” he says, “the big news at the time was Modest Mouse, and that overshadowed everybody. At the time, all the Stranger would talk about was Modest Mouse. We [in the Ballard music scene] got so sick of hearing about it that, for anything having to do with indie rock, we were just, like, ‘Oh, come on.’”

But even Fielder came around to being a believer. His first tour as part of Cahoone’s backing band was as the opening band for Band of Horses during its meteoric rise. Though he knew Cahoone had been a drummer, he’d never seen or heard her previous band. He was surprised that, “even when we went to Arizona and New York, people would talk about Carissa’s Wierd. It tripped me out.” After the tour was over, he looked up the band on YouTube just to see what the fuss was about. “I thought it was weird that Ben was playing bass. It was a little sleepy, but I thought it was cool.”

“Sleepy” is an understandable descriptor, though admittedly an incomplete one. Indeed, there was more at work than just quiet angst. Take, for example, the song Martinez and Bos name as the band’s finest tune, “The Color That Your Eyes Changed with the Color of Your Hair” (from the 2001 release You Should Be at Home Here). A certifiable heartbreaker, it starts with Brooke’s voice distant, behind Sarah Standard’s weeping violin. As the song progresses, however, his voice comes in closer for the line, “For the next fifty years I will still write you love songs.” Later, Ghetto’s voice enters, as if she can no longer stand to not sing along. These are not just words set to melody, but the outpouring of a band that seems to understand, at least in some small way, the difference in expressive power between poetry and music. That is, the words are just one of several instruments working toward a single sweet exposure of sadness. The subtle, understated percussion and the chunky triplets strummed on Brooke’s and Ghetto’s guitars also contribute to the song’s power as they close it out with the line, “My heart is gone; my heart is gray.”

But, it’s never enough for a song to be sad, or for a lyric to reach toward truth. It’s not enough for instrumentation to be slow and tight and vaguely nostalgic. These are all effects countless bands have mastered, with little or no fanfare, and certainly with no army (however small) of loyal followers and latecomer fans still hanging on every word nearly a decade after the band’s demise.

Despite her years-long unshakable allegiance to all things local music, Abbey Simmons, who runs Sound on the Sound with her partner Josh Lovseth, only recently discovered the band in the same way. “It’s so sensitive and sad-bastardy,” she says, “it doesn’t sound like what I thought Seattle sounded like at that time. It definitely doesn’t sound like what Band of Horses sounds like. It doesn’t have the twang of Sera Cahoone. There was a big indie pop scene [in the late ’90s to early ’00s] that was more upbeat than what Carissa’s Wierd was doing. Neko Case was getting big. There was a little bit of rock happening. It was a name I heard and knew I was supposed to know, but I just didn’t.” Based on the experiences related by the numerous local music fans I spoke to for this article, it’s safe to say Simmons isn’t alone. It’s been seven years since CW’s albums went out of print. Super-fans like Martinez admit to buying up any used copies they find in local record stores, while others have been known to sell them on eBay. A cursory search of the auction site found new unopened copies available for more than $100, while one used copy of Songs about Leaving was listed at $53.92.

“Although having their records disappear made it difficult to find new fans, it also built up a sort of mythology around the band,” says Sarah Moody, general manager at Hardly Art. “When I first worked at Sub Pop as a publicist, I came across a number of writers that were going nuts for Band of Horses based solely on what they knew of or had heard from Carissa’s Wierd. That was in 2006, and even then, it was impossible to find a CW record outside of torrent sites.”

Simmons can attest to the evolution of the mythology. “I never saw them [live],” she says. “I feel like I never even read a description of what their music was. It was just the name you saw everywhere. When Band of Horses started and S started, it was a name you heard referred to again and again. I feel like I missed out on it in a big way. I thought I would never get to see or hear them again. I went to Sonic Boom and tried to buy their records there. But nope, none of that.” Says music journalist Kurt B. Reighley, who has written promotional materials for the band, “Those records were hard to come by, even when they were in print. They were basically self-released. Years after the band had broken up, people were still coming into Sonic Boom trying to order them, to little avail, or find used copies – as if anyone would part with a Carissa’s Wierd record.”

***

Back at the Redwood, conversation turns to how a band built around whiskey and a rotating door of drummers managed to not suck, and even to develop its own urban legend and knew-them-when hipster lore. Barely pausing to breathe, Brooke follows up with a question: “Well, who’s to say that it didn’t suck?”

I ask, “Do you think it sucked?”

“We had some pretty interesting shows that, yes, definitely could be qualified as ‘really sucked,’” Brooke responds. “Then we also had lightning-in-a-bottle moments, where things really clicked, and it was such a unique sound because we weren’t even really trying to create any specific sound. We were more like a hippie collective that drank a lot more than hippies do.”

Brooke might be right and hindsight might be blinding, but the band’s return has certainly raised questions about whether CW could have “made it” given just another year or another album. But most agree that the band’s members needed to learn from CW’s growing pains to create the music for which they’ve all since become well known. Perhaps, as Ghetto sings in “Phantom Fireworks,” “The silence was getting too loud.”

Site: Do We Stand A Chance

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