Weekend of Shows

November 20, 3:30 PMSeattle Pop Art ExaminerNeil Fauerso

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Wow! this is one of the best weekends in recent memory for shows in Seattle.

Tommorow night Neumos has Times New Viking and Deerhunter. Times New Viking play squallish, high-speed fuzz-pop jingles. Sort of like Lightning Bolt meets the Ramones dipped in static. Their live show should kill.

Deerhunter has become the Band du jour of the indie world. I get it and I don't. I really like their newest album, Microcastle, it feels like a classic 80s indie album, equal parts 4AD and Sonic Youth. They're a solid, spirited young band and they should be fun to see live. At the same time, just because the lead singer has Marfan's Syndrome and cites Dennis Cooper as "main" influence doesn't make their fairly straightforward sound uber dark. Gahh, I'm turning into such a crusty old fart!

On Sunday, Nektar (a highly underrated venue BTW) has the other new it band. The Vivian Girls. I  personally am not nuts for this type of shambling, fuzzed out girl pop punk ala Shop Assistants etc, but I do like the idea of people who perhaps aren't skilled musicians making pop music as opposed to pretentious drivel like the slew of exhausting noise/noise rock bands out there.

Finally, Monday night (at Nektar again) brings perhaps the most exiciting act of all: the fantastical El Guinco. El Guincho is the project of one brilliant Spaniard who cuts up and loops old Latin/South American records, adds keyboards and beats and creates a lush tropical rave-up that sounds simultaneously of the future and timeless. Essential.