Happy Friday! You know what that means, right? Well, besides the end of the work week, of course, it means that a mere seven days from now, we'll be gearing up for the Imaginary Holiday Spectacular at Chop Suey, full of friends and good cheer. On Monday we told you a little bit more about show openers Brite Lines and our pal Chris Otepka, and today we'd like to get into our middle-set stars, Cristina Bautista and Leif Anders.
We've loved Cristina B. oh-so-muchly for as long as we can remember, from her time in Connecticut Four to her days as a member of Visqueen {photo above from Visqueen's Last Show at the Neptune, RIP} to her much-loved recent excursions as a solo artist. If you only know Cristina in one of her previous incarnations, take a trip on over to her website to get a sample of her sound. It's sweetly upbeat without sounding saccharine, clean and gritty alt.pop without the pomp and circumstance, all while remaining decidedly Pacific Northwest: Gold Parts, specifically, is a soundtrack for the days when you need to kick ass (or be kicked in the ass) — and fills those train-out-the-window movie-scene grey-day quotas we need filled around here in the wintertime too. [Editor's note: Am I the only one who thinks "Long Divisions" should be synced up with some kind of tormented day-starting modern-day Angela Chase scene in whatever the 2012 My So-Called Life equivalent is? I can't be!]
Before Cristina takes the stage, we'll have bassist and vocalist from Orca Team Leif Anders to grace our faces and ears. The super smart, semi-haunted surf-y garage vibe will take you for a most excellent ride, and, well, our adjective can't quite compare to the band's own description: it'll be a whole lot of "1960s Post Punk Beach Party from the confusing waters of the Pacific Northwest…," "a punk trio if everyone in the band decided to keep their volume low and their tones clean," with songs that are "short, sung with a lonesome croon, equipped with a melodic bass line, and drenched in reverb." Damn, OT. Way to spin the adjective! It's completely accurate, of course, and if you're not familiar, cruise on over to the band's video page on their tumblr for a sampling of everything that makes them great.
Of course, we'd like to remind you again that tickets are a mere ten dollars for all this awesome, and they're ready for you to pick up right on over here. We'll be getting into more of our two main acts next week before Friday rolls around, so stay tuned!