Square Pig in a Round Hole-March 25, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

So much to celebrate: the official arrival of spring, the temporary break in the rain, the maybe-permanent survival of the ACA, the moderately triumphant return of Your Mother Should Know to the stage after two-plus years away . . . and as ever, a generous selection of creative, amusing, inspiring band names:

Dead Meadow

Why you stay on the trail when hiking in subalpine terrain. And it rhymes!

Happy Heartbreak

Seems like an oxymoron, but it’s true: we love sad songs and tragedies. (I’m especially sad that the realities of life will prevent me from staying to hear them Monday night.)

Headstone Brigade

Implies the dead are active and on the march! (Coincidentally, I’m currently reading a novel called Dancing with the Dead by Charles Freedom Long, a sci-fi thriller that includes armies of souls of the dead (human and alien) that can be called upon to aid the living.)

Moose Blood

Aibell and Moose

Our friends moved with their cat to Alaska. She recently saw her first moose and was captivated. Through aspirational spelling, she is thinking bloody, predatory thoughts.

The Smallest Bear with the Biggest Paws

This sounds like an adorable children’s book; much better than The Big Mean Man with the Tiny Hands.

Your Mother Should Know opens at the Victory Lounge on Monday, March 27 in a stripped-down, highly portable configuration: two voices, assorted hand percussion,and one guitar with amp and a few pedals. Also on the bill: Happy Heartbreak, HuskyBoys, and Nijlpaard.

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Square Pig in a Round Hole-March 18, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

It may seem like the rain will never end, spring will never come, and everything keeps getting worse. But! We had a sunny day last week, hyacinths are blooming, and daffodil sightings have been reported. On top of that, there is still music to make and hear, and band names to celebrate. For example:

Dead Man Winter

A seasonal character who has overstayed his welcome; always old, nearly expired. (Bonus: the bandleader is also associated with past honoree Trampled by Turtles, of whom I wrote on September 8, 2012: I love this image, because of the slow speed. Anything heavy enough to do any damage, you could just roll out of the way. I picture some poor dude, passed out and engulfed by turtles. [N.B. Since this post, I have invented a fictional band called Plague of Turtles, no doubt inspired by this image.])

The Galaxytones

As retro-futuristic as the Space Needle.

Plastic Picnic

Toy food in a playhouse satisfies until it doesn’t. Is this where chefs come from?

Tiny Bones

In high school, my sister reassembled a frog’s skeleton and encased it in Lucite. Ever since, I have been fascinated by how small bones can be, whether in wee animals or our own ears.

Yawning Man

A deliberately boring arts festival in the desert. Everybody catches up on their sleep.

Review of: SuperGuy

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SuperGuy by Kurt Clopton (Not a Pipe Publishing, 2017)

SuperGuy eBook CoverAt heart, SuperGuy is a workplace comedy, albeit one that takes hilarious advantage of every superhero cliché in the toolbox. The story opens with the hero already in dire, ridiculous peril, then makes use of an extended flashback to convey SuperGuy’s origin story. And what a story it is, a workplace comedy in its own right. Through the alliances, petty rivalries and small-scale power struggles in the offices of city government, overeducated but unemployable intern Oliver Olson accidentally becomes SuperGuy when the mayor decides to fill a budgeted hero position in order to secure re-election. As a real if low-budget and modestly-powered (but not modestly-costumed) hero, Oliver has to quickly adjust to his new position, which has its own set of rules, alliances and rivalries. While still

Kurt Clopton
Kurt Clopton

learning what his powers are and how to control them, SuperGuy is forced into conflict with a bona fide supervillain, a brainiac with plans for world domination . . . and a serious crush on a diner waitress. I won’t give away how SuperGuy gets out of that opening peril, but the stage appears to be set for the next exciting episode.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Available for preorder March 12, 2017:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Square Pig in a Round Hole-March 11, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

Support local music! Even if you can’t get out to many shows, give your favorite bands some love and buy their records. I can unreservedly recommend two albums that were released yesterday: Shelby Earl‘s The Man Who Made Himself a Name and Dead Bars‘ Dream Gig. They are nothing alike and I love them both. What would happen if Shelby hired Dead Bars as the backing band for her 4th album?

Back to the business of band names:

avians alight

Birds on a wire or birds on fire?

The Cheap Cassettes

First noted (by me, anyway) in 2015, the cassette renaissance continues. They must still be cheap, but can you buy a decent tape deck? We’re lucky to have one from the ’70s. The tape stock stank, but the hardware was solid.

Depths of the Sunset

Bickleton Sunset 1I grew up in the high desert of Central Washington, where we regularly experiences wraparound sunsets. Difficult to photograph, but this painting by my neighbor captures some of the depth.

The Fabulous Roof Shakers

Any name that starts with The Fabulous will capture my notice. This one goes to a place that promises joyful noise.

Genders

I grow more convinced there are 7 billion genders in the world. Here are some of them.

Square Pig in a Round Hole-March 4, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

Though there are tons of well-named bands this week, I won’t be going out tonight; I managed to catch my first cold in close to a year. I don’t feel great, but I’ve had worse, so I’m pretending I’m well.

This weeks picks:

Lonesome Home

A melancholy paradox. Also note how the words end with the same three letters but different sounds.

Strange Like Us

“Strange” implies rarity while “us” implies group identity. You don’t have to be popular to belong. (In a happy turn of events, Strange Like Us will join Square Pig faves Mud on My Bra! and my own band Your Mother Should Know for a show in April at the Sunset. Watch for details!)

Uneasy Chairs

A seat that isn’t merely uncomfortable; it’s worried.

The Velveteen Rabbit Hole

I picked this for the children’s book references before I knew it was a Velvet Underground cover band. Now I like it twice as much.

Villain of the Story

Authors love to write them. Actors love to play them. Musicians love to be them, I guess?

Review of: Going Green

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going-green-ebook-coverGoing Green by Heather S. Ransom (Not a Pipe Publishing, 2017)

This appealing young-adult novel begins in the shallow end, with high school girls giggling and squealing about the latest development in protagonist Calyssa’s life. From there, it dives deep into issues of class privilege, inequality, and genetic modification in a high-tech post-post-apocalyptic future where the chosen elite get to “go Green.” Calyssa is near the beginning of this process, which enhances humans with modified chloroplasts so they can make energy from sunlight, water and air, freeing up the time that would be spent finding, preparing, and eating food. Green citizens are supposed to use this time making the world a better place, while non-Greens do the necessary grunt work to support them. Meanwhile, anti-GMO rebels are attacking experimental crops outside the safe enclave of SciCity.

Although Calyssa has sympathy for the poor, deprived non-Greens, she believes the party line that those who aren’t chosen

heather-s-ransom-photo
Heather S. Ransom

must be less intelligent, less deserving than Greens. A sudden change in Spring Break plans puts her in the home of a friend whose non-Green farming family reveals a side of the class divide she’d never considered. A week with these kind, down-to-earth folk changes her mind about a lot of things—including her friend’s handsome, intelligent brother Gabe. Can love between Green and non-Green survive as tensions heat up between extremists on both sides? The book ends before we find out, but an epilogue hints at sequels yet to come.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This book will release March 21, 2017 and is now on preorder:

Amazon

Powells

Barnes & Noble

Square Pig in a Round Hole-February 25, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

Last night, the spouse and I actually went to a show! Thanks to Myla Mud of Mud on My Bra for putting on a great birthday show at Cafe Racer, a weird and welcoming space walking distance from Square Pig HQ. We hadn’t heard any of the bands before and didn’t expect to know any of the musicians, so of course the fiddle player in Merchant Mariner was someone we’ve known for years. Sometimes Seattle is still a small town. And a bottomless well of band names, such as:

Date Night with Brian

This sounds like a goofy rom-com about lowering expectations and doing something you like with someone who likes you. (I first encountered them when they followed me on Twitter, a big deal because I have only 14 followers. So I was pleased to see them come up in the club listings so soon.)

Nine Pound Shadow

I choose to believe it’s a cat or other modest-sized mammal, not something that’s going to ARRGGGHHH . . .

The Octopus Project

Professional respect. The octopus, like the writer, is reclusive, clever, and if threatened, disappears in a cloud of ink.

Puff Puff Beer

How to bro in three easy steps.

The Snubs

The third band from Myla’s birthday provides the much-needed fifth entry. It manages to sound both punchy and elitist. Extra points for performing in matching masks and beanies.

Square Pig in a Round Hole-February 18, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

Although it’s technically still winter, it’s looking a lot like spring: 44 degrees and raining, crocuses poking up, sunrise earlier every day. Another thing to give us hope, along with the unruly herd of cats we call America, and of course, band names.

Another Lost Year

It’s early enough in 2017 that a lot of people still feel bitter about 2016. Those who don’t might think again as they begin to work on their taxes.

Far Out West

The collision of three small words and two geographical phrases imparts grooviness to where we are.

Oceans Ate Alaska

A climate change prediction. The sea will still be hungry when it’s finished with Florida.

ohmme

A mantra, a mild cry of distress, or a cleverly veiled call for resistance?

Why Don’t We

This unfinished suggestion leaves all possibilities open.

Square Pig in a Round Hole-February 11, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

We’ve had our snow. That’s enough winter; now can we move on to spring? Based on the intense twittering the past couple of days (nothing to do with the so-called president) I’d say the local birds are ready, too. While we wait for the flowers, there are always band names to bring us joy.

Basement Surfers

When your friends either take up temporary abode on your lower level, or make recreational use of your flooded cellar.

Ergo I Exist

It takes up Decartes’ formula in the middle, leaving the question open as to how you know.

Noisegasm

Creative soundmaking as ecstatic sensual experience. My external memory (AKA spouse) reminded me that we heard this group a couple years ago, but somehow I had missed including them in the blog until now.

Pkew Pkew Pkew

Someone took the time to figure out a spelling for a sound effect that has both aural and visual appeal.

Spooky Action

This name, a gift from quantum physics, also aptly describes this duo’s comically uncanny real-time art-and-music performance. I’ve hoped to include them since I saw them last month at Seattle Composers’ Salon.