dawww... here is a nifty article from ubik on the stranger forums:

http://forums.thestranger.com/showthread.php?t=22970

If I'm backing all of my posts by calling attention to bands that never get mentioned in The Stranger, I'm not sure how much this next band qualifies (I don't think they get much attention here, but they're regular mentions at Three Imaginary Girls)... but I don't care. I absolutely love the Tea Cozies.

There's something a little deceptive? tricky? there's something a little Loki about this band, and I think some people might miss it on the first pass. It's important to notice that their caption on MySpace is "We don't want your friendship. Only your blood," which is more than a little confrontational, no? And when you think about it, I think the band name was chosen, specifically picked, to be uncomfortable: never in my life did I imagine myself telling friends "I'm really into the Tea Cozies." (every time I say that, I realize what an incredibly unmanly statement it is) It's even more confounding when the listed genres are Indie, Garage, and Pop... and that I could easily describe them in the buzz words that usually make me want to not listen to a band: that "pop sensibilities" phrase that gets used on half of the Stranger's Up & Coming listing is applicable here.

But they're just so good... The first day I had their self titled disc, I listened to it, and it was okay. The second day, I listened to it twice. The third day this CD was in my possession, I listened to it all day. It's a five song EP, and I just couldn't turn it off; when I went out that evening to meet up with friends, I copied it over to my mp3 player so I could keep listening to it after I left the house. Very few albums have ever had that effect on me. (If you want a copy, they're sort of unofficial label-mates of ours: their discs are available at CDBaby). I've had that album for over a year, and it's always at the ready; it's particularly tasty walking home after a long night.

I've come this far and haven't even attempted to cover how they actually sound... which still stumps me. Their listed influences include not just Pixies and Talking Heads, but also Can, and I think that has a bit to do with the tricky hold they have on me: there are a number of female-fronted indie pop bands in the world, but there's more going on the Tea Cozies than pretty vocal harmonies and bright guitars... there's an incredible amount of atmosphere, and a lot of texture. The songs never shy away from getting complicated, but aren't afraid to be simple, if simple is required. There's reverb on hand, but the atmosphere isn't born of the band being "reverb drenched" (they're not), echoes are common, and so are jumps from clean to crunchy distortion or fuzz.

The best way I can describe it is that every aspect of the band is much deeper than most people will get from one listen. Lyrically (literally?) I still haven't quite wrapped my head around everything these songs have to say: even if I do "get" every lyric, I'm not sure how it fits with the song titles, or how the whole stew sets as a whole... to this day, I think about these songs every time I hear them. The arrangements still move in a way that feels surprising, the drums are always more clever, the two guitars have incredibly distinct personalities. And, of course, there is the inclusion of synths, cowbell, and barroom piano that are absolutely not studio magic-- they're part of the live shows.

I'm not a shameless fanboy for many bands, but this one's a gold star. So much so that I have to force myself to stop rambling, or I might just write another 10 pages...

ubik, we <3 your blood.

"Seattle garage-pop pretties Tea Cozies bop to a darkly sexy, sauced-up Britpop that's marinated in such transcendent '90s girl rock as the Breeders and Elastica. Playful, catchy and smart as a whip, the three girls and one (lucky) guy prove Seattle's scene to be at least one indie band away from completely dead."

Jay Horton, WILLAMETTE WEEK Portland, OR

"Naming themselves after a British tea insulator, Tea Cozies play frantic guitar-centric pop that reminds me of what Deerhoof would sound like if they popped a chill pill and started hanging out with the Rondelles. Hailing from Seattle, Tea Cozies transform the gray days of their city into a hologram of sunshine-soaked, jangly art-rock with sweet-as-a-lollipop girl-on-girl vocal harmonies. While their fingers are sticky from borrowing influence from Britpop and '60s-era American underground icons, Tea Cozies successfully transform their inspirations into arrangements that sound completely fresh and new. Post-post-modernism, anyone?"

Em Brownlowe, THE PORTLAND MERCURY Portland, OR

"The precocious child of Brit and indie pop, Seattle's Tea Cozies sound as great as any of their influences on their debut EP. Underneath the fiery emotions expressed is an undeniably accessible charm. Playful, passionate and defiant, the band's catchy songs are intelligent, strong and well-crafted."

Tom Murphy, Critics' Picks for 2007, THE WESTWORD Denver, CO

"While the ever-present deluge of indie-pop bands in this town can sometimes make it difficult to sort out the merely listenable from the truly exceptional, the Tea Cozies fall squarely in the latter category. Steeped in the transcendent pop of Elastica and the Breeders, stirred in with the soulful swoon of PJ Harvey or Mazzy Star, and topped with the cockeyed, ramshackle energy of early Talking Heads, these just-under-the-radar charmers are a band to watch in the new year."

Bill Bullock, THE STRANGER Seattle, WA

"(Named one of the) Best Northwest Bands to look out for in 2007."

Three Imaginary Girls, SEATTLE WEEKLY Seattle, WA

"This EP is... really good."

Dj Troy Nelson, 90.3 KEXP Seattle, WA

MAY 7TH KIMO'S (S.F)
i broke a string in san jose and this little metal backing piece fell out of the back of my guitar and was lost to johnny v's. once we hit sf, we went up and down van ness street looking for this mystery guitar repair store that the guy from haight ashbury music told me about. this little shop was called "real guitars" and we finally did find it nestled in between some row houses, the hunt was worth it. i bought two of the little metal string holder things for $1. score! (later that evening i found the missing one had been in my guitar case all along. balls!) we went down to the piers and looked at all the touristy stuff, alcatraz t-shirts, golden gate place mats, full house postcards, etc. mosied over to pier 39 and looked at the seal lions. brady recorded them for later use. had some fish stand food and bought some fresh cherries and stuff so we don't get scurvy. i got into a yelling match with a mean street heckler which ended with me saying "get a new schtick, dick." that shut him up but good.


trailed a trolly back up the hill and saw that sf still has a swenson's !! our swenson's in ft collins had a mini train and was like the coolest place ever to hang out after elementary school but it closed some years ago. we would have gone if we didn't have a show to play.

kimo's was really cool. our friends erin and ryan and erin's mom came over from oakland which was super fun. a local sf band called the new day breaker opened the show with some very loud and rockin stuff. then us. then the penguins. there was no cover for the show so after the fees involved we earned a whopping $2 to split between the two bands. the sound guy told will that he didn't want to be offensive by even offering us each $1, will said "no, we'll take the dollar" ... but the sound guy ended up forgetting to give it to us. i don't what else to say except that we love san francisco.

MAY 8TH BOILER ROOM (Eureka)
the drive to eureka was hands down the most beautiful so far. we listened to the beatles anthology and got mad kicks out of the demo take of "no reply" where john forgets the lyrics and keeps laughing and repeating YOUR FACE over and over again. then we hit this town called willits. what you talking bout, willits. we stopped for gas and saw this girl riding a horse down the main strech of road. she did a funky lean back on the horse trick when she saw us looking. there was also a really cute dog at the gas station. willits was pretty alright.

due to a hot tip from charlie at kimo's, we took this scenic route called "the avenue of giants" which took us deep into a redwood forest. we listened to the jurassic park soundtrack and it was scary. then we stopped and had a photo shoot.


when we first arrived in eureka we checked out the mervyns right next to the venue. kelly bought some items to replace the clothes that got left in the safeway parking lot, jeff looked for some velcro shoes to no avail. we found out that the eureka police department is housed in the mall. later on we ate some more mexican food in downtown eureka for dinner while jeff crashed out for a bit after the long drive. we brought him back chicken tacos!

the boiler room was painted blue with flames on it. THERE WAS A STRIPPER POLE NEXT TO THE STAGE. they had a pretty awesome juke box which we spent our show money on later. a local band called "hey eleanor" played first. they were splendid... definitely one of our new favorites. their cd features a hand sewn cover. we love us some crafty music. will penguin cited a "belly" comparison and i think that is pretty accurate.

penguins played next and sounded even better than at kimos. will diva'd out a little and stood a few feet in front of the rest of the penguins... but as the rest of the band was a few feet higher up on stage it evened out. divas all.

we played last... our set was:

waking up
pretty pages
stir the cup
2:1
the south turned him sour
hot probs
loxo
tranciting
like a friend

dance party 2 came next. we loaded the juke with prince, madonna, depeche mode, bauhaus, the smiths, and all things dancey and good. oh did i mention, there was a stripper pole next to the stage? garrett penguin did some acrobatic spinning moves proving that he definitely has what it takes to make it in this business. there was a giant german shepherd dog named happy who cleaned up spilt beer by rolling around in it... there was a fist fight which ended with the sound guy getting fired, and later rehired. jeff and kelly helped clean tables in order to earn drinks... monica at the boiler room rules.


planet of the apes was on tv when we returned to the west bestern. some of us watched that and some went swimming until hotel security ended that endeavor.

MAY 9TH EUGENE
in the morning we all went out for omelettes, and us cozies stopped at clam beach to get out of the car and run a muck on the ocean shores. we wanted to take a band photo but didn't want to get sand into the camera, so we made a tripod out of our shoes. weeeeeee!!!!

then california thwarted us once again, as we were crawling along a mountain pass for hours and finally we went down a hill only to get a speeding ticket at the bottom of the hill about 100 yards from the oregon state line. we found out that the penguins got a ticket in the same exact stretch of road. dear california, why you gotta hate? love, tc.

we stopped to get ice cream in a random town and saw a senior center thrift store mega sale. kelly got bag of clothes for $2 and brady bought a polaroid camera for 50 cents.

i overheard a few elderly women talking about the golden compass and one of them mentioned that sam elliott was in it and they all giggled like crazy and practically swooned themselves silly. yikes.

----> we took the long road to eugene, and the penguins took the extra long scenic byway deluxe. by some minor miracle we had all arrived at diablo's on time. us cozies welcomed our tums back to the pacific northwest with some delicious sushi YEERS! diablo's is far classier than we had expected. for some reason we assumed we would be rockin another tiny bar like san jose, but no no no, diablo's is classy and full of mobster booths, lovely red lighting, pool tables, food and even buck hunt! my favorite deer hunting video game ever, downstairs is a dance club, with yes, ANOTHER STRIPPER POLE! we could hardly hold back our excitement and decided to put it to good use after the show.
the arithmatic danger club opened the show with some sassy dance music, and even had their very own choreographed dance troupe. which was pretty special i think. there's nothing like being completely out of your mind and watching 3 girls in devil themed costumes dancing in time the moment you walk in the door. sadly 90% of TADC had to leave directly after their set, as they were underage. oh the young! we were up next, and the craziness continued. there are tv's all around diablo's and during our set this crazy french film was playing called "dead alive." dead alive is apparently one of the most disgusting movies we'd never seen. so there we are racing through our set trying not to get distracted while this lady is getting the entirety of her insides pulled out through her mouth in one long bloody chunk, people's faces are melting off and some dude lost all the muscles and skin off his lower half and now just has bone legs. i still don't understand what was going on in that film. it was kinda like the continuous party scene from breakfast at tiffany's where everyone gets progressively drunker and then the chainsaw massacre guy comes in and starts ripping all their skins off while they cough up blood in one last ditch breath effort, oh but the show.. yes the show was lovely! and the dance troupe danced along to us as well and we were all having a good ol time, minus the gory french film. i got incredibly jealous later on when the penguins took the stage and a very soothing surf movie came on the screen. all these pleasant yellow warm colors and surfing and palm trees. it actually makes a lot of sense with our musics i suppose. haha we are your worst nightmare. IN FRENCH1!! the penguins beat the crap out of that place per usual and we all ran downstairs to dance party some more. us cozies really can't ever get enough dance parties. in fact we'd probably take another one right now, but instead we are driving to portland BALLS! We'd like to thank Diablo's and Jeff's cuz Dan for having us, Eugene was a blast! word to the wise....if you stick your feet in the ocean, you should try and wash them off asap or they will smell like kelly's, and kelly's feet smell like death right now. seriously i almost vomited. SEE YOU IN AN HOUR PORTLANDDD yes. hahah

-j&b

MORE PHOTOS!

Band of the Month: Tea Cozies

The Seattle quartet makes ’gargadelic janglepop’

By Daniela Garcia
Published: April 2nd, 2008 | 11:20am

IN A NUTSHELL
The humble beginnings of the Tea Cozies began when Jessi Reed and Brady Harvey met in 1999 while attending high school in Fort Collins, Colorado. Even though they ended up at different colleges (Reed at Colorado University and Harvey at the University of Northern Colorado), the girls still found time to meet up and jam to Elastica songs. They went through a slew of drummers before finding former high school classmate and drummer Kelly Viergutz, courtesy of a want ad at a local record store. As a trio, they managed to play only one show on New Years Eve 2003 at what was suspected to be a haunted condo. The current lineup only became complete after all three ladies made their way to Seattle. There, they met bassist Jeff Anderson at a party and asked him to join on Halloween, according to Reed, "partially due to his impressive land shark costume."

For those who may be wondering: a tea cozy is a cutely decorated cloth cover for teapots that helps keep tea warm, more often seen in the U.K. So the choice to name themselves "tea cozies" actually aligns well with the band’s Brit-based sound but mostly stems from their desire to call themselves something that would most likely appeal to "knitters and British grandmothers." And much like their namesake, the band is to the indie scene what tea cozies are in the U.S.: obscure and unknown, yet still appreciated by a chosen few. "You’d be surprised how many people don’t know what tea cozies are," Viergutz says. "Our bass player still doesn’t."

The band calls its sound "gargadelic janglepop," which involves sampling well-known genres and mixing the sounds into something new. The band’s primary influences are David Bowie, Justine Frishmann, Ray Davies, Michel Gondry, Prince, the Beatles, Morrissey, and Kim Deal, all chosen not only for their musical prowess but also due the band’s personal belief that they’re all "aliens."

Songs like "Loxo" and "Stir the Cup," from their 2006 self-titled EP, are a testament to their sound: catchy guitar jams mixed with upbeat pop that you can shimmy and shake to while the girls wail and croon. Others like "Tranciting" stick to the same beat, only with a noticeably grittier, underground sound. One of their newer singles, "Pretty Pages" is comprised of jingly sounds (including a tambourine) played along with fast-paced pop.

With their fun, danceable beats, you would think the Tea Cozies are all about energy at their shows. And they are — if there’s enough room. Harvey reminisces about one show in which the band was packed into the corner of a small café. There was so little space that if they moved around, they would hit each other with instruments or accidentally turn off their power strip and unplug half of their equipment. "It was ridiculous," Harvey says. "Then a drunk woman took off her shirt and danced in a swimming suit for the rest of our set; it made us feel better."

Lyric writing is mainly left in the hands of Reed and Harvey, who also share vocal duties. Reed is known for translating her lyrics into various languages and back to English through Babelfish. Harvey likes to mix together phrases and double meanings until they become long chains of words. On top, they’ll throw in fun words to shout and melodic chants. Other songs are the products of jam sessions played repetitively to the point where it’s either permanently stuck in their heads or something they never want to hear again. "We all have little handheld recording devices at our side during practice," Reed says. "When we play something really bitchin’, we’ll each record it. We have tapes and tapes of those. It’s like an archive of thoughts and silliness."

GOALS
The band will tour the West Coast in May 2008 and will be joined with fellow Seattleites Daguerreotypes and the Little Penguins. Tea Cozies are working on songs for a new album and says its mission statement is to "keep making music until the apocalypse hits."

from: Seattle Powerpop Blog

Tuesday, March 18, 2008