The Muse Lounge w/ Archeology and the Slants (2.27.2010)

As you may well know, we released our first full-length album, Transmission Zero Hour, on Saturday February 27th, 2010. We played a show at The Muse Lounge in Eugene, OR with The Slants and Archeology that same night. It was a hell of a show and a really top-notch venue. Here's some of the lovely people in attendance:

Muse Lounge-Audience (2.27.10) from Science Heroes on Vimeo.

Yep, just your typical Science Heroes love fest.

The Venue:
The Muse Lounge is new in Eugene. The building used to be "Jo's Bar and Grill" over there on 21 6th Ave next to what used to be Taboo. Nice atmosphere, staff, stage, sound--all of it as good as it gets. If you get a chance to see a show there, go; you'll be right up close and personal with the artists and Joel (the sound tech) will make them sound awesome.

Archeology:
Although Archeology sounds nothing like Science Heroes (they'd be more at home playing with The Shins, Fleet Foxes or Blitzen Trapper), I think we have a similar approach to song writing: unique song structures with divers influences and strong narrative elements. I was really impressed with the songs they played from their new album--which comes out March 16th, btw. Exquisite vocal harmonies and pop hooks galore. Here's one of my favorites from their performance that night:

Archeology at Muse Lounge from Science Heroes on Vimeo.

These guys are hot shit right now. They're getting tons of buzz* and critical acclaim in Portland where they're from. They played with Frightened Rabbit recently. As the story goes, Frightened Rabbit actually found them on myspace and asked if they would open for them--I'm waiting for David Bowie to do the same for us. We've been playing shows together since the early days of Science Heroes and you can't ask for nicer or more insightful guys to shoot the breeze with about the music industry and what's working and not working for independent artists.

Science Heroes:
Here's a video of us performing Pistols at Ten Paces off our new album:

Pistols at Ten Paces from Science Heroes on Vimeo.

It's a fun song that does a good job getting bodies moving. You might notice some variation between the live version of the song and the studio version. We try to do things a little different when we play live. When we perform New World, for example, it has a really kick ass extended jam at the end of it that comes right out of left field. One of these days we'll get good video of it and post it to the blog, but until then you'll just have to come out and see us perform live.

The Slants:
What can I say about The Slants? How about this: my dear friend, award winning poet Tobin Johnston had such a big man crush on them after the show that he came up to me practically begging for $6 (he had $4 already--god knows how he got it) so that he could buy their CD. This bohemian (e.g. cheap ass) motherfucker probably hadn't even downloaded our album yet (for FREE mind you) and he's hitting me up for money to buy The Slants' album. I'm not surprised, really; The Slants have that effect on people. Look at all the people they're effecting in this video.**

Science Heroes has a lot to learn about showmanship from these guys, that's for sure. After the show, we had a great conversation about what makes a good stage performance; they liked our gear, we liked their sweet break moves. The Slants have a new album coming out on March 16th as well.

So that was the Muse Lounge show. Don't forget that you can stream our album for free at our music store (click on 'music' in the panel to your right) and download it for as much or as little as you want to pay for it--free even.

*The sidebar with the top 20 Portland artists; they're #9.
**This video is not of the show at the Muse Lounge. As if you couldn't tell.