Latitude x Longitude

What Is A Song Cycle?

2012-01-31T12:06:00.000-08:00

With our latest LP of the LxL Song Cycle in post-production the question has been coming up a lot with fans lately: "What is a song cycle, exactly?" So, we're going to get Rebeqa to give you the rundown:

"Great question! According to Wikipedia a song cycle is, "a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet or lyricist." Wikipedia then goes on to blah blah blah about how "unification can be achieved" and the "underlying musical means". Scrap all that. In plain English: a song cycle is a group of songs meant to go together in a certain order, and they usually share a music or lyrical theme that repeats somehow within all the songs. It's kind of like the first version of the "concept album"...but before recordings.

"In the LxL Song Cycle we have the following 3 tracks:

1) Evicted From My Skin I Find Myself Unwelcome;
2) I'm A Monster Just Like You Are;
3) Blood And Wine Mingle With The Soil.

"Each track has a distinct melody or guitar riff that goes with it - its own music theme. These themes are then borrowed and quoted in the other songs (some are hidden, so you have to listen close, others are really obvious.) The lyrics also reappear from song to song, but you'll find that by the time you reach the end of track 3 the lyrics from track 1 have a different meaning because of what you've learned along the way. It's a bit of a treasure hunt to find all the repeats and reoccurring themes. We had a lot of fun putting it together and it turned into a band challenge as we stole each others melodies and brought them back later in the cycle in our own parts."

New LP In Motion

2012-01-16T12:01:00.000-08:00

We're recording a new LP featuring the 3 track Song Cycle. Aside from having a great day of recording music, two things of interest happened:

1. The studio is REALLY cold; and
2. We ran out of iso-rooms for the instrument amps so had to get creative.

CD RELEASE & SWAG Party!!

2011-07-08T00:16:00.000-07:00

The time has come that we thank our amazing fans with some SWAG. Yessiree - and thank them we will.

Thursday, July 14 -* 9pm * Cafe Racer

A Bit o' Burlesque

2011-06-02T00:18:00.000-07:00

Annie Gets a Graphic Novel

2011-03-12T20:12:00.000-08:00

Photography by Harry Woods of La Foto. Design by Lanae Rivers-Woods.
Evil by Annie.

windowashers (AKA: proof we practice)

2011-03-08T23:03:00.000-08:00

Jukebox Heroines Strikes Again

2011-02-19T15:13:00.000-08:00

(Thank you, Jukebox Heroines)

LxL got another mention on Seattle's Jukebox Heroines Blog ("A women in music blog with news, reviews, and commentary on female musicians."). And after featuring us in January's "U Outta Know" post for up-and-coming Seattle/Portland musicians, we're honored they've taken interest again.

In their latest post, our new Suicide by Annie video was officially dubbed, "Bad Ass", which we're happy to agree on. It was posted under "Feeling Retro", and we're digging in how they picked up on the gritty nostalgia to which we so often raise our glasses.

The Comet

2011-01-27T20:33:00.000-08:00

REVIEW: Jukebox Heroines: badass ladies

2011-01-27T16:40:00.001-08:00

We got a sweet mention from Jukebox Heroines with their "UOK" (U Outta Know) segment - featuring SEA & PDX newcomers to keep your eye on.

The Jukebox Heroine(s) had this to say about us:

"Seattle indies who blend contrasting elements into slick songwriting. It’s like baroque for Gen Y. If you don’t know what that means, you aren’t in the “know.” "

Thank you for the mention - and thank you for keeping us all "in the know" about music's badass ladies/chix/grrrls.

VIDEO: Comet Sighting

2011-01-26T22:21:00.000-08:00

This is a video that our #1 fan made for Suicide by Annie with footage from our Jan 18th show at The Comet Tavern. She also pieced in stills from our comic book that's coming out in March, so you'll get to see the first preview of the awesome photography by Harry Woods and graphic design by Lanae Rivers-Woods.

Man, that was such a great show...

Rocking the Comet Tavern

2011-01-20T10:29:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the Comet Tavern for a great show last night with Badwater Fire Company, Levator & Bourgeois Bullet Wound. When we got home at 2am we found the following show review on our Facebook Page from Aaron H.:
"So, if Fun and Awesome had a baby it would be yous guys! Had a blast tonight..."

Last night was also Ben Rudd's first time playing with us on drums and man, that guy can bring it in a bowler hat!

Dualing Posters

2011-01-02T01:35:00.000-08:00

There's Two (2) Posters for the show on the 18th @ The Comet Tavern. Reader's choice...

We Are Recomended

2010-12-28T12:36:00.000-08:00

Seattle Show Gal Sez that you should attend our show tonight. It's so nice to get the love. See you tonight:

The High Dive
21+, $5

9pm - Dust and Bourbon
10pm - Latitude x Longitude
11pm - The Birthdays

POSTER: High Dive, Dec 28, 2010

2010-12-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

Do You Orchestrion?

2010-11-18T20:26:00.000-08:00

Some of you know that Spencer and Kris have another band, The Orchestrion. BUT - did you know that through January 2011 they will be playing every other Monday at Poggie's Tavern in West Seattle?

The best description of Poggie's that we found is on Yelp.com:

"All I have to say is that when a geriatric patron can wet his pants and still get impeccable service it means this is a good bar to be at. Just check the seat before sitting."

...one of the many reasons LxL (hearts) Poggie's.

Seriously, go out there and get doped up on good music! (And cheap beer.)

The Finished Product

2010-11-10T20:52:00.000-08:00

Chris Sheridan's painting is finished and on display in La Familia Gallery in Seattle's Pioneer Square. Unfortunately the real Rebeqa left her floating globe at home during Artwalk.

Rebeqa Catches the Album w/ Its Digital Down

2010-11-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

Rebeqa woke up and found that the album's CD Baby page had gone live. It's officially for sale, folks.

*squeeeeeee*

Speaking of "available"...please get your copy now. We are already working on material for the next one and need your support.

&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;

Thesaurus Thesaurus

2010-09-20T23:26:00.000-07:00

The variety show, Thesaurus Thesaurus was beautiful last night. Seriously, there are those events that create an energy you can't explain...and this was one of them.

Thank you to the show's producer, Dylan Ward, who brought together such an awesome group of spoken word, music, and dramatic readings. (And thank you to the other performers: Kathy Cote, the members of Kids & Animals, Tuesday Velasco, Beautiful Boy and many others.)

Up Photostream Without a Paddle

2010-09-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

We have a Flickr Photostream. Stop x and have a look (here are a few of the images):

Note: The photostream includes images from Simfotico and La Foto, who are both awesome. You should like them. We do.

POSTER: Look up another term for "variety show"

2010-08-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

REVIEW: Welcome Kris: our lucky charm

2010-08-12T13:04:00.000-07:00

Last night's show at the Comet Tavern was a milestone for 2 reasons:

1: Last night was Kris Couture's first show with us as bassist. Sure he produced our album in the studio...but did you know the man can also lay down the bass lines? Plus, last night was Kris' birthday and he chose to spend it rocking out with us. Whataguy!

2. Spoiler alert: this has to do with

...We woke up (sorta) this morning and found that Chris Kornelis from the Seattle Weekly stopped by our show last night. He was there to see Evil Jack (who we were opening for) but we also got a great mention (read entire post here):

"Seattle's Latitude x Longitude preceded Jack's set with a run through their own operatic chamber rock, with the occasional "oom pah pah" and hints of horror. Vocalist Rebeqa Rivers has a powerful, trained voice that's full of potential. Stand by for the band's full-length debut next year.

"The Crowd: Thin and friendly. (editor's note: why thank you, we've all been dieting.) It appeared that the bulk of the audience was in the room to support Chris, (sic...Kris) the new bassist for Latitude x Longitude, who was celebrating his birthday last night."

Thank you, Chris and The Weekly for lending us your ears and for the support!

We Like Band Practice

2010-08-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

Practice make Perfikt:

2010-07-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

Proof that we practice...

Wurst Joke in the World

2010-06-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hey, you want to hear a funny joke? Then don't ask Spencer and Rebeqa about the "Second Trunk" joke. It's not funny.

...but they sure seem to like to tell it anyway.

Thank you Patrick Nevin.

2010-06-14T21:18:00.000-07:00

Pat was one of the friendliest people in Leavenworth - which is saying a lot. He stayed through nearly all of the two hours we played in der Hinterhof bier garten, keeping things lively with some friendly heckling. Pat even stood-in as our photographer during the set, getting some great shots of us with our guest drummer, Jedidiah Wick. Unfortunately Pat had to miss the last couple in our set, but he came back later that night after work to drink beers with us and fellow musician Mason Reed, who took the stage immediately after our set.

Not only is Pat a guitar player who makes his own tie dye, he's also shares Rebeqa's wicked pun-centric sense of humor. We're looking forward to taking him up on his offer of a backyard BBQ and river-tubing float next time we're in Leavenworth.

Thanks for snapping our pics and whetting your whistle with us, Pat. See you next time we're in town!

Rock out With Your Saurkraut: on tour in Leavenworth, WA

2010-06-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

We've been on the road for a few days through Eastern WA for our mini-tour and it's time to check in. We were joined for two of the shows by Jedidiah Wick on drums and Pauline Wick on backup vocals, which has been pretty rad.

One of the highlights of the tour was Der Hinterhoff in Leavenworth, WA. (Yes, Leavenworth the Bavarian themed village in the mountains of Washington. Witness:)

We did a 2 hour set in the Der Hinterhoff beer garden:
...then, as promised when we booked the gig, we went tubing down the flooding, swollen Wenatchee River. Seriously, we've been looking forward to this all summer and was completely worth the wait.

Of course the river was so fast that we had to bail out of the float right before the whitewater rapids...which left us to hike through the blackberry bushes with our tubes. It wasn't so bad except for Jedidiah who'd left his shoes in the dropoff van. We'll spare you pictures of the damage....but we'll totally post about it on the blog because it was damn funny.

Chris Sheridan: prepping for painting

2010-04-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

Seattle artist, Chris Sheridan, asked Rebeqa to pose for a series of paintings he's working on that reimagine the future through a Steampunk lens. Here are some shots from the photoshoot:

In The Studio

2010-04-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

We're in the studio. We haven't slept for days. Rebeqa is currently napping while Kris and Spencer record guitar tracks. We've eaten so many gummy bears we're going to snap.

And then, of course there's the little problem with we had with the session drummer not showing up for day 2. But that opened the door for us to get Cody Rahn into the studio on short notice and he's totally killing it!! Seriously.

And let's not forget Olivia Hamilton on bass, Phil Hirschi on cello and Joe Martin on violin. Oh gravy, we're killing it with a skillet here at Electrokitty Studios...

(p.s. these photos are by La Foto)

LxL @ La Familia Gallery

2010-03-10T20:24:00.000-08:00

VIDEO: Scared of Genre makes us look pretty

2010-02-12T14:13:00.000-08:00

Spencer & Rebeqa did an acoustic set at Seattle's 619 Western Building during First Thursday ArtWalk this month. Brad Strain of Scared of Genre Films was onhand to make us look great on film. And soundman Travis Michael Anderson ran sound to get this crisp acoustic take of Too Many Shadows.

Sepiachord Song of the Day

2010-01-14T21:31:00.000-08:00

LxL song, Phosphorus+Gasoline is sepiachord.com's "song of the day".

How about that!!

REVIEW: Say "Magyar"!!

2009-12-21T21:25:00.000-08:00

We have been covered by a Hungarian blog. No really...

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

If you read Hungarian please let us know what it says.

Tour Scavenger Hunt Results...

2009-11-01T17:20:00.000-08:00

Alright folks: here it is - the results from the tour's Photo Scavenger Hunt. Thank you to everyone who submitted items for our scavenger hunt list through our Facebook page:

"Beat Up Van(s)"

"A Long Night Out"
(Yes...our long night ended with a graveyard slurpee: 7 flavors, 1 awesome cup.)

"Superheroes"
(These ladies gave us free coffee and cookies when we were exhaustedly driving back to Seattle. They were way cooler than a dude in tights & a cape.)

"Eating Pancakes at the Hotcake Howse in PDX"

"Random Piece of Steampunk Found Along the Way"

"Eating Sushi From a Conveyor Belt"

"One Night Stand"
(This was one of the submissions we originally censored. But we got lucky, so...)

"Flat Tire"
(This was actually on a fan's bike. She had to hoof it the rest of the way to the show to see us, so she certainly deserves a shout out!)

...and just because.

You have spoken, typed, whatever...

2009-10-27T17:38:00.000-07:00

You all have spoken. Here are the results of the "what shall we take pictures of while we're on tour" call we put on Facebook. Thank you to everyone for your ideas.

Superheroes
Beat up van
Eating sushi from a conveyor belt
One Night Stand
Flat tire
Random piece of Steampunk found along the way
Eating pancakes at the Hotcake House in Portland
A long night out

...there were a few more, but these were our faves.

Nu Myusick Mondayz

2009-10-20T15:56:00.000-07:00

Last night we got to wet our respective whistles at The High Dive in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood as part of NadaMucho's "New Music Mondays". Sean Bendickson sat in on drums with Spencer & Rebeqa on Guitar/Vox/Toy Piano. Also, we shared the stage with The Smoke Wreck Kings, who we enjoyed having a beer with after the show.

Thank you to Stephen Saville, who took photos. Which we're going to post....

...now.

High Dive

2009-09-21T20:14:00.000-07:00

The Band's First Show

2009-09-11T20:07:00.000-07:00

We got the gigging ball rolling with a show at La Familia Gallery in Pioneer Square. Sean Bendickson sat in on drums with Rebeqa and Spencer. That guy is really rad. And buy him a beer sometime...he's also really funny.

Rebeqa "steps out" for a second at Neumos

2009-07-27T19:57:00.000-07:00

Rebeqa stepped out for a guest appearance with Mike McCready and Gary Westlake. Their little acoustic trio was a nice opening appetizer for Kristin Ward and Flight to Mars at Neumos. But don't worry...she's back for more LxL.

The First Band Photo

2009-06-27T16:56:00.000-07:00

You saw it here first, folks. Trouble is about to happen.