The Blakes: on Iggy Pop's radar

The Blakes were addressing varying stages of hangover the other evening at West 5, a retro lounge in West Seattle. Singer-guitarist Garnet Keim, having slept the afternoon away, is waking up with whiskey-and-Cokes. His brother, bass player Snow Keim, is sticking to water. Drummer Bob Husak, looking relatively undamaged, has a BLT and beer.

The night before, they were celebrating a successful recording session, and when the Blakes celebrate, nights rage into mornings. There has been quite a lot for this garage-rock band — compared to the Stones and the Strokes and just about everything in between — to be celebrating, this last year. After flirting with the majors, they signed with local Light in the Attic Records, which this week released a new Blakes CD.

Funny how things in the music business work: The Blakes were knocking around Seattle for six-plus years, playing nonheadlining shows at the Lobo Saloon and other local dives ... and then suddenly became a "buzz band."

Highlights of this year, for the Blakes:

• Played South By Southwest, where Iggy Pop heard one of their songs and said "Who's this? This [stuff] is good!"

• Played Sasquatch, where a Pitchfork reviewer praised "their bluesy-cool rock" and called them "one of the pleasant surprises of the festival."

• Shared Mudhoney's beers before a Seafair performance and afterward had a crack-fiend invade their van.

• Played Bumbershoot, with this Spin.com preview: "Soak the Kinks in cheap booze, reignite the Stooges' strut and add some modern Strokes of ambition, and you have the Blakes."

They look young, wild-eyed and spontaneous, like they just split a bottle of tequila and decided to start a rock band — like they're just in it for kicks and would drop the game the minute it started requiring effort. That's hardly the case, as this band has been through some "what the hell are we doing?" times.

Perhaps the bottom-scraping moment was a few years ago, when the band drove five hours to Walla Walla, only to find out their show had been canceled. When the Blakes asked the promoter to at least kick in $20 for gas, a local musician sneered, "What are you guys, a money band?"

That and numerous other belittling moments failed to end the musical dreams of brothers from Maine. The 27-year-old Garnet is three years older than his brother, named after the snowstorm falling when he was born. They were raised by parents who eschewed television, and music became a natural way for the two to keep themselves entertained.

After drifting to Seattle, they started out as street musicians, then recruited Husak and formed the band in 1999. They played a bunch of shows locally and on tour, recorded and released a couple CDs, but continually found themselves broke and not making progress.

In San Diego, Snow had a revelation.

"I was smoking hash on the beach, we didn't have any money, it was all rainy and stormy, and I suddenly realized: We're not good enough ... We were living like musicians, but we weren't investing anything in it."

He rushed back to the van and shared his message with the others. Didn't go over too well, at first ("Bob flipped out, 'Why are you being so negative?!' "), but eventually all three agreed to the concept. They spent the next year practicing, three to five hours a day.

The total commitment to getting better paid off, as a CD the band recorded in 2006 went into heavy rotation on KEXP, setting off a positive chain of events. (KEXP DJ John Richards is now the band's manager.)

After putting out an EP in August, the Blakes are releasing a full-length on Light in the Attic. Though it does have two new songs, this "new" album won't be terribly new to Blakes fans, as it is simply remixes of songs ("Two Times," "Don't Bother Me," etc.) from the band's 2006, self-released disc. Even so, the Blakes jams sound great, and the album might be reflected on as a key moment for Light in the Attic, which also releases the Black Angels and the Saturday Knights.

In typical Blakes over-indulgence, the band plays CD-release shows tonight at the all-ages Vera Project (6 p.m., $8) and the Crocodile Cafe (10 p.m., $8); then at Easy Street Records in West Seattle on Saturday night (9:30, $5). After that, the trio puts Seattle in its rear-view mirror for a while, spending the rest of the year touring.

Lately, they have turned their attention to recording, throwing themselves into it with Blakes abandon. The brothers Keim spend hours doing demo versions in the West Seattle apartment they share, and the elder brother says the Blakes have "35 to 40 new songs." That's a staggering total, though perhaps characteristic for a band that strictly practices intemperance and knows no boundaries between music and the real world.

As Garnet says, "This accountant asked me, 'Where does the band stop and your personal life begin?' I was like, 'There is no personal life — this is the only thing I do.' "

Tom Scanlon: tscanlon@seattletimes.com