Friday, Feb. 6-Saturday, Feb. 7: Too Long Sparks

Deadbeat Olympia, Bob's Java Jive

By Rev. Adam McKinney on February 4, 2015

The struggle of a one-man-band is that your defining characteristics are utterly your own. There's no flavor to be found from the inclusion of a wild drummer or a stoic bassist - everything comes directly from whatever you decide to include in your lonely presence on stage and record. Mig Artugue is the defining voice behind Too Long Sparks, which takes spare drum machines and layers looped guitar and ukelele on top to create a moody atmosphere that builds with increasing anxiety. His vocals drift from laconic to panicked, lending an urgency to his minimalistic compositions that sounds like nothing more than one man having a nervous breakdown in the recording studio. His time spent in Bay Area punk bands may inform his barely contained intensity with Too Long Sparks, but background is unimportant when faced with the eerily dissonant pop songs Artugue produces.

TOO LONG SPARKS, w/ Middlewav, The Various Moods Of, People Under the Sun, Patrick Galactic, 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 6, Deadbeat Olympia, 226 N. Division St., Olympia, $5, 360.943.0662

TOO LONG SPARKS, w/ Red Planet Rebels, No Crown, Little Star, 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 7, Bob's Java Jive, 2102 South Tacoma Way, Tacoma, $5, 253.475.9843