Let's just jump right in:

You'd best get yourselves to the Triple Door this Wednesday, July 28th for the latest installment of the City Arts Song Show. David Bazan will be headlining, along with pre-sets from THEESatisfaction and Ritchie Young (frontman for Portland's Loch Lomond) -- and we can pretty much guarantee that you won't want to miss it.

Unfamiliar? Here's the ish: City Arts has been putting on these installments of what they call The Song Show since about 2008. It's a mostly awesome, potentially awkward glimpse into the minds and hearts of some of your favorite performers, as they couple intimate, mini power-sets with well-crafted CA-staffed interviews. Recent runs have included the likes of Matt Bishop (Hey Marseilles) and Damien Jurado as features, who both delivered staggering new songs -- along with commentary on everything from real estate transactions to life on the road.

As mega-fans of most things David Bazan and Pedro the Lion, we can only cross our fingers that we'll be catching some of our favorites -- and on the odd chance you're not familiar, here's a thimbleful of what all the fuss is about, via a tour montage set to "Please Baby Please" from the official David Bazan & Band website.

{Doors open at 6pm, all ages, $20. For more information, you can visit the City Arts website here -- and get your tickets in advance here. We'll see you at the show!}

more...

{Art by D. Crane, The Young Fresh Fellows play July 23rd at the Tractor}

I was too young/too uncool to listen to the Young Fresh Fellows, but I got way into the Minus Five after seeing them play with the Posies at the Mural Amphitheater, when I was in high school. “The Lonesome Death of Buck McCoy” was my first Minus Five CD purchase, from Tower Records by the Space Needle. Since then I have been a constant fan. Their style of mixing playful lyrics with real emotion behind them, has influenced me to write songs. To that I say….thank you Mr. McCaughey. I moved to Chicago in 2002, to teach middle school on the south side of the city as part of Teach for America. It was a rough go, but “Down With Wilco” was one of the few things (pizza, Wrigley Field, and Thai food….oh did I mention burritos?) got me through. I am on my third copy of that album, now on reissue LP.

D. Crane: Down With Wilco is a special record for me. I remember where I was when I heard “The Days of Wine and Booze” for the first time. I still buy it/recommend it to my friends. It is up there with the White album on my favorite albums of all time list. Do you have any special albums like that? Albums that you give to friends? Albums that you think are severely underrated/are as good as Beatles albums?

Scott McCaughey: Yes, I have albums like that. Whenever I'm asked, I go blank though. I try to turn people on to the Bill Fay CD of his first two albums, which coincidentally, Jeff Tweedy turned me onto the night before we went into the studio to start Down With Wilco. I also pass on copies of the first two McGuinness Flint albums -- I stockpile them (at next to nothing, as no one wants them) and then pass them on to those I think might be susceptible to their charms. (John Wesley Harding took the bait and fell hard.) Nazz Nazz by the Nazz; Armchair Boogie by Michael Hurley; Wish You Were Here by Badfinger. Everyone knows Straight Up but WYWH is also a masterpiece! In The Air by the Handsome Family.  It's tricky because you have to find stuff that people haven't heard.  And in the end, no matter how great, nothing's as good as the Beatles.  But all three Big Star albums come close.

more...

(Star Anna & the Laughing Dogs play this Friday, July 23 at the Columbia City Theatre and Saturday, July 24 at the GreenNote Festival at the Seattle Center Musical Amphitheater/Fountain Green Stage opening for Amos Lee.)

"And I just want to burn your memory away, every impression you made," Star Anna sings on her second album on midway stormer "Burn," like a woman torching a bridge between past loves held too closely and a future in which she can survive. She and her Laughing Dogs came from Ellensburg in 2008, and they sound like they sang basement blues and practiced garage chops till they perfected a roots-rock feel as heated and homespun as Lone Justice, Jason & the Nashville Scorchers, and up to anything you'll hear from the big shows in Ballard.

more...

Just announced: a FREE (all ages of course) show by Terri Tarantula at one of the most fan-friendly record stores in Seattle - Georgetown Records in Georgetown. Above is a hilarious promotional video that somehow reminds me of something else I've seen somewhere (damn straight!) ...

Terri Tarantula is fronted by Terri Moeller, who became internationally well known as the drummer for poetic power folk band The Walkabouts (a delightfully different sounding group from around the time of Sub Pop explosion, a label they released several records on). She was further adored by fans of fun, mature art-pop group Transmissionary Six from early to late 2000s, and released her first TT full length earlier this year.

 

more...

I can guarantee you that tonight's show at the Tractor will be the best $6.00 you spend all week. Period.

I make no bones about the fact that my inner sad bastard has had a love affair going with Pablo Trucker since about five minutes after I met Seattle. Spending endless mornings before work at Victrola up on 15th for my first few months in town, I caffeinated across the bar from Andrew Rudd -- who I knew only as a raging barista who worked in a music shop. Come to find out, he was a percussionist (and then one-half) of the band Pablo Trucker, who write some of the saddest songs I've ever loved to be slain by. Doppio, swoon, ache. Lather, rinse, repeat.

more...

Yes, you're reading that correctly. And yes, we're just as excited as you are!

We're cordially inviting you (yes, you -- with the shirt! Hi!) to join us this Friday, July 16th at Solo Bar in Lower Queen Anne. The generous folks at Solo have pushed their happy hour aside so that we can host a night of music for A Drink For The Kids, starting at 6pm. There will be DJ sets from some of your favorite imaginary hosts, including the one and only Damien Jurado (!) who will be guest-headlining for us at 8pm. Expect lots of vinyl, lots of drink specials, and a rad hang!

In case you're not familiar, here's how A Drink For The Kids works: A designated sponsor (in this case, it's Pyramid Brewing Company ) will be supplying a few types of ale for you to enjoy, and the bar will have a designated liquor special too. You buy one of these specials, and the proceeds go directly to the Vera Project. And while you're getting your drink on, we'll be spinning some killer tunes. The end.

Yes, really. We know. It's pretty genius.

more...

Somehow, in the sea of amazing, mindbending, 40+ shows this past weekend, we managed to find ourselves front row for two of our favorite local acts, with camera in hand. Two great nights with two rad bands, at two perfectly-suited venues: John Roderick's solo show at the Triple Door on Thursday, and the Head and the Heart's late-night set at the Comet on Friday.

First up: picture one of your all-time all-star favorite musicians playing all of your favorite old songs, from the edge of a couch in your apartment. Now, give your apartment temperature control, a raging sound system, stellar lighting, room for all your friends, and a waiter who serves you lemon-infused sparkling water and endless range-free grass-fed chicken filled potstickers. (Right? Seriously.)

Such was our night.

Nothing could have prefunked a sun-filled weekend better than a night with John Roderick, who took the spotlight center-stage this past Thursday at one of the sweetest venues in town. After warmup sets from comedian Karen Korn and Jason Dodson, a two-hour set (!) of Long Winters favorites ensued, and we sat and soaked it all in from the darkened, cushy, air-conditioned seats of the Triple Door. The night consisted mainly of older songs, tracks off of most of the band's earliest releases like The Worst You Can Do Is Harm and When I Pretend to Fall, some pre-LW songs, and even some pre-Western State Hurricanes material. (!!!) Coupled with a smattering of more recently released selections (and the greatest stage banter this side of the Sound), it was everything a solo show at the Triple Door should be: totally deconstructed and intimate -- akin to spending an evening in a performer's living room / your apartment -- with a first-hand tangibility to the whole thing that knocked us right out of our chairs.

{Tons of photos after the jump!}

more...

In case you haven't heard the latest imaginary mixtape podcast, I am *in love* with the new People Eating People record. And I'm not alone - all kinds of folks around town and beyond are extolling it's ability to blend fancy piano melodies with soulful churns of heart wrenching lyrics.

We're beyond honored to premiere the video for my favorite song from the latest self-titled album {released this week on The Control Group}, "Rain Rain." PEP songstress Nouela Johnston created the video herself with the help of some fierce craft skills and construction paper!

Here's the magic link to view it for yourself!

What do you think?

more...

{Carissa's Wierd play the Showbox at the Market on July 9th with Aveo}

This is the way to do it. A properly posh and keenly-selected collection of band and fan favorites from the tribe that split open to become Grand Archives, Band of Horses, S, and (a lady named) Sera Cahoone. Call them time travel super troopers; elements of each of those smothered-by-hugs Seattle groups make up the melodic, melancholy, dialectically anxious and delicate anti-anthems swarming sixteen tracks deep here. Hardly Art has done an ace job of stringing up pearl upon pearl, purifying and balancing the sound of the scrappy original songs, and tying it together with a fact-filled little book (hardly a booklet) thrilling for followers and fun for beginners.

I bring up the phrase "super troopers" as they remind me of ABBA, for in a weird way Carissa's Wierd was the alternately icy and passionate twin sister of those pop opera experts. But instead of bouncy bass and sweeping ballads, on They'll Only Miss You When You Leave, CW explores pretty little wounds, beautiful but heartbroken days, bonfires with lovers clenching more than clutching each other. All set to the strum and pluck of a booze-soaked acoustic left after a party, some really gorgeous strings, and an occasional surge in emotion best exemplified by the photo of the "Ugly But Honest" sign on the lyric sheet. Strong emotions of all type are shared, with (S's) Jenn Ghetto's nectarous voice often more than hinting at a bitter center.

more...

{photo by Victoria VanBruinisse}

When I asked my dude if he wanted to see John Roderick at the Triple Door this Thursday with me, his response was "I don't know. Is he just going to read his tweets?"

Our dear indie-rock-Santa-Claus John Roderick has had a very prolific Twitter career lately, posting little tiny bits of genius at 140 characters (follow him @johhnroderick, it's very much well worth your time). He recently won "Tweet of the Year" from the Seattle Weekly Web Awards. Barsuk even put out a book last year, Electric Aphorisms, containing 365 of his tweets. Said dude of mine refused to buy this for me for Christmas (despite my pleading), saying he'll buy his next album, but he refuses to support him actively not making music.

Well, the time has come again to actively support John Roderick making music. He's booked 3 solo-ish shows (some with special guests) at the Triple Door this summer, and the first one is tomorrow. He's said (via twitter) that all old songs are on the table. (There may even be a handful of new songs. ) Jason Dodson of the Maldives opens, along with J-Rod's childhood friend Karen Korn doing stand up (and part of me hopes this stand up will all be ridiculous stories of J-Rod as a child, because how awesome would that be?). The show is all ages and starts at 8. Plus, it's going to be like 90 degrees tomorrow, and the Triple Door has fancy schmancy air conditioning. Skip the movie you will inevitably have to go see to escape the heat and come support one of Seattle's greatest songwriters.

more...