Dave likes records! There's a tumblr blog dedicated to photos of David Letterman holding records. What. 

Way better than the movie adaptation: The Runaways perform Cherry Bomb in Japan, 1977. 

They had mustaches and ironic t-shirts, PLUS they had to walk uphill both ways to school. Dads are the original hipsters! 

Buffy probably could have used this: Demonicpedia, an online resourse for all things demon-y.

Be creepy and show your love for Imperial Teen: Printable (and wearable) face masks of Jane, Lynn, Roddy, and Will.

Do you remember how terrible school lunches were? Now you can relive them photographically, every day.

THE HORROR! (of online dating): "He spent one-third of the time telling me about the musical he was writing about raccoons..."

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Lighten up, Elena! The Vampire Diaries credits, Friends-style.

A snapshot of Sunset Strip in the 70s: Vintage music & film billboards

Literary romance nerds rejoice! The letters of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning are now online.

"What is a weekend?" Drown your workday sorrows in Downton Abbey Cocktails from The Kitchn. Get drunk on Lady Mary, Sybil, or Edith.

That's how we do: Windup Wire characters

A Blast from our MTV Past: Stick Figure Hitchcock (Viva la Liquid Television!)

Yet another reason Bryan Cranston is SO awesome: Breaking Bad Chuck Taylors!

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It's with bittersweet hearts that we welcome you to the last {new release} Tuesday in our presentation of More Than Shapes: The House Show Songs series. We're taking our exit music here a bit a gracefully, quiet but by no means is it any less of a bang, with a gorgeous rendition of "Mimi" from the spot in front of the fireplace.

John Roderick's ability to paint imagery throughout his songscape is at times unparalleled, matched only by the journey we take in our minds as he builds and broadens the path for us. As Adam {Pranica} so aptly states, you can almost see the cold, bright scenery going by through the car window. As such, beauty and danger juxtapose on that road, in the soundtracks behind our eyes and in the recesses of our hearts, and between the lines of most of John's work:

"When I visited Alaska in January, I knew one of the things I had to do was drive the Seward Highway. It was one of the most beautiful drives I've ever taken, and in the dead of winter the Turnagain Arm, which runs alongside it, is filled with hypnotically slow-moving glacial ice. In addition to its beauty, the Seward Highway is also one of the most dangerous roads in the country - a combination of frequent avalanches, arctic storms, and narrow curves at freeway speed mean it is often dotted with makeshift graves.

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One of my favorite bands hit me with an amazing one-two punch yesterday, annoucing a new video for "Days" - a fuzzy, black-and-white short involving pretty boys and LOTS of makeup in a retro hotel with a Lynchian vibe - AND, more importantly, NEW TOUR DATES!

The Drums will be in the PNW on May 9, in Seattle at Neumos, and May 10, in Portland at the Doug Fir. Since I missed them last time (WHAT!), I will be buying tickets as soon as they put the links up. They'll also be playing Vancouver BC May 8 - anyone wanna take an imaginary road trip?

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Vintage shop, or someone's home? The friendliest man alive invites random people into his home to browse and talk. (Get out your tissues!)
"That's so beautiful that I could fill that little void for them. That's why I keep my door open."

Design 101: Instructions on creating the perfect modern movie poster.

"The enormity of their flat brain..." Werner Herzog tells you to look a chicken in the eye.

Two great things that go great together: The Jurassic Parks and Recreation tumblr.

I am GOD! The best college recruiting video ever made (warning: not for those squeamish about bloody special F/X!)

Books + Surgical Tools = Insanely detailed art.

Not the bees! The 100 best Nicolas Cage quotes.

Awwwww. Adorable 8-bit Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters.

The answer is...Tim and Dan from OK Go. I never thought I'd laugh at the prom confrontation scene, but yeah. These guys!

{They've also re-imagined The Karate Kid and just plain Star Wars.}

It's Tuesday, and that means another new release from More Than Shapes: The House Show songs. This time, it's one of my personal favorite moments from the night: John's incredibly compelling cover of Neutral Milk Hotel's "The King of Carrot Flowers, pt. 1". As Adam states, "...in the wrong hands a cover song can be a crutch, or an awkward homage, or a flashy attempt at credibility by co-opting someone else's. In the right situation though, a thoughtfully chosen cover song signals the turning point in a set like few other things can. It's a chance for a performer to say "this is what inspires me" without actually saying it." One could argue that in the realm of discussions on the topic that truer words had never before been spoken.

Many try their hand at the perfect cover, and few succeed. However, with those tries come a chance at brilliance: results like Eef Barzelay's ever-slaying choices come to mind, most notably his rendition of "Don't Stop Believin'" heard on his most recent trip through Seattle this past holiday season; or Nada Surf's delivery of "Enjoy the Silence" from the stage of the Tractor a few weeks ago, or the Postal Service's mindbendingly beautiful version of "Against All Odds". However, on this particular evening, with this particular group of folks, and this particular artist choosing this particular cover -- a magic moment took place that superceded any other cover we could recall to memory with the sufficient force needed to drown it out. This moment, this song, the combination of everything we love about John fused with the brilliance of Jeff Mangum in a crowded Ballard living room -- it was almost more than our collective hand-stamped hearts could take. It may be the shortest song in the series, but it's a contender for leaving the biggest mark.

Give it a listen and see for yourself. And if you haven't seen them already, there's two other releases earlier this month that you can take the time to soak in here and here.

{Special thanks to Laura Musselman for putting this request in the jar at the show!}

Remember these guys? I've been going through my piles of CDs lately because my harddrive crash caused me to lose about 80% of my iTunes tracks, and found The Lightning Seeds Cloudcuckooland (best.album.name.ever.) rattling around in one of the trays. I popped that sucker in and was immediately transported back to 1990 -- uh, the good parts only -- and remembered why I used to put this shiz on repeat for days on end. 

This first track, "All I Want" is some pretty rad stuff, but the whole album kicks some serious UK-indie ass. Among my faves: "Bound in a Nutshell", "Love Explosion" and "Sweet Dreams." And of course their dance-y Billboard hit, "Pure." Retro, head-swaying, sing-along, fun!

What other 90s albums do you still jam to?

Something that's been pleasing my ears lately is this female-fronted band, Ume, and their new album Phantoms. They've got kind of a glossed over grunge-y rock thing going on with pretty-pretty vocals and lots of rockin' bass. I'm kind of dying to see them live, because I guess the lead, Lauren Larson, WAILS on the guitar (their facebook page pics seem to indicate this is true). 

And hey! Lucky me! They are opening for indie-rock favorites Cursive this Friday at Neumos, who coincidentally have another album that I've been digging lately, I Am Gemini, which you can stream for free courtesy of Rolling Stone. Seems like a solid bill. Who's with me - up front, center stage on Friday night? And who's buying the PBR? 

Friday, February 17
Neumos presents
Cursive
Ume
Virgin Islands
Doors 8pm | $15 ADV 
21+ Main Floor | All Ages Balcony
Buy Tix Online 

After Adele’s performance at the Grammy Awards, the Wall Street Journal ran an article scientifically explaining why her winning song “Someone Like You” brings so many listeners to tears. Apparently, all it takes to make people cry is something called “appoggiatura.” Throw a few of these ornamental notes on top of emotionally charged lyrics, and turn on the waterworks. The article goes on to say that even when a song makes people sad, they love it: "...emotionally intense music releases dopamine in the pleasure and reward centers of the brain, similar to the effects of food, sex and drugs. This makes us feel good and motivates us to repeat the behavior." [Ed. note: THIS EXPLAINS MY WHOLE LIFE.]

With that in mind, here are a few imaginary appoggiatura-laced dopamine inducers:

The only way to keep from sinking in Star Anna’s “Restless Water” is to pull somebody out on the dance floor and hold on real tight.

Thom Yorke’s voice is almost drowned out by the building noise as Radiohead’s “How to Disappear Completely” starts to fall apart. Then suddenly he soars out of the wreckage, it all comes back together, and I fall apart:

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