{The Lonely Forest play at the Showbox at the Market on Thursday, December 31 with Minus the Bear and Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground.}

For those from of you who may have missed it, The Lonely Forest are a guitar-based indie rock quartet who’re the best damn thing to come out of Sound Off! in… ever. Centered around lead-man John Van Deusen’s blissfully energetic guitar and earnest vocals, the band has been creating a steady following since their formation in 2005 and are poised to take over the world. This isn’t the first time I’ve tried to write about this album either. The first time I tried to write about The Lonely Forest’s We Sing The Body Electric! I was confounded. It was an odd situation, I’m not normally faced with an album that I can’t seem to find anything to say about and I’m an opinionated putz, so what was the big deal? The big deal is that there isn’t much to say about The Lonely Forest’s We Sing the Body Electric! because it’s really, really good. That’s the big secret and the reason this review is giving me something of a headache.

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hey're young, ferociously passionate, with a progressive sound both energetic and expansive. They are called The Oregon Donor and they are one of the very best live bands that I've encountered in the past few months.

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The music on the album itself is very promising. Straight-ahead, lo-fi garage punk that I imagine would be phenomenal to see live (the two live tracks on the album, “Call It Off” and “Radio Days” sound great).

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It succinctly showcases Shaw's songwriting strengths, leaving listeners longing for a follow-up full-length.

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And as much as I love not having to worry about getting sunburned, it is a good thing we have KEXP to be our aural pick me up cup of coffee. On this month's appearance, we played tracks from Speaker Speaker, for Better or for Awesome, Airport Cathedral, and more.

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The top Northwest releases of 2004 as voted on by you, our readers (see winners #50-41 here).

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Persona Non Grata, the debut label release from Seattle four-piece Pistol For a Paycheck, starts with a growl. This is gritty punkrockandroll, a collection of passionate fury, and they want us to know.

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