Tonight: Headlights, Devo
Headlights, Anni Rossi, Pomegranates at the Sunset Tavern, 9 p.m., $10
Devo at the Moore, 7:30 p.m., $38-$75, all ages, Sunday and Monday nights
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Tonight: Bishop Allen, U-District Jazz Walk, Verellen Amp Night
U-District Jazz Walk at LUCID and throughout the U-District, from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday, $5
Bishop Allen
Bishop Allen, Throw Me the Statue, Darwin Deez at Chop Suey, 9 p.m., $12
Bright, glistening pop made for the masses.
Verellen Amp Night at the Jewelbox, 10 p.m., $5
Helms Alee frontman Ben Verellen makes custom amps, through which some of Seattles best and loudest bands will shred tonight. Bring earplugs.
It's Official: Pavement's Playing Sasquatch! 2010
Yep: Sasquatch 2010! goes down at the Gorge on May 29, 30, and 31
Tickets: Three-day passes are on sale now for $170 via Ticketmaster
Other Bands: The complete lineup will be announced on Feb. 16. Follow Reverb for bands to start trickling out.
We actually were given the Pavement news Friday morning, but the news was embargoed until right now. You should have seen the look on Sara Brickner's face when I told her. I'm sure she's not the only one who was considering a trip to NYC for a reunion show. This is a coup, obviously, for Sasquatch! to come out and snag one of what will surely be the hot summer festival gets. Now, if they'd hurry up and book Dylan or Willie Nelson to mix it up, we'll be in good shape.
In related news, we'd like to thank all that is holy that Sasquatch! is keeping itself at three days and not making good on those rumors to stretch to four. There ain't enough medicated Gold Bond in the world to make that comfortable.
Saturday Night: Laura Musselman's Photos of Fleet Foxes, Cave Singers, The Long Winters at Solo Bar
After several years of traveling around the Midwest in pursuit of Barusk bands like The Long Winters and Death Cab for Cutie, Laura Musselman finally decided to cut to the chase and re-locate in 2006. "I took my camera every time I went to a show in Seattle," she says. "I took lots of horrible pictures." 
Robin Pecknold, Fleet Foxes. The opening party for Laura Musselman's "Give Me a Moment," is at 8 p.m., Saturday at Solo Bar in Lower Queen Anne.
By the time we found her the following year at an in-store performance at Easy Street — where she was then employed — she'd just started getting serious and bought her first SLR. Our camera malfunctioned, and we tapped this enthusiastic, trigger-happy shooter on the shoulder. Might you be interested in lending a few pictures our direction?
It's been nearly three years and Musselman has not only avoided burnout, but her pictures — frequently as often as three and four nights a week — have only gotten sharper, and more original. She's chronicled the rise of local do-gooders Fleet Foxes, captured her heroes in Pearl Jam recently at KeyArena, and developed a crush on Elvis Perkins.
Go have a drink with her tomorrow night. And if you can't make it tomorrow, be sure to stop in and see her work by the end of the month.
Flickr Photo of the Day: Dirty Projectors at Neumos
Bobby McHugh via Seattle Weekly's Flickr Pool Dirty Projectors, featuring bassist Nat Baldwin, played Neumos on Wednesday, November 4.
Tomorrow Night: It's LaRue's Time (Finally) to Shine
It's been a long time coming, but, finally, local MC LaRue will be making his live debut as a headliner tomorrow at the Vera Project in support of the release of his mixtape, LaRue or the Streets. (Show starts at 7:30 p.m. For more info on the other performers at the show, hop the jump.) He'll be giving away up to 60 free copies to early arrivals, and those with a military ID don't have to pay the $10 cover. LaRue is himself a veteran (he served eight years in the army, and spent time in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq), a fact anyone who's listened to his deeply personal, politically astute music can attest. 
LaRue performs Sat., Nov. 7 at the Vera Project. Doors at 7:30 p.m.
As demonstrated by the track below, "HeatWave," however, LaRue is no one-trick pony. The production centers on a sample from "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave" by legendary Motown soul sistahs Martha Reeves & the Vandellas and exhibits LaRue's ability to shed his revolutionary skin and have a little fun via the usual: bragging about his skills and hyping the party. That said, I much prefer his tough-minded, first-person appraisals of our various Mid East military adventures (check the emotionally complex "Gone Mad" on his mixtape). His is a unique, and valuable, voice in Seattle hip-hop.
LaRue HeatWave by kcapp
Continue reading "Tomorrow Night: It's LaRue's Time (Finally) to Shine"...
This Week in Metal: Akimbo On That Nirvana Tribute, And Other Local Heavies
Mastodon gets into the soundtrack business.
Mastadon
Some dumbo druggie steals Russian Circles' guitarist Mike Sullivan's rare Gibson Les Paul.
Fun Fun Fun Fest kicks off this weekend in Austin; I weep silently to myself that I'm not there.
Lastly, local hardcore/metal stalwarts Akimbo have signed on for a Nirvana tribute CD project via New York label Hardcore Is Dead. I chatted with drummer Nat Damm mere moments ago, and this is what he had to say: "They're doing 3 split EPs with two Nirvana songs from each band. We're planning on going into the studio after the new year. We havent decided on what songs we're gonna do." I vote for "Breed". Or perhaps "Dive"....
Photos: Wheedle's Groove Doc Screening (See It Tuesday In Olympia)
Pastor Pat "Patrinell Staten" Wright autographs Robbie Hill's copy of Kearney Barton: Wheedle's Groove at last night's cast & crew screening of the Wheedle's Groove documentary. Photos by Brian James Barr
For the last five years, local filmmaker and all-around awesome Texan, Jennifer Maas, has been working to conjure up the sacred soul of Seattle's past. After winning the Audience Award at the Indie Memphis Film Festival last month, Wheedle's Groove, her documentary about Seattle's criminally overlooked soul, r n' b, and funk scene of the 60s and 70s, will have its West Coast premier next Tuesday in Olympia, WA. After seeing the film in a couple different edit-stages, including last night's cast & crew screening, I can honestly say Maas' movie rips! She is one helluva a filmmaker, no question. Last night, she had local funk legend Robbie Hill practically tripping over himself in awe of the film's greatness! And no less than the king of class himself, Overton Berry, said to me "Oh man...wasn't that something?! Man..."
Yeah!
Continue reading "Photos: Wheedle's Groove Doc Screening (See It Tuesday In Olympia)"...
I've Been Listening to Devendra Banhart's Freak Folk
I don't know a lot about folk music - but again what are genres anyway? I just like music. Still, folk tends to refer to traditional music - a time before amplification where the sound emanated from an instrument and voice. It's straight forward until the 1960s came along. This was an era when many things became a little weird. Artists like John Fahey and the Holy Modal Rounders offered folk that was surreal, odd and kinda freaky.
The term Freak Folk is relatively new. It refers to a new generation of singer/songwriters that are a little weird. And there's that lineage to the original Freak Folkies.
I love Devendra Banhart. His guitar work is firmly rooted in Fahey but he's a crooner/troubadour. And it's twisted. "Poughkeepsie" off of Rejoicing in the Hands (Of The Golden Empress) is one of my favorites. It's kind of dark but doesn't get too spooky with it's references to Elvis Presley. "This Beard Is For Siobhan" is Bahnart as the troubadour.
Like Salvador Dali, or even Fahey, Banhart's has a penchant for long titles. Oh Me Oh My...The Way the Day Goes By the Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs of the Christmas Spirit is a collection of low-fi, short tunes that are either sweet or kind of menacing. The work draws you into a strange world. "Lend Me Your Teeth" is on the menacing side.
I just ordered his brand new work What Will Be.
Seattle's About to Listen to Phish, The Long Winters, Nina Simone, and Mad Season
Sure, it's easy to see what the hot sellers are in town and around the country. But, ever wonder what local listeners are digging back into? Among the titles waiting to be picked up in the holds section of Seattle Central Library are:
Seattle loves Coldplay and Pete Yorn.
Battles, Mirrored
Mad Season, Above
Michael Buble, Caught in the Act
Daughtry, Leave This Town (2 Copies!)
Harry Connick, Jr., What a Night
Wheedle's Groove, Seattle's Finest in Funk & Soul (Light in the Attic release)
Phish, Live in Brooklyn
The Long Winters, The Worst You Can Do Is Harm + When I Pretend to Fall (one person)
Nina Simone, The Very Best Of
Collective Soul, 7evn Year Itch
Last Night: Louis C.K. on Obama, Dr. Seuss at UW
It must be a satisfying thrill for a left-leaning, touring stand-up comedian to play to a sold-out, West Coast college crowd. You have a captive audience populated by committed and forgiving fans—the sort of thing one dreams of after years of toiling in the thankless and reliably brutal (if talent-building) context of the club circuit. This is particularly true if you are New York-based comic Louis C.K., a hard-working, slow-burning success story who recently got the green light from FX for Louie, a new series based on his experiences of raising two daughters in NYC. This is a heartening comeback just two years after having his promising and wildly under-appreciated HBO series, Lucky Louie, cancelled after just one season.
Greg A. Rice Louis C.K. performed at UW's Meany Hall on Thursday, November 5.
Continue reading "Last Night: Louis C.K. on Obama, Dr. Seuss at UW"...
A.M. Music News: U2's Berlin Wall, Paste Votes for Pedro, and 15 Free MP3s From Hardly Art
— Sea Times: Sub Pop's Hardly Art is giving away 15 free mp3s from label acts like The Moondoggies, Arthur & Yu, and The Pica Beats.
Hardly Art's giving away a free mp3 of Arthur & Yu's "There Are Too Many Birds."
— Sound on the Sound: The Blakes have a new video out for "Ramshackle Hearse."
— Stereogum: Hear Ben Gibbard go solo on "Meet Me On the Equinox"
— Paste: Speaking of Death Cab ... Paste's "50 Best Albums of the Decade" includes DCFC's Transatlanticism, Pedro the Lion's Control, and tops out with Sufjan Stevens' Illinois.
— Rolling Stone: Slash can't get Jack White to sing on his solo record. SW columnist/Loaded guitarist Duff McKagan, however, is all in.
— A.P.: U2 comemorates the fall of the Berlin Wall by building another one. Germans cry foul.
Tonight: Holiday Shores, the Raveonettes
Holiday Shores, Evangelicals at the Vera Project, 7:30 p.m., $9, all ages
Holiday Shores
An up-and-coming pop band from Florida that doesn't quite sound like anything else out there.
The Raveonettes, the Crocodiles at Neumos, 8 p.m., $15 adv
Get On Board the NighTrain at Hidmo This Saturday
Seattle's CARA (Communities Against Rape & Abuse) recently kicked off a new season of Ladies First, the monthly series that features musical performers of all genres to benefit the organization and provide a platform for emerging women artists. Since Erika Hobart penned this article about its revival almost two years ago, Ladies First has blossomed into an intimate, welcoming and sophisticated evening of music that has helped cultivate a fan base for and propel local acts like THEESatisfaction and Toni Hill, all within the important context of allying with and supporting women who fight against domestic violence and abuse of women in communities of color.
This Saturday, local punk quartet NighTrain will perform, and based on their music video for their song "The Diss"— which features, in one frame, a shirtless man on a leash—they should bring a searing new sound and perspective to the usual hip-hop and R&B atmosphere of Ladies First. Lead vocalist Rachael Ferguson sings with a gravelly steadiness over NightTrain's raucous percussion and electric strings, and it's exciting to see riot grrl owned by women of color, inevitably expanding and deepening the potential of punk music to speak on an inclusive (black) feminist discourse in music. And it looks like a good-ass time. The show is $5 suggested donation (although nobody will be turned away), all ages, and features an open mic before the performance. After the jump, check out "The Diss."
Full Disclosure: the group I am a part of, CanarySing, has featured at Ladies First in the past. It is always an affirming experience as a performer as well as an audience member.
Continue reading "Get On Board the NighTrain at Hidmo This Saturday"...
The Keeper: So Menstrual It's Metal
When I first heard the Keeper, a local metal band that writes songs about D&D (and won our "reader's choice" poll for best band to play REVERB '09), I had to wonder: when these dudes named their band, did they know about this Keeper? In other words, did they name their band after a reusable hippie menstrual cup on purpose? Or was it accidental? After all, I had no idea what a Keeper/Moon Cup was until I moved to Eugene and took an entry level gender studies class. So I asked frontman Andrew Chapman to clear things up for me, and this was his response:
Stylus Images The band, not the cup
When we were first playing, we wanted this super metal name that would sound like a character from a "choose your own adventure" book or D and D. But when we came up with The Keeper we looked to see if there already was a website and found the The Keeper (menstrual cup). It was probably the raddest, metalest thing ever to be named after except for icebergs, sabertooth tigers and Stonehenge. I mean, what is more metal than a non-disposable menstrual cup? Not much! And its hilarious when bearded metal dudes ask us what our name means and we tell them about the cup. They usually blush! So yeah, we love it!
All that aside, the main reason you should know about this band is because of their awesome D&D-centric nerd metal songs, and if you don't believe me, go to the band's MySpace and listen to "Tonight We Ride." Their next show is November 20 at the Jewelbox with Chinese and Smooth Sailing, if you find yourself as enamored with the Keeper's nerd metal as myself.
