Seattle-based dance duo LawnChair Generals operate on a principle similar to many jocks/producers on the Left Coast: keep it clean and keep it soulful. So, yeah, there's nothing terribly original about Carlos Mendoza and Peter Chr

From LCG's MySpace page.

LawnChair Generals play Sat. at Waid's. 10 p.m. $10-$13.

​istianson's sound, but there's nothing offensive about it, either. They're musical masseuses--their warm arrangements have a soothing effect. Tracks build and dissolve with a comforting regularity. When vocals exist, the singers do the usual mindless repetition of essentially meaningless pop phrases common to electronic music ("take only what you need," et al), riding the beat like a surfer in thigh-high seas. LawnChair Generals make the dance floor bubble, not roil. Your parents could listen to this. In other words, the guys make good, simple music, and not only is that just fine, but for their 10-year anniversary tour launch luau tonight at Waid's Love In, it's just right.

FYI: The promoter recommends you buy advance tickets here.

Chris Harvey, AKA "Slats". Duff McKagan's column runs every Thursday on Reverb. He writes about what music is circulating through his space every Monday.

​Slats and I did not have a boat. But he had a car.

On the southern border of the University of Washington campus lies its school of aquatic and fishery sciences and its salmon hatchery. Slats thought it a brilliant idea for us to hop the fence there with a bucket and simply scoop up salmon at will so we could clean 'em, freeze 'em, and eat salmon for weeks. Everything worked according to plan, and we had a bunch of flopping salmon in a big bucket when the floodlights went on and the night watchman came chasing after us.

I told Slats to just drop the bucket, but he was having none of it. He somehow scaled the fence with that damn thing. One of the funniest memories I will ever have is of him driving the car back to my apartment with his left hand and punching those flopping salmon in that bucket with his right. He had a running commentary with those fish all the way home, saying they almost got us into big trouble and now they would pay the ultimate price.

I have written before that I have borne witness too many times to the hopeful glint in a person's eye being whisked away by agents of vice. My time as a teenage musician in Seattle seemed to coincide exactly with an influx of wave upon wave of heroin to this port city.

The changes are pretty dramatic. Here's what he looked like last night:

Laura Musselman

​And how he fared at Bumbershoot 2007:

Marcella D. Volpintesta

​Personally, I think I think he was hotter with the hair. But I'm sentimental like that.

The biz won't have the Almighty Kasen to kick around anymore.

​Forget the free download cries of Armageddon, the real #1 question the music industry, from label heads on down to small-town club owners, has been dreading the answer to is how it will survive in a post-Peter Kasen world. Well, now we'll find out: Kasen is hanging up his guitar, opting instead for civilian life.

You might remember Kasen for his hilarious February tete-a-tete with Blue Moon booker Jason Josephes, who committed the grave error of not knowing who Peter Kasen was when the Miami-bred folk singer came looking to book at gig at the historic U-District dive. Boasted Kasen at the time (all sic): "dont worry I wont bother you again, I will look into a much bigger venue, that doesnt ask me questions after 4 years of touring the USA, and sitting on 4 international labels, with distribution in tact! Dissapointed in your reply, I am far above small shows now, and get 200 dollars a night to show up regularly even in your city! Thanks glad I cleared up my level, and position with you, felt the need to fire back based on your attitude in both prior emails, not really a good way to be with a artist at my size."

Contrast this bluster with Kasen's farewell letter.

Some stereotypes are true. Only people from Seattle wear flannel in sunny 73 degree conditions.

​Since I now call Austin home and I've attended multiple SXSWs, I've been able to approach this year's fest a bit more casually. When the cost of things like airfare, hotels, cabs, meals, and that ubiquitous badge are off the table, the pressure to get every dollar's worth out of every minute everyday is lower. Of course, living here during such an event isn't without its own downsides. Trying to coordinate your everyday life (especially with a toddler) around ten to twelve hours of music a day and a house full of out-of-towners presents significant challenges. When the mother of all music festivals hits your hometown, you can be assured of a few things: your sofa cushions will magically become as valuable as Manhattan real estate, and no matter what the weatherman says or what preventive measures you take, you will suffer at least a partial sunburn, and Sub Pop/Hardly Art will throw one of the week's best parties.

​ While visiting Australia's Triple J Radio, Dirty Projectors performed a cover of Bob Dylan's "Dark Eyes." (You can stream it here.) This version is just as somber and lovely as Dylan's original; all the supernatural and metaphorical images make the song a fitting choice for the experimental pop band to cover. The Dirty Projectors' version, though, is more harmonic and orchestral, and it actually bears some resemblance to a Dylan and Patty Smith duet from 1995 (video after the jump).

You can download the songover at Stereogum. The band will also play Sasquatch! in May.

High Places - The Longest Shadows from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

High Places will play the Crocodile on March 28 with Bear In Heaven and Freelance Whales.

Kim Fowley, a.k.a. the man who claims to have created the "Queens of Noise."

​

The Runaways biopic finally opens today, and I enjoyed it so much that I'll be catching it again (see my post about the press screening earlier this month) tonight with a motley crew of my best lady friends (and perhaps one honorary boy).

Local freelance journalist Chris Estey recently interviewed the infamous Kim Fowley, the dastardly--if somewhat brilliant--svengali behind this country's first all-female hard rock band. Fowley insisted he run the piece verbatim, and consequently, it's a wildly entertaining read. Check it out here on the KEXP blog.

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists will be hitting up Neumos tonight - I'm hoping Leo will throw a cover song or two into his setlist, especially after seeing this video of him playing the oft-cited Worst Song Ever, "We Built This City," for The Best Show on New Jersey's WMFU.

To read Hannah Levin's review of Ted Leo & The Pharmacists' latest disc, The Brutalist Bricks, click here.

"Swimming in the mainstream, is such a lame dream."

​Listened to Black Flag's My War again. I wrote about this seminal album a couple of years ago and need to stress again what an impact this work had on Grunge music.

We know that Grunge is a mix of old school heavy rock and punk. And that's where My War comes in - it's a bridge between heavy rock and punk. Grunge ran with this.

I need to define what I mean by Punk. It's the independent / underground ethic. Singer / lyricist Henry Rollins hits the nail on the head with his mainstream / lame dream statement.

But Black Flag tried to take their music to the masses and performed off the beaten path. This brings me to that Black Flag show in Walla Walla, Washington - August 22nd 1985.