In a move of pure genius, sheriff's deputies in Fargo, ND invited folks on their wanted lists for failing to appear in court, pay child support and other fines to a pre-concert party before the Ozzy Osborne/Rob Zombie show. Upon arrival, the offenders, looking forward to a night of hang-banging and beer were met instead, with handcuffs.

Listen to the all-new Short List Podcast for samples from bands in town this week, like The Hold Steady, Tinariwen, Sun))). Our "critics," Brian J. Barr and Aja Pecknold have a few things to say about them, too.

Sam Jayne of Love as Laughter
As Brian mentioned in our Short List podcast this week, I could write volumes about the under-appreciated nature of Sam Jayne's music. He's a songwriting genius with more charisma in one sloshy pinky than most over-hyped bands of the moment. When he gets on stage and belts out pretty much anything from the catalogue he's amassed over the past decade or so, there's a piercing, vibrant clarity and authenticity in his delivery that's unmatched by most, even when he's clearly one sip over the line. Yet when he comes through town, it's almost always as an opener and only hard core fans seem to give a shit. Jayne's Love as Laughter played a riveting set at Neumo's last night, opening for Man Man. The all ages crowd on the floor was a bit sparse, with more folks in the over 21 balcony, who didn't seem to be paying much attention.

At one point Jayne stopped. "We're Love as Laughter. We're from Brooklyn," he paused. "At least we are now." No one reacted. "You yuppies probably don't remember," he continued, "But some of us used to live here." Still no one made a sound- as if they'd long forgotten or never knew that Jayne used to call Seattle home.

Before exiting he showed his roots again, reminding showgoers to head up the street to the Cha Cha for his good friend Kim Warnick's benefit, which went off- packing the bar with Seattle's music folks showing support -members of bands galore (Cave Singers, Lashes, Triumph of Lethargy, Das Llamas, Sunday Night Blackout and more), Kurt Bloch on the decks, Amy Dials (dressed as Kim) drawing raffle tickets for everything from sky diving to rare Mudhoney box sets and plenty of people piled in to booths drinking for the cause. Jayne showed up towards the end, dressed up in a long curly wig and dancing between tables.

A morning-after report indicates that Kim should be all taken care of until she's able to start work at the bar again, but there's still an Ebay auction in the works that will benefit MusicCares (an org that has helped Kim and many other musicians in need) featuring a guitar from Eddie Vedder that comes with a handwritten 2-page letter from the man himself that touches on what the instrument means to him, touring with the Fastbacks and more. Auction details TBA.

Last night, M'lady rented what she thought was a true-life story of 70's music legend Guy Terrifico. About five minutes into the flick, we realized that The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico was actually a mockumentary, a Spinal Tap-style send-up of the early-70's off-Nashville progressive country rock scene personified by Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, and Gram Parsons (pictured above). Haggard, Kristofferson, and Parsons' former road manager, Phil Kaufman, are in on what's essentially a self-deprecating joke (as are fellow castmembers Ronnie Hawkins and Levon Helm), and the film, which features a main character not-so-loosely based on Parsons himself, is an absolute fucking blast. Evidently, this film screened at the '05 Toronto International Film Festival, but never saw any sort of sustained theatrical release stateside. I highly recommend this as a DVD rental for anyone fond of the so-called Outlaw sound. And this winter's hotly-anticipated Judd Apatow-John C. Reilly comedy, Walk Hard, promises a more fictionalized reaping of this soil.

Hall and Oates: Why be just one?
There's a whole pillowcase full of treats tonight- many of which we run down in this week's Short List:

-Instrumental magicians Do Make Say Think are at the Croc

-Sahara-based rebels Tinariwen (also one of Band of Horses' Rob Hampton's favorites) are at Town Hall

-Skylark hosts "Come as You Aren't" featuring local bands doing covers of other bands

-Parts & Labor, Sleepy Eyes of Death and Welcome are at the Sunset

But what we didn't tell you in the Short List is that Havana and Matador Records are hosting a private shin-dig in the "haunted" Havana parking lot with DJ Mama Casserole and a "surprise secret headliner"! Let's see, Matador records. . . who could it be? The festivities kick off at 7 pm with free food, drink and jams. Email graylife.rsvp@gmail.com by 5 pm today should your interest be piqued.

To draw a crowd of a couple hundred for a viola recital (the string choir's neglected middle child), as UW faculty member Melia Watras did last night at Meany Hall, should be counted a success. Opening the evening, and an apropos choice to precede Bach's Sixth Cello Suite (arguably the hardest of the set of six, and transcribing it for viola doesn’t make it any easier) was Dan Visconti's brief blues-inflected soliloquy Traveler's Jam, a stylization of a country fiddle idiom not far from Bach's stylizations of dance forms. The Bach was notable not just for Watras' fluent negotiations of the suite's intricacies but for the attention-holding tempo and dynamic variety she brought it. Bach left no dynamic indications in his score, so you can basically do what you want, and Watras tried out some pianos and pianissimos that really pulled you in and created a sense of intimacy, even in a space as large as Meany.

Also on the program were two very tasty and well-chosen desserts by Kreisler and Wieniawski, but the beef was Shostakovich's Viola Sonata (played with pianist Kimberly Russ), written in the summer of 1975 just a month or so before he died. Shostakovich's health was failing, though it's unlikely he intended this as his last piece; still, it's easy to hear the slow third movement as a letting-go, with its quote from Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata. The viola repeats the dotted rhythm, dum-de-dummm, sounding very much like a funeral march (or a memory of one, as if humming absent-mindedly to oneself) while the piano takes the serene triplets, which slowly begin to slide all over the place harmonically, losing firm footing. The movement's slow fade is simple as can be, typically reticent (for a composer who'd spent his life, as everyone in Soviet Russia had to, keeping his head down and his true thoughts and feelings undercover) and devastatingly moving: the viola holds a dying low E for several bars while the piano alternates C and G, imitating, it sounds like, muffled timpani. Here and in the following piece by Wieniawski, Watras made a great case for the viola's coloristic range, underexploited (except for its usual rich throatiness) in orchestral and chamber music: silky-sweet in the 1885 Reverie, Watras's viola snarled and growled in the Shostakovich sonata's middle Allegretto.

With some dark, dark, dark music that I was inspired to play at a Halloween party over the weekend. Enjoy!

Bauhaus - "Bela Lugosi's Dead"

Siouxsie & the Banshees - "Halloween" (Live)

Ministry - "Everyday is Halloween"

T. Raumschmiere - "Sick Like Me"

The Sisters of Mercy - "This Corrosion"

The Birthday Party - "Release the Bats" (Live)

I guess he won't appear and mess with office workers' stuff anymore...

Rage Against the Machine. Click here for an audio slideshow. All photos by Mark C. Austin. 

Thanks to our friend, Mark C. Austin, for attending the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans for us.

Check out our audio slideshow featuring Rage Against the Machine, The Black Crowes, Wilco, the Kings of Leon, Paolo Nutini, and lotsa fans.

The Black Crowes