​It's the time of the year again where people are probably thinking of joining a gym again. You've got the next eight months to sculpt a beach body -- and for a lot of us, it's going to take that long at least -- so now is the time to get a workout routine in effect if you don't already have one. Local mix master DJ DV One sees you coming and just recorded the perfect workout mixtape that's ready made for your iPods and portable MP3 players.

It's all uptempo classic R&B from the '90s (think Ce Ce Peniston), '80s dance music (Stevie Wonder/Michael Jackson), Latin hip-hop (Pitbull), classic rock (Eddie Money), house music (Frankie Knuckles), and anything else that will help you get through those last three lunges you're ready to give up on. DV One is always making podcasts and mixtapes but this one has a real community feel to it. Try it out. Even if it's just for that bike ride home. It's one of the better workout related mixes I've ever heard.

​As you're surely aware, this Saturday, our local music festival, REVERB, will take place in Ballard. The Maldives, the Girls, Champage Champagne, THEE Satisfaction and a whole bunch of other awesome artists will be performing (for the full line-up and schedule, check our website.) While wristbands are already dirt-cheap, we are giving away six pairs of wristbands, which will get you in to all ten venues participating in the festival on Saturday. Unless you're underage, in which case you'll need to let us know so we can get you an all-ages wristband (which still gets you into four venues: Salmon Bay Eagles, New York Fashion Academy, Hattie's Hat and the Ballard Loft). Just send us an e-mail at giveaways@seattleweekly.com by tomorrow, Thursday, at 5 p.m. with REVERB in the subject heading and your full name in the body of the e-mail (and the type of wristband you need). Winners will be selected at random and alerted shortly after 5 p.m. on Thursday.

Kristy Cameron

Watch a slideshow of the 60+ bands (we've lost count) playing REVERB Festival on Saturday, Oct. 3 in Ballard.

​To accompany today's massive blowout on Seattle Weekly's REVERB Festival -- the best local music shindig of the year -- we've rounded up a track from each of the 60+ acts scheduled to perform on Saturday. Most of the tracks -- The Maldives' "Blood Relations" and Kaylee Cole's "Uncertain World," for example -- are full songs. Some of them are 30- to 45-second samples. But ALL the tracks include our special-section writeup of the band, as well as the time and venue of the band's REVERB performance. (For everything REVERB, check out SeattleWeekly.com/reverbfestival.)

DOWNLOAD MP3s: The REVERB Class of 2009

So sit back, download, and enjoy listening to what Seattle music sounds like in 2009. Here are some awesome instructions for how to maximize your experience with these mp3s.

More >>

Alice Dellal

Jack Penate

​Jack Penate, Miike Snow at Neumos, 8 p.m., $12 adv

It's not all that often that you get to hear a truly great pop record these days. So much is prefabricated commodity, practically (or literally) written with cross-merchandising possibilities in mind. What's so remarkable about Everything is New, the latest album from British pop savant Jack Penate, is that it manages to revel in the tropes of radio-friendly pop music without catering to them. It's an album that manages to be subtly subversive through its very listenability. Penate has a keen ear for melody and an impeccable rhythmic sensibility, and uses those gifts to extract the best fractions of the radio dial and turn them into something worth listening to. Whether it's the afropop inflected "Tonight's Today" or the ebullient and danceable blue eyed soul of "Be the One", Penate injects his chosen material at once with populist production, highly intelligent phrasing and thoughtful musical touchstones. It's not the best record to come out this year, but it's certainly one of the best ones you might actually hear on commercial radio. If Penate can raise the general level of sonic discourse by co-opting what most turn into the lowest common denominator, he's a hero in my book. NICHOLAS HALL

Toubab Krewe at the Tractor Tavern, 9 p.m., $10

It's one thing to sprinkle ethnic influences into your sound. It's another altogether to spend years studying under master musicians in their home countries. The latter shows a level of dedication that is all but unheard of in rock music, but that didn't stop Asheville's Toubab Krewe from spending years developing their sound before even becoming a band. Every single member of the Krewe has studied music in Mali, Guinea, and the Ivory Coast - on repeated visits. Even more exceptional is the group's sense of honesty: Purism, apparently, is not the goal, and while the Krewe's members clearly have respect for the various traditions they've studied, they don't overshoot the mark and fall prey to reverence. There is, after all, another tradition they have equal respect for, and it's called rock music. As such, they make no bones about what they are: a hybrid, but a guitar-based rock band nonetheless. And because they took their time blending the Mandinka and rock elements, the two forms sound perfectly natural together - hardly the work of wide-eyed collegians over-eager to fetishize or glorify other cultures. And, sure, the band jams, but to call it a "jam band" would be a disservice when it's more like a true musical cross-breed. SABY REYES-KULKARNI

​Everyone is talking vinyl again. Maybe not everyone, but an interesting article came out yesterday in the New York Times about how difficult it can be to find record stores and, all of a sudden, folks start Tweeting and Facebooking up a storm about the subject. Really, the article was about how common it's becoming for private collectors to sell out of their homes (many of those featured used to own record stores that have since gone out of business) and it's a good reminder to support the local vinyl havens we have here in Seattle so they don't suffer the same fate.

Now that that guilt trip is out of the way, let's look at some of the fresh wax that hit record shelves and the Web as of yesterday. While the local releases are few in number, the national and international releases are plentiful. After the jump, vinyl columnist Jason Ferguson hips readers to not only the new releases and reissues that are out, but also has some really good news for upcoming projects that vinyl heads should appreciate.

More >>

Sara Brickner

The Blakes' lead vocalist Garnet Keim

​It hadn't occurred to me how long it's been since the Blakes played a show until Garnet Keim brought it up onstage last night. "We've been in hiding for the past year," he admitted. And it's true -- I can't remember the last time the Blakes performed. But at least we know it's all been in service of a worthy cause: first Beads, Snow Keim's project, and now a new Blakes album, Souvenir, which comes out on October 13. If I heard the band correctly, last night's show was the first time the band's played their new songs live. It's still grungy, gritty rock and roll, but the band's taken a slower, poppier turn on a few of the songs, which contributes to the very raw sexual energy that pervades all of the Blakes' music. Garnet Keim's voice has this rough, husky quality to it that's very sensual -- especially in "Charmed," a new song that starts with "Hey there, juicy fruit/Take off your diamond shoes." While the Blakes played mostly new material, they also played some old songs -- "Vampire" and "Pistol Grip" among them -- but the new stuff sounded great, too, and the crowd's transformation from a cluster of bored-looking people standing around to little pockets of hipster jumping beans indicated the populace's approval. EDIT: When I initially wrote this review, I was so tired that I forgot this part: One guy felt so inspired, he picked up a tambourine that was sitting at the edge of the stage next to an amp, jumped up onstage (uninvited) and became the band's unofficial tambourine-ist. It was sort of bizarre (photos of that are posted after the jump.)

The only disappointment about last night is how few people actually showed up. Yeah, it was a Tuesday night, but considering how much buzz this band received back when their self-titled debut came out, I expected them to draw a bigger audience. I don't doubt that Souvenir will jumpstart all that buzz and rev it back up to its former volume (and it has been two years since The Blakes came out), but I expected a little more local support. For a small crowd, though, everyone there proved to be really supportive and hollered loudly for an encore. Which the Blakes happily provided. Unfortunately, they're going on a tour immediately (one that will culminate in a CMJ performance), but I'm hoping that by the time they return to Seattle, they'll be able to play Neumos and fill up the whole place. They definitely deserve it.

More >>

​Listening to the music of Jolie Holland has a way of awakening the ghosts that many of us thought we'd laid to rest. Regardless of how difficult that can be on us as individuals, it speaks even greater volumes about Holland's songwriting acumen and the power of the music she sings. Take one listen to her song "Palmyra" and your mind will drift to past loves whether you want it to or not.

With a singing style that borrows from folk, country, and blues without wholly claiming any of the three, it's not surprisingly that Tom Waits is one of her biggest fans. If you didn't already know, Holland is coming to Seattle on October 6th and playing a show at the Triple Door. Tickets are $22 in advance, $25 at the door. But we've got a pair of tickets to giveaway to a lucky reader. Just email us with the words Jolie Holland in the subject line and a winner will be chosen at random. Good luck.

​Jeff Roman is a native Seattleite of Filipino descent who has spent almost his entire life in Greenwood. Hence, he was reared to karaoke, and is as versatile a singer as can be found in the Seattle scene, rattling off hits from artists as diverse as Springsteen, Sinatra, and Sweat (as in Keith). He even hosted his own short-lived karaoke night at the Baranof for a spell in the early aught-naughts; now he simply drinks and performs there--and virtually everywhere else.

Jeff has graciously volunteered his time to be Reverb's karaoke korrespondent, because that's what he'd pretty much be doing anyway even if we hadn't asked. His dispatches will be available here every Wednesday morning. First up: The Mandarin Gate (10000 Aurora Ave. N., Oak Tree Plaza), which Jeff visited this past Saturday night. Following is his assessment of the experience:

More >>

​Although in my humble opinion The Roots are the only reason to watch NBC's Late Night Show with Jimmy Fallon (his class-clown self-effacing humor translates terribly when he's behind his own desk), you may be interested to know that recently reunited hometown heroes Sunny Day Real Estate will be featured on tonight's show, playing the song "Seven" off their classic and recently re-released Diary. Other featured guests are Jude Law and the fastest man ever Usain Bolt so if you have any interest in them, tune in tonight; otherwise, I'm sure someone will throw up the SDRE performance onto Youtube by tomorrow morning.

​Are you looking for something else to do this Saturday since you'll already be in Ballard at SW's REVERB music festival? As much as we love our own musical love-in, there's a garage rock/pop-punk show happening at the Josephine late Saturday night that seems like it could be a good time.

But before we talk about that, can we talk about this poster? My goodness. Does your grandmother know you design posters like this? Wait, that's not her is it? In all seriousness, the poster for this show alone is worth giving the bill consideration. This is what I call DIY (no pun intended) punk erotica that leaves nothing to the imagination. And that giant X isn't really covering up much... but it's a nice touch. As for the bill, Seattle's New Faces are playing as are Night Beats and Drug Purse -- a psychedelic garage rock band out of Tacoma. With a poster this raunchy, I'm hoping there's going to be lot's of fun, yet dirty music played. If not, feel free to call bullshit on their sex sells approach and come back to REVERB.

(H/T) Life With Blythe