Sarah Cass

​Cairo--that tiny Capitol Hill vintage store that hosts all-ages live music just about every weekend--scored their biggest booking just a few weeks ago, when they announced that Los Angeles electro-rock quartet Abe Vigoda would be playing their space on February 27 with Virginia indie rockers Wild Nothing and locals M. Women. (This Abe Vigoda. Not that Abe Vigoda.)

Cairo knew the show was going to be big, so for the first time offered presale tickets. They still underestimated the wild power of the all-ages scene--the show is sold out and Cairo's been deemed too small a space for the concert.

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Last spring, we told you that the Coolout Network's Georgio Brown is working on his debut full-length film Top Left, chronicling the 20 years since he began shooting Seattle hip-hop in April 1991. And last week, we showed you how to get in on Macklemore and Ryan Lewis's film collaboration with Zia Mohajerjasbi for their latest single "Wings" via Kickstarter.

And now, the M.A.D. Northwest Team--comprising local Olympic medalist J.R. Celski, Vinny Dom, and filmmakers Dan Torok and Jeff Santos--is looking for a financial "kickstart" to their Seattle hip-hop documentary The Otherside. It takes an exciting current snapshot, featuring an impressively long list of the local names you know and love, including Fresh Espresso, Sol, Massive Monkeys, Jake One, Blue Scholars, Macklemore, Larry Mizell Jr., Spaceman, Mad Rad, Khingz, Grynch, RA Scion, J Pinder, The Physics, Eighty4 Fly, and Wizdom. And those are just the shots featured in the trailer.

First and foremost, we are passionate fans of hip-hop and proud citizens of the northwest. Hip-hop has become the dominant genre in Seattle and the amount of talent that is present in the area right now is absolutely mind blowing. The problem is that for the most part, hip-hop artists from Seattle have historically struggled to gain mass appeal. We've heard from locals that the excitement and overall vibe of the current music scene is reminiscent of the grunge movement in the 1990's. This could be the start of something big.

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​The Situation On a recent Tuesday night, I'm at Gainsbourg in Greenwood with a veteran of the Seattle music scene, Jen Wood. Wood, who lives a few minutes away with her husband, the producer and composer Josh Myers, and a cat named Mowgli, is sipping on some ladylike Cape Cods while I'm spending the evening with several Mirror Ponds.

How She Got Here Damn economy--Just last week Wood was laid off from her job in administration and sales at a real-estate agency; she says I've caught her right smack in the middle of a transition period. "I'm at one of those crossroads situations," she says. "Trying to think about what I want the next 10 years of my life to look like."

Wood's been playing music for 20 years, starting with the girl group Tattle Tale she started at 14. "Playing music, it's really fulfilling, but it can sometimes feel really selfish," she says. "I think young women still don't get the support that they need. I've had ideas of trying to somehow work with a label with their artists specifically, but I think I need to start more grassroots. Maybe I'll become a life coach."

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Toby Woodruff

​The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger
The Crocodile
Saturday, Jan. 29

When it comes to famous rock-and-roll kids, few intrigue the public as much as Sean Lennon, who performed Saturday at the Crocodile with his band The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger. Watching the man set up gear and tweak his drum kit before the show captivated the crowd--a mixed bunch of old hippies and 30-something music geeks--with a curious respect. It was like being in the presence of some kind of bohemian rock royalty.

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Laura Musselman

Say Hi's Eric Elbogen.

​Say Hi, the Globes
Friday, Jan. 28
Neumos

Laura Musselman

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​Sub Pop announced his morning that Seattle's Fleet Foxes, the indie-folk act that was the surprise hit of 2008/2009, will release the follow-up to 2008's self-titled LP with Helplessness Blues on May 3. They'll play the Moore that night (pre-sale tomorrow at 9 a.m.).

The album is the most anticipated release for Seattle's Sub Pop since the Shins released Wincing the Night Away in 2007, for which the label hired a battery of outside promotion and marketing help to give the record a major-label level push, which resulted in a debut at #2 on the Billboard album charts, selling 118,000 records in its first week. Depending on the competition, it's very possible that Helplessness Blues could mark Sub Pop's debut atop the charts--a distinction that has lost some of its heft as album sales have dwindled, but that still remains an important resume item for bands and labels.

Helplessness Blues' title track--available for free download after the jump--reveals a more crystaline Fleet Foxes sound than we've previously heard from the band. The band has retained their signature harmonies, led by frontman Robin Pecknold's reverb-soaked vocals. But they're cleaner and more refined, a sound Pecknold teased to with his cover of "Be Yourself," on the Graham Nash tribute album of the same name.

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Dave Lake

​Forgetters
Vera Project
Sunday, Jan 30

Review by Dave Lake

Wish as he might, fans simply can't erase the memory of Blake Schwarzenbach's former bands. There was Jawbreaker, the seminal '90s pop-punk band he fronted that put his gravelly voiced songs (and--whether he likes it or not--emo) on the map. His indie-rock foray, Jets to Brazil, arrived in the late '90s, followed, nearly 10 years later, by Thorns of Life, a band that left no recorded output, only a single recording session that has yet to see the light of day.

So it was with bated breath that, after seven years, Schwarzenbach's fans finally had some new material to dive into, this time from Forgetters, a back-to-basics punk trio, featuring original Against Me! drummer Kevin Mahon and Caroline Paquita from Bitchin' on bass. Their self-titled, four-song double seven-inch was released in September, and with it a wash of nostalgia. And there's no way around it, Forgetters sound way more like Jawbreaker than any of Schwarzenbach's other bands. They're also a trio, don't have vocal harmonies, and their debut recording sounds as muddy as the early Jawbreaker stuff.

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The Tony Williams Tribute Band, featuring Jack Bruce (Cream), John Medeski (Mediski, Martin & Wood ...), Vernon Reid, and Cindy Blackman (Santana, Lenny Kravitz), plays Jazz Alley on Feb. 7 and 8.

​Two of the first CDs I ever owned were given to my by my dad when I was a teenager. Whenever he was in Chicago for business he made a habit of hitting the enormous Virgin Megastore on Michigan Avenue. One time he came home and handed me a pair of CDs: John Coltrane's Crescent and Tony Williams Lifetime's The Collection (which was a repackaging of the albums Million Dollar Legs and Believe It). I devoured the records in a way that can only be done by a curious kid with only a handful of CDs on his shelf. Both albums were very important to me during a time when I was just starting to discover music for myself.

I still listen to that copy of Crescent on an almost weekly basis. But for the life of me I cannot find that Lifetime record. Several weeks ago, when I saw that the Tony Williams Tribute band (lead by Cream's Jack Bruce) is coming to Jazz Alley on Feb. 7 and 8, I reaquainted myself with the pioneering fusion band. It's still incredible stuff (hear a bit after the jump).

Not so long after I'd made Crescent and The Collection part of my daily regime, my old man returned from another road trip, only this time he didn't return with a CD, but a copy of The New York Times. "Oh, cool, a story about Tony Williams," I said. Sadly, it was his obituary. Rarely has music been captured so beautifully on paper as in the notice by The Times' Peter Watrous:

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​The sweatered kids from Portland may own the top of the Billboard charts this week, but veterans with as many grandchildren as Colin Meloy has Pendletons have the distinction of putting out a couple of the most impressive records of the week.

Ladies first:

Album: The Party Ain't Over
Artist: Wanda Jackson
Release Date: Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011
Age of Artist at Time of Release: 73

Wanda Jackson's aptly titled, Jack White-produced record is nothing less than a rockabilly carnival that constantly feels like it's about to spin off the roller coaster. It explodes from the word go, with Jackson--backed by White's Late Night-caliber Third Man House Band--destroying classics like "Busted," "Rum and Coca-Cola," and a fresh and wildly appropriate cover of Bob Dylan's "Thunder on the Mountain." It's got horns, religion, sex appeal, and White's unmistakable guitar: all the makings of an essential roots-rock record. It's not a testament to the fact that Jackson was a hip chick back in her day, but that this IS her day.

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​Ra Ra Riot, Givers
Neumos
Thursday, Jan. 27

Ra Ra Riot brought a Louisiana treat with them to a sold-out Neumos last night in the form of Lafayette quintet Givers, a band we'll go ahead and call "Cajun Afropop." True, it makes zero sense geographically, but perfect sense sonically, with the band taking cues from Vampire Weekend while adding their own down-home, Southern twist.

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