​Q: How would you describe the difference between the Seattle and Portland hipster?

Brownstein: I think Portland and Seattle are pretty similar. But when we did our live shows, there was a difference. It had nothing to do with hipsters. This guy in Portland asked the question: "There's a lot of places like Portland. But what makes us different?" And I said, "Well, just the fact that you need to know that, is what makes Portland different." Portland, definitely, has a sense of, like, "What, are we special?"

I interviewed Portlandia co-creator Carrie Browstein along with Josh Kerns and Marco Collins for a special on 97.3 KIRO FM. Hear the full story at MyNorthwest.com.

Michael Clinard

​If you haven't done so already, read this week's cover story on Seattle's X-Factor finalist, LeRoy Bell, an ultra-talented guy who's finally getting a taste of the success he's deserved for years. Because of space constraints, that story didn't get to include the entirety of the interesting conversation I had with Bell over the phone. Here are some bits that got left out:

The judges, especially Simon Cowell, kept saying you didn't seem confident on stage. Do you agree with that?

Bell: I never lacked the confidence. There was a bit of learning curve for me, because I'm used to playing guitar and singing, and all of a sudden there was nothing to do with my hands. I felt a little bit naked. I think that was the most uncomfortable part for me. The singing part wasn't that bad. It was just getting into that comfortable zone, and I was just starting to get there at the last two performances.

And for the last ten years, at least, I haven't covered anybody's song. I've just done originals. So that was a little different, because I had to put myself in somebody else's head, in their song, and try to make it mine. So it was odd. And once of the judges says something like that, everybody repeats it for a lack of something better to say. I think we finally got past that when I did the U2 song.

More >>

Laura Musselman

​Ten years after Rachel Flotard and Ben Hooker formed one of Seattle's finest rock-and-roll bands, Visqueen, they're going on hiatus. Their Thanksgiving Fare-Thee-Well concert, on Saturday, November 26 at the Neptune, will feature a mélange of songs from their three critically acclaimed albums. Flotard's lately been playing with Rusty Willoughby as Cobirds Unite, but what's the full reason behind Visqueen's end? Here it is, in Flotard's own words:

Ben and I have been playing music together for probably 13 years. He's my dude. Last year I had to tour without him (raising young families and touring sometimes do not coincide). You know what? It WASN'T FUNNY! I mean, the band played great and we rocked it, but for me, personally, it was not the same. Visqueen is about the two of us and our jokes and riding around in the van.

More >>

​
Only a few months into its run, Seattle hard =0rock label Good To Die Records has announced the signing of its fourth band, local rockers Brokaw, who will join top-notch groups Absolute Monarchs, Sandrider, and Monogamy Party on the roster. I've been trying to pin down the kind of geographical range and visibility the label will have once its bands start cranking out records, and gain some insight as to the logistics of a model where, so far, they've stockpiled bands before they've had a chance to recycle the revenue from their initial releases. For answers, I turned to GTD founder and big-wig CEO Nik Christofferson:

More >>

​Reverb Alum Sara Brickner once tagged Seattle country singer Zoe Muth as "our very own Emmylou." The moniker is spot-on: Seattle has no shortage of chanteuses in every genre from indie rock to hip-hop, yet few female voices on the country scene have rung as tried-and-true as that of Zoe Muth, who sings with such an effortless, unwavering warmth the comparison to country's queen of the ballad is rightly accurate.

Two spectacular steel guitar and country twang-infused albums behind them, Muth and her band the Lost High Rollers are trucking right along, currently smack-dab in the middle of a multi-country tour. The crew will stop by the Tractor this Saturday, so we caught the singer for a few minutes to get her views on the songwriting process, her influences, and bonding with a bunch of dudes on the road.

Seattle Weekly: You've shared a bill with some of Seattle's finest bands and songwriters--what are your goals for the band moving forward and what are some of your best experiences playing around town?

Zoe Muth: We've been lucky enough to get to play on some great bills at the Tractor, the Maldives CD release with the Moondoggies, and also opening for Sera Cahoone. We've also opened for some of my songwriting heroes: Fred Eaglesmith, James McMurtry, Steve Forbert, and Dave Alvin.

More >>

Roger Daltrey, center, with The Who in its prime.

​As I mentioned earlier this month, I chatted with The Who's Roger Daltrey to preview his show, "Roger Daltrey Performs The Who's Tommy" at KeyArena on October 25. Here's what he had to say about mining his past, rather than moving forward with new material.

On this tour, you're perfuming Tommy, and you mentioned that Pete Townshend was kicking around the idea of touring behind Quadrophenia next year. These are albums in the neighborhood of 40 years old. Can you pinpoint the moment when you realized that your audience was more interested in what you'd recorded in the past than what you were doing in the present and future?

Daltrey: I don't know that that's necessarily true [that] they're not interested in what we're doing for the future. We haven't got anything planned for the future. There's a whole new, young audience for Who music. It doesn't seem to have dated at all. There's a lot of music from that period that you put it on and it sounds very dated. There's something about Who music, and it sounds as up-to-date as ever.

But I don't know whether it's true that they're more interested in that. It's just that while we can do it, we have every right to do it. It's our music. We created it. We should be able to play it as long as we want to.

Absolutely. But is there a reason you've decided to revisit the older records rather than move forward?

More >>

Laurie Pearman

Tyler Ramsey, seen here at the Tractor in 2008, brings his new solo album, The Valley Wind, to the Fremont Abbey on October 25.

​Tyler Ramsey is a self-taught guitar-picker who kicked his classical training when he couldn't, or wouldn't, keep up with his homework. "At the time," he told me yesterday, "I didn't have the focus or the patience to stick with it."

Nevertheless, Ramsey brings melodic and rhythmic sensibilities from the classical canon to his work as a singer-songwriter, and the lead guitarist for erstwhile Seattle indie-rockers Band of Horses. Ramsey brings out the best in BOH frontman Ben Bridwell, who lost Mat Brooke as the tender foil to his abrasive yelps after the band's debut. On BOH's latest, 2010's Infinite Arms, it's the most Ramsey-affected moments -- the acoustic into of "For Annabelle" and the dueling vocals on "Evening Kitchen" -- that shine brightest on an otherwise middling record.

More >>

Barsuk's first signees were a group of kids from Western Washington University called Death Cab for Cutie.

​In my editor's letter in the current issue of Reverb Monthly, I write about the co-founders of Barsuk Records, who founded the label as a pair of grunge rockers looking for a vehicle for their band, This Busy Monster. In an e-mail, I asked Rosenfeld how grunge's success paved the way for his label, which today puts out music by bands and artists like Mathieu Santos and Pearly Gate Music that sound nothing like grunge.

Here's what he said:

I don't think Barsuk would exist today in the same form if it weren't for the musical environment that existed when Christopher and I were in school. Although of course there were plenty of great bands operating around these parts before those albums (including Nirvana!) and The Rocket was a thriving publication documenting and pushing what was going on, and there were clubs (including all-ages venues) and the whole Olympia DIY thing around K and Evergreen, I think the fact that some of the bigger bands went on to actually make a living definitely served as an inspiration for other people to stick with it longer than we might otherwise have, and to believe that pursuit of our indie rock dreams was a viable path for would-be responsible adults.

More >>

​

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Girls bassist and producer Chet "J.R." White in the midst of his band's nationwide tour in support of the excellent sophomore LP, Father, Son, Holy Ghost. White talked about the new album, the music press, and what it was like to literally live in a studio while in Seattle.

More >>

Todd Hamm

Don't Talk to the Cops! (L-R): DJ BlesOne, Emecks, Gatsby (Larry Mizell, Jr.)

​
"This is what we do when we get off of work," says DJ BlesOne at a table in the upper room at Cafe Vita's main coffee house. "This is us opening a Budweiser and hanging out by the pool with our friends; this is our eighties beer commercial."

Bles is sitting with his Don't Talk to the Cops! bandmates Emecks and Gatsby (Larry Mizell, Jr.), the latter of whom is his other half in Mash Hall; two of this year's Reverb Fest. bands at one table.

"We're hustlers, but when it comes to music, that's not a hustle, that's our escape," adds Mizell. "That's us having fun, not us trying to pay the rent.

The band is laying out the set of ethics that guide them as artists, most of which seem to follow the principles instilled in BlesOne and Emecks over a lifetime of b-boy breakdancing and organized dance. The rap game is too standoffish in their minds, so they fall back on what they've learned from the dance world: "It's about competing with each other to be the best, but not stepping on each other," says Bles.

More >>