This morning, continuing their Complete Lists series, our siblings at LA Weekly presented their Top 20 Whitest Musicians of All Time, compiled using the following criteria:

To qualify as one of our whitest musicians, then, requires more than a pasty complexion, it requires a near-total disregard for jazz, blues and soul or, even worse, a complete whitewashing of them. Without further ado, then, here are 20 performers who put the you-know-what in honky-tonk.

Celine Dion's on the list. So is Moby, Vampire Weekend, and Will Smith. But it took one of our own hometown heroes to hit number one, a musician whom LA Weekly's Nicholas Pell dubs "the musical equivalent of a mashed potato sandwich with mayonnaise on white bread." The above image should be clue enough for you, but if you still can't guess who the culprit is, click here.

Jen Sbragia and Rose Melberg are The Softies

Indie pop duo the Softies are undoubtedly one of my favorite Northwest artists of all time, and so it's inevitable that I'm beyond excited to get the chance to see them perform their beautiful harmonies and intricate guitar melodies for the first time Saturday at Folklife. Made up of Rose Melberg (also of the awesome Tiger Trap and Go Sailor) and Jen Sbragia (All Girl Summer Fun Band), the Softies were active from 1994-2000, releasing four albums of love songs on K Records that sound as fresh today as when they came out.

As the K site notes, this will be the first Northwest appearance by the Softies in many years. "They have lay dormant since the release of their Holiday in Rhode Island album, as Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia have been busy with their other musical pursuits: Rose her solo album Homemade Ship and Jen the All Girl Summer Fun Band." You can read an interview with Rose Melberg discussing the reunion at the K Records website.

Not to sound huckster-y, but if you're a friend of indie pop, you'd be a fool to miss this rare chance to see them.

Listen to one of my favorite Softies song, "Sleep Away Your Troubles," after the jump, and catch them at the K Records showcase on Saturday, May 26th, at 2:50 p.m. at the Center Stage.

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Shit-kicking, Everett based folk-rockers The Moondoggies have been in a generous mood lately, and recently posted a free concert on their website; now they're looking for a little love in return before they hit the road later this month with The Head and The Heart.

If you're so inclined, you can cushion their pockets for $7 this Saturday (5/26) when they play the Piranha Shop with River Giant and General Motors (Gabriel Mintz and Bradford Button). Show starts at 8 p.m., and, if you're further inclined, the Facebook invite mentions, "Please feel free to bring a refreshment." With all the fish present though, please, no shrimp cocktail.

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Mark your calendars and set your alarms, indie kids. Sonic Boom reports that Bonnie 'Prince' Billy will play the Ballard record store on June 13. The Kentucky-based singer-songwriter has been immersed in a number of side projects lately, including everything from a book collaboration with Ashley Macomber to contributions to new albums from Mariee Sioux, Trembling Bells, and our very own Shannon Stephens, who was just featured in this week's issue.

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Seattle's favorite sorcerers Witch Gardens have been noticeably absent from the live music circuit of late--they've been recording their next full-length, I'd Rather Be Alone (out later this summer). As a precursor to that album, Witch Gardens is releasing a 7-inch EP called R.I.P. on Portland's Waterwing Records; the EP contains "Aunt Shae/Mean Colleen," and, on the flip, "Standard Poodle" and "Bakers Dozen." (Heads up: the band's will also be releasing a music video for "Aunt Shae" in the next week or so).

You can order a vinyl copy of R.I.P. on Waterwing's website, and while you're waiting for it to come in the mail, get all three tracks digitally for free on Bandcamp.

Witch Gardens will also be returning to the stage this week, for their first shows in four months.

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Ralph Gayle Jr.

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting the supremely talented local guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Ayron Jones. Last month, Jones' blues-rock band, The Way, outshone the competition to win the Seattle leg of the Hard Rock Rising Battle of the the Bands. Today, an even bigger challenge opens up for Jones and The Way--the voting lines are open for the competition's final Global Battle of the Bands.

The Way is up against 86 bands from around the world--from Cleveland to Copenhagen, Berlin to Beirut, and Sydney to Singapore (basically everywhere there's a Hard Rock Cafe, which is everywhere). The band that gets the most votes wins a killer prize--an opening slot for Bruce Springsteen at this July's Hard Rock Calling festival at London's Hyde Park, a festival that will also feature headlining sets from Soundgarden and Paul Simon.

How do we send Seattle's representative all the way to Hyde Park? It's very simple.

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This past weekend, out of nowhere, I got an unexplained email from someone I do not know; both the subject and the body of the email read, in all caps, "I LOVE MARSHALL VERDOES!," to which I was only able to reply, "OK! Great!" In a larger sense, though, that email's an indication that, despite a year and a half of inactivity, there's still a lot of enthusiastic interest out there for Verdoes and his older brother Benjamin's rock band, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band. Since releasing their second album, Where the Messengers Meets, in 2010, the band's undergone some lineup changes--they're now an all-male quartet featuring new guitarist Drew Fitchette--and is ready to get things moving again.

Local filmmaker Stephan Gray, who's shot videos for Macklemore and Fresh Espresso, created the above mini-film which depicts the younger Verdoes playing the vibraphone, the elder Verdoes sporting a nose ring, and the band's bassist Jared Price making a succinct closing statement, declaring a fresh start for the band: "Forget about the past. Forget about our uniforms."

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Happy boys.

This summer's going to be a big one for Beat Connection--the local quartet will be embarking on their first ever headlining tour, which, from June to July, will take them across the country and into Canada. The band will be touring in support of their first LP, Palace Garden, from which they debuted the gorgeous single "Think/Feel" earlier last month. Beat Connection will be joined on tour by L.A.'s White Arrows, who recently received an auspicious celebrity endorsement:

"@brokemogul: Video: "Get Gone" by @WhiteArrows ... bit.ly/Hj1fUq" Cool video. Song reminds me of Phil Collins: Take Me Home

— Justin Timberlake(@jtimberlake) March 30, 2012

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The indie tastemakers at Pitchfork threw some love at awE naturalE, the Sub Pop debut from Seattle hip-hop duo THEESatisfaction. In Carrie Battan's highly positive review of the record -- which she awarded 7.5 points out 10 -- she said:

Like Lazaro has done in the last couple of years, THEESatisfaction find a way to draw from the early-1990s backpack era and break new (and sometimes strange) ground while staying on the right side of the line between groovy and granola. Songs meander through psychedelic loops built around jazz or funk instrumentation, starting punchily in one place and ending abruptly somewhere altogether different.

SW's Keegan Hamilton highly recommended the record in his review in the March issue of Reverb Monthly, which you can read right here. And if you act quick, you should still be able to snatch up a ticket to see THEESatisfaction tonight at Neumos.

There's a story in this week's (Mar. 26) issue of The New Yorker called "Pretty Simple;" in which the magazine's resident pop music critic Sasha Frere-Jones spells out his thoughts on the Shins, from 2001's Oh, Inverted World to this year's Port of Morrow. Frere-Jones is clearly a fan of James Mercer's songwriting but has some critiques about the frontman's less-than-thrilling live performance stature. He does have high words of praise for the band's current guitarist, Reverb's and my good friend Jessica Dobson:

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