Music
The I's are Portland glam-garage by way of Austin punk, and when they land in Olympia they'll be playing bluesy folk-rock, informed though it may be by a good chunk of musical history. Fronted by S.I.D. Need, AKA Jona Napier, the I's is a collection of musicians who met while perpetually
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I tell you this honestly: There was a period of my life when I would walk along with a copy of Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies by Of Montreal in my CD player, and it truly scared me. Walking the Tacoma streets at night with the schizophrenic pop blaring in
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Hotel St. George's music is the kind of damaged pop that we've grown to know through bands like Spoon or Guided By Voices - as disparate as those bands might seem. Their melodies are pure and catchy as all get out, but the vocals and lyrics are desperate, longing pleas
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LECTURES/CLASSES/CLUBS Crystal Voyage Tacoma. A Buddhist meditation class, Mon 7-8:30 pm. $10 (2601 East D St., Suite 300, 253.272.4367). Historic Tacoma Downtown Tacoma. Several brainiacs lecture on “Tacoma Historic Sacred Places: Their Past, Present and Future,” May 28 7 pm (Urban Grace Church, South
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When you see him perform it's not quite the plate spinning we usually associate with one-man-bands. When you watch Andrew Bird utilize the loop pedal, it's an awful lot like a high-wire act; but Daniel Francis Doyle approaches his songs like a trail of dominoes. You watch him lay
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Selkie, AKA Jack Doyle Smith, will be playing his first show (ever, apparently) at The Den on Saturday. A self-described player of experimental pop, it's hard to know what you'll see when he's at The Den. All I know is that "I've Never" - one of only two Selkie songs
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Athens, Ga., band The Winter Sounds are beyond slick, as recorded. Layers and layers of churchly harmonies, chiming guitars and driving rhythms, dominate the band's songs. It's all a little too sterile for my taste. But when you get up close and personal to see the band live, they allow
Music
Have you longed for the quirky emotionalism of Jonathan Richman to careen headlong into noise-rock? Sure you have. You just never knew it. Now, once those two sounds have been precariously welded together, how would you prefer them to be thrown at your head? If you said, "By way of a
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In the 1970s, a Canadian folk-rocker named Bruce Cockburn released almost an album a year for the entire decade. He missed 1977, but this was most likely due to a shortage of notebook paper he suffered after penning seven albums worth of material - so get off his back.
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Goodbye gravy Spring has sprung and so has my belt. Bobble Tiki is fat. It seems like he needs a jack just to lift up his belly to find the spare tire. How did this happen? “You eat gravy-topped food and you don’t like to exercise,” Mrs. Bobble Tiki says. “The last time
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The Riffbrokers would sound perfect on vinyl. They remind me of a band whose LP I'd pick up on a stop in a record shop - intrigued by their name and a couple song titles, never having heard them before. I'd bring The Riffbrokers home and listen alone on a rainy
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Throughout the month of May, Northern will be hosting a group exhibit of political artwork from Vancouver, B.C. artists. The show will be co-curated by David Lester and Jean Smith, the duo that make up the long-standing noise-rock band Mecca Normal. Saturday will be the exhibit's opening reception, as well
Music
In the 1970s, a Canadian folk-rocker named Bruce Cockburn released almost an album a year for the entire decade. He missed 1977, but this was most likely due to a shortage of notebook paper he suffered after penning seven albums worth of material - so get off his back. My
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Husband and wife duo Mad Happy's dance music is covered in a certain air of sleaze. They sound like the music that might be booming out of a near-deserted dance floor at four in the morning: shamefully sexy and hazily exhausted upon coming down from the night, the music soldiering
Music
The notion of a large group of people congregating under the hot black lights of a dance club, and being pounded into lockstep by an aggressively pulsing rhythm, has always struck me as somewhat ghastly. A recent visit to a local club on a Friday night confirmed my suspicions, as
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There's not much convincing needed when talking about a band like Coldnote. You know right now whether or not you're onboard. The band plays smooth, sexy soul and funk that's more Marvin Gaye than Prince, if you know what I'm saying. And that's all you need to know, really. If
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L. Alex Guy (as Led to Sea) is one of those artists, like St. Vincent or Andrew Bird, who approaches pop music with the eye of a classical composer, breaking down and rebuilding pop tropes into something resembling fine art. Guy is an accomplished violist, having lent her talents to
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This week I’ll be bringing you to a restaurant that’s very near and dear to me. It’s one that I’m proud of because it matches my ambition and dedication. It’s one that I’ll always adore no matter what people say. Indochine. First things first, for the official record it’s pronounced as Indo-“sheen,” not chine. And
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You have four weeks to party in a dance club with $4 Jägerbombs, smokin’ hot cage dancers, and crazies juggling fire balls, and then the DJ/freak show will disappear. It’s been ages since I’ve gotten my groove on, but back in the day my weekends were spent swinging between dance
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Pillow Army is a band all about opposing elements. Acoustic guitar and a string section make up the body of most of the songs, but - more times than not - that calm is stabbed by raucous intrusions from loud electric guitars, working as a counterpoint to the loveliness of
