We Recommend
Kyle Thomas, AKA King Tuff, had about as much credibility as possible going into the recording of his solo debut, Was Dead, having worked with the likes of Hunx (of "his Punx" notoriety) and rock god J Mascis. His debut was an exuberant burst of tongue-in-cheek garage rock, and his
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On a night in May, 1997, Jeff Buckley went nightswimming in the Wolf River; his body was found a week later. Three years prior to his untimely death, Buckley released Grace, a towering monument to a truly eccentric talent who had the potential to find legendary status divorced of the
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The Deceptives are a deliriously dopey band from Olympia. They play punk. They want you to drink. A lot. They'd like you to barf. They describe their music as "party drunk punk" - a summary of the past few sentences. As a band, they are the brave souls who persist
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During my time at the Weekly Volcano, I've written about Eliot Lipp so many times that I worry there's nothing left to be said. In case any of you are uninitiated (and how sad that would be), this is a producer who specializes in the kind of gut-punching minimalist electronic
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Though they share qualities with other electronic neo-primitivists like Animal Collective, NewVillager and Yeasayer, Children of Kids tends toward the dreamier, gentler side of things. But even still, there's always an underpinning of intensity, with an insistent beat that threatens to scare away the trilling synths. Amongst these beat-driven aural
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Over the years, Tacoma mainstays Umber Sleeping has gone through many personnel changes and even, briefly, name changes. Recently, the final decision was made to change to the name I Like Science. Of course, the art-rock act is still masterminded by drummer Peter Tietjen, so it still sounds more or
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Pretty Old take cues from the delicately driving and melancholy pride of bands like the National as well as the spark and verve of punkier groups like the Weakerthans and Jawbreaker - from whom Pretty Old derived their name. The Seattle three-piece is one that was clearly raised on punk,
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For about 13 years now, the Riffbrokers have quietly been making some of the most sophisticated Southern-rock-tinged power pop around. Led by Nick Millward's distinctive vocals - reminiscent of storytellers like Elvis Costello and Craig Finn - and lyrics that manage to balance hook-y immediacy and blue-collar poetry, the Riffbrokers
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As I've said for a long time, now, there is no other band in Tacoma that surpasses Roman Holiday in terms of big, national potential. The band already sounds like it has been vetted on adult contemporary radio for years. This is not to say it is a prepackaged band,
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Barleywine Revue credits itself simply as a bluegrass band, but to hear it, the band somehow transforms that format into something more. Depending on whose lead vocals you get (in a very egalitarian move, the members trade off lead vocal duty), you'll either find yourself in a jumping jam like
Arts
The culture of watching bad movies because they're so terrifically bad has been growing, outside of the light, insidiously, for years and years. Edward D. Wood Jr. conquered, very early on, the art of having such awesomely misplaced judgment in one's own talent. In his stead-and especially in the '70s
Scene It
I don't make it down to Olympia as often as I'd like, but when I do, I make it a point to hit up two of the city's most well-talked about bars: The Brotherhood Lounge and Le Voyeur. Each has its own personal charm, and I had an opportunity to
Music
I'm sitting here, staring at my keyboard, and trying to think of more to say about Lozen other than they f#@*ing rock. I guess that's ultimately the best place to start. Lozen - a two-piece, all-girl, alt-metal-experimental-tribal-etcetera band - f#@*ing rock. They exploit the limitations of having a band made up
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Calvin Johnson's history is filled with such odd touchstones (the iconic International Underground Pop Convention, Kurt Cobain talking shit about him in print) that it's sometimes easy to forget that he's still creating music that is obsessed with the tonally odd and the religiously low fidelity.
Music
For those of us who have grown up in the Pacific Northwest, who've been weaned on indie rock, and Pac NW indie rock in particular, the name Calvin Johnson is a known and loaded one. For the uninitiated, Calvin Johnson is - for all intents and purposes - Washington's indie
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Grab the Bat Killer is one man who sounds like a lost transmission from a very dark dance floor somewhere in the world, late at night, after booze and other substances have thoroughly infested the exhausted minds of after-hours revelers. The persistent beats are like desperate pleas to keep the
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For years, now, Colonies have been upholding the indie rock and shoegaze flag in Tacoma. While our city has its fair share of punk, garage, metal and psychedelic rock, indie music has not typically flourished. The success of Colonies (who have now been booked at Seattle's colossal who's who festival,
Music
To paraphrase Paul Simon: If you took all the mosh pits you played to in tiny rock clubs and brought them all together for one night ... Title Fight is a band that's finding out just how that would feel. "We started when we were 12 years old," says Title Fight bassist
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There's something perversely pure and bloody-minded about recording a 9-minute electro-opus about acne, but Johnny Unicorn does just that on "Break Out!" the opener to his giddily loopy double album, Thinking Hard to Overcome Nervousness. Musically, Johnny Unicorn can approach areas like the transcendent dance rock of LCD Soundsystem, the
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Taking cues from early hardcore, as well as perennial punk from the '80s, Portland's Autistic Youth make driving, anthemic stuff that'll clear up your sinuses. Songs rush by in delirious two-minute bursts of group cheering and insistent drumming. The band will be joined at Tahoma Tea & Co. by a
