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This is a band, led by songwriter Troy Nelson and the female voice of Mackenzie Mercer, that approaches the act of songwriting almost as a dare: How tight, bright and ebullient can you make each song while still maintaining the certain gobsmacking efficacy that comes with taking in a great
Music
Maybe it's just me, but I get a palpable sensation of excitement when I flip over an album or take a look at its liner notes and learn the 10-track album is in and out in 25 minutes flat. My heart quickens. I grew up on oldies radio at a
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My, what a strange duck Czar is. Combining elements of black metal and jazz fusion in what amounts to a head-on collision of tonal opposites, the ultimate result is the realization that - despite the obvious disparities in sound and effect - these two genres are actually quite similar in
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The music of James Hilborne and the Painkillers would be odd in any number of places, but, in Tacoma, it's more or less an anomaly. Ostensibly, the Painkillers play Americana: streaks of country twang and blues rock run through the band's songs, but these elements are accompanied by errant spells
Music
In a city where residents can simultaneously be too quick to self-congratulate and wear their shortcomings and bitterness like a talisman, I must approach a year-end summary of Tacoma's music scene largely with optimism, but also a necessary pragmatism. In my opinion (three words one should strongly remember in the
Scene It
It seems to me that the game of bingo involves itself in one's life in three stages: First, you experience it as a child in elementary school. It's hard to express the excitement of doing away with the syllabus for a while to enjoy a completely random and skill-less game. This
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The string of words that make up the name Death by Stars sounds at once full of portent and utterly frivolous. This dichotomy seems to seep into and help define the band's music as well. Combining the biggest, most direct qualities of punk, electronica and psych-rock, the band has cooked
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Something about the BreakLites calling their new album RAPFACE - all caps, accompanied by an illustration of a vicious animal with the title clenched in his teeth - seems weirdly incongruous when compared to the music the BreakLites make. The packaging is so aggro that when you finally hear what
Music
Something about the BreakLites calling their new album RAPFACE - all caps, accompanied by an illustration of a vicious animal with the title clenched in his teeth - seems weirdly incongruous when compared to the music the BreakLites make. The packaging is so aggro that when you finally hear what
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Looking at Allan Boothe and hearing him sing are two completely different things. To see him, he's a tall, handsome guy with a goofy laugh and an affable manner, but to see him perform is to see a bundle of nerves. As Humble Cub, Boothe is buoyed by a bed
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Luminol is a chemical used by forensic investigators to detect trace amounts of human fluid left behind at crime scenes. It emits an eerie glow. Luminol is also a band of jarring creativity - a band that has a particular sense for the eerie itself. While largely creating soothing atmospheres, Luminol
Scene It
When I was a kid, I spent too much time in bowling alleys. Specifically, every Saturday morning and Tuesday night was spent at Chalet Bowl, competing in various leagues. I was never very good at bowling, which is an odd thing considering the years I devoted to it. Mainly, I
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The last thing I thought I'd be doing when I first put on a Bodybox song is begin to marvel at the unexpected vocal similarities between Bodybox frontman Kurt Lindsay and late cult singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley. "Supernova," in particular, shares qualities with Buckley's slash-and-burn classic, "Grace." Both songs cascade on
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After the band's first EP, Really Old Airplanes started to refine its sound. On the debut LP, there are elements of European folk, straight-ahead indie pop and occasional flairs of power pop. All of these elements are imbued with a warmth and clear intent, which creates an album of delicately
Music
"Tokyo Police Club was coming to town, so we wanted to make this poppy sound," says Really Old Airplane's Keagan Smith. "If you listen to our first EP, it's really poppy. We wanted to open for Tokyo Police Club, so we thought we'd try and write songs like them." This is
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If there's nothing else that can be said about Tacoma's School of the Arts, it's a darn fine factory for churning out young and talented songwriters. To see each wave of SOTA musicians emerge from the school is an inspiring and fascinating thing to watch. To celebrate the end of
Music
Over the years album art has grown to crazy new heights. Conveying information about the band, or a sense of what the band might sound like, has more or less faded to the background in exchange (legitimately, in my opinion) for expressing something less clear about the band's spirit. It's
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This is psych rock for people who get laid. "I've been into psychedelic and heavy music for a long time," says White Orange lead singer Dustin Hill. "I studied it, and was very much into early '60s underground psychedelic high school bands, and was also very influenced by - for lack
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The goth is strong in this one. Charlie Drown is the kind of group/artist/performer/whatever that's totally comfortable throwing around lyrics about beds made of skin and "48 dead in my head," all while drum machines and synths pulse in the background. Lead vocals are not so much singing as they
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It's always a bit of an event when local boy Eliot Lipp returns to Tacoma, an occurrence that now seems to be setting nicely into a roughly six-month cycle. Six months ago, I wrote of the delightful dustiness that seems to adorn Lipp's electronic music - referring to how he
