Ok. I know. I’m sure you’ve noticed. There’s something different this week.



Not only have I grown my annual winter beard, which — in its early stages — gives me something of a hobo look that you’re probably having difficulty recognizing, but there’s something else. There’s something bigger.



Rock Rhetoric isn’t in the actual, paper and ink version of the Weekly Volcano this week. The only place you’ll find it is here, on the worldwide Interweb.



I’m sure you’re shocked. How could you not be? Why has this happened, you’re probably asking. Who is to blame for this calamity?



No one is to blame, except, perhaps, the times we live in. The Internet is hot — or so I read on this blog I like, and as hot as the Internet is the Weekly Volcano just couldn’t resist getting a piece of that action.



So, it was decided that my column — Rock Rhetoric — and Bobble Tiki’s column — Tiki Logic — will rotate on a weekly basis — one being posted online only, and the other in the actual paper. Thanks to a double overtime thumb wrestling match gone wrong, this week — to kick things off — Bobble Tiki made the paper, and Rock Rhetoric is here — online at weeklyvolcano.com.



And that’s the way it’s going to be until someone with a more impressive job title tells me differently. This is the way the world works.



However, even though this week and every other week from here on out you’ll only find Rock Rhetoric online at weeklyvolcano.com, that’s not to say the subject matter of my column is going to take a dive. Quite the opposite, really — evident from the start as this week I focus on the Unsmashable Records Showcase show at Bob’s Java Jive this Saturday, Dec. 6.



Much like the Internet is hot, so is the trend of bands putting out records virtually on their own, on a DIY level. In fact, since the Internet is basically the main monster that has wreaked havoc on the way record companies do business, the two hot trends are even related.



While Unsmashable Records is — by definition — a record label, it’s a term used loosely. What Unsmashable Records really is, actually, is a group of friends who all play in really good bands — bands that need an avenue to put out records from time to time — and friends that see the advantage in working together to achieve that goal. Created in 2003, Unsmashable CEO Nick Millward calls Unsmashable more of a “slacker label.”



“It’s a big collection of friends,” says Millward of Unsmashable. “We wanted a collective identity to try to make a splash.”



On a small, regional level, perhaps they’ve made a splash or maybe only a choppy ripple — but at the very least they’ve no doubt had a good time doing it. With a lineup that currently consists of the roots rocky Riffbrokers (which Millward plays in, and says probably sounds like a band from the ‘80s covering a band from the ‘60s), Crown Aruba (who may be the best of the bunch and just released a really good new CD), The Small Change (who follow a line of classic Northwest pop rock bands), and The I Love Myselfs (led by Fircrest’s Eric Olson, who you may remember from bands like Twink the Wonder Kid and Lower 48), Unsmashable is as eclectic as it is independent, and between friends these guys can muster up some solid-ass tunes.



All of those bands will be at the Jive this Saturday. For that reason alone, the show will be one of the weekend’s best.



“We don’t do it all that often,” says Millward of Unsmashable Showcase shows. “But they’re fun to do one or two times a year.”



“As far as the record industry goes, we’re on the only path that’s left — selling CDs online and getting buzz on blogs,” Millward continues. “It’s liberating. Bands that make money are young and good-looking and don’t have responsibilities or day jobs. We’re none of those things.”



What the bands on Unsmashable are is fucking good. And I’m not just throwing out f-bombs because this is the Internet. I mean it.



Check them out this Saturday.



[Bob’s Java Jive, Riffbrokers, Crown Aruba, the Small Change, the I Love Myselfs, Saturday, Dec. 6, 8 p.m., no cover, 2102 S. Tacoma Way, Tacoma, 253.475.9843]