Music
Time to break your wizard bong out of storage: The Wednesday, Feb. 23 show at Northern promises to be intensely psychedelic. Arbouretum are set to perform with Oregonian jammers Eternal Tapestry, their comrades on a brief West Coast tour that's bringing both bands' gargantuan riffing and hypnotic arrangements to eager
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Rarely do Washington rockers sound this Midwestern. The Bismarck is a Seattle quartet of North Dakotan expats with a penchant for hard-hitting, hickory-smoked rock 'n' roll. It seems appropriate that they'll be playing Bob's Java Jive with a band called Wyoming Young and Strong (named for a line in that
Music
Rarely do Washington rockers sound this Midwestern. The Bismarck is a Seattle quartet of North Dakotan expats with a penchant for hard-hitting, hickory-smoked rock 'n' roll. It seems appropriate that they'll be playing Bob's Java Jive with a band called Wyoming Young and Strong (named for a line in that
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The 20th Anniversary re-release of British shoegaze group Ride's seminal album Nowhere was recently awarded a "Best New Reissue" commendation and lusted-after high score from taste-making news and reviews site Pitchfork Media, evidence that (in some critical circles, anyway) bleary, reverb-soaked ear candy will continue to
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You've probably already read about the rest of The New Frontier's stacked Friday night line-up, but attention should also be paid to opening act Case Studies, the solo project of Jesse Lortz, a grounded, restless creative who hails from Seattle (fun fact: he once worked in Tacoma as a printing-press
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Everyone knows about world-class rock guitarist and top hat enthusiast Saul "Slash" Hudson's axe-slinging exploits with Guns N‘ Roses, Velvet Revolver and as a lone, hard-rocking wolf (when he opens for Ozzy Osbourne on Saturday, it will be a sans-"snakepit" solo performance), but seldom is Slash
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Everyone knows about world-class rock guitarist and top hat enthusiast Saul "Slash" Hudson's axe-slinging exploits with Guns N‘ Roses, Velvet Revolver and as a lone, hard-rocking wolf (when he opens for Ozzy Osbourne on Saturday, it will be a sans-"snakepit" solo performance), but seldom is Slash the Actor discussed. The
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Malaikat dan Singa is the love-drunk project of Old Tim Relijun's Arrington de Dionyso, who - after falling hard with someone he knew would be spending months overseas in Indonesia - actually learnt Indonesian and started writing love songs in the language in anticipation of their return. The resultant material
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Young Seattle band Heatwarmer have an interesting vibe and clearly, there's a lot of talent going around between its four members, who gig from time to time at Seattle's jazz and progressive-friendly college-area bars. There's a "School of Music" approach evident in their sound, but also a real adult contemporary
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Despite the fact that his latest album's called First Blood, Nobunny (aka Justin Champlin) is less Rambo and more rambunctious, capturing on record the same sweaty, libidinous insanity typical of his live shows (where Champlin cavorts around in a freakish bunny mask, American Apparel underwear, stylin' denim jacket and little
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Scott Cossu's a laudable pianist, and his compositions have a playful precision to them. While his lite jazz isn't for everyone, in some circles, Cossu's type of music is seeming less and less like a guilty pleasure, and more like an unexpected muse - the last sacred temple of musical
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There's a strong case to be made for the importance of New Age, soft rock, smooth jazz and "adult contemporary" as influences on modern electronic and indie music. Hear me out. Previously taboo realms of unambiguous, technically-minded schmaltz are inspiring visionary musicians like Oneohtrix Point Never, Dolphins into the Future,
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Gumar and His Magical Midi Band (spelled on their MySpace page with exclamation points in place of i's) are about as wacky as their name suggests. The instrumentation on songs like "Alien Groove Thang" is pretty exuberantly earnest (i.e. these musical pranksters are serious musicians, in the vein of, say,
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Loudon Wainwright III is many things. To some in my generation, he's known as a minor comedic actor, having appeared in M*A*S*H and Judd Apatow productions like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and the short-lived college comedy Undeclared (as well as more dubious cinematic fare like 2009's G-Force - the
Music
Loudon Wainwright III is many things. To some in my generation, he's known as a minor comedic actor, having appeared in M*A*S*H and Judd Apatow productions like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and the short-lived college comedy Undeclared (as well as more dubious cinematic fare like 2009's G-Force - the
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Makeup Monsters (formerly the duo of Shayne Weeks and Isaac Solverson, now a trio including Jay Clancy) are a band that's frustratingly talented, handsome and widely beloved. They're also remarkably young - something that's been discussed to death here and elsewhere. MM's youthful energy is in keeping with their aural
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To celebrate the birthday of Neil Harris, owner of The New Frontier Lounge, the venue has booked pizza-loving indie rock bikers Wheelies (no strangers to The New Frontier), caffeinated 253 veterans Gold Teeth ("the most rock and roll band in Tacoma") and ecstatic Tacoma punks the Fucking Eagles. Maybe you've
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Portland multi-instrumentalists Dragging an Ox Through Water and Ghost to Falco make enveloping, hard-to-categorize music. Dragging an Ox Through Water (Brian Mumford) colors his folky jams with circuit-bent flourishes from tweaked oscillators and light-dependent resistors. Historically, Ghost to Falco (Eric Crespo) has played his eclectic, Elverum-esque compositions solo, but for his
Music
Portland multi-instrumentalists Dragging an Ox Through Water and Ghost to Falco make enveloping, hard-to-categorize music. Dragging an Ox Through Water (Brian Mumford) colors his folky jams with circuit-bent flourishes from tweaked oscillators and light-dependent resistors. Historically, Ghost to Falco (Eric Crespo) has played his eclectic, Elverum-esque compositions solo, but for his
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Musically, Hart is relentlessly intense, serving up richly layered core-suffixed metal with flamboyant Slayer-esque guitar licks, spastic time changes, breakneck drumming and blood-curdling barbarian vocals. It's also characteristically Northwestern - the first sound heard on Earth Control (due out Jan. 18 on Vitriol Records) is rain dripping
