Archives
In late July, Melissa Macourek came home to find her household in shambles. It was like something out of a bad detective novel - door broken down, personal belongings strewn everywhere, children's' art crumpled and buried underneath contents of ransacked drawers, cats terrified, medication spilled out on the floor. Macourek,
Music
The Music and Art in Wright Park festival, an annual event that carries on the torch of Tacoma's original Music in the Park festival, has a lot to do with history. A LOT. But it's also about Tacoma's future, and specifically its musical future. The seeds that have grown into the
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As far as reunions go, I'm not sure where the return (kind of) of Dick Rossetti's Twink the Wonder Kid ranks. Somewhere behind the first time the Pixies did it, surely, but probably well ahead of the 87th time the Pixies did it. Either way, Tacoma can bask in the
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Seattle and Tacoma band Colonies (who we like to think of as more of a T-Town act, because that's how we roll), has some definite fans here at Weekly Volcano World Headquarters - and it's not just because they're at least half from Grit City. No, rather, the band's smart
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Friday and Saturday marks the 8th Annual Hotrod-A-Rama, once again set to engulf The Swiss with enough sweet-ass pre-1965 traditional and custom hotrods to make Boyd Coddington blush, plus a stellar lineup of music including performance by The Fucking Eagles, Girl Trouble, Si Si Si, Basemint, Red Hex and the
Music
Many years ago I wrote a cover story for the Weekly Volcano on Hotrod-A-Rama, the yearly hardcore classic car enthusiast throwdown at The Swiss that's been getting bigger and more well-known almost since the moment of its inception, and which also features a massive amount of top-shelf live local music
Guides
When I walk into Guitar Maniacs on Saint Helens Avenue, Rick King is helping a customer in search of hard-to-find strings. He doesn't have any at the moment, but he can get them. The customer, who knows King by name and has the aura of someone who's been frequenting King's
Guides
I really like Pao, and I really, really like his donuts, but to be completely honest the big-ass pictures hanging in his donut shop (you know, the ones that each feature one of his three kids, at age one, propped up and smiling next to — quite literally — a
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Travel and transition. Weary miles on the road and brief stops of respite, enjoying truck stop beauty or the way taking three steps back from a chugging city can reveal a majesty normally reserved for nature. Country. Folk. Pop. And especially melodies. Cotton Jones, naturally on tour and headed to
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It could accurately be called the end of an era. On Saturday, Tacoma's Viaduct all ages venue - which has been a regionally known epicenter for hardcore music and hardcore youth - will hold its final show ever, bringing Shook Ones, Make Do and Mend, Hostage Calm, Cowardice, Oblivion and
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Scraps on the Badlands - it's an evocative name, bringing to mind dusty, forlorn, almost uninhabitable stretches of nothingness, and also (in many ways) Tacoma. This makes sense, considering Revengers, a band spawned by the Biznautics and T-Town itself, and who dropped Scraps on the Badlands late last year, basically
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Tacoma's Osama Bin Rockin did not win "Best Band Name" in the 2010 Weekly Volcano Best of Tacoma poll. That's unfortunate, because they probably should have. Sure, there are some pretty sick-ass band names out there, some fairly memorable monikers, but just hearing this band mentioned makes me grin -
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San Francisco's The New Up kind of sounds like an updated, slowed-down version of the old Hammerbox. Like, Carrie Akre's Hammerbox - all ferocious and female and flannel covered, circa 1990-whatever. But don't get me wrong; this five-piece is no rehash. While the scene stealing rock guitars, gut-punch hooks and
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"Champion the underdog," the Variety Hour's Rob Olsen urged me through email earlier this week. I decided to listen, and with good reason. You see, Olsen's Variety Hour is playing The New Frontier Saturday, on the same night that much of Dome District hangout's usual ironic crowd will probably be
Archives
Forgive Tacoma for looking due south, getting a little jealous and finding something to strive for. It's almost unavoidable at this point. Portland, Ore., with its bike lanes, mass transit, plethora of hipster coffee shops and - most important to this story - abundance of food carts, has obviously done
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To cut to the chase, Pioneers West is one of the better things this town has going, an unabashed sonic perpetuation and proliferation of a genre of the band's own making - "Western Doom." It's a self-contrived genre that sounds badass, both in name and practice - and this band
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Quick, name three sure ways to spot a Northwest jam band before having heard them play. ... If you said a) their band photo was shot in the woods; b) Tommy Chong is their number one friend on MySpace; or c) the bass player often wears an oversized Seahawks jersey
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The head and the heart - within the human body, they often compete. For example, your heart may pine for the curly haired, nerdy guy at Stadium Video, but your head tells you the truth: he'll never go for you - you like Vin Diesel movies. And so it goes.
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While I'm not against the idea, let it be known that I'm not specifically writing about San Francisco's The Meat Sluts because of the name - which is totally awesome, by the way. No, I'm writing about The Meat Sluts because - not surprisingly - the band fucking rocks. Don't
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Fifteen months ago I went out on a limb and checked out the classic-rock inspired Midnight Salvage Co., which, at the time, had been on the Tacoma scene for scant more than four months. As I wrote back then, what I found was a "rocking alt-country posse that's staking a
