And we mean everybody: the New York Times, Pitchfork, the ever-fickle blogosphere. Seems that it's not hard to garner that kind of love and affection when you're a Brit-leaning pop quintet straight outta Austin. With clever arrangements, charming melodies, limber lyrics, and jangly guitars, Voxtrot just can't help but draw comparisons to bands like Belle & Sebastian, Morrissey, the Wedding Present, and even the Cure. After a string of well-received EPs, their self-titled debut full-length came out in May, and since then, they've been touring nonstop (most recently as openers for Arctic Monkeys), while also performing at the Pitchfork festival, the Siren Music Festival in Coney Island, and at CMJ.
Everybody Loves Voxtrot
Weekend Music
Tonight Earlimart, The Quiet Ones, and OFFICE play the Croc. We already said plenty of good things about Earlimart when they were in town last month, so this time we'll plug OFFICE. In their first ever video, the Chicago boy-girl glam-pop five-piece decided to insert themselves (huh huh) into clips from cheesy 80s porn. Despite the presence of Peter North, it's totally SFW.
Just What is WaMu Theater?
When entertainment giant AEG Live announced plans to create a new and innovative music venue inside Quest Field Events Center, we imagine a big to do with all the local press in a large room packed with music lovers on one side and bankers on the other. Wonder which side was clapping more wildly...
How the Showbox Got Its Groove Back
Hey, whaddya know? Ever since the Showbox upped the service fees and made a pact with the devil, their bookings have been less than stellar. In fact, we haven't been to the downtown venue for a single show so far this year, which is totally out of the ordinary.
Thursday Get Out: Be Your Own PET, Arctic Monkeys
The oldest is only twenty, the youngest seventeen. One of them graduated high school a year early by doubling his class load. One of them dropped out. Be Your own PET are four young adults from Nashville, Tennessee with plenty of punk coursing through their young veins. It's appropriate they should open for UK brats, Arctic Monkeys tomorrow night at the Showbox.
Kooks Klaxons and Monkeys, Oh My!
For the last few years Austin’s SXSW Music festival has brought Seattle their best European (mostly U.K.) bands; many of them making their first appearance here before heading back across the pond or whisking away to the many summer music festivals around the country. Seattle seems like a good enough launch pad though, and we’ve got a few beauties lined up. On Monday, May 5th two of the biggest bands coming out of the U.K. right now just happen to be playing sold out shows on the same night – The Kooks at Crocodile Café and The Arctic Monkeys at The Showbox. On a Monday night no less? Tell us where else in the country you’ll see that! Our advice? Save your money and go check out The Klaxons tonight at The Crocodile (there should still be some tickets available here); a great British band on their final tune-up for Coachella and a ton of other huge festivals this year. We can’t get their debut release Myths of the Near Future out of our head and neither can a lot of the British mags hyping them all year (they've already sold out most all their U.K. dates). Call it indie new rave or British dance punk. It’s experimental at times, British pop at others, but definitely worth us checking out their live show. Care to take a listen? Check out a few tracks from their Myspace page here.
OMFG! Last PGMG Show EVAR!
Sometimes you go big *and* go home. Such will be the case with Iraq (give it time) and with Pretty Girls Make Graves. After signing to Matador and releasing The New Romance and Élan Vital to better than fair reviews, PGMG announced that they were calling it quits earlier this year. But the local post-punk band isn't throwing in the towel before one last hurrah and [insert your own tired cliche here].
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-verse
LAist is flashing a sad peace out to their editor Carolyn Kellogg with one hand and bumping knuckles with their new head typist L.A. blogger king Tony Pierce with the other.
Hey Hey They're the Arctic Monkeys
When Seattlest arrived at the Crocodile Wednesday night, there were a bunch of people standing outside the venue, desperate for a miracle. A member of our party asked one of the hopeful how much he was willing to spend to get into the show. "I'd pay up to $30," Joe Clueless replied. Laughing, our friend informed this dumb dude that the ticket he had to sell had been purchased off of Craig's List for way more than that. So he quickly sold said ticket to a lucky lady for $60, which he then used to buy the rest of us a round of drinks. God bless generous friends, excessive hype, supply and demand, and the Arctic Monkeys.
Thank God for Art Brut
Back in 2003, when Art Brut formed, the British music scene was dominated by power pop outfits like The Libertines, who were better as celebrities than musicians. Today, we have similarly over-hyped bands like The Arctic Monkeys and The Subways, who release albums that NME fawns over for six months until the next big thing comes along.
Stalk of the Town
What will the weekend bring? Why, the new 4A state basketball champion, of course! So the staff of Seattlest picks our favorites in today's critical semifinal game between Franklin and Curtis. Also, they mention some other stuff they are interested in.

