A few days ago we were so excited to see that Champagne Champagne were in the top 30 acts called out by Spin Magazine that would be appearing at CMJ's Music Marathon this year. CMJ is the College Music Journal, a great source for catching up on signed and unsigned bands alike. They have been producing this festival for three decades and as such has become one of the major music festivals to attend, along the lines of SXSW, Bumbershoot, and Lollapalooza. While Champ Champ has been getting a lot of buzz, we were surprised to see them so prominently plastered in the Spin article and that they were performing at this weekend's fest at all. more ›

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. more ›

Tonight local "urban folkster" Ali Marcus celebrates the release of her fourth album, The Other Side, at the Rendezvous' Jewelbox Theater. The intimate venue will be the perfect setting for dear Ali's sweet voice, and the party's sponsored by the Hopvine, where Ali's been a prominent Wednesday night open mic performer for nearly three years already. more ›

Halloween is Tuesday, which means this weekend is really the time for all of the –ists to celebrate. And whether they’re designing super-spooky costumes or talking about the super-spooky upcoming elections, we’d say that they’re doing a fine job of it. more ›

Silversun Pickups is an up-and-coming California four-piece with boy-girl rock vocals. Their 2005 EP, featuring the single "Kissing Families" won them a lot of new fans, including John Richards and the rest of the KEXP crew. Now their full-length is set to be released next Tuesday to much anticipation in the indie rock blogosphere, and rightfully so---it's solid. Seattlest spoke to raspy singer/guitarist Brian Aubert about the differences between the EP and the LP, the comparisions they get to other bands, and their favorite places (and beer) in Seattle. All the girls on the internets think he's dreamy, but as far as we're concerned, Brian's a total Chatty Kathy. more ›