We didn't go to a single concert at the Showbox last year. Ok, so we saw Obama at the SoDo, but that's not nearly the same thing, even though there were bands preceding the politics. It's most unusual for us to have a Showbox-free year, that's for sure. But along with that Gutter Twins show in March, there're a few more events on the Showbox calendar that are worth buying tickets for in advance......

Last night at Neumo's, the 4th annual KEXP Yule Benefit was chockablock with music. We missed out on local band The Hands and showed up mid-set for Annuals, for whom we saw enough of their Arcade Fire-meets-Neutral Milk Hotel-meets Animal Collective sound to know that we need to see them in their entirety whenever they come to town again. Next up was Junior Boys, who put on a solid set with their mixture of......

Carlos Rodela doesn't hold much stock with the Seattle music scene, either its cloistered, big-fish-in-a-small-pond pretensions or with its rock star showmanship. "The idea of musicianmanship is absolute shit," he told us over coffee. "There is no playing better, there's just difference. Different Songs. What did Elvis Costello say? That rock and roll is the 14-year-old kid in a bedroom coming up with a new rock song. That's rock and roll." Rodela's been around......

Also, do you know what he means? Apparently Lyrics Born wasn't getting the answers he wanted to those questions, because he just kept asking them last night at Neumo's. Additionally, if you haven't been to an LB concert before, you may not know that he likes to put his hands in the air, and you best do so yourself as well. But we didn't want to put our hands in the air, Seattlest wanted new......

Now that there's a chill in the air, Seattlest has taken to closing our windows at night before curling up in a warm bed with some hot cocoa and earplugs. That's right, it's officially the fall tour season, and there's live music galore. Behold! Tuesday 19th >>> The Silverback at Fuel in Pioneer Square. No one's ever heard this band, because this show represents the first time The Silverback will bring their downtempo electronic......

Trip-hop was born twice and likewise died two deaths. This moody, sample-heavy music came to the fore both in the United States and in England, although the British sound (most specifically that from Bristol) is the one most readily labeled with the tag. The two schools of trip-hop came from different backgrounds to produce two similar, yet distinctive sounds. The American school, typified by DJ Shadow, had its most immediate roots in hip-hop, which established......

If you like DJ Shadow or Thievery Corporation, then Chop Suey will be the place for you tonight. It's not that he's playing there, but Mocean Worker is and frankly we think they sound alike (which is a good thing). Mocean Worker does that whole collage of sounds to make dancey music thing that usually doesn't work, but in this case it does. Plus, you can look smug when you realize where one of his......