With this year's Bumbershoot nearly upon us, let's continue to hope that the weekend weather keeps looking good. If you don't have tickets yet, stop by your local Starbucks to avoid the lines and fees at the gates. Check out a few more tips (bring water and a jacket! take the bus! wear sunscreen! call your mother!) at the Bumbershoot site. While there's plenty of music acts to see (and to harass by requesting......

Break out the hackysack and butterfly wings, because former Phish bassist Mike Gordon is at the Tractor tonight in support of his new solo record, The Green Sparrow. Sub Pop singer-songwriters Sera Cahoone and Daniel Martin Moore play Neumo's, while The Architects bring the crazy to El Corazon.......

Tonight's the final night of the final film in the Northwest Film Forum's Hal Ashby series, and it's a good 'un. Being There is the story of Chance the Gardener, a simple man whose straight-forward innocence charms everyone he encounters in upper crust Washington D.C. As played by Peter Sellers, television-loving Chance hews closely to Kirk Lazarus' sage advice that an actor should never go "full retard." Shirley MacLaine and Melvyn Douglas also turn......

Tonight, everybody's favorite local chanteuse Jesse Sykes plays a free KEXP show at Seattle Center's Mural Ampitheater, featuring music from her new EP Gentleness of Nothing. (Tomorrow night, Rocky Votolato plays the Mural.) Tomorrow, the Mountain's Music Festival at Marymoor with Brandi Carlile, Jackie Greene, and Train's Pat Monahan. The less said about the latter, the better. Here's our gal Brandi performing "The Story," her Grey's Anatomy Soundtrack hit: And Seattlest's old friend Steve Winwood......

SOPPING WET OPERA: Byron Au Yong has composed 64 mini-operas meant to be performed in water--fountains, pools, and streams--throughout the Pacific Northwest. In this weekend's installments of Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas, musicians and vocalists will perform unique mini-operas at parks and beaches in Des Moines/Burien (Saturday) and South Seattle (Sunday). "Who publishes the sheet-music of the winds or the music of water written in river-lines?" wrote 19th century poet John Muir; maybe that someone......

There's a whole cavalcade of delicately dear boys in town tonight. Head to the Triple Door for pretentious Juilliard grad/Philip Glass collaborator Nico Muhly who composes and plays experimental classical works. He's part of the 802 Tour, along with Sam Amidon and Doveman, who recently covered the Footloose soundtrack non-ironically and in its entirety. It's actually his touching and bittersweet tribute to a childhood friend's half-sister. For reals. Stream the whole thing at Doveman's website.......

We first heard of Nellie McKay as a folkie singer-songwriter/piano player, but her latest effort sees her doing some more ambitious big band work. It makes us think of James Bond film scores or maybe musical theater from the '70s. It's fun, that's what matters. It's also thoughtful and lyrically driven stuff that occasionally breaks into raps and chants, kind of spoken word stuff that's equal parts ranty and politically sound. Just check it for......

Who will triumph as the West Coast champion of the DMC turntablist competition tonight? And--perhaps even more interesting--what interesting tricks of the turntablist trade will he or she bring to the tables? 206 Zulu somehow finagled to host the left coast heat of the international championships here in Seattle, at the Vera Project. The only kind of scratching Seattlest does personally is of the "where it itches" variety, and DJs from all over the West......

GEORGETOWN SMELLS LIKE ART When the creativity faucet is on full blast, it can get tricky to turn it off--so these 25 local artists aren't even going to try. Instead, they have signed up to participate in a 24-hour art marathon in a beautiful old building in Georgetown, presented to the general public by CoCA for the 16th year in a row. By the time you read this, the marathon will have commenced; there are......

GOOD MUSICALS, FINALLY: Contemporary Classics presents its fifth annual "New Voices" festival tonight at Seattle Rep's PONCHO Forum. Bringing together songs from leading musical theatre composers and Seattle's top performers, local musical guru Brandon Ivie seeks to dispel the notion that musical theatre is dead, whatever the mediocre fare on Broadway. As composers incorporate modern forms like rock and hiphop into the repertoire, and writers see the campy theatricality of musical as a means to......

Tonight, head to the Sunset for the shoegaze stylings of Film School. There's also L.A. pop mainstay Adam Marsland at the Skylark and local troubadour Rocky Votolato at Neumo's.......

If you've still yet to hear about the Everybodyfields, the only thing you should worry about at this point is getting a ticket to see them at the Tractor on Thursday. We love them for their tight knit harmonies and their nanananas, but also for everything else, really. They're part of that Ramseur Records Carolina/Tennessee new folk scene going on (think of label mates the Avett Brothers, Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Bombadil). They'll be appearing......

Yes, there's other shows this weekend besides the Capitol Hill Block Party. Tonight, there's The Watson Twins, who will bring their lovely harmonies and creepy identical-ness to the Tractor. And if you're lucky, they'll cover The Cure: For something completely different, there's Kill Hannah, along with The Medic Droid and Innerpartysystem at El Corazon. Or head to the Sunset for the island-smooth pedal steel guitar stylings of Neko Case sideman Jon Rauhouse, with Visqueen's own......

Boy, we wish we'd heard about this one sooner, before we tied ourselves to the Block Party. Nicole Atkins writes lovely, singer-songwritery tunes backed exquisitely by the busy-but-purposeful accompaniment of her backup band, aptly named the Sea. She's also gorgeous and has a voice the size of Manhattan, and the smarts to know how to control it, when to back off, when to let it rip. Check it: 10 p.m. // Triple Door // $20......

Yes, you read that correctly. Donut! Eating! Competition! Are your artery walls closing in yet? Don't worry, because all calories from the donut consumption on Saturday will be null-and-voided by the blast of hiphoppy surfer punk rock played live by The Saturday Knights while you cram your mouth full of cakey, frosted goodness at the downtown Top Pot on (appropriately) Saturday. Last year, Bob of The Blakes won; this year, our money's on a......

Casey Neill is one of our personal favorites from that other Northwest city with the other great music scene. He and his Norway Rats play hard-drinking folk-rock ala the Dylan meets the Pogues, meets early R.E.M, and they'll be joining some great Seattleites, Kasey Anderson and the Crying Shame's Arlan and Dylan, at the Sunset this Thursday. It's going to be a crazy weekend of great rootsy music on Capitol Hill as the Block Party......

By now, you’ve most likely realized that Seattlest loves a little bit of the strange in our daily lives. Between all the off-beat circuses, live movies, and pillow fights, our entertainment tastes obviously run a little bit off center. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that spending a day shooting nine holes of golf around Capitol Hill, in costume, at the bi-annual Seattle Urban Golf was right up our alley. At first glance, nine......

Road trip! The seventh annual What the Heck Fest is taking place all weekend at venues in Anacortes. Mt. Eerie is but one of the many bands set to perform. If you're staying here in town, tonight loud-ass two-piece Middle Class Rut plays King Cobra, along with Burning Brides.......

Last week, we headed out to Smith to catch up with local singer/songwriter Molly Rose, to chat about her work, learn about her purpose in life, and come back here to tell you people all about it so that you'd feel inspired to head to Columbia City Theater for her show this Thursday night. It was happy hour. We took a booth in the back of the room because, despite the spectacular noise discrimination on......

Tonight, the banjos will be taking over Benaroya Hall. We think there's a banjo joke in there somewhere, but it's too early on a Monday morning to come up with it. Instead, we'll just sell you on the legendary Earl Scruggs, who's responsible for that three-finger picking style Seattlest prefers when attacking the famously untunable instrument. We caught Scruggs at the IBMA awards last year, and we can vouch for the fact that he's still......

While this weekend is mostly dominated by all that Sub Pop hooha (and once again, kids, 520's closed, so take alternate routes), there's still a few shows besides those that Katelyn already mentioned. Tonight, head to Ballard for the roots and Americana of Portland's Scotland Barr and the Slow Drags at the Sunset. Tomorrow afternoon (1-3pm), break out your best eyewear for Lisa Loeb's appearance at the downtown Barnes and Noble.......

ARTISTS X-ING, WITH CAMERAS: A motley crew of photographers are gathering down at the Market tonight to explore the area through their camera lenses for the evening. They're meeting at that brass pig by the fish throwers (could this event get any more Seattle?) and will be snapping photos around the Market, downtown, Pioneer Square, the waterfront, and more. It's open to anyone who wants to join in the spirit of discovery and photography. 6......

HAVE SOME FAITH: George Michael wrote songs that informed the sexuality of millions of young girls around the world—songs that went on to become gay anthems, long before he came out. The 25Live Tour promises to be the hottest, funnest, gayest, screamy-est concert Key Arena has seen all year. Wave to this Seattlest who will be sitting in the second row. 8 p.m. // Key Arena, Seattle Center // $49.40-$250 A BIG NIGHT OUT: Columbia......

Tonight, Das Llamas celebrate their new album Class Wars: K-12 at the Comet. The local rock fourpiece stomp out a little bit of everything, from synthy no-wave punk to dirty electro rock, offering up "a platypus of sound that is a new noise in a new era." Tonight is also the second of three shows (in three nights) for the CD release of Sounds from the Seattle Underground, care of the good folks at NadaMucho.......

While their live shows the past few years have oscillated between sublime hit and disappointing miss, there's no denying the impressiveness of Built To Spill's back catalog. Central to their discography is 1997's Perfect From Now On, their major label (Warner Bros.) debut, and an album we listened to *a lot* in college. With its noodly, hypnotic guitar epics, catchy anti-pop melodies, and downright biting lyrics, Perfect From Now On was destined to be......

POLITICALLY CRAFTY: If you're a Washingtonian for Obama and you love arts and crafts, you'll love making buttons for Obama. The buttons you make will be passed out locally at voter registration and special events, and in communities as far away as West Virginia. Make a difference with a small piece of metal. 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. // Vivace Espresso // 901 East Denny Way // FREE JOB HUNTING/LIFE SEARCHING: Richard Bolles, author......

It's going down tonight. Contestants are carb-loading, judges are wrapping up their pre-competition detox diets, and the crowd--frankly, the crowd was born ready for the Seattle regionals of 2008's Cuervo Black US Air Guitar Championship tour! This is the first year that Seattle (home of Jimi, for God's sake!) gets to compete, and we have not a shadow of a doubt that local Air Guitar artists have more than enough attitude and commitment to the......

Not only has Tim O'Brien worked with everyone under the sun, anything associated with him is bound to be not only good but highly praised by fans and critics alike. He doesn't just play roots music, he lives it. He understands why it's there and, when he plays it, it's more to honor the artform than it is to draw attention to his mad skills (which, by the way, he has). No doubt when he......

It's a great weekend for hiphop, Seattle! On Saturday, Grynch is headlining a show with D.Black, XPerience, Khingz, and the hilarious Sonny Bonoho at Chop Suey. It's a well-balanced bill full of funny, talented performers who draw big crowds on their own steam, so on a line-up together--well, Chop Suey will be alive and on fire Saturday night! On Sunday night, Dyme Def officially releases their crazy-good new mixtape, 3 Bad Brothaaas, at Nectar. Naturally,......

It's hard to believe, but the Dandy Warhols' sixth studio full-length (and the first on their own label) Earth To The Dandy Warhols will be out this August. The tongue-in-cheek Portland alt-rock band plays the Showbox SoDo tonight. Not sure if it would be a better or worse show if longtime frenemies Brian Jonestown Massacre crashed the gig. As far as we can tell, there's still tix available to tonight's Kultur Shock show at Chop......