Day five of the countdown is upon us and there's still a plethora of memorable concert photos from 2011 to share. The standouts are obvious, but it's getting difficult to sift through and choose only enough for one each day. Today Morgen heads south a bit to Showbox SoDo with Mos Def and Black Star. more ›

Black Star may only consist of two performers and a DJ but they filled the entire warehouse-like room of Showbox Sodo last weekend. It was the best hip hop show we'd seen this year if not beyond that. Check out our gallery from the show and tell us what you thought about their performance. more ›

On Monday, Atmosphere rolled into Seattle on the Family Vacation Tour, bringing with them a a solid lineup from the Rhymesayers label to show us all a good time. more ›

Atmosphere's in town, and they want you to join the family. An all star crew hits the Showbox SODO stage tonight for the Seattle stop in Atmosphere's Family Vacation Tour. Joining the tour are fellow Rhymesayers members Blueprint, Evidence with DJ Babu (of famed Dilated Peoples) and Prof. more ›

It's not all politics and beer on Seattlest. Sometimes, we just want to talk about Nate Dogg. more ›

This weekend, you can be a wizard, a sailor, a seafoodie, and a French person. That's a pretty good weekend in our book. more ›

In the strange event that you're trying to avoid hearing about Shabazz Palaces' first full-length album, Black Up, released on Sub Pop this week... good luck to you. It's going to be impossible. This album is possibly one of the most anticipated hip-hop releases of the year. more ›

It seems like most of Seattle is still sleeping off the eventful weekend. But that doesn't mean you need to stay home tonight. There are films to see and bands to listen to! more ›

State of the Artist (SOTA) headlined a great hip-hop filled evening at the filled-up Hard Rock Cafe on Friday. Just like their album, they had guest appearances by Helladope, P Smoov, Katie Kate & Lace Cadence. They entertained the mostly younger audience for more than an hour by playing all their songs from album Seattlecalifragilisticextrahelladopeness and then wrapping up their set with Striking Back, who played just before them. more ›

Hip-hop shows on a Friday night in Seattle have become a regular occurrence in the past year, and the latest venue to embrace it is our friends at Hard Rock Cafe. As you bob and weave through the rock memorabilia you’ll be reminded that rock n’ roll comes first, but the chain’s Seattle outpost is adapting to our diverse music scene. Like any good business, the Cafe has tailored its lineup of shows to suit our city. more ›

John Vanderslice is such a nice guy that his niceness sometimes overshadows his skill as a songwriter. Vanderslice tours tirelessly, gives interview time to anyone who wants to talk to him, and promotes fellow musicians with the selfless dedication of a sidekick in a romantic comedy. That level of nice makes it easy to forget that he’s also one of the most interesting songwriters touring today. more ›

CHILEAN NIGHT FEVER: It's Santiago in 1978, and even in the suffocating midst of the oppressive Pinochet regime, all that Raul wants to do is dance. Despite being middle-aged, the main character of Pablo Larraín's second film fantasizes that he's John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever and performs his disco dance moves at the local bar. But soon Raul's fantasy becomes an obsession, especially after it's announced that there will be a Tony Manero impersonation contest throughout all of Chile. Tony Manero plays at the NWFF through Thursday. more ›

GET STIMULATED: All this week, through Saturday July 18th, it's the second annual Seattle City Stimulus, which encourages residents to spend money at small local businesses. Fill out the form to get your membership card, which affords you discounts at all kinds of establishments. Eat, drink, and shop your way around town--IT'S FOR THE ECONOMY! All week long // Participating businesses // prices vary more ›

HIPHOP THEATRE: Described as a "hip-hop renaissance man," Marc Bamuthi Joseph brings his hiphop theater multimedia production, the break/s, to Seattle (runs through July 12). David Schmader seems to like it, and after reading more about it, we can totally understand why. Joseph, a dancer, award-winning poet, and educator, makes what is described as a "mixtape for the stage" with turntables and djs, visual imagery, dance, and spoken word (story and poetry) from personal interviews and documentary footage. 7:30 p.m. // ACT Theatre, 700 Union Street// Tickets: $10/ $15 (students w/ ID), $37.50/ $50 (adults) more ›

• West Seattle's Alki beachgoers have suspected that an algae bloom is to blame for the "scungy yellow stuff" mucking-up the local waters. Until an official report is in, our toes are staying on land.
• The hiphop concert series Rock the Bells opted out of making a repeat Washington stop during the 2009 tour. After pissing and moaning about Seattle getting the shaft, Rock the Bells is back on for an intimate--not really affiliated, just didn't want to hear bitching anymore--show come August at the Showbox.

Yesterday, On the Boards announced their next season of shows, and we're excited. OtB is the company we most often recommend to friends, particularly if they're , classic tragedy and issue plays about people coming to terms with things are right up your alley. But a lot of people aren't like that, and for them, the whipsmart contemporary performance at OtB, visually interesting and intellectually stimulating, is going to be a more enjoyable night out, so long as they can get over the initial "it's performance art" thing. more ›

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"Booty is booty!" declares Seattle's very own Sir Mix-A-Lot towards the end of this profoundly hilarious "Baby Got Back"-inspired Burger King commercial advertising a SpongeBob SquarePants kids' meal. Phonebook implants are too cheap not to consider; it's almost enough to make us love this recession. Local rappers trying to be the next Mix, are you sure this is where you want to end up? Peep: more ›

At last year's Decibel Festival, one of the big disappointments was the fact that the duo CLP (Chris de Luca of Funkstorung and electro producer Phon.o) were unable to perform due to de Luca's inability to get through customs at the Canadian border. Sure, Phon.o performed, but for those looking for the full CLP experience it was a let-down. Well, tonight's the chance to alleaviate that disappointment, and without the frenzy of the festival setting. Decibel's brought CLP back to Seattle to play Nectar tonight, and will hopefully draw out a nice mix of techno nerds, hip hop beat freaks, and those looking for nothing more than a good time on the dance floor. For the latter group the video above should help you pick up a few moves. more ›

MvB is off to SIFF Cinema for Preston Sturges' Depression-era fable, Sullivan's Travels, and then there's a going-away party for a friend on pilgrimage, held in the medieval pageantry of Canterbury's. more ›

IF RAP GETS JEALOUS: Somalian-American hiphop artist K'naan brings his passionate, political flavor of hiphop to the city tonight, and you should be there to experience it if that sounds up your alley. He's phenomenal, you should know, if that helps to sway you towards heading to Neumos tonight. Opening for him is Ethiopian-American local emcee Gabriel Teodros, who never ever fails to convincingly call us towards a better life with his sincere and listenable rhyme, and the gorgeous and talented YZE. Get there. more ›

They Live! is Gatsby from Cancer Rising and DJ Bles One from Mash Hall. Not coincidentally, They Live! is also the bomb. We can vouch for that, having listened a large number of times to the first, sixteen minute episode of the absurdly good, theatrical, hilarious piece of hiphop they're calling the Dro Bots Saga. We've also gone completely bonkers along with the rest of the crowd during their rare live performances. Needless to say, Episode 1 of the Dro Bots Saga is mandatory downloading (here). Our favorite song from that installment is "Weed Murder," which has been getting some play on KEXP; now, there's a snazzy video to go along with the track. View now and become cooler by doing so: more ›

INTERNATIONAL TIPPLE TASTING: As a Pacific Rim port, Seattle should really be more broadly acquainted with saké than it is. Enter tonight's premium sake tasting at Umi Saké House in Belltown, a Saké Nomi event designed to familiarize attendees with thirty of the world's finest (and in some cases, rarest) brands. You and your fellow fermented rice enthusiasts will be able to sample a saké whose brand hails straight from 1505 as well as an igloo-brewed variety called "Divine Droplets." Kampai! more ›

We received the following dispatch an hour ago, regarding electro hiphop group Yo Majesty's upcoming show at Nectar: "Unfortunately, Jwl. B of Yo Majesty will not be attending the tour commencing today due to personal reasons making it impossible for her to travel. Shunda K will continue on with the Yo Majesty show, as she has in the past to great reviews." WHAT? Only one topless Christian lesbian? Where's the fun in that? No word as to whether Mad Rad will still be opening, considering their (typical) douchebag hipster behavior recently got them banned from several clubs in town. more ›

CD News has an update on the Chop Suey shooting that took place over the weekend. They say it was the result of a "long-running dispute" between one of the victims and one of the shooters (a dispute that "included a drive-by shooting" says Seattle 911). "The first of the two suspects, 25-year-old Roger Labranche of Everett, was arrested at the scene of the crime on Sunday morning after he had been grabbed and detained by clubgoers in the aftermath of the shooting. The second, Carlos Bernandez, 18, was arrested by the SWAT team at his parent's residence in Seattle yesterday afternoon following a stakeout. He later confessed his role in the shootings to police." The two suspects are being held on $2 million bail. more ›

MORE POWER TO YOUNG AMERICA: The Nite Owls are performing at the ever-excellent Corner tonight, boosting a strongly-recommended show's status up to "can't miss." The Nite Owls' mash-up of punk, rock n' roll, and hiphop will have you dancing and whooping it up, and at the Rendezvous, that means you'll be warm and in good, funny company while you do it. The group is comprised of members from The Saturday Knights, Cancer Rising, and Grayskul. Hear that? Also rockin' the stage: Orbitron, Ripynt, and Johnnie Storm. Shake off the cabin fever with us in Belltown tonight! more ›

The eerily dusky orange skies never did stop dumping snow on our plans last night. Instead of screaming and ripping out our hair in a cabin-feverish craze, we clicked over to Raindrophustla, a dependable source for entertainment and strange, local-music-oriented Youtube videos, to see what the Hustlas could offer us in terms of musical distraction. The Seattle blog didn't let us down. A downloadable, punk-spirited, indie rock-rinsed, effin' wonderful mix, entitled "Snowed In," is available on Raindrop--you should immediately left click, save as, extract, and play in your favorite media player, for sanity's sake. The Thermals, Velella Vellela, Raphael Saadiq...yessss. more ›

driving unless you have to. Try to use the bus. We know service is highly impacted by the weather, but Metro has a nice page set up that's regularly updated that gives you information on bus service. more ›

THE SECRETS OF CHANGE: According to this website, Rikki Ducornet is "a being unchained, transcendent as a mythical angel." That's probably placing the po-mo writer and poet on bit of a pedestal, but it's true--at least in the sense that Ducornet is more than a little "out there." She reads from her book of short, surrealist stories, The One Marvelous Thing, at the Elliott Bay Book Co. tonight. more ›

LIVING LEGENDS: No, not Twiggy. We're talking about the hiphop crew out of Cali, two members of which will be performing at Neumos tonight. The Grouch and Eligh are touring for the holidays (official tour title: "How The Grouch Stole Christmas"), sharing the evening's bill with Bayliens and 206 Zulu cornerstones Alpha P. The duo will release an album called Say G&E in the spring, so attendees tonight should be getting a sneak peek at the new material; we've also heard The Grouch's solo album Show You The World, which fans of underground and indie hiphop (a la Atmosphere) are encouraged to check out. more ›