It's easy to be a snarky critic, but really, could Tokyo Police Club have been more over-hyped? Standing inside the sticky heat at Neumo's for a sold-out show on Sunday (which nevertheless felt a bit empty after Smoosh finished their opening set), we were at first a bit curious how a band whose debut LP Elephant Swell had been out all of three weeks could afford a reasonably classy (if utterly uninspired) LED stage......

Austin-based band Monahans do to music what poetry does to words. Tonight, they'll bring their stylin' tunes to the Tractor. Also on the bill is local songwriter J. Tillman and the very pretty Zera Marvel. We called up Monahans frontman Greg last week during their brief stint with the Cowboy Junkies to find out why he thinks people should come to tonight's show. 9 p.m. // Tractor Tavern // $7 Where are you right......

If you've come to know Rilo Kiley through recordings, we're here to tell you that they're an even better band live. They open up the studio packaging and let the songs breathe. Sometimes it's bluesy, sometimes it's R&B, sometimes a torchy twang. Jenny Lewis led the Showbox audience through songs off the new album, Under the Blacklight, but everyone already knew all the words to "Close Call" and "The Moneymaker." We'd always thought of Rilo......

Have you outgrown Adam Sandler, yet long for foul-mouthed, self-effacing, Jewish-themed humor? It would be too Borscht-belt to make a yarmulke and dreidl joke here, but we'll leave to your imagination to suppose we did. Tonight at the Triple Door, Good for the Jews rocks the house. Or shtetl. If that's what a shtetl is. Oy! A comedic indie rock duo (read: half-Flight of the Conchords, half-Sarah Silverman) featuring Rob Tannenbaum (of VH1 commentator......

Mateo Messina, a Seattle native, has been composing television and film scores and penning symphonies for 10 years. His most recent score is for the upcoming, buzz-magnet comedy Juno. His latest symphony will be heard tonight at Benaroya Hall's (sold out) Symphony Legacy concert. (That's him above, at last year's show.) Messina's Symphony--a benefit for Seattle Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center--features the combined musical talents of the Northwest Symphony Orchestra and the Northwest......

Bumbershoot 2005 hosted the inaugural People Talking and Singing show, where 2,800 festival attendees packed McCaw Hall to see Dave Eggers, Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket), Mike Doughty, Sarah Vowell, and Death Cab for Cutie, all the while raising $18K for 826 Seattle, the youth writing center in Greenwood. Last year's event, also at Bumbershoot, was hosted by Daily Show Resident Expert™ John Hodgman and singer Jonathan Coulton. Eggers, Handler, Gibbard, and Vowell were back......

Seattlest feels dirty (not in a good way) after reading the Oxford American's article on indie rock and Seattle. Bill Wasik's piece about indie rock and the blogs and radio stations who love them revolves around Seattle and KEXP. He frames us as the first city of indie rock, which, first of all, doesn't seem right. We have a decent amount of indie-type bands and some clubs and Capitol Hill, but... do you think we're......

Yes, British indie rock quartet Editors are headlining at Chop Suey tonight, but we're more excited for super-catchy opening-opening band Ra Ra Riot. The Syracuse-based six-piece has guitars and cello and violin (oh my), and they've got one certifiably awesome song ("Dying is Fine") that's based on an ee cummings poem and reminds us of "Come on Eileen"--in a good way. Earlier this year, they wowed the critics at SXSW, ending up on NME's......

Seattle. Portland. Which one's better? You may say: "How can you choose? Each has their good points. It's like asking which religion is better." Guess what, asshole, that Negative Nellie attitude is the reason nobody ever asks for your fucking opinion. Jerk. To the debate! First up, it's a pro-Seattle opinion. Seattle is better than Portland, by Jeremy "The Seatown Samurai" Barker When I tell people that I think Portland's gone down the wrong road......

In Slate today, Taylor Clark declared our -Ist-less neighbor to the south "America's indie rock Mecca," then spent several paragraphs dropping names and figuring out why. His conclusion? It's easy to live here. In the words of a friend of mine who used to be the music editor at the local alt-weekly, Portland is like a resort community for indie rockers who spend half the year working themselves ragged on tour. You can venture into......

Rob Gordon once said, "The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules." Thanks Rob. Well said. If Rob's take......

Early during Sunday's Vampire Weekend set we sent a note to a friend asking, "Has KEXP frat-rock been coined a genre yet?" It was a half-flippant statement, based on the overly-enthusiastic fratty dudes standing to our left and the band's J. Crew ad appearance. In our more bitter days, we would have allowed those two factors to color our impression of the band and their output, but we'd already enjoyed Vampire Weekend's eponymous EP, so......

Pretty much everybody loves Mirrored, the debut LP from electro-happy post-rock quartet Battles. Ok, maybe not your mom, but all the critics, indie rock snobs, and definitely dudes who work at record stores. As touted by an uncharacteristically exuberant Pitchfork, "this foursome's first full-length is a mix of over-the-top whimsy, extreme rhythms, vise-tight musicianship, and a 21st century man-machine interface between live and laptop." This Thursday, Battles will be at the Croc to make......

Ladies, now that Pride is over, are you looking for a rock show chockful of straight men? Tuesday at Neumo's, jazz-leaning post-rock godfathers Tortoise will play to a room full of guys, and you can have your pick of the litter. Whether your type is the indie rock snob, the closet prog lover, or the patchouli-reeking Phish fan, they'll all be in attendance, and they'll be glad to see a woman or two who......

While Neumo's hosts SIFF's second Face the Music Rock Party, featuring the dreamy pop of Viva Voce, the fragile and spooky soul of Jesse Sykes, and the swoon-worthy indie rock of Siberian, local cutie pie sister act Smoosh opens for sassy Brit girl-group throwback The Pipettes tonight. Here's a video of Smoosh's cover of Bloc Party's "This Modern Love" from a show earlier this week: And the Pipettes--who also have a free instore tonight (7pm)......

Apparently, there's some other annual festival this weekend besides Sasquatch. That's right, Memorial Day also hearkens the return of Folklife, Seattle's hippiest fest, held every year at Seattle Center. Local singer-songwriter/friend of Seattlest Ali Marcus will be playing the festival (Sunday, 4pm at Cafe Impromptu in McCaw Hall), so we turned to her for an expert opinion on what's worth your time this weekend, besides hackysack and drum circle. Seattlest Kim's already given you......

Seattlest, it must be admitted, is not always ahead of the zeitgeist. We (or at least this author) only ever got around to reading Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life in like 2004. Thus hyped for the good old days of the real underground, we were inspired to go see Dinosaur Jr. a couple months later when, reunited, they stopped by the Showbox. Now, we must admit to never having really listened......

Another sold-out Saturday night at the Showbox. Another amazing performance by another amazing band it’s taken us too long to see. Indie-rock experimentalists, Blonde Redhead, really gave us a show we may never have seen before. Both visually and sonically stimulating, we walked away from the Showbox Saturday night feeling curiously mesmerized. The girl, Kazu Makino, a blue sparrow with an eerie voice and twin brothers, Simone and Amedeo Pace -- all genuinely seemed to......

Dammit, she auditioned in Seattle. Can't we claim her? It probably wouldn't be fair, since she's from Arizona, but last night it was the closest Seattle got to blowing minds on American Idol. Sparks gave us chills and goosebumps, proving that she has what it takes to be the runner up for this year's show. She still hasn't quite shut MindyDoo down, but chances are nobody really will. MD came out and rocked it......

This Saturday, Seattle's own The Long Winters will spread indie rock all over the spacious interior of our favorite venue, The Showbox. Reasons to attend this show: -- John Roderick's arrogance is matched only by his mastery of pop/rock hooks. -- Fabulous LA band The Broken West opens. Also in the house will be DorsiaFilms, shooting and recording the show on spiffy high-def equipment -- presumably to supplement the already fantastic material being edited for......

About two years ago we caught Dinosaur Jr down at the Showbox. It was the first tour in about 20 years that the three founding members of the group--J. Mascis, Lou Barlow, and Emmet Patrick "Murph" Murphy--were performing together, and they were showing their age. Murph was balding or bald (he'd finished shaving his head to obscure the fact) and was huffing behind his trap kit. Mascis looked kinda like something the dog drug......

Jesse Thorn, member of sketch comedy group Prank the Dean, produces his public radio show from his own living room in Los Angeles. At first, Seattlest thought that was code for "I am unemployed and play a lot of XBox" but it turns out he actually does have a radio show (this is still ambiguous on the "unemployed" detail), and even more to the point: it is very good. For many, even those of us......

Between fake terrorist alerts and scandals big and small, this just might be the Best Best of the -ists ever. We're exhausted just thinking about it. First up, SFist, who saw their little 'ole site be the center of what was a nice little scandal (even getting their editor on TV) only to find their scandal dwarfed by the even bigger scandal caused by their Mayor boffing one of his aides' wife. We're not......

Tuesday, January 30 >>> Jacob London at Baltic Room. Jacob London is known most widely for their house music releases (they've put out material on the legendary Classic Music Company label), but tonight they'll be exploring their more techno-oriented output with a live set. We don't know if that makes it more or less likely that they'll bring their microphone monkey, but expect quality music with a lot of quirky turns. 10:00 pm //......

Friday night's show was a good sign that the mustache craze has gone too far; Jesse Hughes, sure, but Stephen Malkmus? Even he seemed uncertain of it when, upon arriving onstage, the audience didn't seem to recognize him. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks nevertheless delivered a strong set of indie rock. His solo work (the Jicks really serving as Malkmus's back-up act) seems to take off from where Pavement left off, from the Shady......

MUSIC: The grandfather of punk (and thus the great-grandfather of indie rock) Jonathan Richman is in Ballard at the Tractor tonight. You might recall his song "Roadrunner" in the School of Rock soundtrack or you may recognize his influence in every rock band everywhere since the mid-60s. 8pm // The Tractor // $12 THEATRE: The Washington Ensemble Theatre's production of "Never Swim Alone" is about two guys who grew up competing against each other on......

Tuesday 17th >>> Beirut at The Croc. This 20-year-old wunderkind from Albuquerque is the latest entrant into Who Wants To Be a Gypsy Rock Star Millionaire? 9pm;$10 >>> The Secret Machines at The Showbox. The sonically huge psych rockers will be performing tonight in the round, each member of the trio on an elevated platform on the venue floor. If nothing else, it's something different. 8pm doors; $14adv/$16dos. All ages Wednesday 18th >>> The......

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Architecture in Helsinki Takka Takka Wednesday, October 11th We at Seattlest have fallen victim to the local trend of blowing off the opening band once or twice, especially at a hot, sold-out show. We mean damn, we need to get our pre-funk in order! The second night of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at the Showbox was that type of show, but we braved to go where few go:......

So the last two days we heard seven bands. And that was a Sunday and Monday night! Our ears are tired. Not that you care. Where the hell were you, anyway? About 20 people showed up for the El Corazon show. It was all-ages, but only four under-21ers skipped Sunday-night homework to come. A bunch of Euro-sausage arrived late to catch Starsailor at the Crocodile. You know, with their Euro-pop t-shirts and orange sneakers.......

If it weren't for our life as an -ist, we're not sure we'd ever leave our apartment. Fortunately, to fully -ist, one must seek out the new, the fresh, and the unknown. Brand new, or just new to us, that's what we're all about this week. Phillyist keeps it fresh by getting a new motto, learning to prioritize, and taking in an experimental indie rock show. Torontoist does their first post in franglais, gets ready......