If you're reading this, chances are you call or have called Seattle home. If that's you, it's quite likely you've lived with, are friends with or are a musician. Quite possibly you are all of those things. Even if none of these categories fits you or anyone you know, your life experience has no doubt taught you musicians can be an odd lot. And I mean that lovingly. more ›

One of our favorite Flickr pool contributors is Shawn "SlightlyNorth" McClung, a Denver transplant with an eye for graffiti and the wilds of SoDo. After ogling a whopping ten of his Flickr sets in SlightlyNorth's "Ephemeral Art" collection, we asked the man to tell us more about his photography, the tagging community, and his abiding love for an often-neglected neighborhood. more ›

Way back in February, we went down to Memphis for our other job to commune with all the other folk music nuts at the International Folk Alliance Conference. While there, we stumbled into a late night songwriters-in-the-round showcase that was taking place in someone's hotel room around about midnight, or one of the hours between it and sunrise. It was all a big blur, to be honest. But one of the artists that struck our fancy was one Natalia Zukerman of New York City. Zukerman will be joining forces with Adrianne (of Atlanta, Georgia) this Wednesday to bring some of that swell East Coast action to our little Pacific outpost. They'll set up shop at the High Dive at 9 p.m., and play until someone shuts them down. We recommend you go, and we bet Zukerman would recommend the same. We didn't ask her that when we got her on the phone last week, but we did ask her other things. Read on... more ›

Ben Lashes of Seattle rockers the Lashes gets to interview Slash of Guns N' Roses for Spin.com. The video, which would have benefitted greatly from subtitles (maybe that's just our crappy desktop speakers though), includes the phrases "How about the marshmallow cheeseburger?" and "Boy I wish I had brought a lighter, I could have got that for you," as well as some adorable fandom from a few teenage boys. Has anyone heard Chinese Democracy yet? Was that leak the real album, or what? And are any of you planning on going to the nearest exclusively licensed mega tech store to buy the album? more ›

We first became privy to Willy Porter years ago when he opened for Tori Amos at the University of Central Florida, and we still dig his impressive guitar skills and rootsy acousti-pop songwriting. He'll be rolling into town tomorrow night to play an early show at the Tractor with the amazing ladies of Raining Jane. We got him on the phone this week for a little insight into what he's been up to lately. Enjoy! more ›

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. more ›

When Seattlest was just a wee lesbian growing up in a small southern town, we did what we reckon other wee small-town lesbians did: we listened to a lot of k.d. lang and the Indigo Girls. We went on long road trips across the whole state with the windows down, our other closeted friends with us, singing "Galileo" at the top of our lungs. Ah, those good ol' days of closeted small-town life. more ›

Photo of One Be Lo by Kyle Johnson. more ›

Seattlest has heard good things about the All-Star Pop Culture quiz at Jillian's ever since it started up. We still haven't had a chance to check it out—Tuesday's our regular trivia night, even when we're not hosting. But since the spring season kicks off tonight, we did the next best thing: interviewed Trevor Trifiro, the brains behind the quiz. more ›

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. more ›

Seth Kolloen starting covering sports for Seattlest in January 2005. Late last year he took over as editor, before leaving us to become the editor of the brand new Sports Northwest Magazine. We caught up with Seth poolside at the W Hotel to discuss the move to press row, his sports blog, and why he won’t be calling Maggie Gyllenhaal any time soon. more ›

The Starlings—a band that started with Joy Mills and her husband Tomm but has since grown into a solid foursome—have spent the last couple of years forging their way through the local music scene, touring now and then. This Saturday, they'll celebrate the release of their second independent release, Marvelling the While—a wonderful collection of country-pop-and-blues-infused Americana that further solidifies their rootsy sound. more ›

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Macklemore, recently back from touring Europe, sat down with us at Vivace last Saturday to discuss his art, his ego, and his shoes (among other topics). Get the low-down here, and don’t miss the man’s show at the Vera Project tonight with Illmaculate and Ricky Pharoe! more ›

Seattlest is most familiar with Drew Emmitt through his time with the fabulous bluegrass group Leftover Salmon. Now Emmitt's coming to town with his own band (named, aptly, the Drew Emmitt Band) and will be helped by openers the Hackensaw Boys. If you haven't caught the Hackensaw Boys, their live show is a raging good time. They're the definition of high-powered, high-speed punk-rock bluegrass and, before you know it, you, too, will be hopping around the room like the big hick you are. more ›

Local Singer/Songwriter Joanna Horowitz got a crazy idea a year or so ago. A long-time musician involved in the theater business, she thought it might be fun to write a musical. Enter 100 Heartbreaks... more ›

If you've yet to hear Barton Carroll's work, you should get on it. There's a Billy Braggish quality to it, a little Bruce Springsteen. There's a little Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark going on there, maybe even a little bit of the Pogues. His guitar work isn't necessarily extraordinary, but it builds cascading walls of sound that wrap around you, creating a nice little room where the songs dance amid filtered light and images of longing. His stories aren't afraid to back off and let the instruments go for a spell. His voice cracks now and then the way skin cracks on a well-worked pair of hands. Honest is the best word for it. more ›

Last summer (ah, summer!) we drove down to Portland for their annual Pickathon Roots Music Festival, where we found ourselves exposed to all manner of folkies from Portland and beyond. One of the bands that stole the weekend for us was from Indiana, of all godforsaken places. On Saturday night, Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band played a show in the barn that seriously blew our mind. Joined by Seattleite Jason Webley, they just played a flat-out barn burner of a show. more ›

Seattlest David: What's up, computer? more ›

DJ Nphared spins for Sportn' Life artists, including D. Black and Fatal Lucciauno, and he also DJs for Grynch. Seattlest enjoyed his mixes at the Parker Brothaz show on Monday, so we set out to learn more about this guy's ethos. more ›

A few weeks ago, singer/raconteur Jenny Owen Youngs was in town, playing at the High Dive the same time as the Fremont Bridge was being closed evenings, which led to our arriving mid-set in a state of high dudgeon. We decided to skip a half-assed review, and afterwards fired off some impertinent questions via email. We just heard back, and as you'll see, Jenny schools us a bit. Now we adore her even more. If you buy her new album, Batten the Hatches, tell her we sent you. more ›

Trouble in Tahiti / Rita: Seattle Young Artists Program @ CHAC more ›

Adrian Tomine started making comics in his teens when he created Optic Nerve. In it, he tells stories about people who tend to be searching for answers to questions they seem to think everyone else already knows. After a few years putting out Optic Nerve on his own, it was picked up by publisher Drawn and Quarterly. more ›

Why hip-hop? more ›

Ravens & Chimes [myspace] have been artist of the day on Spin, and you've heard them on John in the Morning. Their new album, Reichenbach Falls, "dropped" last month. They are hot. Two Ravens, Abe Pollack and Brittany Anjou, are Seattle types. Pollack went to U Prep, Anjou's a Roosevelt grad. Word! We emailed Pollack some questions, he emailed back answers. 1) How did you end up in Brooklyn? I moved to New York six... more ›

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.) more ›

In 2004, Ken Jennings redefined success on Jeopardy!, banking over $2,500,000 as he won 74 games. Those of us who get paid in bar credit know it's hard to make a living through trivia, but Jennings has done it. He turned his obligatory cash-in-on-your-15-minutes book, Brainiac, into something much better and broader, an examination of trivia history and culture. more ›

We're all wondering why you're not named on the lineup for The Program at Neumos in December. What gives? Will you be joining Khingz on stage? more ›

This weekend, Seattlest scored an email interview with Larry Mizell Jr, aka Gatsby of Cancer Rising, aka Man About Town (our term, not his). Readers: read on! more ›

We were first turned onto Susan Werner back in our New York days when she played a free show at the World Trade Center. We were broke and all about free things, and we had a nice healthy respect for the sort of music the show sponsor WFUV felt like sharing with the world. We were impressed then by her candid poetics and a particularly lovely tune called "Time Between Trains" that stuck with us quite a while. more ›