Twenty-one year-old Mercury Prize nominee Jamie T has his first show in Seattle at the Croc Saturday, and it's a big 'un: John in the Morning at Night. He'll be primarily playing from his debut full-length, but we're sure he'll throw in a few songs not found on Panic Prevention. After all, as Jamie himself said, "There's, what, sixteen songs on the album? I had about forty-five songs for that record, just because I'd been writing and recording loads of shit all the time, and everything on the next one is going to be brand new." more ›

British boy wonder/musical polyglot Jamie T makes his first trip to Seattle to play the latest incarnation of John in the Morning at Night, coming up this Saturday at the Croc. On his debut full-length Panic Prevention, the young Mr. T. makes veritable sound collages, amalgams of rock, reggae, punk, soul, rap, heavy cockney accents, and assorted audio clips. That's exactly why he gets comparisons that run the gamut from a baby Bob Dylan to a "one-man Arctic Monkey" to "the bastard lovechild of Billy Bragg and Mike Skinner doing his best Joe Strummer impression" (eminently choice quotes care of Wikipedia). When we asked Jamie how he would characterize his sound, he cheekily referred to a bandmate's description: "My friend Ben who plays drums in the Pacemakers [his backing band] describes it best--well, it's the only way I like to describe it--like liquid shit being poured into your ear." Delightful. more ›

Yes, the line-up for Bumbershoot is more than underwhelming, but check this shit out: more ›

Seattlest read enough "Band to Watch" articles to get either mildly excited or moderately annoyed at the latest Norwegian band to bring their act to the states – 120 Days (file under this year's Serena Maneesh). Formerly known as "The Beautiful People" – these fresh-faced Oslo boys had all the girls swooning at Chop Suey with a formulaic mix of Roland Samples and sexy drum beats (think New Order), oversaturated guitars (think My Bloody Valentine), and a singer with enough swagger and skill to make it all flow (um, Bono?). It's a sound with influences we dig; we just question the concept of originality. One thing is for certain though; their live show definitely lived up to the "Pitchfork-Hype" we expected to regret and the tinge of rock was a pleasant surprise from a band known for 9 minute songs. In fact, after listening to their latest self-titled release, most everything about this band surprised us – mostly their amazing on-stage energy. Not typical from a band with such shoe-gaze aspirations. We just wouldn't want to be their roadie – we've never seen so much damn equipment on stage for one band! 120 Days seem poised to assimilate most of North America as they close out a successful tour here on the West Coast. Holding it down on hump day, Seattlest took in all the experimental/ambientness we could handle from local opening bands Joy Wants Eternity and New Grey Area – unfortunately we probably needed to drop some E to really enjoy the mix of slide show and live show. Really now, that hasn't been done well since The Knife.... more ›

Sunday night Joy Wants Eternity, From Monument to Masses, Unwed Sailor, and Mars Accelerator took over El Corazon for an experimental-indie-ambient, all-instrumental show (we weren't able to decipher any of the sounds the Mars Accelerator guy was producing, so we're counting his vocal input as an extra instrument). more ›

On the off-chance you're interested in doing something besides hanging out at art galleries all weekend long, head down to the S.S. Marie Antoinette for the two-night all-ages party thrown by locally-based music collective Beep Repaired. They're celebrating the new release of a compilation featuring 18 of their artists, entitled Beep Repaired Family Tree. more ›