Results tagged “livemusic”

Before the seasons changed and our rain-induced pseudo-hibernation began, we were able to gather up many fond musical memories during festival season. During one such venture we were able to talk to Hey Marseilles and Fences as part of our Better Know a CHBP Band series. As luck has it the two bands will be playing the Vera Project this Saturday. (Tickets $10, all ages, 7:30 PM)

Tonight Girls Rock! Seattle will host a "50 Shows in 50 States" fundraiser at The High Dive, featuring performances by Goodness, The Redwood Plan, Eighteen Individual Eyes, and Alicia Dara. The fundraiser is part of a nationwide effort to raise money and awareness for Girls Rock! Seattle and the Girls Rock Camp Alliance (GRCA), an international coalition unifying girls’ rock camps and girls’ music projects around the world. The goal of the fundraiser is to hold 50 shows in 50 states on the same day to benefit the cause.

THE LIFE AQUATIC: The aspiring marine biologist in all of us owes a great debt to the achievements of Mr. Cousteau. His contributions to the development of scuba gear alone led to great advancements in underwater exploration. Vashon Island author Brad Matsen reads from Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King tonight. Let's hope that he doesn't leave out the pirate raid and revenge plot against the shark that killed his partner.

Are there memories in particular that stand out when you think about playing Seattle or just memories about Seattle in general? I remember seeing some very straight but totally homoerotic lumberjacks at four in the morning somewhere. And it was one of the most enthralling visions of my West Coast existence. I always remember Seattle as a very sexy, rough and tumble town.

As this show is part of The Earshot Jazz Festival, it stands to reason that the set might trend toward the jazz/R&B end of her spectrum, putting her jamming conglomerate to full use. It’s sure to please.

Gossip is an Olympian band that chose its name wisely: they're worth spreading, fun to know, and slightly malicious. We mean that in the best possible way. Live, the three-piece vibe raucous fury, singer Beth Ditto's righteous wail affixed like a spike to the front of guitarist Brace Paine and drummer Hannah Blilie chop shop roadster. Fast, dark, and dangerous, just like Gossip.

If the words Neutral Milk Hotel and free don’t relieve any autumnal sorrows you might be feeling, we’re afraid we probably won’t be able to help you.

This weekend, we’re happy to recommend two events that may just enhance your mental and physical health, while helping to connect you with your neighbors one last time before the rain-induced hibernation officially begins. These two events combine three of the city's strengths: local music, community and the great outdoors.

Along with our favorite purveyors of Seattle goof rock, BOAT and Aqueduct, we were delighted when one of our or newest favorite pop rock imports--who happen to also have an aquatic name--self-released their third offering just about one month ago. The Seattle by-way-of-Boston trio The Sea Navy have continued to fine-tune their craft of producing tunes that should delight fans of the Cold War Kids, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and catchy pop rock

BATTLE FOR SEATTLE: Fundraiser sponsored by McGinn for Mayor, Pete Holmes for City Attorney, and Friends of Dow Constantine featuring the Presidents of the United States of America, Krist Novoselic, The Maldives, and DJ Supreme. VIP reception at Via Tribunali.

GET YOUR LADYHAWKE ON: Although supporting Perez Hilton is probably not high on your agenda (hopefully), the lineup makes that forgivable. His first endeavor in concert-promoting brings you Ladyhawke, Ida Maria, and Semi Precious Weapons.

OCEAN JUNK: Saturday Curtis Ebbesmeyer reads from his new book Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science at the Central Library. Ebbesmeyer is a very smart guy studying a very disturbing and very new topic: ocean-borne trash. If anyone can figure out where those severed feet that washed up around Puget Sound came from, it’s him. A must for anyone concerned about the state of the oceans.

CALL IT GOOF-HOP Kid Koala plays Nectar tonight. The Vancouver-born DJ makes relaxing hiphop/glitch-flavored songs. He’s one of those people whom it seems unfair to call a "DJ" because his records are more than remixes: his music is uniquely, goofily relaxing. His first record, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, sounds like a dance club on Sesame Street. Kid Koala is a rare thing: a DJ who just wants to make you smile. With Adira.

BECAUSE YOU'VE BEEN PRACTICING YOUR EDDIE VEDDER FACE: Be uber Seattley and go see Pearl Jam, with Ben Harper and Relentless 7 at Key Arena. Drink lots of coffee and wear plaid. You know you want to.

Dirty Three play depressing but somehow uplifting songs. The group instrumental music takes elements from jazz, folk, chamber music, and traditional rock. They’re led by Nick Cave’s favorite violinist--fans of Cave’s brand of Australian literary post-punk rock will enjoy this.

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.

To those of you who only identify the soundtrack of Scotland as bagpipe tunes and/or the sunny pop of Belle & Sebastian, we implore you to spend some time with tonight’s Neumos lineup.

LET THEM EAT CAKE: Essential Baking Company is celebrating their 15th birthday, which means a taste of their signature chocolate hazelnut birthday cake is on the house today--for every customer making a purchase and while supplies last, of course--at both the Wallingford and Madison locations. After the free cake has run dry, both locations will be selling $1.50 cupcakes until October 14 in honor of the occasion. Considering the amount of Seattle boutique cupcake shops, we have obviously proven our love for cake and would recommend showing up early before the free cake disappears into everyone else's mouths.

Like most who reside in Seattle, here at Seattlest we're music fans 365 days a year. If we were to live in any other city, I'm sure we would be much less optimistic about what the impending end of summer (and traditional festival season) would mean for our love of live music. Luckily for us, we don't have to worry about such a fate as Seattle offers many musical options well into the dead of the wet season.

                     

From Everest first taking the stage, through the various moments of audio and comedic bliss throughout the long weekend, to the last chords strummed by Metric's James Shaw, we were incredibly thankful for all that Bumbershoot--this city's oldest music festival--has to offer. As we recollect, we invite you to spend some time clicking through this photo gallery made up of shots from the Seattlest Flickr Pool.

OK, so the Huskies match against the Tigers didn’t exactly give us the outcome we were hoping for, but at least the heartfelt performances by all in purple and gold made the city proud. While that game has come and gone, there is still one main event that is in full force. Of course, we speak of Bumbershoot, our city’s own music festival that was born as a city-funded event in 1971.

Despite what some may lead you to believe, music in Seattle is incredibly rich in its diversity. Sure, we go through obsessive periods honed in on specific genres-- last year it was all about harmony-rich folk, this year it seems to be more about straight-ahead rock—but there is certainly something here that should please every music fan.

NUCLEAR WASTELANDS: And they're in Washington! Tonight is your last chance to see lauded local doc Arid Lands, winner of the Best Film award at the 2008 Local Sightings Festival. The film explores the economic, environmental, and social impacts of, well, Hanford, the superfund site to end all superfund sites, replete with leaking nuclear waste containers, buried train cars full of radioactive animal poo, and countless other horrors of the nuclear era.

IS THAT FUNK I SMELL?: George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, objectively speaking the best funk band in the world, play the Showbox SoDo tonight. We can’t think of anything to say about this that hasn’t been said, except that you owe it to yourself to see Clinton perform--after 50 years in the industry, he still brings it.

SHE GOT SOUL: Bettye Lavette, a Detroit native and prolific singer-songwriter well known for her work in the Motown era, is visiting Seattle tonight and tomorrow night. Though Lavette toured in the 1960s with the likes of Otis Redding and Ben E. King and even had a short stint with the James Brown Revue, she always flew under the fame radar until 2005, when she released her album, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise. While in Seattle, Lavette will be singing songs from her latest album, The Scene of the Crime, along with old favorites from the '60s.

CLEANUP IN REACTOR B: Oh Hanford. In the '40s, Southeast Washington's Columbia Basin was a burgeoning industrial center, thanks to plutonium production as part of the Manhattan Project. Spoiler alert: There are future repercussions. As the winner of Best Film at last year's Local Sightings Film Festival, Grant Aaker and Josh Wallaert's documentary Arid Lands explores the many facets of the nuclear cleanup and the myriad players--Native Americans, farmers, developers, activists, fishermen, and scientists--in the community. The film plays at the NWFF through Thursday.

Amused, Confused, & More Bad News, the third (or fourth, depending on how you look at it) studio album from local post-psych outfit The Purrs, comes across as guardedly autobiographical. Amidst the jangly guitar rock and fuzzed-out riffs, you can read the album as a document of the band's struggles since their 2005 debut The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of. With songs like "Loose Talk" and "Taste of Monday" garnering regular play on KEXP, the self-released album did about as well as they could have hoped for. They signed to a local label, and things were looking good. Then, well, not much happened.

Here at Seattlest, we’ve always been big fans of local purveyors of goofy indie rock, BOAT. With their latest album scheduled to be released on Magic Marker records on October 27, we’ve been delighted to see they’ve been added quite a few PacNW dates to their schedule.

WHAT WE NEED: Coffee. Like, right now. These events today don't make any sense, and writing this is proving unusually difficult. And, of course, there's no coffee in the cupboard. Also, we don't live anywhere near a Macrina Bakery. They turn 16 today, and to celebrate you get a free coffee if you buy bread. But bread we do have. It's the coffee we're out of. All this is hard.

Leave it to one of Seattle's weirdest and coolest bands to be the first to perform at an active volcano in the continental U.S. Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band performed a special benefit show at the Johnston Ridge Observatory at Mt. St. Helens on August 15th as part of the celebration marking the 30th anniversary of the volcano's eruption.