Saigon descended upon Neumos Wednesday night in true East Coast style, backed by three hype-men, two photographers, one DJ, and for awhile two dancing "homegirls". (Yes, his shirt did come off for a brief moment, and we did get to see those famous bulging arm muscles.) A sparse but expectant crowd watched as the New York rapper and his posse blew through an aggressive set that included the extra-tight club favorite "C'mon Baby" dropped......

We just heard about the benefit concert for one of our favorite 15th Ave irregulars, Orion -- whom you may know from such 15th Ave hotspots as the North Hill Bakery and the Hopvine. The benefit part is to help pay for uninsured Orion losing several teeth and fracturing some bones in his face after a bicycle accident. Why do bad things happen to good people? It's a fair question -- Orion is nothing if......

It's been a while since we've heard from The Forms. The Brooklyn four-piece put out their debut album Icarus in 2003 to widespread acclaim, with the Steve Albini-produced work earning an 8.5 from Pitchfork for its "wiry, punchy, indie pop with refreshingly un-hackneyed time-signature games and judiciously placed dissonant chords." And then? Nothing. Till this year, when their cover of "Ignoreland" was included in Stereogum’s fifteenth anniversary tribute to R.E.M.’s Automatic For The People,......

After kittens yawning and cross-species friendship, dear sweet Jens Lekman may be the most precious thing found in all of nature. The Gothenberg Swede makes orchestral pop songs in the vein of Morrissey or the Magnetic Fields without even being gay (just European). To promote Night Falls Over Kortedala, one of the best reviewed albums of the year, Jens has been touring around the States with his almost-all-girl backing band: For the 10/23-11/10 leg......

Donte's blurb for Man Man is "warpaint!"; our motto for the fun-time Philly circus band is "everybody hits something!" Regardless, the "Viking-vaudeville punk-wop rock-and-soul collective" consistently puts on a great live show. Last night at Neumo's, even their sound check was awesome, and that was way before they donned the all-white outfits and face paint. In fact, the over-the-top performance is so central to Man Man's appeal that we don't even bother to listen......

Caribou. Caribou. Caribou. So noisy. So dreamy. So indie. Andorra's "Melody Day" will fool you into thinking this is throwback '60s guitar pop, complete with breathy vocals. Daniel Snaith tootles on a variety of recorder, on one of those breath-powered keyboards. But the live show is a dual-drummer powered, electronica explosion -- the caribou are stampeding. The vocals disappear into the thudding beats and swirls of sonic fragments, and the songs become frenzied, pell-mell jams......

Get this while you can, local hip-hop fans: GMK's anticipated new mixtape, Perfect 10, finally dropped and it's available online for free download, thanks to the largesse of host DJ B-Mello. Here's where you acquire the goodness. Seattlest has added "Baby Wanna Drop That," "Dream On," and "Promised Land" to this week's heavy rotation list. If you like what you hear, get your well-intentioned heart to a live show and support the guys with a......

Oh, no, we've got the right Eleanor Friedberger, Ms. Friedberger. We were there. We saw what you were up to. You and your brother, Matthew, correct? The man making like an evil genius on a midway organ. Look, we just have a few questions, we understand you wrote this, these, yes, these are your words?And I did not fail to bust off a nail as the dodge door handle dodges my hand -- delicate, delicate,......

Katelyn Hackett attends local hiphop shows. She will write about them for Seattlest. Another gleeful, sharp, and passionate local hiphop show came and went Sunday night at Neumos, and chances are high that you weren't there. Chances are high, actually, that you didn't even know it was happening. Seattlest heard about the show through our perusal of trusty MySpace bulletins; if we weren't already such devoted fans we could have easily spent the evening with......

The Go! Team - "Grip Like a Vice" The Go! Team (surely you remember them from all of their Pitchfork love and their incessant adoration in the blogosphere - including us - for 2004's Thunder, Lightning, Strike) play Neumos tonight in support of their new album, Proof of Youth (the video above is for the first single). The new album's been criticized as being a bit of a rehash of ideas from the group's debut,......

Whether you're a fan of melodic noise-rock (not always a contradiction in terms) or just never got over a childhood obsession with dinosaurs, Pterodactyl is the band for you--especially if you like post-rock that doesn't take itself too seriously. They'll be playing at the Sunset tonight with two awesomely named bands we know absolutely nothing about: Nudity and Same Sex Dictator. What we do know is that Pterodactyl has put out a well-reviewed debut......

Seattlest arrived on scene soon after the Capitol Hill Block Party had opened. We wandered, checked out the stage locations and thought about getting a beer, then spotted a booth touting free bottled water. It looked like the booth had something to do with praying to the Earth Spirits or some other new wave white hippy crap, but we decided to take our chances. We asked for a water and oddly enough their were no......

Seattlest has mentioned our appreciation for local band Sleepy Eyes of Death before. They opened for The Octopus Project, acting as a wonderful complement to their synthy quirkiness with a more epic, post-rock feel. Now it's their time to shine. Sure, they're opening again, but this appearance is for the release of their debut LP, Street Lights for a Ribcage. While there's something lost in the translation from live to recording (you can't capture......

Last time Under Byen played Seattle, we told you how great they were, and some of you listened, since Chop Suey was packed. Well, they're back again tonight (at Neumos), so you know what to do. Show up, stand in the dark, and sway to the band's beautiful output. Never mind that the lyrics are in Danish, that doesn't take away from the show in the slightest. They're opening for The Album Leaf, who put......

Oh yes, Seattlest fans, it's that time of year again. When, after weeks of teasing, the sun finally decides to stick around. When all able-bodied gay men head to Madison Beach in their tight little shorts with their cute little dogs, and all the able-bodied lesbians head to some outdoor location with their picnic blankets and their mullets for an Indigo Girls concert. Ever since the children of Fremont decided they hate the rest......

Ah, the festival. The half-pound Gorge Burger, the ten-dollar beer, the fragrant smell of weed and clove cigarettes carried along by an occasional, much appreciated breeze. And of course, all that music. By the time our feet hit festival ground, Viva Voce were setting up at the Yeti Stage. We got our burger and a beer and settled in for a bit of Seattlest's favorite married rock couple. We hadn't seen Viva Voce live......

Before she came out, walked to center stage and stole our hearts, we were lucky to have made it to the Moore in time to catch the last couple songs from the ex Moldy Peaches guitarist, Only Son. Actually it was more like two songs and a story. A story put to music, told pretty much off-the-cuff and in the first-person about a guy in a grocery store. He sees a girl. She's cute, but......

Mono play Neumos tonight, finally headlining a bigger Seattle stage after years of opening spots (also years of them showing up headliners). Sure, it's a bit formulaic with the whole quiet-LOUD-quiet template, but when you execute the template this well so consistently, it really doesn't matter anymore. Legions of fans know that Mono's live show takes your breath away. Now it's your turn to find out for yourself.......

Flickr photo by Anziano311 For the last few years Austin’s SXSW Music festival has brought Seattle their best European (mostly U.K.) bands; many of them making their first appearance here before heading back across the pond or whisking away to the many summer music festivals around the country. Seattle seems like a good enough launch pad though, and we’ve got a few beauties lined up. On Monday, May 5th two of the biggest bands......

...in which we pit two bands against each other, to better determine how you should spend your Tuesday night. In this corner: Peachcake Weight: 200 lbs soaking wet Hometown: Phoenix Peachcake is composed of Stefan Pruett and John O'Keefe, two enthusiastic Arizona kids who like to dress up and make sunny electro-dance rock. Their debut full-length won't be out until this summer, but what we've heard of it is upbeat synthy pop songs with completely......

Tonight's episode of This American Life is "What I Learned from TV," compiled from live performances on their tour of the same name. Pieces by David Rakoff, Sarah Vowell, and Dan Savage will be included. Seattlest went on March 7, when the live show hit the Paramount, and we can confirm that the Rakoff and Savage stories are solid. (We're also happy that Alexa Junge's piece, about her experiences as a female TV scriptwriter,......

Tuesday, January 23 >>> Sister Act at Meany Theater. Pianists, professors, and sisters Robin & Rachelle McCabe perform Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Mozart¹s Sonata in B-flat major, K. 358 for piano four-hands, Gershwin¹s sparkling An American in Paris, and more. 7:30pm // $10 Wednesday, January 24 >>> The Tiptons at Triple Door. This all-female sax quartet, is named for Billy Tipton, a 50s bandleader who was born as a woman but......

Tuesday, December 12 >>> Roger O'Donnell at Baltic Room. No longer part of The Cure, keyboardist Roger O'Donnell graces Oscillate to perform some synth-driven pieces from his first solo album The Truth in Me. With Christopher Willits. 10pm; $15. 21+ Wednesday, December 13 >>> Betamax at Old 5th Ave Tavern. Seattlest Kim's folktronic band-o-dorks takes over this Maple Leaf dive bar for a pre-holidays folk-out. *mp3: Long Long Long 8pm; free. Thursday, December 14......

Sunday 12/10 @ Neumo's Juno Ted Leo + the Pharmacists Junior Boys Cold War Kids SOLD OUT! Sunday was the much ballyhooed Part Two of the sold-out KEXP Yule Benefit. These are always great shows because the crowd is diverse and the mood is chill. The bands know they are playing for KEXP music afficionados like ourselves so they also tend to put on a slightly better show. Sunday was no exception. This odd......

Tuesday 14th >>> P.O.S. at Chop Suey. P.O.S. is one of the latest hot MCs to "blow up" (the term being relative since this is still very underground hip-hop we're discussing here). In any case, there's an opener called the Cleveland Steamers, and how could you not want to see what that sounds like? 8pm doors; $10. All ages. >>> Hot Chip at Neumo's. Hot Chip blurs the line between the electronic and indie......

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......

Seattlest had the chance to take in quite a few good shows over the past week. Saturday night was no exception. It was just last March when we first saw Art Brut here in Seattle. They were still relatively unknown at the time, having just released their debut album Bang Bang Rock & Roll in the States. After hearing their album, we weren't sure then they could pull off the live show. After their......

For weeks we've been waiting for the opportunity to share our latest obsession. Unlike previous obsessions with curling, competitive eating, or most recently Rock Paper Scissors, this obsession is more academic in nature. It concerns the rare, not yet standard punctuation mark known as the interrobang. It combines the exclamation point and the question mark to express both excitement and disbelief. If you've ever said "What!?" then you know how it should be used. We......

By embracing you with hard rocking hands, petting your head with beats, and letting you know in a sweet falsetto voice that the rocking will never stop, Spoon bends you into believing that everything is going to be okay. Even in the hot hot sun, even when the only food you can afford is roasted corn, even when they have David Cross do an interpretive dance of one of their songs and he shows......

The bar is set extraordinarily low for visual entertainment from DJs. Most opt to just mix tracks on two turntables, and while that (hopefully) sounds good, it's just doesn't have the same presence as a band. That's why showmen like Jamie Lidell or Jeremy Ellis and John Arnold are such breaths of fresh air, giving a crowd something to watch while providing the body with a rhythmic imperative. Tonight's Oscillate with Jeff Milligan should prove......