It's only playing for one week, so be sure to check out Nanking, a moving documentary about the 1937 Japanese invasion of the titular Chinese town. The film begins its theatrical run in Seattle this Friday, February 1st. The story is told through emotional interviews with Chinese survivors, archival footage, and chilling testimonies by Japanese soldiers, interwoven with readings of Westerners’ letters and diaries as performed by Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway, Jurgen Prochnow, and......

Recently, we've been spending a lot of time talking about films not yet (if ever) released, but now it's time to turn our focus back to movies actually playing in theaters. Nanking, a moving documentary about the 1937 Japanese invasion of the titular Chinese town, won an editing award at last year's Sundance and also played SIFF 2007. Now the film begins its theatrical run in Seattle this Friday, February 1st. The story is......

It's safe to assume that Sharon Jones is cooler than you. The current queen of neo-funk/soul grew up in Macon, Georgia and Brooklyn, singing in church before ending up doing session work in the '70s as the anonymous vocals on dance and disco records. Without a solo contract of her own, she left the industry and took odd jobs like corrections officer at Rikers Island and Wells Fargo armored car guard. Fate intervened in......

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:......

Last Thursday night...yes, we're late posting -- another lost weekend of coke & strippers & head-exploding mornings of self-loathing and fear. Stupid family reunions. So last Thursday night we went to hear Favourite Sons [myspace] at Chop Suey. We'd previewed Favourite Sons at their website before going, but we were unprepared for the amount of rock 'n' roll swagger they were packing. Lead singer Ken Griffin is just that, a singer. In a world......

So when you commit yourself to double-booking for an evening, how do you prepare? Ordinarily Seattlest doesn't have an issue since there's a bit of a break between events, or one is low-key, the other more lively, but Monday night we made the decision to not only catch the synthy-goodness that is the Rentals at Neumos, but to catch some of New York's finest MCs at the Boot Camp Clik show at Chop Suey......

Saturday night Neko Case came to the Moore Theater, and the Seattle Times and Post-Intelligencer covered it. Now that she's from Canada, see, she gets all sorts of attention. Of course, she's also a well-known Satanist. He started out inaudible, but singer-songwriter Sonny Smith got the hang of the mic, opening the show with what struck as a blend of Lou Reed and Randy Newman. We wanted to like him more than we did......

As far as live music this weekend, may we recommend the crazy (or crazee, if you will) the Black Keys at Neumo's tonight. If you like the Liars or any noise rock band, etc, then they are for you. Tomorrow, Mercury Prize winner Antony & the Johnsons are playing at the Triple Door. Antony & the Johnsons have one of the most unique sounds you can imagine. Back in the day we saw them back......