In January of this year, the Weekly's Brian J. Barr described local trio the Cave Singers as "an updated version of the Anthology of American Folk Music. Not the graduate-student, learned interpretations of folk music circa 1962, but folk music approached by way of punk rock. It's sparse, melodic, and simultaneously creepy and alluring, like the widow mourning graveside in Johnny Cash's 'Long Black Veil'." That was enough to get Matador Records interested, who signed the band in May and released their debut album Invitation Songs last month. more ›

We were collecting ourselves this morning, sipping on a cup of coffee on the back porch and checking in with the day's internets edition. Standard stuff except for the good weather. Oh, here's an email from Matador Records, let's see who's touring through. Cat Power - No Seattle date. Then there's a band we don't know. And another one. Then there's a band we don't care about. Then there's Mogwai - Already on our calendar. New Pornographers...Seattle....Aug 12....Gasworks Park! Gasworks Park! Then it hit us like a length of 2x4 to the small of the back- That show's not happening. That sounds like Summer Nights. We know it's not happening. If you read this site you know it's not happening. If you're a member of a Wallingford neighborhood group you're damn sure it's not happening because you're a miserable piece of shit who hates music and fun and light and cares only about defending your parking spot tooth and nail and then scurrying back under your rock. If you're Matador Records, though, you either haven't been informed or you're not staying on top of your tour schedules. And once again, to the Friends of Gasworks Park and all their kind who decided that we wouldn't be walking over to Gasworks and getting our geek rock on with the New Pornographers this August, fuck you. more ›

Pretty Girls Make Graves rock and their label Matador Records also rocks and, thirdly, new-web-order-2.0-thing You Tube rocks as well. You rock also, of course, and we don't want that to go without saying. Four great flavors --that's you, Pretty Girls, Matador and You Tube-- are coming together to make you (or more likely some freaky A/V kid from Montana, honestly, but give it a shot) the author of the new Pretty Girls Make Graves video. more ›

The Matador Records website announced a New Pornographers / Belle and Sebastian tour last week and we can't say we're ecstatic about the pairing. Sure, we went through a very brief B&S phase at one point a few years ago. We're not proud of it, but we can admit it. Finally. And we suppose that we can see what Matador is trying to do. Twin Cinema is an excellent attempt at a great album and due to our relative proximity to British Columbia we're very aware of that, as a region. Probably we're in the minority, nationally, though, and we suspect that Matador thinks it should be selling a lot better than it is. And they'd be right. So attach the Pornographers to the warhorse of their stable, the cash cow, the begging-craigslist-for-tickets, probably-playing-the-Paramount band and see what kind of exposure they can get. We're just not sure that fans of the one can necessarily be cross pollinanted into being fans of the other. more ›