Right on the heels of the announcement that the Mars Volta was added to the Sasquatch lineup, and right before tickets go on sale this Saturday, the three-day music festival has seen fit to delineate who will be playing on which day: Saturday, May 24th R.E.M. / Modest Mouse / M.I.A. / The New Pornographers / The National / Ozomatli / Beirut / Dengue Fever / Fleet Foxes / The Breeders / Okkervil River......

After months of wild speculation, the official 2008 Sasquatch lineup has finally been announced: R.E.M. / The Cure / The Flaming Lips U.F.O. Show / Death Cab For Cutie / Modest Mouse / M.I.A. / Flight Of The Conchords / Rodrigo Y Gabriela / Michael Franti & Spearhead / The Breeders / Built To Spill / The Hives / Tegan & Sara / The Presidents / Ghostland Observatory / Ozomatli / The New Pornographers......

This weekend, it's all about Friday and Saturday; Sunday is the Lord's day, so music is taking a night off. Tonight, there's another great Canadian band, Immaculate Machine, at the Vera Project. The pop trio features Kathryn Calder, who just so happens to be the New Pornographers' Carl (A.C.) Newman's niece. Way to keep it in the family. Meanwhile, the High Dive's got so-so-hot Chicago collective Scotland Yard Gospel Choir who, despite mountains of accolades,......

People are strange. They say Ann Coulter is funny. They pay a $20 cover to have a conversation in a club. At the Showbox a few weeks ago, we saw Lavender Diamond, opening for the New Pornographers, cut their set short after telling the audience it was hard to play with all the talking going on. So we were worried heading back to the Showbox for the Jose Gonzalez/Tiny Vipers show because neither of......

"We know you're not assholes," said Carl Newman at the Showbox on Saturday night, "so don't do asshole things." Seattlest doesn't go to a lot of concerts -- we never did, and once parenthood embraced us we tend to invest in babysitters for stuff like movies and restaurants. There's less thrill in staying up until 1:30 when you know, no matter what, that 7:00 would be sleeping in. But the New Pornographers? Frankly, Seattlest......

There are not enough hours in the day. Just. Not. Enough. If we weren't already going to the New Pornographers show tonight, we'd likely be found at the Ten Tiny Dances performance at CHAC (7:30pm, $15). If you haven't seen it before, the idea is there's a 4' x 4' platform that the dancers have to (more or less) stay on for their performance, like when we were kids and the floor was lava. Lava!......

Woo hoo! Friends of Seattlest Mean Recess are releasing a CD Saturday at Jules Mae, a release which Seattlest quite possibly personally caused to be delayed, by the way. Man Rockwell and Spanish for 100 are also playing and there's no YouTube for any of them, sadly. Also, Seattlest's own Kim Ruehl is at Cafe Bella downtown tonight at 9. Interest conflicts out of the way, let's go to the video. One of YouTube's big......

Hey, whaddya know? Ever since the Showbox upped the service fees and made a pact with the devil, their bookings have been less than stellar. In fact, we haven't been to the downtown venue for a single show so far this year, which is totally out of the ordinary. Sure LCD Soundsystem and the Arctic Monkeys played last month, and of course Robin Williams sold out his three-day stand, but taking a look at......

MUSIC: Carrie Clark & The Lonesome Lovers. Memphis Radio Kings headline this show, but we're here for Carrie Clark all the way. Clark's been wooing Seattle crowds with her superb voice -- both playful and brooding for over ten years now. Backed by her band, The Lonesome Lovers, things seem to be coming together beautifully for Miss Clark; her new album, Seems So Civilized, produced by Darryl Neudorf (Neko Case, Kinnie Starr, The Sadies, The......

Wednesday, January 17 >>> West Side Story at Central Cinema. When we first saw the opening sequence to West Side Story, we were convinced our English teacher was playing some kind of joke. Then the Jets vs. Sharks fight sucked us in, and since then we've known the joke was on us for ever doubting the Greatest Musical Ever Made. 7pm; $10 (plays through the 21st) Thursday, January 18 >>> Carrie Clark & The......

Lordy, we are getting old. Midway through day 2 of Bumbershoot, we were dragging hardcore. The crowds, the drunk white guys, the terrible fashion---it was all getting to be too much. But then we nutted up and carried on with our high-octane music intake. Our day began at the Mainstage with the New Pornographers. Even without Dan Bejar and Neko Case, the always-solid supergroup put on yet another great show. Carl Newman was left......

What a great way to close out the summer: Beer, fried food on stick, irritatingly large crowds, great music, and a slight chance of rain (remember last year?). Seattlest loves us some Bumbershoot though, and we wouldn't let some pesky weather ruin our fun. This year looks to be a good one. A couple things we are digging right off the bat are the addition of good bands on the outdoor stages and ditching the......

Decisions, decisions. This member of Seattlest will have a good friend in town for the duration of Bumbershoot weekend, so most of our scheduling will depend on him. Good thing our friends tend to have taste. Present company excluded. On Saturday, we want to check out new Sarathan psych-rockers The Purrs, but we'll also catch Jamie Lidell. We have seen him once before, but our friend has not and we think Jamie's retro-futuristic electro-soul......

The Fiery Furnaces show at Neumos on the day of June thirteenth in the year of our lord two thousand six was awesome. Even if you don't like the Fiery Furnaces, even if you don't know who they are, even if you don't like music, you need to go to a Fiery Furnaces show. New experiences are the spice of life. Treat yourself. Ghost Stories started the show off with some slightly sophisticated yet......

No, it's not that everyone hates them. Everyone who works in public radio knows everyone hates them. We suspect pledge drives resemble democracy -- they're the worst form of public radio fundraising except for all those others that have been tried. No, the fundamental flaw of pledge drives is this: When we call and make our pledge, we desperately want the people on the radio to shut up and go back to playing music or......

Remember when you thought Neko Case just couldn't get any cooler? Ha! Now she's being held up as an example of the evils of rock-n-roll. A few lyrics from Fox Confessor's brilliant "Hold On, Hold On" caught the attention of David J. Stewart at jesus-is-savior.com: In the end I was the mean girl Or somebody's in-between girl Now it's the devil I love And that's as funny as real love Stewart explains why this is......

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.......

What's the difference between seeing Neko Case in Seattle vs. seeing her in Milwaukee? In Seattle, concertgoers sip microbrews. In Milwaukee, they're drinking tallboys of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Officially, Seattlest went to Wisconsin last week to give new grandparents some time with their granddaughter. Unofficially, Seattlest went to Wisconsin last week in particular because Neko Case was playing at Milwaukee's Pabst Theater, the second show on her Fox Confessor tour. We don't normally travel several......

Last Saturday night Seattlest was shivering outside the Paramount waiting for the friend-with-the-tickets to show up for the New Pornographers/Belle and Sebastian show. From our vantage point, we watched as the doors opened and the line poured into the Paramount, a standing wave forming a few feet before the marquee, as people held up their cell phones to take a picture in case of massive cerebral trauma rendering them unable to remember where they......

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......

Just last week we were walking through the beer aisle at our local QFC, cruising for those cute little Full Sail "Session" bottles when our heart skipped a beat. Could it be? Oh sweet Bacchus, that's a six-pack of Snow Cap! We cradled it in our arms and cried silent sweet tears of joy while the woman next to us with the two kids dragged her wee ones by their arms past us, staring. Someday......

Seattlest loves the New Pornographers. We may have made claims to the contrary in the past, but our informal polling method (four Seattlest contributors at their last Showbox performance) shows they have strong support from our staff. That not one of us deigned to write the show up is something else entirely. Too many cooks, maybe. This post isn't to hype any more upcoming shows, unfortunately. They're in the Midwest for the next few days......

If you are between the ages of 28 and 40 and you like your indie rock, you are probably very excited about the Portastatic show this evening at the Crocodile. This band is fronted by Mac from Superchunk. If these names mean nothing to you, then you might want to see them because they have some really cute pop songs (and if circa 2003 indie cred means anything to you, they opened up for Rilo......

If you are a fan of the Arcade Fire (and if you don't have a ticket for their Wednesday night show at the Paramount), then you might want to get your indie fix at the Architecture in Helsinki show Thursday night at Neumo's. Both bands have a penchant for wacky instrumentation combined male and female indie-style singing. Plus, their songs are dance-able, which is never a bad scene (unless of course you have seen us......

Here at Seattlest, we love the New Pornographers, but one big reason we love them is our obsession with Neko Case, the female voice of the band. Her alt-country (whatever that is) solo work makes our teeth just vibrate with excitement. We listened respectfully to opening band, Laura Veirs and the Tortured Souls. With her Patty Griffin-esque voice, she is an acquired taste, kinda like a female Bob Dylan. Soon, Neko and her three-piece backing......

The third album by mighty morphin' power-poppers the New Pornographers, Twin Cinema, goes on sale tomorrow. For Seattlest, this is like Beatlemania meets Pottermania, except that Pornomania likely won't be nuts enough to inspire a Robert Zemeckis film. We downloaded "Twin Cinema" from the Pornographers' website weeks ago. We heard "Jackie Dressed in Cobras" on KEXP this weekend. We've read a ton of good reviews of the new album. Because we're so giddy with anticipation,......

The Showbox just added two David Cross dates to its May calendar. May, 20 and 22 Cross will be participating in the Vera Project's fundraiser "A Drink For Kids." The Friday show on the 20th will feature Cross with comedians Todd Barry and Jon Benjamin with musical guest The Thermals. The comedians return to the Showbox on Sunday where they'll be accompanied by The New Pornographers. The Vera Project's "A Drink for the Kids" fundraiser......