We were lucky enough to catch Sea Wolf open for Okkervil River in late 2008. Naturally, we were thrilled to learn of the band's return (this time with long-time favorites The Album Leaf). Since we last saw them, lead Wolf Alex Brown Church has been quite busy with a new album, tour with Phoenix and song on the New Moon soundtrack under his belt. In advance of the band’s show at Neumos this Saturday, we were album to catch up with Alex. more ›

Jared Leto owns the quote of the evening: "This has got to be the craziest crowd we have ever played in front of in our whole lives." And with that, it becomes perfectly clear that this guy could have a future in acting. Maybe he could get something in commercials. He introduces the next song. It’s called "The Fantasy." more ›

•The polls close at 8 p.m., and absentee ballots must be postmarked by today. You can find where you are registered here; you can find a place to watch the results in public here. more ›

Our sympathies are divided on this one. more ›

First of all, let us say that we didn't plan our Super Tuesday get-together as an Obama event. We support Obama; we've even given him $$. more ›

We've already mentioned the lovely and talented Jesse Sykes appearing tonight at the Tractor with bandmate Phil Wandscher. Also tonight (and also in Ballard) is San Francisco's Citay at the Sunset. Think Sabbath and Zep meets the light pop touches of Big Star. Here's some footage of them from a previous visit to Seattle: more ›

Meanwhile, over on the New York Attorney General's site, Andrew Cuomo is impersonating a pitbull, if pitbulls knew how to file subpoenas:

“In order to fulfill their duty to consumers and investors, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must ensure that Washington Mutual’s mortgages have not been corrupted by inflated appraisals,” said Attorney General Cuomo. “Our expanding investigation into the mortgage industry has uncovered that Washington Mutual improperly pressured appraisers to provide inflated values that best served the lender’s interest. Knowing this, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cannot afford to continue buying Washington Mutual mortgages unless they are sure these loans are based on reliable and independent appraisals.”

When Semisonic's Feeling Strangely Fine came out in 1998, Seattlest was 18 years old and leaving the crushing open spaces of Wyoming for good. We liked the album then, but it wasn't until a year later -- this time leaving Phoenix, Arizona for good -- that we really fell in love with it. We were by ourselves, pulling a U-Haul trailer behind our '76 El Camino, and we were on our way to Washington state to start a new life. more ›

The Sonics open their season tonight in Denver. Game's at 7:30, you can watch it on FSN. more ›

Wait--choke back that vomit. We're making shit up. Speculating doom, if you will. Only half of that title is true. more ›

True story! The other afternoon we were IMing about some important work-related stuff with our friend Scott G. and he asked if we'd seen Spamalot at the Paramount yet, and and we said, "Nope, you?" and it turned out he had, so he started to tell us about it and we said -- in a flash of brilliance -- "Hey, would you mind if this ended up on Seattlest?" more ›

Well-known alterna-librarian Jessamyn West came to town recently, and finally had a chance to check out our flagship library. Her verdict?

I saw a real disconnect beween the lovely outside and grand entry spaces to the library, plus a few other very design-y areas, and the rest of the building. Materials were hard to find. VERY hard to find. Signage was abysmal, often just laserprinted pieces of paper, sometimes laminated and sometimes not. Doors to areas that may have been public were forbidding and unwelcoming. There weren’t enough elevators. There weren’t enough bathrooms. There wasn’t a comfortable place to sit in the entire building. There were lots of “dead spaces” that, because of architecture, couldn’t really be used for anything and they were collecting dust. The lighting was bad. Stack areas were dim and narrow. The teen area seemed like an afterthought. Bizarre display areas with a table and some books on it were in the middle of vast open areas. Most of the place felt like it was too big and then the stacks felt too crowded and I had to climb around people working to find things. Shelvers shut down the entire “spiral” concept with booktrucks. The writer’s area in this library is a shadow of the glorious writers room in the old downtown building where I had a desk briefly.

After years of active avoidance, Seattlest went to our first-ever Storm game Saturday night. And it was the best sporting event we've been to this year. more ›

Tom Porras, who started 17 games at QB for the University of Washington in the late 70s, is now wearing an electronic monitoring device along with his '79 Sun Bowl ring. He's been indicted for sexually assaulting a student at the Phoenix-area school where he was a substitute teacher and coach. more ›

One day in the early 90s, then-Husky basketball coach Lynn Nance said to himself, "You know, I'm pretty happy with Prentiss Perkins and Bryant Boston at guard," and declined to offer a scholarship to a young Canadian and UW fan named Steve Nash. more ›

...in which we pit two bands against each other, to better determine how you should spend your Tuesday night. more ›

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... more ›

We don't really have to look any farther afield than the Stranger to get more than our fill of Seattle Weekly bashing in any given week, but right now there's an article in a Phoenix daily about the New Times Media vs. Village Voice Media culture war that jettisoned Weekly longtimers out the Weekly's door (and into something yet to be seen). The gist of the article is that across the country the left-leaning, axe-grinding, political alt-weekly veterans have been replaced with ass-kicking, name-taking whipper-snapper upstarts who don't much care for politics or other traditional alt-weekly stomping grounds. more ›

Surprising and sad news from the AP: Dennis Johnson, who was Finals MVP when the Sonics won the 1979 NBA championship, is dead. more ›

According to the Mariners, pitchers and catchers report in 18 minutes! So, as has become annual Seattlest tradition, we present this ode to spring training, by Ogden Nash (1902-1971). more ›

If you've got a MySpace page, or don't have any qualms about "borrowing" someone else's, you can catch a free screening of Reno 911!: Miami tonight at 7pm at Pacific Place.

Reno 911!: Miami will be showing at theaters in Boston, Phoenix, and Seattle on Tuesday January 30th as part of MySpace’s Black Carpet Screening series. If you’re in any of those cities, you only need to print out your MySpace profile, get in your car, and drive to the theater. To get in, just show them the printout of your MySpace page, and you’re set. There’s no charge. If you don’t have a MySpace page, feel free to print out mine and pretend it’s your own. How will they know the difference? more ›

10. Mariners vs Yankees (August 22): The Yankees kept taking the lead and the Mariners kept coming back. In the ninth, with the score tied 5-5, A-Rod came up with a clutch bases loaded strike out. Later that inning Adrian Beltre won the game on a walk off home run. more ›

Last night, Seattlest was at the sweltering sold-out Croc for the one-two punch of La Rocca and Phoenix on the final night of their U.S. tour. For a rock show, the crowd was fairly clean-cut; like, we totally ran into a girl from pilates. Besides an overabundance of polo shirts (non-popped, thankfully) and short-sleeved button-downs on guys and a few overly made-up girls, nothing too egregious. Our companion described the audience as "the coolest kids in Kirkland." more ›

Another copious serving of live tunes (not to mention opportunities to leave your smelly apartment), courtesy of Seattlest. You can thank us later. more ›

Stay with us here, will you? Florida cops busted ex-Sonic Eddie Johnson yesterday. He allegedly broke into a neighbor's home and molested an 8-year-old. more ›

A quick rundown on where our beloved Husky basketball types are now. more ›

Seattlest's kneejerk answer: Um, yeah. Is this a trick question? more ›

Only a couple minutes into Duma, the latest film from Carroll Ballard, king of mature-minded animal flicks (The Black Stallion, Fly Away Home), one thing becomes abundantly clear: Baby cheetahs are really, really f-ing cute. Their fur is all mottled and super fluffy. Rather than meowing, they make a little bird-like peep. We totally want one. more ›

That guy that's usually tapping at his laptop and gazing off into the middle distance at the cafe has suddenly disappeared. He's at home furiously typing his tell-all memoir: "The world knew me as a female refugee from the Phillipines who escaped a life of political oppression, violence, prostitution and drugs but now I must reveal myself as a midwestern white boy who lied about it all to sell a few books. The ironic thing is, none of the fake pain I was writing about can compare to the actual devastation of living with this lie for the past ten years." more ›

Seattlest did not only see movies, read books, and go to shows this year. Oh my, no. We also ate, and some of us ate very well indeed. more ›