Tonight, everybody's favorite local chanteuse Jesse Sykes plays a free KEXP show at Seattle Center's Mural Ampitheater, featuring music from her new EP Gentleness of Nothing. (Tomorrow night, Rocky Votolato plays the Mural.) Tomorrow, the Mountain's Music Festival at Marymoor with Brandi Carlile, Jackie Greene, and Train's Pat Monahan. The less said about the latter, the better. Here's our gal Brandi performing "The Story," her Grey's Anatomy Soundtrack hit: And Seattlest's old friend Steve Winwood......

Neumo's was humid as a swamp, and crowded with Rocky Votolato fans who sang along under their breath to every song, from the trim blonde woman in the black slacks and black summer-weight jacket, chunky blonde leather bag slung over her shoulder, to the greasy dark-haired guy in beat-up jeans, with sleeve tattoos. "It's good to be home!" announced Rocky, and then laughed post-ironically. After an 8-month European tour, he's back in Seattle for a......

Tonight, head to the Sunset for the shoegaze stylings of Film School. There's also L.A. pop mainstay Adam Marsland at the Skylark and local troubadour Rocky Votolato at Neumo's.......

Audrey pretty much summed it up yesterday, but to paraphrase: Rocky Votolato and Jesse Sykes are a miraculous match made in Americana heaven. It was over two months ago that we spotted this double-feature and -- no exaggeration -- we actually gasped. Having seen Sykes and Votolato on separate occasions and having been blown away by both, the prospect of seeing them perform on the same night (and hopefully together -- fingers crossed), well, we're......

Some things go together so naturally that you wonder how they ever existed apart from each other. Peanut butter and jelly, Spencer and Heidi, the gays and Halloween. And now a musical double-header that seems to be a match made in heaven: Rocky Votolato and Jesse Sykes (and the Sweet Hereafter). Thanks to Barsuk (their shared record label), the two singer-songwriters are on the road together, and their joint appearances promise to be something......

We've seen Rocky Votolato's name splashed all over the web and heard the DJs out there mention him enough times that we finally had to stop and say, OK -- what's the deal with this guy. We streamed yesterday's live in-studio on KEXP and well, we didn't get much work done. So enthralled were we that it was all we could do to wiggle the mouse around, do a little tappy tap of the keys,......

MUSIC: Subtle at Neumos. Between van accidents and van robberies, anticon affiliates Subtle has had a rough road the last few years, but they've luckily managed to produce music interesting enough to endear them with both critics and fans. With the robbery last month they need all the support they can get, so come do your part. - credit Donte 9:00 pm // Neumos // $10 adv. READING: Martin Amis's latest book, House of Meetings,......

Our sisters in arms down the road a piece have created something from nothing; That is, they went through a bunch of press releases, MySpace sites and Purevolume profiles --all of which are "information" only in the softest, squishiest, most generous sense of the word, and extracted the concrete details of who's going to be at SXSW this year. The list, in contrast to most press releases and MySpace pages, is something that's actually useful.......

Love Bumbershoot, but wish it were more elitist? You're in luck. New this year, however, is a tiny, private venue that you won’t find on any map. The new "Bumbershoot Music Lounge" will showcase intimate interviews and performances with some of the hottest Bumbershoot artists, and the only way to be a part of the live studio audience is to win an invitation from one of two Seattle radio stations, or be a lucky......

Bumbershoot sent out an email this morning announcing a bunch of acts for this year's Smaller, Better Festival. There's even more hiphop on the bill with the addition of local act Blue Scholars and Common Market and Brit chick Lady Sovereign (who we're looking forward to seeing with The Streets soon). Area indie rockers Crystal Skulls and Rocky Votolato will be there and to continue the trend of one Brit band for every couple of......

Tomorrow is the Neumos edition of the Bonni Suval benefit concert series. Suval of the NYC band Fear of Dolls was hit by an alleged drunken motorist outside of Chop Suey in early February and has been in a Seattle hospital since with extensive injuries including a fractured skull, shoulder blade, kneecap, and leg. The bane of musicians and artists around the country--the lack of adequate health insurance-- has compounded Suval's bad situation, and......