In Seattle, the best bands seem to come about based on local friendships, and Mal de Mer is no exception. It's a newly revived indie rock band on the scene and full of faces you've likely seen before. Mal de Mer is a musical collaboration of talent from several well-received local bands including Slender Means, The Divorce, and the Redwood Plan. Since their debut early last year, they've gone through a lineup change, naming Lesli Wood of the Redwood Plan their new vocalist/keyboardist. The new lineup consists of Wood, Michael Lee, James Curran, and Eric Wennberg. Mal de Mer has recorded their first 7" release, produced by Martin Feveyear and Don Farwell, and it's set to hit the shelves this month. Check out their fun, peppy new single "Bubble Bobble" below, with a music video hot off the presses and coming out soon. more ›

IN FULL GIAMATTIVISION: Cold Souls is the too-grimly titled existential comedy starring Paul Giamatti as Paul Giamatti. While rehearsing Uncle Vanya, Giamatti begins to lose himself in his character's depression, and looking for a temporary fix, stumbles across the new process of "soul extraction," as detailed in the New Yorker. While the movie is deadpan, Giamatti is not. His off-kilter spiral into soullessness is by turns hilarious and touching. more ›

MONSTER MASH: Everyone's favorite non-robotic, non-dinosar body of awesome, a.k.a. the ferocious, hard-banging electronica/hiphop group Truckasaurus, is playing at Neumos with Head Like A Kite and Slender Means on Saturday. Heads up--Truckasaurus might be a band and not a car-eating machine, but they can still metaphorically smash your face in with their thumping, crunching, stomping version of music. It's beautiful, too. Imagine that! more ›

We're sure we don't need to say this, but you can't miss your caucus. This is the first year in our whole time in the Pacific Northwest where it matters what Washington voters think. If you're still wondering where to go, here are two Dem or GOP caucus locators. Caucusing starts at 1pm. We understand that if you know who you support and you don't want to spend an hour or two talking about it, you can get in and out in about half an hour. more ›

Audrey pretty much summed it up yesterday, but to paraphrase: Rocky Votolato and Jesse Sykes are a miraculous match made in Americana heaven. more ›

We are both completely smitten with our new SAM and completely broke, which means we jump at any opportunity to nix the admissions charge. Tonight is no exception, but with an added bonus! It's first Thursday and not only do we get to hang out at SAM for free, but local band Slender Means will be playing from 7 - 8 p.m. If you love Slender Means like we do, you know their infectious sugar-coated rock makes any night a good one; if you don't love them, you should. Their first album, "Neon & Ruin," was our guilty pop pleasure last summer. Oh yeah, and the lead singer looks like the lovechild of Kirk Cameron & that guy who played Bug in "Uncle Buck" except better looking than you would think. Be there! more ›

8pm // Neumo's // $20. 21+ more ›

As it should be, it's quiet this week in Seattle, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to do -- especially the closer we get to New Year's Eve. So without further ado, Seattlest's belated gift to you -- some shows: more ›

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 Friday festivities before the weekend (we never went on that day anyway). more ›

A: A night in Seattle, having some drinks, and listening to live music that doesn't blow ass. more ›

Once upon a time about a hundred blog years ago Seattlest tried doing an 'MP3 of the Week' post, um, weekly. Possibly it lasted two or three weeks. Those were glorious weeks, sure, and the mp3's were flying for those few posts, but, of course, the well of decent tracks dried up and the feature died. One of those posts was around the holidays and featured a holiday song by Jay Cox of the Sea Navy that was super fun. We just listened to it again: still fun lo these many months from the holidays. more ›

This has been a busy week, at least in terms of announcements as to who's involved in things taking place sometime in the future. Seattlest breaks it down: more ›

Another week of Seattlest making all your plans for you. You don’t even have to think! Joy! more ›