Sometimes this Seattlest is a bit behind the news, so an e-mail we just got from a friend who works in Fremont let us in on the fact that the Fremont Sonic Boom is closing and selling its CDs. 30% off new ones and 50% off used. When we saw that, we wrote a post bemoaning the loss and making the required statements about missing the Fremont of yore. But Seattlest Audrey pointed us......

We're as guilty as anyone else when it comes to not knowing that Nada Surf has been living a second life of sorts -- a new life, all their own, long after "Popular," the satirical high-school anthem that ruled MTV circa 1996. Nada Surf has spent the past decade recording, touring and reestablishing themselves with the North American Audience. It's a cool story, we think and not one you often hear. Band gets major label......

MUSIC: In a case of perfect billing, Math and Physics Club are taking a break from puppy petting and hand-holding to sing some songs for the kids as part of Town Hall's Saturday morning concert series. 11am & 1:30pm // Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Avenue (at Seneca Street) // Free for kids 12 and under, $5 for adults - adults must be accompanied by a child COMICS: Gabrielle Bell, Kevin Huizenga, and Anders Nilsen......

Wednesday, February 14 >>> Sparklehorse at Showbox. Sparklehorse is touring in support of their first effort in five years, with more of the same delicate, pretty songs that made them indie darlings. Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter open. * sample: Song Streams available on MySpace 8:00 pm // $17 // 21+. >>> Miss Mamie Lavona the Exotic Mulatta at Conor Byrne. The last time we saw Miss Mamie she charmed us in entirely......

Over at the mass-market music stores like Sam Goody and FYE, the “Best-Seller” lists are occupied by those finger-puppets artists you’d expect to hear on KISS 106.1 or KUBE 93 (i.e. Black-Eyed Peas, Kelly Clarkson, Jamie Foxx). Meanwhile, at Seattle’s two most successful indie-music shops, Easy Street Records (West Seattle, Queen Anne), and Sonic Boom Records (Ballard, Capitol Hill, Fremont), they too maintain Top-Seller lists—along with earthy atmospheres, scruffy sales clerks (many of whom are......

Velouria--the name evokes a land where everything is soft and touchable, or if you're more musically minded, it evokes images of Kim Deal and Frank Black. Velouria the boutique in Ballard rests comfortably between both evocations--everything in the store is soft and touchable, and its located right next door to Sonic Boom Records. Tes de Luna, the proprietor, has taken the time to give Seattlites a boutique unlike any other in the city. Each piece......

Last week's rejection of the monorail reminds us of an earlier failure by Seattle to produce cool futuristic transport -- no, not the Jetfoil. We're talkin' SST. On September 29, 1966, Boeing unveiled a full-scale mockup of its supersonic airliner, capable of blasting 274 passengers around the globe at 1,800 mph. Boeing first studied commercial SST use in 1952, and officially began its SST program in 1958. By1963, to compete with the British-French consortium......

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,......