While it was a stormy night outside last Saturday, it was hot inside at the Sunset Tavern. The heat was generated by the bodies moving to the psychedelic sounds of Whalebones and Night Beats, who were playing to a young and eager crowd who grooved to every guitar riff and drum beat that was thrown their way. more ›

What's the perfect topper for another glorious day of Seattle sun? An ear-smashing evening of psych rock at the Sunset Tavern, of course. more ›

He has a charming smile, a sweet demeanor and a voice that would lull anyone into submission. Mangan's show Friday at the Sunset gave us the opportunity to be up close and personal with him and his band especially when he walked into the crowd singing and then jumped up on the bar. It may have been a sneaky way to grab a beer during his set, but man did the crowd love it. The Thoughts and the Monday Mornings put on a great set starting off the night. Keep a keen eye on the Monday Mornings especially, they may be involved in a special show next month. In any case, we hope Dan Mangan comes back soon, those baby blues should be seen in better light than the Sunset's staple dark red. more ›

Dan Mangan's home is just a hop skip and a jump from Seattle, but seems to be an entire country away. Oh wait, that's because it is. Hailing from Vancouver, BC he spent very little time in his own country over the last few years touring internationally almost non-stop. He independently put out his first EP All At Once of acoustic-only songs. His work was quickly picked up by ABC Warner in 2005 and his 2009 sophmore album, Nice Nice, Very Nice, is distributed by them as well. He's not resting for one minute, either. Work has already begun on a third album by Dan and the band he tours with. He's an incredibly talented singer/songwriter with a laid-back folk-rock feel. To be completely honest, he makes all my female friends swoon uncontrollably. It's his presence as well as his lyrics that bring on such a state. He's not afraid to have fun and put himself out there. Really what more could you ask for in a musician? more ›

Twelve years ago, a relatively obscure band out of Athens, GA released an album that would come to be regarded as one of the most original, wildly imaginative and beautiful works in generations. Filled with boldly unusual instrumentation, intelligently obscure lyrics and impassioned singing, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea won Neutral Milk Hotel an ever-growing, fiercely devoted following. Much to the dismay of the many who hold this album dear, the chances to see these songs performed live were cut short as band promptly disbanded the very same year In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was released. Fast forward to the present and things are roughly the same as they have been since 1998 except for one small, but musically interesting change. Fans now have the chance to hear NMH's masterpiece played live and in it's entirety. But rather than hearing the lyrics sung by the man who wrote them and made them famous, fans will be serenaded by a ukulele playing devotee. Though some decry this project, known as Neutral Uke Hotel, as nothing more than cleverly executed exploitation, we recommend the show as the cause of "uniting fans" around a great album is a worthy one. The night will no doubt become singalong-filled good time led by some masters of the craft. Take a listen to Shawn Fogel's take on a Jeff Magnum classic below and head over to the Sunset tonight for the in-person experience. Sunset Tavern // 5433 Ballard Avenue Northwest // 9 p.m. // $7 more ›

In our previous post about this show we talked up the local band the Grandtours as well as Ha Ha Tonka. They are both worth the praise, but the second act went by the wayside. This was a huge oversight, as we quickly found out after Chris Mills took the stage. A self proclaimed troubadour, he speaks of love, life, and monsters. He's energetic and enigmatic on stage and off. It's recommended you see him live since, unfortunately, his albums are somewhat over-produced and the solo electric-acoustic guitar feeling is lost amongst the extra instruments. However, if you don't have the chance to catch this New York-based singer in person, then definitely grab his underpriced albums. You won't be sorry. more ›

RISING GLOBES: Spokane natives The Globes may be young but they’ve been playing together for nearly eight years, and their experience shows. Playing a sort of indie rock not easily identifiable (but we’ll try), The Globes are have their roots in the basic sounds of Northwest mainstays Death Cab for Cutie and Built to Spill but easily expand into territory occupied by more mercurial alternative groups like The Eels. It’s rock and roll, that’s for sure, but it’s textured and dynamic, with a magnified glum attitude accented by flares of distortion, moody and refreshingly mature even beyond the group’s years. With Little Pieces and Oh Captain My Captain. more ›

LOVE THAT GIRL: Raphael Saadiq brings his so-real-it-hurts band to Showbox at the Market tonight. This guy couldn't stop oozing cool if he tried! Check out his tasteful blog, listen to the sweet, sweet jams, then get a dose this evening! more ›

Amused, Confused, & More Bad News, the third (or fourth, depending on how you look at it) studio album from local post-psych outfit The Purrs, comes across as guardedly autobiographical. Amidst the jangly guitar rock and fuzzed-out riffs, you can read the album as a document of the band's struggles since their 2005 debut The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of. With songs like "Loose Talk" and "Taste of Monday" garnering regular play on KEXP, the self-released album did about as well as they could have hoped for. They signed to a local label, and things were looking good. Then, well, not much happened. more ›

WHERE DOES CREATIVITY COME FROM?: For a city filled with a decent amount of creatives, advertising folks, and clients that always want the Big Idea, newest movie Art & Copy is a must see. The film, created by acclaimed documentary director Doug Pray (Hype!, Scratch, Big Rig), riffles through the minds of the ad industry's most creative and iconic product pushers. After tonight's 7:00 p.m. showing, select Seattle creatives and ad folks will host a discussion panel about the film. more ›

COOLEST PARTY IN TOWN: Tonight's the night when Cap to the Hill throws their $10K party in the parking lot of Havana. To back up and explain, Creature, a Capitol Hill ad agency, had a contest last month to find someone who could throw a really awesome, $10K party to produce material for a JanSport campaign. Cap to the Hill won, and now they're having a party celebrating the old Pine St. corridor, when the Bus Stop, Bimbo's, and the Cha Cha were all destinations. That said, the party's not open to the public, just to 400 or so of Cap to the Hill's closest friends, so you can either beg them, or turn up and hope someone's got a +1 for you. more ›

TIME WARP: Third Eye Cinema and the Northwest Film Forum present Time Machine, with Bill Brown and Sabine Gruffat. The two will be traveling through the past, present, and future via spoken word, video performance, 35mm slides, and good old scratchy records. Discover Real-Time rendering, Quartz, and Max patches as Gruffat steers you through the strange world of digital and analog hyperspace. If your girlfriend or wife has been on you to go see The Time Traveler's Wife, this may be a good distraction...the book is always better anyway. more ›

NOLLYWOOD!: Since the weather's perfect, contrarians will want to shoebox themselves inside the U District's tiny Grand Illusion Theatre to catch a documentary about Nigeria's burgeoning B-movie film industry. Nollywood Babylon, which Film Threat calls "Irresistible," is about to close, and you don't want to make a liar of Film Threat, do you? No, you do not. Also it's a Canadian documentary, and it's Canada Day. If that doesn't get you there, we throw our hands up. more ›

Loud, fast poppy garage-punk (or is it punky garage-pop?) drum and guitar backing a gorgeous voice that sounds like it's coming from someone trapped within your walls. What's not to love? more ›

BAD FILM: This week, David Schmader's crash-course in the history of awful cinema continues with the legendarily bad Bill Cosby flick, writers for years, Schmader's shtick is probably a bit old by now. But by and large he's good at it, ensuring some added hilarity to an already comically bad film, all while gorging yourself on beer and pizza from the good people at Central Cinema. more ›

Idly we wondered, "Move on up where?" as we listened to Velella Velella shake the Sunset Tavern into percussed splinters of funk. But it seemed better not to ask questions. Velella Velella (named for a jellyfish) are Andrew Means, Michael Burton, Jeremy Hadley, Bethany Petersen, and Johanna Kunin, and we'd been meaning to check them out ever since we ran into Andrew at a party and he knew what Zork was. "Gonna move on up," the chant from "Do Not Fold / Do Not Bend," could be a band mantra. Up tempo, upbeat, they took us up where we belong--their enthusiasm is as infectious as the Santa's sack of hooks they're carrying around. They have a whole two albums out now: their Flight Cub EP and Bay of Biscay LP, but they played until they were short on material. The encore was just one song. Imagine a crowd of white Seattle hipsters wanting more dancetime. It could have gotten ugly, but Velella Velella is not about ugly--they are about a profusion of happy non sequiturs and a rock flute and a bunch of piledriving beats on an recalcitrant iPod. (Andrew was fiddling with it, Jeremy said, "iPods! What are ya gonna do?" and either new member Bethany or new member Johanna piped up with, "Buy a Zune!") If you're into it, you can jump down the rabbit hole of musical sources and influences (Curtis Mayfield, DJ Shadow, Timbaland), but the band's appeal is equally the five live people beaming with sweaty pleasure and the keyboards, bass lines, and that classic Fender sound, all producing a (mostly) irony-free, joy-filled groove that you're an equally sweaty party to. Crazy kids. more ›

In all fairness, we've been crushing on Shenandoah Davis for a while, so we're ashamed that we keep missing her live performances. She'll be at the Sunset tonight, and we'll be at the Triple Door watching Jolie Holland. Dammit. more ›

Graffiti Rock looks like this and like this: more ›

. more ›

Casey Neill is one of our personal favorites from that other Northwest city with the other great music scene. He and his Norway Rats play hard-drinking folk-rock ala the Dylan meets the Pogues, meets early R.E.M, and they'll be joining some great Seattleites, Kasey Anderson and the Crying Shame's Arlan and Dylan, at the Sunset this Thursday. more ›

Spotted by Seattlest last night at The Sunset Tavern, an ironic intersection of corporate sponsorship and state law. more ›

This is going to be a damn good weekend, snow or no. And, it all starts tonight with Jack Wilson and the Wifestealers at the Sunset. Tomorrow, we've got Sera Cahoone's CD release party at the Tractor, celebrating the release of her awesome new disc Only As the Day is Long (SubPop). more ›

Take a break from harrowing five-year Iraq war retrospectives and political sex scandals to see the lovely Johanna Kunin and DC's These United States at the Sunset tonight! The first time we went to see Johanna Kunin, we left practically purring with satisfaction. We expect tonight to be no different. more ›

Seattlest hopped over to Fremont last night to experience Kublakai's much-anticipated , and a couple beers in our belly. It was a good night's work. more ›

The glorious fall sunsets have disappeared along with the mouldering husks of Halloween pumpkins, and according the weather report, we can all expect a long, cold, wet weekend. But this being the Northwest, that's never stopped us from getting out and about; here's the weekend plans of your intrepid Seattlest contributors: more ›

, dropped a couple weeks ago, and we've been listening to it steadily since. more ›

Hey, whaddya know? There's another show worth your attention at the Sunset this week. Tonight it's Irish singer-songwriter Fionn Regan. Yeah yeah, we know what you're thinking: "Another singer-songwriter? Just look at him, all broody with messed-up hair strumming a guitar in an alley." Truth be told, we usually avoid the genre as a whole, since most singer-songwriters run the gamut from boring hippie to boring douchebag. But in this case, don't be so easy to dismiss. more ›

Whether you're a fan of melodic noise-rock (not always a contradiction in terms) or just never got over a childhood obsession with dinosaurs, Pterodactyl is the band for you--especially if you like post-rock that doesn't take itself too seriously. They'll be playing at the Sunset tonight with two awesomely named bands we know absolutely nothing about: Nudity and Same Sex Dictator. more ›

MARDI GRAS: Greg Vandy, who hosts KEXP's Swingin' Doors from 6-9pm on Thursdays, hosts the Sunset Tavern's 9th annual Mardi Gras ball. Promising real New Orleans food and music. more ›

BAGPIPING: "We've got a piper doon!" Masters of Scottish Arts presents their 10th annual concert with the "world's very best" Scottish musical and dance artists. more ›