Six Organs of Admittance is one man--Ben Chasny--and whoever he gets to come along for the ride. Shelter From the Ash, Chasny's ninth album under the Six Organs name (out today), features contributions from his Comets on Fire bandmate Noel Harmonson, Elisa Ambrogio of Magik Markers, and Superwolf/Zwan's Matt Sweeney. The album is a freak-folk magnum opus, full of well-restrained improvisations and fluid ruminations, considered and varied instrumentation (electric, electro, and acoustic), hypnotic vocals, and genre-melding that runs the spectrum from slowcore to psych rock and everything in between. For the time being, Chasny's doing a series of solo Six Organs of Admittance in-store dates on the West Coast before touring all proper-like come early 2008. So expect less weirdo post-folk noise and more intensive finger-picking (see above). He hits Seattle on Thanksgiving Eve for a free in-store at Sonic Boom Capitol Hill. This is your only chance to see Chasny before (gulp) next year. Like you've got a reason to stay in on a four-day weekend. more ›

Seattlest readers driving south this holiday weekend might wanna swing by the Ariel Store and Tavern on State Highway 503, 10 miles east of the I-5 Woodland exit, about 140 miles south of Seattle. Why? Every November, the tavern hosts "D.B. Cooper Days" to commemorate Thanksgiving Eve, 1971 -- the night the notorious skyjacker parachuted from a jetliner over southwest Washington with $200,000 in ransom money, never to be heard from again. more ›

By the time you read this, we'll be 40,000 feet in the air, having taken off from SeaTac at the crack of friggin' dawn. Which, of course, started us thinking about SeaTac...as dear Robyn Hitchcock sings: "They've got the best computers and coffee and smack...viva Seattle viva SeaTac!" more ›