"The Long Winters 01" by Flickr user Michael Alan Goldberg When John Roderick isn't writing hilarious lies about other musicians, he's fronting one of Seattle's best indie rock bands, The Long Winters. When last we saw The Long Winters, roughly one year ago, it was also at the Showbox and it was one of the best shows we've ever seen there. Roderick and company had just returned home from a lengthy tour and they seemed......

Not that we need to feed his ego or anything, but John Roderick (of The Long Winters) is a funny dude. Whilst heating up our chicken pot pie from Trader Joe's, we perused a copy of the Weekly someone had left out. Starting from the back, it wasn't long before we saw a goofy cartoon Roderick giving us a great big toothy smile. With his column, entitled, "Exposing the Poker Skills of the Sasquatch! Class......

It felt like a veritable love fest inside the elegant Triple Door Wednesday night. Petals of adoration rained down upon the boys of Nada Surf and even with the sold out crowd, it seemed like we recognized more people than not. Bloggers, photographers, local musicians (The Long Winters were in attendance) -- all were there to show love. The first half of the set was largely focused on new material from the band's fifth LP,......

Rob Gordon once said, "The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules." Thanks Rob. Well said. If Rob's take......

Dammit! From the Sasquatch site: Unexpected delays in the processing and issuance of M.I.A.’s artist visa have forced her to cancel her appearance at this year’s Sasquatch Festival. We apologize to our fans and to the promoters of the festival and look forward to returning to the U.S. as soon as possible. This ain't the first time the awesomely hot Sri Lankan-Brit street artist/electro-ragga singer/rapper hasn't been let into the country. We guess them's......

Saturday night, a cool fifty degrees downtown. Parked on Western. Climbed the stairs to the market. Crossed the street at 1st & Pike. Something special in the air -- we could feel it. The Long Winters were finally back home in Seattle after a long tour of the U.S. and Europe and would be playing our favorite venue, the Showbox. Spacious yet intimate, stylish but not too hoity-toity -- we like the Showbox because we......

This Saturday, Seattle's own The Long Winters will spread indie rock all over the spacious interior of our favorite venue, The Showbox. Reasons to attend this show: -- John Roderick's arrogance is matched only by his mastery of pop/rock hooks. -- Fabulous LA band The Broken West opens. Also in the house will be DorsiaFilms, shooting and recording the show on spiffy high-def equipment -- presumably to supplement the already fantastic material being edited for......

In the spirit of an earlier post in which we asked you to vote for your top-five albums of 2006 via KEXP, Seattlest would now love it if you'd narrow it down to your top-five Northwest albums via Three Imaginary Girls. In addition to letting your voice be heard, the girls are promising that every ballot cast will be entered into a drawing for a "prize pack of fun imaginary goodies." We admit, this one......

On Friday, December 29th at 10am, KEXP will begin counting down the top 90.3 albums of 2006 (does that mean 90 good albums plus one only a third of which is any good? We don't know). In the meantime, until December 26th you and everyone you know can vote for your own top five albums of the year. Seattlest Jack voted and as difficult as it was, here's his top five: 1. Neko Case -......

Books: Isabel Allende reads from her new novel, Ines of My Soul. The Ines in question here is...ah...a real person...who, well, she's got something to do with Chile, historically. It's all there in the book. And what difference does it make? Allende is so damn charming to listen to. 7:30pm // Town Hall // Free Music: The Long Winters, Tapes 'n Tapes and "Awesome" We have a crush on every one of these bands. Which......

Here's to the ice melting away because there are some good shows this week. Tuesday 28th >>> Cat Power at the Showbox. Chan Marshall plays the piano and sings. Our heart breaks. That's just how it is. She's on NPR, too. *mp3: The Greatest 8pm doors; tickets $30 at the door. >>> The Lemonheads at The Crocodile. Evan Dando's spent the last few years focusing on drugs solo work, but now he's brought back......

After kicking our collective asses for four consecutive days, the heat is finally backing down. So pull yourself together. Go outside again -- especially to Capitol Hill this weekend. Tuesday 25th >>> The Long Winters at Sonic Boom in Ballard. Putting The Days To Bed, the third LP from Seattle's The Long Winters, combines the lyrical intimacy and melodic complexity of the Ultimatum EP with the guitar pop rave-ups of the bands previous full lengths.......

Tuesday 18th >>> Thievery Corporation at The Paramount 8pm; $25-$35 (not including Ben Dover fees) Wednesday 19th >>> Billie Burke Estate at Tractor Tavern. Gay piano pop 70's style, complete with horns and overall fabulousness. 9pm; $5 >>> Quintron and Miss Pussycat, The Trashies, Herry Marry, Erin Jorgensen at the Sunset Tavern 9pm; $10 Thursday 20th >>> Digable Planets at Neumos. 'Cause we're cool like that. 9pm; $23 advance, $25 dos (Thursday and Friday)......

If you went to Neumo's on Friday and already loved Josh Rouse's music, you had a great time. If you went and did not love his music, he did not win you over. John Roderick (of The Long Winters) opened the show nicely with an intimate set. He made it feel like you were sitting in your living room with an old friend and having him play your favorite songs. Then Josh Rouse started......

Maybe Seattle doesn’t have a river to dye green just for the occasion, but there are still scads of St. Patrick’s Day activities here in the Emerald City. We suppose you could go to the Seattle Center for the big celebration there, but most people would rather be out drinking, so for your Irish pub-crawling pleasure (cover charges as noted): In the U District and Wallingford, you’ve got all kinds of options, some of which......