Volume One was pretty cool. Two was better. Three was great. Volume Four is hands down the best. Is it simply because it's new? Because the songs are still fresh? We don't think so. There's more more to it than that. Ever have one of those days, when you're listening to KEXP and it feels like they're playing everything just for you?--those days when the DJ is charged up and brimming with unbelievably great ideas......

Right on the heels of the announcement that the Mars Volta was added to the Sasquatch lineup, and right before tickets go on sale this Saturday, the three-day music festival has seen fit to delineate who will be playing on which day: Saturday, May 24th R.E.M. / Modest Mouse / M.I.A. / The New Pornographers / The National / Ozomatli / Beirut / Dengue Fever / Fleet Foxes / The Breeders / Okkervil River......

After months of wild speculation, the official 2008 Sasquatch lineup has finally been announced: R.E.M. / The Cure / The Flaming Lips U.F.O. Show / Death Cab For Cutie / Modest Mouse / M.I.A. / Flight Of The Conchords / Rodrigo Y Gabriela / Michael Franti & Spearhead / The Breeders / Built To Spill / The Hives / Tegan & Sara / The Presidents / Ghostland Observatory / Ozomatli / The New Pornographers......

The February performance of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues is commonplace in cities across America. In Seattle, "V-Day" will be celebrated with a performance on February 24th at The Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). Sponsoring the event is the Seattle Office of The National Council of Jewish Women. To advertise the performance, The Council produced the colorful print you see to the right. The advertisement is running in The Seattle Weekly and JT News,......

Photo by Shawnmebo There’s nothing like a clear winter day to illustrate how beautiful Seattle’s natural skylines are. As the only major American city to boast not one, but two mountain ranges easily within view (the Aurora Bridge is a dangerous yet spectacular place to catch both ranges with a simple swivel of the head) it’s days like this that make Seattlest reflect upon what an overrated piece of shit Denver is. Folk cornball John......

Expect the national TV broadcasters to rain clichés on the constant grey that is Seattle this weekend as the Seahawks host the Sean Taylor Memorial Experience at Qwest Field. It’s one thing to rip on Seattle’s weather from a heated broadcast booth, it’s another thing to have the stomach to actually handle it day in and day out. "I like the cold. I don't mind the rain. There's a certain hardness to it," Kerney said.......

The new Zagat is out, at least the one "devoted to Seattle" restaurants. And with "all due respect" to "local editor" Alicia Comstock Arter (who also contributes to Northwest Palate), it's "a freakin mess." The trouble, "brewing for years," is that the "capsule reviews" take isolated "nouns and adjectives" from "reader comments" and string them together to make "nonsensical" and "often inaccurate" profiles. It's a Fox News approach to dining, all pseudo-oracular, disjointed headlines with......

Inspired by a random iPod event at Seattlest's Thanksgiving, a friend lamented the early death of John Denver and then launched into a diatribe about how he didn't pull a Kennedy; that is, Denver wasn't a dilettante pilot. He went on to explain that Denver was an experienced pilot who owned many planes and flew often. He died, our friend claimed, when one of the fuel tanks in the experimental plane he was flying......

No. But that doesn't make this factoid from a political campaign article in today's P-I any less disturbing: "If it's OK to notify a political campaign about this guy, what about the neighbors he lived near for months?" said Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, pointing out that [Mitt] Romney's aides were warned about [Daniel Thomas] Tavares's presence here during the candidate's recent campaign swing through Seattle, though Troyer's own office......

It's become fairly commonplace for the brighter real estate bloggers, like Timothy "The Tim" Ellis over at SeattleBubble, to mock P-I reporter Aubrey Cohen once a month. See Cohen--the P-I's lead real estate reporter--writes an article about the state of the national housing market once a month when the industry standard Case-Shiller numbers are released. The Case-Shiller index (from S&P) tracks the changes in home prices for 20 US metropolitan areas each month as......

The National Weather Service had released a high wind warning for Seattle. It hasn't gotten quite that bad yet. KOMO's weather page reports that there was a 47 mph gust at Sea-Tac at noon, and 57 mph at Alki (winds are always worst on the coast, of course). There were some power outages this morning in Burien and in Monroe, but no more reported yet. Beware of falling trees, a Redmond driver is in the......

The Stranger has endorsed a No vote on the RTID Proposition 1 (along with the Seattle Times, but thankfully with more logic and, er, research). Their reasoning? "Rather than letting compromised politicians tell us what's possible, the people should tell the leaders what's needed: more light rail without massive roads expansion." So what is the proper course of action for Congress regarding the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, bill? The bill would ban employment discrimination......

In a well-paced one-hour lecture, Matthew Brzezinski provided a summary of Red Moon Rising, his new book about the Sputnik launch and its explosive political aftermath. Brzezinski admitted up front that this wasn't so much a science lecture as it was a political one. He explained the circumstances that led to the Sputnik launch--it was the side project of a few rocket scientists who had survived Siberian exile during Stalin's purges. And he described the......

In New York, a place where we once lived, recycling does not--despite being mandatory--actually happen. Example--in our office building in the Flatiron District, we had, as mandated by law, little blue waste receptacles where you deposited only paper. But when the janitor came around, he emptied those blue receptacles into the same garbage bag where he dumped all the other trash. So perhaps it was to inspire the locals The New York Times ran a......

Tuesday night at the Showbox, waiting, watching the crowd. They're a lovely blend of shimmer and shab. A fitting and complimentary mix of well dressed girls and unkempt boys. Some nights you can tell who's here to see which band, but not this night. Seattlest got the impression that much of this crowd was like us: Here for The National, but also excited and curious to see what newcomer St. Vincent brings to the table.......

We've been anticipating this show for some time now and it's finally here. Tomorrow night at the Showbox, Brooklyn's The National bring their beautiful brand of brooding, soulful rock fronted by the man with the rich, deep voice, Matt Berninger. Whether you're a fan of their fantastic album, Alligator, or the new (also critically praised), Boxer, you're in for a treat Tuesday night as the band will no doubt draw heavily from both beloved albums.......

Seattlest loves Uncle Earl for being one of the most visible old-timey troupes of women in the country. We love their masterful instrument-juggling, clog-dancing ways. We love their most recent release Waterloo, Tennessee (produced by John Paul Jones, of all people), and consider it one of the best records in its genre this year. If you're unfamiliar, the quintet, based loosely in Lyons, Colo., started out with some exquisite renditions of old-timey standards like......

Sonics minority owner Aubrey McClendon confirms what we all suspected from the start. In an interview with the Oklahoma City Journal Record, he says:We didn’t buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here. McClendon, who previously got bad publicity in Seattle for being anti gay rights, lauds Clay Bennett for "artfully and skillfully" (translation: underhandedly) getting the team. Here's the full quote:We started to look around, and at that time......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

We've been trying to keep abreast of the latest strike news via the networks as well as our singular Canadian television channel down here but both the quantity and quality of coverage has been most unsatisfying. So we took matters into our own hands. (Confidential to Metroblogging Vancouver: If you don't provide any sort of contact address, we cannot reach you for guest/expert commentary.) We contacted The Vancouverite because we believe in their attractive......

Rachel Hynes is a former barista and yet still enjoys spending time in espresso places. She will review them. This is her second such review. Pettirosso (which means robin, or literally, red breast) is like finding a pretty bird in the middle of a city park. The shop is tucked right off of Pike street on Capitol Hill. The tiny shop is rustic, with exposed wood plank walls and shabby chic fixtures and furniture. Before......

You may recall that Seattlest recently moved to Rainier Beach. The house we're renting came complete with a mystery: a newspaper box posted next to our mailbox. We haven't subscribed to a newspaper for over a decade but, we know what a newspaper box is for. What we don't know is anything about the newspaper advertising on our delivery receptacle: the Western Sun. Google? Nothing. Wikipedia? Nothing, unless it's an unmentioned alternate name for......

It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by poop. Finally D.C. contemplated taking Vermont's place as a state and marveled at the GOP lessons learned from the "Macaca Moment." Due to some sad shootings......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

Man, it's the Beastie Boys thing all over again. We just got the email from Town Hall that Al Gore's appearance at Town Hall this Monday, June 4, is sold out already. Tickets were only $5, but still! Listen to what some lucky (and thrifty) listeners will get to hear about: Al Gore’s fiercely-argued new book, The Assault on Reason, is an indictment of current policy making -- especially the President’s use of power and......

Adios Lakisha. Did we call it, or what? We know, we also made some comment about how none of the Idol contestants chose any good BeeGees songs this week, but we stand corrected. KiKi did "Staying Alive," but we totally forgot about it because it was just that meh. Obviously the rest of the country agreed with us, and she was sent home last night. We'll give a quick sum-up of last night's show:......

Strasbourg--seat of the European Parliament--has a population of 265,000, less than half Seattle's, yet in the past 15 years it has built four interconnecting lines of light rail with some 50 stops. That's in addition to 35 bus lines, over 250 miles of new bike paths and plenty of bike racks at tram stops. Another element in the plan: integrated municipal parking. Nineteen new parking garages for 6,000 cars in addition to 10,000 street spaces;......

Back in December, we defended the search and rescue efforts for the climbers lost on Mt. Hood. We were also baffled by the intensity of the national media focused on the effort--people have died on Mt. Hood and Rainier in the past without hardly a sneeze from most national news outlets--but figured it was the fact that it trailed the Kim rescue so closely. But Outside magazine some more insightful thoughts on the matter about......

If you're in the mood for some wide-eyed, Kool-Aid stained boosterism, look no further than this article in today's P-I. It's in response to the New York Times piece announcing a condo-sales slump. The tone is strictly "move along, nothing to see here." It begins: Seattle's market was not to blame for a recent decision to change a planned 34-story downtown building from condominiums to apartments. Rather, the slumping condo markets in cities such......