Who will triumph as the West Coast champion of the DMC turntablist competition tonight? And--perhaps even more interesting--what interesting tricks of the turntablist trade will he or she bring to the tables? 206 Zulu somehow finagled to host the left coast heat of the international championships here in Seattle, at the Vera Project. The only kind of scratching Seattlest does personally is of the "where it itches" variety, and DJs from all over the West......

It's been an active few nights above Washington, and tonight's sky should be no different. Early Tuesday morning a meteor streaked across the sky over Eastern Washington. People as far away as Oregon and Idaho reported seeing strange bright lights and hearing a sonic boom. A hospital surveillance camera in Spokane caught the meteor on film, which has become the top watched video on CNN over the past 24 hours. Tonight's sky should be......

U-N-I, the L.A. headliners at last night's show at Chop Suey, is the profoundly West Coast hiphop equivalent of human superficial fascia: loosely, intricately webbed, sticky, and pliable. Tricky, surprising beats backed Thurzday and Y-O's tight rap in a dizzying but relaxed kind of way. The night was solid for such an unsung show, with performances from some of 2008's most promising local acts: J. Pinder (his ballsy, impeccable timing meshing perfectly with high-power......

Only the hardest of dorks will care, but the Seahawks have now lost two offensive coaches to our NFC rivals the Washington Redskins. Former Seahawk quarterbacks coach and long-time quarterback Jim Zorn was named head coach in the other Washington several days ago. Today, the departure of our running backs coach Stump Mitchell to the Redskins was announced. In a strange turn of events, according to The Washington Post, the Seahawks are bringing in......

Wild speculation surrounding the possibility of Radiohead playing somewhere in Washington sometime in the next year has got us pissing ourselves with excitement. The P-I A P-I reader blog called Ear Candy** thinks they might headline the Sasquatch Festival at the end of May with REM and The Cure but our sources are suggesting the band will embark on a West Coast run after their European summer tour ends. As of right now, the......

We may have the lowest crime rate in 40 years, but it sure doesn't feel like it. Depressing crime news item #1 The guy cops thought might have killed Shannon Harps did not kill Shannon Harps. At least, his DNA didn't match samples found at the scene. He'll likely be released today. Once again, cops are suspect-less in the murder which happened three weeks ago now, and the terrifying possibility that Harps was murdered at......

Kristy Lee Cook may be the closest we get to a local hand in the American Idol pot this year. Which basically means Blake Lewis might get to keep his crown. (Did he get a crown for coming in second?) Last night, we tuned into the San Diego auditions show, even though this whole AI audition process gets old after the first night. We did appreciate the guy in Dallas who sang that "We Are......

Austin-based Anglophile pop quintet Voxtrot just can't help but draw comparisons to bands like Belle & Sebastian, Morrissey, the Wedding Present, and even the Cure. After a couple well-received EPs, the band put out their self-titled debut full-length earlier this year (see above single "Firecracker"), and then proceeded to tour up a storm. Now the boys are back on the West Coast: Voxtrot headlines an extremely twee-centric all-ages show (Division Day, Tullycraft, and Math......

And we mean everybody: the New York Times, Pitchfork, the ever-fickle blogosphere. Seems that it's not hard to garner that kind of love and affection when you're a Brit-leaning pop quintet straight outta Austin. With clever arrangements, charming melodies, limber lyrics, and jangly guitars, Voxtrot just can't help but draw comparisons to bands like Belle & Sebastian, Morrissey, the Wedding Present, and even the Cure. After a string of well-received EPs, their self-titled debut......

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,......

In central Illinois in the 1990s Seattlest was a wee little college freshman exploring the twin wonders of new music and new drugs. Nirvana, for example, was making some music we got really into, so much so that we learned of Aberdeen, WA, even though we'd never been to the West Coast, much less the Pacific Northwest, or Washington, or Seattle. At nearly the same time we encountered our first vanity steroid users. Some guys......

Kim is off to see Susan Werner at the Triple Door Sunday night. This weekend is a toss up for Matt between going down to Portland for the final days of the Body World 3 show at OMSI or heading out west to the The 26th Annual West Coast Oyster Shucking Championship and Washington State Seafood Festival. As previously noted, Seth is going to take The Grand Tour with George Jones at the Paramount. Friday,......

Seattle. Portland. Which one's better? You may say: "How can you choose? Each has their good points. It's like asking which religion is better." Guess what, asshole, that Negative Nellie attitude is the reason nobody ever asks for your fucking opinion. Jerk. Yesterday, Jeremy Barker advocated the pro-Seattle position. Now, it's Portland's turn. Why Portland is better than Seattle, by Katie "The Kalama Quickdraw" Tiehen Before we get into this, let's just lay out what......

Next Wednesday night San Francisco's Magic Bullets make a stop in Seattle at the High Dive. They've been touring the West Coast in support of their debut album, the awkwardly titled a CHILD but in life yet a DOCTOR in love, out earlier this year from Words on Music. The San Francisco Chronicle aptly summarized the music of Magic Bullets as drawing from "the emotional candor and jerky rhythms of the '80s post-punk era......

Yes, we know we've been plugging this band a lot lately, but it's only because they live up to the hype. Besides, after Battles' show tonight at the Croc, we probably won't have anything to say about them for at least a week or so. But no promises. Seattlest chatted with John Stanier, the man behind the kit, as the sonically solid foursome headed up the West Coast. Have you been surprised by the......

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......

One day in the early 90s, then-Husky basketball coach Lynn Nance said to himself, "You know, I'm pretty happy with Prentiss Perkins and Bryant Boston at guard," and declined to offer a scholarship to a young Canadian and UW fan named Steve Nash. And a damn good thing, too. Nash, as we all saw Sunday afternoon, will do anything to stay off the court in crunchtime, including spontaneous hemophilia. Gutless. Just gutless. The 92-93 Huskies......

Are you a hophead? If you are, get your butt up to Cooper's Alehouse on Lake City Way on the north side of the city. Their 5th Annual IPA Festival is currently in full swing. They have some very tasty beers on tap and more on the way. Cooper's is a very relaxed place. With lots of great beers, plenty of TVs (with sports on them!!!) and $2.75 pint specials all night on Thursdays,......

Via Seahawks Insider: Sep 9 Tampa Bay 1:15pm Sep 16 @Arizona 1:05pm Sep 23 Cincinnati 1:05pm Sep 30 @San Francisco 1:05pm Oct 7 @Pittsburgh 10:00am Oct 14 New Orleans 5:15pm (Sunday night) Oct 21 St. Louis 1:15pm Week 8 BYE Nov 4 @Cleveland 1:05pm Nov 12 San Francisco 5:30pm (Monday night) Nov 18 Chicago 5:15pm (Sunday night) Nov 25 @St. Louis 10:00am Dec 2 @Philadelphia 10:00am Dec 9 Arizona 1:05pm Dec 16 @Carolina 10:00am Dec......

Last Friday we were lunching outside Von's, and a stream of conventioneers was passing by. Some of them stopped at Von's and we couldn't help but notice that a number of them tripped on the single step on the way in. They'd alert the ones behind them, and they'd take a ridiculously large step through the door. When Von's filled up and they started filtering back out, they tripped on the way out. We......

Seattlest has been through our fair share of earthquakes, and while Jonathan Raban's book Surveillance gave us a quivering reminder of the Nisqually quake, we understood the optimism inherent in his ending. Seattle is still there; shaken, likely forever changed, but still there. We know quakes can be insanely devastating, but they don't scare us nearly as much as what we discovered in grad school in central Illinois: tornadoes and wind storms. The first time......

Seattlest's former elementary school, Madrona, is the leading edge of a terrifying movement in Seattle Public Schools. No matter how many Microsoft stock options you have, no matter how many Jonathan Kozol books you've read, you can't stop it. Put your child in private school now or they'll be consigned to a life of stupidity...and blackness. Nine white families withdrew their kids from Madrona Elementary this year after a series of shocking indignities. But none......

Maybe it's because we're from the East Coast, but we're firm believers that there's some sort of force field around the West Coast, keeping all the singer/songwriters from becoming world famous and conquering the planet in the same way that eastern folksingers like Dar Williams and the Indigo Girls have. Occasionally, however, some random West Coaster—Laura Love, Brandi Carlile—manages to break out of the force field and become adored by everyone else in our......

We were jazzed, and, it appears, overly optimistic, when we heard Seattle U might go D1 in basketball again. Having two Seattle colleges in Division 1 b-ball looks less likely, or at least less likely to happen soon, now that the West Coast Conference has decided not to expand. The WCC--the one Gonzaga and U of P are in--seemed like a perfect fit for Seattle U: Most of the schools are Catholic ones, like Seattle......

Jamelle McMillan may be Nate McMillan's son, and he may have a D-1 scholarship, and he may be the top-rated point guard in the West Coast according to Scout.com, but in the unlikely event that we had to pick one of O'Dea's guards for a pickup game that would determine the fate of the free world, we'd pick Chris Banchero. Who's O'Dea's leading scorer? Banchero. Who's their grittiest defender? Banchero. Who's their best conditioned player?......

MUSIC: The Lawnchair Generals have always had our respect because of their ability to both accept and transcend the West Coast house sound, playing and producing records that appeal to masses the world over. This is hardly Just Another House Night, and you'd do well to see two of Seattle's house ambassadors at work. *Sample set: Live on Mix Up Radio Australia, November 2006 Doors 10pm // Neumo's, 925 E Pike St. // $10,......

Tuesday, January 9 >>> Fred Gianelli at Baltic Room. Fred Gianelli has worked under a number of pseudonyms over the years, first as part of Psychic TV, then later as Acid Didj, Giannelli, Deneuve, Mazdaratti, and most famously as The Kooky Scientist. He's weathered a few trends in the world of techno, gathering a reputation as a gearhead and quality producer. Will he feature a stripped down setup this time around, or will he......

President Gerald Ford's memorial service is today, we thought we'd present these remarks Ford (shown here with George Harrison) made about Seattle upon his visit here as president on September 4th, 1975. Not the most interesting reading, but they seem extemporaneous and are perhaps a good snapshot of what one president thought when he thought of Seattle in the 70s: fish, Boeing, and international trade:It is really wonderful to be in Seattle, and I......

SPORTS OBSESSION: Any longtime Seattlest reader knows that we can't get enough of curling, whether it's watching on the CBC or playing ourselves at Seattle's Granite Curling Club, the only dedicated curling facility on the West Coast. Our obsession is often met with odd looks, but a curling open house is honestly one of the best ways going to spend your time/money. 12pm-5pm // 1440 N 128th St. // $10 MUSIC: In an act of......

The weather outside will be frightful, but the hoops will be f-ing delightful at Bellevue Community College Saturday for the Les Schwab Hoops Challenge. Sadly, the name is not meant to be taken literally; the players assembled will not be competing against Les Schwab himself, who will turn 90 in February. Instead, you'll get to see some of the best talent on the West Coast, including Kevin Love, the #1-rated center in the country and......