Friday's show at Nectar Lounge was a great showcase for both classic and fresh, emerging talents in local hiphop. Alpha P, a gratifyingly professional, unflaggingly high-spirited crew of twelve headlining the show, were working NW underground hiphop in the 90s; the other acts on the bill included Tacoma-based Jay Barz (a raucus party act, himself), pissed-off Neema of Unexpected Arrival, fast-talking Premonition and the bulging vein on his neck, and charismatic story-teller Kublakai--interviewed by......

People are strange. They say Ann Coulter is funny. They pay a $20 cover to have a conversation in a club. At the Showbox a few weeks ago, we saw Lavender Diamond, opening for the New Pornographers, cut their set short after telling the audience it was hard to play with all the talking going on. So we were worried heading back to the Showbox for the Jose Gonzalez/Tiny Vipers show because neither of......

Last night at the Crocodile was one of those evenings you stumble on where things just keep getting better and better. We went down to see headliners Sea Wolf [MySpace] after hearing them do an in-studio bit at KEXP (not posted yet). About two songs in, the indie-folk melodies and lead singer's baritone duets with cello swept us and Shelves of Vinyl off our feet. They're a six-piece -- Alex Brown Church on vocals and......

Last night Seattlest heard Persephone's Bees way before we saw them. The deepthroaty vocals of Angelina Moysov belting "Way to Your Heart" wafted in the air outside Chop Suey. Inside, it was a sparsely attended show, but the mostly seated crowd was pretty enthusiastic for Oakland-based sunny pop. The pink swirl lights at each side of the stage were clearly there to indicate the band was "psychedelic," but it verged into the cheesy mid-set......

It'd been a while since Seattlest had seen Montreal band The Stills. After their extensive year-plus of touring for 2003's Logic Will Break Your Heart, they took some time off and made a major overhaul to their line-up. They lost a guitarist, who they replaced with their drummer, meaning that they had to get a new drummer; then, on top of everything else, they upgraded their sometimes-keyboardist to full-fledged band member. And now they've got......