Recent Stories with tag live music

The still relatively new Columbia City Theater played host to some exciting bands on Saturday. It was Youth Rescue Mission's CD release show, and they shared the stage with the eclectic Heatwarmer and the emotional Grand Hallway.

Youth Rescue Mission are a new group formed chiefly of four siblings. They brought the whole family with them Saturday, with their parents on cello and electric bass and their cousin on drums. The siblings had wonderful four-part harmonies, which the crowd enthusiastically welcomed. There was even a little singing and stomping along from those at the front.

Heatwarmer followed with an astounding set, prompting Grand Hallway's Tomo Nakayama to declare them his favorite band in Seattle. Heatwarmer takes the standard rock lineup, adds keyboards and an electric wind instrument, and then proceed to play Frank Zappa jams. It's almost as if they took a look at the joke combinations of genres bands use on MySpace (like easy listening/zydeco/eclectic) and actually formed a band around it. Influences from all over the place could be heard and the musicians are ridiculously talented. For the last few songs, they brought in a saxophone quartet dubbed the "Seattle Sax Murderers." If anyone was making an '80s-style superhero show, they would be required to employ the services of Heatwarmer for the soundtrack.... (more)

Last night, Social Distortion played their first of three sold-out shows at Showbox SoDo. On the heels of a new album, the show pretty much had material spanning the band's entire history. The old songs sounded every bit as good as the new ones, and many had slightly new compositions. Amazing!

If you don't already have tickets to the remaining two shows, you could be out of luck, since they are sold out.

Shots from the show after the jump.... (more)

The Get Up Kids will be at Neumo's on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011. Doors are at 7 p.m., tickets are available for $21 in advance, and the show is all ages.

The Get Up Kids aren't really kids anymore.

Emo wasn't always the maligned subgenre of punk that it is today. In the mid '80s, East Coast hardcore punk bands begin to tire of being angry all the time. In fact, they started to feel downright sad about it. Bands like Rites of Spring and Embrace had people crying at their shows and musicians were realizing their music could have a power to inspire people to feel something other than anger.

About thirteen years after Rites of Spring and Embrace broke up, the genre was popularized and summarily ruined. While emo songs were always melodramatic, they became comically so. Bands like My Chemical Romance started wearing eyeliner and dyeing their hair black, brushing it to the side in a precursor to the world's next Celine Dion, Justin Bieber. Yet just before this mainstream explosion, the genre was at its peak and producing some amazing bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, The Promise Ring, and Texas is the Reason.... (more)

Emo music is not for quitters. This might seem counterintuitive, but emo bands continue to make records and play shows despite how popular it is to hate them. Furthermore, a number of emo songs are about believing in things long after everyone else has given up on them. These folks are not throwing in the towel just because of general disinterest.

Emo poster boys Chris Conley (the distinctive voice of Saves the Day) and Chris Carrabba (aka Dashboard Confessional) made a visit to Neumo's recently to relive their past glory. It seems strange to base your career on whiny songs about girls, but it has served these two gentlemen well for the past ten years. There's something universally identifiable about their work that propelled them to stardom in 2001 and continues to draw crowds today.

Conley played Saves the Day songs on simple acoustic guitar. Between songs, we shouted out our favorites and the set developed along the lines of our requests. Some requests were denied as "needing the full band" but, in general, the crowd seemed pleased with the selections.

Conley's uncanny, high and nasal voice was clear and strong as he powered through our requests, mostly from Saves the Day's biggest release, Stay What You Are. My favorite song, This is Not an Exit, was played early on, with its positive, reassuring ending line "Just know you did it all the best that you knew how" being followed by a sincere "I love you guys" from Conley. Near the end of his set, he announced that Saves the Day would be releasing a new record soon.... (more)

As 2010 recedes into the fog of memory, some of your friends at The SunBreak gathered 'round the virtual table to remember the past year's musical experiences.  Watch it above, or read the transcript below.

Josh: So, standouts from 2010?

MvB: I should be upset with Sufjan Stevens for giving a live performance at the Paramount that so energetically trumped his album.

Josh: YES, YES, YES to that Sufjan show. I can't remember any other performance that so changed my mind about an album. My resistance to the bloopy, squelchy, synthetic assault on his usual whispery beauty on the Age of Adz was high, and I didn't know what to make of it. But somehow, seeing him perform it at the the Paramount with a halloween-decked band, behind a light-painted scrim, and with the full-on shuttershades freak-out of "Impossible Soul" left me finding excuses, train rides, or long walks to spend with the record in my earphones. That he closed the set with "the hits" helped me to leave the show with a sigh of delight.

MvB: Maybe it's just the Paramount: Rufus Wainwright's show there was also a stand-out, with the normally insouciant Wainwright struggling through tears, and making the latter half of the evening into a heart-wrenching valediction for his mother.

Audrey: Cosign on the magical music powers of Sufjan and Rufus. I cried at both shows.... (more)

Longtime punk band Bad Religion rocked the Showbox SoDo last night as part of their 30th anniversary tour. Thirty years as a band and fifteen studio albums later, they can still deliver one of the best punk shows you will likely see. If you were among the very packed (the show was sold out!) crowd last night, you know what I'm talking about. If you weren't there, well, you will just have to make do with these photos from the show. Enjoy!... (more)

Q: Is it already time to start thinking about the next Sasquatch Festival, at the Gorge Memorial Day weekend, 2011?

A: Yes, it is already time to start thinking about the next Sasquatch Festival, at the Gorge Memorial Day weekend, 2011.  And while you're at, you might want to begin preparations for 2012.

Next year's fest marks the 10th (!) anniversary of Sasquatch, and to celebrate the occasion, it's back to being a four-day event, with the Foo Fighters headlining Friday.  To which I say: BLERGH.  One day at the Gorge is enough for me, and the thought of four days, with the camping and the filth and the port-a-potties approaches the territory of welcome to my hellscape.  But I'm sure some people are excited at the prospect, and lucky for them, "all-in" tickets, which include all four days of admission, along with parking and camping fees ($285-295), go on sale this Saturday at 10 a.m. PST. 

You'll have to wait till February 7 for the complete Sasquatch lineup, and tickets by day should be available right around then too.  Full press release after the jump.... (more)

Bronze Fawn crafts amazingly layered and expansive sounds with merely a power trio and more guitar effects pedals than seem reasonable. Their live show is accompanied by video edited on the fly to match up with the music. I've seen them four or five times of the past couple years, and their first full length, Lumber, is in heavy rotation on my various music devices.

Thursday will be, barring any future reunions, Bronze Fawn's final live performance. Guitarist Bryce Shoemaker is apparently off to post-graduate work, and the band has decided they have reached the end of their era. To be honest, it feels a little bit like the end of an era for all of us. Progressive and challenging music seems to be on the way out while vapid, electronic pop music is surfing a neon 1980s nightmare straight back into our social consciousness.

Luckily, Bronze Fawn are bringing friends along to their farewell party. The Kindness Kind are gathering acclaim playing enchanting electronic-tinged indie with soulful female vocals.  Eighteen Individual Eyes are an upcoming girl band headed by Jamie Hellgate that plays dark indie reminiscent of Denali, but with guitars. Blue Light Curtain have been shoegazing for fans of The Cure since 2004.

It all goes down at Neumo's this Thursday, November 18. Doors at 8 p.m., 21+, tickets are $8, available at the door.

Friday night the Columbia City Theater hosted an evening of music curated by our good friends at Sound on the Sound, bringing together Portland's Jared Mees and the Grown Children and local headliners Black Whales, who somehow had to try and follow the middle act, Vancouver singer-songwriter Dan Mangan.

As you can see above, for his final song, Dan made his way through the crowd to do a mid-audience acoustic sing-along version of "Robots." (SotS also captured a charming version of "The Indie Queens are Waiting," featuring "gender-bending backing vocals from the band.") Mangan put on a charismatic show of quick-witted folk pop with sharp observations of the everyday, which included a song where his band eschewed drums in favor of just stomping out the beats on the stage. His whole set had an easy energy that was hard to resist. Do yourself a favor and stream new album, Nice Nice Very Nice, at Dan's website.

KEXP's "Reykjavik Calling" showcase actually unites the talents of both Seattle and Icelandic musicians, but you scenesters are no doubt are familiar with Rachel Flotard and Rusty Willoughby, John Roderick, Jason Dodson, and Nathan Wade. (Really all we need is some more electronica and we have Iceland Airwaves South.)

But if you haven't been following the Icelandic Music Awards closely for the past few years, you may be wondering what's a Mugison? A Sin Fang Bous? A Lay Low? And who's this Pétur Ben character?

The beauty of this particular evening is that there's no barrier to simply showing up and finding out on your own--it's free. Doors open at 8 p.m., but depending upon how concerned you are with getting in, you may want to arrive early. (It's 21-and-over though, so don't show up earlier than your 21st birthday.)

Let's prep with a little tour down YouTube's Icelandic lane.... (more)

At this time of year, I like to play a game which I've dubbed "Costume or Everyday?" in which I attempt to ascertain whether someone is dressed up for Halloween, or whether they'd be wearing that outfit regardless. Sometimes it is very difficult to tell--like last night's Sufjan Stevens show at the Paramount. I'm not talking about the full house; most of the audience was either firmly in the costume or no costume camp. But you get the feeling that Sufjan would've been wearing swan wings, silvery pants, and glowsticks whatever day of the year. After all, this is the man who on his last tour dressed like a boy scout with multi-colored eagle wings.

But a lot has changed for Sufjan since he was at the Paramount four years ago. His new album, The Age of Adz (and the All Delighted People EP, released just two months prior) is lighter on the finger-picking than Illinois or Michigan. He's traded in the banjo for synths, loops, and effects pedals, and the result is a delirious, cacophonous, overstuffed, charming mess--yes, even with the Autotune. As a whole, The Age of Adz is concerned with heartache and lovesickness (and the subsequent psychological turmoil and existential ennui), all told through the mythology of the apocalypse and accompanied by the artwork of Royal Robertson, a schizophrenic Louisiana folk artist who created visions of aliens, angels, and the end of days. Said Sufjan, "It's a little dramatic, but it pays the bills."... (more)

If you haven't been to the refurbished Columbia City Theater yet, what the hell are you waiting for? The venue hosts great shows in a cushy club, delivers tasty libations care of the bar, and the light rail can get you there on the cheap in no time. 

If you need another reason, Columbia City Theater has a big (and diverse) Halloweekend lined up, with Mash Hall's final (ever? or at least for a while) show on Friday, the orchestral pop of Hey Marseilles and the heavily tattooed, tiny dog-loving singer-songwriter Fences on Saturday (both of whom recorded Doe Bay Sessions with Sound on the Sound earlier this year), and the Cabaret Macabre on Sunday, with Bad Things, Baby Gramps, burlesque (natch), and more. COSTUMES HIGHLY ENCOURAGED--caps not mine, but I appreciate the sentiment, plus it gets you in for $2 cheaper on Saturday and Sunday.

The SunBreak has a pair of tickets to give away to Saturday night's show with Hey Marseilles and Fences.  The show is 21+, so you be that old too. We'll be drawing a winner on Friday at noon. Enter below for your chance to win.... (more)

The Morning Benders' latest release, Big Echo, is an album that I can, and have, recommended to just about everyone.  It's catchy and accessible (two dirty indie words), with enough surprises to charm even those jaded cranks at Pitchfork.  It's lo-fi but layered with a wide-open wall of sound (hence the name), and it's got a waltz or two.  What's not to love?

The baby-faced Bay Area foursome were back in town at Neumo's last night, marking the third time they've played Seattle in, oh, six months.  So they're practically family, which explains why singer Chris Chu is easily able to point out fans from previous shows.  If anything brings folks back over and over again (or wins them over for the first time), it's set closer "Excuses" with its lilting, melancholy cadence and shimmery, can't-help-but-lift-your-voice-up-in-song melodies.

Pro Tip: If the Morning Benders ever give you the chance to vote on the encore, and it's a choice between anything (in this case, a new song) and a Fleetwood Mac cover, you gotta go for the Mac*.  Last night's finale, "Dreams," was uncannily dead-on.

*An exception may be made for Blue Album-era Weezer, as that is the best encore cover choice for nearly every band.

The pogo is a simple dance. You basically just jump up and down. You don't have to be in rhythm, you don't have to know any fancy steps, you just have to have a lot of energy and enthusiasm. It is, by far, the happiest of all the punk dances.

Last Thursday, the Showbox crowd was pogoing its heart out to the '90s punk-flavored pop of Superchunk. Touring in support of a new record and some re-releases of old classics, the fine folks of Superchunk showed that they still have as much energy as they did when they began 20 years ago. Most of the crowd appeared to overcome the natural process of aging as well, and by the end of the night, the crowd was bouncing around like giddy schoolchildren at recess.

Superchunk inspired all this delight just by being a fun band. They provided the counterpoint to Teenage Fanclub's set. Perhaps it was just the fact that it was past my bedtime, but Teenage Fanclub were boring. They seemed to suck all the energy out of the room and my lovely date for the evening was even inspired to take a little nap. Locals Telekinesis were a much better fit and would have kept us awake all evening.... (more)

At Bumbershoot Monday, the Broad Street Stage had the awesome back-to-back-to-back lineup of Japandroids, Surfer Blood, and The Thermals.  Before their set, Surfer Blood briefly chatted with The Thermals in Japandroids' plush (souped up with a DVD player and wifi), creepy (tinted windows), environmentally friendly (biodiesel) Sprinter van.  All three bands play this weekend's MusicfestNW in Portland, The Thermals' new album, Personal Life, is out on Kill Rock Stars as of Tuesday, and Surfer Blood will be back in Seattle with The Drums, at Neumo's on October 4th.

Thomas Fekete, Surfer Blood guitarist: What famous people do you see from Portland in the grocery store?

Kathy Foster, Thermals bassist: Quasi-famous. Quasi.

Hutch Harris, Thermals guitarist/vocalist: I saw Danny Glover one time.  Danny Glover has a house in Portland.

KF: Steve Malkmus and I are on a softball team this summer.

HH: Except he kinda flaked out.

KF: He only played one game.

HH: What, Pavement had to tour?  Didn't they know he has a softball team?

TF: The first time I ever saw Steve Malkmus in person, he was sitting in a mall, cross-legged, eating an ice cream cone, by himself on a bench. It was pretty perfect.

K: What mall?

TF: It was in Barcelona.

HH: I made coffee for Art from Everclear one time.

TF:  Everlast tried to fight us.  Do you guys know the guys from Everlast?  Have they ever tried to fight you?  [laughs]  Because apparently they try to fight every other band in the world.... (more)

Monday at Bumbershoot was laid back and rainy, with a few noteworthy exceptions. My band hopscotch included The Clientele (Alasdair MacLean opened with a joke about bringing English weather), Greg Laswell (yet another singer/songwriter living down having a hit single on The Hills), The Meat Puppets (I don't need to explain this, right?), THEESatisfaction (the feel-good-yet-socially-aware set of the day), The Moondoggies (big crowd at the Mural Amphitheater for that one), Japandroids (two Canadian boys who rock the shit out of you), Bomba Estereo (a multi-culti dance fest), Jenny & Johnny (the cute was almost too much to bear, in person), Surfer Blood (power surf pop), and The Thermals (motherfucking tight).

If I'm honest, I usually hate multi-stage festivals. I don't like that you pay for the chance to see a bunch of bands and they all overlap and there's no way you can see them all. I don't enjoy waiting in line while I miss some of those bands.

That said, I still had fun at Bumbershoot on Sunday. Here are a few of my personal highlights.

I started the morning by visiting the Counterculture Comix and Flatstock displays. The Counterculture Comix collection was an impressive array of local comic art. I appreciated the old Rocket covers and Sub Pop cassettes and zines, in particular. Flatstock continues to impress with great poster art from both locals and out-of-towners.

Hey Marseilles drew a substantial crowd (the singer remarked that it was an "unnecessarily significant number" of audience members) and delighted fans with their feel-good orchestral pop. They've just gone national with their record, and I think fans of Death Cab or The Decemberists will be pleased with their multi-instrumental approach to songwriting. They sounded great at the festival and were the highlight of the early shows for me.

As a member of the press, I could not pass up the opportunity to get in to the Hole End Session. I waited in the requisite line with my press peers (Rolling Stone Brazil, for example!) and we made our way up the back stairs to a room in McCaw Hall to witness the crazy. We were not disappointed.

Courtney did play a few songs, but she also talked. For what seemed like hours, she rambled on and on in random directions, often changing thought in the middle of sentences. She mentioned she might not play later in the evening because of a death threat, she went on a strange rant about Jonathan Poneman, the founder of Sub Pop, and then about how her song "Samantha" was written to be as bad-ass as Trent Reznor's songs, even though she forgot some of the lyrics as she sang it. The End Session was difficult to watch and hilarious at the same time. (Sort of like Love's life, I'm sure.) She went on to chat with Charles Cross (who is working on the Kurt Cobain biopic) about cast members, mentioned how she remembers Cobain's "peen," and then she and current Hole guitarist Micko Larkin did a cover of Pearl Jam's "Jeremy." Since I want to share that misery with you, here's a video.... (more)

This sums things up nicely.

There is once in a lifetime, and there is once in a lifetime. Yesterday, a small group of about two hundred Bumbershooters (lucky End listeners, some VIPs, and yes, mostly press) gathered in a tiny room upstairs in McCaw Hall to see Courtney Love give a very intimate Hole performance.

Ultimately, it took up the biggest chunk of my Bumber-day, as we all excitedly waited in line for an hour, then waited for Courtney for half an hour, and then got four songs and a whole lot of talking from Ms. Love over the next hour.  I didn't know quite what to expect, and yet it went exactly as expected.

"Do we have an African-American child in our family now?" And so it began.

Over the next scatterbrained hour, Courtney went on to mispronounce "schadenfreude," rail against the Weekly's recent cover story on her ("the most irresponsible thing I've ever seen"), and occasionally answer a question from Red, The End DJ trying to conduct a Q&A--though it did take Red asking a question about the forthcoming Kurt biopic thrice to get a semi-coherent answer.... (more)

Under normal circumstances, it would be crazy to catch a concert after a long couple days at Bumbershoot, but these were far from normal circumstances.  Pavement is my favorite band (yes, of all time), and I had never gotten to see them live before their very public 1999 breakup. So last night's show at the Paramount was a must.

I was not disappointed. The band was at their sloppy best, joking around (there were a few "that's what she said"s) and changing up lyrics ("I don't care if you cut your hair."). Spiral Stairs did a couple of his songs, and Bob Nastanovich was a law unto himself: on backup yelling vocals, a second drum kit, Korg, keyboard, cowbell, and whatever else was needed. Malkmus, of course, still acted like a teenager, all gangly guitar god, playing to the amp, on the floor, behind his neck, and pulled tight to his chest. The band said they would be back in town in January, so if you missed last night's set, you might have another chance to see them then.  Unless that was irony on their part, which would not be unexpected.

Full setlist for the Paramount Pavement show after the jump.... (more)

Oh my god, Bumbershoot is like the beer bong of music. After just three bands Saturday afternoon, I was feeling a little cocky, and pulled over to post a photo gallery. Little did I know that at the end of the day, I'd have have heard six more: Justin Townes Earle, The Decemberists, Pete Molinari, Neko Case, Balkan Beat Box, Solomon Burke, and Visqueen. And that's missing two of the day's highlights, HEALTH and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.

But that seems to be the way Bumbershoot goes--it takes a village. Neko Case thanked the Decemberists, Rachel Flotard, and one of Bob Dylan's techs for all pitching in to get her gear concert-ready. Then she tossed her head back and filled Memorial Stadium to overflowing with that voice of hers. Please enjoy this photographic evidence of a day in the life of a Bumbershooter.

Here's our preview of Sunday at Bumbershoot--and here's the Monday rundown--if you'd like to make your own memories.

Every year Bumbershoot stirs to life like some shaggy animal slouching toward elephant ears. Some things are always the same: If you're in a hurry to catch a show, don't head down the covered arcade between the Center House and McCaw Hall, jammed with shoppers ambling along a medina's worth of soap, sunglasses, and T-shirt sellers.

And don't try to cut between the Mural Amphitheatre and the food carts, because you'll end up with a plate of spaghetti on you. Spaghetti!

But other elements make every Bumbershoot different. The weather (mostly cloudy so far, but t-shirt friendly except for a mist this morning), the way your personal band list leans toward roots or rock or random, the world you step out of for a day or two (the wars, sputtering economy)--all these combine to make a Bumbershoot unlike the rest. For a weekend, the oncoming fall has to hold up--we're off to the fair.

It's Bumbershoot this Labor Day weekend (see our takes on Saturday and Sunday's lineup), and before we get to the acts, let's recap on strategery:

• Daily tickets are $22 (no mainstage) or $40 (mainstage). The $22 Saturday tickets are already sold out. Buy in advance, 'cause at the gate it'll go up to $30 and $50, respectively. All adult-accompanied kids 10 and under get free festival admission (doesn't include mainstage).
• You can meticulously plan an electronic schedule ahead of time using this online whirlygig or keep your options open by stocking your pocket with a printed PDF version
• Driving anywhere near the Seattle Center will be a pain, slightly less if you get there very early. Any number of buses will drop you there, including special festival shuttles. From Capitol Hill, it's the mighty #8. From downtown, you take the Monorail and arrive in style.
• Check the weather before you go and dress appropriately (or not, what the hell, it's your life). For the pack: water bottle, something blanket-y to sit on, sunscreen, sweater. On Monday, you'll probably want to bring an umbrella and waterproof jacket, just to be safe. 

By the time Bumbershoot reaches Monday, everyone is pretty damn tired. But if you're still able to summon up the energy to make it to Seattle Center early, there are plenty of good options, in the form of rootsy Bobby Bare Jr. (12:30), country and banter care of Brent Amaker & The Rodeo (11:45), the big pipes of Nouela Johnston in People Eating People (12:30), and JEFF the Brotherhood (1:15), who are neither brothers nor named Jeff.

Monday is also your last chance to check out those things you've been meaning to do all festival, like hitting up the short films in SIFF Cinema, the Counterculture Comix retrospective (curated by Larry Reid and our good friends at Fantagraphics), or seeing some dance, theatre, or comedy. Especially if it's raining outside. We've been giving shout-outs to comedy throughout the festival, but I'd like to give a special mention to Kumail Nanjiani, who specializes in the fish-out-of-water humor of being a Pakistani in America. (I also went to college with him--jealous?) He's performing as part of a comedy nerd lover's dream showcase with the also-very-funny John Mulaney and Nick Kroll (3:45).... (more)

The path of Rusty Willoughby's musical career has run parallel to the history of Northwest rock for the last 25 years. And often, that path's been a circuitous one.

In the mid-1980s he founded Pure Joy, a great (and criminally unsung) pop band whose British-informed atmospherics offered a sharp contrast to the Sabbath/Stooges/Sex Pistols trinity that seeped into the Seattle soil at the time. Then when Pure Joy folded, he bounced back as the principal singer/songwriter for Flop, one of the Northwest's greatest power-pop outfits.

Flop seemed poised to join Nirvana and Soundgarden at the vanguard of the Northwest music explosion of the '90s when Epic Records signed the band. The label allowed Flop's excellent sophomore platter Whenever You're Ready to die on the promotional vine, though, and Willoughby and bandmates were unceremoniously dropped.

Such a setback would have flat-out killed most mortals dead, but at his own easygoing pace Rusty Willoughby has continued to put out some of the Northwest's best rock music since Flop's 1995 dissolution. Throughout all of his ensemble and solo work, Willoughby's calling cards—a knack for melody easily the equal of any pop classicist, a smart and sometimes self-lacerating lyrical sense, and one of the most distinctive schoolboy tenor rock voices this side of Robin Zander—have remained constant, and his versatility as a songwriter continues to flower.... (more)

On Saturday night I was lucky enough to be invited to join some friends on an 80-foot-long converted fishing trawler for a meandering circuit of Lake Union while musicians played on deck. The event was an annual tradition that began on a dock, graduated to a floating barge, and had finally grown into an occasion that required a real live boat. We converged at the designated meeting place, gingerly walked the plank onto the boat, and set off for an evening of musical adventure.... (more)

The No Depression Festival is kind of a big deal. "A musical education in Americana," says Jonathan Zwickel. It's this Saturday at Marymoor Park (though 520 will be closed, so set your GPS to work on that). Acts range from The Swell Season and Lucinda Williams to the Maldives and Cave Singers.

Tonight there's a pre-festival hootenanny at Ballard's Sunset Tavern ("with guests Mark Pickerel, Jason Dodson of The Maldives, Zoe Muth, Betsy Olson, Kevin Large of Widower, Jack Wilson, Lindsay Fuller and The Cheap Dates, Jeff Fielder, Gregory Paul and more!").

UPDATE: At the hootenanny in question, I was handed a postcard advertising Ear to the Ground, a No Depression compilation you can download for free at Limewire--songs from The Swell Season, The Maldives, Sera Cahoone, Chuck Prophet, and Justin Townes Earle, to name just a few.

Aficionados of roots music are far-flung; last night I met an Englishman at Watertown (No Depression's Kim Ruehl was providing a festival warm-up) who'd flown in specifically for the event. He sounded a little like Ricky Gervais, which I didn't point out to him, since Gervais is now one of the three famous Englishman that Americans think Brits sound like. That is, it's not necessarily uncanny.

But he did offer to stand me a drink, and when I begged off, explaining that I had to drive (here I mimed the steering wheel) home, his eyes widened a little.

"Oh, very good," he said. "You really drove that home there, with your mime. I wouldn't have got it, probably, with just the English, but I could see you meant driving, too. The point really sailed home." He broke off to mime driving as well. "That's quite good, that. It becomes unmissable."