Recent Stories with tag music

Special to The SunBreak by John Hieger, sports music correspondent.

Our Flickr pool's Slightlynorth provides this Diana Mini shot of Qwest.

Defensive coordinator Gus Bradley isn't the only failed holdover from the Seahawks' past seasons of doom. During last Sunday's embarrassing loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, Qwest Field tortured fans with the tired '90s ballad "Bittersweet Symphony" no fewer than 300 times, adding a cruel soundtrack of despair to an already depressing display by the home team.

It's inexcusable for a franchise consistently plagued by insufficient toughness to leave fans hostage to an aging pop anthem more befitting a romantic comedy than a vicious pass rush.

If blitzing, sacks, and intimidating tackles are few and far between in Seattle, inspired local music is not in short supply. You would think the guy who built the Battlestar Hendrix Museum might have an appreciation for pairing a tune with the appropriate vibe and venue--but in this case Allen or his tone-deaf Vulcan minions have left the tiresome "Bittersweet Symphony" on the stadium loop too long and the on-field consequences of repetitious, existential pop crap are obvious; Lofa Tatupu can no longer tackle. Marcus Trufant looks depressed.

"You’ re a slaaaave to money then you diiiiie."

Would you want to make a brain-injuring tackle after hearing that lyric for the third time in four plays? Me neither. I recommend Paul Allen unloan Jimi Hendrix's Woodstock guitar to prevent further Jimmy Kimmel Fallon blasphemy and familiarize himself with some of the local artists in his museum that could actually rock the anemic Seahawks back into crunching Northwest form.

You hate America if you're not roused by "Man in the Box." Perhaps Jerry Cantrell's heavy riffs might finally produce something from Aarron Curry other than high-priced confusion on bootlegs--we can only speculate until the change is made.... (more)

Pearl Jam shot courtesy of Slightlynorth and our Flickr pool.

Our editor asked this question after receiving a press release from a record label, linked to a video featuring the, um, artist known as "Lights." [Ed.: Who's singing at El Corazon on October 23!] It's a good question, and one that's been bothering me for a few years. A question that has made me re-evaluate my decades-long love affair with popular music. I don't think it's just me.

I love pop music. Hip-hop, bubble-gum, emo-rock, dance--pick the poison. As a woman of a certain age, I think it's finally time to 'fess up, so I'm coming out of the closet.

Yes, I was the oldest person without children in tow at the American Idol Season 1 concert. Yes, I am generally the only person wearing black nail polish in the audience at a Justin Timberlake show. My first album was Shawn Cassidy "Under Wraps," and yes, I still have it. I also have a Tiffany Pandora station and I will throw down over which fin de siècle boyband was better.

But the affair seems to be over, due to the passing of my beloved. I blame Cher. Not that Auto-Tune hasn't been around since the early '90s, but back then it was a dirty little secret. Then Cher embraced it on 1998's Believe, using the technology to tighten up her aging voice in the same way she's taken to tucking her face. With, unfortunately, the same unsettling result. Cher went from pop matriarch to alien robot, and the robots have since taken over.

Even Christina Aguilera, who once railed against Auto-Tune, has visited the mothership: Her most recent album, 2010's mechanical Bionic, literally sounds phoned in, Aguilera's glorious voice butchered and unrecognizable on almost every song.

The record industry seems to be betting that the public won't notice, or care, but record sales say otherwise. 'N Sync's 2000 release, No Strings Attached, sold over one million copies in one day and 2.42 million copies in the first week. Compare that to Bionic, which sold 110,000 copies in its first week and Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster, which has sold only about 1.2 million units in the U.S. over the past year--yet, Gaga has been called the reigning queen of pop. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.... (more)

My companion and I hit Courtenay, BC, around mid-day Thursday and Courtenay, much like the singer of similar name, hit back. I have to admit, I should have seen it coming.

On the ferry to Nanaimo, I got into the most cordial throw-down of all time with a lovely woman who was herself going to Courtenay. The woman asked to buy a cigarette from me. I offered her the cigarette free of charge. She insisted that she couldn't possibly. I protested that as I was not a licensed tobacco vendor, it would be illegal, as well as unethical, for me to accept her money...et cetera.

Eventually, my nameless new friend took the cigarette and kept her money, and I spent the next ten minutes hearing about her various offspring. Mixed in there somewhere was a brief mention of something called the Seniors Games. We parted on good terms, but I should have Googled "Seniors Games."

The BC Seniors Games are an annual competition in which members of the hip-replacement set come together to compete in events ranging from archery to Whist. (My ferry friend was competing in the Bridge tournament.) The games are held in a different location each year. This year, the silvered thousands descended on Courtenay for the weekend, vehicles circling downtown in a Miltonian search for free parking. Belligerent old men were knocking people over to get first into queue for restaurant tables (I have the bruises to prove it), and every hotel, motel, B&B, guesthouse, and RV park in the Comox/Campbell River Valley was reported to be booked solid.

So, of course, the B&B we'd booked (and confirmed twice) had been double-booked by the flaky reflexologist (is that redundant?) who owns the place, and the other couple had arrived first. Vera greeted us with a blank stare, followed quickly by horror, a rapid search for alternate accommodations, and the offer to pay for said accommodations. This time, I accepted an offer to pay without hesitation. I have no idea what our very nice room in a chain hotel ended up costing, nor do I particularly care. By the time we settled in, we were tired, cranky, stinky, hungry, and feeling very, very ugly-American, though trying hard not to show it.... (more)

Quand on tombe amoureux, il est toujours quelque chose d'étonnant, comme si l'on demandait un Coca, est ils ont remporté un éléphant enfantin.  

Non, ja'i dit "Coca!" vous criez, mais le petit animal se balance déjà sur un bal. Qu'est-ce qu'on peut faire mais le donner un cacahuète? Après avoir vu Le Projet français hier soir, je suis un fou d'amour à six. Six. Je n'ai pas des chaussures pour ça. Je suis un homme simple, franc, d'une taille bourgeoise.

C'était comme une coupe de champagne envahissait le nez de mon coeur. Irréstistible! Je me suis trouvé dan la rue, dansant sous la pluie, plein de bisous. Je n'écrit pas maintenant hors de l'esprit de l'escalier mais de l'ascenseur rompu qui sursaute entre des etages. En plus, l'ascenseur peut être rempli de singes--les bonobos, en effet--qui portent les lunettes de soleil et ont en train de prendre un bain moussant.

It's probably useless to try to explain The French Project (tonight and tomorrow at the Film Forum). Michael Upchurch calls their show "The New New Wave" "sublimely silly, and sometimes simply sublime." The Stranger's French intern says they are "conceptuel," and "I enjoyed it so much that I would return there every single night if I could."

I will say this. If you are the sort of person who listens to "Awesome," drops in at On the Boards, and sees films at the Northwest Film Forum...then you have your tickets already in hand, and can't wait. And let me make it clear: While this isn't in many ways a demanding show, requiring undue rigor--there are songs from Popeye and Pete's Dragon--it's mostly in French and German, which is why I annoyed you with all that French at the outset. It's true the accents and pronunciation are variable.... (more)

Of course, not everyone is Bumbershooting this Labor Day weekend. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy a personal music festival. Abbey from The Sound on the Sound emailed me about the Doe Bay Sessions, and I would be greedy indeed to keep the news from you. Every Tuesday, from now through October, they're posting a new live session from bands like The Head and the Heart, Hey Marseilles, Ravenna Woods, Drew Grow and the Pastors' Wives, and Fences.

It's a new project from SOTS, which begins with music videos of The Maldives somewhere in the woods, filmed during this year's Doe Bay Fest. The initial idea was to invite a few bands to the SOTS yurt for a Vincent-Moon-style "takeaway" shoot...but these things have a way of getting away from you, and now:

Over the next 10 weeks we will be releasing videos featuring a candlelit session from Fences, The Head and the Heart (and the Doe Bay All-Stars) singing down the sun, Ravenna Woods using trees for percussion, a mid-trail serenade from Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives, The Maldives on a mossy knoll, picnic table perching with Hey Marseilles and many more.... (more)

The Columbia City Theater (Facebook) is a music club to fall in love with. It re-re-re-re-opened (the old vaudeville hall has been around since 1917, in various guises) in June of this year, and vaulted into the Seattle Weekly's "Best of Seattle" list less than two months later.

Before we go behind-the-scenes, here's the lowdown. You'll find the Theater at 4916 Rainier Avenue South, which is just beyond the Columbia City Cinema. (Take the #7 or #8 bus or light rail--the last light rail train leaves SeaTac for downtown at 12:10 a.m., Monday through Saturday.) It's adjacent to the award-winning pizzeria Tutta Bella, who serve up the eats in The Bourbon, Columbia City Theater's bar. The bar is open seven days a week, 4 p.m. to 2 a.m.

The bourbon-heavy cocktail list ($8-$10) features pre-Prohibition favorites (Mint Julep, Derby, Commodore), as well as some rye (Red Hook; Fratelli Cocktail, with Fernet Branca; Diamondback). Bar entertainment ranges from djs to karaoke to live music, and on nights when there's a show in the theatre, you can watch the show projected live on a screen. Happy Hour most of the week is 4-7 p.m., and all day Monday, and brings you such wonders as $5 pitchers of High Life and $3 wells.

Past the bar, on your left, is the entrance to the theater, which has a bar of its own. It's an intimate shoebox space, though it holds over 200, and the acoustics require no over-amplification. The ambiance--the curtained stage and brass lighting fixtures and brick walls--makes this unlike any other music club you're likely to step into in town.... (more)

It's been a great week for fun in Seattle. Wednesday's Hercules and Love Affair is the best time I've had at Neumos in ages and Thursday night's Holy Ghost!/Chromeo bill at the Showbox kept the good times rolling, with a crowd so raucous there was worry that the headliners' gear would topple over from the all the bouncing. Sure, the jackass quotient was high, but not even being crushed in a mob of folks unable to handle their booze and pills well could put a damper on my spirit.

I was in the minority and most excited about seeing openers Holy Ghost!. They've been around for years as DJs and remixers for the likes of MGMT, Cut Copy, Moby, and LCD Soundsystem, but they've only this year put out their first EP, Static on the Wire, in anticipation of their debut full-length due later this year. It gives them a larger spotlight than they would have if they were arriving as a totally new act.

As it was, you could tell they're still new to this. As DJs, Holy Ghost! have a Brooklyn swagger, fully aware that their "nu disco" selections are, as the kids would say, "the shit." Joined by a keyboardist and guitarist in their live edition, they don't have anywhere near the same presence, seemingly unsure of how best to position themselves onstage.

Part of that might have been due to the technical issues they were dealing with (gear getting unplugged, a finicky mic), but overall it was immediately apparent that this is largely uncharted territory for the crew, having only made their live debut in May. They played Static on the Wire, a few older tunes, and that was that.

I don't mean to sound overly critical here, as I (and others) danced and enjoyed their set thoroughly ("I Will Come Back" just kills every time I hear it), but at this point I'd rather see Holy Ghost! DJ than live. However, I'll be right up front next time as well--these guys have too much talent (and too many more seasoned friends to guide them) to think their live sets won't improve at a quick clip.

In contrast, Chromeo closed things out with swagger to spare. The tour veterans had the crowd in their hands from the moment they hit the stage. Things were already a bit on the sweaty side, but things got wild with the opening strains of "Tenderoni," with the crowd's bouncing causing everything on the stage to sway precariously. Things stayed just as hectic for the rest of the set, forcing my old bones back to the still-dancing 21+ area.

Only a few trickled away before they finished with their cover of The Eagles' "I Can't Tell You Why." Chromeo was in fine form, as was Seattle, with Chromeo tweeting "Livest show of the whole tour so far. You win, Seattle." Nice work, everybody.

Dancer/choreographer/curator Alice Gosti organizes Modern Dance Behind the Pink Door, a quarterly performance tonight at the Pink Door.

Modern Dance Behind the Pink Door. Dancer/choreographer Alice Gosti's quarterly curated contemporary dance evening at the Pink Door is tonight. The line-up features work by Gosti herself, Morgan Nutt, Anh Nguyen, Rachel Randall, Maya Soto, Alix Isom, Rashelle McKee, Anh Nguyen, A K Mimi Allin, and Vanessa DeWolf. Admission's free, but the show's dinner theatre-style, so show up early to eat or just show up early to drink, because the place could be packed well before the 10:30 p.m. start.

ARC Dance's Summer Dance at the Center. ARC Dance, a rather talented contemporary ballet company from up north, returns to Seattle Rep's stage for "Summer Dance at the Center," a mixed-repertoire evening of work from choreographers including Betsy Cooper, Penny Hutchinson (of Mark Morris Dance Group), Jason Ohlberg (of Chicago's Hubbard Street Dance), and artistic director Marie Chong, among others. I saw last year's performance and loved it, and there's only two performances left tonight and tomorrow. (Tickets $15-$25)

Sounds Outside Festival. Wunderkind Beth Fleenor--a young woman as adept at promoting avant-garde music as she is she is composing and performing it--is the organizing and driving force behind the fifth annual Sounds Outside Music Festival this Saturday at Cal Anderson Park (another lineup goes up next month). Sounds outside, though, features a fantastic lineup of talented contemporary jazz composers and musicians, making for an awesome afternoon of chilling in the park. Starting at one in the afternoon, for free, you can catch a line-up including Non Grata, Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble, Zubatto Syndicate, Wayne Horvitz/Sonny Clark Memorial Sextet, and NYC's Father Figures. The second half of the festival goes up in mid-August.

This just in off the wire: Thursday, June 24, is the launch of "Wild Summer Nights," outdoors at the Bravern in Bellevue (21+, every Thursday evening through September 16). Besides live music acts courtesy of the Triple Door, Wild Ginger will serve complimentary appetizers from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. (The event is very much like "Wild Ginger Live" but outside.)

Acts announced so far are the James Baumgart Trio on June 24, Das Schwa (July 1), Dan Rapport (July 8), Ty Bailie B3 Trio (July 15), and soul-singer Darrius Willrich (July 22). If you ever stop by the Triple Door's Musicquarium you'll likely be familiar with some of these, as well as Wild Ginger appetizers. (YUM!)

The cover ($5) benefits Hopelink, which helps homeless and low-income families, so you pretty much have to go. Also, if you live on the Eastside, seriously, what else are you going to do? There, I said it.

You can pick up tickets in advance at the Concierge Desk in Building 1 at The Bravern, or at the event. Congregate at the outdoor fireplace off the 110th Avenue Arrival Court; if it's rainy, the music, food and drinks will take over the Wild Ginger and will start at 8 p.m.

You guys. Festival lineups are coming fast and furious now that everyone has switched to their post-Memorial Day gleaming white boat shoes. There are so many that it's hardly worth counting, because your eyes will glaze over and more will likely show up before you're finished inventorying them all. Today's announcement of a preliminary lineup for the Capitol Hill Block Party confirmed a few rumors, brought a few surprises, and made a play for keeping you close to home on a precious summer weekend. 

First, that the third-day festisprawl was meant to accommodate the widely expected headline performance from (one of) Jack White's supergroups, the Dead Weather, who will headline on Sunday. It also confirmed a barely-heard comment from Yeasayer during their spring show at Neumo's: the much-loved protofuturists will be back in Seattle on the big stage on Friday night. Other big names include MGMT (back after a sleepy Sasquatch mainstage show), Shabazz Palaces, Holy Fuck (Friday); Atmosphere, Blonde Redhead, !!! (Saturday); and Blue Scholars, Harlem (Sunday). They're joined by plenty of local talents and a whole lot of hip hop, with more announcements likely in the run-up to the festival. In general, these are some really good bands, but it's almost a relief that the organizers seem not to have reached for the stratosphere this time around. As neat as it was to see Sonic Youth, the Gossip, the Jesus Lizard, et al last year, foot traffic got a whole lot of soulcrushing at times.

Sure, it's long outgrown its roots as a cozy neighborhood block party and the crowds of people swarming the neighborhood for the festival can be a bit jarring, but if you're up for a bit of chaos and the occasional hot mess, it can be a fun way to spend a summer weekend. You're bound to run into tons of friends and the overdose of music can be quite satisfying at a good price. A three-day pass to the fenced-in Pike/Pine corridor of multistage music costs $60 in advance or $23 per day. Prices go up a bit at the gates, provided it doesn't sell out. Peruse the whole lineup, via the Seattle Times, after the jump. ... (more)

• Poetic Vibrations: An Evening with Christen Lien and guests Isaac Cotec, Christen Lien, and Emily Lauderback, at SPACE Venue and Education Center (7601 Greenwood Ave N), on May 6, 2010, from 7-10 p.m. Admission is $20 at the door.

[Ed. note: After possibly one too many cups of chamomile tea, someone sent us this announcement:]

We would love to invite you to an elegant evening of breathtaking music and an exploration of synesthetic state through taste, art, and Poetic Vibrations. On May 6, Christen Lien will be gracing us with a live performance employing a unique interweaving of viola and guitar effects to express stories that delve into the depths of human.

Writer Camilla Griggers has said "Not since Sigur Ros’s Jon Thor Birgisson have we seen an original musical genius of this nature. Christen Lien exudes an exalted vibration meant to lead us home in an historical moment that marks the end of empire and the beginning of a new dream of consciousness."... (more)

"Awesome's" "West," directed by Matthew Richter, opening at On the Boards Thurs., April 21. Photo by Victoria Lahti.

First off, tonight is the opening night of "Awesome"'s West at On the Boards. Directed by Matt Richter, in West the seven art rock/cabaret/musical theatre artists that are "Awesome" plunge deep into an exploration of the themes of American westward expansion. Beyond that, I really don't know much about the show, but if you've never seen "Awesome," these are some crazy-talented musicians who aren't making your standard musical theatre-fare. For more information, the kids at Teen Tix speed-dated most of the company in the guise of "interviewing" them (I'll admit, Basil Harris is kind of dreamy...), so feel free to check that out for more info.

Speaking of On the Boards, tonight is also the opening night of Amelia Reeber's this is a forgeryat the Erickson Theatre off Broadway, which originally debuted at OtB last year at the Northwest New Works Festival. It's a quirky solo dance work that, as Reeber told me in an interview last fall, ironically came out of her exasperation with dance incorporating large amounts of video. "Ironically" because this is a forgery features a lot of video components, including giant cats and birds, but Reeber has a very unique approach to interacting with video that blew me away when I saw the piece at NWNW. Reeber went on to become the winner of the first Seattle edition of The A.W.A.R.D. Show in December, which came with a $10,000 first-prize grant that she's used to fund turning this is a forgery into an evening-length work, and this is something that I can't recommend highly enough. You've got two weekends, tickets are only $15, go see it.

And finally, speaking of The A.W.A.R.D. Show...and On the Boards...well, The A.W.A.R.D. Show is returning to On the Boards this fall. Started at NYC's Joyce Theatre in 2006, the show is an attempt to encourage new audiences to engage with dance by putting a series of artists in competition with one another for an audience vote that carries some serious bank. The concept has been controversial amongst artists pretty much everywhere it's gone (it's since expanded to several cities throughout the U.S.), but with that said, a $10,000 kitty is a whopping opportunity for almost any artist (two runners-up get $1,000 a piece), and probably worth the effort considering the tenuous state of arts funding in Seattle next year. So if you're a dancer/choreographer who's looking to compete, follow this link to the OtB site and fill out your application by May 11.

It's a drizzly Friday night, April 16, and Exene Cervenka--singer for L.A. punk icons X, solo performer, artist, and poet--is playing an acoustic set at the Queen Anne Easy Street Records to an excited crowd.

The store aisles are jammed with everyone from eight-year-olds to AARP-eligible warhorse punks, and they all devour Cervenka's mostly new material from her first solo record proper in sixteen years, Somewhere Gone. She sings her songs in a plaintive voice that sounds like an Appalachian mountain woman, and provides ragged-but-right accompaniment to herself on acoustic guitar. With her music and offhandedly humorous between-song anecdotes bolstered by the genial vibe (and the smuggled-in cans of Rainier circulating amongst audience members), one of punk rock's most influential and enduring figures has the whole room eating out of her hand.

Cervenka finishes her set and begins meeting, greeting, and signing autographs for fans. Much love is thrown her way, and she seems to genuinely cherish and appreciate it. She's done this free in-store for them on her dime, and she'll continue touring independent record stores in the same gypsy fashion for the next several days to promote National Record Store Day and independent music merchants in general. The phrase "changed my life" is uttered more than once by people in the line, and I find out from Cervenka's assistant Andrea that one admirer--a tall, sleepy-eyed guy in a baseball cap--plans on having the singer design a tattoo for him.

I bump into Exene's human canvas near the doorway as he smokes a cigarette outside. He's stoked, he tells me, despite the fact that he's nursing four broken ribs and has yet to feel the morphine intended to block his pain. "Saved damn near my whole arm for this," he says as he hooks one hand underneath his T-shirt sleeve to show me the bare space intended for the body art. "I'm gonna get Rick Nielsen and Bun E. Carlos to do the other arm," he adds, beaming.

Once the crowd drifts away Exene pulls out paper and a Sharpie and begins sketching an elaborate pattern that looks like punked-up Maori adornment. She hands the drawing to her fan/tattoo canvas upon completion and imparts pointers on how to have the tattoo artist finish the work. Then she emerges from behind the counter. We can do the interview in the back, she tells me as we head to the store's rear and past the "Employees Only" door.... (more)

The Stranglers were always the odd ducks of the first wave of 1970's British punk. Older and smarter than most of their peers, their songs were anchored more in roller-rink keyboards than slashing guitars, and their lyrics emphasized lascivious humor and personal observation over the socio-political shouting of the Sex Pistols and the Clash.

Hugh Cornwell, The Stranglers' lead singer and guitarist from the band's early-seventies inception to 1990, was--in many ways--the face of the band. His distinctive English monotone of a voice and his biting lyrics gave the band its personality, and his restlessness helped pull the band away from spitting pub rock into jazz and exotic keyboard pop (to whit: the magical 1981 British hit, "Golden Brown," the most gorgeous waltz about smack that you'll ever hear). Once Cornwell left The Stranglers' ranks the band remained serviceable, but never quite seemed to find a personality of its own.

Both band and original frontman are doing fine apart though, thanks. The Stranglers continue to record and tour throughout England (their latest long-player Suite XIV contains some lovely pop songs like "She's Slipping Away"), and Cornwell's etched out a low-key but rewarding career solo. His new longplayer Hooverdam (available for free download on the singer's official website) is a likeably rough-around-the-edges collection of tunes largely free of the Stranglers' arty tendencies. All erstwhile punk-rock figures should mature so gracefully.

Tickets ($15 on TicketWeb) for Cornwell's set at the Tractor Tavern Sunday night are still available, and it promises to be a treat. The scruffy rockabilly sound of much of Hooverdam should fit nicely in the environs of a hotbed of roots music like the Tractor, and he reputedly divides his current sets democratically between Stranglers classics (with an emphasis on that classic punk/new wave 1977 opus, Rattus Norwegicus) and newer solo material, with a bare-bones guitar/bass/drums power trio configuration that cuts away all frills and boils old and new tunes alike down to their sinews. No more heroes, my eye. 

The godlike greatness of David Bowie should be damn near incontrovertible, and pairing some of his greatest songs with a fifty-piece orchestra has this avowed Bowie acolyte near salivation. Fortunately, there are still tickets available for Seattle Rock Orchestra's David Bowie Tribute at the Moore Theater tonight.

Local musician/arranger Scott Teske's been wowing local fans for several months now with the SRO, augmenting fine homegrown bands like The Black Swedes and Grand Hallway with classy horn-and-string flourishes, and tearing down the Fremont Abbey with SRO's inspirational live take on the Arcade Fire's Funeral (previewed in these here online pages in November 2009).

A terrific revolving-door of local vocalists (The Posies' Jon Auer, People Eating People's Nouela Johnston, Kindness Kind's Alessandra Rose, and Aqueduct'er David Terry, among them) will lend their talents to some of Bowie's greatest material (word has it that they'll cover tracks from Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, and Diamond Dogs), and with a four-dozen-piece orchestra milking every bit of drama from the Thin White Duke's succulently theatrical tunes, it'll be a real crash course for the ravers.

Crosscut's Feliks Banel called it back in October, just after KING FM laid off three announcers. As Banel saw it, KING FM had three options: try harder to sell ads, sell the station, or go the listener-supported route.

The email today from Program Director Bryan Lowe confirms that it's door number three: "That’s why I am excited to tell you that effective July of 2011, KING FM will become a listener supported public radio station. Instead of airing commercials for our support, KING FM will now get its support from underwriters and our listeners."

At that point, Banel says, "the station will stop airing 60-second commercial 'spots' and will switch to 20-second 'underwriting announcements' and occasional listener pledge drives."

The nail in KING FM's commercial coffin was an electronic tracking system that replaced the old audience-measuring diaries. Portable People Meters automatically sniff out which radio station is playing throughout the day, and don't rely on people's memories at all (they even come with a motion-detector, so you can't just plunk it in front of a radio and walk off).

After Seattle switched to PPM, and got its first results back in June of 2009, there were shakeups everywhere, with Star 101.5 suddenly holding the #1 spot. For KING FM, the news wasn't good: its "share of the local audience was smaller and older than it had been before, with the average age of listeners about 60," reports the Seattle Times. Not exactly catnip to advertisers.

I'm not a sketch comedy person or--outside of Spalding Gray and Mike Daisey--much into monologues, but I have gone to the Solo Performance Festival for the past three years and have had each time a revelatory moment where I realize I will be coming back. There's a richness to the offerings--storytelling, music, dance, fiction, memoirs--that guarantees you'll find something intriguing, and the level of craft tends to be high.

SPF #4 is just kicking off and runs through April 3 (a full series pass is just $99). I see twenty different performers in the lineup, so what is that, $5 per show with the pass? Amazing. Then, look at the creator/performers: Tamara Ober, Paul Budraitis (interviewed here), Ki Gottberg, Peggy Platt, Suzanne Morrison, Waxie Moon, Erin Jorgensen, Norman "SUBPRIME" Bell (interviewed here)...

The right-sized production costs of solo performance are compelling, but tonight and a few times throughout the run, there's also "Best in Shorts," where you get an evening of solo performance small plates, as it were.

For a taste of the real stuff, that's Tamara Ober's Pipa, above, the story of "an accident-prone girl who is unable to take the direct route to anywhere." Ober, a member of Zenon Dance Company since 2002, has been called "charmingly rambunctious" by the Star-Tribune, which is an apt description for SPF itself.

Monday

• Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs & Steel) talks about not Collapse-ing @ Benaroya Hall
• Thomas Goetz (from Wired) talks about healthcare 2.0 @ Town Hall

Tuesday

• If you missed it Monday, Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs & Steel) talks about not Collapse-ing @ Benaroya Hall

Wednesday

• Journalist Shane Harris unveils government surveillance @ Town Hall
• Opening: the musical Chicago with John Hurley as Billy Flynn @ the Paramount
• Opening: Solo Performance Festival 4 @ Theatre off Jackson
• Ongoing: Seattle Opera's production of Verdi's Falstaff @ McCaw Hall

Thursday

• Opening: Songs of Wars I Have Seen, a collaboration between Seattle Chamber Players and Pacific Musicworks @ On the Boards

Friday

• Before-it-was-cool stand-up lesbian Kate Clinton gets political @ the Triple Door
• UW professor David Shields reads from his book Reality Hunger: A Manifesto @ Elliott Bay Book Co., FREE

Saturday 

• Northwest Girlchoir presents a world music family concert @ Town Hall
• Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra plays "Big Band Monk and Mingus" @ Benaroya Hall
• Grand Hallway joins the Seattle Rock Orchestra for a night of "lush, baroque pop" @ the Triple Door
• Chappelle Show alumnus Charlie Murphy does a one-night stand-up gig @ the Moore Theatre
• Here/Now, a quarterly program of improvisation between dancers and musicians @ Open Flight Studio

Beth Graczyk and Jens Wazel in Salt Horse's "Man on the Beach." Photo by Tim Summers.

Tuesday afternoon, a couple hours before dress rehearsal, I sat down with the three core members of Salt Horse Performance in the lobby of the Erickson Theatre Off Broadway to discuss Man on the Beach, the company's second evening-length work, which opens a two-week run on Feb. 26 (Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; tickets $12/$15).

Proper seating being in short supply, dancer/choreographer Beth Graczyk explained the inspiration for the piece while sitting on a wooden box; Corrie Befort, also a dancer and choreographer, was perched on the middle rung of a folding ladder, while composer/sound artist Angelina Baldoz was relegated to a miniature chair that, much to the amusement of her cohorts, raised her a scant half-foot off the floor.

"I went down to the beach with some family members," Graczyk recalled of a day almost two years ago in Port Townsend, "and saw this man who kept repeating these very simple gestures over and over again. And the way that he was set against the ocean, he was in perfect silhouette, and nothing was surrounding him. It was so particular, because it seemed like the whole environment really framed him, like he had gone there of all places because that's where he could be who he really was. And yet he was so internal, it was like there was a little sheath or bubble wrapped around him."

That image—a solitary man with long arms, alone on a beach, carrying on with a portrait of a woman—captivated Graczyk, and when she brought it to her collaborators, they were likewise transfixed by the mysterious man who was stuck in his own life, trapped in a personal drama. ... (more)

Tomorrow night is your one chance this week to hear the Russian National Orchestra live. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at Benaroya Hall, and the program includes Tchaikovsky's Elegy for String Orchestra, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9 in E-flat major, and Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B minor. (Tickets are $32-$106). With the RNO in Seattle is young cellist Sergey Antonov, the son of a Moscow Conservatory cello teacher and a cellist with the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra. Rostropovich is a big fan.

Tom Keogh charts the orchestra's meteoric rise since its founding in 1990 as an orchestra independent of state control. You could be forgiven for thinking the RNO exists mainly to give classical music critics the chance to outdo each other with superlatives. When they recorded Tchaikovsky's Pathétique, Gramophone labeled it the best ever, asking, "Should human beings be able to play like this?"

Shostakovich's ninth symphony is notable for its brevity (it generally comes in at under 30 minutes) and for its joyful, light mood. In fact, it has made listeners think of both Mozart and Haydn. Written to celebrate the Russian victory over the Nazis, it contained none of the thunder and tragedy expected from Shostakovich, who knew from brass and drums, and was yet another reason the Party felt like Shostakovich just didn't get what they were trying to do.

So while the Tchaikovsky and Dvorak will sweep you away, no doubt, the Shostakovich should be something to behold as well, and not--this time--because when you hear the music and close your eyes, you think of Stalin.

the evolution of a festival. sasquatch 2010.

As the multiday music festival era hit its inevitable saturation point, some have fallen (R.I.P., Rothbury) and others are doing whatever they can to help their announcements stand out in a crowded field. In the last week, Pitchfork opened the gates to ticket sales by releasing a slate of headliners for their affordable summer party in Chicago's Union Park and Bonnaroo promised to reveal its lineup live on the internet to fans little-by-little later this month.

Today, as part of the arms race on your summer weekends, Sasquatch announced a launch party to send their still-secret lineup out into the wide world.

Next Monday, they'll team up with curious co-sponsors esurance and Jack Daniels for a free show at the Crocodile. Bradford Cox will be there in electronic Atlas Sound guise, along with Surfer Blood and Seattle's ascending hip-hop 3.0 stars Fresh Espresso. The event requires free tickets (tune in to 107.7 or stop in at a friendly neighborhood Easy Street Records starting Friday morning) and will be hosted by Too Beautiful to Live's Luke Burbank. All sorts of product tie-ins and contests abound: VIP ticket opportunities for carpoolers, signed limited edition posters, gaming console giveaways, and more. ... (more)

Last time Asobi Seksu played Seattle, the press release announced that the band was going to be playing an acoustic set, in anticipation of their upcoming (since-released) acoustic album Rewolf. The band didn't get that memo and instead played their normal set which was wonderful, if a bit jarring compared to the quieter, non-strobe-lit acts on the bill. Following through this time around, Asobi Seksu left their effects pedals at home for last week's Triple Door performance and demonstrated that their songs stand up even without the obvious shoegaze-influenced sensory onslaught.

Asobi Seksu's always been best live. Their records are always worth a listen as well, but it's on stage where you really understand the duality of their songs, with the distorted guitars forming an aggressive counterpart to Yuki Chikudate's sweet vocals. Without that interplay, this show was a completely different beast, placing sole focus on Yuki's voice, making me wonder at various points how such a big sound could come out of such a small frame.

As with Rewolf the evening's set consisted of re-workings from throughout Asobi Seksu's discography. Old favorites like "New Years" and "Thursday" gained a new, more intimate life with the new arrangements, and the Triple Door was the perfect space to experience it. The songs gave off a new vulnerability when delivered from the 4 seated members on the large stage, with "star light" replacing strobe lights and nuance replacing sonic power. It was a pleasant change and nice to see the band branch out into new territory, especially in the appropriate setting. That said, I certainly won't complain when the band comes back with the fully plugged in experience next time.

Video from the show:

 

 

Rewolf is available now from any record store worth its salt. It's also available from the band's label.

More videos after the jump.... (more)

The Seattle edition of MTV's $5 Cover, directed by Lynn Shelton and filmed around town this summer, is about ready to hit the web. Audrey and Josh chat about it for your enjoyment.

$5 Cover Seattle, the organizational chart

Audrey: Do you have anything to say about the $5 Cover trailer?
Josh: Not yet. I've had that Vimeo tab sitting open, sadly neglected, forever. It seems that just like my intentions to crash one of the filmings this summer, my interest did not overcome my laziness and attention deficit. For instance, I am not entirely clear on whether this is an on-television series or an internet-only series (like Josh Schwartz's mildly watchable buzz band showcase Rockville, CA).
Audrey: It's a web series, I believe. I don't even know that much about it!

Josh: Unlike my time machine, which is out for repairs and prevents me from seeing one of these episodes being filmed at a character-filled local rock venue, my internet machine still works, so I can remedy my ignorance. Hang on and I'll take a look at the trailer.
Audrey: ...
Josh: While I'm dialing that up, a procedural question: This trailer has been up for months, why is everyone suddenly talking about it?
Audrey: The vid has been on Vimeo for a bit, but the Mayor's Office of Film and Music recently wrote about it, which is why it's been everywhere lately.
Josh: Now that I've watched it, a few observations:... (more)