Just Announced! Grizzly Bear 10/16, Brandi Carlile 10/24 & Mat Kearney 11/2

STG Presents (Seattle Theatre Group) has announced three news shows that go on sale Friday:

Grizzly Bear

Presented by STG & Sealed With A Kiss
Date: Friday, October 16, 2009
Venue: Moore Theatre (all ages)
Price: $25.00 not including applicable fees
Seating: Reserved
On sale: Friday, July 17th at 11am
Ticketing information: Online at www.tickets.com, in person at the Paramount Theatre box offices, 24-hour kiosks located outside the Paramount & Moore Theatres, charge by phone at (877) STG-4TIX, or online at www.STGPresents.org.  More information available at www.SealedWithAKiss.com, as well.

Brandi Carlile

Date: Saturday, October 24, 2009
Venue: Paramount Theatre (all ages)
Price: $30.50 not including applicable fees
Seating: Reserved
On sale: Friday, July 17th at 10am
Ticketing information: Online at www.tickets.com, in person at the Paramount Theatre box offices, 24-hour kiosks located outside the Paramount & Moore Theatres, charge by phone at (877) STG-4TIX, or online at www.STGPresents.org.  

Mat Kearney

Date: Monday, November 2, 2009
Venue: Moore Theatre (all ages)
Price: $22.50 in advance, $25.00 day of show, not including applicable fees
Seating: Reserved
On sale: Friday, July 17th at noon
Ticketing information: Online at www.tickets.com, in person at the Paramount Theatre box offices, 24-hour kiosks located outside the Paramount & Moore Theatres, charge by phone at (877) STG-4TIX, or online at www.STGPresents.org.

Recommended shows for November 2007

November is pulling the grey blanket over the city once again and it’s the perfect time to turn your attention back to the concert scene. So throw away your shades (cuz you KNOW you ain’t gunna find them in the spring anyway) and don the rain slicker. It’s showtime!

Click here to check out recommended shows..

QOTSA Return to Portland and Seattle

The Duluth/Era Vulgaris tour keeps rocking along:
17 December at the Roseland Theater down there in the 503.
18 December (Tuesday’s alright for rock n’ roll) at the Paramount

Pre-sale begins today at 10AM.

Let me nip this in the bud: Dean Ween was affiliated with the band for the album Songs for the Deaf.

Check Out My Shiny New WEEEN!!!!

Hey There Fancy Pants!

Lots of you know that Ween is releasing a new album on the 23rd of Oct. titled La Cucaracha. For those of you who got the sneak peak with the Friends EP, you know that La Cucaracha will not disappoint. It’s Awesome Sound is unclassifiable, unorthodoxed, unapologetic, and unbelievable. If’n you haven’t heard the Friends EP, I’ll do you one better and be your Johnny on the Spot. A Little Birdy told me that you can preview the ENTIRE La Cucaracha on Ween’s MySpace Page

So all you Pretty Girls and Fat Boys get to listening so you can sing along through your Mutilated Lips at the Paramount on Nov 13 when Gene and Dean come to town.

If you don’t love the Ween, well you can just Piss up a rope.

VIVA Boognish!!!

A Summer-y of Summer Shows and Albums

Though I was in LA for half of June, working all of July, bed-ridden with SARS for six weeks after July 30th and MIA for most of September, I still managed to bear witness to some rock and some roll and a lot of hip hop this summer.
I downloaded the new Common album, “Finding Forever” and despite the rough and dissonant track “Southside”, wholly endorse it top to bottom. You have probably heard “Misunderstood” with the Nina Simone sample on KEXP. This was in heavy rotation in my work van until…
Talib Kweli’s “Eardrum.” Dang, Kanye was busy, what with producing some of this album plus “Forever”. Judging by the credits, it’d be hard to beat this album: Pete Rock, Madlib, will.i.am (now off the hook as Fergalicious is off doing something else) and longtime producer Hi-Tek are responsible for its release. The beats and themes bounce all over on “Eardrum” as much as his flow on “Country Cousins.” (Is that an “Earth, Wind and Fire” sample in there?) Try to put this one down.
By the time I saw Lyrics Born and Rodrigo y Gabriela rock crowds at Bumbershoot, I had probably played Queens of the Stone Age’s “Era Vulgaris” about 30 times. These artists bolstered my faith in the State of Music 2007 as much as the subtext of “Era Vulgaris” tried to question it.
A special thanks to a couple of NWMBers for inviting me along to the Spoon show last month. Like an old locomotive trying to gain momentum, the band had to fight the mass of their last album – too slow and cumbersome for this listener – to get the show going. Once into the second half of the performance, though, they found their groove and sated up the sold-out Showbox crowd.
Surprise surprise at my friend Michael’s wedding reception at the Sunset Tavern: a private show by our beloved Cops. A great preview of the new album followed a short set during the cocktail hour that featured “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” and “Ballroom Blitz”. Hell yeah! Since my last visit to The Cops in late 2005, they have added a guitarist (Brandon of Free Electricity) and replaced founding bassist Brian Wall with Drew Church. They as solid as ever. I am eager to see them again this week with The Blakes at the Croc.
A fellow NWMB editor invited me out to see Two Gallants at the Croc earlier this month. The harmonics and minor-chord whiny-ness of Modest Mouse plus the two-piece frenetics of Hella. They totally underwhelmed me but it afforded me the opportunity to check out Blitzen Trapper, newly signed to hit maker Sub Pop. My idea that night: Radiohead mates with The Eagles and has a rockin’ Wilco baby. Whatever that whiskey-stained thought means. Check ‘em out and decide for yourself. Or grab the free show on the “KEXP Live Performances” podcast on the omnipresent iTunes.
I have been missing out on the goldenthroat rock, so tomorrow I am going to see Chris Cornell do something at the Paramount. Maybe he’ll take his shirt off. Or maybe he’ll play Billie Jean and I will try to sing along. Lately he has been covering Zeppelin’s “Thank You” and that out to be goldenthroat-tastic.
If Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings are on the road, I will have to catch the support of their third release. Anyone into it?

Bright Eyes Show Review

Singer/songwriter Ross Beamish talks about the recent Bright Eyes show at the Paramount in Seattle

What songs did they nail?

Clairaudients (Kill or Be Killed) (from the new album Cassadaga), Four Winds (Cassadaga), Hot Knives (Cassadaga). As part of the Bright Eyes encore they played Road to Joy – the last song on last album I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning – and it was a dream come true.

Bright Eyes Pics

Photos from the Tuesday night Bright Eyes show at the Paramount.

Review to follow shortly.

Two Ends of a Spectrum

Exactly seven days apart, I saw MTV-friendly Tenacious D at the Paramount, and a small noise/experimental show at the Lobo Saloon. To say they were dissimilar would be like saying tidal waves are moisture filled.

Guess which one this is?