Man alive, the last five years have seen some dramatic shifts in the dance music scene. When last we saw Felix Burton and Simon Ratcliffe on a proper Basement Jaxx record, they were finishing out a full decade of releasing dance music with not one, but two incredible full length records. One, Scars…
Florida band Surfer Blood couldn't wait until summer to release their anticipated sophomore album of poppy, surf-influenced indie rock, but that's just as well, as Pythons takes a relatively darker turn. Our Music Director, Don Yates, praises the new album for its "more polished and streamlined sou…
It's about as difficult to claim a favorite Nick Cave album as it is to claim a Tom Waits one. That the two artists get compared so frequently by critics and fans isn't due so much to their similar penchant for the seedier aspects of life but rather to their shared mastery of the album's form. Each…
Rock n' roll legend Fats Domino has passed away at the age of 89, due to natural causes. Born Antoine Domino in 1928, "Fats" combined the bluesy sound of his hometown of New Orleans with a boogie-woogie style to become one of the top artists of the 1950s and early '60s, including the hits "Ain't T…
On the show this time, it's the code-switching pop-pastiche of Caroline Polachek.
It's no surprise that British downtempo pop group London Grammar sold out their second Seattle show in six months Saturday night. Back when they played the Crocodile at the end of September, their excellent first full length If You Wait had just come out only weeks before in the states. Now that it…
At the Paramount Theatre last week, Phantogram opened their set without even being on stage. After they performed two songs obscured from the audience, a screen fell shortly thereafter, revealing the New York duo behind the fourth wall to fervently shake the physical walls of the venue. Going from …
"Good evening" or "we're Iceage from Copenhagan, Denmark" wasn't the first thing that Iceage frontman Elias Bender Rønnenfelt said when the Danish four-piece arrived onstage. It wasn't even a simple "hello". It was a startling, guttural grunt that soared over the opening chords of "On My Fingers". …
"This is our first rap song." Sharon Van Etten may have an extraordinary talent for extracting every last excruciating detail of her romantic failings, but it can't be said that she doesn't have a sense of humor. One of a handful of acts to play during Monday's brief period of cloudy skies, Van Ett…
Although there was plenty of star power on the final day of Sasquatch, there was a clear standout during the early afternoon on Monday, and it wasn't just because brought a Godzilla figurine onstage with her. When an assured Natalie Prass opened with an electric version of "Bird Of Prey", it was cl…
Soul legend Bobby Womack has passed away today at the age of 70. Cause of death is not currently being reported. Womack began performing music in the mid-'50s, and was discovered by Sam Cooke who signed his band, The Valentinos, to SAR Records. The Valentinos' 1964 single "It's All Over Now" was co…
While it's a fairly slow summer week for new releases, there are definitely some terrific Northwest releases to get you shopping at your favorite record store today. In the past three years between their second and third albums, Seattle's Feral Children seem to have grown into men... wild men, sure…
This week's installment of Review Revue -- as is often the case -- finds me learning about all sorts of things I never knew existed, most of which are listed in the title of this very post. Bill Nelson and Daryl Runswick? Never heard of either. Scala? Brond? No idea. And yet due to the technologica…
On the show this time, it’s the groovy, new-classic roots-rock of Portland’s Rose City Band.
The problem with cool stuff is there's always a process by which it becomes uncool. A handful of true artists perfect a craft and then an uncanny number of hackneyed copycats sample bits and pieces out of context and bastardize the whole thing to no end. This is maybe no better exemplified than wit…
