Arts
Sometimes, when I'm drunk in the early morning hours, I'll find myself falling down a rabbit hole of accidentally important live albums - documents of moments in time that are impossible to replicate. I've Never Seen a Straight Banana, for instance, captures a private performance Tiny Tim gave for three
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Lark vs. Owl refer to their music as "the new hard rock," which is the sort of self-aggrandizing statement that I can totally get behind. While a duo of multi-instrumentalists utilizing ukulele, glockenspiel and loop pedals - not to mention the very name of the band - may not smack
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Near as I can tell from what little music is available of Coma Figura, one might describe them as a sort of Foxygen or Titus Andronicus for the bedroom pop set. These are bands that mash together influences and jumble them up into something that surges past imitation and into
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If the punk movement was about tearing down the bloated, cliched foundation of popular music, then post-punk was the beginning of the steady rebuilding process. Like all manner of nebulous music terms, post-punk has come to mean a variety of different things to different people. Bands grouped into the post-punk
Music
May as well get this out of the way right now: TBASA is not an acronym. Rather, it's a sort of convenient mashup of one guy's name. Tim Basaraba is a restlessly inventive singer-songwriter, beginning his musical life in Idaho as a punk singer, and subtly merging into a genre-hopping
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May as well get this out of the way right now: TBASA is not an acronym. Rather, it's a sort of convenient mashup of one guy's name. Tim Basaraba is a restlessly inventive singer-songwriter, beginning his musical life in Idaho as a punk singer, and subtly merging into a genre-hopping
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Look, at this point the Pacific Northwest - not to mention the current pop landscape in general - is choked with folk-rock revivalists. Bands like Mumford & Sons, the Lumineers and even American Idol winners (good lord, Phillip Phillips) have taken to appropriating folk and bluegrass and imbuing with a
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Seagull Invasion list their music as "funk slip slop slurp," and that's as good a place to start as anywhere. From the rubbery first beats of their song, "Oop," it's clear that Seagull Invasion are approaching everything from a skewed angle. Drum machine clatter is engulfed in elastic guitars and
Music
The notion of "ideas worth spreading" is a broad one, but it's one that will be explored when TEDxTacoma comes to the Theatre on the Square. TED, of course, standing for "technology, entertainment and design," these speaking engagements always draw a wide range of presenters with divergent backgrounds, all talking
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My first experience with Lakewood Playhouse's production of 12 Angry Men began as I took my seat. To do so, I was led across the stage - passing by a table littered with scraps of paper, ashtrays, and discarded paper cups - to my section, which happened to
Stage
My first experience with Lakewood Playhouse's production of 12 Angry Men began as I took my seat. To do so, I was led across the stage - passing by a table littered with scraps of paper, ashtrays, and discarded paper cups - to my section, which happened to sit right
Music
A quick word about band names. As a music columnist, I'm constantly on the search for bands to fill these pages every week. Aside from certain signifiers (what type of music the venue typically plays, other bands with whom I'm familiar that are also on the bill, etc.), all I
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What does your mind go to when you hear the names Miss Massive Snowflake and Rainstick Cowbell (two bands currently nearing the end of month-long west coast tour)? If you're picturing a pair of twee indie bands or cutesy folk-rock, you'd be wrong. Miss Massive Snowflake and Rainstick Cowbell are
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The music made by Blackstone Rangers is not immediately what one would imagine when thinking about the music that comes out of Dallas, Texas. While Blackstone Rangers are indeed Dallasites, their music strays from the rock and country that you might expect. Rather, Blackstone Rangers veer into dreampop territory, allowing
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Thomas Mudrick's music is a thrilling and unexpected stew of genres, calling to mind musical chameleons like Beck and Ween, but with a dedicated love of light psychedelia and soul. "Soul Glow" is a breezy bit of '70s beach funk, layered with dreamy aaahs and wah-wah guitars. "Do Me Like
