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Until I saw the listing for this show, I had no idea how I would be spending New Year's Eve. Now that I know this is happening, there's no contest. When the New Frontier Lounge assembles Wheelies, Bandolier, Bath Party and MILK - the new joint of Josh McKay (Paris
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The opening song, "Life is Glorious," on Olympia's own Glass Elevator's most recent album, starts off sounding like '70s Italo-prog rock outfit P.F.M., and once all the jittery drums clear away it starts to sound like a long-lost Unicorns track. Song number two sounds like Ween at its smoothest and
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The culture of rockabilly is such a peculiar one, to me. This is a group of people (kinda like those mod weirdos) who bond over a very specific aesthetic - this antiquated genre of music, which has grown over the years to morph slowly with punk, creating this style all
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As a music writer, it becomes easy to fall into a pattern of being drawn to difficult or bizarre music. Everything else has a tendency to blend together, which often results in me choosing to write about some 40-piece vibraphone collective or an Ecuadorian goth duo that devotes their set
Archives
Unless you live in a land of perpetual sunshine (in which case sun-madness might be an issue), the holiday season can have a tendency to bring about a little bit of the S.A.D.s. Particularly when it comes to something like New Year's Eve - a bullshit holiday that we thankfully
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K Records artist Angelo Spencer is a globetrotting pop collagist who specializes in incorporating tongues and rhythms from various cultures into one cohesive mélange of sounds and textures. If that sounds pretentious and weighty, it isn't. Spencer brings a deftness of touch and execution to his music that belies the
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The exuberance at play with Shogun Barbie is absolutely palpable. Garage rock bands are a dime a dozen in these parts, but the pure, sloppy energy that they bring to the table is nothing to scoff at. The boy/girl shouting stands front and center in each brief, catchy tune. In
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On a night in May, 1997, Jeff Buckley went nightswimming in the Wolf River; his body was found a week later. Three years prior to his untimely death, Buckley released Grace, a towering monument to a truly eccentric talent who had the potential to find legendary status divorced of the
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Kyle Thomas, AKA King Tuff, had about as much credibility as possible going into the recording of his solo debut, Was Dead, having worked with the likes of Hunx (of "his Punx" notoriety) and rock god J Mascis. His debut was an exuberant burst of tongue-in-cheek garage rock, and his
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The Deceptives are a deliriously dopey band from Olympia. They play punk. They want you to drink. A lot. They'd like you to barf. They describe their music as "party drunk punk" - a summary of the past few sentences. As a band, they are the brave souls who persist
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During my time at the Weekly Volcano, I've written about Eliot Lipp so many times that I worry there's nothing left to be said. In case any of you are uninitiated (and how sad that would be), this is a producer who specializes in the kind of gut-punching minimalist electronic
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Though they share qualities with other electronic neo-primitivists like Animal Collective, NewVillager and Yeasayer, Children of Kids tends toward the dreamier, gentler side of things. But even still, there's always an underpinning of intensity, with an insistent beat that threatens to scare away the trilling synths. Amongst these beat-driven aural
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Over the years, Tacoma mainstays Umber Sleeping has gone through many personnel changes and even, briefly, name changes. Recently, the final decision was made to change to the name I Like Science. Of course, the art-rock act is still masterminded by drummer Peter Tietjen, so it still sounds more or
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Pretty Old take cues from the delicately driving and melancholy pride of bands like the National as well as the spark and verve of punkier groups like the Weakerthans and Jawbreaker - from whom Pretty Old derived their name. The Seattle three-piece is one that was clearly raised on punk,
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For about 13 years now, the Riffbrokers have quietly been making some of the most sophisticated Southern-rock-tinged power pop around. Led by Nick Millward's distinctive vocals - reminiscent of storytellers like Elvis Costello and Craig Finn - and lyrics that manage to balance hook-y immediacy and blue-collar poetry, the Riffbrokers
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As I've said for a long time, now, there is no other band in Tacoma that surpasses Roman Holiday in terms of big, national potential. The band already sounds like it has been vetted on adult contemporary radio for years. This is not to say it is a prepackaged band,
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Barleywine Revue credits itself simply as a bluegrass band, but to hear it, the band somehow transforms that format into something more. Depending on whose lead vocals you get (in a very egalitarian move, the members trade off lead vocal duty), you'll either find yourself in a jumping jam like
Arts
The culture of watching bad movies because they're so terrifically bad has been growing, outside of the light, insidiously, for years and years. Edward D. Wood Jr. conquered, very early on, the art of having such awesomely misplaced judgment in one's own talent. In his stead-and especially in the '70s
Scene It
I don't make it down to Olympia as often as I'd like, but when I do, I make it a point to hit up two of the city's most well-talked about bars: The Brotherhood Lounge and Le Voyeur. Each has its own personal charm, and I had an opportunity to
Music
I'm sitting here, staring at my keyboard, and trying to think of more to say about Lozen other than they f#@*ing rock. I guess that's ultimately the best place to start. Lozen - a two-piece, all-girl, alt-metal-experimental-tribal-etcetera band - f#@*ing rock. They exploit the limitations of having a band made up
