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"We're making up some new ground with the Missionary Position," says singer/guitarist Jeff Angell. "We got a couple offers from a couple labels. I'm not sure if that's what we want to do. The Independent Film Channel licensed some of our songs to use for their promos.
Music
OK, look: Here's what happened. As I do every week, I sought out the biggest and most exciting show happening between Thursdays. When I saw the flyer for a Hell's Kitchen show featuring a rare appearance by veteran Tacoma band Post Stardom Depression, I knew immediately that was my show.
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Breathe Owl Breathe is a disarmingly earnest group of artists and musicians who make ground-level folk-pop. Their current aspiration is to make a children's record about an ostrich and a mole that become friends while hanging out underground. So, you know, they're that kind of band. Their music is intimate,
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There are few things more powerful (not in a sissy way, but in a gut-twisting, heart palpitation-causing kind of way) than some well-placed synthesizers and cracking handclaps. Lovers are synth peddlers and handclap manufacturers. Dark electro-pop accompanied by badass chick vocals, the songs vacillating between lovestruck declarations and eloquent fuck-yous.
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Pacific Grill chef and co-owner Gordon Naccarato likens cooking to performance art, and he invites diners to the Pacific Grill show where he presents his favorite foods. Just don’t ask him to make you blackened Cajun salmon, or you might find yourself lying in the pathway of a speeding light rail
Music
There's a universality to puppy love. This global understanding has fueled decades of lovesick pop songs, and the main thing that can be gleaned from this rich history of broken hearts is that everybody hurts in more or less the same way. Regardless of the oceans-wide separation of culture and
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Melbourne's Crayon Fields are not the first band to become fixated on lovesickness, but they do succeed in portraying it in just about the most unfuckwithable manner possible. Their hearts are planted firmly on their sleeves for all to see, there are no half-measures to be found. All the pain
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Here’s something odd: a garage/psychedelic dance party. Presiding over”Guys in the Garage Night” at The New Frontier will be the mysterious DJ Chelsea Fantasia. At the time of this writing, not much is known of the DJ. What I do know is Tarek Wegner (Night Beats) and Spencer Kelly (Basemint)
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The band's name implies intoxication via the metallic red stuff, but the sound is that of pure, trashy beer and whiskey. Blooddrunk Shenanigans are part of a long-standing tradition of drunken UK blokes and the fiery punk they create. (Even though they appear to be from Texas. Weird.) Lead singer
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By now, I’d imagine you’re probably sick and tired of me writing about Puyallup. It seems like every time I cover a band from P-town, all I can do is blabber and yak about my memories from growing up there. Puyallup Viking football, yada, yada, yada. Skipping school and smoking cigarettes,
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Strength was just a rock band, but soon they would transform into a quintessential party band: part disco, part R&B, part electronica, part funk. Their ability to transform a room into a pulsating party machine was on full display in their last appearance in Tacoma, at the Squeak and Squawk.
Music
Oh, nothing feels better to me than those rare instances when I get to act like a DJ. It happened recently at a friend of a friend's birthday party. Plugging my iPod into the speakers, carefully choosing what song to play next, my heart racing as the end of the
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I was talking to a man outside of The New Frontier recently, and he was telling me he likes alternative music and all, but can't really handle all the whining. "Like that annoying chick that sings about her feelings," he said. "Alanis Morissette?" I responded. "That's the one!" Well, drunken,
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What an eclectic bill has been gathered together for Olympia Live! - a benefit show for young breast cancer survivors. You've got a little bit of everything here, from the country-fried rock of Rodeo Kill, to the jazz swing of the Jessica Blinn Quartet, to the warped psychedelia of Glass
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Thursday Robin J. Landry If you get as psyched as I do when Lucinda Williams rips a new disc, then check out Robin J. Landry. While her voice isn’t as weathered as Williams’, Landry’s insights on life, love and loss are just as compelling as anything the dirty blonde icon ever penned.
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At Jacquelyn David Salon and Day Spa in Olympia, the devil’s not in the details, but heaven’s waiting there. Details such as special gold-flecked paint, custom casework that sets a high-quality tone, a private Bridal Suite to open next month where entire bridal parties can go to be pampered in high
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This weekend there will be a three-day celebration of The New Frontier's continued existence in our city. On the bills for these three days are some major heavy-hitters in the Tacoma rock scene, including Girl Trouble, Basemint, Friskey, Pioneers West, Wheelies, Blanco Branco and a Sunday show that will
Music
My first memory of The New Frontier Lounge was in 2008. At the time I was underage and was trying to trick someone into letting me in for the first year of the Squeak and Squawk Music Festival. I was yelled at, and walked away in shame. Now, I can proudly
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Music-wise, the 253Heart Festival sort of strikes a balance between the Squeak and Squawk's indie streak and Grit City Fest's barroom rock leanings. There will be dozens of performances over the course of the weekend, spanning several venues and even splitting it up between acoustic and
Music
OK, OK. So you're sick of the 253 Heart. I understand. Like it or not, the 253 Heart has basically become one of the defining images of Tacoma, but I've always been of the opinion that the design just doesn't really feel much like Tacoma to me. It seems too
