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Tuesday, March 20: Makeup Monsters

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Tuesday, March 20: Makeup Monsters

Makeup Monsters (formerly the duo of Shayne Weeks and Isaac Solverson, now a trio including Jay Clancy) are a band that's frustratingly talented, handsome and widely beloved. They're also remarkably young - something that's been discussed to death here and elsewhere. MM's youthful energy is in keeping with their aural

Thursday, July 28: L.A. Lungs

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Thursday, July 28: L.A. Lungs

L.A. Lungs is the project of Nathan Markiewicz and wife Lori, and, as you might expect from a couple of steadfast oddballs (Markiewicz has a terrific track record as the booker for the Olympia Experimental Music Festival), L.A. Lungs' music is bracingly unique, unfiltered and hard to categorize. Songs like

Sunday, July 31: Ty Segall

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Sunday, July 31: Ty Segall

You know those grating California tourism ads with all the celebrity cameos? You will never hear Ty Segall's "California Commercial," from his latest stellar full-length, Goodbye Bread, featured in one of those, despite the implications of its title. "Come to California / Stay inside your house / Stay inside your

Comic-Con bound

Arts

Comic-Con bound

A gangly, bespectacled teenager stares at his hands in disbelief. "What's happening to me?" he asks himself. "I feel - different!" So says Peter Parker in Amazing Fantasy #15, and just like that dumbstruck adolescent, the comic book industry finds itself in the midst of a radioactive growth spurt. From the corporate-owned

Sunday, July 17: Liturgy

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Sunday, July 17: Liturgy

The new album from high-minded black-metal riffers Liturgy opens with what sounds like popcorn kernels ricocheting around an empty grain silo. This lasts for just over a minute, slowly escalating into a Tommy Gun rat-a-tat racket before guitars, drums, bass and throat-clearing vocals suddenly come thundering in. The overall effect

Thursday, July 14: Earth

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Thursday, July 14: Earth

When I booked Earth for a college show some years back, I made off with a hand-written note that Dylan Carlson had left in the cafeteria. It read: "DO NOT PLACE ANYTHING especially BEVERAGES on or near this amp & equipment. You will be stabbed repeatedly and will be forced

Saturday, July 16: Waves and Radiation

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Saturday, July 16: Waves and Radiation

It's been two years and one month since instrumental rock band Waves and Radiation played its farewell show at Bob's Java Jive. On Saturday, the band will reunite for a special one-off return performance at the same coffee-pot-shaped venue where they called it a day back in 2009. Fans of

Waves and Radiation ride again

Music

Waves and Radiation ride again

It's been two years and one month since instrumental rock band Waves and Radiation played its farewell show at Bob's Java Jive. On Saturday, the band will reunite for a special one-off return performance at the same coffee-pot-shaped venue where they called it a day back in 2009. Fans of

Thursday, July 7: WaMu

We Recommend

Thursday, July 7: WaMu

Though their brutal, improvised maelstroms don't have much in the way of sonic equivalents' in the Seattle underground scene, WaMü could nonetheless be lumped in with a handful of other Emerald City noisemakers like Stickers and MOUNTAINSS (to say nothing of Olympia's own Malaikat dan Singa) who treat the saxophone

Wednesday, June 22: Stasis Field

We Recommend

Wednesday, June 22: Stasis Field

If the recent Olympia Experimental Music Festival left you hungering for more far-out sounds - from seemingly infinite Kraut-psych trip-outs to pensive wetland soundscapes - congratulations, you are both awesome and weird, and you're also in luck, because you won't have to wait long before getting another epidural shot of

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Recent Blog Posts

Walkie Talkie Blog

Britney Spears and the secret of time travel

  SHE HITS THE T-DOME ONE MORE TIME TONIGHT >>> In honor of Britney Spears' stop at the Tacoma Dome tonight ... I know a couple people whose taste in music I trust that claim the new Britney Spears record, Femme Fatale, is actually not that bad. I can't claim to have ever

Walkie Talkie Blog

The Many Shades of Ringo Deathstarr's “Colour Trip”

SEE THE BAND LIVE TOMORROW IN OLY >>> While ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead certainly cast a long shadow (their infamously long-winded name precedes them), Ringo Deathstarr, the Austin band that's opening for AYWKUBTTOD tomorrow at the Capital Theater, definitely has its own fuzz-soaked appeal. When

Walkie Talkie Blog

Know your Bros

SATURDAY AT NORTHERN IN OLYMPIA >>>   Portland's Total Bros are one of the most gymnastic punk bands I've ever heard. Consider the springy, pepped-up lick that opens "Leif is Sorry" from their self-titled 7" (the title is an in-joke reference to Orca Team bassist Leif Anders), or the palpable tension of

Walkie Talkie Blog

Oly Experimental Music Festival returns for its 17th year

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE >>>   You'd be hard pressed to find a more wide-ranging roster of artists at any other Northwest music-related event than the one lined up for the 17th Annual Olympia Experimental Music Festival. This year, the fest welcomes over 20 artists, including the likes of Eurostache, Squim,

Walkie Talkie Blog

Meet Squim

PART OF THIS WEEKEND'S OLY EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC FEST >>> When I interviewed Olympia Experimental Music Festival booker Nathan Markiewicz and performer Sam Melancon (Megabats) for my piece on this year's OEMF, there was one artist on the festival's line-up both were particularly excited to see. As Squim, Portland's Chris Phillips has

Walkie Talkie Blog

Comicon, Olympia Style: One nerd's observations on the 10th Annual Olympia Comics Festival

SMALL AND SINGULRARLY NORTHWESTERN >>>   I've reported on no less than four comic book conventions, and attended something around twelve. I've never been to the granddaddy of them all-the media-blitzed San Diego Comicon-but I've logged some serious nerd hours searching back-issue bins at various trade shows, nervously chatted with Paul Pope

Walkie Talkie Blog

MONDAY: Swimsuit, City Center, Secret Twins at Northern

DIVE IN >>> City Center is one of three Michigan bands currently touring the U.S. together. Sharing a van is not an issue, as Swimsuit and Secret Twins draw from the same pool of tight-knit talent. Dina Bankole plays guitar in both Secret Twins and Swimsuit, and her bandmates are likewise

Walkie Talkie Blog

FRIDAY IN OLYMPIA: Grave Babies

IRONY MULLET TIME >>>   Snippets of dialogue from George Romero's seminal 1968 film Night of the Living Dead act as connective tissue on Grave Babies' 2009 debut full-length Deathface, but it's the penetrating post-apocalyptic goth-rock in between these clips that have garnered the Seattle band fans from here to Copenhagen (home

Walkie Talkie Blog

MUSIC: Bare Wires Friday at Northern

SEEKING LOVE >>>   Given the amount of mutual admiration between Olympia and the Bay Area's respective rock scenes, it's a little surprising that Christmas and Bare Wires - tourmates on a three-night Pacific Northwest jaunt that includes a stop at Northern on Friday - only just met last month. The Olympia

Walkie Talkie Blog

YELLINGHAM 2011: They came, they saw, they yelled

THREE DAYS OF PACKED HOUSE SHOWS >>>   Friday, April 15 "What do you get when you invite 40 bands and more than 800 people into your living room?" asked the sub-head of a Friday, April 15 article in Western Washington University's student newspaper, the Western Front. The answer-lost, I guess, on the story's

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