Music
How do you take the time-honored bar tradition of the cover band and elevate it? History is positively littered with acts that did their level best to imitate bands that we know and love and, for the most part, they succeeded in delivering a pale imitation of the greats. On
Music
The regions where you're born and grow up color every aspect of your life, with every nuance of the area resulting in people leading very different lives from each other. It should come as no surprise, then that these regions develop their own unique pockets of musical output. Even restricting
Music
(Full disclosure: This preview of the Squeak and Squawk Music Festival is written by its booker, Rev. Adam McKinney. McKinney didn't start the festival, but took it over, along with Jena Stedtler, in 2012. While this may be a conflict of interest, McKinney makes no money from the festival, and
Music
Honesty in music can be a hard row to hoe. In most cases, the verisimilitude of a song is just that: the appearance of truth. Even when uncomfortable things are being revealed, the rock star will tend to make themselves look good. There are lots of exceptions to the rule,
Music
I've long subscribed to the belief that any given show need not have a complete unity in style or genre. Having booked a number of shows, in my time, I do know that there are some rules that you need to adhere to - at least one local act, to
Stage
Sometimes the fates work against you. As I made my way to Lakewood Playhouse this past Sunday to see their new production of Gilbert and Sullivan's classic musical farce, The Pirates of Penzance, I was excited to get a jolt of color and timeless humor. Unfortunately, a power outage had hit
South Sound Cinema
Welcome to the inaugural edition of Three Easy Pieces, a column in which I guide you through the evolution of a particular genre of pop culture: its birth, its development, and how the form is represented today. This is a Cliff Notes-esque examination of these topics, so if brevity is
Music
There's a malleability to music that continues to transfix listeners and creators alike. This implicit call to use every extent of sound at your disposal, hampered by limitations of equipment, money, proficiency, the human's ability to hear, and every sonic trick known to musicians, creates a culture of artists who
Music
It is my feeling that there's nothing sacred in music. I repeat: nothing. If anything, a little bit of subversion is always welcome, and if a band wants to punch up at some iconic band, song or style, I'm all for it. In my time working as a karaoke host, I've
Music
Have you ever experienced a panic attack? My first one happened when I was a youngster. It was the night before my first day of the school year, and I was suddenly seeing spiders all around my house. They had most assuredly been there the entire summer, but I was
Stage
There's a great, but little-seen movie called Nine Lives, which features nine short films about women. The hook of the movie is that each short film is shot in one long take, which might seem like a stunt, but it ultimately grants you more intimate access to the lives of the
South Sound Cinema
Distinguishing itself from many of the other arts, film is defined by its massive amount of moving parts. Directors adapt the words of screenwriters, cinematographers work with the technical crew to enact visions onscreen, actors' performances are elevated by scores or soundtracks selected by yet another party, and it all
Music
In the flourishing, vital times of my early teens, I became obsessed with professional wrestling. Like other kids getting into the performance art-leaning sport, I initially took it as face value. It didn't take long, though, for me to become engaged with it in a different way, judging it more
Music
I've spoken countless times about my fascination with the ever-expanding list of granular subgenres in music, as well as my fundamental inability to keep track of them all. There truly is no country for old men, and even at 28 years old, I count myself among the elderly when it
Music
Isn't the arrival of spring a hell of a relief? After a cold, wet, utterly uninspiring winter, we've emerged on the other side of a collection of very exhausted butterflies. What's our reward? Well, we get the opportunity to continue marching inexorably forward in our long-standing battle against the ravages
Stage
What's the emotional life of a character who's been underwritten? In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a thespian expounds on the ultimate humiliation that is performing without an audience. Performances are meant to be seen, and without attention paid, the act of bringing a story to life becomes a bitter farce.
Music
Over the past few months, for various environmental reasons, I've found myself going down Internet rabbit holes researching stories of large groups of people losing their ever-loving minds. Instances of mass hysteria, or something more subtle, like a legitimate brain disease or poisoning coursing its way through a populace and
Music
When the Talking Heads decided to title their second full-length album More Songs About Buildings and Food, there's no question that they were making a self-deprecating joke about the oddly impersonal nature of their songs. I think if you talked to David Byrne, though, he'd say that there's nothing more personal
Music
The Pacific Northwest is, justifiably, known for its share of iconic things: copious amounts of rain, grunge, garage rock, a steady stream of alcohol consumption, and an uneasy mix of socially conscious hipsters and stoic, rustic types. What doesn't get much play is the Pacific Northwest's relationship with blues music,
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It's tempting to say that state fairs are as American as apple pie, but they're already a cliché for something so homespun and wholesome that it'd be gilding the lily to compare it to anything else. The Sandlot - a fundamental document, like A Christmas Story, of simple American living