South Sound Cinema
It used to be that documentaries were the medicine you took to feel better about seeing untold quantities of garbage at the movie theater. Documentaries were like Flintstone vitamins to make us feel better about seeing whatever Nicolas Cage action abomination came roaring through the cinema. Slowly, though, people like
Music
As I've said before, my taste in music, like most people's, was vastly shaped by my parents. When they couldn't decide between exposing me to Bread and Carole King (my mom's soft-rock preference) or Gentle Giant and King Crimson (my dad's proggy wheelhouse), they settled on oldies, which is where
Stage
Sitting in the corner of my room, in a box I've yet to unpack in my relatively new place, is a copy of the scripts for two David Mamet plays: Sexual Perversity in Chicago and The Duck Variations. I picked the copy up at a used book store over a
Military Life
Quick story: I went to a summer camp called CYO (the Catholic Youth Organization) for reasons that are unexplainable. I didn't grow up religious, but this was a necessity for some reason. There was a steep, dangerous hill, adorned with gnarled roots, that kids could climb up and then slide
Music
Remaining stagnant as an artist is a fear that seemingly everyone besides Roland Emmerich and Michael Bay has. To come back, release after release, with the same sound and vision is death even to superstars like Katy Perry. Reinvention comes, part and parcel, with being a creative person. Even still,
Music
Limitations are part of what makes the greatest music so effective: pairing down what it's possible to do with the medium allows you to explore what's best to do. There's a reason why there are so few truly great double and triple albums. Bands like Queen and Joe Jackson have
South Sound Cinema
Over the past weekend, some 30 groups of ambitious filmmakers took to the streets to frantically craft short films for The Grand Cinema, all in service of the 253-Second Short Film Festival. Formerly known as the 72-Hour Film Festival, the event got rebranded this year to help further distinguish itself
Music
For as much as can be said about how loudly and resoundingly garage rock and grunge have dominated the music landscape of the Pacific Northwest, there's always been the existence of stringbands, plucking away on the edges. It's worth remembering, after all, that the official Washington state dance is the
Guides
Summer's not a time for curmudgeons, especially in the Pacific Northwest. Those three precious months of sunshine are there to pack our pale population with as much vitamin D as necessary to sustain us through the long slog of low clouds. As such, talking smack about the season is generally
Music
My understanding of progressive rock was largely informed by my dad, and the incessant noodling he exposed me to from an early age. It was obnoxious and fascinating, this gauntlet of bands that stubbornly refused to compose music that was immediately pleasant to the ears. After years of growing up
We Recommend
Seattle quartet Versing are masters of lo-fi noise pop. Somehow both stripped down and soaked with fuzz, Versing evoke the deadpan rock of '90s icons like Pavement and Guided By Voices, taking turns with quiet, introspective pop and anthemic rock. The guitars are unimpeachable, a cacophony of joyously sloppy rock.
We Recommend
Brooklyn downtempo project Soft Fangs carries the weight of the world on its shoulders. This is unabashedly melancholy music, evoking the intimate, breathy, mournful sound of Elliott Smith. Frontman John Lutkevich sounds lost, adrift amongst the quietly tense instrumentation that propels Soft Fangs from devolving into sad bastard music. Listened
We Recommend
After just three years of digging their shoes into the dirt and establishing themselves as an Olympia fan favorite, Full Moon Radio are calling it quits. Though the split seems as amicable as something so shitty can be, it'll still be a bummer to see them go. Rather than immediately
We Recommend
I think bands that access the sound of the music featured in John Hughes movies end up resonating with people of a certain generation: they access that part of us that's still scared, that's still pining, that still wants to take a crow bar to the popular kids. LA band
We Recommend
We Will Be Lions are a shapeshifting wonder. Listen to "When Your Skirt Hits the Floor," and it sounds like the parallel universe where David Bowie ended up fronting Pulp; play "Burn Me Like a Disco," and they give the Flaming Lips a run for the title of most anthemic
Music
Why are the soundtracks to John Hughes movies so popular, so evergreen? Nostalgia can't answer every question, despite how much Buzzfeed and Jimmy Fallon insist that it can and should. It's also not just because the soundtracks to Hughes' movies contain, arguably, the best of the best of '80s pop
Music
When talking with Deadbeat Olympia owner and booker Brandon Rowley, he said that he once met with a 70-year-old Olympia lifer who imparted some wisdom: "Every day should be Record Store Day." Record Store Day is a fundamentally confounding tradition. Just like every other new holiday, Record Store Day has its
We Recommend
Any band confident enough to title a song of theirs "I Am the President" is one worthy of standing up and paying attention. Seattle trio the Gods Themselves present themselves with an inscrutable swagger. Nominally a psych-rock band, there are elements ladled on that point to the heavy rock movement
We Recommend
When most singer-songwriters show up at open mics, what you can expect is a series of weepy ladies and gentlemen strumming away on acoustic guitars. In direct opposition to these expectations, what you will find Friday at the New Frontier Lounge is a horse of a different color. Featuring many
We Recommend
Los Angeles duo Haunted Summer bring a dimensionality and range to dream pop that's as refreshing as it is intriguing. Without sacrificing the gauzy serenity that typifies the genre, they bring inflections of '50s pop (as on the swaying "Ain't One" and their swooning cover of Animal Collective's "Bees") and