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Walkie Talkie Blog

FRIDAY: Dignitaries CD release show

GET YOUR TAMBORINE AT THE NEW FRONTIER >>> The Dignitaries are a garage band. This aesthetic is one they've honed to a fine craft. On the band's debut LP, Rocket Science, 15 songs blaze by in a fuzzy haze of two-minute bursts. Like the album's name might suggest, these songs are

Walkie Talkie Blog

TONIGHT: We learn the fate of Vicci Martinez on “The Voice”

DID YOU VOTE? >>>   Last week, I told you to get off your collective duff and vote Vicci Martinez through to the next round of The Voice. Didja do it? Huh, huh? Didja?   If your phone-dialing finger was sprained or in some other way out of order, and Martinez doesn't get enough

Walkie Talkie Blog

FRIDAY: Benefit for a worthy cause with the Lund Bros.

DO SOME GOOD >>> On Friday, May 27, Enumclaw teacher Amy Erwin's life was taken by her husband. He then turned the gun on himself and took his own life, leaving behind two children, ages 13 and 7. In the stunned aftermath of this tragedy, Amy Erwin's longtime friend, Tacoma's Sean

Walkie Talkie Blog

Vicci Martinez needs your vote on tonight's "The Voice"

STOP SCOFFING AND VOTE >>>   All right, Tacoma. I know cynicism can too often get the best of us, and the impulse when confronted with a network television singing competition-like NBC's The Voice-is to scoff until one's lungs cave in. But tonight is important. As I have been reminding you (like

Walkie Talkie Blog

MOVIE REVIEW: We made Rev. Adam see “Super 8”

THE SOUTH SOUND'S ONLY LOCAL FILM CRITIC >>> Super 8 opens in 1979, as the soon-pubescent Joe (Joel Courtney) and his friends work to finish up a low-budget zombie flick on their Super 8 camera. Mere months earlier, Joe's mother was killed in an industrial accident, leaving him to deal with

Walkie Talkie Blog

Tonight: NBC's "The Voice" opens things up to the viewers

RIDING VICCI MARTINEZ'S COATTAILS ALL THE WAY TO STARDOM >>>   Have you been watching NBC's The Voice for the past few weeks? Because it's nuts. The perversity of having competitors sing a duet together to determine who will be advancing to the next round makes for some incredibly awkward and surprisingly

Walkie Talkie Blog

MOVIE REVIEW: We made Rev. Adam see "X-Men: First Class"

KEVIN BACON ALERT! >>> Here are the positive aspects of X-Men: First Class: the special appearance of the vintage blue and yellow X-Men costumes; Pan Am postcard-replicating shots of Cuban beaches with destroyers in the distance; the pleasantly zaftig Mystique; the stupidly nonchalant cameos from character actors Oliver Platt and Michael

Walkie Talkie Blog

SATURDAY: Umber Sleeping at Hell’s Kitchen

IT'S CALLED ODDIO >>> With James Jenkins of Mama Loves Daddy moving to Portland; the increasing irregularity of Drug Purse and Paris Spleen shows; the switch ideologically and title-wise from the Elephants to the Nightgowns; and with lots of people just getting their shit together-it seems as if the last vestige

Walkie Talkie Blog

A story about Boy and Bean and Kickstarter

KICKSTARTER KICKS THINGS OFF >>> While the '70s and '80s are frequent touchstones among new artists, some look further into the past to evoke artists of the '30s and '40s. People like Jolie Holland and her dusty, yellowed croon aim to emulate the haunting sounds that used to float from the

Walkie Talkie Blog

MOVIE REVIEW: We made Rev. Adam see “The Hangover Part II”

TOO MANY SIMILIARITIES >>> Here's the short version: The Hangover Part II is The Hangover Part II. It's as if a strange experiment was done to see if a sequel can be made that literally repeats, beat for beat, the original movie. I think it would be giving director Todd Phillips

Walkie Talkie Blog

SATURDAY: 8th Annual Tacoma Jazz and Blues Festival

SHAKE A LEG, TACOMA >>>   For all the writing we do about indie rock acts and folky, sad-bastard music in this fine rag, there's a fairly vibrant jazz, funk, blues and big band scene that has remained strong in these parts for years. Saturday is a day to take a dip

Walkie Talkie Blog

MEAT MARKET: Malarkey's Pool & Brew

LOTS OF CUE CARRIERS >>> I get to Malarkey's a little before midnight on Friday the 13th, thinking this would be the ideal time to sift through the crowd and get some good people-watching done. Unfortunately, attendance is sparse in the rather huge space Malarkey's boasts. I'm greeted mainly by the

Walkie Talkie Blog

SATURDAY: Bread & Circuses at The New Frontier

POP-PUNK WITHOUT APOLOGY >>> Bread & Circuses make lyric-heavy songs that generally tell a story, and many times lead singer and songwriter Marcus Buser allows himself to be the de facto bad guy in his own tales.   "I'm very OK with not being the hero," says Buser. "In fact, a lot of

Walkie Talkie Blog

MUSIC: Big night for Seattle in Tacoma tonight - Cobirds Unite & Satchel

BIG SHOWS! >>> Saturday is going to be a big day for Seattle music institutions in Tacoma. At Hell's Kitchen will be recently reunited alt-rock favorites, Satchel. Just a few blocks away at The Space will be Rusty Willoughby and Rachel Flotard's new project, Cobirds Unite.   Blocks away, sharing space in Pacific

Walkie Talkie Blog

MOVIE REVIEW: We made Rev. Adam see “Bridesmaids” (and he liked it)

THE SOUTH SOUND'S ONLY LOCAL FILM CRITIC >>> The Judd Apatow universe - featuring movies like Superbad, Knocked Up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall - has been criticized for being too much of a boys' club, and not featuring interesting roles for women. Bridesmaids, co-written by and starring SNL's Kristen Wiig, attempts

Walkie Talkie Blog

Vicci Martinez advances to next round of NBC's "The Voice"

Having been recruited to be on Cee Lo Green's team, Vicci Martinez was made to compete in order to move on to the round of audience eliminations. This was the first episode of NBC's The Voice with "battles," which I knew would be crazy, but I had no idea would

Walkie Talkie Blog

MUSIC: Thao and Mirah in Olympia Monday

COMBINATIONS THAT WORK >>> In a somewhat counter-intuitive way, collaborating with another artist is a bold act of confidence. One might think relinquishing some control to another person is a way of hedging bets, but it's quite the opposite. To collaborate is to say, "I am sure enough of my voice

Walkie Talkie Blog

MOVIES: We made Rev. Adam McKinney see “Thor”

DUMBSHIT BRASS-WORKS REVIEWED BY THE AREA'S ONLY LOCAL FILM CRITIC >>>   Here is a movie so arbitrary that it defies definition. Were it not for the comic that preceded it, there would be no plausible explanation for Thor's existence.   Drawing slight inspiration from Norse mythology, Thor stages the godly kingdom of Asgard

Walkie Talkie Blog

LAST NIGHT: 72-Hour Film Competition Viewing Party

HIGHS AND LOWS >>> The first film to screen at this year's 72-Hour Film Festival name-checked Alan Smithee, the famous pseudonym given to directors who want to distance themselves from failed projects. It was a somewhat telling note for a festival of films that-while admirable, all-are wildly uneven. Look, it's hard

Walkie Talkie Blog

FRIDAY: 72-Hour Film Competition Viewing Party

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? >>>   On Thursday, April 21, 30 teams assembled at The Grand Cinema to receive this year's 72-Hour Film Competition requirements - elements that need to be included in every film. In each submitted work, someone must say, "What are you going to do

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