The Foo Fighters came clean with the title and track listing for their forthcoming new album, which will be released Sept. 25 on Roswell/RCA. Echoes, Silence, Patience And Grace is the band's sixth studio release and marks the first time the band has worked with producer Gil Norton since 1997's double platinum, The Colour And The Shape. â€" Brad Allen

Chopstix Dueling Piano Bar hosts Xbox’s Guitar Hero II of Tacoma competition on a gigantic screen with a beefed-up sound system every Tuesday. Each Tuesday night’s winner qualifies to play in the gala Aug. 7 when a Microsoft's Zune will be given away. Besides the thrill of the game, patrons will enjoy $1 Pabst, $2 cosmopolitans, $3 Jagermeisters and $4 appetizers all day on Tuesdays. â€" Brad Allen

[Chopstix, Tuesdays beginning at 5 p.m., 2702 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.627.7555]

Cans, the new, fly, Moose-head-hanginÂ', 32-cans-of-beer-havin, pretty-people-peeking, trucker hat haven, will be hosting their official public grand opening on Friday, July 13 at 8 p.m.

Miller Beer will be on hand to turn this Friday the 13th into nothing but pure luck for one fortunate patron: Miller is giving away a brand new Jeep Wrangler that night. Awesome!

Cans will also be bringing in Seattle's own Boss Martians, a band that Rolling Stone Magazine has dubbed as rising stars. The music starts at 10 p.m.

Even better, Cans will be opening their downstairs poolroom that night. Yah!

Bottom line, donÂ't be surprised if you find me there trying to rig the Wrangler raffle, and I might even give you a ride after I win. â€" Natasha

If you were a geek in high school â€" whether in the '70s or '80s â€" and still dream of lost days of glory, Sanford and Son and The Middle Floor Merchants could put you into a school daze of your very own with The Prom â€" One Night in Bangkok, Saturday, Aug. 11. Now that your braces are off (and, presumably, you're of legal drinking age), it's time to drag out the old turquoise taffeta and order a carnation corsage. This may well be your last shot at being crowned queen (or king) of the festivities, and for just twenty bucks, too.

The night promises to revive your prom memories â€" the awkward sidelong glances, silly backdrops put together by professional photographers, corsages that outsize their wearers, stupid mustache and baby blue tux (I got the last memory from this rag’s editor. I have the photographic proof).

Sanford and Son and The Middle Floor Merchants are hosting a 21-and-older prom with proceeds donated to Ashley House for Children, which is a local organization assisting children and families coping with catastrophic injury or congenital birth defects.

Dress up all pretty and partake in a splendid night of music by Girl Trouble and The Fucking Eagles, dance to DJ Tony Rice, eat tasties and libations catered by Stadium Bistro, have classic prom photos taken, buy corsages, enter a raffle, and expect much more.

Tickets are $20 in advance at Sanford and Son or $25 at the door. â€" Suzy Stump

[Sanford and Son, Saturday, Aug. 11, 7 p.m. to midnight, $20-$25, 743 Broadway, Tacoma, 253.272.0334]

It’s been said that the world can never have too many beers. OK, the Weekly Volcano said that. But it’s true. So we’re thrilled by the launch of the Tacoma Beer Society. The organization hosts its first gathering Wednesday, July 11, at Stadium Bistro. We sat down with TBS co-founder Steffie DeRosa for the inside scoop.

WEEKLY VOLCANO: What was the driving force behind the creation of this society?

STEFFIE DEROSA: There was a special adoption agency for displaced, confused and lonely Pittsburgh Steelers fans. They liked to put them in friendly homes located in "God's country" (aka Tacoma) and give them hope for a new life. I signed up and received a girl named Melissa. In order to make her feel somewhat at home, I decided to help start a "Tacoma Beer Society." She was a member of the "Pittsburgh Beer Society” and always talked about how great it was and how much she missed it.

VOLCANO: Will there be beer bongs and beer pong?

DEROSA: I'm most certain you have graduated from college, so I'm asking you to refrain from any mention of beer games. I think it's about time you stopped popping your collar as well.

VOLCANO: Will Stadium Bistro add new beers for this event?

DEROSA: Yes, Melissa is hard at work with Pete and Pete Jr (owners of Stadium Bistro) in order to bring together five beers from around the world. We will compare and evaluate them.

VOLCANO: Will there be food discounts?

DEROSA: Tasty $3.50 and $4.50 tapas (regularly $6) are going to be available from the fine chefs at Stadium Bistro. Bring an empty stomach.

VOLCANO: Will the piano player be playing that night?

DEROSA: Usually he is only there on Fridays and Saturdays. We will be holding the meeting in the back room where the DVD player will be in full effect, and some lively music will be piping through the speakers as we sip the night away. I hope everyone likes David Hasselhoff as much as I do.

VOLCANO: Is neighboring Doyle's Public House involved in any way?

DEROSA: Doyle’s holds an intricate part in this event.  They are directly responsible for paying half the rent on the east wall of Stadium Bistro.

And Doyle's is most important because they are a fabulous Tacoma beer establishment that the TBS is eagerly looking forward to collaborating with. We are excited to bring together the Tacoma beer community, and we fully support all Tacoma businesses.

VOLCANO: Are there special mugs?

DEROSA: My face is a special mug. But actually, no. We have no special mugs yet. In time, my sweet Weekly Volcano, in time. Patience.

VOLCANO: Will folks sipping wine at Stadium Bistro fear for their lives?

DEROSA: Yes. We fully intend on seeing all wine drinkers shaking in their oversized wicker-wrapped chianti bottles. They will then pass out from fright, only to awaken spooning their fancy built-in-kitchen 30 bottle wine fridges. â€" Brad Allen

[Stadium Bistro, Wednesday, July 11,  6:30 p.m.,  $10]

Don't remind Bobble Tiki: It's deck season. However, Bobble Tiki finds it hard to enjoy the sun on your back when you're sitting inches from the bus lane. Fumes and salmon fumé, it turns out, do not mix well.

But there is another option.

Masa.

Bobble Tiki loves this Mexican restaurant’s rooftop deck overlooking Sixth Avenue.  It has a resort feel to it.

Bobble Tiki loves it even more now that the joint hosts “Songwriters at Sunset” on their deck.  Every Sunday through Aug. 26 at 7:30 p.m. a live band will perform until the sun goes down.
The Josh Clauson Trio kicks off the series July 15.  Tickets are $10.  The deck opens at 5:30 p.m. for dinner and drinks.

The remaining concerts are: The Senate, July 22; Vicci Martinez, Ryan Sheasmith, Jonathan Kingham, July 29; Danny Godinez and James Whiton, Aug. 5; Gypsy Soul, Aug. 12; Handful of Luvin’, Aug. 19; Tingstad & Rumbel, Aug. 26. â€" Bobble Tiki

Monkeys like art.  Monkeys like drinkies.  Therefore, by the Transitive Property of Equality, Monkeys like, um, something.

Never mind, the next 100th Monkey party will be held Wednesday, July 25 at the Old Town Music Society building a couple doors down from the Spar in Old Town Tacoma.

Jaime Wright is the 100th Monkey, therefore, will provide the entertainment.

The $4 lottery tiles are designed by Melissa Schulz whose work can be seen here.

Monkey commander Sue Pivetta invites all artists to being one piece of art to display at the party.

Now I must get back to my mathematical properties text book. â€" Suzy Stump

[Old Town Music Society, Wednesday, July 25, 8-10 p.m., no cover, $4 tiles, 2101 N. 30th St., Tacoma]

THE DAILY WORD
Learn it, use it, spell it

Fugacious \fyoo-GAY-shuhs\, adjective:
Lasting but a short time; fleeting.

USAGE EXAMPLE: Despite his best intentions, and the support of every friend he had, Bill O’Reilly’s stint at rehab was fugacious. O’Reilly checked himself in Friday afternoon, and by the Saturday night Bettie Ford volleyball game O’Reilly had jumped the fence, covering his naked body with only the issue of "How To Yell Louder: A Guide to World Domination Through Vocal Domination" which he had keestered into the facility. Citizens should be on the look out for a blabbering and disoriented white male, possibly armed (because it’s his motha fuckin’ right, bitch!)

THE MORNING NEWS

MOSCOW: Это настолько gay.

POPE: Beney XVI can beat up your church.

ICHIRO: Go on take the money and run, run!

SEAFOOD: Bring us a vat of aioli.

WEDNESDAY BLOWDOWN
You can stand atop the mountain and scream your naked desires to the universe or shed that synapse epilepsy and hug the South Sound today with your fellow man:

MUSIC: They'll put a spell on you.

DINOSAURS: These mothers are huge.

DRINK: The Pup Room's Crown and Coke.

…AND THIS WEEKEND
Leave it to me to write a column (which hits the street July 12th)  talking all sorts of shit about how Hell’s Kitchen is just about the only club left in Tacoma, only to get an email shortly after letting me know about a couple of noteworthy shows going down this Friday and Saturday at Maggie O’Toole’s in Lakewood.

Actually, that could happen to anyone. Leave it to me to not change a word and still claim I’m right because Lakewood is not Tacoma. 

On Friday, July 13 of all days, Bremerton’s Ruxton Towers (complete with their obvious adoration for Sunny Day Real Estate), will venture out to Lakewood for a show at O’Tooles, along with the Rikk Deatty Band and the Hardway. Then on Saturday Maggie’s vets Lurid, will get significantly louder and angrier, along with Wide Eye Panic, 2 Headed Chang, Voices Lost, and Psycho 78.

None of that will make it to print, but I guess you’re reaping the benefits of the Spew as we speak.

Spew. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick in nearly every occasion.

Lakewood. Cooler than Spanaway since 1974.

Maggie O’Tooles. Kid tested. Mother Approved.

THE SOUTH SOUND FACTOID
Captain George Vancouver was the first white man to sail into Puget Sound in 1792; he named the peak Mount Rainier after one of his friends. He named the Sound for one of his officers, Peter Puget. Then he sailed to Harbor Lights and got his drink on. 

BOBBLE TIKI'S THREATS AND PROMISES COLUMN

This week Bobble Tiki comes clean with the sounds of summer.  You know: the strum of guitars, the tink off the bat, puking.

As always, Bobble Tiki doesn't care what you do today because he doesn't even know you.  And unless you check out the Weekly Volcano's Web site, Bobble Tiki doesn't want to me you.  Besides, it's time to blow this joint because it's so obvious you are becoming further and further removed from all that is genuine and real and visceral and virtuous and Bobble Tiki doesn't play that with his morning bowl of Quisp.

OK, Bobble Tiki apologizes.  Please be his friend here.

Breakfast with Bobble Tiki runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  Deal with it.

THE DAILY WORD
Learn it, use it, spell it

Impecunious \im-pih-KYOO-nee-uhs\ adjective:

Not having money; habitually without money; poor.

USAGE EXAMPLE: Though Bobble Tiki gave, what at the time seemed like his best effort â€" even managing to hold down a respectable job in the service industry for a few months from time to time â€" throughout his 20s Bobble Tiki remained troublingly impecunious.  It wasn't until he invested in a web-cam, and put his hot bobble body on the net, that Bobble Tiki's financial troubles were finally a thing of the past.

THE MORNING NEWS

TACOMA: Missing Tacoma girl's body found.

SEOUL: N. Korea Military Wants U.S. Talks.

LONDON: Can't remember if you should read this.

BEIJING: Skip this.

WEEKEND BLOWDOWN
You can stand atop the mountain and scream your naked desires to the universe or shed that synapse epilepsy and hug the South Sound today with your fellow man:

MUSIC: Saturday, July 14, Jazzbones
Bobble Tiki knows Tacoma loves Left Hand Smoke. How could you not be attracted to the band, and their sexy and fresh, party vibe blues-rock? It'd be unnatural. To make things better, Bobble Tiki knows Left Hand Smoke loves Tacoma right back. He saw it with his own eyes. Right in front of Jazzbones.

Gross.

Left Hand Smoke will play Jazzbones again on Saturday.

Look out ladies!

MORE MUSIC: Bombs Into You tonight and Tacoma Old Town Blues Festival.

THEATER: "Beast" is a feast.

DRINK: Potter gets his drink on.

THE SOUTH SOUND FACTOID
On July 14, 1873, Tacoma was chosen as the West Coast terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, pissing Seattleites off. The decision popped Seattle's first bubble, but a few years later, the line was extended north, and Seattleites danced in the streets.

BOBBLE TIKI'S THREATS AND PROMISES COLUMN

Bobble Tiki thinks robots are about as cool as it gets. Except for aliens or zombies, Bobble Tiki sees robots as, probably, the coolest thing ever. When Bobble Tiki was a little Tiki, he had an erector set. Then later in life Bobble Tiki saw “Robocop.” Bobble Tiki has been stuck on robots ever since.  It's only natural that Robots vs. Humans intrigues Bobble Tiki.

As always, Bobble Tiki doesn't care what you do today because he doesn't even know you.  And unless you check out the Weekly Volcano's Web site, Bobble Tiki doesn't want to me you.  Besides, it's time to blow this joint because it's so obvious you are becoming further and further removed from all that is genuine and real and visceral and virtuous and Bobble Tiki doesn't play that with his morning bowl of Quisp.

OK, Bobble Tiki apologizes.  Please be his friend here.

Breakfast with Bobble Tiki runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  Deal with it.

I think I get it now.

When one Lakewood Idol hopeful sang a song I recognized from “High School Musical,” I realized, a ha!

Basically, maybe this whole Idol thing is all about corrective emotional experience-making for high school performers who never got that lead role in the musical, or never got that choir solo.  Maybe they’re re-living their glory days much like the high school football jock becomes a coach so he can push his team to victory.

Or something.

I don’t know, it’s just a theory.

See, while I’m ashamed to admit I know about things like “High School Musical” songs (I’ll tank the Disney Channel’s non-commercials in the middle of programming, for that) I “missed” the whole American Idol phenomenon.  Maybe it’s Simon and his nastiness or Paula and her subsequent syrupy sweet.  Maybe it’s the general distaste I have for people willing to humiliate themselves nationally.  Maybe it’s the music: one can handle only so many “cover” versions of songs one never cared about in the first place, done with that appalling lack of regard to singing a clear note.

What’s with that? Why do people feel the need to over-perform the songs, Broadway-ing out their vibrato to earsplitting range, then drawing their final notes into some kind of hip-hoperatic mythical proportions?

Call me bitter because my own singing talents are negligible, or call me an orchestra geek; for whatever reason, I just don’t generally care much for the “Idol” stuff.

So there I was, last night, at the Lakewood Town Hall, watching, amused, as couples shuffled in and out looking to get hitched.  So there I was, listening to singers as they stood, occasionally girlishly at the mic, mumbling their names and ages unintelligibly, occasionally nervously giggling prior to pouring their hearts, souls, and “I can sing”-ness into the space.

There were a few guys â€" three? Four? Ranging from, I think, 11 to over 50-something, but mostly there were girls, singing a range of hip-hop, R & B, gospel, Christian, country, and show tunes, with one notable and appreciated selection of a Lisa Loeb song, a bit discredited when the singer, a formal Tacoma Idol hopeful finished up saying, “oh well, I messed up.”

And then there was another singer, a young gal rumored to either have won Tacoma Idol or Tacoma Jr. Idol last year.  “I guess you can only compete in Tacoma Idol once?” was the speculation.

In the end, I think it was probably the first singer, Antonia Darlene, who will take the Lakewood Idol title when she competes against the top eight finalists from last night’s field of 20 (that was the count as of 6 p.m., at which point the singers present had all performed: the doors would remain open to other comers until 7.)

The Lakewood Idol Finals will happen at American Lake Park at 6:30 on July 24, where the $500 check and chance to compete against the other city “Idols” â€" including Tacoma â€" at the Puyallup fair will be awarded.

One of the judges, Brenda Leach of Countrywide Mortgage, also happened to represent the company that donated $250 of that check (the additional $250 came from Kelly Norman of Windermere Real Estate.)

The other judges, Roger Laibourne, a musician, and Dr Ben Keller, Lakes High School Choir director, were making the “winner” decision after the event, and contacting the winner at home.
When I find out, I’ll share, since I know you’ll be dying to know. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler