MATT DRISCOLL: EVANGELICALS CLOSE OUT SQUEAK AND SQUAWK >>>

As Squeak and Squawk Music Festival co-creator Sean Alexander told me last week, his brand new musical vision â€" which has taken over The Helm Gallery and The New Frontier for the last five days â€" has a few simple goals.

“The purpose of Squeak and Squawk is to provide the local area with five days of solid and diverse programming. I would really hope to see some new faces appear during the festival,” says Alexander. “Also, we want to see people have fun and get all dorky about music.”

Seems valiant, no? Of course it does.

But it takes more than asking nicely to draw Tacoma’s music loving masses out of the woodwork. Luckily, the minds behind Squeak and Squawk don’t appear to have just fallen off the proverbial turnip truck. Along with a solid amount of word-of-mouth buzz they’ve been able to generate about their fledgling Tacoma festival, they also put together a lineup that’s been fucking amazing.

Proof of that fact is abundant, as anyone perusing the impressive list of acts that have played Squeak and Squawk can see. But it’s exceptionally clear when looking at Squeak and Squawk’s final show, at The New Frontier tonight, which will feature Oklahoma’s Evangelicals along with Portland’s Parenthetical Girls and Tacoma’s Friskey.

Hot damn. Now that’s a show.

If you’re not familiar with Evangelicals, which would make some sense considering the band hails from Norman, Okla., and has never played Tacoma before, prepare to be pleasantly surprised â€" if not completely blown away. A mix of bizarre artistry and envelope-pushing song writing â€" which often earns the band comparisons to another Norman band, the Flaming Lips â€" Evangelicals have more than a few things going for them. The indie buzz generated by the band’s two albums, ’06’s So Gone and this year’s The Evening Descends, is a good starting point for those intrigued.

Seeing the band’s performance tonight at the New Frontier should be even better.

“It does matter and it doesn’t matter,” says Evangelicals leader, Josh Jones, of the kind words the press has written about his band. “On a personal level, it doesn’t really matter. I don’t really pay much attention to that stuff.”

“Part of it is the package. Anyone who tells you it’s not is lying,” says Jones of the overall aesthetic of his explicitly artistic band. “I don’t want people to feel ripped off.”

Something tells me, at the New Frontier tonight, that won’t be a problem. But you can be the judge.

[The New Frontier, Evangelicals, Parenthetical Girls, Why I Must be Careful, Friskey, Monday, Oct. 20, 9 p.m. doors, $8, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, www.myspace.com/squeakandsquawkfestival]

Photo courtesy of Myspace

TAMMY ROBACKER: B.L. AT BORDERS SATURDAY >>>

If you’re scaring up something to do Saturday local dark fiction author B.L. Morgan will be signing books at Borders. The creepy creator of the John Dark book series will be autographing his latest novels, Blood for the Masses and Blood on Celluloid. Morgan will also give on-demand readings of the books to further entice and frighten his bloodthirsty fans.

The character John Dark is the ultimate anti-hero of a gritty, urban detective horror series. After leaving a drug-filled, criminal lifestyle behind, the author discovered a way to use his own experience from that period of life as inspiration and research for his unique brand of counter-culture tales. The result? One hell of a scary, juicy, graphic story.

Check out my full preview Thursday in the Fix section on the Weekly Volcano’s Web site.

[Borders Books, Saturday, Oct. 25, noon, free, 2508 S. 38th St., Tacoma, 253.473.9111]

LINK: ViVA South Sound arts and entertainment calendar

SUZY STUMP: CELEBRATE THE DEAD EARLY >>>

Mexicans aren't death-obsessed, but as the Web site Mexico OnLine explains, "[T]hey recognize it, mock it, even defy it. Death is part of life and, as such, it's representative of the Mexican spirit and tradition which says, 'Don't take anything lying down â€" even death!'"

Mad Hat Tea Company is death-obsessed and they’re proving it this Thursday, several weeks before the Nov. 1 Dia de los Muertos holiday.

As we explained in our Oct. 9 cover story, Tacoma’s downtown tea hangout will celebrate the Day of the Dead Thursday, but I just learned what that will entail. Expect live music, henna art, Mexican food, dead art, shrines and more. Owners Maureen and Tobin ask you to bring a kazoo, an hors d’oeuvres and beverages.

[Mad Hat Tea Company, Thursday, Oct. 23, 5-9 p.m., no cover, 1130 Commerce St., Tacoma, 253.441.2111]

LINK: The Tacoma Art Museum is already Dead on

MICHAEL SWAN: BATTLE IN SEATTLE >>>

In what I thought might be a documentary of me trying to park at Neumos on Capitol Hill, Battle in Seattle is actually creative canoodler Stuart Townsend's dramatization of the WTO riots of 1999, submitting a portrait of a well-intended protest that was undone by anarchist forces with little more than chaos on their minds.

Gosh … when I hear myself say it in my head, that sounds like such a bad thing.

The Grand Cinema will screen Battle in Seattle beginning Friday, Oct. 24.

Here my next parking battle.

[The Grand Cinema, Friday, Oct. 24: (2:25), (4:40), 7:00, 9:15; Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 25-26: (12:15), (2:25), 4:40 (discussion follows), 7:00, 9:15; Monday-Thursday, Oct. 27-30: (2:25), (4:40), 7:00, 9:15, $4.50-$8, 606 Fawcett Ave., Tacoma, 253.593.4474]

SUZY STUMP: ROGER ROGERS >>>

As fellow Weekly Volcano scribe Steph DeRosa described last Tuesday, the South Hill Mall hosted a Battle of the Bands Saturday. Instead of Church of Hate and other blood-soaked hardcore bands, this competition featured local chorale groups.

I'm happy to report that Rogers High School Jazz Choir won the competition.  Their beautiful voices and jazz hands grabbed a $1,000 cash prize donated by PC Bank of Puyallup.

Congratulations to the winners:

Rogers High School Choir - First Place of $1000
Justin Wisness, Director

Kalles Junior High School - Second Place of $500
Bethany Nedelisky, Director

Treble Makers - Third Place of $250
Bill Higham, Director

St. Rose Church - Fourth Place of $250
Jeri Kay Lesneski, Director

I'd give the Treble Makers an extra $10 just for their awesome name.

BRAD ALLEN: PAPPI SWARNER'S JUKEBOX

To send you into Tuesday, next up on Weekly Volcano publisher Ron Swarner’s ‘70s pop playlist is Three Dog Night's "Mama Told Me Not To Come." Enjoy!

BILL TIMNICK: TACOMA SYMPHONY OPENS SEASON >>>

The Tacoma Symphony Orchestra opens its 2008-2009 season with an all-Russian music program Saturday, Oct. 25 at the Pantages Theater. The symphony’s special guest is Van Cliburn competition medalist, Aviram Reichert, performing Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 2.”

But in addition to signaling the start of a new season, the October opener also represents a milestone for TSO Music Director and conductor, Harvey Felder: the maestro has served as the group’s leader for 15 years.

Before coming to Tacoma, Felder had been working as an assistant conductor for the Milwaukee Symphony and had also become a staff conductor at St. Louis. Felder describes both groups as “fabulous orchestras,” but his own experiences there were limited to conducting at pops concerts and “young people’s” events, often with very abbreviated rehearsal schedules. Often, Felder recalls, “They’d say, ‘here’s your repertoire; you have an hour to rehearse it and tomorrow night you perform it.’

“And when you’re working in that kind of environment, you don’t get a chance to really ‘dig into’ a piece of music and really understand it, come to an artistic understanding of it and then deliver it â€" first to your orchestra, and then to your audience,” he adds.

That opportunity came when Felder learned that the Tacoma Symphony was searching for a new music director. The organization was also looking for a music director who could help transform the orchestra from mostly amateur orchestra to a professional ensemble.

“That undertaking was my mission,” Harvey says of the start of his tenure as music director. Now, he adds, “we’ve obviously made that transition.” But Felder isn’t ready to leave the TSO. “I want to see how much better we can get, how much further we can go.”

[Pantages Theater, Saturday, Oct. 25, 7:30 p.m., $10-$60, 901 Broadway, Tacoma, 253.272.7264]

LINK: South Sound live music and DJs tonight

SUZY STUMP: HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE >>>

Not that I don’t appreciate the many out-of-town fiction and nonfiction authors that the Tacoma Public Library brings in for book readings and signings, but it’s always nice to be reminded of the local talent. Today, the library presents a reading and signing by The News Tribune sports columnist Dave Boling, whose book Guernicachronicles the bombing of the Basque city during the Spanish Civil War.

Boling wrote almost the entire novel while traveling with the Seattle Seahawks. This year, with Seattle football teams on his mind, I believe he’s writing a book titled The Complete Guide to Idiotic Football.

[Tacoma Public Library Main Branch,Tuesday, Oct. 21, 7 p.m., free, 1102 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma, 253.591.5666]

LINK: ViVA South Sound arts and entertainment calendar