REV. ADAM MCKINNEY: GET SOME GOOD GRAVY IN THE KITCHEN >>>

Some bands feel so … so … right. Do you know? For whatever reason, a band can sometimes have the key to your roller skates, and fight though you may, you just can’t resist the rock.

Good Gravy does it for me, and there’s no explaining it.

The tuneful bar band sound, the endearingly Michael-Stipe-with-more-of-a-twang vocals, the occasional dips into funk â€" it all adds up to something just as comforting and twice as nourishing as its namesake.

Good Gravy burns through songs that are somehow simultaneously reminiscent of groups like the J. Geils Band, the underground music movement in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and the punk/new wave renaissance of the late ‘70s. And it all works. It all feels right.

Check them out tonight at Hell's Kitchen.

[Hell’s Kitchen, with The Volunteers, The Spins, Thursday, Sept. 10, 9 p.m., $3, 3829 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]

ALEC CLAYTON: CATCH THESE SHOWS WHILE YOU CAN >>>

There are two art exhibits running in Tacoma that end this weekend, one very serious and high-minded and the other cute enough to make you want to puke. I’m talking kitsch cute that’s so bad it’s good. The shows are Flux at Gallery Madera and Rabbitual at Two Vaults. Both shows run through Saturday, Sept. 12.

Read why you should see these shows here.

Art: Lynn Di Nino at Two Vaults

NEWS TEAM: GOOD MORNING SOUTH SOUND >>>

Pierce County Parade Wave: County ends support for Daffodil Festival.

Blaming The Hand That Feeds You: Violent crime up in Lakewood.

Scumbag Report: Volleyball coach, Dominique Trevon "Huggy Bear" Dinwiddie, and Keith Edward "Wham-O" Marriott.

Well Then: Shares of HMO’s rise after President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress reveals no “game-changers."

Can They Afford Health Care?: U.S. poverty rate rises to 11-year high.

Then There's This Awesome News: U.S. says Iran could expedite nuclear bomb.

Dumbshit Of The Day: OC assemblyman in bed with lobbyist … no, literally in bed.

Oh, Yeah: Frank Russell is out of here.

OK, We Need A Dose Of Happiness

RON SWARNER: BEAUTIFUL DAY TO COOK OUTDOORS >>>

Top Chef season three contestant CJ Jacobsen is at the Tacoma Farmers Market right now cooking in front of a large crowd of mostly women. With borrowed equipment from the Summit House Restaurant at Crystal Mountain Resort, CJ is slicing and dicing and dropping one-liners. Hurry on over as the prize giveaways and autograph signings are about to go down. 

MICHAEL SWAN: TIME TO COME CLEAN >>>

The Pierce County Library is one of the only concrete examples of man's capacity to exhibit good will. Things are borrowed for free and taken home where they become susceptible to unforeseen dangers like Dairy Queen Blizzard knockovers, horsefly squashings, random, surprisingly literate purse snatchers, Russell Crowe drop-in visits, your dog Maul-y Ringwald’s afternoon project and countless other perils. Yet, somehow, inexplicably, the vast majority of Pierce County residents manage to treat their borrowed goods with care and return them intact, often at the deadline proscribed.

And then there are those who don't.

For those of you still holding a woefully overdue copy of So You're Going to Have Brain Surgery, the Pierce County Library takes pity this October. The library will be offering amnesty Oct. 4-10. This means overdue materials â€" books, movies, music, audiobooks â€" can be returned, no questions asked, and late fees will be forgiven. Naturally, some restrictions apply.

The event is being promoted along with the library’s third annual card drive, Thursday, Oct. 1 through Saturday, Oct. 31.

OWEN TAYLOR: TONIGHT IN OLYMPIA >>>

Pop quiz, hot shot. What's Canadian, has three heads, and is coming to tear the soul out of Olympia tonight at the Eastside Club?

MENDOZZA!!!!!!

I'm going to be biased here. HELLA biased. Mendozza kills it.

The Judge's devastation on bass lends itself easily to his ruthlessly murderous namesake from Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, both known for their merciless hammering of iron. 

Bina, the band’s tattooed demi-goddess drummer is the Canadian metal wife of my richest dreams. I could fill this fish wrapper full of double entendres about slapping skins and cymbal crashing crescendos of ectasy, but we’re gonna be the proverbial raised pinkie on a champagne stem here, kids â€" the epitome of class. 

And then there's Deuce.  If you can't tell by his name alone, then perhaps the decade worth of mangy hair will say, "I don't run a kiosk in the mall." With a voice like a thresher 10 years past its last tune-up and the guitar to match, he perfectly rounds out the threesome that is Mendozza.

This Vancouver, B.C.-based power-grind trio is a formidable sonic foe, viciously protecting its metal throne with a Cerebus-esque ferocity â€" and you are stupid if you miss this show.

[The Eastside Club Tavern, Mendozza with Witchburn, Spread Eagle, Thursday, Sept. 10, 9 p.m. 410 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, 360.357.9985]

PAUL SCHRAG: NICE DAY TO LOUNGE DOWNTOWN >>>

Beautiful Angle progenitor Lance Kagey drew a few dozen people to Tollefson Plaza today with an invitation to capture shadows.

Relatively spontaneous and generally without official approval, a flock of Tacomans descended on the Plaza with chairs, set them in appropriately-angled sunlight, and taped over the shadows cast with blue masking tape. Dubbed “SIT IN,” and based on the work of local artist Joe Penrod, the event was a true-to-form Flash Mob extravaganza.

Flash Mobs started in Manhattan, where then senior editor of Harper’s Magazine Bill Wazik flooded hipster hangouts with carefully-coordinated groups of pranksters with the hopes of causing chaos. Wazik said he organized the mob-actions as a social experiment aimed at clowning on hipsters clamoring to be part of “the next big thing.”

Flash mobs, of course, immediately became trendy.

More recent manifestation still get points for generally involving large, guerilla-style invasions of public spaces, and for sometimes involving art.

The first 50 people that showed up today scored a Beautiful Angle poster featuring Tacoma poet William Kupinse and up-and-coming silkscreen artist Tyler Kalberg.

MICHAEL SWAN: FRIDAY, SEPT. 11, 2009 >>>

1. Afrobeat band Albino! deserves the exclamation point following their name: Everything that they do and play is exaggerated, energized, and enthusiastic. They play the Eastside Club Tavern in Olympia at 9 p.m.

2. The Tacoma Fire Department will honor the heroes and victims of 9/11 at a public remembrance ceremony held at the Firefighters Memorial located at 3301 Ruston Way at 8:45 a.m. 


 
3. Speak Your Soul hosts a poetry open mic featuring Gwendolyn Faye, poet "Q", and you at 8 p.m. inside Vinum Coffee & Wine Lounge in downtown Tacoma.

4. Poet Lois P. Jones will read new poetry work at King’s Books at 7 p.m.

5. A pizza party benefit for Free Radio Olympia featuring One Disaster Short Of A Country Song, Black Oak, Vradiazei, Poor Boys Soul, Theater of Shadows will be held from 6-10 p.m. at Fertile Grounds in Olympia.

LINK: Live music and DJs in the South Sound

LINK: Local movie starting times

LINK: South Sound Restaurant Guide

MATT DRICOLL: THE JET CITY FIX WILL NEVER DIE

If I were to compile a list of things liable to end a band, it would probably look a lot like the Jet City Fix’s life over the last five years. Official breakups? Check. Marriages and maturation? Check. Armed Services enlistment and a trip to boot camp for the lead singer? Amazingly enough, check.

Yes, the Jet City journey, which started way back in 2002, has been a wild one â€" but throughout it all a couple things have remained comfortably steadfast.

Number one: Despite the fact the band has had its fair share of drama in the past, Justin and Ty McDonald, Shane Flauding and Dana Sims are all still rock ‘n’ roll possessed friends â€" and they always will be.

Number two: Fans of rock eat this shit up.

So, it should come as no surprise to see the Jet City Fix name back on show flyers around town. Tonight, the band will play a Funky Monkey, 104.9 FM sponsored show at Hell’s Kitchen with Point Defiance, Weight of the World and Vista Switch.

[Hell’s Kitchen, Point Defiance with the Jet City Fix, Weight of the World, Vista Switch, Friday, Sept. 11, 9 p.m., $5, 3829 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]