FUTURE THINGS ARE COMING >>>

I've tried to make it a point, when writing about local music, to avoid talking about the ages of the members of the bands I highlight. But I must impress upon you how young the members that make up Gig Harbor garage two-piece Trasholes are, if only to make it abundantly clear to you just how much they have their shit together. Both members are in their mid-to-early teens, and their music is more sophisticated and weird than you could ever expect. Lead singer and guitarist Ian Call's voice rides that line between adolescence and adulthood, which only makes each voice crack sound that much more punk rock.

It's exciting to see another young band following the lead of other shit-kicking acts like the defunct Freakouts and Durango 95.

[Backstage Bar and Grill, with Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, Girl Trouble, Red Hex, Thursday, Feb. 2, 7 p.m., all ages, $7, 6409 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.564.0149]

[Tahoma Tea and Co., with the Fun Police, Secret Wives, Yahtzee, Saturday, Feb. 4, 7 p.m., no cover, 1932 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.572.2477]

KID CONGO COMING TO TOWN >>>

Kid Congo became an important post-punk figure in the 1980s. After playing in an early incarnation of The Gun Club, Kid joined The Cramps in the early '80s, and traded in his birth name - Brian Tristan  - at the suggestion of singer Lux Interior. Kid did a couple of more stints in The Gun Club before joining Nick Cave's crew in the late-'80s. He's been releasing music under his own name since 2005.

Thursday, Feb. 2, Kid Congo will perform at the Backstage Bar & Grill in Tacoma. Appropriately, Girl Trouble, Red Hex and the Trasholes will open.

What two free tickets to the show?

Correctly answer the question below and you name will be shoved into a random drawing for the pair of tickets. We'll draw a name at 5 p.m. today. The winner will be notified by tomorrow noon; tickets will be held at will call.

BECAUSE THIRD THURSDAY ARTSLIP WAS A DISASTER >>>

Last Thursday you stayed home - pounding Jack Daniel's while burning your furniture to stay warm. The snow and ice destroyed Tacoma's Third Thursday Artwalk, including the Dawn of 2012 opening reception at Fulcrum Gallery.

Fulcrum owner Oliver Doriss wants to try again Thursday, if the sun hasn't killed us.

According to Doriss, "This Thursday 6 pm The Brick House and Fulcrum Gallery team up to bring you a storm of a different kind. Both galleries are hosting group shows of talented artists from strikingly different points along their career path. A self-portrait show at the Brick House offers a selection of established artists, while Fulcrum explores emerging talent with Dawn of 2012. Don't miss this opportunity to experience artwork in these two uniquely Tacoman galleries, on their terms. ;)"

[The Brick House, Self-Portraits (through Feb. 29), Thursday, Jan. 26, 6 p.m., no cover, 1123 S. Fawcett St., Tacoma, 253.2230.4880]

[Fulcrum Gallery, Dawn of 2012 - Emerging Artists of 2012 (through March 10), Thursday, Jan. 26, 6 p.m., no cover, 1308 MLK Way, Tacoma, 253.250.0520]

PUNK MEETS BLUEGRASS MEETS YOU? >>>

If you hurry, you can get free tickets to see the Old Man Markley show tomorrow night at the Backstage Bar and Grill in Tacoma. According to the band's website: "OMM cut its teeth playing countless jams of bluegrass standards and covers of distinctively un-bluegrass songs done bluegrass style. Soon, out of the chaos grew original material that combined everything the band loved about all the different styles of music the members grew up laying and writing."

Exciting.

Also on tomorrow's bill are The Fun Police, The Shivering Denizens and Ando Ehlers Chaos Death Polka.

All you have to do to win tickets is leave us a message on our Twitter page with your name and email address. We will randomly draw a name for a pair of tickets at 5 p.m. tonight. The winner will be notified by tomorrow noon; tickets will be held at will call.

FUTURE THINGS ARE COMING >>>

What's a Wednesday night without a little chaos? More to the point, what's a Wednesday night without rock and roll run through the wringer? California's punk and bluegrass band Old Man Markley joins our area's Celtic punk rockers The Fun Police - with a dash of The Shivering Denizens and Ando Ehlers Chaos Death Polka - for a $5 show at The Backstage Bar and Grill. For this show, that's cheap - just the way rock and roll likes it.

Expect an eclectic, memorable night. 

[Backstage Bar and Grill, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 8 p.m., $5, 6409 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.564.0149]

A NOVEL GEM >>>

To the outsider, the South Sound can seem like a sea of trucker hats, strip malls, teriyaki restaurants and traffic jams. At first glance, we may be viewed as an over-caffeinated lot with seasonal affective disorder that loves a good cover band and burger while we try to claim a more liberal definition of the American Dream.

Three talented Tacomans have a different view of the South Sound. They see the nooks. They see the treasures. They see the back trails. And they see it through a creative eye.

Civic activist Ken Miller and artists Chris Sharp and Sean Alexander have assembled a team of writers and visual artists to produce the South Sound Users Guide - a guidebook to the region's more than 3,000 square miles and its 1.1 million inhabitants.

This will not be your typical, glossy travelogue. From what I can gather, it will carry an independent tone with sass completed with hand-drawn illustrations and an out-of-the-box design.

I traded a few questions with Miller as the team generates money for the project via Kickstarter.

WEEKLY VOLCANO: What sparked this project?

KEN MILLER: I've been convinced for a long time the South Sound is a distinct cultural and economic region, and then I saw some of Sean's drawings and talked with Chris and it just sort of tumbled together.

One of my motivations really is to help us see ourselves as a distinctive place. We don't have a Pottery Barn, for example; but by population we're bigger than eight states.

Plus with LeMay and the U.S. Open, we'll need a guide of our own, and I want it to be cool, rather than glossy photos of daffodil fields.

VOLCANO: What's your definition of the South Sound?

MILLER: We're concentrating on Pierce, Thurston and Mason counties – breaking them down by locations, much like Saul Wurman's Access series.

VOLCANO: Where will the guide be distributed?

MILLER: We're finalizing a distribution agreement with Partners West, to put the book into bookstores and gift shops across the western U.S. and Canada. We'll have an e-version, too. There won't be advertising in the text, but we have the ability to offer "customized" back covers in volume - over 100 copies - for $5 per book. The retail price will be $20.

VOLCANO: You already have 32 backers on your Kickstarter.

MILLER: We're using Kickstarter to finance the front-end costs - with rewards at various levels of donations. Among the rewards on Kickstarter are three opportunities to write up one's own "feature" - a business, for example. Those rewards are at the $500 level, and are the only paid content.

For more details, to provide support or to pre-order a copy of the book, go to kickstarter.com and enter "South Sound Users Guide" in the search box; or contact Miller at krm@harbornet.com.

FUTURE THINGS ARE COMING >>>

So you like your theater but have trouble with your attention span? Boy, do we have just the theater festival for you! The Pacific Lutheran University chapter of Alpha Psi Omega - described as a national theater honor society (even though it sounds like that frat your cousin with the Ed Hardy wardrobe joined) - presents its annual One Act Theater Festival next week, Jan. 25-28, at PLU's Eastvold Theater. This year's One-Act Festival bears the title "Loss ... and Found," and spotlights three one-act plays - two of them written by PLU students. According to promotion, expect Recklessness by Eugene O'Neill and directed by Frank Roberts, Otter Pops by Alex Eddy and directed by Corissa DeVerse, and Poor Little Doggy by Myia Johnson and directed by T.R. Robinson.

[Pacific Lutheran University - Eastvold Theater, Jan. 25-28, 7:30 p.m., $5 general admission, $3 with PLU ID, 12180 Park Ave. S., Tacoma, 253.535.7325]

LINK: South Sound arts and entertainment calendar

THIS WEEK IN MUSIC >>>

The Weekly Volcano is here to remind you that it all goes back to history. Everything. Everything goes back to history. There is nothing but history. These words are becoming history as you read them. Even you, some day, will be history. Perhaps you will be a blip; perhaps you will be a chapter. Perhaps your name will become a buzzword, like Reaganomics or Machiavellian. Perhaps. Perhaps you will ramble with no purpose. Perhaps you will wax poetic to the point of nausea, like us. Perhaps you will skip the gym today, shove extra food from the buffet into your purse when no one is looking and hit a live show tonight. Perhaps.

Here's a look at the sonic goodness coming at you in print and online in this week's Weekly Volcano ...

FEATURE: VILE RED FALCONS CD RELEASE PARTY

Fuzz-laden guitars spew out exclusively massive riffs; drums are huge, pummeling monsters; lyrics and vocals are melodic, yet unerringly filled with attitude. These are heavy pop songs, in essence, and they wouldn't sound out of place in a two-hour rock block on a '90s alternative station. On their new album, Under Your Skin, the Vile Red Falcons keep up a steady pace of simple, straightforward grunge that carves out a groove for itself, while simultaneously finding little moments that surprise. – Rev. Adam McKinney

HIP-HOP: YEAR OF THE CREW

Well, we've been waiting a whole year to say this, but Darxiide is back. Sic just released a solo LP, Epidemic. It's a follow up to his 2009 album, Pandemic. The album is available for free download at sicill.bandcamp.com. The album features fellow Darxiide MCs Shame, Nick Dominguez and 211, with other guest verses supplied by Moe Greenz, Ese Cricket, A.R. Mastermind, Doughkain, Leezy Soprano and even myself. — Josh Rizeberg

WE RECOMMEND: BIG EYES MONDAY AT TAHOMA TEA

How absurdly catchy is Big Eyes? Thanks for asking. VERY. The band is VERY catchy. Something about the driving guitars and the rough female vocals make Big Eyes something more than just a run of the mill, good garage rock act. – Rev. AM

PLUS: Better Living Through Music featuring Pukesnake, Aaron Daniel and Wolves in the Throne Room

PLUS: Concert Alert

PLUS: Comprehensive live local music listings

PLUS: Bizarre photos of shrinked-wrapped couples

FUTURE THINGS ARE COMING >>>

Here comes another Friday the 13th, and you need something perfectly thematic to do. But not unlucky, please, because there's enough disappointment circling the planet.

There area couple of "Friday the 13th" events going down in Tacoma.

First, The Hub will host a Press Your Luck party, which is basically an excuse to pound booze. The Hub will be pouring $3 Harmon pint and premium wells, $4 Jager Bombs, $5 Jameson shots and a $4 shot special every hour, beginning at 6 p.m. when the party starts.

Second, Encore nightclub will discount its VIP tables to $13 Friday. To reserve the tables, contact Rick at 253.335.9139. And ladies, you're in luck. Friday is also ladies night at Encore, which means free admission.

Where will you be Friday? Hiding?

SOMETIMES IT'S GOOD TO BE A FAN >>>

The Weekly Volcano doesn't know if Tiger Woods will party with Nickelback June 23 when the band performs at the Tacoma Dome. We do know the concert is a go. Live Nation just sent us the sweet details on the show, which will include bands Bush, Seether and My Darkest Days.

Tickets go on sale Saturday, Jan. 21.

Read up people:

Nickelback, one of the biggest rock bands of the past decade known for their extraordinary live performances, have announced their first North American arena tour in two years. The Live Nation-produced tour begins on April 10^th in Moline, Illinois at the i wireless Center, making a 39-date trek throughout North America, with dates confirmed through June 26^th at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada. Special guests Bush, Seether and My Darkest Days, join Nickelback on all tour dates. Tickets go on sale beginning January 20^th at Ticketmaster.com and LiveNation.com.  

Read more...

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