THURSDAY 12/1
A MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO TOWNES VAN ZANDT
(Tractor Tavern) See Border Radio, page 54.
MATTHEW SHAW, VERONA, THE PROTOCOL, NIGHTHEART
(Crocodile) The concerned core of the local music community puts its collective donation bucket out once more for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Tonight a portion of the indie-pop scene takes the stage for the cause. Matthew Shaw plays simple, emotional electropopâĂ la the Postal Service, were they fronted by Bright Eyes. Shaw has taken sensitive-guitar-strummer syndrome to the next level, lamenting over icy synths and stuttering drum machines about issues that cloud both his heart and his effects processors. JENNIFER MAERZ
PRINCESS SUPERSTAR, NEW GREY AREA, NRDLNGR, THE NACHOS
(Chop Suey) Princess Superstar has a way with wack words. She fucked shit up on the dance floor in 2002 with silly tracks for the discerning slut like "Bad Babysitter" ("Sit his bare ass on the couch where you watch Small Wonder/Next time you see Vicky the spot'll be sticky 'cause I sucked his dicky and used your mom's cucumber"). At their best, her lyrics are packed with crass and sass, her rhymes clever and conversational. In the past couple of years, Princess's visits have been from behind a turntableânot the best display of her talentsâmore often than from behind a mic, but she should take the stage again to promote this year's My Machine. It's a playful concept album about a world populated by Superstar clones that skewers an entertainment industry that never made her a queen. JENNIFER MAERZ
PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES, THE BATS OF BELFRY, WHALEBONES
(Hell's Kitchen) Pretty Girls' intrepid tour schedule has landed the superstar indie-rock-band pals in high places. In recent months they've hit the road with Bloc Party, the Double, and Franz Ferdinand, but the big news is they've completed their third full-length (due in 2006, title still TBA). Now they're home for a short stint and heading to Tacoma with two newish psych-tinged local acts already showing great talent: The Bats of Belfry and Whalebones. JENNIFER MAERZ
FRIDAY 12/2
ANDREW W.K., PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES, SCHOOLYARD HEROES
(UW's HUB Ballroom) See preview, page 42.
SHOOTER JENNINGS, ROCK 'N' ROLL SOLDIERS
(Tractor) See preview, page 45.
DEAD MOON, GIRL TROUBLE, THE OLD HAUNTS
(El CorazĂłn) Portland kind of draws the short straw in the rock-n-roll-history department. Seattle managed to cough up the Sonics, Hendrix, and Heart. Thank God for Dead Moon for evening the playing field a bit. While not exactly a household name, P-town's Dead Moon have been pumping out crusty, beer-fueled jams of the highest order for many a year now, keeping the dream alive since 1987 (pretty respectable in and of itself!). But singer Fred Cole's lineage sprawls across many bands and decades, beginning with the Nuggets-endorsed '60s proto punkers, the Lollipop Shoppe. Rock 'n' roll is rarely about respecting your elders, but when your elders continue to shred harder than kids half their age, you'd best make an exception. JOSH BLANCHARD
THE MAKERS, THE EMERGENCY, NO-FI SOUL REBELLION
(Crocodile) There's a weird feeling one gets thinking about the Makers. These guys were flying the garage-rock freak flag back in 1992, way before anyone cared. Then, without much fanfare, they slowly started to look like the New York Dolls and write rock operas, totally missing the kudos that were lauded upon every "The" band circa the summer of 2001. It's like these guys were singing the Third Bardo's "I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time," not knowing they were actually predicting their future. Their new Jack Endinoâproduced disc Everybody Rise has been described as "Pet Sounds on a budget." Give 'em a chance. Maybe it'll be big in five years. BEN BLACKWELL
CLOCKWORK, BYRDIE, DJ B-MELLO
(Catwalk Club) 206 standouts Clockwork have been steadily putting it down for the town for years now, from corporate boardrooms to events overseas. Shaking off the dust from a fruitless major-label deal with Dreamworks and returning from rocking some major bills in Sweden alongside hiphop's best, the rapidfire lyricists Take One, Rockwell, and Lace Cadence have returned with their After Midnight LP. It's a great collection of upbeat club-ready tracks with the Clock's signature double-time tradeoff flows. You do not wanna miss one of Seattle's very best live hiphop groups tear it down at this, the official After Midnight CD release party. LARRY MIZELL JR.
SATURDAY 12/3
!!!, FCS NORTH, DJ FUCKING IN THE STREETS
(Crocodile) See preview, page 48 and Data Breaker, page 62.
THEO PARRISH & RICK WILHITE
(Baltic Room) See Data Breaker, page 62.
BLUE SCHOLARS, MASTA ACE & WORDSWORTH, VURSATYL, BOOM BAP PROJECT, ABYSSINIAN CREOLE, DJ JONCE & MARC SENSE
(Chop Suey) See My Philosophy, page 53 and Stranger Suggests, page 27.
ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN, INNAWAY
(Neumo's) Crocodiles, Heaven Up Here, Porcupine, Ocean Rain: Few rock bands kick off their careers with as torrid a four-album spree as did Echo & the Bunnymen. From '79 to '84, these Liverpudlians put a poetic, postpunk spin on the Doors' Sturm und Dranged psychedelia. They should've split following the ornate masterpiece Ocean Rain, but the Bunnymen heedlessly soldiered on, dinging their legend with each new release while never truly trainwrecking. The group's recent Siberia is respectable elder-statesmen rock, but it's but a faint facsimile of their first incarnation's propulsively rococo sound. Let's hope McCulloch and Sergeant lean on that earlier era tonight. DAVE SEGAL
STUDIO 66 W/THE VILLAGE GREEN, THE PURRS, DJ LADY KERRIN B, DJ CHRISPO, TANGERINE TONIC
(Lo_Fi Performance Gallery) Studio 66 is a bimonthly "happening" for lovers of '60s-era garage, soul, and psychedelic rock. Both of this edition's live acts, the Village Green and the Purrs, are spot-on retro bands that, while not exactly reinventing the wheel, are blissfully content to keep the wheel rolling in the right direction. The Village Green's Nathan Jr. has also been a karaoke jockey of mythic proportions down Portland way, so make sure to request a version of "Black Betty" at a particularly inconvenient moment. DJ Lady Kerrin B rounds out the bill. JOSH BLANCHARD
THE SATURDAY KNIGHTS, CASY+BRIAN, SCISSORS FOR LEFTY, MARLO
(The Paradox) I've said it before, I've said it again, and I'll say it one more timeâthe Saturday Knights are one of the best things our little music community's got going. They swap genres like preteens swap spit, getting sloppy silly all over garage, girl groups, and punk in the name of party-time hiphop. Emcees Barfly and Tilsen keep the mood high, trading lyrical blows light as a feather with their raps and between-song comedic banter. See them now so you can say you saw them when the group still performed with "patches on their elbows." JENNIFER MAERZ
FREAKWATER, THE ZINCS, WALTER SALAS-HUMARA
(Tractor Tavern) When an act has been around as long as Freakwaterâ22 years, give or takeâit is easy to take them for granted. Don't. With their contrasting yet complementary muslin and sandpaper voices, and penchant for swathing sinister sentiments in beguiling guitar twang, Catherine Ann Irwin and Janet Beveridge Bean remain among the most compelling purveyors of contemporary roots music around. Enriched with strings, pedal steel, and pump organ, their latest album, the vibrantly arranged Thinking of You, is a striking mix of the urbane and the earthy. Given the band's on-againâoff-again relationship and long gaps between records, missing this rare Seattle appearance is ill-advised. KURT B. REIGHLEY
SUNDAY 12/4
MORCHEEBA, GABBY LA LA
(Showbox) See Data Breaker, page 62.
FEAR FACTORY, SOILWORK, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, DARKANE, THRASHER
(El CorazĂłn) Strapping Young Lad's Devin Townsend rocks a skullet, his shoulder-length hair starting at a point on his cranial circumference roughly symmetrical to his eyebrows. His facial features contort into an array of elastic expressions. His appearance brings to mind a traveling carnivalânot the caged freak but the seedy barker announcing the attraction. Townsend's stage banter ranges from antagonistic to anatomically improbable ("I got a male vasectomy, and my pee comes out in a fine mist"). The band's darkness-imprisoned riffs and shooting-gallery percussion provide headbanging thrills, but it's Townsend's uniquely charismatic presence that makes Strapping Young Lad an unforgettable live act. ANDREW MILLER
WAYNE HORVITZ, WALLY SHOUP, SHIN YAMADA, STUART DEMPSTER, MANY OTHERS
(Gallery 1412) Here be the motherlode of improvisational firepower and finesse. Fear for the walls of 1412's minuscule confines. Shoup is Seattle's reigning saxophone colossus, comfortable with blazing fire music and beautifully quiescent modes. Yamada wields guitar, laptop, and drums for local improv psych experimentalists Na, a delightfully unpredictable Dada-rock ensemble. Local king of all keyboards Horvitz has forgotten more about groove and melody than most musicians will ever know. Dempster plays trombone with electronic-musicâaccordion innovator Pauline Oliveros's Deep Listening Band and is a force of nature to be reckoned with. He knows about drones' holy power like the Vatican knows about pornography. DAVE SEGAL
MONDAY 12/5
CAVE IN, DOOMRIDERS, LORENE DRIVE, PLAYING ENEMY
(El CorazĂłn) See preview, page 47.
TUESDAY 12/6
THE EARLIES, THE LIKE, GIANT DRAG
(Crocodile) See CD Reviews, page 51.
ARRANGE
(McCaw Hall) See preview, page 41.
WEDNESDAY 12/7
WILL JOHNSON, TIM SEELY, HART KINGSBERRY
(Sunset) Earlier this year Centro-matic frontman Will Johnson released a grungy psych-country record about a cat with his other band South San Gabriel. A few months previous to that, he released a mournful, piano-driven solo album. By my count that makes 13 records, all of which are at least good if not great, in the 11 years he's been in the game (for you nonmusicians, this level of output is insanity). Now of course, you should go see Johnson because his shows are rife with the ragged chords, pedal-steel weeps, and sandpapery rasps that are his stock-in-trade. But really, I'd go out of fear he might self-destruct very soon. BRIAN BARR
THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS, ROONEY, THE ACADEMY IS...
(The Showbox) According to an All-American Rejects' fansite, 21-year-old frontman Tyson Ritter was born at a Van Halen concert, grew up listening to AC/DC, claims the best live show he's ever seen was Bad Religion, and was a fat kid in high school. With that kind of history, I'd expect a little more than mediocre pop laced with sugary hooks performed by a scrawny, blue-eyed pretty boyâbut alas, the Rejects deliver just that. They were poised to be a one-hit wonder when 2002's "Swing Swing" hit the airwaves, but they recently defied their fate with a new record and smash single, "Dirty Little Secret," which has put the band back in the land of magazine covers and high sales. Some might say they've come a long way, but I think they're just getting worse. MEGAN SELING
TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS, GUESTS
(Neumo's) Seeing as how my closet houses five gray hooded sweatshirts, four pairs of jeans, about three-dozen T-shirts, and some plain sweaters, I'm really the last person to ever talk fashion. The only way anyone could ever catch me recommending a fashion show is if the event, like tonight's Zebraclub 20th anniversary soirée, comes with a badass live soundtrack supplied by none other than the illustrious Ted Leo and his gang of Pharmacists. MEGAN SELING
