Thursday 12/24
Clean up your pad, for Christ's sake; you have guests coming soon.
Friday 12/25
Khingz, Orbitron, Jarv Dee
(Rendezvous) The last 2009 installment of the Corner marks, I believe, a full two years of Seattle hiphop's realest monthly night. Since 2008, if someone asked me where to see some local rap, I recommended catching it at local MC/grinder Candidt's baby—a packed room (the Rendezvous' Jewelbox Theater) full of local hiphop figures, fans, and randoms soaking up all that "the 6" has to offer, along with plenty of PBR pitchers. There have been star-making performances (like Spaceman's riotous set), comedy (like Billy the Fridge expertly throwing his voluminous tighty whities onto Ripynt), and even an onstage marriage proposal; but never has there been funk, beef, or anything of the kind. So after you're done eating dinner and unwrapping your gifts or whatever it is you do in your godless heathen religion, make your presence known in the town that is Bell and celebrate with Khingz, BeaconSkillz/Circle of Fire B-boy/MC/internationally known good dude Orbitron, and Cloud Nice's young gun Jarv Dee. LARRY MIZELL JR.
Saturday 12/26
Star Anna, Kristen Ward, Pufferfish
(Tractor) Star Anna traffics in the type of alt-Americana popularized by Neko Case, Cowboy Junkies, etc., and she is very good at it. The key is her commitment: Performing at the Triple Door's Patsy Cline Tribute Night, she stood stock-still and hugged herself as the wounded music poured out of her. Tonight, Star Anna takes over the Tractor with her band the Laughing Dogs, with opening support from her alt-country peers Kristen Ward and Pufferfish. DAVID SCHMADER
Talcum
(Chop Suey) You love Northern soul, so it's a given you're going to this fabulous offshoot of the Emerald City Soul Club empire. But if you don't know squat about Northern soul, well, the ECSC DJs have what it takes (in spades) to instill the deepest knowledge—that you can find in the colonies, anyway—of the fleet-footed cult genre. With roots in the UK's late-'60s mod scene, Northern soul mostly consists of Motown-like American R&B 45s that the radio ignored for bogus reasons (i.e., they probably lacked the requisite amount of payola). Talcum bonus: The folks who attend this event look 37 percent better than the patrons of other dance-music nights. I had the link to the study with those stats here a minute ago, damn it... DAVE SEGAL
Past Lives, Talbot Tagora
(Healthy Times Fun Club) Two of Seattle's finest rock bands in a small all-ages space on a night between an obscure holiday and the looming birth of a new year—it seems like a sure-shot blast. Youthful trio Talbot Tagora infuse no wave with an invigorating, citrusy tunefulness while making you dance to some of the oddest time signatures you've ever heard from a release that receives funding from Sub Pop Records. Past Lives—the remains of the Blood Brothers about which you should care most—have a new album due February 23 on Suicide Squeeze, Tapestry of Webs. The 12-track disc finds the foursome exploring their more melodic tendencies and expanding their repertoire of vocal arrangements, with producer Steve Fisk helping to tastefully fill out the band's previously stark sound without deadening Past Lives' post-punk causticity. DAVE SEGAL
Sunday 12/27
David Benoit
(Jazz Alley) If you're craving smooth jazz tonight—and who doesn't occasionally have pangs for that eminently soothing and innocuous sound?—you'd best get your ass to Jazz Alley for a modern master of the form, pianist David Benoit. Spending his formative years with the legendary Russ Freeman and the Rippingtons, Benoit went on to cover Vince Guaraldi's rollicking classic "Linus and Lucy," which helped to fling the smooth-jazz subgenre to its current lofty place in America's pop-culture hierarchy. In common with Miles Davis, Benoit also has covered Michael Jackson's heart-fluttering ballad "Human Nature." But Benoit's towering achievement is probably the album he cut in tribute to Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz after the cartoonist passed away in 2000, Here's to You, Charlie Brown: 50 Great Years. Damn, dudes, this is going to be one smoooooth night of music. DAVE SEGAL
Monday 12/28
The Girls, the 79ers, the Spooges, Henry Boy
(High Dive) Seattle's the Girls—not to be confused with San Francisco's Girls—forge tight, new-wave-energized glam-pop songs that stick in your mind with Velcro'd immediacy. Their massed vocals generate excitement, as massed vocals are wont to do, but there's no sense of commercial cynicism or avarice in the Girls' hooky, wound-up approach. Their joie de vivre for a narrow slice of rock history (1975–1980) seems pure, and their emulation of it is so on point, that gripes about retroism dissolve within seconds of hearing any of their effervescent, catchy tunes. They're back to do their high-energy, tuneful thing in your grateful ear hole once again. The Spooges? Um, we don't need Stooges tribute bands—the world already teems with deluded dudes thinking they can emulate Iggy and company's primitive, priapic big bang. Still, I'm curious to hear how they handle "Dirt." DAVE SEGAL
Tuesday 12/29
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine
(Neumos) Age won't temper Jello Biafra. The Dead Kennedys' frontman came out of the band's breakup in 1986 with a slew of collaborations (NoMeansNo, D.O.A., Mojo Nixon, Melvins), side projects (Lard, Tumor Circus), and spoken-word performances. And despite a debilitating leg injury and a recent legal battle with his former DK bandmates, Biafra nevertheless managed to assemble his strongest project of the last 15 years in time for his 50th birthday. Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine aren't too far removed from Biafra's past projects; his trademark sarcastic warble and topical lyrics are still in full effect. But it's the addition of guitarist Ralph Spight (Victims Family) and his ability to balance both four-chord thrash and pigfuck unconventionalities that seals the deal. BRIAN COOK
Stop Biting: Deceptikon
(Lo-Fi) Former Seattle producer Deceptikon (Zack Wright) has been living in Japan and San Francisco for the last few years or so. Now he's back for the holidays, in time to liven up that dull week between Christmas and New Year's Eve with a date at the hiphop/B-boy-friendly weekly Stop Biting. Should be interesting to witness how Deceptikon's geekily funked-up IDM—his sprightly tracks bump, bleep, and shimmer somewhere between Dabrye and Scientific American—will go down with the breakdancers. He will likely bust out some tracks from his forthcoming album, Mythology of the Metropolis (out February 16 on Daly City Records). DAVE SEGAL
Beefy, Ultraklystron, Billy the Fridge, Death*Star
(Nectar) Nerdcore rap is a hard genre to like—besides the weird racial implications of white people rapping about "white issues" like video games and self-deprecation, most of it is flat-out awful. Richland musician Beefy stands head and shoulders above most other nerdcore rappers—his sounds are true to the nerdcore ethic (they're festooned with the bloops and beeps of old-school Nintendo video games), but unlike many of his contemporaries, they're competent, catchy beats. And while many of his tracks (like "Game Store Girl") are just about name-checking pop-culture brands, he also has a fairly blistering dig at mainstream rap with "Turn Your Radio Off." He's got more potential than anybody else in local nerdcore; if anyone can transcend these lame genre trappings, Beefy can. PAUL CONSTANT
Wednesday 12/30
The Murder City Devils, Past Lives, Cold Lake
(Showbox at the Market) See Stranger Suggests.
The Mentors, Spiderface, ButtafĂĽko, Last American Badass
(Funhouse) Oh, come on. It's the holidays. Everybody's full to the fucking gills with artificial good cheer and faux-friendliness. Which means that there is no better time to go to a shock-rock show than right now, and there's no better shock-rock band than the Mentors. You might as well fill yourself with artificial hatred for everyone—and I mean everyone: women, gays, hicks, religious leaders—to balance out the fake sunshine. If you can't take a joke, especially a bad joke whose teller is completely committed to the telling of the bad joke (sample line of only medium badness on the awful scale: "I'll stab your uterus and bathe in your pee"), you'd do best to stay far, far away. But if you're sick of candy canes, happiness, your friends, and yourself, you might as well get on the hate train. PAUL CONSTANT
Helladope, Suntonio Bandanaz
(Chop Suey) Helladope are the duo of veteran MC Jerm and young producer/MC Tay Sean, the prodigious primary architect of Beacon Hill's Cloud Nice collective. Helladope's sound is typically clean and glossy, with cold, clapping drum-machine beats anchoring soft, jazzy pads and glittery, laser-sharp synth lines. The duo handles double-time party raps and watery, G-funk-inflected R&B with equal aplomb; their tracks are playful, but crafted with undeniable skill. But what say the experts? Charles Mudede calls their Return to Planet Rock "yet another contender for the best local hiphop recording of the year"; Larry Mizell Jr. calls them the "best up-and-coming crew in town, hands down"; Andrew Matson says "Tay Sean is the future of rap in Seattle. If he moves, we lose." Damn. ERIC GRANDY
Kevin Shields, Caligula Cartel
(Mercury) If cochlea-battering waves of noise are your thing, you'll definitely want to count yourself among the sonically adventurous attendees of this gig. And no, this is not the Shields you know from shoegaze champions My Bloody Valentine—rather it's the alias of experimental jane-of-all-trades Eva Aguila (though anyone who experienced MBV's Seattle performance last April will know that the original Mr. Shields is himself not averse to generating monstrous layers of racket). With membership in the similarly far-out groups Gang Wizard and Caldera Lakes, Aguila boasts some serious underground cred, and her methods are anything but orthodox ("Is that some old analog film editing equipment?"). It's easy to see why klatter-friendly savants like Thurston Moore and Brian Miller of Foot Village are fans. Put off that visit to the ENT doctor and worm your way into this show. I dare you. JASON BAXTER
Thursday 12/31
Apparat, Nosaj Thing, Lusine, Nordic Soul
(Neumos) Decibel Festival director Sean Horton (aka the superb DJ Nordic Soul, who'll help usher in 2010 tonight) again flaunts his impeccable electronic-music curatorship with this NYE bash. Seattle techno/IDM producer Lusine appears reenergized with his most accessible release, the refulgent A Certain Distance; Apparat is another master of dulcet, song-based electronica; and Nosaj Thing has emerged as one of the fecund L.A. underground's most skilled creators of abstract hiphop that's melodically rich and rhythmically vital. Heady good times. DAVE SEGAL
CAKE, Throw Me the Statue, locust
(Moore) You know all about CAKE, happy-rhythm, guilty pleasure, indie/country/pop-rock band that's handy with a trumpet and the cutting lyrics: "She doesn't care/Whether or not he's an island/She doesn't care/Just as long as his ship's coming in... He's got a gold watch/She's got a silk dress/And healthy breasts that bounce/On his Italian leather sofa." And you know all about Throw Me the Statue, another happy-rhythm, twinkle-melodied, indie-pop band that's a bit less quick with the glee and whose most morose moments sound like a picnic in the park. What you might not know is locust, one of Seattle's best modern-dance companies, led by the sophisticated but pop-smart dancer and choreographer Amy O'Neal. Josh LaBelle, director of Seattle Theatre Group, has talked about trying to get modern-dance and rock audiences together—it's a great idea and a great way to shake in 2010. BRENDAN KILEY
Book of Black Earth, Harkonen, Lesbian, Shining Ones
(Comet) Originating in Tacoma as a high-school hardcore band back in 1996, Harkonen evolved into one of the Northwest's finest thunder purveyors. They mastered that combination of thick-ass power chords, gnarly bass, and unrelenting kick-and-crash-cymbal drumming that elevated trios like Engine Kid, Karp, and Enemymine into cult status. Yet Harkonen never managed to extend their dominance too far beyond the state line, and even in Seattle they seemed grossly underappreciated. They eventually dissolved in 2004, leaving behind a legacy of amazing recordings. After a bittersweet reunion for local musician Brian Redman's memorial service back in October, the band agreed to one more reunion show on New Year's Eve. The year 2009 was grim, and this show is a perfect way to bulldoze it into history. BRIAN COOK
Minus the Bear, Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground
(Showbox at the Market) The guitar-tapping wizardry and four-on-the-floor beats of Minus the Bear's debut album, Highly Refined Pirates, were born from an infatuation with math rock and popular dance music. Repeated exposure to the Warp Records catalog bore their glitchy, loop-heavy sophomore effort, Menos el Oso. A newfound appreciation for Yes and Pink Floyd yielded the proggy Planet of Ice. With a new album set for release next year, it raises the question: What's been rotating on MTB's stereos? The answer, apparently, is a hefty dose of Funkadelic, Betty Davis, and Ohio Players. Now, white guys tackling funk is risky business—for every Big Boys and Minutemen, there's a 311. But if past explorations are any indication of ability, the Bear will pull off a bumpin' backbeat with aplomb. BRIAN COOK
U.S.E, Aqueduct
(Crocodile) Fact: What you do on New Year's Eve will directly affect what happens in your life for the entirety of the next year. If you sit at home being grumpy and miserable, then you'll have a grumpy and miserable year. But if you go to the Crocodile tonight, for the brightest, happiest, catchiest, and confetti-filled dance-pop performances happening within Seattle's city limits, then obviously your 2010 will be a nonstop posi-party. And don't be scared—Aqueduct will warm you up before U.S.E's infectious onslaught with his self-deprecating (but still utterly charming) songs about Guns N' Roses and relationships. MEGAN SELING
Spurm, the Trashies, TacocaT, the Uzi Rash
(Black Lodge) Are you fucking kidding me? The Trashies reunion with this lineup is not to be missed. For the uninitiated, the Trashies play, well, trashy, fun punk rock with song titles like "Let It Be Trashed," "Blue Tarp," and "In the Gutter Together." They played a house show more than two years ago that was supposed to be their last show, and there's no word on whether or not this reunion is long-term, so your best bet is to get your ass down to the show and go crazy like it's their last last show even as you hope that it's not. The only way this party could be better is if it were at the 24/7 house. GRANT BRISSEY
The Fall of Troy, Blood Cells, Man Without Wax, M. Bison, Stage the Empire
(El Corazón) Schoolyard Heroes fans, take note: While the band may have played its last show ever just one week ago at this very venue (sad, sad), you'll be happy to hear that a number of the band's ex-members have already risen from the ashes with a new band called Blood Cells, and they're opening tonight's show. They have exactly one song, "I Am Forever, Darling..." posted on MySpace, and while it's very reminiscent of Schoolyard Heroes (Ryann Donnelly is back on vocals), it is less shtick-y than before, as they seem to have shed the recurring horror-inspired themes—in this song, at least. Only time will tell what other strides they'll make with their music. New decade, new band—happy 2010! MEGAN SELING
Friday 1/1
Japanther, Champagne Champagne, They Live!, Hair Envelope
(Comet) Let's get one thing straight: Hair Envelope are not a hiphop group. Genre-benders Japanther are probably the most like-minded of their colleagues on this bill, as Hair Envelope hew closer to the rock end of the musical spectrum. But the high-energy duo has an almost cavalier "anything goes" vibe, combining saxophone, synthesizers, live drumming, and pedal-generated weirdness into a surprisingly effective mix. They're a hit with crowds, even if they don't always seem to jibe with the lineups they populate (this past summer, they toured the West Coast with psychedelic solo act Big Spider's Back). Consider them a welcome appetizer for this stacked night of beat-driven music. JASON BAXTER
Saturday 1/2
Macklemore, Dark Time Sunshine, THEESatisfaction, Candidt
(High Dive) Dark Time Sunshine is a rather mysterious new hiphop project—a collaboration between a bizarrely named MC from Seattle, "Cape Cowen," and a Chicago producer going by the even weirder moniker "Zavala." Their nine-song debut, BELIEVEYOUME, is available for a free and legal download at www.fakefourinc.com/believeyoume. It's free! Have some! I can't name one single fucking band who would give its whole debut CD for free—especially around the holidays. Forget any theories on just who this Cape Cowen fellow really is, this is A+ Seattle hiphop. And it's new. And free for you. Go get it. KELLY O
Audioasis Benefit Show: Android Hero, the Keeper, Vultures 2012, Dog Shredder, Constant Lovers
(Sunset) KEXP's Audioasis is the Northwest's longest-running local-music showcase, and once a month, they do something to help out the city that makes the music to which it's devoted, with a charity-benefiting live broadcast from Ballard's Sunset Tavern. This month brings the metal, with live performances by heavy local screamers the Keeper and Vultures 2012, kept in line by Audioasis host Hannah Levin. DAVID SCHMADER
Sunday 1/3
Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death, the Tempers, Wild Orchid Children, Hallways
(Neumos) See preview.
Samothrace, Feedling, Ahedonist, Fawn
(Comet) Samothrace is an island in the northern Aegean Sea that was widely respected in ancient times, especially the Hellenistic and Roman periods, because it contained the Sanctuary of the Great Gods and a marble statue of Nike, now known as the Winged Victory of Samothrace—a famous headless and winged statue currently living in the Louvre. Samothrace are also a hard-to-classify metal band that recently transplanted here from Kansas. Reviewers of their 2008 debut album, Life's Trade, have compared them to everything from Sun O))) and Burzum to the Cure—and even to "a metallicized Allman Brothers." Their new drummer, Joe Axler (Book of Black Earth, Skarp), tells me they're the first metal band he's ever played with that makes music that's "pretty." If you're the sort of person who opens your ears to heavy-hearted doom metal, then say hello to your new favorite local band. KELLY O
Monday 1/4
Today's a good day to stay the fuck in bed.
Tuesday 1/5
Work it on out.
Wednesday 1/6
A trip to the southern hemisphere would be nice.
