• The Gossip (now known as simply "Gossip") played a fantastic set at the Showbox at the Market on Tuesday, October 9, during which Beth Ditto and the gang reminded everyone to vote to approve Referendum 74—many of Gossip's songs about equality are almost a decade old and still completely relevant in the political here and now. We here at the Crappening factory as well as The Stranger would also like to remind you that it's time to legalize same-sex marriage NOW, folks, for serious.

• Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby played an underattended Funhouse show last week, but didn't seem to mind. Wreckless Eric, who has been in the game for more than 30 years, said, "Everyone asks me if I want to party, but if party means what I think it does, I only want to party with Amy." They were so cute!

• The "Smashing Pumpkins" (can they really be called the Smashing Pumpkins without D'arcy "Horse Incident" Wretzky?) played in beautiful Everett last Wednesday. An anonymous source named Nathan said that the Horrible TV/Internet Company Arena "was around half-capacity with a bunch of old people." The Pumpkins played an entire new album that apparently no one knew about, but saved the last 20 minutes or so for magical '90s hits like "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and "Tonight, Tonight."

• On a recent Saturday evening, a music fan stopped in a Capitol Hill convenience store to buy lip balm. "What is Wussy?" asked the clerk, gesturing to the lip-balm purchaser's T-shirt. After being told that Wussy is a band, the clerk said, "Whenever someone comes in with a shirt I don't understand, they tell me it's a band. One kid had a shirt that said Killers. Who would name a band Killers?" Wary of explaining irony, the lip-balm purchaser shook his head in mock disbelief and left.

• Macklemore & Ryan Lewis's newest album, The Heist, hit number one in iTunes sales last week—congrats, guys!

• Be on guard for a top-secret new musical project called Leathur Feathurs. Its band members claim that the music will be inspired by the unhinged, driving synth punk of Lou Champagne System's No Visible Means, an obscure 1984 album that was reissued last year by local label Medical Records.

• Billy Idol is playing the Showbox Sodo on October 26, after Bothellite Michael Henrichsen spent two years asking begging him to play his birthday party via www.playmybirthdaybillyidol.com. Idol responded with a video that began with "Awright, mate, untwist ya knickers, we're doing it." See! Dreams DO come true! Stay tuned for www.playmylivingroommorrissey.com and www.neverplayagainronaldmcfondle.com.