• KEXP's Audioasis Food Lifeline benefit show at the Sunset on January 5 started the new year out with an incredible lineup—Wimps, Dude York, Don't Talk to the Cops!, and Stephanie. Each played fantastic sets, while folks outside attempted creative ways of getting into the sold-out venue. No one could stop smiling, and a Good Samaritan kept buying complete strangers beers without roping them into any creepy small talk whatsoever. Magic!

• Sam Melancon is moving his outstanding experimental-electronic-music night Motor from Lo-Fi to Electric Tea Garden starting February 7. (Motor will then take a break until after Melancon's Debacle Fest happens in May.) We highly recommend you follow Motor wherever it goes—even if it ends up in an abandoned warehouse in Tacoma or a strip mall in Woodinville.

• If you find yourself in Tacoma, might we suggest stopping by Dorky's Arcade for rooms of awesome gaming and an enthusiastic DJ who will mix Carly Rae Jepsen with Skrillex and then dance like no one/everyone is watching. We learned the arcade has also started a Facebook petition to convince Weird Al Yankovic to come to Dorky's for an appearance before his Pantages Theater show in April. I don't know what your 2013 goals are, but this seems as good as any.

• THEESatisfaction and Shabazz Palaces played a packed show inside the Frye Art Gallery on Saturday night from behind Lilienthal Zamora's installation of floating fluorescent tubes. Those who could not fit inside the overbooked show room were invited to listen to the music from adjoining galleries.

• Just as we were marking our calendars in anticipation of some great shows at Mars Bar, the venue and its Cafe Venus counterpart unexpectedly closed their doors on January 8, leaving yet another dive-bar-shaped hole in our hearts.

• Rising local electronic-music futurist Vox Mod (aka Scot Porter) is releasing the first single from his Erik Blood–produced album SYN-ÆSTHETIC on February 4. Titled "Iridescent Asteroid Mists," it features a secret guest vocalist whose identity will possibly shock you. Suspense!

• Keep your eyes peeled for a gold van filled with records and possibly a Pomeranian, because Gold Van Records is open for business. Ruben Mendez and Lacey Swain (of local labels Hardly Art and Sub Pop) have transformed their golden Mitsubishi into a mobile record store, stocking it with handpicked new and used records, which they promise are "all killer, no filler." Follow @goldvanrecords on Twitter to find out where the van will be next!

• Duff McKagan wrote something called "How to Be a Man" for the Seattle Weekly Reverb blog. Since we reject the premise, we're not even getting into it. Okay, fine, the article gives advice like "Don't be a pussy" and offers sentences like "We men sometimes get frustrated when our ladies talk." To which only one response comes to mind: BARF. recommended