TYPING EXPLOSION DOCUMENTARY BENEFIT W/AVEO, SEAN & AARON, DJ SPENCER ESQUIRE & DJ GREASY
(Baltic Room) See Stranger Suggests.
ROSE THOMAS, TIFFANY ANDERS, MIKE JOHNSON, CARRIE BIELL
(Crocodile) Mike Johnson's is a talent that swings wildly from young punk (Snakepit) to guitar rock (Dinosaur Jr.) to sad guy (A Year of Mondays) to inexplicably gloomy orchestral popper (I Feel Alright). It's been a while since we've had any recorded material from this extremely versatile artist, and tonight's show should give fans a good example of what to expect in the future. KATHLEEN WILSON
ZENI GEVA, THE HEAVY JOHNSTON TRIO, KK NULL, BILL HORIST
(Graceland) See Stranger Suggests.
BLIM, KI
(I-Spy) British breaks master BLIM comes from a classical background, which says something about his approach to music. That, combined with years of production experience (mostly in the realm of drum 'n' bass), is bound to give someone a sense of what sounds good. There's a lot of diversity to BLIM's sound, the healthy, robust kind that comes from eschewing categorization not because it's cool to do so, but because you're too busy making music to worry about it. BLIM stands for Boy Lost In Music, and you will be, too. GENEVIEVE WILLIAMS
MF DOOM, OLDOMINION, PROSPECT CHAMPIONS
(Paradox) See preview this issue.
LOVE AS LAUGHTER
(Seattle Art Museum) With the forthcoming Sea to Shining Sea, the ever-evolving Love as Laughter is at its most sophisticated point in its existence so far. Whereas the band's past albums (Destination 2000, Greeks Bring Gifts, #1 USA--all very good, by the way) sounded schizophrenic in terms of retro and current styles, Sea to Shining Sea is entirely and 100 percent Love as Laughter. Concise, cohesive, and crazy enough to be a product of LAL's only constant member, Sam Jayne. KATHLEEN WILSON
MOODY BLUES
(Chateau Ste. Michelle) Here's a band that saw the future in 1968. Though its members probably didn't know it then, their titanic hit "Nights in White Satin" (possibly the best karaoke song ever, by the way), from the most pompous concept album of all time, Days of Future Passed (a record that makes Rod McKuen look like Bertrand Russell), forecasted the band's fate as a nostalgia act rocking the winery circuit for all eternity. Sung from the perspective of a middle-ager on stage, the lyrics take on a very different pathos: "Gazing at people [the audience], some hand in hand/just what I'm going through, they can't understand." No shit. Even more prescient is the song "Go Now." RANDY OCTOGENARIAN
FELICIA LOUD, JUSTIN EMEKA
(Contour) Look into my eyes, and watch as I say, "Felicia Loud is the best female vocalist in the Pacific Northwest." Notice how I didn't blink or flinch when making that bold claim. How could I be so certain, so confident? Because to say Felicia Loud is the best is to say these are my fingers or that is the sun or those are trees. If you can't go to this show to confirm the validity of my claim, then please buy Jasiri Media Group's wonderful CD Word, Sound, Power, which has her vocals on a number of songs. The track to pay close attention to is called "Child's Play," which finds her in jazz territory without imitating Billie Holiday, as Erykah Badu does with no shame. If there was a God and the world was fair, then Erykah Badu would be unknown, and Felica Loud would be the queen of soul. CHARLES MUDEDE
THE MINUS FIVE, ORANGER, ONCE FOR KICKS
(Crocodile) Scott McCaughey, along with fronting Young Fresh Fellows and playing with R.E.M., has used his multifaceted instrumental gift on records by Liz Phair, Mark Eitzel, John Wesley Harding, Robyn Hitchcock, Tuatara, Mono Men, Squirrels, and an assortment of others. He's a producer, and, on the last Minus 5/Young Fresh Fellows split, Because We Hate You/Let the War Against Music Begin, McCaughey played organ, guitar, harmonica, mandolin, percussion, trumpet, accordion, keyboards, sleigh bells (nice one!), and sang his fine voice. Impressive? Or jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of-none? To find your answer, look at the company he keeps, and check out tonight's show. JEFF DeROCHE
BLINK 182, NEW FOUND GLORY, JIMMY EAT WORLD
(Gorge) Nobody wants to hate Blink 182 more than I do. The titties thing, the big stupid guy thing, the mass-consumption thing--ANY number of things make me want to hate this band. But goddamn if Blink 182 hasn't written some of the catchiest, most power-chord-laden songs of the past few years, including "What's My Age Again?" and "Rock Show." I kick myself repeatedly for liking a band that could pen lyrics as offensive as, "I'll never take you home again unless your dad will suck my cock/I'll never talk to you again unless your mom will touch my cock." Stupid, stupid me. KATHLEEN WILSON
UGLY CASANOVA, OWLS, THE GET HUSTLE, SUPER MAGNIFICENT ACTION TRIO
(Graceland) See Stranger Suggests.
DAVID S. WARE QUARTET, MATTHEW SHIPP, WILLIAM PARKER, GUILLERMO BROWN
(Nippon Kan) Tonight will be less a jazz show and more an event: the Seattle debut of David S. Ware. The focused intensity of the DSW Quartet is without boundaries. Often called "Coltrane's Heir" by the press, Ware follows in the man's giant steps. But it is more in terms of 'Trane's explicit focus on spirituality in his music than in technique or tone; in that department, Ware is totally Ware. When I interviewed Ware, I asked him if he could explain this spirituality to me. His words seemed less interested in defining anything than showing how they search for meaning. Music for him is a divine activity, a passageway into the transcendent: "It helps me to stabilize my sense of silence," he said. "It's not a silence that people may really understand. It's a silence that's full of potential; it's full of bliss, full of happiness. It's who we really are. It's a silence that's full." A strange word choice for a man whose approach to the tenor saxophone is a brassy, fuzzed-out, loquacious sort of eloquence, filling up the space around him to the brim. His solos at first assault the senses--leaping and pulverizing, never demurring. But his sheer virtuosity, strangely enough, does calm me. Its emotional power puts me at ease in a world full of strife. KREG HASEGAWA
PETER PARKER, THE LURE OF THE ANIMAL, CASTLE, CHESWICK
(Paradox) About a month ago Peter Parker lured in its fans for a show at the Sit & Spin claiming that it was the CD-release party for the band's brand new album, Semiautobiographical. Peter Parker lied. The CD wasn't ready, the show went on without it, and everyone went home with empty hands. But this time is different. This time the Parkers aren't going to let you down! This time, after they drench you with their luscious pop music, you'll be able to buy the CD and take the rock home with you. And with openers the Lure of the Animal, Castle, and Cheswick, it will be a CD-release party with emphasis on "party." MEGAN SELING
X, THE SUPERSUCKERS, THE FACTION
(EMP) See preview this issue.
JUNO, TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS, THE STANDARD
(Graceland) Juno's A Future Lived in Past Tense has done very well for its talented and emotional creators. The band has toured successfully overseas in support of the release, received excellent press, and will likely be a national item shortly. Juno's live show is a gorgeous onslaught of emo-infused guitar-rock, with Arlie Carsten's elaborate frontman skills as the exciting focal point. Imagine, if you will, an angstier, more "now" Michael Stipe, entreating a packed, exuberant audience, all of his youthful fear and invested desire spilling over in controlled, modern rock catharsis. Sound exciting? It can be. JEFF DeROCHE
THE CHRIS AND TAD SHOW, DOLOUR, TRACHTENBURG FAMILY SLIDESHOW PLAYERS
(Local 46) Once again, the silly and great Chris and Tad Show performs with the silly and brilliant Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players for a night of all-ages shenanigans, and some really good pop. Dolour, a more straightforward local project, will ground this show with fine, visceral Brit-pop melody, and a trademark bright performance. And since tonight's show is all-ages, Rachel Trachtenburg, the opener's outstanding eight-year-old drummer, actually gets to hang out in the crowd. JEFF DeROCHE
JOHN DOE, RON & EDDIE
(Crocodile) Punk's Sam Shepard fronts the seminal band X, but his solo albums are his motel chronicles. With last year's Freedom Is..., Doe found his best setting so far for his gorgeous smoke-cured croon. The lush arrangements and production displayed his singer-songwriter chops and introspective poetic shards. "Catch Me" and "Beat Up World" showed how weary punks' world-views grow to encompass tough-love acceptance. Doe's duet with Exene Cervenka on "Ever After" is part tribute and part pissed-off resignation to the casualties of L.A.'s punk scene. Doe can tap rootsier veins live, and still toss off raucous rave-ups like "Too Many Goddamn Bands." Eddie Spaghetti and Ron Heathman of the Supersuckers are opening. They organized a benefit album last year for the West Memphis Three, the young men in Tennessee who are imprisoned for a murder they say they did not commit. Doe contributed to it, and Eddie Vedder and the Supersuckers covered X's "Poor Girl" in return. NATE LIPPENS
ARAB ON RADAR, KILL SADIE, THE CHROMATICS
(Graceland) Arab on Radar plays the kind of tight, noisy, experimental metal/noise/hardcore that's assaulting kids at basement shows all across America right now. (Examples: Black Dice, labelmates Lightning Bolt, and every band from San Francisco.) On tour from Providence, Rhode Island, Arab on Radar's next release is titled Yahweh or the Highway (Skin Graft), and its members recognize that the only way left to be truly original in punk rock is to create a well-constructed/deconstructed barrage of virtually incomprehensible noise. Your body will be abused by the levels of the amps, but you'll be unable to tear yourself away. The Chromatics are also plugged into a current basement trend: modern No Wave, with guitars that stab and strike, drums doing dance beats, and staccato shouts. And they all take off their shirts and wear black tape in Xs over their nipples. JULIANNE SHEPHERD
Tonight's the night... we just don't know what for.
THE PLACES, FIGURINE, EMILY FALLS
(Crocodile) See preview this issue.
JULEE CRUISE, KHAN, FAITH AND DISEASE
(Graceland) Discovered by David Lynch, Julee Cruise's first--and practically only--CD, Floating into the Night (1989), is a work of art that exists somewhere between dreams and death. We are not supposed see this little twilit world of hers; it's all very private and personal, and the listener, the admirer, the one who replays her songs again and again, is reduced to the role of a pervert or rude intruder. Her voice arouses bad desires; meaning, you want to have sex with the delicate creature she presents, but somehow this is immoral, like desiring an underage girl or a blind woman. The itch of a thousand murderers was turned into an electric storm by Julee's numinous voice. Indeed, of the 40 or so wishes (itches) I have in the world, one is to watch her perform the jazz classic "Haunted Heart." That's all. I just want to watch her perform that song while wearing the clothes my dead mother used to wear many summers ago. CHARLES MUDEDE
MOSE ALLISON
(Jazz Alley) Septuagenarian jazz-blues great Mose Allison has been called a national treasure with the regularity that the Luddites were referenced during the tech explosion. But for very good reason. His bebop and boogie-laden piano style straddles the divide between blues and jazz with eloquence and cool. His songwriting is impeccable, mixing humor and poignant turns of phrase that appeal to people from across the spectrum--Leon Russell, the Who, and Bonnie Raitt have all covered his songs. On his latest album, The Mose Chronicles: Live in London, Volume 1, Allison is captured at his dexterous best on piano, backed by bass and drums. His laconic delivery and sardonic wit are in full tilt before an adoring audience. He plays many of his "greatest hits," including "Seventh Son," from the beginning of his career, and more recent favorites such as "Ever Since the World Ended." You may have spotted him briefly in the boring De Niro vehicle The Score. He plays at the Montreal jazz club owned by De Niro's character. He's on screen for only a moment, but it's the most interesting moment in the otherwise crappy thriller. JEFF DeROCHE
MOSE ALLISON
(Jazz Alley) See Tuesday listing.
