As this crazy year of music quickly comes to a close, it’s hard to
imagine a story more phenomenal than the rise of Seattle’s Hardly
Art record label. In the course of this year, the small
revivalist-leaning label has dropped wildly popular albums from
the Moondoggies, the Pica Beats, and, quite possibly most important,
the Dutchess and the Duke. On its initial July release, all of
Seattle was abuzz about D&D’s debut, She’s the Dutchess, He’s
the Duke. Its songs were hailed as the second coming of ’60s
songsters like Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, and hell if its single
“Reservoir Park” wasn’t this years “Paint It Black”—jangly
guitars glimmering, shakers and claps filling the space around
vocalists Jesse Lortz and Kimberly Morrison’s hopeless voices all made for a song that was addictive and inescapable. KEXP blew it up
like it was going out of style, the album flew off record-store
shelves, and the band were swiftly shipped out on the lonesome
road imagined in so many of their songs for a lengthy U.S. tour.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard much from the band, but no doubt
they’ll deliver an early holiday present for their fans when they take
the stage at the Vera Project this Friday. 
Fri Dec 12: The Dutchess and the Duke, Panda &
Angel, Kusikia, Another Perfect Crime at the Vera Project, 8 pm, $11
(10 w/ club card).
Fri Dec 12: Jinu Park at Q Cafe, 7:30 pm,
$8.
Fri Dec 12: Phantom of the Opera (w/ live
soundtrack) at Gallery 1412, 8 pm, donation.
Sat Dec 13: Hawnay Troof, Little Party and the Bad
Business, Talbot Tagora, the Wiggins at the Vera Project, 8 pm, $9 (8
w/ club card).
it’s pretty tastless to pimp your own band, dude. it may be an all ages show, but there are other ones on the 13th you aren’t playing. lame.
I put all Vera shows on the calendar, no matter what. It was a slow week on the show beat, so I put what I could. I think “pimping” is going a bit too far/borderline nit picking, but I’m sorry to offend, either way.