BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE, THE TURN-ONS, THE LOVE-TONES
(Graceland) Though his band possesses one of rock's greatest monikers, famously cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs Brian Jonestown Massacre frontman Anton Newcombe has kept his band's existence erratic, despite his years-before-its-revival dedication to maraca-shaking, British-invasion-flavored garage rock. Now that everyone's doing it, Newcombe has dialed down the parody aspect and hopefully the glued-on sideburns have gone the way of the strutting cock percussion player. KATHLEEN WILSON
MUDHONEY, THE KING COBRA, PHALANX
(Showbox) Seeing Mudhoney play in a big venue is reason alone to go to this show--they're one band that no matter how long it's been, the old stuff and the new material blend together into psychedelic punk perfection. But add in that this is a benefit to defray some recent legal costs for 2nd Avenue Pizza--one of the few all-ages spots in this city that also supports out-there music and punk kids alike--and this becomes one of those shows you just can't miss. Also on the bill are the King Cobra, who've been described as proggy metal, and features a member of the Need. JENNIFER MAERZ
BONFIRE MADIGAN, LES BATON ROUGE, MS. LED, ENEMY KITE
(Crocodile) Don't go to this show to see Bonfire Madigan. You'll be disappointed. The former Tattle Tale songwriter has been noodling about on her cello for years now but seems to have stalled at "warble." As an alternative, go for the horse-pill-size doses of feminist attitude from the show's three costars. Berlin-based Portuguese punks Les Baton Rouge combine the jerky rhythms of early Wire, the feisty politics of Riot Grrrl, and the improbable caterwaul of vocalist Suspiria Franklyn into a mess of cacophony and sonic mayhem. The Sleater/Ani-inflected punk rock of Ms. Led is always good for raising a fist to, and Enemy Kite should be tearing the emo torch away from the hordes of boys in black T-shirts any day now. TIZZY ASHER
FRIDAY 5/9
THE RAPTURE, HINT HINT, DJ FRANKI CHAN
(Graceland) The Rapture are, without contention, my favorite band I can't bear to listen to. The reasons for this dichotomy are many, but generally alternate between two major themes: The first--birthed in the knowledge that I'll never write a song as brilliant as any that compose even their weakest moments over their past three years--is simple, abject jealousy. The second--complete and total glut. I can't remember the last time I attended a social engagement where I wasn't subjected to the caterwaul of "Out of the Races and On to the Tracks" or "House of Jealous Lovers," standing idly by as the band was trampled swiftly into the ground. After stringing us along with EPs and 12-inches since 2001, thank god they're promising an August release of their second full-length (their first in four years)--maybe we'll all get a little relief. ZAC PENNINGTON
VALIS, ARGONAUT, THE HITCH, RONSON FAMILY SWITCHBLADE
(Hell's Kitchen) Remember when nothing said fun like a couple of Conner Brothers rolling around on the floor of a rock club as they writhed in guitar ecstasy beside Mark Lanegan in Screaming Trees? Well, we haven't seen Van and Gary Lee together in years, but you can witness Van and Pat Conner buzzing away in Valis alongside Trees drummer Sean Hollister. I caught the band during an earlier incarnation that featured Mudhoney's Dan Peters and Tad's Kurt Danielson, way back when Moe was still around. Seems like now's the time to check them out again. KATHLEEN WILSON
SATURDAY 5/10
BROADCAST & ADULT., MAGAS
(Chop Suey) See preview, page 47.
KYOTO JAZZ MASSIVE
(Baltic Room) The Baltic Room has now become the center for a type of music that has no geographic center. It's simply global and can be called anything, drawing its sounds from anywhere (New York, Detroit, Rio de Janeiro, Bombay, Chicago, Berlin, London, Paris), and also any time (the swing era, soul from the '60s, and so on). Maybe the best name is future jazz, or just the future, which is where we are now. This is certainly the case with Kyoto Jazz Massive, a Japanese DJ and producer duo, DJ Shuya Okino and Yoshihiro Okino (they are brothers), whose music draws heavily from Brazilian rhythms and is distributed here in America by the German-based Compost Records. Kyoto Jazz Massive are not new to the game: They have been around since the early '90s at least and, like the best of those who make this kind of a-geographical music that defies definition, know how to surprise the dancers' ears with their mixes and remixes. CHARLES MUDEDE
the LONG WINTERS SONIC BOOM TOUR
(Sonic Boom, all three locations) Now here's a clever idea. The Long Winters (fresh from the pages of the New York Times and featuring Stranger film editor Sean Nelson) are releasing their new album, When I Pretend to Fall. To celebrate, they're going on tour, paying a visit to all three Sonic Boom record stores in this fine city. And you can tour with them! They'll start at the Capitol Hill store at 2 pm, hit Fremont at around 4 pm, and jet off to Ballard for a 6 pm show. And if you attend all three shows and buy the new album, you'll get a free limited-edition Long Winters Sonic Boom Records Tour T-shirt (first come, first served)! How will they know you attended all three appearances? With passports, of course--you'll collect stamps from each store along the way. Clever indeed. See also CD Reviews, page 55. MEGAN SELING
THIRD ANNUAL SPRING OPENER: HUGE SPACEBIRD, SCHOOL YARD JUNKIES, THE BLACK PANTIES, ME INFECTO, DJ MF CAKE
(Sunset) To paraphrase the recent billboards for San Diego tourism, you know that thing in the sky that the Space Needle points to? (My people call it "the sun.") The good folks at the Sunset Tavern are celebrating its more frequent visits (known in most circles as "spring") with the third annual Spring Opener--a daylong event that also celebrates motorbikes and the people who ride them. The festivities kick off at 1 pm with music from Mama's regulars Los Huicholes and food from the notorious Ballard taco wagon (usually seen on 15th Ave NW by the Ballard Bridge); the rock 'n' roll (courtesy of Huge Spacebird, School Yard Junkie, Me Infecto, the Black Panties, and DJs Stevie Zoom and Kurt Bloch) starts at 9 pm. Admission is $3 for the afternoon and $6 for the evening, but there are beer specials, a $100 prize for the oldest motorcycle, and contests to benefit the Sunset's next-door neighbor, the Ryther Center. Whew. BARBARA MITCHELL
SUNDAY 5/11
LOUDERMILK, visqueen, NEW AMERICAN STANDARD, COMMON HEROES
(Graceland) There's a mutual admiration association going on between the headliners and tonight's main support: Loudermilk singer Davey Ingersoll thinks Visqueen's debut, King Me, is the best power-pop record he's heard in a long, long time, and in Ingersoll, Visqueen bassist Kim Warnick may have found someone who can top her encyclopedic knowledge of Grand Funk Railroad. The pairing should give Loudermilk the good time they were looking for when they joined the Mooney Suzuki on the road last month: The album cover for the Mooney Suzuki's 2002 release Electric Sweat pays tribute to GFR's 1970 release Grand Funk, but it would be Loudermilk who'd pay the American Band respect with their roaring cover of "Inside Looking Out." KATHLEEN WILSON
MONDAY 5/12
THROWING MUSES, AUDIO LEARNING CENTER
(Graceland) See preview, page 51.
UNITED STATES OF ELECTRONICA, MISTER PLEASANT, Entropic Advance
(Chop Suey) These are two bands that can easily be described as guilty pleasures. Mister Pleasant (AKA Josh Ottum) is a one-man indie act, one of those silly, self-deprecating types who play sweet, sensitive pop songs with either a keyboard or guitar as backup, but go off on tangents if the audience isn't paying attention. Headliners the United States of Electronica are Seattle's own less serious, more cheeseball Daft Punk, a seven (I think, or thereabouts) member dance band with songs about Seattle's various neighborhoods and going to the beach ("Vamos a la playa"). The best thing about USE, though, is that they actually get people to dance, and they seem to be playing together just for the fun of it. JENNIFER MAERZ
OZMA, EARLIMART, SLOWREADER, TENNIS PRO
(Studio Seven) If you lovey-love Weezer (well, early Weezer... good Weezer), then you're probably gonna have a little crush on Ozma too. And how couldn't you? The young Californian quintet take a sweet style of college-geek rock and spice it up with a little keyboard action and some electronic blips and blops here and there (they do a wicked cover of "Korobeiniki," a traditional Russian folk song made popular thanks to the video game Tetris). In fact, many of their songs reference or are based on video games (8-bit Nintendo, of course--they're children of the '80s). In one of my favorites, "Game Over," lead singer Ryen Slegr sings all brokenhearted about a girl--or a video game?--"I betcha don't know where to find/Our extra life times 99/I know you tried but still we died/Our game is over/This love is over." Being quite of fan of Weezer and the 8-bit myself, this is a damn near perfect combination. MEGAN SELING
50 CENT
(Paramount) After selling out two shows at the Paramount, with tickets priced as high as $150, the most famous and expensive nigga of our day (if not in all of history) has managed to secure a book deal. A real writer--alas, not me--will help him pen the story of his life, which, as everyone knows, began in the projects with a drug-addled mother and an absent father. But these setbacks did not deter him; he had a dream of becoming a lawyer, and nothing, not even racism, was going to stop him from converting this boy's dream into an adult reality. He did all of his homework every night, and completed high school with a spectacular GPA. While his friends went to prison, he went to Yale; after graduating, he joined a powerful Detroit law firm. He worked long and hard, and rose up through the ranks. But the day before he was to become a partner in the firm, he was shot nine times by an upset client. He went into a deep coma, and returned to consciousness two weeks later without a memory of all the law he had learned. He had no other choice but to become what he is today: the lawless rapper 50 Cent. MTV is to publish his incredible story. CHARLES MUDEDE
TUESDAY 5/13
BUSDRIVER & RADIOINACTIVE AS THE WEATHER, AWOL ONE, ANDRE AFRAM ASMAR, BOBBY KARATE
(Crocodile) See preview, page 49.
MICO DE NOCHE, WADSWORTH, GUESTS
(Zak's) Like the Melvins in their more coherent moments, locals Mico de Noche contort metal out of a rigid form and into something that weighs heavier with each repetitive riff. Although they don't fly far into experimental never-never land like Buzz and his crew, Mico still have a flair for the bizarre, as shown on their CD, Stripper Wars, when loony voices and nonsensical lyrics color the heavy stuff with wacky playfulness. Even when they're screwing around with the lyrics, though, the duo (Courvosier Jones on guitar and Don de Noche on drums) still show that they know their shit instrumentally, and their sludgy metal is top-notch. JENNIFER MAERZ
WEDNESDAY 5/14
THE ESSEX GREEN, THE PREONS, BRENT ARNOLD, GUESTS
(Crocodile) One good look at the cover art for The Long Goodbye should clue you in to the fact that the Essex Green share an association with Brooklyn's Ladybug Transistor. "If the songs on this album went to high school, they'd be the sweet, mopey art kids that kept to themselves, the ones that trash picked their outfits and talked the PE teacher into taking farfisa lessons." (So says their bio, which forgets to add the following footnote to their fanciful character: Who would "grow up" to be the brooder who tore your heart and/or band apart?) "If the songs on this album drove a car, it would be their mom's, but 100% loaded." (Again, the subsequent "growing up" would be in quotation marks, because this time he or she would be found with one foot still in adolescence and the other constantly stationed in front of the CD burner.) Thankfully, the Essex Green remain forever young, swollen with sweet harmonies and an obvious love for the Mamas & the Papas. KATHLEEN WILSON
TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS, EL GUAPO, THE FITNESS
(Graceland) Ted Leo's coming back! I saw him at Graceland not so long ago, when he toured after the release of his new record, Hearts of Oak. I didn't have Hearts at the time, but I remember hearing one new song at the show, "The Ballad of the Sin Eater." Like a rock 'n' roll madman, Leo shouted into the mic, "You didn't think they could hate you, now did ya? Oh, but they hate ya! They hate ya 'cause you're guilty!" That was reason enough to slap down the cash and buy the album right then and there. Now that I've familiarized myself with all the other pop-rock gems on the record ("Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?" "The High Party," and "2nd Ave, 11AM" are my favorites at the moment), I can't wait to see him live again. It's guaranteed to be fabulous. Hooray for Ted Leo! MEGAN SELING
