THURSDAY 2/23
What? Really? Yeah.FRIDAY 2/24
EARLY MAN, PRIESTESS, THE SWORD
(Crocodile) See preview, page 33.
THE LASHES, THE DIVORCE, THE LONELY H, THE NEONS
(Neumo's) See preview, page 34.
CLOROX GIRLS, THE PHARMACY, THE TRASHIES, BOYD RENO IS JOHN CENTER
(Comet Tavern) Aside from someone's basement, there's really nowhere better to see a punk show than the Comet. It's loud, crowded, and you can stand so close to the band that your hair can get caught in a guitar, like mine once did. You need to see the Trashies, wherever they play. They're your new favorite bandâyou just don't realize it yet. The Trashies bring their gear in a beat-up trashcan that also functions as a keyboard stand. They've been known to play wearing only their underwear, and they have a punk-as-fuck song entirely about a "sweatpants boner." Their music's juvenile, stupid, and raw. I can't wait. KELLY O
TWINK THE WONDER KID, GIRL TROUBLE, SGT. MAJOR
(High Dive) God bless local boys Twink the Wonder Kid for never forgetting that rock and roll can be funny. Their song "Nikki Sixx 7 8 9 10" (from their upcoming full-length White Sabbath) is a catchy pop-rock tune with classic-rock influences in which singer Dick Rossetti wonders, "Why can't you write another Shout at the Devil?! Why can't you write another Looks that Kill?!" Ha ha! They also call bullshit on fake badasses in "Pretty Neat on Your Motorcycle," and music snobs in "Mowin' Down the Critics," a song that goes, "You got Big Star on vinyl record!/You're down with the Velvet Underground!/Guys like you ruin it for guys like me!" MEGAN SELING
SIBERIAN, WESAFARI, TOURIST, AIRPORT CATHEDRAL
(Kirkland Teen Center) Siberian, thankfully and finally, have recently entered the studio to record their debut full-length, which will be the follow-up to their much-loved four-song demo that knocked local music fans off their feet last year. Making a record also means playing fewer shows, so if you've yet to experience Siberian's sweeping and lush indie sounds, be sure to embrace this opportunity to catch them on a bill packed with fellow local do-gooders Wesafari, Tourist (who just released their new We'll Be Under the Radar When You're Ready), and Airport Cathedral. It'll be a pretty, pretty night. MEGAN SELING
SATURDAY 2/25
SOME BY SEA, HYPATIA LAKE, IZABELLE, ANTLERAND
(The Paradox) See preview, page 33.
SPEAKER SPEAKER, RACETRACK, KEY NOTE SPEAKER
(Sunset) See Stranger Suggests, page 23.
SUPERGRASS, PILOT DRIFT
(Showbox) In 1996, Supergrass reached their American popularity peak. The trio's zany "Alright" video entered MTV rotation, and its melody infected all exposed ears. Plus, the group's live draw included Superdrag spillover. Yet despite touring arenas with Pearl Jam, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel's show to promote their most recent record, and playing other profile-boosting cards, Supergrass, never converted their brilliant Britpop into full-fledged Beatlemania. However, footage on 2004's DVD Supergrass Is 10 both confirms the band's status as stadium-packing UK heroes and justifies it with some of the catchiest chamber-pop tunes of the past decade. ANDREW MILLER
THE MAMMALS
(Tractor) While their self-description as an "experimental folk quintet from Woodstock, New York" might conjure frightening images of incoherent hippie jams, nothing could be further from the truth. These five warm-blooded creatures are purposefully adventurous and technically proficient, offering captivating scenes painted with the tools of neobluegrass and Americana, but with an ear for almost Arcade Fireâlike funeral dirges and fleshed out with an obvious streak of liberal politics. If nothing else, this show will be worth attending just to see how a Seattle audience will react to their haunting, minimalist cover of Nirvana's "Come As You Are." HANNAH LEVIN
SWOLLEN MEMBERS, SWEATSHOP UNION'S SKATEBOARD PARTY VIDEO PREMIER, RICKY PHAROE
(Chop Suey) Van City reps Swollen MembersâMad Child, Prevail, and DJ Rob the Vikingâare Canada's biggest-selling hiphop crew. They've grown from an underground phenomenon during the '90s indie-rap vinyl boom to selling platinum and winning Juno Awards three years running, which led to Swollen's fanbase growing disgruntled as their focus shifted from their initial Dungeon Masterâthemed battle tracks to proto-floss party raps. Conscious of this, the fellas have been working hard on their fourth LP, Black Magic, promising to take it back to the essence. LARRY MIZELL JR.
STORM AND THE BALLS, FEELINGS HIJACKERS
(High Dive) I'm a big fan of Pamela Anderson for a lot of reasons, both prurient and philosophical, but mostly because she's so beautiful and blow-up dollish that everyone wrongly assumes she's an idiot. She's actually quite sharp, funny, and aware of how her lusty appeal has branded her as the sexual Twinkie of America's collective sexual conscious. Much of the same can be said about Storm Large, the fiendish and foxy frontwoman for Portland's Storm and the Balls, a "loungecore" act that has earned a loyal following with their live mashups of metal and punk classics and shameless desecration of American standards like "The Star-Spangled Banner." HANNAH LEVIN
SUNDAY 2/26
COMEBACK KID, IGNITE, FIRST BLOOD, SINKING SHIPS
(El CorazĂłn) Victory Records' Comeback Kid are a gang of pissed-off Canadians with something to say. And they say it loud with their anthemic hardcore, boasting booming drums and scorching vocals that relentlessly whip their young followers into a fury. Fresh off an Australian tour, Comeback Kid will try to work their magic in the States. Get yourself ready, because if no one's singing along with fists in the air, do Comeback Kid make a sound? MEGAN SELING
SONNY BONOHO, OHMEGA WATTS, PALE SOUL, LOJIQUE, POSING AS PEOPLE, DJ NIZ
(Chop Suey) Seatown-Portland rap connect! From the PDX: Ohmega Watts (from Lightheaded) and Oldominion's own Pale Soul (whose Fear Is the Mind Killer is cracking); from Jet City are the irrepressible Sonny Bonoho (do cop his Life of a Backup Singer CD), the Xtian rap crew Lojique, and the back-from-hiatus Posing as People cliqueâall appropriately backed up by DJ Niz, a Portland expat now bunked down in the Emerald. Fall through and just bask in the Northwestness of it all. Ahhh! LARRY MIZELL JR.
THE GOLDEN GODS, GUESTS
(Sunset) The Golden Gods are goodâand funny. They are also generally called things like "classic hard rock," which is not the case. The case is they sound like the Didjits. Maybe they're the "New Didjits," except from SF, not Chicago. But the Golden Gods possess the same ricochet-rabbit quality to themâwith hard-rock trappings, for sure. Of course, the Didjits were such a punk-cult thing, and existed a long time ago, too, that the reference might be useless. Although, if you never did see the Didjits, then you could pick up where you lamed out and go see the Golden Gods. NES REDNAAJ
MONDAY 2/27
UNNATURAL HELPERS
(Bad Juju) Unnatural Helpers start with a punk-rock framework and then beat the shit out of it with hard-rock tendencies. Initially this sounds like a dangerous prospect, as punks aren't too likely to enjoy those roots getting pulled up for rearrangement. But pretty quickly you realize that this local quintet have figured out how to do this without disturbing the ecosystem. The result might just find both spiky, leather-jacketed miscreants and that sketchy guy from the last Motörhead show pogoing all over the dance floor of your favorite dive bar. GRANT BRISSEY
TUESDAY 2/28
ROBERT POLLARD, ONCE FOR KICKS
(Crocodile) While it would've been more interesting to see this slack king reemerge a besuited torch-song crooner, well, you can take the guy out of the Dayton dive, but... So with his "first" solo outing, From a Compound Eye (Merge), Bob places his mug on the cover, like after 4,000 Guided by Voices CDs his noggin's still bloated with ideas, defiant still. "When I'm gone, I'll be gone," he sings. But he's not, and neither is the basic GBV sound. Effortless melodies waddle out of clangy guitar fugues with less rhythmic pound than latter-day GBV, but wrapped in that warm 'n' fuzzy cobble-fi. ERIC DAVIDSON
DILATED PEOPLES, LITTLE BROTHER, DEFARI
(Showbox) Dilated Peoples and Black Eyed Peas hit the hiphop scene simultaneously, both pushing positive rhymes and boisterous party beats. Dilated were the edgier trio, with their battle-rap boasts and wicked scratches, but it didn't take much lumber to bridge the gap between these groups. These days, the Peas sell millions despite lyrical incompetence and onstage incontinence, while the Peoples stay true to their underground ethos. On the just-released 20/20, Rakaa and Evidence trade upbeat messages over DJ Babu's bouncy backdrops. Freestyle flows and virtuosic scratching keep the Peoples' live sets fresh. ANDREW MILLER
WEDNESDAY 3/1
THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE, SCHOOLYARD HEROES, KANE HODDER
(El CorazĂłn) The Birthday Massacre are a band with a concept. "By combining imagery, sound, fashion, and performance," goes their statement, "we aspire to create an experience for our audience that is both unique and multifaceted." So, for example, during "Blue," a track from their Violet album, TBM's heavy industrial intro breaks down into electro-melodic pop more appropriate for a Japanese video game. But soon lead singer Chibi (a woman who resembles a gothic porcelain doll), starts growling like a demon, turning the song into a fucked-up anime nightmare. And they're from Ontario, Canada? They confuse the hell out of me. MEGAN SELING
MARY GAUTHIER, SERA CAHOONE
(Tractor) Having weathered a backstory (booze and pills, teenage runaway, coming out) that reads like an S. E. Hinton fiction, it seems even more impressive that singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier consistently eschews melodrama in her stark, alt-country compositions. Desolate, but not barren, her 2005 major label debut, Mercy Now, left ample space for her dry, hypnotic delivery; she incants as much as she sings. And in the wake of New Orleans's devastation, her Mardi Gras tableau "Wheel Inside a Wheel"âwith its evocations of drag queens and fat ladies twirling miniature umbrellasâproves even more evocative than it did upon initial release. KURT B. REIGHLEY
JAMIE CULLUM
(Moore) Watching silent footage of Jamie Cullum, one might think him a John Cage disciple: He pounds the body of the piano as fervently as its keyboard, and high dives acrobatically off the bench. But this British upstart's musicâa fusion of traditional jazz and contemporary popâis far more mainstream-friendly. The ratio of originals to covers diminishes with each of his subsequent albums (10 to 4 on his third full-length, Catching Tales), which stands to alienate conservative fans from the Michael Buble set, but witnessing his evolution into a songwriter on par with the entertainer is far more exciting. KURT B. REIGHLEY
