Seattle’s all-ages concert guide You don’t need fake ID to have fun.

Download an (enormous) MP3 of the Interview [27 MB, MP3]

Tristan - Yeah, here we go, I think it’s recording now. I have to transcribe all of this after. This is myself talking. Alright it’s recording. So my first question is: Dave, Josh of Boat, I’ll introduce you

Dave - Hi, Dave.

Josh - Josh says hello.

Tristan- So what do you play, Dave?

Dave - I play the guitar/keyboard and vocals

Josh - And I Josh play the drums and sometimes keyboards, but not on recording.

Tristan - Alright, question: who does the whistling?

Josh - Dave, he does it with his teeth, it’s crazy, show ‘em.

(Dave whistles)

Tristan - It’s some excellent whistling on the album. Yeah it really stands out. Yeah, so the name Boat where did you get that name? What are its origins?

Dave - Its origins are that in Chicago I had this roommate and we...

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Every They Shoot Horses Don’t They? review seems to focus on the fact that they sound like circus music. There is a very obvious reason for this, because, well, they sound like circus music. It’s just like in 2003 when every Interpol review focused on how they sound like Joy Division. It made sense, but was a little obvious. That is why this particular review will not focus on the circus influence (except for here) on They Shoot Horses and try to look a little deeper into their music.

They Shoot Horses (the name comes from the 1969 Sydney Pollack directed, Jane Fonda starring film) is a seven piece signed to Olympia’s Kill Rock Stars records. Their popularity has been growing consistently since their self titled debut EP and buzz was high for “Boo Hoo Hoo Boo,” their first LP. The Vancouver band is even slated to play at this weeks “South by Southwest” festival. Nut Brown and his six band-mates have everything falling into place for a...

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February 25th Macklemore headlined a show at The Vera Project featuring almost every big name in Seattle hip-hop. The show was to benefit the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World). The crowd for the show sparse when the evening began and only shrunk as the night went on.

Macklemore opened his set explaining that he had been in silent meditation for the last ten days, a meditation that he broke earlier in the morning. His set was conversational and intimate with all of the feel of a VH1 Storytellers episode. He called his step-cousin, Xperience, on stage at the beginning of the show as he played “Hold Your Head Up” from Macklemore’s most recent album “The Language of My World.” This was about all of the set that seemed planned. After a few Step-Cousins songs Macklemore called Gabriel Teodros onstage and got a request to play an Abyssinian Creole(Gabriel Teodros’ group) song. All...

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Elite Stranger played goodies like “Failed Attempts at Trying” and “Apologies are Overrated” and closed with “East Coast is For Politicians,” which is in part a love letter to Seattle. The band did not sound as tight as they do recorded or even as enjoyable as they did the last time that I saw them. The songs were there, but the band had a few technical difficulties and bassist Ross seemed distracted and was also wary of the males in the audience in 3 Inches of Blood hoodies shoving one another for no apparent reason, and I can imagine things from his point of view. Elite Stranger is not a hard band and is not the kind of band that I’d expect to cause kids to bruise one another. They’re poppy and they have their share of hard rock parts of songs, but they’re far from a brutal band. Considering the setbacks, their set was good but not great this time around. The songs were there though...

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It’ll likely be at least a week before photos and commentary come together for an article, but I’d like to congratulate all three SoundOff! finalists, particularly John van Deusen and the Lonely Forest (who treated me and a friend to a wonderful time on Thursday). Thirty seconds into “God is Dead”, and I changed my bet as to who was going to win (for the gazillionth but final time) to John and the Lonely Forest. Congratulations also to Ben Rice and the Youth of Blues, who gave my friends and I a great dancing time, and to Capitol Basement with whom I am plotting away future site projects and adventures, and who also treated me to a really fun morning last weekend. I especially admire all three bands for such great love of music and a sense of comraderie one would not expect from supposed competitors.

When I heard about this show a few weeks before it occurred, I’d tried unsuccessfully to find out about opening act Eightyfour, probably because I was looking for “84.” The night of the show I saw their album at a record store near the venue, but was unsure about whether to buy it and listen to it or wait until I found out if I’d like the band. Luckily, the band had plenty of copies of the album on hand for a couple of bucks less than they store’s price. Eightyfour, a singer/guitarist, bassist, and drummer, play some honest predominantly punk music with a couple of mid-tempo songs that seem more like straight forward rock songs than the rest of their anthemic songs that seem to draw a little influence from every genre and era of punk music. Eightyfour’s lyrics mix the personal and the political and their overall point of view seems to be one of frustration tinged hope for a better world and a message...

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On Valentines Day, Northwestbands.com sponsored an acoustic showcase with some great singer/songwriters at the Q café. For those of us newcomers to the Q café, it’s not the easiest place to find; Mapquest certainly failed me this time. After asking two gas station attendants and a QFC employee, I was finally able to find the place. It is a quietly adorned square building hidden next to a church out of sight from the road. The place was as close to empty as it could get for upon entering at 7:50, there were less than ten people in the room, including performers. There were various chairs lined up in arcs around a relatively large stage, and I took a squashy arm chair to watch the end of Tillman’s sound check with his guest cellist. The café was pleasantly decorated with candles and many little hearts.

Michael Vermillion came on around 8:00 with his acoustic/electric and started the show off with a couple covers of old love songs then played some of his own...

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The third night of SemiFinals for the 2006 SoundOff! competition were just as delightful as the first two. With Capitol Basement and John van Deusen and the Lonely Forest set to compete in the finals, Dyme Def, Get Dressed, and Ben Rice and the Youth of Blues faced off to capure the third spot in the final lineup. The spot eventually went to Ben Rice and the Youth of Blues - an Oregon visitor to the Seattle scene.

First up was Dyme Def (winners of the best-looking myspace award… it’s classy!) . While I pretty much have nothing to compare it to when it comes to rap (I know absolutely nothing about the genre), I definitely enjoyed their set. They brought a huge crowd of exuberant fans who were completely involved with their act. Their music segged together well, and they had confidence and style on stage: interacting with eachother and the audience...

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This is our first article in the Spiels category, a new section devoted to some of our opinions on music and music related things. Here’s one of Tristan’s:

Imagine a Bumbershoot without forty-foot lines at every concession stand and bathroom, where you could travel at will from concert to concert and not be concerned about missing a band you want to see because the hall filled up immediately. Imagine seeing a comedy show! Or showing up anytime after 1:00 PM and still getting into the main-stage show that night. All of this was possible, and it actually existed: we called it Friday.

Now these scenarios are no more as Bumbershoot announced last week that they will only run the festival three days in 2006. This is a major travesty and a very serious setback to Seattle’s all-ages music scene.

Since most adults need to work on Friday’s the Friday of Bumbershoot was a haven for underage Bumbershoot fans. It was the only day that one could...

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Although our reporter had some issues and couldn’t make it to SoundOff! last week, Morgan got some great shots of all 3 bands. Pictured at right is Marquetta Miller.

The night’s winner was John van Deusen, who will play at the finals this Saturday. Here’s a quick photo gallery of the show:

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