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

Oh Sasquatch, how you have mocked me with your amazing line-ups for the last few years. It seemed to me that the heartbreak due to missing you must come to end. Yes, it was about time for me to walk through your gates with 20,000 other people to gaze upon your many fantastic bands this past Saturday, May 27. The time had come my friend.

I made it out to the Gorge by about 10:30, my parents still refused to let me camp but I’m not complaining, claimed my spot on the lawn and settled in for the long day. Rogue Wave opened the main stage for the gathering crowd around 12:30 with a solid set of witty rock. Gomez, a British band, followed up with a more acoustic approach to their music and charmed the crowd with their sincerity.

I have to admit I didn’t pay too much attention to those first two sets. I was taking in the scenery and the atmosphere; it was my first time at the Gorge. However,...

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So I didn’t make it out to Sasquatch this year. I’m lame. But it wasn’t a music-free weekend: I still got to check out Northwest Folklife, and see some awesome local bands.

The first band I got to see was The Senate. Although they’ve played on campus at my school several times this year (including twice in the building I actually live in!), this was the first time I saw them perform - dang, have I missed out. Although they’re most commonly compared to Dave Matthews Band (not usually my cup of tea), the Senate definitely impressed me. Their audience interaction was fabulous -the “awesome song” was both hilarious and fun - and their instrumental skill was thrilling. All three sang, played instruments, and charmed the audience. And they have an upright bass! What more can I ask for?

Later on, after enjoying some of...

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Note: This is a book. Rock Knowledge is not just about albums, it’s about lifestyle.

This album (column) was recorded (written) on Foster’s Lager, Budweiser, Bombay Gin, lots of Jack Daniel’s, Kahlua and Brandy, Quakers and Krell, and Wild Women! (and cough syrup).

When I moved into the home I would be living in for this current collegiate year I was posed with a very, very tough question: what CD’s should I take to my home? I own somewhere around four-hundred so the answer obviously couldn’t be “all of them,” which is where the tough part comes in. I chose the one-hundred albums I thought that I would listen to most, discriminating against everything that could be classified by the words: “hair,” and “metal.” Now here I am looking for something to rock out to and only finding Joy Division and Air CD’s while W. Axl Rose and Jon...

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Doesn’t everyone love these randomly-timed monthly announcements? Screw regular timing, we post whenever the heck we feel like it.

Once again, we’d like to make a call for new writers, photographers, whatever-ers. Especially high schoolers, because our staff keeps getting older (Tristan turns 21 next week, harass him via email, please). An old application is here, just send an email to editors@mercurialsound.com with the info and a sample of your work. Remember we do not pay for this work, you shouldn’t expect any special advantages for being on staff, and you have to commit to one article/photo set a month.

Also, Justine will be leaving for Sweden on June 26th. She’ll be covering any music she runs into there, still managing most of the site, but if...

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Neil Young must have invented indie rock. My first two impressions upon hearing Band of Horses debut full length “Everything all the Time,” seem to lead me to this theory. First, I thought that it sounded like music which can only be classified as “indie rock,” not “power-pop,” “psyche rock,” or anything else. It is bare bones Yo La Tengos to the wind indie rock. My second thought was that it sounded a lot like a Neil Young 70’s release. Not any one particular Neil Young release, but, well actually like the 70’s NY compilation “Decade.”

Band of Horses is a group of two multi-instrumentalists, both formerly in legendary Seattle band Carissa’s Weird (I mention that only because I feel much of the underage scene might not see every other review of BOH, because that...

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The kids just want to have fun. They want to get together, partake in some things under-agers shouldn’t yet know about, and bang into each other. This is where punk-rock comes in. The kids have a music fueled by anger for your parents, anger for the government, outsider-ism, and low culture: everything the kids care about.

This all seemed to make sense Saturday May 12, when local punk band Drastic Plastics played a South-Seattle house party. The quartet Rocked under a stream of “Yamaha” racing flags, situated next to a refrigerator holding non-brand-name butter and salsa.

The Drastic Plastics are: lead singer Joey Lastic, guitarist Petey Pliable, bassist Billy Putty, and drummer Urethane Stamos. The group has risen from the ashes of various area punk bands including Block 16 and AMPM.

Even though the house party was their first show the Drastic Plastics sounded as polished as they may ever be. They performed a twenty minute slaughtering of three-chord...

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The first song “Korn Dogs” from the free online-only EP by DangerDoom is available now at Adultswim.com .

The EP will be nine songs, randomly posted on Adultswim.com, with all nine tracks available May 30, 2006 for a limited time only.

DangerDoom is the acclaimed hip-hop duo of DJ Danger Mouse and MC MF Doom. Their debut album “The Mouse and the Mask,” received attention beyond indie hip-hop scenes both because it features guest vocals from many Adult Swim characters (like Frylock, Master Shake, and Space Ghost) and its densely layered, yet airy beats.

For all the media-hungry fans of John van Deusen and the Lonely Forest, I’ve got some fabulous video files! Ashley and I snuck up to Anacortes in February to get in on some pre-SoundOff! band practice, and here’s what we’ve got. Warning: the files are huge. Don’t even think about downloading them without broadband - your computer will hate you. For best results, rightclick the link and select “save target as” or “save link as.” Anyways, on to Anacortes and Braydn’s garage…

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Okay guys, sorry. Clear June 2nd. Call up you neighbor and say you actually can show up to Poker Night, the Mercurial Sound show is postponed. The details are, this is our first show we’ve ever planned, and it was a learning experience. So! We’re planning for August- and then we’ll really do this right! Promise.

In the meantime, here’s your consolation prize: The Hype Machine
Sent to me by Evan, this fabulous aggregator tracks what’s being posted by the mp3 blogs out there. It’s rarity heaven. Check this site out for covers, live tracks, demos, and other things you’re not going to find anywhere else.

I went through a short lived anti-folk phase a few months ago. For those of you who are slightly unsure of exactly what anti-folk is, I can’t fucking help you. I think it has something to do with acting childish while maintaining an uncanny understanding of exactly how cruel adult life can be. Or some such shit. Whatever it is, Kimya Dawson has it on lock-down and her new album, “Remember That I Love You”, is the best example of this aesthetic that I’ve ever heard.

As one half of the relatively legendary Moldy Peaches, Dawson helped to popularize the fine art of solemn strumming paired with exasperatingly exuberant sentiment. When her and partner Adam Green split indefinately a few years ago, journalists creamed themselves over the idea of consecutively released Peaches solo albums. Green’s effort, the surprisingly slick “Garfield” was loosed to lukewarm reviews and apathy from the scene that spawned him. Conversely, “I’m...

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