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

Day two of my hip-hop week I’d like to make a quick close reading of two of hip-hop’s greatest mc’s: Jay-Z and 2Pac.

The 90’s was a strange decade for the hip-hop world. While Beastie Boys and Run-DMC each had successful albums in the 80’s, hip-hop didn’t discover its real lucrative capabilities until the nineties. Along with the rise of money in the community, there also was rise in rappers concerned more about money than preserving the tradition of hip-hop. Haters, wack-rappers, and fake-thugs became accepted as the norm - some of which - Nelly - even had the gall to start feuds with rap legends - KRS-One.

Before an indie community really found its place - it was hard to wade through the garbage and find real artists. There were several great rap groups from the nineties, but two stand out in particular. These two were able to both be conscience of their image and retain the tough...

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I was scared of seeing Chan Marshall live. I’ll admit that right off. The rap that follows her everywhere that she struggles to finish a song, or even be onstage, got to me. Perhaps it was a terrible generalization, but I didn’t exactly know, since I saw it everywhere, from live reviews to even descriptions of upcoming songs. I’d yet to be terribly disappointed at a concert so far, in my limited experience, and I didn’t want to have it happen just yet, and besides, for an artist that I count among my absolute all-time favorites, who wants to see them fail? But I decided after years of admiration to give it a shot, form my own opinion, and anyways I somehow had never been to a show at Neumo’s.

Unfortunately, that generalization appeared to be true, too early. The doors, which were scheduled to open at 6:00,...

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It’s time for another free mp3 from a local artist! This weeks sampler is brought to you by Mike Skinner. Sorry Streets fans, this one is 20 years old and a junior at the University of Washington. Recording under the name “Subscience“, Michael’s tunes are influenced by shoegazy, wandering bans like Boards of Canada and Lemon Jelly. Mike samples just about everything to fit into his music, from traditional keyboards and guitars to the sound of his parents dishwasher, all of which he feeds through various distortions to make unique and almost unrecognizeable sounds to meander through his...

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Day one of my hip-hop week begins with a compilation from Japanese break-maestro DJ Krush. “Stepping Stones: The Self-Remixed Best,” toes the line between greatest hits collection and remix collection without sounding either superfluous or pretentious. Krush needed a greatest hits collection, especially one that compiled his work with American rappers. At the same time Krush is a forward thinking DJ, and manages to give some of his best work a new and inventive makeover.

The compilation is separated out into two different CD’s: one titled “Lyricism,” which features his best work with the biggest indie rappers. The other, titled “Soundscapes,” remakes some of Krush’s...

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In my review of The Format album “Dog Problems,” I discussed how deeply emotional the album is for me. I explained that my break-up from a long term girlfriend mirrored the themes in the album way more than I would like.

All things must pass, though. After listening to “Dog Problems,” for a month I’d started feeling better about my situation.

So I took a new girl I’m dating to see The Format live.

Before the show started I had a number of irrational fears that I’d like to share with you. I was concerned mainly that seeing songs from “Dog Problems,” played live would remind me how upset I was when first hearing them. I also was...

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Tomorrow is day one of my week of hip-hop. A week so packed for me with the best in the rap world that it almost seems like fate has brought these particular seven days to me. During a seven day span I will see my favorite artists in three different sub-genres of in the hip-hop community. I will drive hundreds of miles to see one of them out of state. I will listen to more old skool rap than I ever have before, and if time persists I may try to drop some flows myself.

I’ve been unintentionally preparing for this week for quite some time, though. Last week I got 2Pac’s “All Eyez on Me,” Ice Cube’s “Amerikkka’s Most Wanted,” and a DJ Krush compilation with all of the biggest names in indie rap. While having those cd’s in constant rotation on my stereo I’ve also been listening non-stop Cobra Starship’s Snakes on a Plane theme that I’m pretty sure is hip-hop.

Don’t even deny it. All us indie-kids, local music lovers, whatever you want to call it, you’ll have a hard time finding any of us who doesn’t think about trends. No matter how much this group, more than others, will decry otherwise. Of course, we all want to be “first” and listening to thinigs “nobody else has even heard of.” Sometimes these bands we discover stay small, but great, forever. Othertimes they skyrocket to success, and we’re found scrambling to prove “I HEARD THEM FIRST!” - and longing for the days that you could see them play the Vera, and have a chat after the show with the cute bass player. There is a lot of discussion about some percieved hypocracy in this whole concept, the scramble for popularity in the underground of music, who’s cool and who’s not, why things are good in the first place. Whether a bands popularity or unpopularity makes them cool. I’m not gonna go through the whole debate,...

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So, I’ll be as honest as I can be here.

I know that sounds odd, but sometimes album reviews become very personal.

Not long ago I went through a complicated breakup with a girl I’d been with for four years. We broke up on a Friday and I got The Format’s “Dog Problems,” the next Tuesday. I listened to it all the way through non-stop for about a week. I heard every single pained lyric, and eventually realized I wasn’t the one who should be listening to the album.

Then I gave it to the girl that I broke up with.

She called me the next day and said “you told me that some of the lyrics would hit close to home, but you didn’t tell me that the album is about me.”

That’s what “Dog Problems,”...

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Good blues albums are rarities. The lack of progression that has occurred in the last 70 years is staggering, sure there were blues masters, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, and now, current revivalists, Jack White, Holly Golightly, and Dan Auerbach that have brought the medium to another level, but blues was always the big brother who showed his younger siblings a trick and they ran with it (heavy metal, garage rock, etc.). So when a group that comes around and either plays the blues correctly (Holly Golightly and The Black Keys) or plays it differently, for example with a punk or alternative slant, (The White Stripes), people take notice. The Heartless Bastards are doing both now. Female fronted, and an ear for powerful melodies and arrangements, they are one of the finest groups playing blues...

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I’ve been listening to “The Body, The Blood, The Machine” non-stop for about ten hours trying to find something wrong with it.

I first heard it about three weeks ago and immediately decided that it was a classic album and compared it in my head to The Pixes, “Surfer Rosa.” That’s quite a comparison - I know which scared me a little (to the extent that my feelings about indie albums can scare me - which is more than you would imagine). I planned on writing a review that wasn’t actually a review, but really a column analyzing the social importance of overlooked classics (which this was assured to be). I know, it sounds like a really good idea, doesn’t it?

But we’re...

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