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

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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So I’ve had Capitol Basement’s EP sitting around my room since SoundOff! Tristan has now stolen (borrowed?) it - but I’ve still got my mp3’s… and so do you! Capitol Basement has allowed us to share “Long Hour” with all our adoring readers. Here it is: grab it, slip it into iTunes, and learn all the words.

Capitol Basement - Long Hour [MP3, 4.2MB]

For those who haven’t yet heard of the local underage starlets, they most recently graced the stage at the EMP Skychurch, where they took 3rd in the 2006 SoundOff! competition. This is a bunch of Seattle musicians if I’ve ever heard them - obviously raised with Pearl Jam and the grunge Seattle is so famous for, but still stealing influence from anything they can find in the wealth of music in the area. Thus far, they’ve placed in many local contests, graced...

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Chris Smith has allowed us to share this entire album! Read on to download individual tracks, or a zip of the entire thing.

In the movie “Walk the Line,” when Johnny Cash first auditions for Sam Phillips and Sun Records he plays a gospel song that Sam Phillips doesn’t like. Phillips asks him to play what he truly feels inside his soul “The song you (he) would play to convince God of his worth.” Upon that remark Cash goes into “Folsom Prison Blues,” with its classic line “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.” This confession of the soul on tape is the lineage that rapper Chris Smith has on his debut record, an eight-song-mixtape.

Chris Smith hails from South Seattle in a neighborhood where ambition is at a minimum and alcoholism is rampant, or so he would have us believe on his thoughtful first mixtape. Mixtape is an album perfect for nighttime and after-party...

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Tennis Pro have offered to post two songs for download on MercurialSound. Both songs are from their excellent album “Cassie’s Junior Varsity Make-Out Squad.”

Tennis Pro - Can’t Help Myself [MP3, 4.7MB]
Tennis Pro - The Director’s Vision [MP3, 4.8MB].

Remember six months ago, when we did that damn interview at Bumbershoot, and promised all you dear readers a special surprise? Suspense has been long enough (and Justine and Alisa finally hung out after 6 months hiatus of college and work and etc… ironically at an Idiot Pilot show) and we now have the mp3 you’ve all been waiting for, confirmed as authentic, pre-”Strange We Should Meet Here,” pre-SoundOff!, pre-famous Idiot Pilot! This darling acoustic track rocks our socks, right off.

Idiot Pilot - Glass Fields [mp3, 7.0MB]

(Updated) The Twee, Pop Fest is coming up this weekend (Saturday)! If you haven’t quite been convinced to go yet, or maybe need something to add to your playlist to build up excitement, here are four FIVE fabulous mp3’s from some of the bands that will be performing.

Math and Physics Club - Weekends Away [mp3, 2.3MB]
Math and Physics Club are already one of my local favorites: they fit perfectly into my summer vacation of mellow days and sunshine. Now they’re on my playlist to remind me summer’s coming back. Weekends Away expresses this feeling perfectly, sweet and charming, bringing memories of roadtrips and little adventures long past. Math and Physics Club have released two EP’s, “Movie...

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I showed up after the opening band the Stars had played. To tell you the truth, I was so far back for this concert that I don’t really have much to say about it. Ben Gibbard was at the top of his game tonight, playing songs off of the new album, Plans, but not leaving the golden ones behind. The band played songs like “Photobooth,” “Sound of Settling,” and an 8 and a half minute version”Title and Registration,” but made sure to play songs like “The Marching Bands of Manhattan,” and “Crooked Teeth.” And although it may be a little early, Death Cab wasn’t afraid to bust out “The New Year.” Unfortunately, all I really got from this performance was a couple of low quality wavs and some terrible video. Next time, Ben. Next time.

WAV files from the show:

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Time to share another song that not nearly enough people have heard! This local band is called Get Dressed, they’re friends of a friend of mine (named Mike Skinner. Too bad it’s not the Mike Skinner), and the song off their 5 track EP (called Five Year Plan) that they’d like me to share is called “Time Calls Bluffs.”

Get Dressed - Time Calls Bluffs [mp3, 3.4MB]

My favorite off the EP I have is “Headlights.” Or maybe “On the Trees.” Whatever, they recently ran 50 copies of a CD with Headlights, Time Calls Bluffs, and two other tracks on it, and they’re working on new stuff. Plus their website has Headlights and two other tracks for download. There’s plenty to go around.

Getting on to the band, Get Dressed are a 4-piece underage...

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One of my favorite things about doing Mercurial Sound so far has been getting demos. Sometimes they stack up, but when I sit down to listen to them, there’s an exciting exclusivity to them. Oftentimes the tracks are unreleased to the public, and the reason I get them is that people want me to love them and share them. And sharing music is only one of the most fabulous things to do! So, without further adue, I present our very second sampler, a track sent to us by a band named Trepan.

Trepan is a four piece grunge group that’s been seen around Seattle lately, scoring most of their all-ages shows at Studio 7. They manage to maintain their “grunge” connection, with all the energy and catch attatched, but enough emotion to connect to the listeners. Their cover sheet provides the term “stoner rock” but there’s too much passion in it for them to really steal that term, either.

They’ve got one cd...

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Remember this plea a few months back? Not the ranting about Bloc Party (who, by the way, I missed at Sasquatch, adding their total of dissing me up to three, and sadly, I still cannot give up my depression at missing them). There was an update, where I sent out a request to get my hands on the amazing song I heard on Audioasis.

Lucky, lucky me! James Whetzel himself saw my request and sent me a copy of the mp3! For those of you who didn’t catch my initial request, the song is called “Washington State”, and the lyrics consist mostly of city names from our beautiful state. And it’s catchy, too: I found myself singing “Walla Walla! Walla Walla!” for weeks aftwerwards.

And lucky, lucky readers! James has given us permission to share his mp3, the first shared on our site ever, with all of our readers. This is a limited-time-only offer guys, so snag it while it’s...

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