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

Nico is the epitome of cool. A tall, high cheek boned, blond, red, or black haired Germanic rose in the snow, who hid in bathtubs when bombs fell, Warhol superstar, lingerie model, she knew your dad’s favorite rock star quite well, spotted in Federico Fellini films, her dad died in a concentration camp, brought out the best guitar playing Jimmy Page ever did (“I’m Not Saying” single, 1965), and made some of the most harrowing music your ears will ever experience. Basically more traveled and experienced than one can imagine. You may, and most likely, only know her as that weird singer who did those songs on that Wes Anderson movie or those three tracks on the first Velvet Underground album that you always hated because they were so utterly foreign, and so different from Lou’s streetwise Dylan lisp. If you know more than that...

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Hey, did you guys know that KEXP has open internships? I didn’t - they all look really cool, and they’re open to anyone in or above their junior year of high school. You can help with the DJ, marketing, fund raising, and do all sorts of stuff at basically the best radio station ever. If you’re looking for an opportunity to dive into real music work, this sounds like a great opportunity (you can always just write for MercSound too!) Anyways, check it out.

Previously, only last week, I had only thought of Françoise Hardy as the catchiest pop act of the 1960s, yes, even more than The Beatles, Os Mutantes, or whatever. Tracks like “Oh, Oh Cheri”, “Je Suis d’Accord”, and my personal favorite “Le Temps De L’Amour” are essentially etched into my consciousness from nonstop repeat listening. The immaculately cool pop recordings I just listed along with grandiose, breathy sophistication of La Question have quickly become all-time favorites from the mixture of Hardy‘s detached singing and her ability to write tireless hooks (she wrote her own songs before pretty much anyone). But then I heard, by chance, “Je N’Attends Plus Personne” off of her 1964 Mon Amie La Rose album (which I’d never heard, though I’m...

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Two months ago my brother and I are riding in his car heading downtown. My lids hang heavy over bloodshot eyes. The sun rises slowly to the east as we climb the Viaduct’s ascent. My brother’s words are drowned out by the pounding deep within in my skull. The pain moves from my eyes to my brain. A tear streaks down my cheek and my stomach aches as I recall the night before; one of those nights your attempts to forget only make the pain worse. I was awoken early that morning: early enough to ride with my brother to work. I needed to retrieve my car from its spot downtown where it spent the night.

I close my eyes and let the bouncing of the shocks rattle my brain. I daydream of laying motionless in my bed dreaming. Suddenly something happens. The saddest piano chords in the world spring from the car’s speakers. A voice both bombastic and melodic epically sings,...

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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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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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A few months ago I attended a show for the first time at The SS Marie Antoinette. I was thoroughly impressed with the venue and their dedication to the all-ages music scene. It had a feel unlike any venue I’d ever been to before; completely do-it-yourself and void of any of the rules and regulations of normal rock clubs like The Showbox and Neumos. There were no overbearing bouncers or fake hipster art. Instead The SS is home to real artists and hosted shows for real underground that musicians that have little or no outlet to play anywhere else.

With a wide-open music space and oddly extreme temperatures, the SS Marie Antoinette (A converted boat-warehouse on Westlake) is the type of place you never forget. It’s the type of venue that you accidentally discover The Ramones at and then argue that...

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Recently I read a column on Allmusic.com called “Is Rock and Roll really Dying? A Case against Dourism,” by Thom Jurek. This column is arguing that modern radio-ready rock music now is self-centered, and lacks the good-time feel of early rock. He believes that the escapism has been completely removed and has been replaced entirely with sorrow and self-wallowing. While generally I agree with Jurek, I believe in his column he missed the point of why mainstream rock music now is dire, and that he doesn’t grasp the greater scope of how serious rock music really is.

In his column Jurek claims that “Korn, Nickelback, AFI, Tool, and Godsmack,” rule the airwaves right now: which is semi-insane in and of itself. I can’t think of the last time I heard anyone listening...

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If you’re like me, which you probably are, you gave notice to The Killers for about fourteen minutes. Those minutes gave you just long enough to listen to “Somebody Told Me,” once, “Mr. Brightside,” twice, read a quick article about Vegas, AND still consider who in the hell Eric Roberts thinks he is. They were a fun fourteen minutes, weren’t they? Similar amounts of time include: the time it took you to realize that The Lashes suck, the amount of time needed to listen to every good Rapture song, and the time taken to both start and stop liking MIA.

But now, with one song: things have changed. Despite how mainstream they may be The Killers have immediately become interesting. Recently they released new single: “When You Were Young,” (if you haven’t heard it - Go...

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