- Todd Cole
- Weirdo-turned-author Miranda July.
MIRANDA JULY
Fri Jan 23 at 7:30 pm at the Neptune
You've seen her films The Future and Me and You and Everyone We Know, now hear her read from her debut novel, entitled The First Bad Man.
- If he were still alive, Elvis would be 80 this year.
THE SEATTLE ELVIS INVITATIONALS
Fri Jan 23 at 8 pm at the Crocodile
Northwest’s premier Elvis impersonator event. Will people ever tire of paying homage to this American “King”? The answer is no. Twenty amateur “Elvii” will hit the stage, performing all eras of Presley’s career, backed by a live band. The people-watching, onstage and off, should be exceptional.
- Beacon: 21st-century R&B with not a hair out of place
BEACON AND LORD RAJA
Fri Jan 23 at 7 pm at Barboza
Beacon and Lord RAJA are Ghostly International’s newest bright hopes. Beacon, the Brooklyn duo of Thomas Mullarney III and Jacob Gossett, play lush yet spare song-based electronic music with heart-on-sleeve vocals that seemingly come from a woman. New York producer Lord RAJA (aka Chester Raj Anand) makes tracks that are at once jittery and chill, a rare feat.
- The movie version of Naked Lunch was much better than the book.
NAKED LUNCH
9 pm at the Grand Illusion
Directed by David Cronenberg, Naked Lunch (1991) was based on a novel of the same name by the father of the Beat movement, William Burroughs. The novel is nowhere near as good as the movie, which includes music by a saxophonist, Ornette Coleman, who is to modern jazz what Burroughs is to the mid-century American novel. The alien Mugwump and Peter Weller’s performance of an insect exterminator manage to out-Burroughs Burroughs.
- Murder Vibes: zero irony.
MURDER VIBES AND GUESTS
Fri Jan 23 at 9 pm at Columbia City Theater
Seattle duo Murder Vibes—vocalist/rhythm guitarist Peter Hanks and multi-instrumentalist Jordan Evans—definitely have a goth-electro thing going on here. There’s zero irony here, and it comes off not as derivative, but as the exact type of music these dudes want to and should be playing. The production values are unclouded and swanky.
See all of today's top picks in The Stranger's Things to Do calendar. This weekend's recommended events after the jump.
ON SATURDAY...
- A marvelously prickly comedian.
W. KAMAU BELL
Sat Jan 24 at 7 and 9 pm at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute
Back in 2005, the marvelously prickly comedian W. Kamau Bell became the first to tell an Obama joke on Comedy Central. “That dude is cool,” Bell said, but his name is “too black” for America. “Who’s running for president? …Black Osama?!” Bell was just signed to Kill Rock Stars, which will record his Seattle gigs for a new album. From Ferguson to Selma, America’s conversation about race is spiking. Few comedians are better poised to make sense of it all than W. Kamau Bell.
See all of Saturday's top picks in The Stranger's Things to Do calendar.
ON SUNDAY...
- Wimps: hyper-speed meathead bop.
WIMPS, THE WOOLEN MEN, G. GREEN, AND MEGA BOG
Sun Jan 25 at 9 pm at Blue Moon Tavern
Portland’s Woolen Men and Sacramento’s G. Green bring their propulsive power-pop chops to our fair city, while hometown shredders Mega Bog and Wimps contribute admirably skewed takes on sax-assisted art-rock and hyper-speed meathead bop, respectively.
See all of Sunday's top picks in The Stranger's Things to Do calendar.
