• Photo by Pete Checchia
• END OF DAYS This is the final lineup of the Tokyo String Quartet, which began in 1969. They performed their last concert in Seattle one week ago today.

Most students who have studied philosophy come across Theseus’s paradox. It involves a ship that is slowly replaced piece by piece as its parts weather away. The question then is whether or not the ship, ultimately composed entirely of new materials, is the same ship at all. The members of the Tokyo Quartet, which played its last ever Seattle performance a week ago today, were recently faced with a similar conundrum.

Continue reading »

Dear SLOG: if I were to talk to ICP—the Insane Clown Posse, Kings of all juggalos—on the telephone tomorrow, what should I ask them? Maybe something about magnets?

Make of it what you will, Slog. (I'm also in love "Sigourney Weaver" from Grant's previous album.)

Amanda Palmer doesn't impress me. She never has. And while I've never bought into her exhaustingly whimsical pro-artist nonsense that's actually really self-serving and obnoxious, I've also never felt the need to physically recoil at anything she's done. Until now. Until reading her "A Poem of Dzhokhar," where she writes:

you don’t know how many vietnamese soft rolls to order.

you don’t know how convinced your parents were that having children would be, absolutely, without question, the correct thing to do.

you don’t know how precious your iphone battery time was until you’re hiding in the bottom of the boat.

you don’t know how to get away from your fucking parents.

you don’t know how it’s possible to feel total compassion in one moment and total disconnection in the next moment.

you don’t know how things could change so incredibly fast.

you don’t know how to make something, but the instructions are on the internet.

You can read the whole thing here. But, be warned—if you don't like it (and many people don't) that's not Palmer's fault. That's your own inability to see what the poem is really about. And her response to that criticism is what makes it all the more awful:

Continue reading »

• Kelly O
• "Will they surprise-headline a NW festival this summer and collaborate on a masterpiece with Wilco?"

Have you taken a La Luz listen yet? You should! Their sunny tunes will make you feel you're like surfing through a mellow ocean of golden tears with the Ronettes.

Bree McKenna recently took them to a psychic, who—with the help of tarot decks and fairies made of moss clumps—read the band's future! And it's apparently full of Tori Amos–like solo projects, musicals, and a Wilco collaboration.

And did you know you can search local psychics on Yelp?

I started my hunt for an appropriate clairvoyant who could meet us in the University District for a late-night divination after La Luz were done with a practice. I searched Yelp. Turns out, most of the psychics on Yelp have pretty positive ratings—I expected the reviews to be a little more like crabby restaurant reviews, with complaints about bad romance guidance instead of soggy fries or whatever. The first psychic I called was a complete grouch and yelled at me about how she couldn't do a reading for a whole band...The next two psychics I called seemed too down-to-earth and practical, which felt unacceptable. But then I remembered that about a year ago, my friend and I had chatted with a tarot reader in line at Sureshot Espresso who insisted we consult the barista if we had any doubts about her skills...

Keep reading >>

Me too. Here is the concert-level glasses player Jamey Turner doing "Ode to Joy." (Funny twist: I know the relatives of this man. One of them is Seattle-based author Dave Thomas, whose short story Winter '86-'87 is in Heavy Feather Review here; scroll to page 23 in the doc.)

Here is another fellow doing "Hallelujah."

Because there are so many special Record Store Day releases, I'm not going to post them here—the whole list can be found at recordstoreday.com. What I will tell you, though, is everything happening around the city! There are a lot of free in-stores to catch and a lot of sales, so hopefully this will help you map out your day. And if you have something to add to this list, leave a comment! I'll update the post as necessary, so we have all the info we need to have the best Record Store Day ever.

Radar Hair & Records (2724 First Ave S, radarhairandrecords.com): All records are 20% off!

Everyday Music (1520 10th Ave, everydaymusic.com): Opening early at 8 am! With live music, guest DJs, and more starting at 9 am. Here's the schedule:

9 am: Meet and greet with Robbie hill of the Family Affair and Wheedle's Groove
11 am: DJ Veins (our own Dave Segal!)
12 pm: DJ Mr. Smith
1 pm: Pitschouse
2 pm: King Dude
4 pm: Mystery Ship
5 pm: Scriptures
6 pm: Tomten
7 pm: Steradian

Continue reading »

This weekend the LA Weekly's music blog, West Coast Sound, was at Coachella. Of course they would be, they're a SoCal blog covering a SoCal music festival. Whatever.

But how did they choose to cover the festival? Let's have a look:

In this post they have a very What You're Not Wearing vibe in their coverage, taking photos of all the different shirts dudes were wearing at the music festival. That kitten Nevermind cover shirt is great, by the way. Guys wearing shirts. No big.

Continue reading »

• DEREK ERDMAN

Johnny Marr is a legendary rock guitar player and songwriter, known mostly for his integral role in the Smiths. He's managed to stay relevant throughout his entire career, playing in too many bands to count. In the late 2000s, Marr spent a great deal of time in the Pacific Northwest as a member of Modest Mouse. He'll return on Monday, April 15, to play Neumos, supporting his latest solo LP, The Messenger, which was released in February.

I wanted to congratulate you on your NME Godlike Genius award. How does a thing like that make you feel?

You know, you can't take that kind of stuff too seriously. The award made a lot of fans happy, though, so that was nice. A good thing about that one is that it's kind of tongue in cheek, it's not too serious.

You used to reside in Portland, and you still have a home there. Are you fond of the Pacific Northwest? Have you been able to explore the area very much?

Quite a bit, yeah. I took to it straightaway. Mostly the mentality of the people I found myself meeting—it was nice to discover that there are a lot of liberal and creative artistic people there. I spent a lot of time hanging out in bookstores, meeting other musicians, and writing a lot of songs with bands like Modest Mouse. After a while, I started to explore the things that people who live healthier lives do. I've explored the Columbia River quite a bit, but I find Portland very pretty and quite inspiring, so I didn't really need to get out of town too much. I went to Salem, just because that's where John Fahey spent most of his time.

Continue reading »

Johnny Marr plays Neumos tonight with Alamar.

Rookie Mag does it again! The newest edition of their Ask a Grown Man video series is Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich. They give advice to teen girls on asking boys out, how you know if you like someone ("Those little electrical impulses are the best bit," says Yorke), what it means when you want to have sex with someone who isn't your boyfriend, and more.

Continue reading »

Good news, fans of good music! This morning NPR announced that Seattle's own Sean Nelson is releasing a new album this summer! Make Good Choices will be out on June 4th, via Really Records, a new label started by Bomb the Music Industry's Jeff Rosenstock and If You Make It's Dave Garwacke.

The first single is the title track, which you can hear here, in a video animated by Clyde Petersen of Your Heart Breaks and Boating With Clyde.

Watch it here! (It's really cute.)

It sounds like a whole lotta crotchety-CROTCH, if you ask me! Check it out.

• Mat Hayward

Did you hear the good news? Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have sold 500,000 copies of their album Heist.

Music producer Tony Visconti in the NYTMag:

Rock ’n’ roll is like Dixieland jazz now. It’s an old art form.

He goes on to say that hip-hop is showing its age too. Which it is—unlike, say, musical theater. Which, like Ms. Channing, is ageless.

Legendary minimalist composer Terry Riley conducted the Seattle Symphony Orchestra in a stunning performance of his classic In C, right on First Avenue, as SAM unveiled Doug Aitken's new MIRROR work. It will likely go down as the live-music experience of the year. Read the review here.

A quick chat with the nicest black metal dudes in the nicest van—plus some SICK AUDIO. Right over here.