We had a laid-back, happy time at Dope Emporium on Saturday. It felt like a hiphop block party: a family affair with barbeque, a beer garden, and kids running around doing cute things like breakdancing. There even was a producers' battle from which MTK (of Himalayan Rickshaw Run fame) emerged triumphant. Check out some photos from the event, taken by Seattlest and Terry Creighton.......

"Let Us" by Seattlest Flickr member JeanineAnderson Hooray! The first batch of the Capitol Hill Block Party line-up for this summer has been announced, and we're thrilled to see what a truly fine list it is. Hot groups such as Vampire Weekend, Les Savy Fav, Kimya Dawson, and The Physics are already confirmed, with nary a six-hour-long Spoon set to be found. (Okay, so maybe last year's Spoon performance wasn't exactly six hours long,......

Tonight, if you're not already going to the second sold-out Magnetic Fields show, there's still a few tickets left for John in the Morning at Night at Neumo's, with the Duke Spirit, the Voom Blooms, and Tulsa. There's also PWRFL Power's (aka Kaz Nomura) second CD release show at the Vera Project. Since Kaz won a slot at last year's Capitol Hill Block Party (via the Stranger's Block Star contest last spring), he also won......

Seattlest fell in love with Gabriel Teodros after the Capitol Hill Block Party this summer, when Teodros brought up artist after local artist to join him on stage at Neumos and threw down a song or two about sexism. Teodros is the real deal, one of the best men Seattle hiphop has to offer to the world at large, and here's what he's thinking about these days. We're all wondering why you're not named on......

Though Seattlest would love nothing more than to give you a proper review of the KEXP barbecue, we've come to the stinging conclusion that it's simply not in the cards. We just got a work deadline thrown at us like a ton of cliches and this is the best we can do for you right now. To be sure, the whole day was spectacular. The Blakes were top notch, even though we had to......

Oh Seattle, you make us feel so old. It was maybe a year ago and some, while we were wallowing in the mud at Sasquatch, clutching our $8 cans of Budweiser, when we finally said to ourselves, "You know what? Outdoor festivals suck." And then we recoiled in horror. Hating festivals is the very definition of getting old, isn't it? Really. There's an accepted narrative explanation of this phenomenon at pseudo-hipster bastions like The......

Seattlest arrived on scene soon after the Capitol Hill Block Party had opened. We wandered, checked out the stage locations and thought about getting a beer, then spotted a booth touting free bottled water. It looked like the booth had something to do with praying to the Earth Spirits or some other new wave white hippy crap, but we decided to take our chances. We asked for a water and oddly enough their were no......

Not that we care anymore (So You Think You Can Dance has taken over our capacity of interest in reality TV at the moment--my God that Mia Michaels routine last night was incredible!), but all our American Idol crushes will be in Tacoma tonight strutting their stuff for the girlies. We can hardly contain our amusement that this tour is being sponsored by Pop Tarts. That's just brilliant. So, who spent $75 on a ticket......

This is a big weekend due to the Esurance® Capitol Hill Block Party alone. Tickets are not sold out yet; if nothing else, just by 'em at the door. But what to do if you want to avoid the Hill and the confluence of all those hipsters? Tonight, there's Ryan Adams at the Moore. He's no longer the junkie hot mess he used to be, so this time around he probably won't go nutso if......

The above vid is a live performance of "Our Bovine Public," the barrelling leadoff track from The Cribs' latest release, Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever. Even if the album wasn't really, really good (and basically all we've been listening to lately), we'd have to recommend it based on the awesomely ambivalent title alone. The Brit-punk three-piece, made up of the Brothers Jarman (twins Ryan and Gary on guitar, bass and vocals, and kid brother......

We know that the weather has been rainy and overcast and downright crummy these last few days, but never fear: things are looking up! And just in time for this weekend's Capitol Hill Block Party, which over two days features three stages and nearly fifty bands. One of the bands that we're most excited to see is Britain's The Cribs. Comprised of three brothers (twins Ryan and Gary Jarman on guitar, bass, and vocals,......

So a friend gets an email from another friend saying they were on the Capitol Hill Block Party website last night and Viva Voce had just been added to the Friday lineup. She tells us this and we think, Great! Now we can see Neko Case this Saturday and not feel bad about it! Then, this morning, we visit the website ourselves and see this: Here's what we can announce so far. If you don't......

After many on again, off again mis-starts Seattle Out and Proud is abdicating responsibility for Pride festivities this year, as expected. In 2007 Pride organizers Seattle Out and Proud (SOaP) voted in new leadership and SOaP’s primary concern was to produce a financially sound March and Festival in 2007. This week, after months of intense research and negotiation, it has been concluded that producing a Pride Event at Seattle Center is not financially prudent at......

Finally, someone else sees things our way. Like peanut butter and jelly, there has been one natural combination longing to be put together: having a beer and thinking about your favorite insurance company. Thank God Online providers Esurance have stepped up to the plate. Meshing together insurance needs with scenester whoredom, that's right, this year it's the Esurance Capitol Hill Block Party. The Esurance Capitol Hill Block Party is a huge, two-day explosion of......

Hip-hop is ruled by ego. Whether it's the ego of an MC, that of a DJ, or a combination of the two, hip-hop is dominated by superlatives. Descriptions of being the biggest, baddest, and richest are the typical trappings of mainstream hip-hop, which is nothing new. The underground scene has its own failings, focused instead on being "realest," clamoring to fit as many syllables as possible into every bar. In both cases, the result......

After kicking our collective asses for four consecutive days, the heat is finally backing down. So pull yourself together. Go outside again -- especially to Capitol Hill this weekend. Tuesday 25th >>> The Long Winters at Sonic Boom in Ballard. Putting The Days To Bed, the third LP from Seattle's The Long Winters, combines the lyrical intimacy and melodic complexity of the Ultimatum EP with the guitar pop rave-ups of the bands previous full lengths.......

Hopefully you didn't waste your money this weekend having lunch in hell, because tomorrow the long-awaited Carnavas from the Silversun Pickups will be released – just in time to pick it up and get acquainted before the Silversun Pickups do their thing at the Capitol Hill Block party this Saturday. Seattlest got our grubby paws on an advance copy of Carnavas. Our initial impression: We likey. A lot. Carnavas is the rare album that......

As avid folk music connoisseurs, we’ve done our time in various Unitarian churches listening to obscure out-of-towners mouth off about Bush in the nicest possible (read: no cursing) sort of way. But for the past couple of years, a small venue on Capitol Hill has been integrating The Lord with great music and free coffee on a whole different level. You’ve probably stumbled past On The House on your way home from the Wildrose or......

With the first days of summer already on us, it's a perfect time to start thinking about your summer music plans. There were two recent pre-sale ticket announcements that got the gears turning in our heads at Seattlest: Bumbershoot (Sept 2-4) and the KEXP BBQ (Aug 13). While the complete line-up for both of these events has yet to be announced (We aren't overly hyped on the initial Bumbershoot line-up!), both events will give more......

We think a lot of people consider the day Dave Chappelle announced the cancellation of his Comedy Central show to be up there with some of the huge bummers of all time. Black Tuesday, election day '04 or even April 8, 1994 - mere footnotes in history when compared to the end of the Chappell Show. Personally, as many times as Dave made us laugh out loud it only took a few instances of someone......

As far as live music this weekend, may we recommend the crazy (or crazee, if you will) the Black Keys at Neumo's tonight. If you like the Liars or any noise rock band, etc, then they are for you. Tomorrow, Mercury Prize winner Antony & the Johnsons are playing at the Triple Door. Antony & the Johnsons have one of the most unique sounds you can imagine. Back in the day we saw them back......

It was just a single line in the weekly newsletter from the Northwest Film Forum, but it set Seattlest's heart a-flutter: PS – Also on Saturday, June 11, at 5:30pm, San Francisco's nationally-renowned (and surprisingly raunchy) double-dutch jumproping team Double Dutchess will make their Seattle debut in our space. We had to know more. In doing a little research on the internets, we discovered that this entity is, in fact, a troupe of four San......