Yes, there's other shows this weekend besides the Capitol Hill Block Party. Tonight, there's The Watson Twins, who will bring their lovely harmonies and creepy identical-ness to the Tractor. And if you're lucky, they'll cover The Cure: For something completely different, there's Kill Hannah, along with The Medic Droid and Innerpartysystem at El Corazon. Or head to the Sunset for the island-smooth pedal steel guitar stylings of Neko Case sideman Jon Rauhouse, with Visqueen's own......

BOMBS BURSTING, ETC: Happy Independence Day! Grill up some zucchini, down a beer or three, and enjoy your day off. Ivars is doing their exploding chemicals thing after sunset, so if you're into that, sedate your dogs/chickens/goldfish and enjoy the 23 minute show over Elliott Bay. Or wherever: check here and here for your options. 10 p.m. // Your Roof // Free(dom) GANGSTA RAP—SERIOUSLY: Get your gangsta self to Chop Suey on Saturday for Crooked......

Stairwell Sisters have joined the slowly growing community of all-girl old-timey bands, and recently released their third album, Get Off Your Money. They do much better when they tackle the traditional fiddle tunes, but their originals do the genre plenty of justice. They’ll be joined at the Tractor tonight by local old-timey heroes the Tallboys. The Seattle branch of the famed Paul Green School of Rock opened in January. Now, the inaugural class of talented......

Tonight, the dynamic duo of Blitzen Trapper and Fleet Foxes is sold out, so you've got a few completely different options: at El Corazon, Apocalyptica, a Finnish cello quartet who love Metallica or the Fool's Gold label showcase at the War Room, featuring label founder/turntablist extraordinaire A-Trak. Here he is in 1997, when he was just a scrawny badass fifteen-year-old world championship wunderkind:......

This weekend offers a bevy of live music options. Tonight take your parents to see the Kingston Trio at the Moore, or leave mom and dad at home and head to the Comet to see the guaranteed awesome live performance of Monotonix. Sometimes the Tel Aviv punk trio lights the drum kit on fire, sometimes they play their instruments as the crowd lifts them into the air. Tonight is also Yoav's show at the High......

Time magazine claims, "You can't swing a dead cat this time of year without hitting a Top 10 List." Never one to waste a perfectly good dead cat, we decided to take a swing and create a Top Random-Number Shows Seattlest Saw This Year. And now, without any further ado, here's how your favorite bloggers broke down the year: According to Dante, everything else pared in comparison to Daft Punk at WaMu Theater 7/29/07. OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!......

Last month, in response to a push to "reconsider" old Mudhoney songs, we said that the band never made it big because they sounded more "rough and fuzzy" than the Big Four (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains). We said that singer Mark Arm's style--as well as the band's--was "not bad, just different." After witnessing Mudhoney's transcendent assault on El Corazon Friday night, we'd like to propose a reconsideration of the band itself.......

Saturday, Tera will give herself a VIP tour at the opening of Aritzia. She will follow this potentially hectic event by introducing a friend to her newest wine obsession - Twisted Cork. Sunday she will trek to Qwest and root for Chicago, uh, eh, oops...Seattle. Yes, root for the Seahawks. Jack's heading to the Showbox proper tonight to see Canadian indie pop band Stars. Sunday, he's hoping to see Rex Grossman slip into old......

Jack has already mentioned Stars at the Showbox, and Katelyn's put the word out about Grayskul and Hangar 18 at Chop Suey. That leaves us to mention M.I.A. and the Cool Kids at Showbox SoDo, or, if you like things a little more old-school, Mudhoney is at El Corazon. Here they are playing "Hate the Police" in Prague: Saturday, it's a Brit-pop double-header with Travis and openers Maximo Park at the Moore. There's also The......

In a few seasons, Seattle indie stalwart Sub Pop will shed its adolescent husk and turn 20. Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman, the dudes who put Soundgarden and Nirvana in bins before major label reps stormed Seattle, will, according to this bio, celebrate "as conspicuously as they can manage." As well they should. They were the fuse to said bands’ (and others’) genre-birthing TNT, after all. And though maybe not as globally revered since the......

Above is a clip of local band-made-good Schoolyard Heroes, from their video shoot for new single "Plastic Surgery Hall of Fame," the final product of which can be seen here. The song's off their new album Abominations, out this Tuesday. In order to celebrate the release of their third full-length, the horror-punk four-piece is playing two shows in two nights for all their Seattle-area fans. Monday night at Sonic Boom Ballard is the band's......

Allison Krauss and Union Station are at Marymoor Park on Saturday. There was a lot of moaning and gnashing of teeth from the Seattlest camp when the Summer Nights concert series was canceled, but Marymoor seems to have picked up a lot of that slack with a decent series. Here's Allison Krauss and Union Station back when they were called Union Station and Allison Krauss. If you liked that you probably should have gone to......

Tomorrow is Cinco De Mayo, so you already know that any vaguely Mexican destination is going to be filled with jackasses drinking margaritas and acting like idiots over what isn't really Mexican independence day. We're fine with the drunkenness, we're fine with the jackassery, but really, there are much better ways to spend your day and night than in some overly adorned restaurant. Here are three of them, and since we know you're going to......

Wowee wow wow wow. The erstwhile "Japanese Beck" Cornelius really brought it at El Corazon the other night. Keigo Oyamada (as his mama calls him) and the other three members of his fashionable group made sure that the "Sensuous Synchronized Show" lived up to its name. They put on a performance that was multimedia to the extreme, with scrims and colors and lights and videos that were a little more than the venue could......

...in which we pit two bands against each other, to better determine how you should spend your Tuesday night. In this corner: Peachcake Weight: 200 lbs soaking wet Hometown: Phoenix Peachcake is composed of Stefan Pruett and John O'Keefe, two enthusiastic Arizona kids who like to dress up and make sunny electro-dance rock. Their debut full-length won't be out until this summer, but what we've heard of it is upbeat synthy pop songs with completely......

ELECTION NIGHT PARTY: Get happy with Cary Moon and the People's Waterfront Coalition, the prophets of the surface/transit waterfront. 7:30-9pm (votes trickle in circa 8:15) // Edgewater Hotel [2411 Alaskan Way, Pier 67] 9pm-? // Spitfire Grill [2219 4th Ave] MUSIC: What does it do to your "keeping it real" status when your hip-hop album, which more than touches base on drug culture, only blows up after attention from the Vices and Pitchforks of the......

MUSIC: Normally, we try to avoid El Corazon at all costs, but there’s an early show there today for a very good cause. During last week’s storm, Kate Fleming, a talented voice-over artist, died while attempting to save the audio gear in her home studio. Tonight’s show—featuring Speaker Speaker, Patience Please, Megasapian, In the Empty City, and more—is in Kate’s memory, with the money benefitting her family. 4:30pm doors, 5pm show // El Corazon //......

Tuesday night, El Corazon was like the Key hosting the Storm. One hoot, holler, or clap could be heard anywhere in the building. Believe us—we hung out in the adjacent bar until L.A. singer-songwriter Peter Walker took the stage. It wasn't that we didn’t care about the other bands—Argo sounded pretty good—but we didn't want to be on the floor alone. Things didn't improve for Walker's set. Maybe nobody knew him—Who? The fast, furious actor?......

Tuesday, December 5 >>> Peter Walker at El Corazon. Not to be confused with Paul Walker or Peter Weller, Peter Walker's in town to support Young Gravity, his second album. We have read, though, that Walker evokes another Pete--Yorn. With maybe a bit more bite. 7pm doors; $10. All ages. With Division Day. Wednesday, December 6 >>> Victrola's own folk chanteuse Molly Rose headlines a singer/songwriter parade of not-yet stars at the Sunset Tavern.......

Seattlest has a new line of thinking on the stasis-problem exhibited by Seattle showgoers. Our new theory is that Seattle crowds aren't actually as lame as we once thought, they just have a lot of inertia. It takes a lot to get them going, but once they are, the new problem is getting them to stop. We thank The Rapture for giving us the inspiration for this new thinking, as Monday's performance and afterparty were......

Tuesday 7th >>> Foreigner at The Paramount. Be warned: whether you're cold as ice or hot-blooded, this is the kind of rock that leads to double-vision. *video: Urgent 8:00pm; $40-$150. The $150 includes a pre-show wine tasting and meet & greet. >>> Bonnie Prince Billy at The Tractor. Will Oldham has been keeping us at arm's length with the "Bonnie Prince Billy" moniker for years. We can pretend it isn't true, but it is.......

Wednesday 25th >>> Cut Chemist and Lyrics Born at Neumo's. If Cut Chemist's contributions to Ozomatli are a highlight of your personal musical history, Seattlest will buy you a drink. We're just praying that Lyrics Born actually has some new material this time around, sheesh. 8pm; $18 adv/$20 door. Pigeon John opens and it's all ages, shorties. >>> Ziggy Marley at The Showbox. Bob's best-looking son does reggae just like daddy. 8pm; $30 adv/$32......

Admittedly, last night we were not expecting much from The Presets. Seattlest had already spent a great deal of our evening surrounded by dudes in baseball caps and girls who were trying too hard (thanks a lot, Scion), so we really weren't in the mood for a late night set at Chop Suey. We had heard good things about the Australian electro-rock duo and felt obligated to attend. But now we're glad we did:......

So the last two days we heard seven bands. And that was a Sunday and Monday night! Our ears are tired. Not that you care. Where the hell were you, anyway? About 20 people showed up for the El Corazon show. It was all-ages, but only four under-21ers skipped Sunday-night homework to come. A bunch of Euro-sausage arrived late to catch Starsailor at the Crocodile. You know, with their Euro-pop t-shirts and orange sneakers.......

A little something for everyone. Consider next Monday's show the icing on the delicious music-y cake. Tuesday 12th >>> Sarathan Records Showcase w/The Purrs, Two Loons for Tea, Christopher Blue, Shane Bartell at Neumo's. Local label Sarathan Records is going to show off some of the bands on their roster. They've got great t-shirt designs, so the merch is top-notch. 8pm; $5. 21+ >>> Jeff Lang at Tractor Tavern. A blues guitar master from......

Sunday night Joy Wants Eternity, From Monument to Masses, Unwed Sailor, and Mars Accelerator took over El Corazon for an experimental-indie-ambient, all-instrumental show (we weren't able to decipher any of the sounds the Mars Accelerator guy was producing, so we're counting his vocal input as an extra instrument). The crowd at El Corazon were nothing but appreciative, listening raptly without conversation, and applauding and whistling at the end of each "song." We say "song"......

Tuesday 8th >>> The Blackpool Lights at El Corazon. Made up of parts of the Get Up Kids, Creature Comforts, and Ultimate Fakebook. 7pm; $10 >>> Manchester at Victrola on 15th Ave. "Pseudo-British" "indie folk pop" who sound a bit like more cheerful "Decemberists." 8pm; free. All ages. >>> Molly Rose with Pablo Trucker and J. Wong at the Green Room (at the Showbox). Victrola's own Molly Rose takes her singer/songwriter skillz downtown, with......

This week Seattlest invites you to get your hand out of your pants and join us for some shows... Wednesday 12th >>> WIRE presents: Pleasurecraft This is a Blackout cd release; performing live with New Gray Area at The Baltic Room 9pm; Free! Thursday 13th >>> The Clumsy Lovers at St. Edward State Park (Kenmore) >>> "Trapped In The Closet!" at Rebar 7pm doors; 8pm show, $10 >>> Refugee All Stars of Sierra Leone......

In which Seattlest contributors divulge their weekend plans and disclose their favorite things to BBQ. Friday afternoon means it's time for the MADCAP Hill Farmer's Market at Madison and 20th, 3pm - 7pm, so MvB is off to find ingredients for his mad scientist smoothies. Saturday at 4pm The Real Dirt On Farmer John plays at the NW Film Forum (free if you RSVP). MvB grew up on a farm, and you'd think he'd be......

Saturday's show at El Corazon had a long line of youngsters snaking along Eastlake/Howell for a few blocks, which we followed to the end and then kept walking to the Re-Bar to drink while waiting for the line to die. We came back a few minutes after 10, but there was still a line and Action Action had already started playing. From the street we couldn't really make out the layered synth pop sound......