Results tagged “johnroderick”

It was all going so well. The John Hodgman Variety Hour had made a stop at Town Hall, chockful of songs, tales of hobos and molemen, and anecdotes on being a famous minor television personality. Jonathan Coulton and John Roderick guitar-dueled to the death in a feral mountain man-off, while John Hodgman and Sean Nelson cerebrally engaged in a tweedy intellectual-off. Their internal disputes resolved, the foursome were ready to don their matching white bedazzled jumpsuits and perform a well-choreographed ukulele version of "Love Will Keep Us Together."

We've read enough pub trivia answer sheets to be familiar with this phenomenon: A team doesn't know the answer to a question, so they write something witty instead. ("Your mom" being one of the least witty examples.) While some of those answers are genuinely clever, however, we never would've thought to transform fake, funny trivia into a literary form.

When John Roderick isn't writing hilarious lies about other musicians, he's fronting one of Seattle's best indie rock bands, The Long Winters.

Not that we need to feed his ego or anything, but John Roderick (of The Long Winters) is a funny dude.

Lo-fi indie pop band Say Hi used to be known as Say Hi to Your Mom. It also used to based in Brooklyn and now it's found in Seattle. Regardless, the man behind the band is Eric Elbogen, who records the songs at home, playing all the instruments, providing most of the vocals (except for the occasional guest artist), and even mixing the tracks his own damn self. His last album (pre-name change), Impeccable Blahs, was mostly about vampires, though Star Trek got a shoutout too. Now the band's in version 2.0 with a truncated moniker and new album The Wishes and the Glitch, which has a decidedly (*cringe*) more mature sound. Say Hi plays Chop Suey this Thursday, along with Battle Hymns and Siberian (9pm, all ages, $8). We spoke to Eric about getting older, living and playing in Seattle, and being on the low rung of the Sasquatch ladder.

Towards the very end of last night's People Talking and Singing, as the clock ticked past 10:00 and John Roderick announced he'd play another song and take a few requests from the audience, our butts chimed in: "Hey, this is starting to go on a little long."

The third annual 826 Seattle benefit People Talking and Singing will fill the seats at Town Hall next Thursday. Comedian Patton Oswalt had to cancel, but the event still features host John Roderick of the Long Winters, Dave Eggers, comedians Todd Barry and Eugene Mirman, New Yorker music critic (and current blogosphere gadfly) Sasha Frere-Jones, local songstress Rosie Thomas, and Geologic of the Blue Scholars.

Bumbershoot 2005 hosted the inaugural People Talking and Singing show, where 2,800 festival attendees packed McCaw Hall to see Dave Eggers, Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket), Mike Doughty, Sarah Vowell, and Death Cab for Cutie, all the while raising $18K for 826 Seattle, the youth writing center in Greenwood. Last year's event, also at Bumbershoot, was hosted by Daily Show Resident Expert™ John Hodgman and singer Jonathan Coulton. Eggers, Handler, Gibbard, and Vowell were back for more, along with Decemberist Colin Meloy, Smoosh, and Stephin Merritt. All together, the benefit raised another $10K.

Rob Gordon once said, "The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules."

For once, it was actually nice weather at the Gorge for Sasquatch. Last year was all sturm und drang and the year previous was approximately the temperature of the sun, but the gods smiled down on all gathered in George, Washington yesterday afternoon, as it was a pleasant 80 degrees under partly cloudy skies.

Saturday night, a cool fifty degrees downtown. Parked on Western. Climbed the stairs to the market. Crossed the street at 1st & Pike. Something special in the air -- we could feel it.

This Saturday, Seattle's own The Long Winters will spread indie rock all over the spacious interior of our favorite venue, The Showbox.

The fourth annual KEXP BBQ took place on a day that couldn't have been much prettier. Not a cloud in the sky, so Seattlest was diligent about applying tons o' sunblock and sticking to the shade. This year, the event was all ages, meaning that the area in front of the stage was divided into drunk and sober sections, and the audience featured a lot of cute wittle babies. We witnessed a grand total of four breast-feeding sessions, which we found to be unnatural and borderline obscene.

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.

By now it’s no secret that Seattlest is all ga-ga over local showmasters, Awesome. We’ve recommended numerous times that you, John and Jane Q.P., experience for yourselves this strange and wonderful ensemble, and well, here we are once more.

If you went to Neumo's on Friday and already loved Josh Rouse's music, you had a great time. If you went and did not love his music, he did not win you over.