That is, get Mingle, The Saturday Knights' latest all-star party album that is blowing everyone's minds in the music world and beyond, for free right now. Go to music blog Seattle Subsonic for the download link, and do it now, because soon Seattlest's favorite hiphop/rock/?!! album of the year will cost you money again! Our favorite tracks: "Dog Star," "Private School Girl," and "Nobody Beats Us." But we could have said any three tracks, really,......

GEORGETOWN SMELLS LIKE ART When the creativity faucet is on full blast, it can get tricky to turn it off--so these 25 local artists aren't even going to try. Instead, they have signed up to participate in a 24-hour art marathon in a beautiful old building in Georgetown, presented to the general public by CoCA for the 16th year in a row. By the time you read this, the marathon will have commenced; there are......

"Chromeo @ Capitol Hill Block Party, 7/26/2008," by Seattlest Donte. Ahh, Saturday! A chronologically arranged discussion of the Block Party, Day Zwei (Day Eins here): The Physics: It's weird to see them in daylight, but then again, their happy, casual version of hiphop meshes well with a sunny day and a stomach full of the Champagne of Beer from the nearby beer garden. Justo and Thig had Monk Wordsmith (Thig's brother) on stage with......

Yes, you read that correctly. Donut! Eating! Competition! Are your artery walls closing in yet? Don't worry, because all calories from the donut consumption on Saturday will be null-and-voided by the blast of hiphoppy surfer punk rock played live by The Saturday Knights while you cram your mouth full of cakey, frosted goodness at the downtown Top Pot on (appropriately) Saturday. Last year, Bob of The Blakes won; this year, our money's on a......

The Boston Phoenix came up with a "Best Of" list, organized state by state, of the greatest bands ever. They chose three categories for each state of our diverse Union: Best Band of All Time, Best Solo of All Time, and Best New Band. Are you ready for Boston's take on Washington's musical legacy? Results after the jump. Hint: Photo by Michael Is Soliloquy. Thanks!......

The Budos Band opened up the night in style! Photo by Seattlest's Abbey Simmons. The Saturday Knights/Budos Band show at Nectar on Friday night was sold out by 9:30 p.m., as in guest lists closed, no further entrance, and crowds of people partying outside the gates. Seattlest arrived at a normally respectable hour of 10:45 p.m. to find the Budos Band's shiny brass horns blaring, congo drums thumping, and every inch of Nectar packed with......

THAT'S SO DOPE: Dope Emporium is a free festival of all things hiphop: DJs, MCs, spoken word artists, graffiti artists, and more. It's going down as part of Artopia, an arts extravaganza in the extremely dope neighborhood of Georgetown, so hop on a bus and experience some of the best Seattle hiphop has to offer. Our picks: Candidt, Orbitron, B-Girl Bench, Waves of the Mind and Dim Mak. Hot! 2 p.m. - 10 p.m.,......

G IS FOR GEORGETOWN: There are few parts of Seattle we love more and know less about than gritty and glorious Georgetown. We were smitten from the moment we walked into Jules Maes Saloon three years ago and have never looked back. Adding considerable wonderfulness to the neighborhood is the Georgetown Music Festival—Seattle's most under-appreciated music festival—happening this weekend. If you love local music like we do, you will be spending Friday and Saturday......

"King Cobra's hiphop hymen has been broken!" declared Gatsby of Cancer Rising last night. It's true: The Physics were the first hiphop group ever to grace the newish stage in the rock-n'-roll-ified nightclub, and Cancer Rising made it extra official in a mixed line-up featuring the metal-rock, electric guitar-wielding Emeralds as well as Portland's indie rockers Caves. The night was "magical," as Caves singer Jacob Carey deemed it. Welcome, King Cobra, to Seattlest's short list......

OPERATION BRIGHT PINK FLAMINGO: If you were at Myrtle Edwards Park last weekend, you may have noticed a city-approved flock of plastic flamingos hanging out on the lawns. Lest you prematurely begin the spiral into "WTF, can't we just have normal public art," let us inform you that the flamingos were only visiting to remind everyone that real Chilean flamingos are available as of tomorrow to gawk at over in the Woodland Park Zoo.......

READING: This weekend, 2008 Seattle Reads author Dinaw Mengestu is making the rounds to the city's libraries to read from The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears. This novel about immigrant life in D.C. has gotten so much love from so many corners that we're kind of ashamed we haven't read it already. If you don't want to purchase this book, sign up now on the Holds list at the library: we're currently Hold #424.......

Photo of The Physics by Ryan Lewis. We love some hiphop with our coffee in the morning, and KEXP's John In The Morning obliged us today with a live set from easy-going, hard-working local stars The Physics! You can stream the set and interview on KEXP's website by clicking here and setting the time to 8:07am. What you'll hear: "Brand New Thang", "I Heart Beer", an interview (including some good-natured ribbing about The Physics'......

Three shows have claims on our affections for Friday night: Onry Ozzborn’s solo set at Nectar, We Wrote The Book On Connectors at the Blue Moon, and the hippest hiphop night to grace Belltown in awhile, “The Corner” at the Rendezvous Room. We’ll let you make your own call between those three, but let us just say this: The Corner involves old-school players and new-school fools in the same plush, stylish room. With the volume......

"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,......

We're excited about three hiphop(ish) shows this weekend: RJD2 at Chop Suey, Lucky I Am at Nectar, and Willie Will's album release party at Chop Suey. RJD2's got groove practically oozing from his pores. This producer, multi-instrument musician and singer came up in Columbus and was signed to DefJux as a hiphop artist. His recent albums take a turn away from typical hiphop sampling and his early focus on electronic sounds towards more of an......

This year's chance to get your Houston gangsta rap on with Bun B—the living half of utterly bomb '90s gangsta duo UGK—is tonight at Neumo's. Why we want to go: radio darling Bun B's releasing II Trill on April 29, and we definitely want to hear the new material. He's got a track record of collaborating with mainstream rap's hottest new artists (2005's Trill featured such names as the late Pimp C, Jay-Z, and Scarface),......

Macklemore, recently back from touring Europe, sat down with us at Vivace last Saturday to discuss his art, his ego, and his shoes (among other topics). Get the low-down here, and don’t miss the man’s show at the Vera Project tonight with Illmaculate and Ricky Pharoe! What’s going on artistically for you? You’re working on your new album. What’s up? I'm excited about my music for the first time in a while. I recently just......

This is going to be a damn good weekend, snow or no. And, it all starts tonight with Jack Wilson and the Wifestealers at the Sunset. Tomorrow, we've got Sera Cahoone's CD release party at the Tractor, celebrating the release of her awesome new disc Only As the Day is Long (SubPop). And then, the whole weekend will round off with Bob Schneider at Chop Suey. We're happy about all this because we love all......

We just spent a good three minutes and 48 seconds drooling over the hot new music video of "Ready For We" from The Physics. This is our favorite song from their unexpectedly fabulous 2007 release, FutureTalk, and we're really digging the video's dark, stylin' aesthetic! Check it out: Ready For We - Music Video from Marty Martin on Vimeo.......

Tonight: Style Out in SoDo or Neema/Cool Nutz/Cancer Rising in Fremont? The choice is difficult for local hiphop fans. On the one hand, we've got Alpha P (classic and skilled pros), The Physics (hilarious and enthused), and a host of talented performers working the social movement angle of hiphop. On the other hand, we've got Neema (he's promised a bunch of new material tonight), Cool Nutz (from NE Portland, repping the deliciously dope King......

Seattlest is quaking in their boots (bought especially for the occasion) with excitement for this years SXSW in Austin, Tex. We're making our initial sojourn to the festival and are so pleased to see there will be a strong Seattle contingent joining us in Austin this year. There are, to our calculations, 29 Seattle bands officially associated with the festival this year. These bands will be playing sanctioned showcases, what we will call "the......

In short, no. (Duh.) But, Paste magazine ran an article recently suggesting that, perhaps, it's on its way out. We thought the article made a lot of valid and interesting points, like this one: “Mayor [Greg] Nickels and other city leaders don’t have a clue about the impact of their policies on this community,” says Tim Hatley, lobbyist for the Seattle Nightlife & Music Association. “If you’re Dan [Cowan, owner of Seattle fixture the......

Not so long ago, wandering the halls of a local music venue, we noticed a cool-looking poster for a band called Mono in VCF. Strange name, we thought. Some nights later, making dinner at home. Kind of half-listening to KEXP when a song came on that sounded at once old and new. We turned the volume up and listened as an arresting female voice pleaded with us to "run fast, escape..." as a troupe of......

When you become as popular on the local music scene as "Awesome", it’s good to give back to the community, and do a little something for the kids. Hence Here's What Happened, which the band describes as a children’s show with an adult brain. We asked to the band members to pass along some advice to the children-- who will always be our future. John Ackerman—"Keep playing no matter how old you get." "You......

Musical hyphenate-extraordinaire Shawn Smith has been fronting bands and playing solo in Seattle for about 15 years. As recent, local music history goes, he’s as seminal a figure as Kurt Cobain—and more prolific—though not nearly as high-profile. He should be. Always busy, Shawn’s currently spending time with Kevin Wood, covering Malfunkshun tunes (and writing new ones) as From the North. His band Brad has a new album recorded and will, he’s confirmed, play in......

In Slate today, Taylor Clark declared our -Ist-less neighbor to the south "America's indie rock Mecca," then spent several paragraphs dropping names and figuring out why. His conclusion? It's easy to live here. In the words of a friend of mine who used to be the music editor at the local alt-weekly, Portland is like a resort community for indie rockers who spend half the year working themselves ragged on tour. You can venture into......

The Georgetown Music Fest is the main game in town this weekend and if you're looking to see local music on Saturday or Sunday you'll almost certainly be there at some point. Or you can head back to the Gorge for John Mayer and Ben Folds. Your call. We'll be in Georgetown, and we're specifically looking forward to Voyager One's Saturday night set: Of course there's also Skullbot, The Trucks, Earlimart, Tennis Pro, The Sea......

If you're wondering why Seattlest has been so disputatious lately--bitching about local music venues, local novelists, and local sports team management--it's not because we're angry, joyless pessimists. No, we're just trying to fire up Mariner outfielder Jose Guillen. In a notebook entry titled "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry" Guillen tells the Times' Geoff Baker that aggravation is what makes him tick:"I'm going to tell you this — you don't want to piss me......

It's local music review website/fledgling indie PR firm The Wig Fits All Heads' third anniversary, and meanwhile it's also booking/PR/management/etc. Northwest Bands' fourth, so to celebrate the two have combined their forces to throw some big-ass birthday parties. In celebration of 3 and 4 years in existence (respectively), The Wig Fits All Heads and Northwestbands.com present… Wig Bash '07 featuring Iceage Cobra Shim The Trucks Seaweed Jack Friday, March 30, 2007 @ The High......

Last year, at 22, cellist Joshua Roman became the youngest principal player in Seattle Symphony history. What did you accomplish when you were 22? Yeah, we thought so. Now 23, Roman makes his Seattle solo debut at Town Hall Friday night [tickets], playing JS Bach's 6th Suite, modern composer Gyorgy Ligeti's solo Sonata, and the "daunting and virtuosic" solo Sonata, Op. 8 by Zoltan Kodaly. Your bio says you've played cello with some rock bands--anyone......