Head to the Sunset tonight for Sub Pop band Oxford Collapse. Along with Love as Laughter, it's a veritable indie pop fest! It's hard to know what to expect from a hardcore band named Fucked Up, but apparently it involves manboobs and a bunny mask. They're also playing tonight, at the Vera Project.......

Break out the hackysack and butterfly wings, because former Phish bassist Mike Gordon is at the Tractor tonight in support of his new solo record, The Green Sparrow. Sub Pop singer-songwriters Sera Cahoone and Daniel Martin Moore play Neumo's, while The Architects bring the crazy to El Corazon.......

Sup Pop is well-known for unabashed self-promotion and grandiose overstatement. Thing is, most of that (tongue-in-cheek) hyperbole is deserved. The much-touted reunion of Green River, one of the label's first signees, was no different. It truly was the highlight of Sub Pop's two-day 20th birthday bash. From the moment Green River—drummer Alex Shumway, guitarists Steve Turner, Stone Gossard, and Bruce Fairweather, bassist Jeff Ament, and frontman Mark Arm—took the stage, the crowd (packed tight and......

Sub Pop wasn't the only iconic local business to celebrate a big anniversary this week. Archie McPhee's—the one-stop shop for all things rubber chicken, bacon, and fun-related—celebrated 25 years of business yesterday. The quintessential Seattle store marked the occasion with a sidewalk sale and a serenade from a few of Seattle's own Rat City Roller Girls. Here's to another 25 years of devil duckies, wind-up librarians, yodeling pickles, and whatever wonderful impish toys those crazy......

Still not Sub Popped out? After a long weekend chockablock of 20th anniversary festivities, Sub Pop has one more show to offer: tonight at Neumo's, it's Wolf Parade and Foals (along with openers The Listening Party). Even though the lineup has been "secret" for a while now, that Wolf Parade was playing was kinda obvious (see clues here). Foals was unexpected, though. Neumo's just made the official announcement of tonight's bill, noting that "tickets are......

While this weekend is mostly dominated by all that Sub Pop hooha (and once again, kids, 520's closed, so take alternate routes), there's still a few shows besides those that Katelyn already mentioned. Tonight, head to Ballard for the roots and Americana of Portland's Scotland Barr and the Slow Drags at the Sunset. Tomorrow afternoon (1-3pm), break out your best eyewear for Lisa Loeb's appearance at the downtown Barnes and Noble.......

ARTISTS X-ING, WITH CAMERAS: A motley crew of photographers are gathering down at the Market tonight to explore the area through their camera lenses for the evening. They're meeting at that brass pig by the fish throwers (could this event get any more Seattle?) and will be snapping photos around the Market, downtown, Pioneer Square, the waterfront, and more. It's open to anyone who wants to join in the spirit of discovery and photography. 6......

If you're planning on hitting up Sub Pop's three-day 20th anniversary celebration, you best be getting those tickets now. Friday's comedy extravaganza at the Moore (featuring funnymen David Cross, Patton Oswalt, Eugene Mirman, and Todd Barry) just sold out, and tix to Saturday's event at Marymoor Park are long gone. That leaves you with two options for Sub Pop-related revelry this weekend: the Gutter Twins and Brothers of the Sonic Cloth at the Showbox Saturday......

NPR's quiz show Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! hasn't taped an episode in Seattle since 2001, but last night at the Paramount, they had a sold-out venue full of Seattleites dressed up in their best fleeces eager to clap and guffaw on cue. Apparently, a radio show that runs about forty-five minutes on the air takes more than twice that live, including a humorously eerie segment at the end of the night where the cast......

TRASH TALKING: Not totally through with film after SIFF? Tonight, trash cinema provocateur John Waters appears at Seattle Arts & Lectures. From groundbreaking indie work like Pink Flamingos to cult classics like Hairspray to contemporary satire like Pecker and Cecil B. Demented, Waters has been pushing the boundaries of the cinema for about 40 years, and has moved from the indie fringes to the mainstream with popular stage musicals of his classic films. 7:30 p.m.......

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......

It's weeks like this that make us glad to be writing about rock in Seattle, because a pair of American indie's leading lights are coming to town this Thursday and Friday. First up, Thursday night The Dirty Projectors play Chop Suey. A Brooklyn indie rock outfit started by Dave Longstretch, The Dirty Projectors are touring in support of their fascinating 2007 album Rise Above. As the story goes, Longstretch was cleaning out some of his......

That long-awaited EP from Seattle's Fleet Foxes is out, a few months in advance of the new album due June-ish. Sun Giant (Sub Pop) provokes something more than cautious optimism on the part of Pitchfork: "It's a sovereign work: a statement EP, supremely crafted and confident." An 8.7! It's also just $5, mp3 download or CD. The Pitchfork review goes on to say:...Fleet Foxes' songs inhabit a very specific, very rural space that's as much......

Sometimes we'd rather experience a new (or new-ish) band's sound in person, rather than be tipped off by their recorded work. So we haven't listened to Great Northern's streaming songs, played their (first) 2007 album, or let fly The Gutter Twins' online teaser. (We didn't even listen to that live Twins clip; sorry if the sound sucks.) Tomorrow night, when the former opens for the latter, we expect to experience true aural pleasure. Great......

The UK's Guardian Unlimited spoke to Seattle's Fleet Foxes (thanks, CHS) ("a group whose unique sound is hymnal and baroque, with mandolins and banjos and extraordinary vocal harmonies") and got the scoop on Seattle's development opportunity. Lead singer Pecknold says something like, "Go Sodo, young bands," saying that Georgetown "is probably a bit like SoHo in New York in the 1970s, with a lot of industrial space." But what got our attention is this nugget,......

Last week, Seattlest lamented the four-year absence of a live-in-person-on-a-Seattle-stage Mark Lanegan. Yesterday, we found new tour dates on the Gutter Twins’ (Lanegan’s latest project) Sub Pop page. And guess what? The Twins—Lanegan and Greg Dulli—will actually play Seattle during their "Maiden Voyage" tour. It'll be the Showbox (original)—site of Lanegan's last full-set appearance—on March 4, the date the duo's first album, Saturnalia, hits the bins. Score. Thanks for reading your record contract Seattlest,......

Has it really been over four years since you've taken a stage in Seattle, Mark? We could be wrong, but your late 2003 Showbox show—a great one, by the way—is the last we heard about. (QOTSA appearances don't count.) Assuming we're right, that's just silly. It's not like you haven't had albums to support. Your 2006 pairing with Isobel Campbell was a gorgeous, syrup-and-sour-mash treat—but did you two share any live love outside of Europe?......

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.......

Dear, sweet Arthur & Yu. The local band (on new Sub Pop pseudo-imprint Hardly Art) has dreamy duo Grant Olsen and Sonya Westcott at its core, with Bobby Wane, Ben Kersten, and Scott Blue rounding out the group. Their music is simple and pretty and straight outta the swinging 60s. So sez Gorilla Vs. Bear: You know how on MySpace bands always list their "influences," and as you listen to the songs, you can't......

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......

People are strange. They say Ann Coulter is funny. They pay a $20 cover to have a conversation in a club. At the Showbox a few weeks ago, we saw Lavender Diamond, opening for the New Pornographers, cut their set short after telling the audience it was hard to play with all the talking going on. So we were worried heading back to the Showbox for the Jose Gonzalez/Tiny Vipers show because neither of......

Are we in White Center? Baghdad? No! We're at the former Sub Pop Records headquarters, 4th and Vine. Some kinda home furnishings store, Medallion Imports, selling crap on the sidewalk, for God's sake. What has Belltown come to?......

We're trying to test Amazon's new MP3 download service because we hate CDs and iTunes and we love DRM-free music files and compensating artists for their work. Hang out with us a minute here while we try this... Local band Kinski has a new album out and since we felt the last time they released something they were finally on the right track we definitely want to check this one out. Their label is Sub......

Last night at the Crocodile was one of those evenings you stumble on where things just keep getting better and better. We went down to see headliners Sea Wolf [MySpace] after hearing them do an in-studio bit at KEXP (not posted yet). About two songs in, the indie-folk melodies and lead singer's baritone duets with cello swept us and Shelves of Vinyl off our feet. They're a six-piece -- Alex Brown Church on vocals and......

"If I were still mayor, and I knew I was coming to an event like this," Charley Royer told us before last night's political fundraiser pub quiz, "I'd make sure there wasn't a question about Seattle that I didn't know the answer to." Nice in theory. Mayor Nickels' team won the night (we swear we didn't rig it!), but he was only able to get 6 out of 10 on our Seattle round. Can you......

MUSIC: Criminally underrated British singer-songwriter Jim Noir delivers his psych-pop twice tonight: first an acoustic set at Sonic Boom in Ballard, and then rocking out at the Croc as part of the Sub Pop/Barsuk Winter Celebration and Holiday Party Extravaganza. 6pm // Sonic Boom Ballard // Free 8pm // Croc // $10 SINGIN': Have a very piratey Christmas at this month's Northwest Seaport sing-along, full of shanties and featuring a recitation of "A Visit from......

Garlic Gulch, that's what Belltown's Fourth Avenue has turned into, between downtown and Denny Way. At the north end, the venerable Zeek's appears to take intergalactic orders for traditional, predictable, topping-heavy slices. Bambino, a block away on Cedar, styles itself as "East Coast Pizza," whatever that means (thin crust, light toppings, one assumes). Given the flap over Domino's so-called Brooklyn-Style Pizza, probably not a great idea. Ordered a Tropicale (east-coast-speak for Hawaiian); despite 575-degree, wood-fired......

Tuesday 14th >>> P.O.S. at Chop Suey. P.O.S. is one of the latest hot MCs to "blow up" (the term being relative since this is still very underground hip-hop we're discussing here). In any case, there's an opener called the Cleveland Steamers, and how could you not want to see what that sounds like? 8pm doors; $10. All ages. >>> Hot Chip at Neumo's. Hot Chip blurs the line between the electronic and indie......

Before we get into the review, let's draw your attention to the Kristin Hersh show this Tuesday, and Patricia Barber next Tuesday and Wednesday. TIME says Patricia Barber is what you get when you "cross Diana Krall with Susan Sontag." Who can pass that up? Rosie Thomas/Lambchop: 9/28 We had never heard Sub Pop's Rosie Thomas [myspace] before and were delighted to discover a terrific folk-pop vocalist and lyricist in one package. While endearingly kooky......

-Naveed Afzal Haq was charged this afternoon and the prosecutor is considering killing him. Dave Neiwert has some words in response to Malkin on this. -PoP appears to be testing his boss's resolve on the estate tax issue. -The previously sanely-named Sightline Institute has the scoop on some expensive aluminium jobs in Alcoa. -There's a rowing race crossing the Atlantic right now and some local guys are winning it. Row like the wind, guys.......