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It's been a couple decades, but third wave ska revival giants Less Than Jake have remarkably stuck around with essentially the same line-up. Even though they've kept up with releasing album after album, things haven't fundamentally changed about the band; the order of the day remains the sort of bright,
Music
Alejandro Jodorowsky was a complicated artist with a wide reach. His friends in the ‘70s valley of wild artistic expression included Salvador Dali, H.R. Giger, Gong, Pink Floyd, John Lennon and Orson Welles (as depicted in the recent documentary documenting a failed Frank Herbert adaptation, Jodorowsky's Dune). His 1970 film,
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Psychomagic's recent self-titled album begins with flutes and a tremulous vocals from Fusco, before breaking off into a kaleidoscopic array of '60 sounds, all blended up and spat out in a colorful cornucopia. In performance, Psychomagic never takes itself so seriously. Everything is filtered through the glassy-eyed gaze of a
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Sporty Lee's recent album, Allotropes, is an immense-sounding record. The moniker of Jason Heminger, Sporty Lee is an impeccable writer of alternative folk-pop, blending elements of earnest stadium rock and quiet moments of reflection. Live, Sporty Lee disposes of the lush instrumentation present of Allotropes, leaving him bare with an
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The Bad Things are born out of cabaret and drink. A motley crew, made up of urchins and drunkards, the Bad Things bring theatricality and tongue-in-cheek fatalism to a variety of genres. Taking cues from the likes of Tom Waits and the Pogues, the band piles accordions, mandolins, singing saws,
Music
One of the first vinyl LPs I ever purchased - back when I was in the habit of grazing through the discount bins and picking up anything that looked vaguely familiar from years listening to classic rock - was Singles - 45's and Under by Squeeze. It's a near-perfect collection
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The Zags are a prime example of the kind of devotees that worship at the feet of the perfect pop song. It's not surprising that the band, hailing fro Portland, has received so many comparisons to Squeeze, though they've only been around for a little over a year. In that
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A few years ago, I was tasked with going to the Tacoma Dome to review a live production of the hipster kids' show, Yo Gabba Gabba!. Even though I was given two tickets, I couldn't convince any of my friends to come with. There I was, a grown man, in
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As a founding member of Barleywine Revue and a member of Rusty Cleavers, Forest Beutel has had his share of carrying the torch for old-fashioned folk and bluegrass in Tacoma. Armed with a banjo and a harmonica, Beutel is releasing his debut solo album, If You Label Me, You Negate
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We're all intimately familiar with the sort of boorish character that lets every insulting thought that passes through his mind fly out at inappropriate times, only to have him fall back on the supposedly exonerating excuse that he was "just being honest." Is it better to be
Stage
We're all intimately familiar with the sort of boorish character that lets every insulting thought that passes through his mind fly out at inappropriate times, only to have him fall back on the supposedly exonerating excuse that he was "just being honest." Is it better to be truthful to the
Music
I recall reading an interview with Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, where he commented on the bittersweet trend of critics comparing him to people like Syd Barrett, Daniel Johnston and Brian Wilson. His response was something along the lines of, "Yeah, they're all iconic musical minds, but they're also all
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During the last incarnation of my music festival, Squeak and Squawk, I was lucky enough to be able to bring up a band from Oakland, California, called Twin Steps. Led by Drew Pearson, their maniacal frontman, Twin Steps are a stubbornly undefinable group of weirdos who mix warped vocal samples
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There are certain combinations of sounds that would've never occurred to you were possible until someone inexplicably decides to shake things up. Have you ever listened to some good, punky emo and wondered where all the sci-fi sound effects were? Wonder no more! Hailing from Oakland, California, Never Young have
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Toucan Sam and the Fruitloops seems like a perverse exercise in buckshot blasts of gimmickry. Made up of a Polyphonic Spree-level assemblage of musicians, the Fruitloops specialize in orchestrated punk rock explosions of popular songs done in ukulele. See where I'm coming from? Still, one can only scoff so much
