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Formed in Georgia in the mid-'80s, the Indigo Girls came up in a time and a place where bands like R.E.M. were mixing jangle and folk into their rock, with liberal doses of impressionistic lyrics and individualistic spirit. It was a time of blossoming artistic intent
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If you ever find yourself doubting the vitality and reach of the Indigo Girls, there's a video I'd like to share with you. It's a clip from a music show from the late '80s called Night Music, hosted by David Sanborn and Jools Holland and predating Holland's own long-running musical
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From the '60s to their last waltz in '76, the Band was irreplaceable in formalizing a Northerners' take on Southern rock that was less about passing trends and swilling beer than it was about a reverence for the form and the tradition. These elements were already on their way to
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Listening to Lures' latest single, "Vacant," and noting that it was released in October, it's hard not to think that they missed the prime release date by a couple months. Lures' brand of energetic surf pop is ideal to be danced to all summer long. Relaxed vocals croon over churning
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As the cataloguing and availability of pop music history increases, so do the vast array of influences and aural allusions and references. Sounds churn together, spitting out complex amalgams that owe more to random exposure than they do to whatever radio station you might have tuned into, pre-internet. Because of
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Because electronica is a style that functions effectively removed from the traditional guitar-drum-bass mold, enabling the creation and exploration of a whole new range of sounds, it becomes helpful to find distinctions: is it aggressive like drum 'n' bass and jungle, cartoonish like chiptunes and glitch, cerebral like IDM and trip-hop, or
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First Night Tacoma has always been an embarrassment of riches, and this year's installment looks to be no different. The New Year's Eve celebration is packed with any number of bands worthy of highlighting - bands like the lovely OK Sweetheart, the dance-rock of The Fame Riot, and that elder
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I can't be certain, but it seems likely that SEACATS may have the distinction of being the first band I've covered that were born out of a comedy web series. Formed by Kelso, Wash., by brothers Josh and Mike Davis, SEACATS make boisterous power-pop that recalls the guitar heroics of
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"I was on a ship, in Croatia," says Stephanie Anne Johnson, "and I checked my email and saw a message that said, ‘Hi, my name is Dylan and I'm a producer for The Voice. We'd like you to come on the show." In the weeks leading up to local singer-songwriter
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Slutty Hearts' recent EP, Bones in the Snow, opens by referencing Nancy Sinatra. It's a fitting introduction to the Slutty Hearts ethos, which shares some qualities with Sinatra's spooky romanticism. Dark garage pop gems positively drip from the mouths and fingers of Slutty Hearts - devoted exercises in melodicism and
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Slutty Hearts' recent EP, Bones in the Snow, opens by referencing Nancy Sinatra. It's a fitting introduction to the Slutty Hearts ethos, which shares some qualities with Sinatra's spooky romanticism. Dark garage pop gems positively drip from the mouths and fingers of Slutty Hearts - devoted exercises in melodicism and
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The landscape of music is lousy with bawdy comedy music - from the party records of the '50s and '60s, through on to Blowfly's reign as the king of bad taste, and a slew of generally puerile and juvenile underground releases catching dust in discount bins - but this trend
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Two of the influences cited by Dames do well to encapsulate their particular charm: Mac DeMarco and Tacoma's own (possibly defunct?) Makeup Monsters. What all three of these groups have in common is a certain embrace of a slacker ethos, which presents not as apathy, but as a shaggy energy.
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Working my way through Modern Kin's self-titled debut, the word that kept swimming around in my head was "skeletal." Though the songs are adorned with expansive reverb, what you really pick out and identify are the three people behind the songs: Drew Grow, Kris Doty and Jeremiah Hayden. Even though
