The Stranger's Free Guide To Bumbershoot 2013! by Noisy Creek

October 1

KEITH JARRETT, GARY PEACOCK & JACK DEJOHNETTE 30TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium

Jazz piano trio Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette bring their locked-in, harmonically unrivaled, rhythmically bolted-down music to Benaroya Hall for a one-night-only concert event.

An Earshot Jazz Festival co-presentation TICKETS FROM: $30

October 2

STEVE MARTIN & THE STEEP CANYON RANGERS FEATURING EDIE BRICKELL

S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium

Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers return to the Benaroya Hall stage! The legendary actor has emerged as one of the most acclaimed bluegrass banjo players working today.

Steve Martin’s performance generously underwritten by Jeff Lehman and Katrina Russell.

October 20 CHRIS CORNELL WITH SPECIAL GUEST BHI BHIMAN

S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium

See rock icon Chris Cornell unplugged and up close when he performs songs from his entire eclectic catalogue on the Benaroya Hall stage.

Media sponsor:

Tickets From: $49

TICKETS GOING FAST!

November 5

EMMYLOU HARRIS & RODNEY CROWELL WITH RICHARD THOMPSON

S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium

Country Music Hall of Famer Emmylou

Harris continues to inspire with her latest album, Old Yellow Moon, a collaboration with longtime friend Rodney Crowell. Guitarist Richard Thompson joins the duo for this pitch-perfect evening.

Media sponsor: TICKETS From: $40

November 7 MAKANA

Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall

Virtuosic and versatile, Makana defies description. His solo performance is an exhilarating ride through the breadth of slack key, folk, rock, bluegrass, ethnic and jazz, and his distinctly original songs are infused with the spirit of Hawaii.

TICKETS FROM: $23

November 16 & 17 OVER THE RHINE WITH NOAH GUNDERSEN

TICKETS GOING FAST!

Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall

This Ohio-based husband and wife team — touring in support of their newest album, Meet Me at the Edge of the World — bring their wondrous new-Southern sound to Benaroya Hall for one night of timeless songs and fierce beauty.

TICKETS FROM: $31

November 22 & 23 CASA PATAS FLAMENCO FOUNDATION PRESENTS TEMPLANZA

Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall

Join Casa Patas Flamenco for fiery footwork and live flamenco music.

TICKETS: $39

December 12

HEART & FRIENDS HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium

Recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Ann and Nancy Wilson are behind some of rock’s most iconic hits. Don’t miss their return to the Benaroya Hall stage as they perform with special guests at this hometown holiday concert.

TICKET FROM: $50

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowelll

Chris Cornell

Nancy and Ann Wilson

Over the Rhine

Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette, and Gary Peacock

Give It to Me Easy

The Zombies Are Always in Season

BY DAVE SEGAL

Rod Argent ﬂaked on our 9 a.m. interview, so we’re starting 90 minutes later than scheduled. The revered Zombies keyboardist/songwriter said he was working on a new song and forgot

about the time. (That old alibi?)

Whatever the case, it’s impossible to be angry with Rod Argent. He may be 68 and occasionally absentminded, but he’s perhaps the jolliest, most upbeat person I’ve interviewed in 30 years. An absurdly high percentage of his words bubble forth buoyed by hearty chuckles, and his dulcet, expressive voice makes everything he says seem utterly fascinating (and much of it is). Argent has ample reason to be cheerful. He wrote three of the Zombies’ biggest hits—“She’s Not There,” “Tell Her No,” and “Time of the Season”—all of which deserve heavy rotation on eternity’s jukebox. (The latter has been sampled more than a dozen times by hiphop and electronic-music producers.) Adept with classical and jazz music as well as rock, he also cowrote (with former Zombie Chris White) the British prog-rock band Argent’s massive 1972 smash “Hold Your Head Up.”

The Zombies Sun, 8:15–9:15 pm, Mural Amphitheater

dense 1968 humanity was that it couldn’t instantly, madly love Odessey and Oracle. It took more than a decade, but the album began to gain traction with an increasing number of Brit-pop aﬁcionados, including Paul Weller, who declared OAO one of his favorite LPs of all time when he was writing his own hits with the Jam.

masterpiece—well, except for “Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914)”; that one can be skipped with no tears.

“Colin made a point from the late ’90s onward to do vocal exercises every day,” Argent says. “You don’t have to lose your chops, but you have to work at it if you’re not gonna do that as you get older. Colin has always worked on his. We do everything in the original keys, always.”

You can attribute Argent and Blunsone’s suppleness partially to clean living. Argent claims that the Zombies largely eschewed drugs, although they did enjoy their liquor. “I’ve never had anything against people taking drugs, but it’s never particularly interested me,” Argent says. “It always felt like a fairly crude mechanism to me. The original Zombies broke up in 1967—up until that time, apart from an occasional bit of marijuana, people I knew had no knowledge of drugs. It was maybe from ’67 onward, LSD ﬁrst came into prominence. We broke up just as drugs started to become important.”

“I think I can play better now than I could then. I can sing better now than I could then. Some of that survival of ability and chops has something to do with—thank you, somebody out there—that I’m not damaged.”

Surely when the Zombies went supernova, they indulged in some extravagant activities. Right, Rod? “I’m not prepared to tell you, really,” Argent says, laughing.

Oh, come on. “No, no, no. No. No. All I’ll say on the drugs side of things is we didn’t indulge to excess. Like everybody else, we would always drink too much. That was just a fact of being on the road—never to a point where it was a problem. Maybe none of us had an addictive personality, so it never got to the point where it was a problem.”

Let’s hear some tales of debauchery, man. Statute of limitations and all that. He chuckles, “No, I’m not going to tell you.”

Well, maybe they get into a bit of mischief now? Um, no. “What you can’t do is burn the candle at both ends as you get older,” Argent afﬁrms. “When we ﬁnish a concert, Colin and I are ready just to wind down and go back to the hotel. We feel that we have to conserve our energy. But onstage, the energy is 100 percent.”

Rod Argent is a wealthy, canonical rock artist, yet he’s still hungry to create new music. He and honey-toned Zombies singer Colin Blunstone and former Argent bandmates (but not White, who’s retired from the stage) are taking a well-deserved victory lap 45 years after the Zombies initially split due to the demoralizing commercial failure of their alltime classic album Odessey and Oracle (#100 in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time poll, if you’re keeping score).

In retrospect, it’s hard to believe how

During their initial peak run (1964–1969), the Zombies made the Beatles seem like the Rolling Stones. In other words, they had little raw animal magnetism, but plenty of choirboy charm and bookish suavity—the proverbial nice-bloke group. While these Englishmen loved covering songs by black American musicians, they didn’t really convince in this style. Rather, as Odessey and Oracle indisputably proved, the Zombies excelled at ornate pop that carried an almost liturgical aura. See “Changes” for the zenith of this approach. Unfortunately, the complexly layered vocal harmonies need more people than is feasible to execute on this tour. Similar issues sadly prevent the unbearably poignant “Brief Candles” and the sublimely ﬂowery “Hung Up on a Dream” from getting aired.

Powered by White and Argent’s nuanced song structures and nutritiously sweet melodies and Blunstone’s hushed, devotional vocals, Odessey is the rare album that still invigorates after a hundred-plus listens. It’s impossible to exhaust the exquisitely ebullient and melancholy pleasures of this

While 99.7 percent of Bumbershoot attendees likely just want the Zombies to do their ’60s classics, Argent stresses more than once that “the last thing we want to do is just go out there and do nothing else but be a nostalgia band. We honestly enjoy rediscovering the old canon and doing stuff that maybe we didn’t even play live the ﬁrst time around.” He adds that they’ll be improvising when possible and playing four songs from the Zombies’ 2011 album Breathe Out, Breathe In. Don’t fret, though: Most of the Bumber-

It’s hard to believe how dense 1968 humanity was that it couldn’t instantly love Odessey and Oracle

shoot set will focus on the hits and almost half of Odessey, as well as “Hold Your Head Up” and a handful of Blunstone solo cuts such as “I Don’t Believe in Miracles” and “This Old Heart of Mine.”

Many Zombies tunes, Argent says, “have a bit of improvisation in them, and it means we can vary them a bit each night and not just go through the motions. We try to shape and move things forward. In our minds, that gives us a feeling of legitimacy a bit more and a fresh energy.”

Unlike many aging rockers, Argent and Blunstone haven’t let their skills wither.

Okay, let’s talk about something wholesome, like Argent’s Mellotron sound, which sacralized so much of Odessey and Oracle How did he get it to resonate so differently compared to the Moody Blues and the Beatles? “Well, I don’t know. As I remember it, we walked into Abbey Road Studios virtually as the Beatles were walking out, having just done Sgt. Pepper’s. Lennon left his Mellotron in the studio. We thought, ‘We’ll have a bit of that.’ [Laughs] I just used the sounds that were there. There were only a few presets on there. Maybe I chose the ones that McCartney and Lennon didn’t use.”

We haven’t talked much about Argent, Rod’s ambitious post-Zombies prog outﬁt. When you dig beyond “Hold Your Head Up” and the Kiss-covered “God Gave Rock ’n’ Roll to You,” you discover a catalog teeming with some incredibly complex, weird excursions worthy of your begrudging respect. “We always tried to do our own thing and not be commercial for its own sake,” Argent says. “Which is actually true for the Zombies, as well. Right at the beginning with the Zombies, we were progressive in the sense that we never thought we’ve got to repeat what we’ve just done. We never thought we had to get to the hook in 30 or 40 seconds. We always just tried to work on ideas. ‘Hey, that sounds unusual and fresh. Let’s work on that and see where it goes.’” And it usually goes somewhere very pleasant.

Want to hear something funny? Argent and Blunstone have never seen a zombie ﬁlm.

Comment on zombies or the Zombies at THESTRANGER.COM

THE ZOMBIES (From left) Jim Rodford, Colin Blunstone, Rod Argent, Steve Rodford, and Keith Airey.

KEITH CURTIS

SOUND CHK CHK CHECK

INTERVIEWS BY TRENT MOORMAN

NIC OFFER OF !!! TALKS ACID TRIPS AND RATT

probably gonna have to go ahead and pay for that whole check check check.

Do !!! subscribe to any formulas when you’re recording?

!!! Sat, 6:15–7:15 pm,

There are certain things in the world that make you move. Hurricane-force winds, for instance, or a machine gun spraying bullets at your feet. A freight train headed directly at you will also generally cause movement. A glacier? Glaciers move mountains. Then there’s Sacramento/New York band !!! (Chk Chk Chk). Now, even though !!! aren’t a freight train or a glacier, their hirsute discohouse will move you. Actually, they are a freight train, and you want ’em to mow you down. The rhythm guitar is unstoppable— Mario Andreoni’s ﬁtted rhythm fans across the frets. Add a little wahwah, some distortion, a slight phaser effect, at 120 beats per minute? Kablam! You’ve got a dance-punk craze on your hands. Or did, in 2004, with their release Louden Up Now Presently, with their ﬁfth studio album, Thr!!!er, the dirt of the craze has been glossed up a bit, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less danceable.

Leading the !!! charge is singer/chant specialist Nic Offer. During the band’s instrumental sections, he conducts interpretive, aerobic hand-jive workshops. The music controls him. Look for strut-hopping and hip-thrusting, where it’s Mr. Offer if you’re nasty. The combustion is infectious. So Saturday, raise your Shishkaberries high to the sky, succumb to the Offer, and commence gusto-movement therapy. If you can’t dance to !!!, you’re either a desert cactus or Michelangelo’s David. Offer spoke.

Do you believe in spontaneous combustion?

Like where people just burst into ﬂames? I don’t know. This past Saturday, we played on a beach in San Sebastián, Spain. Immediately after the encore, I kicked off my shoes, ripped off my shirt, and ran and jumped in the ocean. I wasn’t on ﬁre, but I’d like to think I was.

Tell me about partying with Lance Armstrong and Lars Ulrich in Tokyo. Y’all had a saltine cracker ﬁght in the hotel exercise room and Lance got pissed? Then Lars wouldn’t get off the bidet?

Well, if we’re talking about celebs, I’d rather talk about the first time we played in London. We were leaving for the airport and still had some very stinky green bud. It was this fancy hotel, and I saw a dude with dreadlocks in the lobby. I figured I should offer it to him. He said, “Of course, thank you,” and introduced himself by saying he had played with the same bass player for 30 years. Sure enough, we had just given weed to Sly Dunbar [laughs]. I can’t remember if Robbie ever came out, but Michael Rose did. It was a beautiful sunny day, and as Sly walked outside, he sang out—just one of those good mood sing-outs you do sometimes. You know, you always wish you could give back to the musicians who have given you so much, but you never really get that opportunity. Black Uhuru and Sly and Robbie are definitely artists I’m lucky to have given back something to.

Sorry, but I gotta ask: When !!! are at a restaurant, does anyone ever say, “Can I get the check check check?” Uhhh, whoever makes a joke like that is

Not really. I think it’s good to have many different processes so that songs don’t end up all sounding the same. In general, I try to get a good beat kicking on the drum machine and work from there. We still jam a lot, record it, and pick out the parts that get hot and string them together.

How were the Thr!!!er sessions? Who produced? Talk about getting your sounds.

The sessions were a blast. I think at this point in our career, I can safely say we’ve made our best records while we were also having a good time. We also worked the hardest on this one, but it was fun. Jim Eno [Spoon] produced most of the tracks, and it was great learning from him. I really thought he was great at seeing just what each track needed to make it work. To me, he’s truly a born producer. We don’t believe in attempting to get your sound; we believe you just do what you ﬁnd interesting and it will be your sound ’cause it’s you. If anything, you should try to make it sound different from you—and don’t worry, it’ll still be you. The trickiest phase is probably knowing when to wrap it up; it’s easy to keep making it and remaking it. I’m sure a lot of artists would answer similarly.

How did the song “Slyd” come together? I really like that one.

Cronin album, Chance the Rapper’s Acid Rap mixtape, and I’m a Yeezus believer. My favorite songs this summer are “Bipp” by Sophie, “Falling Angel (12” version)” by Dinky, “Finder” by Ninetoes, “To the Disco ’77” by Move D, and “We Still In This Bitch” by B.o.B featuring T.I. and Juicy J.

In your formative years, what albums did you listen to the most?

Formative years? You mean like high school, or when the band was ﬁrst starting? High school was the Smiths’ Meat Is Murder, Lloyd Cole & the Commotions’ Rattlesnakes, OMD’s Crush, New Order’s Substance, and Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Peepshow. In the early years of the band, I’d say it was Chic’s C’est Chic, James Brown’s All-Time Greatest Hits, Sonic Youth’s Washing Machine and Bad Moon Rising, Dr. Dre’s The Chronic 2001, Talking Heads’ More Songs About Buildings and Food, Gang of Four’s Solid Gold, Missy Elliott’s Supa Dupa Fly, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Stereolab, and Unwound.

“Slyd” is a weird one, right? It was really just a beat and a bass line that I had pulled out from a jam with Paul Quattrone [drums] and Mario Andreoni. I literally woke up one morning and thought, “I’d like to make a song modeled after ‘Pump Up the Volume.’” That was made in the crazy, hazy, early days of sampling, when all the breaks were up for grabs and still fresh. What if we made a song like that, but made all the samples up ourselves? We could just string random bits of lyrics together, and make it seem like it was taken from several

I literally woke up one morning and thought, “I’d like to make a song modeled after ‘Pump Up the Volume.’”

different songs. I sent the track to Teresa [Eggers], who was auditioning for us at the time, and she sent back an iPhone recording of her singing the “Slyd” hook in the shower. I asked her to come over and lay it down, which she did, and then we goofed around and said stupid stuff through the delay pedal. I set about cutting it up around the different bits, showed it to Mario, and he laid down more bass lines and that synth at the end. Finally, we took it to a friend, Patrick Ford, in New York, and he made it sound coherent. It’s been one of the funnest songs to play live, which is great, ’cause it was one of those songs we were never sure if people would understand. Though if all our future songs ditched the verse-chorus structure and just had girls giggling through delay pedals, it’d be ﬁne with me.

Let’s do a little playlist of music you’re liking right now—just off the top. Let’s see, lately I’m liking the new Mikal

What do you think is the most underrated band of all time? I’ve always thought Ratt was underrated. Ratt never gets props.

Oh man, are you fucking with me? I used to LOVE Ratt. I did an air-guitar show to “Back for More” in the sixth-grade talent show. It was quite the production. It would be YouTube gold now if someone had videotaped it. Doesn’t it sound like Guns N’ Roses ripped off the beginning of “Scene of the Crime” for “Sweet Child o’ Mine”?

What’s an overrated band?

I’m known for being really open-minded, but Green Day can eat one as far as I’m concerned. I don’t get it. Pop-punk isn’t really my thing, but there are a million catchier bands of that genre. Even the bands they inﬂuenced are better. I’d rather hear Blink-182.

What’s coming up for the rest of the year?

Oh geez, tough to say. Anything can happen. There are a bunch of new songs, but we haven’t started learning them yet. Who knows, maybe the band won’t even like them. I wrote a couple songs with Pittsburgh Track Authority—not sure when those are coming out, but look for that. Paul’s working a lot with his band Shockwave Riderz—they’re really awesome.

Okay, phobia time. Did you know that the fear of vegetables is called lachanophobia? Do !!! have any good phobias?

I did not know this. The ﬁrst time I had a bad trip on acid, I had just ﬁnished reading 1984, and I was basically seeing patterns made out of that whole rat scene at the end. Not too fond of rats, but since moving to New York, I’ve learned to deal with it.

Fisher Green

!!! Singer/chant specialist Nic Offer is on the far right.

PIPER FERGUSON

Onward and Upward

Fun. Is the Band You Like Before You Like Good Bands

BY PAUL CONSTANT

People forget about the importance of bands that are the bands you listen to before you become an adult. It’s easy to dismiss the Doors—God, is it ever easy to dismiss the Doors—until you remember that the Doors are the gateway drug that lures teenagers in with their syrupy-sweet trappings (the beautiful, edgy, dead lead singer; the churchy organ; the hyperpretentious but vapid lyrics) and then, once the entire Doors catalog has been purchased or pirated and chewed to grit after endless replays, leaves those teens hungry to discover something a little more durable. For a lot of people—the suburban, the comfortable—there’s simply no path to the Magnetic Fields that doesn’t go through the Doors. I’m not talking about artless pap that everyone listens to, like One Direction or Blink-182. Those shitty bands only beget more shitty bands. I’m talking about bands that have some modicum of talent, even though that talent really serves only to point the way to greater talent. These are stepping-stone bands.

fun. Sun, 3:30–4:45 pm, KeyArena

their Some Nights album is titled “It Gets Better,” and the chorus goes like this: “It gets better/It gets better/It gets better/We’ll get better.” Which in this day and age should at least indicate solidarity. An interviewer for Rolling Stone told fun.’s lead singer, Nate Ruess, that he assumed the song “was about growing up as a gay kid.” Ruess curtly responded, “No, I’m not gay. You’re a terrible Sherlock Holmes. That song is just about losing your virginity.”)

So, no, you’re not required to like fun. These lyrics, from “Some Nights,” surely cannot have been written for functioning adults: “Oh, Lord, I’m still not sure what I stand for/ Whoa-oh/Whoa-oh/Most nights I don’t know anymore… So this is it. I sold my soul for this?/Washed my hands of that for this?/I miss my mom and dad for this?” But come on: Say you’re a kid from Nowheresville, Missouri.

And fun. is the newest, shiniest set of training wheels to dominate popular culture in recent memory. These sorts of bands always take a lot of shit from people who’ve heard more than 36 albums in their lives, and some of that shit is warranted. I mean, their big hit single, “We Are Young,” is maybe the most obvious song I’ve heard since the Black Eyed Peas split up. This is a song that practically writes itself: dah-DAH-dah-dah-dah-dahhhhh/DAH-dah-daaaaaahhhhhh. If fun. hadn’t released this song, a bootleg recording of a hobo on Wilshire Boulevard whistling the melody could’ve at least cleared number ﬁve on the Billboard singles chart. But with the ornamental high-school musical trappings and the earnest lyrics that fun. brought to the song, it was practically predestined to become ubiquitous.

I’m making a little sport, here—the point is, there’s a lot to like about fun. Listening to their songs brings the same euphoric sense of faux-omnipotent glee that comes from watching YouTube videos of people who attempt elaborate stunts and wind up hurting themselves spectacularly: You knew this was going to happen. And then it happens, exactly as you predicted. Your amygdala tingles with pleasure. Surely, you must be some kind of god.

Fun. is the newest, shiniest set of training wheels to dominate popular culture in recent memory.

So where could fun.’s pop orchestral anthems lead to? A lot of great places: Queen, Mika, the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack, a host of classic musicals, Richard Hawley, Burt Bacharach, Nellie McKay, Cyndi Lauper. You may notice that a lot of these acts are gay or gay-friendly; I don’t think that’s a coincidence. My coworker David Schmader called fun. “the Scissor Sisters for straight people,” but I prefer to think of them as the band you listen to before you realize Scissor Sisters even exist.

Fun. sounds, in a lot of ways, like the rock band that the gay-boy-who-doesn’t-knowhe’s-gay ﬁrst falls in love with in freshman year, before he comes out to himself and then to the world. That’s a very important role for a band to play in a life. (One of the songs on

Your parents bought you Some Nights for your birthday at the Sam Goody at the mall. You’ve never heard of Weezer, and Kanye West has always secretly scared the shit out of you. You’re about to go to college in Miami, and you don’t know what you’re doing. You know you’re always going through life alone. You’re going to fail. Nobody knows how you feel. Nobody understands. Until you start listening to fun. You like the way it sounds; it’s big and raw and it gives you tingles when Ruess starts belting out a chorus. Then you start listening to the lyrics. They’re like a mirror for what you feel. (“And I feel so all alone/No one’s gonna fix me when I’m broke… You’re never gonna smile with the way that you’re wired.”) They grow with you. They carry you through your first epic night of boozing, when everything seems so simple and so important (“So let’s set the world on fire/We can burn brighter than the sun/Carry me home tonight”). They hold your hand through your first breakup (“If you’re lost and alone/Or you’re sinking like a stone/Carry on”). And it feels like it’s never going to end, until after a while, you find yourself skipping over the fun. songs when they come up on shuffle. They feel used up. Your new friends make jokes about how lame they are, and you realize they’re right. You’ve moved on. But you might as well keep that CD in the back of your closet. You know, for old times’ sake.

Comment on DAH-dah-daaaaaahhhhhh at THESTRANGER.COM

Bell

fun. Scissor Sisters for straight people.

Yes, Aloha!

The Extreme Greatness of the Breeders

BY LARRY MIZELL JR.

AHWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, AHWHOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Bum-budda-ba-dum. Bum-budda-ba-dum. “What the fuck is this?” my 15-year-old brain asked. An extremely cool-looking

brunette on-screen, making quite a face, looking like she might be wondering the same thing. That bass line instantly sunk a hook into my heart’s lining and started tugging. At the time, my disenchantment with rap’s eternal grimace was growing—Why do white people get all the fucking fun?—and I was primed for this latest Buzz Bin obsession.

I soon enough wore out the Last Splash cassette, and a navy tee of that same design— my go-to for two out of ﬁve days of school, usually with corduroys, and always when I was feeling my absolute sauciest. Two decades, a couple hard falls back into and out of love with rap music, and at least a half-dozen copies of Last Splash in various formats later, I still stand as hard as ever on the works of Kimberley Ann and Kelley Deal—the sister act that’s been the core of the Breeders for most of their existence.

For the 20th anniversary of Last Splash, 4AD is releasing the deluxe LSXX set, and the 1993 lineup (sisters Deal, bassist Josephine Wiggs, and drummer Jim Macpherson) is touring again, playing the album in its entirety. For this momentous and clearlyordained-by-the-heavens-especially-for-me occasion, I casually offered to dork out somewhat over the Breeders’ discography. Okay, it’s not quite complete, but after seeing them perform Splash front to back at Bumbershoot, I certainly will be.

Pod (1990)

You love to hear the story again and again: Near the derailing of the Pixies train, Kim, alongside Throwing Muses cofounder Tanya Donelly, Perfect Disaster’s Josephine Wiggs, and Slint drummer Britt Walford (playing in drag for live shows under the name “Shannon Doughton”) got together, rehearsed for two weeks, and then made one of the best albums of the decade—one that was a huge inspiration for In Utero, according to fellow Breeders superfan Kurt C. It was, of course, recorded by Smilin’ Steve Albini, who made

no secret that he preferred the Breeders to Kim’s other band.

I got this tape from Columbia House at least a year after I’d heard Last Splash, and well after I’d digested Star—the debut from Belly, the band Donelly had formed after her brief Breeders stint. It’s not cool to admit, but it took me a minute to recognize Pod’s full greatness, as there was nothing on it as instantly, insanely catchy as “Cannonball” or “Divine Hammer.” It wasn’t until after I’d processed those Pixies albums that I got it, and boy did I get it. The band’s tradition of covers was inaugurated by their take on “Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” which didn’t do the Fab Four justice—it was more like street justice, Charles Bronson style.

Safari (1992)

Enter Kim’s identical twin, Kelley Deal, a rank amateur on the guitar, but who would bring a lot to the group’s sound and vibe; if you peep that ’70s-ass video for the title track, Kelley is wearing a kind of severe power-suit—that’s because she had just left her high-clearance job working for a defense contractor. The Who got the cover treatment this time around with “So Sad About Us.”

Last Splash (1993)

The reason we’re all here today. Literally the reason the world is turning. Just like Pod—or any of their catalog for that matter—this album has aged shockingly well, no mean feat for a platinum-selling ’90s alternative-rock album. Alternately sweet, scorching, and spacious, it was a massive hit critically, commercially, and spiritually (for your boy, at least). Listening to the opener “New Year” made me feel like a golden god. The surf instrumental “Flipside” was the song I scored imaginary chase scenes to as I shufﬂed to school or work. “I Just Wanna Get Along,” even though it was sung by Kelley (and written by Kim), was—in my mind at least—all about Kim’s issues with

the control-freaky Frank Black. “We were rich once, ’til your head exploded,” Kelley cooed; “I see a boy I know, his hair’s on ﬁre” would’ve been a cold-ass bar aimed at her sis’s balding ex-bandmate. It wasn’t all pop payback though, as heard on nearly incomprehensible grinders like “Roi” and “Invisible Man.”

Before I actually bought the album (the ﬁrst time), I had a bad dub of it—over which I accidentally recorded four seconds of Faith No More’s Angel Dust, on one stuck-onstupid day. Every time I hear the morose “Do You Love Me Now?” I still anticipate the aggressive cheerleader chorus of FNM’s “Be Aggressive” where it crashed, disconcertingly, into the former’s quietest parts. If there’s a metaphor here, I’m having none of it.

Cannonball (1993)

Essential, if just for the cover of Aerosmith’s “Lord of the Thighs,” where Steven Tyler’s cock-rock spew is spooled off in Wiggs’s icy British monotone.

“Saints” (1993)

It’s all about the slightly punkier single version of “Saints,” as heard in the video, whose snowball-ﬁghting, county-fair-crawling visuals are like a blanket I could just wrap myself in. Every year around May, I tell myself and the world: Summer is ready when you are

Head to Toe (1994)

One of the rarer (and one of my favorite) releases, due to the pair of top-notch covers. There’s “Shocker in Gloomtown” from fellow Dayton heads Guided by Voices (who would soon enough draft Macpherson away), but it’s their version of Sebadoh’s “The Freed Pig” that’s nearest my heart.

You’d be forgiven if you thought that it was one last super kiss-off to Black Francis; certainly Lou Barlow’s lyrics seem like they could apply. The fact that the original object of those lyrics—Barlow’s ex-bandmate J. Mascis—produced the whole EP makes it somehow even more delicious.

Live in Stockholm (1994)

What’s better—that they start off the show with the intro from the Ohio Players’ “Fire” (oh, that Buckeye pride runs deep) or that Kim takes time to explain to the crowd the proper recipe for a mudslide (“They should sell them at McDonalds”)? This is near and dear to my heart—Splash-era Breeds ripping through cuts from everything that’d come before. Word is, this full concert will be available for the ﬁrst time to fans on LSXX

Title TK (2002)

No big deal: It only took nine years to follow up Last Splash. But amazingly, Title TK was worth every bit of it—an evil-drunk throwback to Pod’s dark, smirking delights (in fact, that would be their default setting). TK’s cover song is the Amps’ “Full On Idle,” pretty funny, seeing as that was Kim’s side project while she waited for her sis to deal with her well-publicized drug shit. As for the new lineup, the story was pura Kim: She hit it off in a NYC bar with cats Jose Medeles, Richard Presley, and Mando Lopez (the latter two both alums of LA hardcore OG’s Fear) and then invited them back to the studio to jam with her. They then invited her to move out to East LA, where they lived. From indie cred to street cred—oh, Kim, you do it all. It was on this tour that I saw the Breeders—ﬁnally—at the Showbox, the day before my birthday. I think I had cornrows and a Raiders jersey on. You couldn’t tell me shit.

Mountain Battles (2008)

The Breeders 2.0 are characterized by a deep narcotic chill, one that feels like contentedly giving in to sleep while driving. Literally and ﬁguratively do people sleep on this album— but I, for one, got obsessed with it as much as anything else they did, particularly those parts when they sing to me, awkwardly, in German and Spanish. The prereq cover is of another hometown band, Dayton’s the Tasties, and Kelley’s crunchy take on their “It’s the Love” is a shot of pure life.

Fate to Fatal (2009)

The video for this saw a bunch of roller derby ladies thwacking into each other and mouthing along to the words, which were supremely sloppy and coarse over the “Sgt. Pepper”–ish guitar. Perfectly lovely, totally Breeders.

Kim’s recent self-released solo singles have had me thinking that maybe the Breeders were ﬁnally, really coming to an end—and maybe they are, I don’t know—but it’s clear that Last Splash’s anniversary pulled her back in, Godfather III–style, but so much better and without Soﬁa Coppola (as far as I know). If you’re one of the doofuses who thought the Breeders were only a ’90s two-hit wonder, please slap yourself, and then rub the affected area. Here, friends, is a band (and its famously charismatic leader) that, after all the props, the hits, and the turmoil, has stood the test of time, cigarette dangling precariously from lips, oblivious to the trends. After all these years, I still want to be as cool as Kim Deal when I grow up.

The Breeders Sun, 8–9 pm, Fisher Green

THE BREEDERS If you’re one of the doofuses who thought the Breeders were only a ’90s two-hit wonder, please slap yourself.

NEVER HEARD OF ’EM

BY ANNA MINARD

claims to “know nothing about music.” For this column, we force her to listen

GARY NUMAN

The Pleasure Principle (Beggars Banquet)

Gary Numan, an old-school guyliner fan, makes music the interwebs call “synth pop.” Listening to The Pleasure Principle in the context of this column, I got the feeling that perhaps he was among the ﬁrst to do this thing that he does. That doesn’t change the fact that the thing itself, decades later, doesn’t sound particularly refreshing to me at ﬁrst.

But I gave it a full-faith effort and was rewarded for my time. It was a cloudy day. I was boiling beets. The beets had dyed my ﬁngers a funny sort of ombré magenta; Gary Numan’s made-up eyes stared back from my computer screen, his half-smile making me like him, his music leaking around the edges of things. On the ﬁrst listen, I was distracted by life

HEARD OF ’EM

BY DAVE SEGAL

this column, he gladly relistened to a record by an artist considered to be important by himself: The Stranger’s biggest music nerd.

The Pleasure Principle

(Beggars Banquet)

Back before Anna Minard was born, people thought Gary Numan was a humorless cold ﬁsh who caked on the makeup too zealously. Many probably still hold this belief, and there are likely more than a few grains of truth to that portrait. But, boy, could Gary Numan write an indelible tune, coax sublime sounds from keyboards, and program danceable beats. He was a pop star in his native England, where folks in the 1970s and ’80s vigorously embraced androgyny in musicians and didn’t, ipso facto, consider synthesizers the playthings of “faggots.” (If you lived in Midwestern America during the new-wave era, it was common to hear rockers hurl homophobic slurs at keyboardists.)

Speaking of the Midwest, in the Detroit area where I grew up, Numan’s “Cars” blanketed the radio in 1979–1980 as “Billie Jean” would do three years later. Most people in the Motor City interpreted “Cars” as an

until track four, “Films.” Suddenly, a jetengine sound thrums and string-like synths swoop in. It sounds like a sexy horror-movie scene in a dark dance club in slow motion. Next comes “M.E.,” which not only is captivating, but I think has been sampled for some sort of hit that activates my brain’s slumbering music banks. (I googled it: Basement Jaxx’s “Where’s Your Head At,” anyone?)

The Pleasure Principle is good alone-time music. Not too moody, not too upbeat. Good for things like cooking vegetables and looking at overcast skies (or applying your elaborate eye makeup, Mr. Numan).

I recognized “Cars,” too, and not just via a sample or karaoke. I’d never actually listened to the words, but they are great: “Here in my car, I feel safest of all/I can lock all my doors, it’s the only way to live/In cars/ Here in my car, I can only receive…”

On second listen, other things started to pop out—the strings on “Complex,” the energetic tambourine on “Cars,” the military drumbeat on “Engineers.”

Our staff music writer, Dave Segal, is some sort of bionic mystic, a robot-monk-man mesmerized equally by the glimpse of a young woman’s underbutt and the perfect tone of his favorite bathroom fan’s whir. (Those last two things are truth, not jokes.) I assume he likes Gary Numan’s sexy digital palace—the chirping computer birds on “Engineers,” the way half the songs have the same ingredients, like a fashion collection that uses the same fabric over and over in different ways. So, Dave, I ask you: What should I learn from Gary Numan? Where, precisely, is Freud’s id-driven pleasure principle located on The Pleasure Principle? And oh yeah: What’s so great about synthesizers if I don’t have a robot heart? I look forward to your tutelage.

anthem for automobiles (because JOBS), not the ode to paranoia and anomie that it actually is. Nothing else on The Pleasure Principle penetrated American consciousness, though, and Numan remained a one-hit wonder here.

Anna’s assessment of The Pleasure Principle is, per usual, interesting. For one, I never think about the tambourines on “Cars.” For two, her description of “Films” is spot-on. For three, the album is “good alone-time music.” But before I run out of room, I should answer her questions.

“What should I learn from Gary Numan?” That a social misﬁt can create songs enjoyed by millions—some of whom are social misﬁts. That exaggerating one’s phobias can be commercially and artistically viable. That a manchild’s whiney bleat can inspire profound pathos. That white Brits can be foonky. Pleasure Principle tracks “Metal,” “Films,” “M.E.,” and “Cars” have been sampled by loads of hiphop and electronic-music producers.

“Where, precisely, is Freud’s id-driven pleasure principle located on The Pleasure Principle?” I think we’re supposed to grasp the title as sarcasm; Numan presents himself as way too neurotic and estranged to indulge in anything as fundamentally base as pleasure. Paradoxically, though, the music therein delivers a surfeit of the stuff.

“What’s so great about synthesizers if I don’t have a robot heart?” Please divest yourself of the notion of synthesizers being frigid generators of inhuman sound. Or perhaps ditch the idea that “human” sounds are inherently the most desirable ones. What’s so great about synthesizers is that they can achieve tonalities that conventional, “real” instruments cannot. In the right hands, synthesizers can produce mind-blowing sonics that can trigger novel ways of feeling… with your dear old human heart.

Gary Numan performs Sat, 8 pm, Fisher Green.

Anna Minard

to random records by artists considered to be important by music nerds.

Dave Segal literally “knows everything about music.” For

GARY NUMAN

ZACHARY, 17

Zachary was at the Zumiez store—he was extremely friendly and tall.

Who is Kendrick Lamar?

Who Is Kendrick Lamar?

If Anyone Knows, It’d Be the Teens at Southcenter Mall

BY EMILY NOKES

hen it was announced that Kendrick Lamar was playing Bumbershoot this year, I ﬁrst thought, “Oh cool, Kendrick Lamar.” But then I mulled it over for 30 more seconds and remembered, “Wait, I don’t think I actually know who that is.” I mean, I’d heard the name—he was on that A$AP Rocky “Fuckin’ Problems” song, and his depressive, alcoholic “Swimming Pools (Drank)” hit rang a KUBE 93 bell, but how did I not know more about who this extremely famous, high-proﬁle (he’s worked with Snoop Dogg, Drake, RZA, Dr. Dre, etc.), 26-year-old “best-new-everything-award-winning” rapper was?

Scoff all you want, scoff police, but I can reasonably get down with radio-topping, empty-calorie pop/ hiphop/R&B/is-therereally-even-a-deﬁninggenre-with-this-stuffanymore music like I can get down with eating kale every day and then just inhaling an entire box of fruit snacks. The point is, I’m not too proud to tell you that I’m fairly aware of what’s cycling the vapid-hits radio, for better or worse. Which brings us to Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (actual last name, I’m serious).

all things Lamar—his peculiar accent and grizzled old-man voice, his choppy alliteration, his above-average lyrics, his liberal application of Martian/helium-goose vocal effects, his complex stories—but it just didn’t take. I went away with this: Kendrick Lamar is good but not mind-blowing—some of his tracks are neat (“Backseat Freestyle,” “Rigamortis”), others are extremely boring (“Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe,” “Chapter Six”). Hmmm…

“He has, like, multiple voices, and I think they’re all annoying.”

Then, in the middle of my quest, the internet exploded. Kendrick Lamar rapped a verse on a Big Sean song that informed fellow rappers that he was going to murder them with his raps until the world ceased to remember that other rappers existed. UH-OH. At the time of my typing this, Lamar is enjoying a calculated controversial spotlight, complete with Oh-no-he-didn’t Twitter beef, because he did what rappers and famous people do: He claimed to be the best, because, uh, it’s easy. I’M THE FUCKING BEST! See?

He’s cool. He’s cool for rap. I’m not much of a rap fan, but if I were to listen to rap, I’d listen to him because he’s—most of the time—rapping about stuff that’s important and actually exists, instead of just money and girls.

What does he rap about that actually exists?

Um, he raps about where he’s from, what he’s lived through. He occasionally will rap about girls and cars, but even when he does that, he does it a lot better than anyone else.

What kind of music do you listen to?

Classic rock. My favorite band is Rush.

ALEX, 20

Alex works at Journeys Kidz and is therefore nicknamed “Baby Feet” by other mall workers.

I was wondering if you know anything about Kendrick Lamar.

I know a little bit.

What do you know? Do you like him?

I don’t mind Kendrick Lamar. He’s got some really catchy songs that’ll get stuck in my head, but other than that… it’s not really my genre of music.

What is your genre of music?

Everything, kinda, but that. Everything but hiphop?

Well I like classic hiphop. I like the classic stuff. Uh, hold on, I gotta go grab some shoes.

because I can’t go. I can’t get the time off. I snuck in last year, though! It was pretty great. What is your favorite band right now?

Um… I’ve been listening to more stuff that’s in the EDM spectrum. Daft Punk’s new album came out, so I’ve been glued to that. Glued to that. Um, Warm Weather’s been out. Also, a lot of classic ’80s rock.

CARL, 18

Carl works at Hot Topic and was very excited about the pixelated Minecraft foam swords and torches the store carries.

Do you like Kendrick Lamar?

No. I’m more a fan of, like, spoken-word rap rather than that average stuff.

So what’s your favorite music right now?

Shoegaze!

Oh yeah, what kind?

I’ve been listening to a lot of Whirr and Nothing. I’ve really been into My Bloody Valentine.

Oh cool, do you like their new album?

They have a new album?! Is that why they’re coming here? Whoa, that’s awesome! Thanks for telling me!

No problem.

I’m totally going to listen to that.

I listened to the singles and the popular stuff, to the old albums and the weirder stuff. I looked at his photos and read his Wikipedia page, and I still didn’t know who Kendrick Lamar is. I attempted to immerse myself in

I came to the conclusion that the only people I could turn to were the people this stuff is made for: the teens. More speciﬁcally, the teens at the mall. On a beautiful, bright Seattle Sunday, I made the voyage to Southcenter Mall in Tukwila, where I spent four and a half hours asking teens and young adults about Kendrick Lamar. Here’s what they had to say.

[While Alex grabs some shoes for a tiny child, her coworker at Journeys Kidz tells me, “You know, he was just here. Kendrick Lamar was just here a few months ago. Here at the mall. Well, maybe it was more like a year ago, but he did an appearance.” Coworker declines an interview, Alex comes back.]

So did you know Kendrick Lamar is playing Bumbershoot this year?

I did. Unfortunately, I do know that

Tell me how you feel about Kendrick Lamar.

Bianca: I HATE Kendrick Lamar. He’s annoying, his voice is very annoying—he has, like, multiple voices, and I think they’re all annoying. His duck voice is stupid, very stupid. What do you think his worst song is?

Bianca: Well, I guess I like “Swimming Pools.” [Laughs] I actually do like that one. Uhh, I don’t know which one I hate the most. What about you, Molly?

Molly: I don’t mind him. I wouldn’t pick to listen to him, but if it’s on the radio, I don’t mind it. Kendrick

BIANCA, 17; MOLLY, 17

Bianca and Molly were browsing the neon racks at Wet Seal while Taylor Swift’s “22” blasted through the tinny speakers.

Lamar Sat, 4–5:15 pm, KeyArena

LELAH MAUPIN

PUZZLER

Bob Mould or Actual Mold?

By Derek Erdman

• Typically secretes hydrolytic enzymes.

MOULD or MOLD?

• Cited as a major inﬂuence on alternative rock.

Do the following statements describe a legendary musician or a legendary fungus? Circle the appropriate answer.

• Started a punk band in Minneapolis in 1979.

MOULD or MOLD?

• Has a fuzzy appearance, especially on food.

MOULD or MOLD?

• Wrote the theme song for The Daily Show MOULD or MOLD?

• Cofounded the Singles Only record label.

MOULD or MOLD?

• Causes the biodegradation of natural materials. MOULD or MOLD?

• Helped to create antibiotics. MOULD or MOLD?

• Is a Libra, born on October 16, 1960. MOULD or MOLD?

• Does not form a speciﬁc phylogenetic grouping. MOULD or MOLD?

MOULD or MOLD?

• In large quantities can present a health hazard.

MOULD or MOLD?

• Wrote ﬁrst solo record in a remote farmhouse in Pine City, Minnesota, in 1988.

MOULD or MOLD?

• Helped create some cholesterol-lowering drugs. MOULD or MOLD?

• Formed the group Sugar in 1992.

MOULD or MOLD?

• A common component of household dust.

MOULD or MOLD?

• Sometimes produces toxic secondary metabolites.

MOULD or MOLD?

• Recorded music under the pseudonym LoudBomb.

MOULD or MOLD?

Great job! You are correct!

What’s your favorite band?

Molly: Um, I listen to more country. So just, like, more of that. Anything speciﬁc?

Molly: Any country. I don’t know, like Luke Bryan.

What about you, Bianca?

Bianca: I listen to… what do I listen too, uh, I listen to Ellie Goulding and Lana Del Rey. That’s mostly what I listen to.

Thanks, where are y’all from?

Bianca: We’re from Sammamish!

JOHN, 19

John was hanging out at a pop-up shop called The Cool, chatting with the friendly dudes behind the counter (who insisted he wear the bucket hat in the photo).

How do you feel about Kendrick Lamar?

He’s good. Great.

What’s your favorite song? What do you like about him?

That’s a hard one. Most of the stuff off Section.80 is probably my favorite. The song “A.D.H.D.” and uuumm, I don’t know, good kid, m.A.A.d city was pretty good, and that really blew up the radio—I think that’s what really gave him a bunch of buzz. He deserves a lot of respect, though, because he can defend himself, even now. I mean, look at the song he just put out.

Oh yeah, that verse. [John’s friend pipes in, “That verse was dope.”] Yeah. Good verses, good beats, good team—he’s set for it. What else do you listen to?

I listen to everything. [Friend interjects, “Young Lean, you better tell her Young Lean!”] Young Lean, Sad Boys, the xx, Bon Iver, Kanye, Chance the Rapper, Tech N9ne—weird people, okay people, popular people… Are you going to Bumbershoot?

I might just go for Saturday because of Dave B—he went to the same high school as me, so I might go for that one day just to support the homie. That’s the only reason I want to go.

HANNA, 15

Hanna was shopping at Forever 21 with her sister.

What do you think about Kendrick Lamar?

I think he’s a good rapper. Do you have a favorite song?

“Swimming Pools,” I guess? What other kind of music do you listen to?

Just pretty much anything. Hiphop, R&B stuff.

What’s your least favorite kind of music?

I don’t like jazz. Probably jazz. Where are you from? Yelm.

Africa MAMA

Don’t Pretend You’re Not Still Swooning Over Tegan and Sara BY CATHERINE R. SMYKA

129 Broadway East • Seattle, WA • (206) 856-2310 Bring

URGENT

I know I’m a walking lesbian stereotype, but I don’t care. I heart Tegan and Sara. A pair of gorgeous gay twins with deep grainy voices, going bananas on the guitar? Stop. I’m swooning. And I know I’m not in the minority in the LGBT community—I know plenty of queer ladies who adore both Tegan and Sara Quin, fantasize about sleeping with either of them, and at some point, in a drunken state of mind, have considered getting a tattoo reminiscent of the tree image on Tegan’s forearm. Deny it all you want, queers—you know it’s true.

Tegan and Sara Sun, 2–3 pm, KeyArena

and depression. Which isn’t to say that their “happy” songs are much different. Even tunes about hopeful, gooey love have an undertone of “I love you so much, I wanna die.” Tegan and Sara combine somber melodies with even the most upbeat of lyrics (and vice versa) for an overall feeling of adrenaline, consistent and strong. Every one of their songs gets your blood going, whether it boils or runs cold.

But the thing about falling into the lesbian stereotype is that Tegan and Sara don’t fall into many musical stereotypes. Sure, plenty of their music is about love and heartbreak and relishing the beginning stages of a relationship, but it’s the particulars that make their music memorable—like the overwhelming naïveté and sensuality in “Nineteen,” or the bitterness of standing next to the phone waiting to confirm a breakup in “Call It Off.”

Everything about their music feels like an open wound.

You can blast their social-justice anthems like “Clever Meals” and identify—despite your sexuality, race, religion, or gender— with the song’s sense of self-acceptance and equality, and shout out lyrics like “And as I stand here screaming in despair/I say yes, this is my life/And yes, you should care.”

Everything about their music feels like an open wound, like the rawness of their 2007 album The Con, which describes dark feelings of regret, betrayal, inﬁdelity, sleeplessness,

The group’s newest album, Heartthrob , is definitely more mainstream, but in a Tegan and Sara way. A handful of songs fall into cliché, like the borderline-cheesy anthem “Love They Say” (“You don’t need to worry/This love will make us worthy/There’s nothing love can’t do”), but the album’s electropop underbelly keeps up that familiar energy with the almost violently passionate “I Was a Fool” and the universal zeal of “Closer.” That same ol’ Tegan and Sara still shines through, and queers everywhere went nuts when the album dropped.

Plus, they always throw a fantastic show, constantly improvising onstage with their band, telling socially awkward/endearing stories from the road and from their childhood. Who can resist two beautiful tattooed lesbian sisters arguing with each other in Canadian accents and ironic T-shirts? NO ONE.

Comment on Tegan and/or Sara at THESTRANGER.COM

TEGAN AND SARA Tegan is the one in white, Sara is the one with the hot hair.

C•NNECT THE D•TS

Bumber-Jumble

Unscramblethejumblesbelowtorevealthenamesofbands atthisyear’sBumbershootFestival:

Nowunscramblethelettersfoundintheabovecircles

“Myboyfriend thoughtthatI wastakinghimto Bumbershootfor platesofsteak,he wasdisappointed whenhefoundout thatitwasactually forhusbandand wifeduo…”

by Derek Erdman

DJ SETS (DFA / LCD SOUNDSYSTEM) STARS MATT & KIM BEATS ANTIQUE (LIVE) WAVVES BETH ORTON ACTION THE ORB HOLY

F**K SOULS OF MISCHIEF HAWKSLEY WORKMAN

DĀ CORB LUND ST LUCIA MYKKI

ANTHONY NAPLES BRAIDS CHALI 2NA

ROB GARZA DJ SET (OF THIEVERY CORPORATION) MOUNTIES

TICKETSONSALENOW!

What About Love?

Heart’s Ann Wilson Talks Hair Spray and Heartbreak

BY KELLY O

Igot dumped about six months ago. Not in an easy, garden-variety sort of way, either. I received my walking papers in more of a secret-special-surprise, “Holy shit, you’re breaking up with me,

ballad—a really honest love song? Do the words come ﬁrst, or the music?

The words come ﬁrst. Almost always, I write lyrics for the song ﬁrst.

And do the words usually come from a place of personal experience?

Oh, yes. Personal experiences of mine, and Nancy’s, too.

“I

think we all were trying to achieve Robert Plant’s

big, ﬂowing gypsy hair.”

Have any of the songs in the Heart catalog been the result of a broken heart?

Oh, almost ALL of them! “Alone” is deﬁnitely a song about heartbreak. Some might not realize it, but “Magic Man” is, too—a young girl getting her heart broken by an older man.

Which song do you look back on and smile because it came from a really positive, happy place?

“These Dreams.” That song is like being high. It feels ﬂoaty, kind of like when you drift off to sleep.

Los Angeles. I grew up here, you know, went to Cornish. Things were a lot different back then—there weren’t very many women playing music around here in those days.

Heart Sat, 9:45–11:15 pm, KeyArena

after more than two years, WITH AN E-MAIL?!” sort of way. It was so confusing for me that I’m still rolling it all around in my brain. With this (maybe selﬁshly) in mind, I couldn’t help but think: Who in the whole wide world could possibly have better breakup advice than one of the legendary ladies from Heart, the recently Rock and Roll Hall of Fame–inducted, Grammy-winning, gazillion-platinum-recordselling, super-sister group that formed in 1974 and whose roots are in right here in Seattle? I brieﬂy chatted with Ann Wilson (the dark-haired one!) on the phone (swoon!), and here’s what she had to say about love (and other stuff, too!).

Is it true that in 35 years as a band, Heart have never played Bumbershoot?

That’s true! I did play it once, though not as Heart—in another band, the Lovemongers. I’ve deﬁnitely gone to Bumbershoot just to walk around. I live here in Seattle—Nancy’s in

Bad breakup? Awkward one-night stand? General romantic bewilderment? Seek guidance in Heart songs!

SONG: “Magic Man” from Dreamboat Annie, 1976

LYRICS: “Come on home, girl,” mama cried on the phone/“Too soon to lose my baby yet, my girl should be at home!”

ADVICE: Ladies, don’t fall for an older man, and listen to your mother.

SONG: “Cook with Fire” from Dog and Butterﬂy, 1978

LYRICS: Yes, she gonna burn ya/She gonna make you a fool/But it’ll learn ya/Way, way better than school

ADVICE: Fine. DON’T listen to anybody, then. (But learn from your mistakes.)

Do you have any favorite female voices—ones you currently listen to?

Brittany Howard. She’s great, she’s in a band called Alabama Shakes. And Adele, her voice is so strong.

You’ve always been a strong voice, and not just in your singing. What do you think of the current state of feminism?

I’m happy you even just used the word “feminism.” We couldn’t really say that word for a long time because it was negative and ugly—it meant you hated men. I think feminism is back and on people’s mind in a positive way, for once.

I wanted to ask you some questions about love. First, how do you write a

SONG: “White Lightning and Wine” from Dreamboat Annie, 1976

LYRICS: Watching you chew on the bones/In the morning light, you didn’t look so nice/ Guess you’d better hitchhike home

ADVICE: Beware the one-night stand! And don’t sleep with hitchhikers.

SONG: “Cry to Me” from Little Queen, 1977

LYRICS: You better not hide it/Let it come, let it bleed/I ain’t laughing, reach in and get it, and set it free

ADVICE: It’s okay to cry.

SONG: “Heartless” from Magazine, 1978

LYRICS: The doctor said, “Come back again next week, I think that you need me.”/All she did was cry/She wanted to die/“Doctor, when can you see me?”/ There’s a guy out there! Seems like he’s everywhere/It just ain’t fair!

ADVICE: And if you can’t STOP crying, seek professional help.

SONG: “This Man Is Mine” from Private

I just rewatched the video on YouTube for “These Dreams.” You had some pretty impressive hair in that one! You know, I don’t know why we all did that in the ’80s. It was so big!

I did it, too. It was a lot of work… A lot of hair spray! I think we all were maybe trying to achieve Robert Plant’s big, ﬂowing gypsy hair. His was natural. We had to really work for it.

Back to love—I recently had a breakup. People kept telling me to channel my sadness into making some kick-ass art. People always say that, but it’s easier said than done, isn’t it? Sometimes you don’t want to do anything at all.

What’s your one best piece of advice for the brokenhearted?

Well, it hurts. It just really, really hurts! It sounds cliché, and people always say this, too, but you need time. The passage of time is the only thing that really works; it’s the only thing that heals. And time WILL pass—you can count on it. Time will always pass.

Audition, 1982

LYRICS: I know the women round here recognize something good/Even try to take it if they could/So I’m using every little trick I know/Making sure that he won’t go

ADVICE: Anything worth having is worth ﬁghting for.

SONG: Break” from Bebe le Strange, 1980

LYRICS: The dust is gathering where I stand/ Now I know there’s a crack in this plan/After a while there just ain’t no more magic, man

ADVICE: You gotta know when to walk away (and know when to run).

SONG: “Fanatic” from Fanatic, 2012

LYRICS: Now don’t try to tell me love is dead/It is your body, now it is your head/ I can’t stop crying, I can’t stop screaming/ I can’t stop talking, I can’t stop dreaming/ Love is pleasure, love is pain/Sweet, sweet summer and bitter rain/I gotta have it, I gotta use it/I gotta own it, never lose it

ADVICE: Love fucking sucks, but never give up trying anyway.

THE WILSON SISTERS Ann (left) and Nancy (right) have kept Heart beating since 1974.

Times

Wed, Aug. 28

Chicago-based

Fri, Aug. 30

Wed, Sept. 4

indie

Thur, Sept. 5

quirky

Thur, Sept. 5

Sept. 6

The Flavr Blue with the Remedy

What Happened When a Trio of Talented Rappers Decided to Do Something Different

BY CHARLES MUDEDE

The music blends with the sound of the water fountains. This is a place that Sputnik shocked into existence. It has white arches that rise high above pools, pathways, and platforms. This is the center of a museum that was designed to impress young minds with the beauty, grace, and power of science. Shakespeare was not going to win the Cold War. America needed scientists to build better rockets, better satellites, better space suits, better jets than the Soviets. That space/technology/arms race came to an end in 1989, with the fall of a wall in Berlin. Today, Russia is more of a nuisance than a threat. And nowhere in the world will you ﬁnd anything like actually existing socialism or an alternative to market-centered ideology. As a consequence, the Paciﬁc Science Center has become a museum of a future that’s now buried in the past.

the other members of the group, Lace Cadence and Parker Joe, along with guest violinist Maggie Tweedy, are now packing up their equipment. The seagulls above us are unusually loud, and the deepening dusk is transforming the Paciﬁc Science Center’s whiteness into a ghost of a building.

The Flavr Blue Sat, 11:45 am–12:30 pm, Fisher Green

“We are all rappers. Lace raps, Parker raps, I rap. I was a member of Canary Sing, so that’s still a big part of our lives,” says Hollis. And this is certainly what makes the Flavr Blue one of the most curious and interesting bands in Seattle. Though all of its members have deep roots in local hiphop—Parker with State of the Artist, Lace with Clockwork, Hollis with Canary Sing—the music draws almost exclusively from European electronica, Chicago house, and pop. Though one would think that such a break in form and substance was the product of much planning and consideration, all three members state that the project came together by accident. “It just happened that way,” says Parker. “We were just feeling that we needed to do something new, it turned out to be this,” Lace says. “I was just hanging out with my boyfriend’s friend [Parker], you know, sitting on the couch doing nothing, and I got interested, sang a song, and it came together,” Hollis says.

When

A tune drifts from one of the platforms. A very white half moon is low in the sky. The sun is slowly setting. A helicopter lifts with urgency from a pad on top of KOMO’s headquarters. A golden pod beams up the slim stem of another Cold War monument: the Space Needle. The tune is new and called “Remedy.” It has a dash of Moroder in it, a dash of what one critic described as a “dublicated synth line,” and a beat that, when set against the whiteness of the museum’s sculptures, walls, and pathways, has the feel and pace of a person walking on the moon—a person whose gait has been lightened by low gravity. As I near the platform, more of the music’s details ﬁll the air. There are sweetly sad strings, disrupted here and there by sudden electrical noises. Hollis Wong-Wear—one of the three members of the Flavr Blue, the group that’s performing “Remedy” for a video shoot involving a camera on a new Microsoft smartphone—sings: “This condition, I don’t need a remedy, I don’t need a remedy for this condition/I don’t need a remedy/I don’t need a remedy/There’s no remedy for the ways that I’ve changed/So I’ve nothing to lose walking into the ﬂame.”

the Flavr Blue released Pisces last year, even I was skeptical.

“We all come from hiphop,” says Hollis, whose vocals are now famously featured on Macklemore’s next huge track, “White Walls.” The shoot has ended, and she and

When the Flavr Blue released Pisces last year, even I was skeptical about the whole project. It wasn’t that it was bad, but it was such a radical break from anything that Parker or Lace had done in the past, and, more bewilderingly, they were far from being in decline in the hiphop game. Every part of their 2012 EP Imagination (production, rhymes, beats) displayed a mastery that exists only in the dreams of many young artists around town. And then the sudden switch from hiphop to pop, from rhyming to singing, from street realism to decadent dreams of love and loss—it should not have worked. But it has. And, as what I have heard of the new EP Bright Vices, which drops on September 24, makes very clear: The Flavr Blue are still growing and moving in the right direction. Says Lace, “We are all writers, we all have different emotions, and the challenging part is making it all come together into something tight and simple.”

THE FLAVR BLUE Their hiphop roots make them one of the most curious bands in Seattle.

I Hate Music

Okay, Superchunk, Let’s Talk About Something Else

BY MEGAN SELING

When a band like Superchunk—a band that has existed for more than two decades and is partly composed of a couple that also runs the beloved Merge Records—names their album

I Hate Music, of course the assumption is that they’re being ironic. They don’t hate music; they are music! But singer Mac McCaughan assures me the title of their new album isn’t completely a joke.

“People keep saying that [the album title] is ironic, and I don’t think that it is. It’s a real feeling—it may be a passing feeling, it may be something that’s ﬂeeting, it’s probably not a feeling that I would’ve said that I ever had 15 or 20 years ago, but as I get older, it’s something I feel occasionally.”

cranks the hurricane siren. I got to do it last season, which was pretty awesome.

That’s rad! With the Predators, unfortunately, they play that “I Like It, I Love It” song. That’s their goal song. Sigh.

Superchunk Mon, 7–8 pm, Fountain Lawn Stage

So instead of talking about music, because honestly, I can hate music too sometimes, I took advantage of the very rare opportunity to do a band interview and talk about something else I love very much: hockey. McCaughan is a longtime Carolina Hurricanes fan, something he often tweets about during hockey season, and I was hoping he hated the Vancouver Canucks as much as I do.

I’m really excited to talk to you because I am also a hockey fan.

Oh really, so are you a Vancouver fan? Or who’s your team?

Oh, no. I hate the Canucks. I married a Nashvillian, so I’m a fan of the Nashville Predators.

You and Kurt Wagner [of Lambchop]. I text with Kurt during the hockey season about our various ups and downs.

In those moments when you are frustrated with music, or burned out, what are some of the other things you turn to? Hockey is obviously one of them.

I love hockey. It doesn’t replace music for me, but since we got an NHL team [in North Carolina], that rekindled my interest in hockey that I had as a kid. I think it’s awesome having the team here—I hope they stay here, even though they’ve had some notgreat years recently. I don’t know what they do in Nashville, but before the players skate out on the ice here, they start playing “Rock You Like a Hurricane” by the Scorpions, and right before that happens, someone always

Let’s see, Scorpions or Tim McGraw… I’ll take the Scorpions.

You should! When I’m at a game in Nashville, I ﬁnd myself standing up when they cheer, and singing and dancing along with that song. As soon as the passion of the goal is over, I just sit down, and it’s like “I don’t even know myself anymore.”

[Laughs] That’s hilarious.

It’s funny what hockey will do to you.

No, it is! I had one of my worst hockeywatching experiences in Seattle in 2006. It was game six of the ﬁnals between the Oilers and the Hurricanes, and the ’Canes were up three games to two. It was an away game in Edmonton, but I was in Seattle, I don’t remember why, and I found a sports bar that had the game on, and everyone was cheering for Edmonton. I guess just because they’re Western Confer-

“It doesn’t replace music for me, but since we got an NHL team, that rekindled my interest in hockey.”

ence or something, I don’t know, but Edmonton killed us! They killed us. In retrospect, I’m glad the ’Canes lost that game, because I had tickets to game seven. But when I was ﬂying home from Seattle, there were all these people on the plane in Oilers jerseys. I had to be in the airport and on the plane with all these Edmonton fans. But the ’Canes won game seven, and it was amazing, and I was there.

Were you wearing your ’Canes jersey on the ﬂight?

You know, that’s one thing I don’t do because

they’re all so gigantic—I can’t wear clothes that big. It’s just not good for me. At that point in the play-offs, I’m sure I had the most convoluted superstition going on about what I needed to wear to that game. You know what I mean? Like, okay, I wore this Hurricanes T-shirt to game two and they won, so I need to wear that in combination with this sweatshirt. I know I had some sort of superstition thing worked out.

Did you grow a play-off beard?

I think that I did, yes, but I would need to, like, not shave for a year for it to look like a play-off beard.

I remember when Nashville made it to the ﬁnals and got kicked out by Vancouver, when Alex Burrows bit someone and then Ryan Kesler took a dive.

[Laughs] Oh my god.

I am so mad at Vancouver. It’s terrible! Vancouver are bullies and they dive too much. And I don’t like the Sedins brothers.

The Sedins are good, too, that’s the problem.

Yeah, if they were on the Predators…

Oh yeah, you’d be so psyched.

Are there any players you have that relationship with?

I’m sure it would be someone like Zdeno Chara. The teams we play the most and have the biggest rivalries with would be Boston, Washington, and the Sabres. We’ve ousted the Sabres from the play-offs more than once, and there are ﬁghts in the parking lot with Buffalo fans that come down for the games. I watched a Buffalo fan punch a Carolina fan—I’m sure they were talking shit out the window of their car, but the guy just reached into the other guy’s car to punch him in the face after Carolina beat the Sabres.

What if people were like that at Superchunk shows? Like what if you played with, I don’t know, the Pixies or something, and some guy was like, “Whatever, Mac’s guitar tone is way better than Frank Black’s!” and then got punched by a Pixies fan through a car window!

[Laughs] I can’t condone fan-on-fan violence.

“Thaiku ﬁxes homestyle food, cool and quick.” -THE SEATTLE TIMES

“A Phinney Ridge restaurant serves the kind of food you’d ﬁnd in Thailand.” -CROSSCUT

“...fresher, more interesting, and way more delicious Thai food than you might be used to.” -THE STRANGER

4-11pm dinner + drinks

12-3pm lunch on Saturday & Sunday Outdoor seating now available! 6705 Greenwood Ave. N, Seattle 206.706.7807 · thaiku.com

HERBAL ELIXIRS + COCKTAILS

SUPERCHUNK Mac McCaughan (second from left) can’t grow a play-off beard.

GRANITE CURLING CLUB

differences!noareThereAnswer:

THE STRANGER’S BUMBERCROSS™ WORD GRID

Grab

ACROSS

4.) Glasses-wearing straight-married couple universally described as an “indiepop duo.” (Three words)

5.) This Doc McGhee–managed band’s look is calculated old-timey. (Two words)

7.) Youth poetry slam champ turned rapper.

9.) Won the 2011 Americana music award for song of the year. Is very, very good at wearing clothes. (Three words)

10.) A local hiphop trio that has released no fewer than ﬁve albums over a period of six years. (Two words)

11.) This Brooklyn post-punk ﬁve-piece is kind of like a big, messy bowl of goulash. (Two words)

14.) Writes beautiful, gentle indie rock songs about horrifying things. (Two words)

18.) Maker of sparkly synth, wearer of rainbow eye shadow. (Two words)

19.) A whirlwind of wild percussion and pop hooks, this Seattle band describes themselves as “treepunk.”

20.) Her booming, gospel-inspired vocals are only upstaged by her band’s showmanship. (Two words)

21.) This KISS FM DJ’s favorite place to party is “wherever there is Jäger and a few cans of Red Bull.” (Two words)

23.) This band plays starry, electronically inclined dance songs. (Three words)

DOWN

1.) If you don’t know who this Ballardraised rapper is, then either you arrived in Seattle yesterday or you really do not give a shit about 206 hiphop.

2.) This Seattle band’s bluesy, ﬁery rock would be more appropriate for a smoky bar than an outdoor stage at high noon. (Four words)

3.) There’s a trumpet AND a bass! It’s jazzy AND indie! (Three words)

6.) Long-haired crooner whose live performances channel the funky soul power of Stevie Wonder. (Two words)

8.) A Seattle analog-for-life DJ who needs to buy a separate house just to store his records. (Three words)

12.) This Savannah, Georgia, quartet will deﬁnitely give you opportunities to whip your hair back and forth.

13.) Distressed-denim-wearing DJ from the Netherlands.

15.) British synth-rock icon to whom you can bust your ﬁnest robot dance moves. (Two words)

16.) A singer-songwriter who sports a pained, earnest expression in press photos.

17.) A band you might like if you’ve ever woken up, still drunk, ﬂoating in a bathtub full of empty Pabst cans.

22.) You might like their housey dance jams if your daily routine involves more than two energy drinks.

DEREK ERDMAN

RAD A lookbook image from SUNO. SUNO

Fashiony Fashions

Africana Designs and Beijing Street Trends

BY MARTI JONJAK

Visual arts curator and educator Erika Dalya Massaquoi brings us Fashiony, a collection of more than 300 images in all sizes and forms including contemporary art, garment sketches, and photographs culled from ﬁlms, style blogs, fashion books, and magazines, with a special focus on Africana designs and Beijing street trends. Watch for Diana Ross hairdo throwbacks, psychedelic polka-dot-patterned stretch pants, feathered bibs, sparkly blue eye shadow, tubiform jewelry, shiny bowl cuts, dandies in pastels, giraffe-print leggings paired with giraffe-print platform heels, petals dipped in gold, towering rabbitear headpieces made from stiff black lace, paisley patterns swirling wildly around, and women wearing layers of delightfully clashy multi-ﬂower print wraps while striding purposefully forward.

Fashiony Sat–Mon, 11 am–8 pm, Fisher Pavilion

model addressing her viewer, surrounded by a pale pink light and decked in a gorgeously contradicting assortment of printed hats and a printed collared shirt. Her eyes are calm— she looks sublimely rad, and she knows it. Her apparel suggests a “deconstruction of motifs,” Massaquoi explains. “Her shirt’s pattern appears as splatter and grafﬁti, but the colorways are clearly a reference to traditional African wear.” Meanwhile, layered over her head wrap, the model’s textured woven cap becomes “a little crown.”

5 Course Feast & Bellydancing

$19.95 per person

Savor the city's most exotic dining experience!

“Fashion dramatizes everything,” Massaquoi says during our phone interview, “and that’s what’s so thrilling about it.” This includes our moods, identities, messages, modern-ness, and even our most reasonable weather expectations, as evidenced by one of Nels Frye’s Beijing street shots. In it, a woman captures a certain oldtimey look in her cloche hat, scraped-back hair, silky long-sleeve button-front blouse and matching necktie, and vintage wool cape with a fur collar. “In Beijing, it gets hot as hell! Whatchyou doing with that fur on?” says Massaquoi, laughing. (The woman in the photograph does not respond.) Another Frye picture shows a young woman in a voluminous gray anorak with spotless white lace-ups and tights the color of Windex. Her dyed-gray mod-crop hairstyle recalls a fashionista Massaquoi spotted years ago in Tokyo—“She had beautiful feathered gray hair, and her skin was orange, ﬂuorescent orange,” she says. There’s also a stunning lookbook image from SUNO—a high-end womenswear label with US and Kenyan inﬂuences—which shows a

Massaquoi also included around 50 stills from Zina Saro-Wiwa’s 2010 short ﬁlm Phyllis, set in Nigeria, about a young woman who spends her days alone in her apartment, viewing low-budget dramas and crying tears of blood. This work “communicates cultural mores in a more pop-cultural form,” says Massaquoi. When evening comes, Phyllis takes to the streets, peddles the selection of synthetic wigs she displays on a tin dish stocked with beat-up mannequin heads, and steals the souls of her customers.

“She had beautiful feathered gray hair, and her skin was orange, ﬂuorescent orange.”

In one image, Phyllis pairs a turquoise dress with bright pink hair, imparting an amped-up cotton-candy vibe. “It’s a heavy ﬁlm, but the fashions are great,” says Massaquoi.

In reference to Andy Warhol and substance abuse and pillbox hats, Izzie Klingels’s painting Just Like a Mattress Balances on a Bottle of Wine showcases socialite, heiress, and Factory superstar Edie Sedgwick— wearer of leotards, popper of pills, spender of fame, and frontwoman to countless and violently dull art ﬁlms. Her portrait centers on a colorful arrangement of ﬂoating medicinal tablets and capsules. Splayed on her head is an old banana peel, dotted brown: “I think it’s a riff on leopard spots. Edie would always be tricked out in animal prints,” Massaquoi says.

Comment on rabbit-ear headpieces at THESTRANGER.COM

Starting This Week

SUBLIMELY

ISRAELI WAR CRIMES

Well, This Is Embarrassing

The Best Events on the Words & Ideas Stage Have Ties to The Stranger

BY PAUL CONSTANT

Okay, I need to put this right up front so nobody claims that I tricked them: This whole article is a total conﬂict of interest. It’s promoting Stranger-created events, events featuring

Stranger writers—one of those writers, in fact, is the writer of these very words that you’re reading right now—and events featuring talent with heavy Stranger ties. It’s possibly the most Stranger-centric article that The Stranger has ever published. I am not proud of this fact, but there it is.

Let’s start with the biggest conﬂict of interest of all: the event that I’m involved with. I’m going to be interviewing the writing staff of Parks & Recreation. Do you see the problem I’m facing here? On the one hand, a panel featuring the writers of what is probably the single best-written show on network television is a can’t-miss event. On the other hand, the person pointing this out is the person who’s going to be asking Alan Yang, Aisha Muharrar, David King, Joe Mande, Megan Amram, and Matt Murray questions during the panel. It’s not like I get paid more if more people show up to the event or anything, but it’s still kind of awkward for me to be promoting this discussion. But I can’t emphasize this enough: These are the people who put the words in Ron Swanson’s mouth, which clearly makes them some sort of televisionary demigods. You can see how my feelings are conﬂicted.

Then there’s the Stranger-produced event that’s packed with surprises. This is superembarrassing, because I can’t even tell you what the surprises are. All I can tell you is this: The Stranger has teamed up with Intiman Theater to produce a series of talks titled “Put It All on the Table.” It’s intended to parody the self-importance of TED Talks, while still being entertaining on its own, and each of the talks is on a taboo topic that you

wouldn’t bring up over the dinner table. I can’t tell you what Andrew Russell, Valerie Curtis-Newton, and (my—ugh—coworkers) Dominic Holden and Cienna Madrid are go-

Fantagraphics Follies Sat, 6–7:15 pm, Leo K. Theater

Writing Staff of NBC’s Parks & Recreation Sun, 6–7 pm, Leo K. Theater

Put It All on the Table: Inappropriate Lectures by Irreverent Artists and Spoiled Children Mon, noon–1 pm, Leo K. Theater

ing to talk about, even though I know what the topics are. I can’t tell you who the special guest host is. All I can tell you is that the topics are guaranteed to make you squirm while you laugh, and you probably shouldn’t eat during the presentations or bother to bring your conservative relatives along.

Again, I am blushing as I type this, but trust me: You probably won’t see a more hilariously inappropriate event at Bumbershoot this year.

so bad; though we at The Stranger have a lot of love for Fantagraphics, there’s no conﬂict of interest inherent there. The musical guest is cartoonist Peter Bagge’s Can You Imagine? which, as far as I know, is a pop group made up of 100 percent nonStranger employees. But then the other guests get a little ethically squishy: Eroyn Franklin, whose cartoons have appeared in The Stranger recently—once on the cover, even—and Kelly Froh, who we’ve praised a whole bunch in the last year.

“The World’s Greatest Mexican Diner; Plus, It Has Every Kind of Mezcal in the State.” -THE STRANGER

“A taste of exceptional everyday Mexican cuisine at Mezcaleria Oaxaca.” -THE SEATTLE TIMES

WINNER OF BEST MEXICAN RESTAURANT 2012 BY SEATTLE WEEKLY

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST MEXICAN RESTAURANTS IN THE U.S. BY TRAVEL + LEISURE

2123 Queen Anne Ave. N, Seattle 206 216 4446

mezcaleriaoaxaca.com

Monday–Thursday, 5–11

Friday–Saturday, 5–12

Lunch: Wednesday–Saturday, 12–3

Regional spirits and cuisine of Oaxaca, Mexico

I can’t emphasize this enough: These are the people who put the words in Ron Swanson’s mouth.

Even the events that aren’t sponsored by The Stranger or starring my ofﬁcemates are loaded with Stranger ties. The Fantagraphics Follies event, for example, is a talk-show-format event put together by the best damn publisher in Seattle. That’s not

And then it just becomes an all-out conﬂict-of-interest-palooza. The headlining guests are Jim Woodring and Ellen Forney, both of whom have published countless cartoons in the pages of The Stranger, and both of whom have won Stranger Genius Awards for literature—Forney in 2012 and Woodring in 2010. See? Even though they’re not on The Stranger’s payroll, we’ve given them the highest honor we have to give, because we think they’re both among the best writers and illustrators Seattle has to offer. If you haven’t already seen Woodring employ his giant pen (this is not a euphemism), or seen Forney read her memoir, Marbles, you owe it to yourself to attend this event, conﬂict of interest be damned. Look, I’m not proud of the fact that the extended Stranger family is behind the most interesting literary arts programming at Bumbershoot this year. But that’s just the way it worked out. Deal with it. (Sorry.)

Comment on this conﬂict-of-interest-palooza at THESTRANGER.COM

MIKE FORCE

TBarsuk on Barsuk

Musicians, Friends, and Employees of the Beloved Local Label Tell Us About Their Most Memorable Releases

BY MEGAN SELING

his year, Barsuk Records is celebrating its 15th anniversary, and the celebration starts at Bumbershoot! On Sunday, the beloved label’s history will be discussed by a panel featuring

cofounder Josh Rosenfeld, musicians John Roderick and David Bazan, and moderator Sean Nelson. Later that evening, Death Cab for Cutie will play their Barsuk-released Transatlanticism in its entirety at KeyArena. (There will be swooning.)

And that’s just the beginning of the anniversary action—in November, the label is hosting a weekend of shows that feature several of their past and current signees, including Nada Surf, Mates of State, Menomena, and Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter.

IFifteen Years of Barsuk Records Sun, noon–1 pm, Leo K. Theater

With Barsuk on the brain and dozens of amazing records being put out over the last decade and a half, we asked the staff about some of their favorite and most memorable releases. You can share yours, too, at thestranger.com/music.

Sunset Valley were already kind of a big deal in 1998. They were from Portland, which seemed exotic. Aaron Huffman of Harvey Danger played a cassette dub of “Jackass Crusher” over and over in his car, and we marveled at it—so heavy and poppy and weirdly stoned. On the way back from SXSW in 2001, their as-yet-unreleased Barsuk debut, Icepond, was in constant rotation in the van. I was so obsessed with it, I actually called them and asked if I could be in the band. They demurred. It’s still my favorite record from that time.

John Roderick, the Long Winters

worked with a lot of memorable records during my tenure as in-house PR fella at Barsuk—David Bazan broke my heart with his lyrics, and the debut Phantogram record felt like being at the front of a spreading wildfire—yet Aqueduct’s I Sold Gold will always stand out to me. I was with a prominent New York publicity firm at the time, and being hired to work with Aqueduct led to a job at Barsuk and a move from Brooklyn to Seattle. Also, the song “Growing Up with GNR” was undeniable and compelled the Late Night with Conan O’Brien folks to have them perform it on air. To me, that stands out as one of many examples proving that when you get right down to it, one of the key contributors to a record’s success is fucking great songwriting.

Ever Kipp, publicist

When did I receive Ultimatum? And who sent it to me? I have no idea. But the point is that it arrived at my house and I played it, and it’s been one of my go-tos ever since. Just six songs, but good lord! They stand up and they stand up and they still stand up. The lyrics, the poignant minor chords, and that fabulous John Roderick voice. I believe this was recorded in his “I’m missing my front tooth, so go fuck yourself” phase. This record makes me want to lovingly bash out his entire jaw.

In early 2000, Ben Gibbard gave me a copy of the ¡All-Time Quarterback! EP. I was on tour, so it made its way into the van stereo. Not sure if it left there for a week—those beautiful five songs just stayed on repeat. The recording is weird, stylized, and works perfectly with the material. It still holds up very well for me.

TNancy Guppy, TV host, Art Zone with Nancy Guppy

John Vanderslice, musician

hinking about the Barsuk lineup at Bumbershoot and about our upcoming 15th anniversary shows in November, I keep coming back to the first time I heard Transatlanticism. As has always been their custom, Death Cab didn’t share any music from the album before playing it for me. The Barsuk office was in a business park in Georgetown, with a parking lot view and incredible green carpet, and we loved it because it had provided a place to move all the boxes that had started to fill up the Central District house where Emily and I lived. Chris Walla brought over his own speakers and amp, which we set up for listening in the front office after work one day.

I was floored. Having already released Nada Surf’s Let Go and Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter’s Reckless Burning, and standing on the verge of releasing the Long Winters’ When I Pretend to Fall, I knew when I heard Transatlanticism for the first time that 2003 was going to be one of Barsuk’s best years.

Josh Rosenfeld, cofounder, Barsuk Records

Catching Up with Patton Oswalt

An Interview with the King of Comedy and Cartoon Rats

BY CIENNA MADRID

Comedian Patton Oswalt is returning to Bumbershoot for the sixth time. Here, he talks feminism, cartoon rats, the idols he never wants to meet, and why he’ll never regret a joke he tells onstage.

I’ve heard that other comedians say they consider you to be one of the best craftsmen of comedy. Do you test jokes on social networking sites like Twitter? How has social media—getting an immediate dialogue going with fans—changed how you craft jokes? It hasn’t, not really. Anything I write on Twitter or Facebook is meant for that platform. If I’m writing on Twitter, it’s to burn ideas off that I’d never do onstage. But social media has definitely changed my content, and it’s definitely helped me fill rooms—it’s a much better way to reach fans. Usually in my standup, when I do jokes about political stuff, I talk to people after the show about it, but that’s on a micro level. Instead of having a room full of 600 to 800 people listening to your jokes, and only a couple hanging out afterward, you’re reaching thousands of people at once, and they all essentially have microphones.

Microphones for everyone! So who cracks you up?

Maria Bamford, Hannibal Buress, Louis CK. On Twitter, people like Kelly Oxford, Charlene deGuzman. Right now, I’m just very happy that without a whole lot of effort on my part, I can see and read a great deal of comedy whenever I want to.

In April, you wrote a stirring essay about the Boston Marathon bombings on your Facebook page, and in June, you wrote a circuitously thoughtful essay on your website in which you addressed rape jokes and acknowledged rape culture. Both essays blew up the internet. Were you surprised by the response? With the rape joke essay, how did your fellow comedians respond?

I had both positive and negative

responses—I had some comedians saying that in the third section [addressing rape jokes] I drank the Kool-Aid. But I’m glad for the backand-forth. It proves that the art form I’ve chosen to pursue has weight and meaning. If everyone agrees on what you do, it means it’s disposable. But if people are passionate, it means that it’s crucial. It has impact. I’m more grateful for the argument than the viral response.

Did having a daughter change the way you perceive jokes about women?

Any changes in your life change how you perceive life and interact with anything. Plus, you know, I try to keep things within context. Now that I have a daughter, it’s not like I’ll never talk about A or B again, I’ll just look at the context a little closer.

After 20-plus years of doing comedy, are there jokes you’ve told that you wouldn’t perform today?

That question doesn’t make sense, and I’ll tell you why: Jokes I told when I was younger were snaps of what I was like at that time. It’s not a zero-sum game. I’m glad I’m able

“If everyone agrees on what you do, it means it’s disposable. But if people are passionate, it means that it’s crucial.”

to look back and say, “That was immature, or that was too easy, or that was crass.” So no, there are no jokes that I wish I hadn’t done. And once I do a joke on an album, I never do it again anyway. So it’s moot.

Are there any types of jokes that you hate—fart jokes, people walking into bars, anything else you’d rather never hear again? It all depends on the teller and the

message. I just like anything original and startling. I’m sick of tired approaches, but I’m never sick of subjects.

A friend of mine—a big fan—met you a few years ago and, as he tells it, was so nervous that all he could do was tell your own jokes to you. Is there anyone you admire that would turn you into a sweating, yammering robot?

A few years ago, I had the chance to meet Jonathan Winters. I turned it down because I didn’t know what I’d say to him. If I met him, it’d be a waste of time. I’d be stammering. I wouldn’t know what to do or say. Same with Elvis Costello. With certain people, it’s like what’s the point? It would waste the time of someone who’s a hero to me.

Ratatouille: Everyone loved it. But do you really think we should be telling children that rats make great kitchen helpers?

I’m going to leave that up to the kids themselves. I didn’t know that was the message of the movie. It’s a cartoon. [Editor’s note: That it’s a cartoon IS THE WHOLE POINT. Kids listen to cartoons! Ratatouille taught kids that if you see a rat in the kitchen, you should give it a hug and ask it for something to eat!]

You’re a jack-of-all-trades—you’ve written books, you blog, you perform standup, you’ve been a voice actor in video games, you’re in movies, you’re on TV… What’s one role in any of those ﬁelds that you’re dying to take on?

I’d like eventually to write a movie that gets made. That hasn’t happened yet. That’s the next step. We’ll see what happens.

Given your success in these other ﬁelds, do you still primarily consider yourself to be a comedian?

Yes. I always will. That’s what brought me to the dance, and that’s what I’ll always do.

Comment on craftsmen of comedy at THESTRANGER.COM

Patton Oswalt Sat, 6:30 pm; Sun, 6:30 pm; Mon, 6:45 pm; Bagley Wright Theater

PATTON OSWALT “That question doesn’t make sense, and I’ll tell you why…”

RYAN RUSSELL

Sun, 8 pm (with Mike Vecchione), Comedy at the Playhouse.

LOL, Repeat

Three Straight Days of Almost Peeing Your Pants

BY DAVID SCHMADER

Once something of an afterthought, comedy has ascended to Bumbershoot’s best reason for being. This year’s lineup is packed with the hottest-shit comedy stars of the day, alongside

beloved locals, most performing multiple times. Here’s a mercilessly concise guide to every single comedy act appearing at Bumbershoot 2013, telling you what everything is, when it’s happening, and why you should go see it.

WTF Live with Marc Maron

WHAT: A live recording of the insanely popular podcast, wherein kvetching comedian Maron converses with comedian friends and celebrity guests. (Guests TBA. WTF?)

WHEN: Sun, 4:45 pm, Comedy at the Bagley.

WHY: Maron regularly lands amazing guest after amazing guest (from Louis C.K. to Lucinda Williams), and Bumbershoot should provide an avalanche of prospective winners (and material).

Doug Loves Movies

WHAT: A live recording of comedian Doug Benson’s movie-obsessed podcast.

WHEN: Mon, 5 pm, Comedy at the Bagley.

WHY: Best known as a pothead (see Super High Me), Benson loves movies (see title) and has funny friends.

How Was Your Week? with Julie Klausner

WHAT: A live recording of what is widely considered the funniest podcast in the universe, in which comedy writer Klausner talks about stuff and interviews famous people.

WHEN: Sat, 4:45 pm, Comedy at the Bagley.

WHY: It’s never not funny, and is often more than funny. And Klausner’s Bumbershoot guest is musician Ted Leo!

Improv4Humans

WHAT: A live recording of Matt Besser’s star-packed, fully improvised comedy podcast.

WHEN: Sat, 3 pm; Sun, 3 pm; Mon, 3:15 pm; Comedy at the Bagley.

WHY: Besser’s Bumbershoot guests include SNL veterans Tim Meadows and

Horatio Sanz and UCB veteran Brian Huskey.

The Comedy Bang! Bang! Experience

WHAT: A screening of a new episode of the IFC comedy series, with stars Scott Aukerman and Reggie Watts in attendance.

WHEN: Mon, 1:30 pm, Comedy at the Bagley.

WHY: People love the show, and here’s a new episode! Plus onstage Q&A with Aukerman and Watts.

Patton Oswalt & Friends

WHAT: Writer, actor, and world-renowned comic force Patton Oswalt, with unnamed friends.

WHEN: Sat, 6:30 pm; Sun, 6:30 pm; Mon, 6:45 pm; Comedy at the Bagley.

WHY: From content to execution, Oswalt is just the best there is.

Todd Barry

WHO: American comedian and actor (didja see him in The Wrestler?).

WHEN: Sat, 8 pm (with Jerrod Carmichael); Sun, 2:45 pm (with Jerrod Carmichael and Emily Heller); Mon, 6:15 pm (with Jerrod Carmichael); Comedy at the Playhouse.

WHY: He’s been doing this a long time and people seem to like him, and he shares the bill with other good folks.

Reggie Watts

WHO: Beloved interdimensional comedian and mouth-sound-maker (and former Seattleite!).

WHEN: Mon, 2:45 pm (with Mike Drucker and Joe Mande), Comedy at the Playhouse. WHY: It’s always a good idea to dip your psyche in Watts’s ocean of bleepbloopculturalsatirebbbbzzzzzz.

Marc Maron

WHO: Famously failed comedian turned famously successful podcaster.

WHEN: Sat, 1 pm (with Mike Vecchione);

WHY: His standup should have made him the star he is now 20 years ago.

Doug Benson

WHO: A pothead who loves movies and does standup. (Or is he a standup who loves movies and pot?)

WHEN: Sat, 2:45 pm (with Kyle Dunnigan); Sun, 1 pm (with Kyle Dunnigan); Mon, 8 pm (with Emily Heller), Comedy at the Playhouse.

WHY: Good comedian, good costars.

Kyle Dunnigan

WHO: Actor (Reno 911!), standup (Comedy Central Presents!), and cocreator of the beloved Professor Blastoff podcast (with Tig Notaro!).

WHEN: Sat, 2:45 pm (with Doug Benson); Sun, 1 pm (with Doug Benson); Mon, 4:30 pm (with Mike Vecchione); Comedy at the Playhouse.

WHY: He’s been dating Sarah Silverman since 2011, and might be willing to talk about what her pussy tastes like. (My best guess: the milk left in the bottom of a bowl of Fruity Pebbles.)

Morgan Murphy

WHO: Comedian of Comedy, TV writer, Northwest native!

WHEN: Sat, 6:15 pm (with Mike Drucker and Joe Mande); Sun, 4:30 pm (with Mike Drucker and Joe Mande); Comedy at the Playhouse.

WHY: She funny.

Natasha Leggero

WHO: Standup comic and Chelsea Lately

roundtabler.

WHEN: Sat, 4:30 pm (with Matt Besser); Sun, 6:15 pm (with Matt Besser and Judah Friedlander); Mon, 1 pm (with Matt Besser and Judah Friedlander); Comedy at the Playhouse.

WHY: You love Chelsea Lately

The World Champion Judah Friedlander

WHO: Standup comic, ironic-hat-wearing 30 Rock cast member.

WHEN: Sun, 6:15 pm (with Matt Besser and Natasha Leggero); Mon, 1 pm (with Matt Besser and Natasha Leggero); Comedy at the Playhouse.

WHY: According to his bio, Judah is the greatest comedian in the world and an extradark black belt in karate.

Joe Mande

WHO: Standup and staff writer for Parks & Recreation.

WHEN: Sat, 6:15 pm (with Mike Drucker and Morgan Murphy); Sun, 4:30 pm (with Mike Drucker and Morgan Murphy); Mon, 2:45 pm (with Mike Drucker and Reggie Watts); Comedy at the Playhouse.

WHY: Tells really good jokes.

Matt Besser

WHO: Standup, actor, Asssscat regular.

WHEN: Sat, 4:30 pm (with Natasha Leggero); Sun, 6:15 pm (with Natasha Leggero and Judah Friedlander); Comedy at the Playhouse.

WHY: You like your comedy both literate and surreal.

Mike Drucker

WHO: Standup, Twitter comic, staff writer for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

WHEN: Sat, 6:15 pm (with Morgan Murphy and Joe Mande); Sun, 4:30 pm (with Morgan Murphy and Joe Mande); Mon, 2:45 pm (with Joe Mande and Reggie Watts), Comedy at the Playhouse.

WHY: Misery is hilarious.

Jerrod Carmichael

WHO: Seriously up-and-coming comic from LA by way of North Carolina.

WHEN: Sat, 8 pm (with Todd Barry); Sun, 2:45 pm (with Emily Heller and Todd Barry); Mon, 6:15 pm (with Todd Barry); Comedy at the Playhouse.

WHY: He is smart and funny.

Mike Vecchione

WHO: Standup comic, former wrestler, ﬂedgling bear icon.

WHEN: Sat, 1 pm (with Marc Maron); Sun, 8 pm (with Marc Maron); Mon, 4:30 pm (with Kyle Dunnigan); Comedy at the Playhouse.

WHY: So wrong he’s wry.

Emily Heller

WHO: Standup comic you’ve likely seen

COMEDY BANG! BANG! People love this show!

LARRY HIRSHOWITZ

Marc Maron

Todd Barry Natasha Leggero

everywhere.

WHEN: Sun, 2:45 pm (with Jerrod Carmichael and Todd Barry); Mon, 8 pm (with Doug Benson); Comedy at the Playhouse.

WHY: Explicitly addresses feminism, remains hilarious.

Competitive Erotic Fan Fiction with Bryan Cook

WHAT: A live recording of Seattle-based comedy podcast, featuring 10 comics writing and reading sexy fanﬁc based on audience suggestions.

WHEN: Sun, 4:45 pm, Comedy at Vera.

WHY: It’s hilarious, and you might get to hear about Chris Brown rimming Suge Knight.

Hot Comedy with the Spicy News

WHAT: Comedians read celebrity gossip after eating extremely hot chilies.

WHEN: Mon, 4:45 pm, Comedy at Vera.

WHY: Includes a live Spicy News/Spicy Interview, plus “Hot Comedy,” in which comics attempt to do their act under the inﬂuence of a habañero.

SketchFest

WHAT: A Bumbershoot-speciﬁc download of Seattle’s legendary sketch comedy festival.

WHEN: Sat, 4:45 pm, Comedy at Vera. WHY: You love good sketch comedy.

NorthWest Comedy Fest’s Canadians of Comedy

WHAT: “Vancouver’s favourite comedians”—Dan Quinn, Kyle Bottom, and Katie-Ellen Humphries.

WHEN: Sat, 1:15 pm; Sun, 1:15 pm; Mon, 1:15 pm, Comedy at Vera.

WHY: Canadians smell good.

Podaholics Comedy Stand

WHAT: An hour-long standup comedy show/podcast showcasing Northwest talent.

WHEN: Sun, 3 pm, Comedy at Vera.

WHY: Bumbershoot performers include Duane Goad, Jay Hollingsworth, Kane Holloway, Kelsey Cook, Mike Coletta, Tyler Smith, and Phil Fox.

Best of Tacoma Comedy Club

WHAT: Exactly what it says above.

WHEN: Sat, 3 pm, Comedy at Vera.

WHY: Tacoma residents are required by law to have a really good sense of humor about everything, and this show features Ttown favorites Aaron Kirby, Jonas Barnes, and Brad Upton.

Comedy Jam (Preserves)

WHAT: A showcase of comics ranging in age from 55 to 70, including Ron Reid, Peggy Platt, Geoff Young, and Jay Wendell Walker.

WHEN: Mon, 3 pm, Comedy at Vera.

WHY: When LOL meets AARP , everybody wins.

Laff Hole

WHAT: The ﬂagship show of Seattle’s beloved People’s Republic of Komedy.

WHEN: Sat, 6:30 pm; Sun, 6:30 pm; Mon, 6:30 pm; Comedy at Vera.

WHY: For Bumbershoot, Laff Hole is presenting three complete shows: Saturday is Fresh Faces (featuring up-and-coming NW comedy talent), Sunday is the Idiot Brotherz (comedy puppeteers!), Monday is Funny Over Everything (where national comedy acts mingle with locals).

Punch Pod

WHAT: A live recording of “Seattle’s only weekly standup comedy clip show podcast.”

WHEN: Sat, 11 am; Sun, 11 am; Mon, 11 am; Comedy at Vera.

WHY: The Bumbershoot show features the greatest hits from Punch Pod’s history.

World Class Spirits

NOW MADE LOCALLY small batch, artisan-distilled in a copper alembic pot still Traditional old-world recipes All organic botanicals

Available now in better bars and restaurants everywhere

SATURDAY August 31, 2013

6:45

Treehouse Café

EMILY GHERARD ANDREA HEIMER

ROBERT YODER

JULIE ALPERT JACK DAWS

DAN WEBB

VICTORIA HAVEN

Town Music

A New-Music Chamber Series

curated by Joshua Roman Roomful of Teeth (9/19)

Enso String Quartet (11/6)

Karen Gomyo + Pablo Ziegler featuring the Pablo Ziegler Tango Quartet (2/18)

Joshua Roman + Andrius Zlabys

Pierrot Lunaire + NEW Work by Shpilman, Lustig, Jie and Roman sung by Mary Mackenzie and Ensemble (6/24) (4/22)

GLOBAL RHYTHMS

October 18

Quetzal

Chicano Rock, Salsa, and R&B

November 22 JP Jofre

Classical-Tango Bandoneón

January 24

Krar Collective

Mind-Blowing Ethiopian Grooves

February 14 / Valentines Day

Barefoot Divas Six women. Six distinct lives.

March 21

Harp-O-Rama

Featuring Máire Ní Chathasaigh

April 18 Paris Combo

Oeuvre-Mingling Jazz and Swing

MUSIC

!!!

(Sat, 6:15 pm, Fisher Green) Say what you will about their patchy albums, these transplanted New Yorkers have nailed the punkfunk-disco inferno thing in live contexts. Led by limber dance motivator extraordinaire Nic Offer and his wisecracking, lewd lyrics, !!! (Chk-Chk-Chk) lay down spiky guitar riffs, libidinous bass lines, and propulsive rhythms geared for maximum sweat production.

DAVE SEGAL

ALLEN STONE

(Mon, 8 pm, Fisher Green) On record, Allen Stone’s R&B treads a little too close to the Jason Mraz line—a bit, eh, unexciting. But when Allen Stone is performing live, the longhaired crooner from Eastern Washington somehow summons the funky soul power of Stevie Wonder, and HOT DAMN, it is great!

MEGAN SELING

ALT-J

(Mon, 2 pm, KeyArena) The massively popular Alt-J create a rickety, vaguely inspirational breed of rock that inevitably draws adjectives like “homespun” and “warm.” They remind me of a less ambitious James (ask your dad). Singer Joe Newman has one of those high, earnest, nasal voices that make you want to set your ears on fire—a prospect that someone in my line of work just can’t risk. Have fun, rest of the world. D. SEGAL

AURELIO & GARIFUNA

SOUL

(Mon, 1 pm, Fisher Green) Aurelio Martinez is a Honduran musician and politician (he ser ved as a member of the National Congress of Honduras) who mixes the traditions of the Garifuna community—a vibrant African/ Caribbean culture—with Latin and modern influences to create masterful, hip-shaking music. I can’t think of a better way to dance off the weekend’s beer and fried delights!

EMILY NOKES

AYRON JONES & THE WAY

(Sun, noon, Mural Amphitheater) Some call this new Northwest trio “power blues-rock,” others say it’s alternative blues with a blend of rock, hiphop, and soul. The band describes themselves on their website as “Stevie Ray Vaughan meets Nirvana,” and Stranger music writer Megan Seling says of Ayron Jones: “Dude can fucking shred!” So, based on this wee bit of information, sounds like you should go see these dudes! Their debut album is almost finished and is being recorded by hometown hero Sir Mix-A-Lot. KELLY O

BARONESS

(Mon, 5:15 pm, Fountain Lawn) There’s not a lot of heavy rock at this year’s Bumbershoot festival, so if you prefer to feel the bass in your chest, do not miss Baroness. The Savannah, Georgia, quartet isn’t the most brutal band in the land, but their pummeling beats will definitely give you some opportunities to whip your hair back and forth and wiggle those metal fingers. MS

BASSNECTAR

(Mon, 9:45 pm, KeyArena) In preparation for this blurb, I listened to the number-one most played Bassnectar song on Spotify, an athletic, 6:29-minute number called “Bass Head.” Here’s what I came away with: bip bip bip dip dip dip [robot voice] BASS HEAD chip choop chip chip, [whisper] BASS, vrooooooooooooom urrreeeah ah ah ah YOOOOOUUUUW WUH WUH WUH BWOOOOOAAAAWW whuruhwhuruh-whuruh-whuruh GHOOWWWOO ROBOT-BOT-BOT-BOT BAAASSS. Goes great with neon dreads and baseball-bat-sized ear gauges. Rave while you can, brother. EN

(Sun, 8:45 pm, Fountain Lawn) This Oakland trio makes steampunky, multi-culti, goth-circus-sounding electronica, and one of them, Zoe Jakes, is a “world-renowned belly dance performer/producer,” according to the band’s Facebook page. It appears that we at Bumbershoot will be treated to the band’s “big beat arrangements,” with live horns, accordion, glockenspiel, viola, string quartets, kalimba, clarinet, and “various unusual instruments,” plus pretty/punky women in spangled brassieres with bindis (and maybe pom-poms!) who are not from India. BETHANY JEAN CLEMENT

BELLAMAINE

(Mon, 12:15 pm, Fountain Lawn) Three parts beardo and 50 percent married couple, this band hails from Anacortes and plays honeyed, bouncy indie rock that might inspire you to disrobe with someone special and prance through a mossy forest. EMILY KLEIN

BOB MOULD

(Sun, 6:15 pm, Fisher Green) Performing at the Showbox late last year, Bob Mould busted out the whole of Sugar’s beloved debut, Copper Blue, in order, and that was just the beginning. What followed was a mix of songs from Mould’s then-brand-new solo release Silver Age alongside more Hüsker Dü classics than any fan has a right to expect. Mould clearly loves these songs as much as we do, and here’s hoping his Bumbershoot gig traverses similar new-meets-old territory. (The man still sings “Chartered Trips” as if his life depends on it.) DAVID SCHMADER

THE BREEDERS

(Sun, 8 pm, Fisher Green) Though 20 years have passed since the Breeders released their glorious noisy/poppy masterpiece Last Splash—you know, the record that gave us alt-indie anthem “Cannonball” and the bass line to end all ’90s bass lines—it still holds up, as does the band, as being unfuckwithably excellent. The chiming riffs, strange feedback, and ever-sweet harmonies of Kim and Kelley Deal just can’t be touched. So take note, dear Bumbershooter: This is your chance to witness the Breeders in complete Last Splash lineup (the Deal sisters, Jim Macpherson on drums, Josephine Wiggs on bass) playing every gem on the album. EN

(Sun, 8 pm, Plaza Stage) This newish band of dudes, who may or may not enjoy horseback riding in their home state of Oklahoma, kind of sound like garage rockers the Strange Boys if they were a little harder and a bit more ’70s punk à la the Buzzcocks. They also sound a bit like early Ty Segall, if you stripped away some of his trademark skuzzy fuzziness and replaced it with a slicker final recorded sound. Like any good punk band worth their salt, Broncho’s 10-song debut, Can’t Get Past the Lips, clocks in at less than 20 minutes, with one of the record’s best songs, “Blown Fuse,” a mere shotgun blast at one minute, 47 seconds. Kapow! KO

CASCADIA ’10

(Mon, 11:45 am, Fisher Green) Remember when Ace of Base, a Swedish reggae act, sang about fertile, sexually promiscuous women? And they were wildly successful? And “All That She Wants” is stuck in your head right now? And it’s another baby? Of course! In that vein, Cascadia ’10 are a Northwestern gaggle of nine who make a rough approximation of Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat. They’re great—don’t hate just because Cascadia is about as far from West Africa as you can get without being in the Pacific Ocean. DOMINIC HOLDEN

CHARLES BRADLEY & HIS EXTRAORDINAIRES

(Sat, 8 pm, Mural Amphitheater) Charles Bradley released his debut album on Daptone Records (home of soul greats Sharon Jones and Lee Fields) at the age of 62. Let me repeat that: 62! Now 65, Bradley is a MUSTSEE at Bumbershoot. If personal experiences lend anything to the depth and range of a soul singer, Bradley has these in spades. A James Brown impersonator at age 14, he ran away from home and extreme poverty; he endured years of homelessness, illness, and the murder of his brother. The whole incredible story of this man, with the nickname “The Screaming Eagle of Soul,” was the subject of the documentary titled Charles Bradley: Soul of America. Seriously, don’t miss a chance to hear this amazing man sing his heart out. KO

THE COMETTES

(Sun, 5 pm, Plaza Stage) The Comettes make intimate, chiming, faintly psychedelic rock that could make you shiver sweetly un-

der the right circumstances—like if the sun’s rays are slanting and bursting off your soul mate’s sunglasses during an especially moving chord progression, or a swirling organ tone triggers memories of an especially vivid acid trip. Like that. D. SEGAL

COOKIE MONSTA

(Sat, 11 pm, EMP) C is for cookie, and that’s good enough for the poor kids who couldn’t afford to go see Skrillex last year. CALLAN BERRY

CRYSTAL CASTLES

(Sat, 10 pm, Fisher Green) Toronto-based duo Crystal Castles evolved from a punk Ladytron cover band to full-blown, synthesizergoth party-rocking types in a mere three albums. Track names like “Plague,” “Wrath of God,” and “Child I Will Hurt You” don’t seem to portend fist-pump-worthy beats or oodles of grimy/sexy bass, but plenty of both can be found on their latest record. Slap on your black leather and go flail the night away. KYLE FLECK

DANNIC

(Sat, 10 pm, EMP) Joining us from the Netherlands, DJ/producer/self-hyper Dannic has the steely gaze of a heartthrob you might see on an HBO-ish chiseled-vampire series. Just look at this sexy sentence from his gray-ondark-gray website: “From mashups to highprofile collaborations to tours and residencies in some of the world’s hottest venues, there is plenty going on in Dannic’s universe.” No doubt. Dannic’s dance tracks sound like jet engines on ecstasy in a constant state of takeoff, and the man can wear distressed denim like his Facebook likes depend on it. EN

DAVE B

(Sat, 12:30 pm, Fountain Lawn) Seattle’s young up-and-coming rapper/producer Dave B won 2013’s Sound Off! competition (one of just two hiphop acts to have done so in the 12 years that EMP has been putting on the event). And he has been hitting local shows and festivals this summer, impressing folks left and right with his soulful, charming, and quick-witted rap style that goes nicely with his fresh-faced (clean but not squeaky) appeal. EN

DAVID BAZAN

(Sun, 3:30 pm, Fountain Lawn) Few songwriters can write such beautiful songs about

BEATS ANTIQUE

BRONCHO

Aurelio & Garifuna Soul

such horrifying things the way David Bazan can. He’s sung about husbands being stabbed, women being murdered, and all kinds of other physical and emotional betrayals. What makes it even more chilling is the smooth, often gentle indie-rock delivery of such terrors. It’s creepy, but great. MS

DAVIDSON HART KINGSBERY

(Sat, 3:30 pm, Plaza Stage) The sawdusted country licks and good-natured, gravelly croon of Davidson Hart Kingsbery are perfect for a shot of decent whiskey and some late-night do-si-do with your sweetie in a warm saloon. Come for the lovesick toetappers, stay for the “Nyquil and Wine.” EN

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE

(Sun, 9:45 pm, KeyArena) Oh, how I wish Bumbershoot still hosted headlining artists at Memorial Stadium. How spectacular would it be to hear Death Cab start into Transatlanticism’s heart-tugging title track just as the cool air was reaching twilight, with the brightest stars starting to sparkle above? Alas, the magic will be confined to the less naturally spectacular KeyArena, but it will most certainly still be a sight to behold. MS

DEERHUNTER

(Mon, 9 pm, Fountain Lawn) Deerhunter guitarist/vocalist/provocateur Bradford Cox sings the sweetest “I hate you” in indie rock. That paradox informs the Georgia group’s sound—gauzy shoegaze that stings lyrically Deerhunter’s sixth and newest album, Monomania, sums up their approach: a relentless exploration of Cox’s compellingly twisted psyche and dreamily melodic rock tunes that envelop you in a clarifying fog. D. SEGAL

DELTA RAE

(Mon, 6:15 pm, Mural Amphitheater) God bless this country and its ability to produce a seemingly endless supply of pretty siblings with decent musical talent who, in turn, churn out a seemingly endless supply of pretty-sounding music. CB

DIAMOND RINGS

(Sat, 2:45 pm, Fisher Green) Rainbow eye shadow, heavy ’80s-style rouge, angular clothing and hair—John O’Regan looks like a million bucks rolled in glitter and then airbrushed to look like a Miami sunset. His deep, nonsingy singing voice is a little shy and a little introspective, but the insistent drum machine and sparkly synth keep Diamond Rings from being anything but danceable. EN

DJ GIRL 6

(Sun, 9 pm, EMP) The former-Seattleite-

turned-Vegas-party-starter returns to her old stomping ground to break out an electronicheavy set for EDM at EMP. D. SCHMADER

DJ PHASE

(Sun, 7 pm, EMP) According to his online profile, this KISS FM DJ’s favorite place to party is “wherever there is Jäger and a few cans of Red Bull.” His favorite famous person is “Stewie [from] Family Guy,” and if he had to be tied to someone for 24 hours it would be “any hot blonde… brains optional. Or Megan Fox will do.” DJ Phase spins pulsing, obvious beats that are the aural equivalent of alcopop and will probably appeal to a similar constituency. EK

DJ TYLER BROWN

(Sat, 7 pm, EMP) You may know DJ Tyler Brown from the Saturday night show The Vortex on C89.5, and if so, you’re probably familiar with his deep crates of bass-heavy, occasionally melancholic electronic music. He’s got eclectic taste, so it could be more house or it could be more dubstep that he spins— all I know is that it’ll sound pretty damn nice pumping out of proper sub-woofers instead of your car’s tinny-ass speakers. KF

DJ WHITE SHADOW

(Sun, 10:45 pm, EMP) Paul Blair is DJ Shadow, and DJ Shadow produced Lady Gaga’s Born This Way as well as her upcoming album ARTPOP. He’s also apparently discjockeyed for the highest of profiles: Louis Vuitton, Google, Marc Jacobs, President Obama… and now you! As far as his own music, DJ Shadow’s three-song EP titled Pussy Drugs Fear was released last month and offers standard-issue bleep-bloop for your sweating pleasure: chopped-up rap samples, creepy latex squeaks, twitchy stuttering, etc. EN

DOWN NORTH

(Sat, 2 pm, Plaza Stage) I listened to this local funk band for the first time this morning (it’s somewhere at the beginning of the last month of summer), and what’s been said about them by Dave Segal (“Super-competent players and singers all”) and Grant Brissey (“These guys can bring the goods”) is actually as true as true can be. These cats are talented and have wonderful amounts of rocking energy. I’m really surprised it took so long to get with this program. CHARLES MUDEDE

THE DUKE ROBILLARD BAND

(Sun, 3 pm, Mural Amphitheater) Legendary guitarist Duke Robillard has played with everyone from Tom Waits to Bob Dylan, and he is consistently nominated

Diamond Rings

PHOTO: Jeff Shanes

for best blues guitarist at the Blues Music Awards. He’s been at it for some time—like half a century—so expect a well-honed and technically outstanding set of good old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll squall. KF

ERIC BURDON AND THE ANIMALS

(Sun, 4:45 pm, Mural Amphitheater) Eric Burdon ain’t the gruff garage-soul belter he used to be, but at 72 he’s still relatively robust. He’s the only original Animals member still in this unit, but that’s a trifling matter when you have a bushel of classic tunes like “Don’t Bring Me Down,” “When I Was Young,” “A Girl Named Sandoz,” and maybe even the supersexy hit Burdon cut with War, “Spill the Wine.” D. SEGAL

ERNIE WATTS WITH NEW STORIES

(Sat, 1:10 pm, Mural Amphitheater) Ernie Watts is a Grammy-winning former session musician who plays golden-toned, technically stupendous jazz saxophone. He’s been featured on numerous classic Mar vin Gaye albums (!), the Grease soundtrack (!!), and the Night Court theme song (?!). His performances inspire fans to write weird, intense poetry (“Ernie got visceral/Vivisected himself right onstage… You know/Where the alien baby comes out… scary shit… only this baby’s beautiful”), which he posts on his website. EK

FIDLAR

(Sun, 2:45 pm, Fisher Green) Do you like songs about farts? Or songs about being fucked up, young and dumb, and/or totally broke? Have you ever wake-and-baked? Have you ever woken up, still drunk, floating in a bathtub full of empty Pabst cans? Do you think that dude Nathan Williams from the band Wavves is kind of a dick? Do you ever wonder what a child fathered by skate punks the Spits and birthed by garage-rocking rabbit-man Nobunny would sound like? If you say “YES!” to any of this, then write this band’s set time on your forehead with a Sharpie and DO NOT MISS THIS! FIDLAR is your new favorite band, and you can’t believe Bumbershoot even booked them. KO

turnal vibe will go down before noon, but it should be interesting to see how it translates to the stage. KF

FUN.

(Sun, 3:30 pm, KeyArena) All I know about fun. is their “We Are Young,” radio earworm, so I obviously imagined them to be a band of 15- or 12-year-olds. Turns out they are my age, which, at the time of this typing, is pushing 30 in two years. Young, but not young Then I read the lyrics and realized this megahit is very much a thirtysomething song after all. Sitting at a bar, thinking about your failed relationship at the bar, doing drugs in the bathroom of the bar, almost falling apart at the bar, pulling it together at the bar, then raising your glass and wastedly telling everyone how young they (we) are. Can’t wait for them to belt this one out at their reunion show! EN

GARY NUMAN

(Sat, 8 pm, Fisher Green) Yes, “Cars” is an all-time jam and that may be your main reason for catching this British synth-rock icon. But there’s much more to Gary Numan than that 1979 hit. The man’s tremulous, anomic voice still compels, and his catalog teems with songs that boast a bracingly frigid elegance and beats to which you can bust your finest robot dance moves.

D. SEGAL

THE GRIZZLED MIGHTY

(Sun, 6:30 pm, Plaza Stage) Some band names are so fitting, they basically render a music writer’s job meaningless: The adjectives “grizzled” and “mighty” are all you need to know about how this pummeling, heavy Seattle rock group sounds. And lord knows the Pummeling Heavy is a shitty band name. KF

GRYNCH

THE FLAVR BLUE

(Sat, 2 pm, Fountain Lawn) Seriously, if you don’t know who the Ballard-raised rapper Grynch is, if you have never come across his name even once in your life, if you’ve never heard even one of his tracks on the radio or in some cafe like Beacon Hill’s The Station, then you either arrived in Seattle yesterday or you really do not give a shit about 206 hiphop. Grynch has a couple of local classics under his belt and has rapped with and worked with every big name in town. CM

GTA

(Sat, 11:45 am, Fisher Green) A trio of stupid-hot Seattleites making hollowed-out club music, the Flavr Blue seem to have a genuine hit on their hands with single “F x F.” The rest of their debut album, Pisces, doesn’t quite hit that song’s sweet spot between dirty and catchy, and I’m not sure how their noc-

(Mon, 8:15 pm, KeyArena) Do you like your collared shirts loud and buttoned all the way up? Does your daily routine involve more than two energy drinks? Is a Chihuahua–Jack Russell cross your ideal puppy? Are

Grynch

peach gummies your go-to road trip snack? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, you might like GTA’s aggressive, housey dance jams. EK

GUS + SCOUT

(Sat, 5 pm, Plaza Stage) Gus Wenner is the son of Jann Wenner (the founder of Rolling Stone magazine), and Scout Willis is the daughter of Bruce Willis (the voice of Spike in Rugrats Go Wild) and Demi Moore (Punk’d). Gus + Scout were childhood friends and started their alt-country/folk band after reuniting at Brown University. They almost gave up after years of agonizing hard work attempting to break into the music scene, until they finally caught a break when Seattle’s Bumbersho… oh wait. EN

GUY

(Sun, 10 pm, EMP) This GUY is a local DJ who was nominated for D List magazine’s “Top Local Male DJ of the Year” award. (Are male and female DJs really so different?) He didn’t win, but from what I can tell from tediously internet-searching combinations of our two- and three-letter hints, GUY will most definitely be bringing you some “highenergy” mixes that will make you “dance.” Ain’t nothing wrong with that! EN

HEART

(Sat, 9:45 pm, KeyArena) This band formed the year I was born. As a wee kid, I sang along to the ballads on Dog & Butterfly with my divorce-dad during the long car rides after he’d pick me for weekend visits. I spent my preteen years singing in the mirror and trying to look cool to “Barracuda,” and much of my later teens roller-skating and flirting with boys to the tune of “Crazy on You” or “Magic Man.” Though the Northwest is home for these Hall-of-Famers and Grammy winners, they’ve never-ever-never played Bumbershoot before (sing it: “Neee-vah! No, Neee-vah!”). DO NOT MISS THE SISTERS! KO

HOT BODIES IN MOTION

(Mon, 11:45 am, Mural Amphitheater) Hot Bodies in Motion are a great, bluesy, fiery rock band from right here in Seattle (check out their song “Old Habits” for proof). Their sound would be more appropriate for a smoky dive bar than an outdoor stage at high noon, but what’s Bumbershoot if not a great place to watch a bunch of hungover, pale rock ’n’ roll fans awkwardly dance while also trying to keep the blinding sun out of their eyes? MS

HUMAN SPIRIT

(Sat, 12:30 pm, Mural Amphitheater) Thomas Marriott, Mark Taylor, and Matt Jorgensen—who’ve each made a bunch of albums as band leaders—play jazz together as Human Spirit. According to Wikipedia, “The human spirit includes our intellect, emotions, fears, passions, and creativity,” giving these guys a helluva lot to live up to. EK

HYPERFUNK

(Sat, 9 pm, EMP) This Seattle DJ comes “armed with multiple genres and a mission to give you a reason to throw your hands up.” He furthermore pledges to “deliver what it takes to rock the party.” BJC

ICONA POP

(Sat, 4:30 pm, Fisher Green) Two impeccably fashionable ladies making thumping, club-ready pop in the vein of fellow Swede Robyn, Icona Pop made a big summertime splash in 2012 with their hit single “I Love It.” Though they’ve yet to top the sugardizzy high of their signature anthem, a new album is poised to drop in September, and the leaked tracks seem to promise a bounty of unabashed, maximalist bangers. KF

IVAN & ALYOSHA

(Mon, 7:30 pm, Plaza Stage) Local Dostoyevsky-named group Ivan & Alyosha are participants in this new wave of multi-part harmony and tinkling/beachy guitar music that sounds like a soundtrack to something. That stuff sounds good, right? This is more of that stuff. ANNA MINARD

JASON BONHAM’S LED

ZEPPELIN EXPERIENCE

(Sat, 8:30 pm, KeyArena) Imagine how daunting it must be to have sprung from the loins of Led Zeppelin’s drummer. Jason Bonham said, “It ain’t no thang,” and followed in his pop’s hugely influential drum-kit-bashing steps to carry on Zep’s legacy with cymbalsplashing panache. This set is your best chance of witnessing Led Zeppelin’s best work replicated live. The song remains… slightly altered. D. SEGAL

JOEY BADA$$

(Sat, 2:45 pm, KeyArena) Of all the musicbiz types using $ in their name, Joey Bada$$ is the best. Our resident rap experts Larry Mizell Jr. and Mike Ramos aren’t really feeling the 18-year-old Brooklyn MC, but I’m a sucker for hiphop that reeks of ’90s Big Apple. Joey puts that boom into the bap with

Hot Bodies in Motion

SEPTEMBER 19 & 21 MORLOT CONDUCTS RAVEL

This all-Ravel program features pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s performances generously underwritten by Sheila B. Noonan and Peter M. Hartley.

SEPTEMBER 26–29 GERSHWIN’S PORGY AND BESS

SEATTLE POPS SERIES Sponsored by Don’t miss selections from Gershwin’s beloved Porgy and Bess

OCTOBER 30 & 31

HITCHCOCK’S PSYCHO WITH THE SEATTLE SYMPHONY

See Alfred Hitchcock’s suspenseful Psycho on the big screen as the Symphony plays the soundtrack.

DECEMBER 10 & 11 PINK MARTINI WITH THE SEATTLE SYMPHONY

Featuring traditional holiday favorites all imbued with Pink Martini’s signature sound! Sponsored by

APRIL 3, 5 & 6

CARMINA BURANA

Hear the Seattle Symphony and Chorale perform Carl Orff’s 20th-century masterwork.

JUNE 6

SONIC EVOLUTION

Presenting sponsor:

Brand-new symphonic compositions inspired by icons Bill Frisell, Ray Charles and Sir Mix-A-Lot.

JUNE 19 & 21

STRAVINSKY’S THREE GREAT BALLETS

Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind opportunity to hear Stravinsky’s three great ballet scores in a single sitting.

Ludovic

Morlot

gruff authority. He may not have an Illmatic in him, but maybe a Reel to Reel? D. SEGAL

THE JOY FORMIDABLE

(Mon, 10 pm, Fisher Green) For those who find the xx too reserved to compel full engagement, the Joy Formidable are here to fill your guitar-based art-pop hole with an impressive droney racket. The former duo is now a trio, with drummer Matthew James Thomas joining real-life couple Rhiannon “Ritzy” Bryan (vocals, guitar) and Rhydian Dafydd (vocals, bass). And while Bryan has a questionable habit of casting herself as an archetypal Manic Pixie Dream Girl (and she’s not yet doing anything interesting with the role thematically), she does help make that impressive racket, which is enough for now.

D. SCHMADER

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE

(Mon, 8 pm, Mural Amphitheater) Justin Townes Earle is heartily accomplished, having won the 2011 Americana Music Award for song of the year, as well as touring with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings and Old Crow Medicine Show. He is also very, very good at wearing clothes. EK

KATIE KATE

(Sun, 4:30 pm, Fisher Green) The ever-fab Katie Kate is a local rapper, producer, classically trained musician, and 2013 Stranger Genius Award finalist. On album, her fully impressive avant-pop weaves tenacious beats and majestic hooks around her versatile voice (she can croon, she can rhyme, she can wail). Live, expect her to blow you away with more of that voice, those moves, and some incredible outfits you only wish you could pull off. Don’t miss her set, for serious. EN

KENDRICK LAMAR

(Sat, 4 pm, KeyArena) From what I can tell, Kendrick Lamar drives humans under the age of 18 absolutely wild and gets controversially competitive with other rappers in verse and on Twitter. Lamar’s music tells elaborate stories punctuated with strange alliteration; he raps with a distinct, choppy flow. His voice is smoky, older-sounding-than-he-really-is, and sometimes warped through a Martian/ helium-duck filter. I’m not so sure his albums quite match his self-aggrandizing, but then he’d probably tell me, “Bitch, don’t kill my vibe.” Uh-huuhhh. EN

KINKY

(Mon, 4:30 pm, Fisher Green) Man oh man! Try to Google Image search THIS band’s name, and lemme tell ya, you’ll be immediately scrolling through pages and pages of ball gags, spankings, and blindfolds! It’s bet-

ter to search “Kinky + Latin America” because this Kinky is five-piece rock-electronic band from Monterrey, Mexico. They sometimes sing in English, but mostly they’re a Spanish-language band with a huge, bouncy dance-rock sound. Their album Barracuda was coproduced by Money Mark of Beastie Boys fame. Expect to dance. KO

KITHKIN

(Sun, 11:45 am, Fisher Green) Kithkin are the only band in Seattle that can send me their new album along with a bunch of rocks and sticks and still make me love them. They’re a whirlwind of wild percussion, warrior calling, and pop hooks, and they describe themselves as “treepunk,” which is absolutely the perfect label. MS

KOPECKY FAMILY BAND

(Mon, 4:30 pm, Plaza Stage) A big ol’ fingersnapping hand-clapping “family band” (not an actual family), the Kopeckys play solid multi-instrumental contemporary Americana. Do you like all the bands that are popular at music festivals right now, face-painting and camping, and summertime? You will like the family band! AM

KRIS ORLOWSKI

(Sat, 8 pm, Plaza Stage) If you feel that your nice-guy indie rock has been sorely lacking in flutes and oboes, you have found your man. KF

LAKE STREET DIVE

(Sat, 6:30 pm, Plaza Stage) Glasses and bangs and rolled-up pants! Their website bio says they all like the same songs! It’s “Dive” not “Drive”! There’s a trumpet AND a bass! It’s jazzy AND indie! Your parents just might cut a rug at the back of the concert! Aww! CB

LISSIE

(Mon, 2:45 pm, Mural Amphitheater) Lissie is a singer-songwriter who sports a pained, earnest expression in her videos and press photos. Her lyrics focus on unrequited longing and the everyday assholery of boys, and pose penetrating questions like “Does anyone love anyone anymore?” and “Will I see him again soon?” Angsty tween girls who are too cool (or too hung up on actual vocal ability) for Taylor Swift will love her. EK

THE LONE BELLOW

(Mon, 9 pm, Plaza Stage) It’s heartfelt country music made by a trio of great-looking people from the small towns of the American South by way of Park Slope, Brooklyn. The Lone Bellow are darlings of NPR, and the New York Times pretty much gushed about them in a long article in January, praising the band’s “close harmonies: three singers

Kithkin

Teriyaki

Crepes,

whose timbres meld seamlessly even at full volume,” and comparing them to Mumford & Sons. BJC

MACEO PARKER

(Sat, 9:45 pm, Mural Amphitheater) It’s getting late in the game for Maceo Parker, and you don’t want to say you missed your chance to see the force of nature who blew soulful, saxophonic vitality into classic tracks by James Brown, the J.B.’s, Funkadelic, Prince, De La Soul, Deee-Lite, and many others. Even at 70, Parker seems like he can still be the life of the party. D. SEGAL

THE MALDIVES

(Mon, 1 pm, Mural Amphitheater) The Maldives have been kicking around Seattle for some time now, their patented brand of soaring, melodic alt-country winning them awards and accolades from fans and critics alike. The level of craftsmanship displayed on their most recent album, Listen to the Thunder, seems to indicate these guys may finally get the national attention they deserve. KF

MARK PICKEREL AND HIS PRAYING HANDS

into a puddle of sugary goo, not unlike a Slurpee dropped onto a hot sidewalk. KF

MATT JORGENSON +451

(Sat, noon, Mural Amphitheater) Drummer Matt Jorgenson makes grounded jazz. This is no simple matter of just being a competent, trained musician—more importantly, it’s about being able to make music that still sounds fresh. One must always keep in mind that jazz is about to reach the century mark in age and has seen some of the greatest minds in American music come and go. So any musician who decides to make jazz must be a part of this solid history while at the same time imprinting their identity on it. If you listen to Matt Jorgenson’s new Tattooed by Passion: Music Inspired by the Paintings of Dale Chisman, you will hear exactly his imprint on jazz. CM

MATT POND

(Sun, 9:30 pm, Plaza Stage) Poor dude is getting rudely treated by the Bumbershoot people, whose bio for Matt Pond brags about his work in a Starbucks commercial and on The OC. C’mon guys! After years as the band Matt Pond PA, the PA-less Pond is tougher than that—he opened for Superchunk and Bikini Kill back in the day. Sometimes you can’t help mellowing out and buttoning it down with age. AM

(Mon, 6 pm, Plaza Stage) Broody-moody country musician Mark Pickerel has walked—and played—alongside some of the greats of Northwest noir, from Kurt Cobain to Neko Case. He used to drum for the Screaming Trees, is on Bloodshot Records, and some critics have (correctly) compared his low, velvety-with-a-hint-of-broken-glass voice to Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave. But a speck of brightness, a touch of hope, floats in all that inkiness. Pickerel is a survivor.

BRENDAN KILEY

MATES OF STATE

(Sun, 5:15 pm, Fountain Lawn) This glasses-wearing straight-married couple is universally described as an “indie-pop duo,” whatever that means anymore. Their music sounds like two people who know each other; sometimes it’s fun to be in on the in-joke and sometimes you wish someone else was editing it a little more harshly. AM

MATT AND KIM

(Sun, 10 pm, Fisher Green) Matt and Kim make keyboard-and-drum-based pop complete with over-the-top earnestness and “woo-ee-oo” choruses. They had a pretty good single like six years ago, and made a sort-of-cute video once, but the total lack of any hard edges in the music causes it to melt

THE MEN

(Mon, 1:45 pm, Fountain Lawn) This Brooklyn post-punk five-piece is kind of like a big, messy bowl of goulash that your sweet old babcia (Polish grandma) used to make with all the leftovers in the fridge. The Men’s recipe is random: little bits and sounds cooked up by other bands—really good groups like early MC5, Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, Mudhoney, Butthole Surfers (with the tiniest dash of the Stooges). And while leftovers can be cold and boring, the Men’s nostalgia is pretty, new, and downright tasty when remixed and reheated. KO

MGMT (Mon, 3:30 pm, KeyArena) Just like the time everybody pointed and laughed at me when I ordered a “Bah-jah” chalupa (it’s “Bahhaa” as in Baja, California) at the long-gone Broadway Taco Bell, I once pronounced the name of this band as “management.” After being laughed at again, I was told you say: “Em-gee-em-tee.” Whatever, jerk-offs! Tons of people just LOVE this smarty-pants synth-pop “indietronica” neo-psychedelic

band that was formed back in 2005 when two dudes named Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden met at Wesleyan University. You’ll probably love them, too! (Just don’t ask me to pronounce that Andrew dude’s last name.) KO

MIDDAY VEIL

(Sun, 3:30 pm, Plaza Stage) We’ve been droning on for years about how potent Midday Veil’s brand of Sturm und Drang kraut/ psych rock is, and finally the Bumbershoot gods have tapped them to bedazzle the festival’s verdant grounds. Riding high on their newly released sophomore album, The Current, Midday Veil combine flamboyantly beautiful melodies with a telepathic aptitude for transcendent jamming, making for an essential live experience. D. SEGAL

THE MOWGLI’S

(Sun, 1 pm, Fisher Green) Add the Mowgli’s to the growing family tree of exuberant, many-member groups that ride the line between indie folk rock and neo big band (Hey Marseilles, Of Monsters and Men, and the rest). Like their contemporary cousins, the Mowgli’s also ride the line between somber and happy-go-lucky, frequently starting a song in one of those two moods before building into swelling, triumphant conclusions that roll over your ears like the big waves of the California coast they call home. But their yearnings aren’t just personal—24-year-old frontman Colin Dieden told a music blogger recently: “We’re trying to create a movement based on love, to make art for the purpose of love to better this planet and our species.” The Mowgli’s are full of earnest hope. BK

NACHO PICASSO

(Sat, 1:15 pm, Fisher Green) To say that Seattle’s Nacho Picasso, aka “ The Tat in the Hat,” is blowing up would be putting it, uh, lightly. He was included in XXL’s “The New New: 15 Seattle Rappers You Should Know,” Pitchfork dubbed his second solo mixtape, For the Glory, “one of the best rap debuts of 2011,” and Forbes put Lord of the Fly/Exalted on its list of the “Best Free Albums of 2012.” Stranger hiphop columnist/KEXP Street Sounds DJ Larry Mizell Jr. once called him a “larger-than-life stoner-goon,” and Spin described him as a “prolific, nerdy nihilist.” All of this hype for some cocky songs about comics, bitches, and chronic. Funny how that works. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

NIKKI HILL

(Sun, 1:15 pm, Mural Amphitheater) Nikki Hill and her guitarzan husband, Matt Hill, tear up some old-school, twangy rock ’n’ roll. Her booming, gospel-inspired vocals are upstaged only by the band’s supercharged showmanship. DH

THE PHYSICS

(Sat, 5:15 pm, Fountain Lawn) The Physics, a trio that recently relocated their studio from Pioneer Square to Belltown, are one of the leading hiphop acts in the 206. The three (Thig Nat and Monk Wordsmith on the mics, Justo on the beats) have released no less than five albums over a period of six years—the most recent album being Tomorrow People, which was dropped last year and contains the jewel “So Funky.” Again, if you do not know who the Physics are, it can only mean you do not come from this city or you hate local hiphop. CM

RAMONA FALLS

(Sun, 1:45 pm, Fountain Lawn) Ramona Falls is the brainchild of Brent Knopf, whom you may know from his former gig as onethird of Menomena. His new material has a dash of that group’s shape-shifting prog tendencies, augmented with meticulous production and an undercurrent of digital detritus floating through. He is also not afraid to simply rock the fuck out, should the occasion call for it. KF

RA RA RIOT

(Sun, 8:15 pm, KeyArena) Ra Ra Riot play starry, electronically inclined dance songs that will make you twirl around and probably fall in love with the person next to you at the show. Stand next to someone cute! MS

RED BARAAT

(Mon, 2:45 pm, Fisher Green) According to their press release, Red Baraat are “the first and only dhol ’n’ brass band of its kind in the States,” mixing traditional Indian percussion with brass instruments to create loose, improvisatory jams as well as Bollywood covers. This has the potential to be the most pleasant surprise of Bumbershoot. Twerk it out to some bhangra funk, y’all! KF

REDD KROSS

(Mon, 3:30 pm, Fountain Lawn) The seminal LA punk band with the eternally revolving roster of musicians got back to serious business in 2006 when they performed a career-spanning set at L.A.’s REDCAT theater. Officially re-forming in 1997 and touring sporadically ever since, the current iteration of the band released the pop-punk-packed Researching the Blues last year, and it’s a delightful blast of grade-A pop punk. Live, expect moshtalgia. D. SCHMADER

RED JACKET MINE

(Mon, 1:30 pm, Plaza Stage) Do you like Squeeze, Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Alex Chilton, Garland Jeffreys, Graham Parker, and/or Steve Forbert? If so, local band Red Jacket Mine recommends itself to you as it “marries vintage soul and ’70s British pub rock in taut, sub-three-minute pop

75% of homeless youth leave school without graduating.

Redd Kross

gems.” Their latest album, Someone Else’s Cake, is KEXP endorsed, and the title track is very much styled after Elvis Costello. BJC

THE REDWOOD PLAN

(Sun, 12:15 pm, Fountain Lawn) Dance punk band the Redwood Plan are from Seattle, but that doesn’t mean you should skip their set with a lazy “I could see ’em anytime” attitude. Every Redwood Plan performance is worth seeing—the group is a fireball of fierce and contagious energy that’s as cathartic as it is fun. MS

RISE OVER RUN

(Sun, 7:45 pm, EMP) Sometimes you gotta throw on a pair of goggles, an assortment of candy necklaces, and your mother’s finest fur, and just DANCE. CB

ROBERT GLASPER EXPERIMENT

(Sat, 2:45 pm, Mural Amphitheater) Anyone who watched Robert Glasper perform during the 2013 Earshot Jazz Festival knows that this brilliant pianist has done the impossible: combined the great and old tradition of jazz with new and still-popular methods of hiphop into a convincing whole. Glasper can play the piano like a jazz master and also like a hiphop producer. He is a man of our times (which is all about surfaces), and also a man who understands the past deeply. Glasper can also rock a Nirvana or a Radiohead tune. CM

THE ROUND 100

(Sun, 1:45 pm, Plaza Stage) The Round is a long-standing, magical part of Seattle’s music community. For years, the intimate monthly night has been bringing musicians, painters, and poets together, with past bills including famous and nonfamous folks like Damien Jurado, Star Anna, John Roderick, and Shenandoah Davis. For their 100th (woo!) show, the

Round has invited Le Wrens and Shelby Earl to share the stage, ensuring more memorable magic. MS

SALLIE FORD & THE SOUND OUTSIDE

(Sat, 9:30 pm, Plaza Stage) Everyone who writes about SF&TSO wants to come up with a new metaphor for Sallie Ford’s insane voice, and I don’t know how to add another one. Something about whiskey and cigarettes doesn’t cut it—more like a cheese grater and honey? Shit, I dunno. Just give in and let her crazy scratchy feline yell-singing and her rockabilly backing band put you under their spell. AM

SEAN MAJORS

(Sat, 8 pm, EMP) Booty-shaking bass quakes, and the slightly sleazy electronic music the phrase “booty-shaking bass quakes” implies, are what can probably be expected from this set by DJ Sean Majors, who hosts the popular Just Got Paid Fridays at Barboza. KF

THE SHEEPDOGS

(Mon, 4:30 pm, Mural Amphitheater)

Though they come from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the Sheepdogs play their guitar-bassdrums rock ’n’ roll with a loping, 1970s Southern-rock ease. (The band toured with John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival in 2012, making them unavailable to accept their Juno Awards in person last year.) They sound like a certain kind of summer band, one that brings to mind the smells of pot smoke and hay, but they put slightly more emphasis on bluesy, sometimes even funky drum and bass lines, giving them a little more texture than your garden-variety Southern-rock quartet. BK

SOL

(Mon, 6:15 pm, Fisher Green) Sol’s career as a local rapper was pretty much launched

two years ago at Bumbershoot. The next year, 2012, he released some slamming EPs, some albums, and a local hit called “Stage Dive,” and then he left the city for a trip around the world. His performance at Bumbershoot this year will mark his return to the scene—we will see and hear the new Sol, the Sol who has seen a big chunk of the world (Africa, Asia, South America), the Sol who is older and certainly wiser. Welcome back. CM

ST. PAUL DE VENCE

(Mon, 3 pm, Plaza Stage) Inspired to begin writing songs about his grandfather’s experience fighting in World War II, Benjamin Doerr’s St. Paul de Vence project has a bit of Beirut’s sepia-toned Old World feel and esoteric instrumental choices (concertina!). Filled to the brim with super-sincere lyrics and swooning harmonies, their debut album was just what the plaid-wearing types needed

Thao & the Get Down Stay Down

to hold themselves over until the Fleet Foxes’ new record. KF

SUPERCHUNK

(Mon, 7 pm, Fountain Lawn) The Chapel Hill band that could! Forging ahead since the 1990s, Superchunk are prolific makers of yowling/buzzing indie rock, the founders of Merge Records (Neutral Milk Hotel, Arcade Fire, the Magnetic Fields, etc.), and a testament to where a singular DIY mind-set can take you if you refuse to settle. Superchunk’s 10th studio album, I Hate Music, came out this month and was their first release since 2010. EN

SUPREME LA ROCK

(Sun, 8:15 pm, EMP) Supreme La Rock (Seattle’s Danny Clavesilla, the catalyst for the Wheedle’s Groove compilation) is one of those analog-for-life DJs who needs to buy a separate house just to store his records. It’s a

case of quantity and quality, as Supreme has an abundance of great cuts suitable for just about any funk/soul/disco/boogie/etc. danceclub scenario you can imagine. Couple that with on-point transitions and you have a serious party. D. SEGAL

TAMARYN

(Sun, 7 pm, Fountain Lawn) Searching for just the right thing to plop down on the grass and bliss out to? Look no further—Tamaryn’s fizzy, lethargic voice and vast, shapeless guitar drone will have you dozing off in your fashionable lover’s arms in no time. Not sleepy? This is also good music to close your eyes and spin around in a circle to (it’s a festival—go ahead and be that person, YOLO) while wearing a long skirt or fringed vest or both (I said YOLO). You could also discreetly cry on a train to Tamaryn. The possibilities are literally endless. EN

TEGAN AND SARA

(Sun, 2 pm, KeyArena) Twin sisters Tegan and Sara have a knack for writing hook-filled pop songs for all of life’s moments. Trying to get through a breakup? Try “Alligator.” Want to have a dance party in the sun? That’s what “Speak Slow” is for! And their latest album, Heartthrob, fulfills my occasional craving for sugary pop without the guilty aftertaste. MS

THAO & THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN

(Sat, 3:30 pm, Fountain Lawn) Thao & the Get Down Stay Down deliver playful, banjolaced folk-rock songs that sound like the tunes you’d want your musically inclined best friend to come over and play for you when you’re feeling down. Also: Frontwoman Thao Nguyen almost always wears great cowboy boots. MS

TOTAL EXPERIENCE GOSPEL CHOIR

(Sat, 6:30 pm, Mural Amphitheater) If you want to experience a rollicking, traditional American gospel choir without having to sit in a butt-numbing pew and endure the sanctimonious rants of a superstitious nut (aka all Christian pastors), the Total Experience Gospel Choir and its perennial tour on the festival circuit is made for you. Which isn’t to say that they sing Jesus-free songs. Secular gospel would be even worse than Christian rock—and this is solid, boisterous godliness (set to music). DH

TRAMPLED BY TURTLES

(Mon, 9:45 pm, Mural Amphitheater) If I

got to choose the way I was going to die, I would definitely consider being trampled to death by turtles, because they’re just so goddamn cute, it’d be hard to be upset over the whole ordeal. It’d probably tickle, even! The bluegrass band Trampled by Turtles has nothing to do with that. They’re straight-up Americana/bluegrass with effortlessly quick fiddle and banjo work that’ll make your head spin. MS

VICCI MARTINEZ

(Sun, 10 pm, Mural Amphitheater) This Tacoma native recently signed to Republic Records following a series of CeeLo Green–approved performances on The Voice. Her single “Come Along” mixes a nicely funky little blues riff with the sort of Pro-Tools’edto-death overproduction that threatens to completely squash her strong, soulful voice (and Green’s brief guest verse). For fans of arena pop with local flavor, I guess? KF

VINTAGE TROUBLE

(Sun, 6:30 pm, Mural Amphitheatre) You know those sepia-drenched shotgun/feather boa/cowboy hat/Wild West photos you can pose for while vacationing through some touristy ghost town? Well, as the name might indicate, Vintage Trouble are the band version of those photographs. Their look is calculated old-timey, never bending from their handsome shtick for even a second. The music is big—red, white, and blue guitar solos, splashy drums, and wailing soulful vocals. They are managed by Doc McGhee (Bon Jovi, Hootie & the Blowfish), and their rabid fans are known as TroubleMakers. EN

WASHED OUT

(Sat, 9 pm, Fountain Lawn) Like floating through a mimosa lake on an air mattress, Washed Out’s sleepy synth-pop is chiller than a stoned penguin. Georgia’s Ernest Greene is the electronic-music maker behind these bliss waves—a project he began after moving back in with his parents when his library-science degree didn’t pan out. Well, you know what they say: When life hands you library-science degrees, make atmospheric dream tunes! EN

WATSKY

(Sat, 7 pm, Fountain Lawn) Watksy is a youth poetry slam champ turned rapper. Our own Larry Mizell Jr. called him “Paul Barman with no charisma and a twelfth of the sense of humor.” (Burn.) Somehow he manages to strip “rapping” of all its edge, e.g.: “If life is a woman/She’s got some epic titties/

Washed Out

And I wanna get up in it and live it and motorboat ’em.” But nerd out, homes. AM

THE ZOMBIES

(Sun, 8:15 pm, Mural Amphitheater) Recorded at Abbey Road Studios in the summer of 1967, Odessey and Oracle stands as a pinnacle of baroque pop. Don’t believe the boomer hype—the Zombies’ masterpiece is, song for song, better than Sgt. Pepper’s Odessey and Oracle’s 12 songs exude a delicate beauty that will outlast us all. Expect to hear plenty from that classic LP , plus new songs and material from godhead songwriters Rod Argent’s and Colin Blunstone’s solo careers. D. SEGAL

ZZ WARD

(Sat, 4:45 pm, Mural Amphitheater) Pros: She sounds like the love child of Ingrid Michaelson and Adele, with the spunk of B. B. King thrown in for good measure, and she always wears neat hats. Cons: Her name is ZZ and she doesn’t even have the courtesy to grow a beard? C’mon! CB

VISUAL ART

‘AFTER THE RIOT’

(Sat–Mon, Seattle Center Pavilion) This Reel Grrls–curated show may be the highlight of all the visual art programming at this year’s festival, and it’s certainly the creative, inclusive, humor-filled antidote to the sausagefest that is music, that is this summer’s music, and that is… some of the other art shows at Bumbershoot. Reel Grrls is the great local nonprofit that teaches media literacy and production—filmmaking especially—from the perspective that things ain’t yet gender-fair, and taking things into our own capable and curious hands is the solution. The lineup includes live performances and workshops: Anna Oxygen (Sun, 4 pm), Gender Failure (Sat, 4 pm), Tender Forever (Fri, 7 pm), and Molly Mac (Mon, 4 pm), each one opened up by new works from participants in Stranger Genius Award winner Wynne Greenwood’s video and performance classes. As the Canadian trans artists Ivan Coyote and Rae Spoon point out in Gender Failure (which includes animation by Seattle’s Clyde Petersen), the gender binary is a two-ring circus—the two-ring circus we live in. JEN GRAVES

‘DETRITUS WE VALUE’: ARTWORK BY JONATHAN SCHIPPER (Sat–Mon, Fisher Pavilion) Jonathan Schipper was born in Chico, California, in

1973 and has shown his big, moving sculptures in places including New York; Berlin; Marfa, Texas; Abu Dhabi; Slovenia; and Sheboygan, Wisconsin. In 2010 he exhibited at the Tinguely Museum in Basel, Switzerland, which seems like his most natural home: Late-20th-century Swiss artist Jean Tinguely built big, moving sculptures made to selfdestruct—sad, noisy marvels. For Bumbershoot, Schipper is showing a new machine. His description of it: “An artificial continuously changing environment based on trash, salt, human will, and hot water bathing. The piece will consist of a few tons of salt. There will be a mechanism that will be suspended by four cables. By varying the length of the four cables the mechanism will be able to move to most locations within the room. The mechanism will have the ability to extrude crude representations of average objects from salt. These objects will be things like old chairs, toilets, tires, washing machines, and many other human-specific objects we take for granted as part of our world. The viewer will be able to view these objects being created from the comfort of a hot water tub.” After reading that last sentence several times, I still do not know whether you should bring a bathing suit. JG

‘ENIGMA MACHINE’

(Sat–Mon, Fisher Pavilion) Continuing the artists-and-machines theme, this group show curated by Seattle’s Jana Brevick and Shelly Leavens includes new works and old, pieces made by machine and pieces about machines. Artists include Claude Zervas, who tinkers with LEDs and microorganisms; Maggie Orth, whose hand-woven textiles are sensitive to your warm presence (for real); Thomas Wilfred, Danish father of light art (1889–1968); and Fischli and Weiss, creators of everybody’s favorite disaster art video, Der Lauf Der Dinge (The Way Things Go) (Der Lauf is findable on YouTube but will be worth seeing bouncing off all this other stuff.) JG

‘FASHIONY’

(Sat–Mon, Fisher Pavilion) If you don’t know Erika Dalya Massaquoi, you will after this. Fashiony is her three-gallery exhibition of emerging African and Asian fashion influences, hung thickly salon-style, with tear sheets, video, and visuals of the latest in fashion drawing, photography, and textile/ surface design. Massaquoi recently moved to Seattle from New York. Here’s her insane résumé, worth reading in full: “Erika Dalya Massaquoi is a Consultant Curator for the Seattle Art Museum. Prior to her move to the Pacific Northwest, she was the Assis-

Anna Oxygen

tant Dean of the School of Art & Design at The Fashion Institute of Technology. Erika has taught classes on new media, cinema, contemporary art, and music at Yale University, New York University, and The New School for Social Research. As a curator, her work has been exhibited at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) List Visual Arts Center and the Studio Museum in Harlem. She has held curatorial positions at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the American Museum of the Moving Image. Massaquoi received her Ph.D. from New York University and undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Chicago. Additionally, she is a Board Director of The Feminist Press (New York, NY) and a Board Trustee of Pratt Fine Arts Center (Seattle, WA).” Um: Massaquoi for mayor. JG

‘FOUND & UNBOUND’

stuff that will probably be a lot funnier. PC

‘THE BETTER BOMBSHELL’

(Sat, noon, Leo K. Theater) The Better Bombshell is a new anthology that sets out to achieve no less ambitious a goal than creating a new female role model for a new age. Bring your daughters and your sisters to this event, in which Charlotte Austin, Roxane Gay, and Siolo Thompson all discuss the importance of the book and whether they believe it’s already made an impact. PC

COMPOUNDED: WRITERS IN THE SCHOOLS

(Mon, 4 pm, Leo K. Theater) Some excellent local writers, including Kevin Emerson, Karen Finneyfrock, Corinne Manning, and Sierra Nelson, will read new work about the problem and blessing that is compound words. These writers all participate in Seattle Arts & Lectures’ excellent Writers in the Schools program, and their students will also read work on the same subject. PC

FANTAGRAPHICS FOLLIES

(Sat–Mon, Seattle Center Pavilion) How do found and repurposed objects relate back to nature? That’s the subject of this group exhibition of sculptures, collages, and videos by Northwest greats including Howard Barlow, Justin Beckman, Matt Browning, Scott Fife, and Shaun Kardinal. The rest of the published show lineup is Animal Charm, Craig Baldwin, Guy Laramee, Jason Mecier… and Sayaka Ganz. Which means that evidently the theme of found and repurposed objects relating back to nature can be almost entirely handled by dudes. Okay! JG

(Sat, 6 pm, Leo K. Theater) This event, which is put on by the best damn publisher of funnybooks in the U S of A, is structured like a talk show and features local cartoonists including Jim Woodring, Ellen Forney, Kelly Froh, Eroyn Franklin, and Danny Bland as well as the musical stylings of Peter Bagge’s pop band Can You Imagine. PC

‘THE LUNCHBOX’ PODCAST LIVE

WORDS & IDEAS

15 YEARS OF BARSUK RECORDS

(Sun, noon, Leo K. Theater) The fancy small record label celebrates 15 years—isn’t that the latex anniversary?—with a retrospective/forward-looking panel featuring Sean Nelson, Barsuk artists John Roderick and David Bazan, and Barsuk cofounder Josh Rosenfeld. There may not be a whole lot of sex and drugs onstage, but there will probably be some talk about rock ’n’ roll. PAUL CONSTANT

ALLIE BROSH

(Sun, 4 pm, Leo K. Theater) Allie Brosh, the big brain behind the (intentionally) poorly illustrated blog Hyperbole and a Half and an upcoming book of the same name, will talk with incredibly gifted local cartoonist Ellen Forney about the power of cartoons to share personal stories, as well as a bunch of other

(Sat, 4 pm, Leo K. Theater) Novelist and short-story writer J. Robert Lennon teams up with beloved poet Ed Skoog to bring their front-porch-friendly podcast to a live taping at Bumbershoot. This episode’s guests include the very funny, mildly dirty Portland poet Matthew Dickman and musical guest Abilene Slim, who is utterly un-google-able. PC

‘THE MARIJUANA CHRONICLES’ (Mon, 6 pm, Leo K. Theater) Two authors and a spoken-word poet discuss a new book about marijuana. PC

PUT IT ALL ON THE TABLE: INAPPROPRIATE LECTURES BY IRREVERENT ARTISTS AND SPOILED CHILDREN

(Mon, noon, Leo K. Theater) We’re all getting over TED Talks, which used to be a good idea, but then turned into another occasion for the smug 1 percent to smugly pat themselves on their smug backs over how smart (and smug) they are. This is a TED Talks riff featuring Andrew Russell, Valerie Curtis-

and Dominic Hold-

Newton, Cienna Madrid,

The Better Bombshell

en discussing things that you shouldn’t talk about around the dinner table. PC

WHY BOARD GAMES? WHY ZOMBIES? WHY NOW?

(Mon, 2 pm, Leo K. Theater) Why this? PC

WHY FAN FICTION? WHY YA? WHY NOW?

(Sun, 2 pm, Leo K. Theater) Just why? PC

WHY FROYO? WHY YOLO? WHY NOW?

(Sat, 2 pm, Leo K. Theater) Why bother? PC

WRITING STAFF OF ‘PARKS & RECREATION’

(Sun, 6 pm, Leo K. Theater) In addition to talking about what it’s like to be the people who tell Leslie Knope, Ron Swanson, and Tom Haverford what to do, the Parks & Recreation writing team will discuss their process, their non-TV lives, and whether or not Twitter is the Worst Thing in the World. PC

THEATER

‘AUDREY & NELSON: A PUPPET SEX MUSICAL’

(Sun, 5:15 pm; Mon, 7 pm; Center House Theater) Local playwright, actor, and director (and former Stranger theater editor) Bret Fetzer sidled up to musician Peter Richards (of the band Dude York) to create “a rueful comic musical about sex, traffic lights, bad language, singing penises, and broken hearts.” This story about two young straight kids who meet at a gay dance club and wake up in bed together includes the songs “Every Dick Is Different,” “Let’s Dive In,” and “Jam Out (With Your Clam Out).”

BRENDAN KILEY

‘IMPROMPTU’

(Sun, 3:45 pm; Mon, 2:15 pm; Center House Theater) Unexpected Productions has been performing improv-comedy shows at the Market Theater (beneath Pike Place Market) since God was a tween, on just about every theme you can imagine: from traditional TheatreSports! to Edgar Allan Poe, from the Survivor TV series to Seattle’s frontier-town history. In Impromptu, longtime improvisers who are also musicians (typically eight performers who play 20 instruments) make “scene-songs.” BK

‘MY LAST YEAR WITH THE NUNS’ (Sun, 2 pm, Center House Theater) Local

storyteller—and auctioneer—Matt Smith once again revives his monologue about growing up Catholic on Capitol Hill in the late 1960s. People love stories about nuns, naughty eighth-grade boys, and the first glimmerings of preadolescent confusion and angst, and this one has it all, including (when I last saw it several years ago) a leitmotif about trying to form the perfect loogie. The stories are a Seattle-based bildungsroman, and nothing entirely surprising, but Smith’s pacing and delivery are a master class for anyone who likes to tell stories. BK

NERDPROV

(Sat 3:45 pm; Mon, 5:30 pm, Center House Theater) NERDprov is geek-themed improv comedy with lots of references (nerds love references!) and lots of audience suggestions (nerds love suggestions!). Expect Harry Potter stuff, steampunk stuff, sci-fi stuff, Star Trek stuff, video-game stuff, Magic: The Gathering stuff, computer stuff, and other stuff in this casserole of semispontaneous nerdiness. Several of the cast members have lengthy improv résumés that include stints in Where No Man Has Gone Before, a Star Trek–themed improv show. BK

‘OWL & PUSSYCAT’

(Sat, 2:15 pm; Sun, 6:45 pm; Mon, 4 pm; Center House Theater) The folks at theater simple (they prefer lowercase) specialize in creating vivid shows with minimal resources. Their regularly remounted 52 Pick-Up, which they’ve also performed at Bumbershoot, begins with two actors (one male, one female) flinging a deck of cards across the stage. Each card, picked up at random, cues a brief scene from a love affair. Their Owl & Pussycat, first performed in 2012, pounces on the famous Edward Lear poem (“The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea/In a beautiful pea-green boat/They took some honey, and plenty of money/Wrapped up in a fivepound note”) and roots around between its brief lines to find out what else might have happened during the journey and why. It involves two actors and a ukulele. BK

‘THE SWASHBUCKLING SPECTACULAR’

(Sat, 5:15 pm, Center House Theater) A local group called the Performers’ Forge, which has been hosting monthly “fight nights” in rehearsal rooms at Theater Puget Sound, presents “a theatrical representation of violence with scenes varying from the historically accurate to the wildly inappropriate.” Basically, it will be a bunch of fight scenes of various styles and from various eras during

HERE, WINE IS ALWAYS IN STYLE

6th & Pine • www.sixthavenuewineseller.com (Across the skybridge from Nordstrom)

which human beings dramatically murdered each other, both in real life and for artistic purposes. BK

‘WEIRD AND AWESOME WITH EMMETT MONTGOMERY’

(Sat, 7 pm, Center House Theater) For the past several years, comedian and manwho-paints-paper-bags-to-turn-them-intopuppets Emmett Montgomery has hosted Weird and Awesome at Annex Theater, an event that isn’t quite comedy and isn’t quite tragedy and isn’t quite variety show, though it has elements of all three. He asks people who are good at one thing to come onstage, step out of their comfort zones, and do another thing. (Though jokes are key, and some comedians do perform traditional sets.) The result is always unexpected, oftentimes even to Montgomery. The thrill of surprise keeps people coming back. BK

FILM

FILMS4ADULTS: NEITHER HERE NOR THERE

(Sun, 8 pm) A collection of short films exploring ambiguous weirdness. Some adult content!

FILMS4ADULTS: THRILL ME (Mon, 8 pm) Short films designed to thrill adults who like short films designed to thrill adults.

FILMS4ADULTS: TO THE EXTREME (Sat, 8 pm) A collection of short films that promise to amaze and unnerve. Also some adult content!

FILMS4FAMILIES

(Sat–Mon, noon) Films selected to delight both kids and adults, with a new program each day.

LOVE… IN THE AFTERNOON (Sun, 2 pm) Short quirky romances, including A Little Something on the Side by Stephen Tobolowsky.

MAKE ME LAUGH

(Mon, 7 pm) Short films with a comic bent, covering such topics as thumbs, sleepovers, and celibacy.

IN, TURN ON, DROP THE NEEDLE OPEN: Mon-Sat 11-7:30 Sunday 12-7:30 (Corner of 45th & Brooklyn Under The Neptune Theater)

DESTINATION LOCATION FOR MUSIC & FILM GEEKS

Curated by SIFF, the 1 Reel Film Festival is Bumbershoot’s annual “celebration of cinematic brevity,” this year featuring dozens of short films from around the globe, running continuously—in a room containing air-conditioning and comfortable chairs—throughout the festival. Every hour brings a new program (full list of programs below). All showings at the SIFF Film Center. DAVID SCHMADER

BEST OF SIFF: AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS

(Sat–Mon, 4:30 pm) A collection of the best short films of SIFF 2013, chosen by SIFF audiences, and including selections from Rwanda, South Korea, Brazil, and the United States.

BEST OF SIFF: JURY AWARD WINNERS

(Sat–Mon, 3:30 pm) Another collection of the best short films screened at SIFF 2013, this time chosen by SIFF jurists and including one film each from Canada, Australia, and Spain.

BEST OF THE NORTHWEST

(Sun, 7 pm) New short films from Northwest filmmakers Mel Eslyn, Wade Jackson, and Mandy Hubbard.

DANCE, DANCE, DANCE

(Sun, 1 pm) Two short films about dance (one of which is a documentary about Pilobolus!).

FACE THE MUSIC

(Mon, 1 pm) A collection of music-themed shorts, featuring such subjects as the Postal Service and Kimya Dawson.

MUSIC VIDEO MADNESS (Sat, 1 pm) Music for your ears, treats for your eyes. Featuring Die Antwoord, Killer Mike, and more.

PARENTAL GUIDANCE

(Sat, 5:30 pm) Short films that are probably not for kids (unless your kids are into mobile homes and XXX).

SHOW ME THE WORLD (Mon, 5:30 pm) A collection of short films from around the world.

SIFF FLY FILMS 2013

Montgomery A COLLECTOR'S PARADISE, With A Deep Selection of High Quality Vintage Vinyl, CDs, Cassettes, 8-Tracks, Reel-To-Reels, Blu-Rays, DVD's, VHS, Laserdiscs and Music and Entertainment Books

(Sun, 5:30 pm) New short films by a collection of local directors—including Curtis Taylor, Ryan Abe, Amy Ensler, and Julia Hechler—who were given five days to shoot, five days to edit, and a bevy of creative limitations as part of the annual Fly Filmmaking Challenge.

TALES OF SCIENCE FACT

(Sat, 7 pm) Short documentary films about brains, bugs, and more.

TALES OF SCIENCE FICTION

(Sat, 2 pm) Short blasts of sci-fi from around the world.

ZOOLOGY

(Mon, 2 pm) Short films involving animals, including the enticingly named Seattle Internet Cat Video Favorites