SEATTLE QUARTET SHOPLIFTING was met with immediate and ready welcome upon their inception in 2003. Formed from the uneasy debris of the Chromatics, the new band immediately defined themselves with a more socially polemic initiative and a somewhat messy, all-inclusive performance aesthetic. They voraciously experimented with all manner of performance art effects and community-involving tactics, […]
Sam Mickens
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Master’s Degree
Kanye West is the Soul Digest
BEING NEITHER DUMB enough to fit into the vein of pop rap nor hard enough to leverage the reasonably modest hardships of his young life, earth – altering – producer – turned ebulliently – stylish – rapper Kanye West had to fully engage his tremendous musical skills and develop himself not just as a rap […]
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Break Down My Heart
The Uber-Bare Blur of BARR
BARR Fri Oct 7 Towne Lounge 714 SW 20th Pl BARR is a weird animal. Alternately regarded as everything from spoken word, hiphop, motivational lecture, and rock-less punk rock, the only unquestionable thing about BARR is that it’s the essential oil of one ebullient, positive-force-expunging Los Angeles native Brendan Fowler. Also: BARR is one of […]
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Pretty Smart
Four Tet’s Ecstatic Peace
Kieran Hebden—otherwise known as the band Four Tet—has, in his relatively brief career, proven himself
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Watch The Skies
The Immense Talents of Vast Aire
Vast Aire Sat June 11 Berbati’s Pan 10 SW 3rd Since rolling onto the scene stormfront-style with his group Cannibal Ox’s 2001 debut, The Cold Vein, Vast Aire has been one of the most excessively talented and exciting rappers in underground hiphop. Even amongst the formidable skills of his Ox-mate Vordul Megilah and the totally […]
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Future Rock
OCS Snatch the Experimental-Pop Banana
OCS Thur June 2 Dunes 1905 NE MLK At present the Bay Area seems to be growing into a swirling nexus of new, truly exciting indie rock music–a future that’s typified by a graceful synthesis of extremely experimental and extremely pop elements. This future, long preordained by folks like Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu, has recently […]
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Clear-Eyed and Painless
The Beautiful World of Boom Bip
Boom Bip Mon May 30 Holocene 1001 SE Morrison Cincinnati-born Boom Bip (aka Bryan Hollon) has been rapidly developing a place for himself as one of the premier producers of this half-expired decade, straddling the rails between experimental indie hiphop and nerve-tickling electronica with aplomb. Boom Bip’s debut recording was, oddly, a collaboration–2002’s Circle paired […]
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The Sounds of Silence
Prefuse 73’s Thrilling New Opus
Prefuse 73 Wed, May 18 Berbati’s Pan 10 SW 3rd One of many monikers used by severely prolific experimental producer Scott Herren, Prefuse 73 has been releasing records of thoroughly unique, disjointed hiphop and blurry-edged electronic music since 2001. The first two Prefuse albums were bursting with future shapes and new ideas–melding the darker end […]
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Super Villainy
The Fiery Ascent of Fantomas
Fantomas Mon April 25 Roseland 8 NW 6th The slavering cult-following that has developed around Mike Patton over the past couple of decades has been somewhat without a golden idol, Patton-wise, for some time. After Faith No More (really just a weird, lucrative sidestep) and since the dissolution of Mr. Bungle, there has been no […]
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Subtle Grandiosity
The Pan-Genre Hyper-Drama of Subtle
Subtle Fri Feb 18 Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside Containing former members of Clouddead and Themselves–Anticon standard bearers and golden idols of collegiate hiphop–Subtle are the newest, and perhaps greatest, amassment of this already proven collective. And like the most exciting developments from the constituent’s former work, Subtle feels at once more grand in […]
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The Rainbow Connection
Terry Riley is Better Than a Hippie
Terry Riley Sun Dec 19 Community Music Center 3350 SE Francis Terry Riley’s impact on today’s musical landscape is near immeasurable. As the only 20th Century composer with a definable mega-hit (1964’s In C) the genealogy of Riley’s influence can be more clearly traced than most of his modern-classical ilk. In C‘s basic premise–a series […]
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The Passion of the Prince
The Holy Fuck-Fire and Messianic Fall of Prince
Prince Wed Sept 1 Rose Garden One Center Ct. Once, Prince was the final solution to American black music’s age-old struggle between God and sex. Transcending the Saturday night/Sunday morning dichotomy worked out on the sweaty brows and searing pipes of predecessors like Sam Cooke and Al Green, Prince made the two entirely separable. For […]