Dave Segal talks music production and solo recording with Erik Blood:

While Blood derives much satisfaction working the controls for other artists' music (his production credits include releases by the Moondoggies, the Lights, Tea Cozies, and Voltage Periscope, the musical side of the comedy troupe Black Daisy), he is just as enamored of his own creative processes. The fruits of his efforts materialize May 12 with the digital release of his first solo album, The Way We Live, which he's releasing himself. Through a service called TuneCore, Blood's full-length will be available in several online outlets, including iTunes, Amazon, and eMusic.

Charles Mudede interviews local hip hop duo Fresh Espresso:

"First of all, I never try to approach any project in the same light," says Rik. "What I did with Cigar Rock Star has to be different from what I'm doing with Fresh Espresso. If not, something is wrong. You know Miles Davis, he never did the same thing twice. He went electric, and Wynton Marsalis hated him for it. I'm like Davis. I want to push myself like that. Don't get me wrong, I will never do something I don't like. But I want to change. The next project will not sound like Fresh Espresso."

Up & Coming highlights this week's noteable shows and parties, like tonight's show with Louis Logic:

The reputation of Louis Logic, a Brooklyn-based rapper and former member of the Demigodz, rests heavily on 2003's Sin-A-Matic, which offered a new direction or possibility for New York's underground hiphop scene—then dominated by Definitive Jux. Instead of the relentlessly dark, postapocalyptic, Blade Runner—like moods designed and promoted by El-P, Def Jux's founder and architect, Louis Logic presented a lighter and more playful style of hiphop. Indeed, his storytelling and sense of humor made him a part of a hiphop tradition that began with the ruler Slick Rick, in the modern period (1984 to 1988).

Fucking in the Streets on Secret Mommy, Constant Lovers, and Vivian Girls:

They played one or two new songs from a forthcoming album (!), remarkable for running well over the 3:30 minute mark—they're not going prog or anything, but still, relatively epic. They ran offstage, sometimes while still playing their instruments, to grab a drink in the backstage area (god, touring bands must think Seattle is fucking retarded; thanks, WSLCB). They closed their set with their big instrument-switch-up drone jam. Of course, as drone jams go, I've heard bigger.

Data Breaker previews performances by Dietrich Schoenemann and Erictronic:

Schoenemann's maintained his razor-sharp acumen as a selector while nurturing his labels and creative partnership with producer Tony Rohr. As a mastering engineer, Schoenemann has access to exclusive dubplates, as well, so expect a unique, powerful set from him at Bonkers!—and with 3-D visuals projected behind him.

Larry Mizell, Jr hypes Abstract Rude's Seattle tour stop this Saturday:

On Saturday, May 9, get nice with Abstract Rude, who's hitting Nectar with his boys from Project Blowed and Haiku d'etat—former Freestyle Fellowship mates Aceyalone and Myka 9. The "Mike, Aaron & Eddie Tour" is celebrating 15 years steady of Project Blowed—damn, I can't think of the last time Myka 9 must have been up here; for as many Blowed/Fellowship heads as I've known out here who relentlessly stan for his signature Coltrane-cadenced schemes, the spot better be packed!

Underage reviews POP425, a new compilation of young artists from the Eastside:

The album kicks off with lively electro party-starter APOC's "Tetris," a heart-racing dance homage to old-school video games that taps into the furious intensity of the one-man band's live show. The compilation's highlights include the pop rock of Schoolboy Gutbuster's "Golden Blonde," the defiance of Generifus's "Nobody Can Tell Me What to Do," the summer punk cry of Seahouse's "Sleepy Not Sleeping," and the machine music of Masters and Johnson's "Factory Mishaps." The only problem with Ballen's project is the fact that her own song, "Little Secrets," is so irresistibly good that it kind of steals the show, with Ballen's voice fluttering and harmonizing over delicately plucked acoustic guitar—it's her best recorded work yet.

The Score blasts the Pulitzer Prize in Music Award conferred to Steve Reich:

The 2009 Pulitzer represents the continual stylistic widening of a winner's circle once dominated by what student composers decades ago called "uptown serialists." But the prize should have come sooner for any of these singular and stunning pieces in Reich's catalog: Piano Phase (1967), Drumming (1970—71), Music for 18 Musicians (1974—76), Tehillim (1981)/The Desert Music (1984), and Different Trains (1988). Ex-Seattle composer Steve Layton hit the nail on the head in the Sequenza 21 blog: "Like so many other times, if the Pulitzer board had given it to him 20 or 30 years ago, it might have been important for Reich, modern music, and the Pulitzer itself. These delayed calls reek of the ol' Oscar 'lifetime achievement' award. Bully for Steve, bollocks on the Pulitzer and its process."

Michaelangelo Matos reviews new music by the Pains of Being Pure at Heart:

There isn't a single off beat here: straight four down the line, everything post-Velvets by way of mid-'80s UK indie jangle, the breakdown-not-bridge the same music as the rest of the song only with the guitars louder, then gone, then rising back up, ready for more, only to be greeted with a chanted "Don't check me out." On paper, this sounds insufferably coy. In aural fact, I never play it once without playing it again at least twice more. Like rapping, it's nowhere near as easy as it looks to do this kind of thing right.

New album reviews, like the Vaselines' Enter the Vaselines, and Magik Markers' Balf Quarry:

Magik Markers cut the new Balf Quarry with Seattle producer Scott Colburn (Animal Collective, Sun City Girls), who brings even more clarity and punch to the band's piercing sound. Noise has become vestigial here for the duo; composing an eerie, etiolated sort of beauty has become more of a priority. The result is 10 songs that evoke some of American indie rock's glories of the '80s and '90s without blatantly homaging them.

Plus: Party Crasher remembers what you did last weekend! Poster of the Week! A New Column! with Taylor Hicks. And please do search the Stranger's complete Music Calendar Listings for more events.