Have you read Never Heard of 'Em by Anna Minard this week? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Back, after a brief break, to the spirit of this column: I really have never heard of Love (ha-ha, cue sad spinster joke). Grant handed me this CD, and I didn't even know which was the album title and which was the band name. But the cover is great! Look at it! It's like a trippy coloring-book page.

I know it's funnier when I hate everything, but I loved this album from the very first second I pressed play. That doesn't mean I know what this genre is called1, or what year this is from2, or what the music nerds say about it3, but the first track, "Alone Again Or," pretty much sounds like a young version of your dad hanging out in a field with his best friend, his VW bug parked nearby with an acoustic guitar lashed to the front bumper. It sounds like honey and tall grass, and also right away there is so much TRUMPET! I love trumpets!

Read the whole thing here >>

Moved up from last night to catch all the early birds!

Are you:

Detail oriented?
Really good at data entry?
Familiar (or willing to familiarize yourself) with the local club and bar scene?
Interested in doing some possible music blogging?
Easy to get along with and maybe even funny?
Willing to listen to my jokes that aren't funny and my occasional whining about how some publicists don't know how to send out proper press releases?

Then you might be just the person I'm looking for!

I need a new calendar intern because the fantastic Jackson Hathorn is going to buy a van and follow Ted Leo around the country (not really, but wouldn't that be cool, Jackson?). I'd love for you to be able to come in two days at a week (am flexible with days, but no weekends), for at least four hours each day (between 10 am and 5 pm), to help keep The Stranger's music listings updated and accurate. You will also be in charge of the music news and maybe get to do some other blogging (show reviews, show previews, etc.)!

If you're interested, send a quick introduction and a resume to megan@thestranger.com.

This is an unpaid internship and it will last three to four months and I'm looking for someone who can start as soon as next week. E-mail me if you have questions.

• This could be you!

Say you have a show in Seattle and it gets listed in our music calendar. If you have a Stranger Band Page your band name will get a little orange headphone icon next to it so readers can find out more information about you with just one click. Neat!

Also, the Band of the Week (seen on our music homepage) is selected every week from bands with Stranger Band Pages. This week it's Encourager. They remind me of early ’00s pop punk. (And they're opening for Vendetta Red this Saturday at the Crocodile, FYI.) Next week it could be you!

To create a Stranger Band Page for your band/musical project head over here and fill out the form. Easy peasy!

If you already have one, but you want to edit the information, go here, type in the e-mail address you used to create the band page with, and it'll hook you up with instructions via e-mail.

Now, a tune from this week's Band of the Week, Encourager:

Hopefully you've had a chance to peruse our Rock-and-Roll Survival Guide, which basically tells you everything you could want to know about existing in the world as a musician.

You know what else is good to know? How to get your show information in our music calendar.

DJs, bands, solo musicians, whatever! If you're playing an open-to-the-public show, we want to know about it. Now, if you're playing an established venue, there's a good chance the club will submit the info themselves. Dozens of venues in Seattle are really great about ensuring that we have the latest—the Crocodile, Neumos, the Blue Moon, the Sunset, Tractor Tavern, Skylark, El Corazon, the Triple Door, Showbox at the Market and Showbox Sodo, the Comet, the Neptune, High Dive, the Paramount, Chop Suey, Nectar, the Moore, etc. They send us calendars every week so you don't have to!

But if you're playing a smaller venue or bar, or if you want to be safe instead of sorry, you can also submit the show info yourself. It's really easy! All you have to do is fill out this online form and TA-DA! You did it! Bookmark that web address. Keep it forever.

If you'd rather you can also e-mail your show info to music@thestranger.com. (This is where you can send press releases and links to new music, too.) When submitting information via e-mail, be sure to ALWAYS include the show date, venue, line-up, ticket price, age restrictions (21+ or all ages?), and show time.

Every single day I get at least one show listing that didn't include either the date or the venue. How can it be listed without a date or place? So double and triple check before sending.

It's best to submit the info at least TWO WEEKS prior to the event. Sooner is even better. (But not so soon that you don't have everything nailed down and are constantly e-mailing with updates—that shit is annoying).

And now you know!

Two weeks ago, The Stranger published a piece by Charles Mudede about the rapper Katie Kate. Stranger art director Aaron Huffman selected this photo by Jenny Jimenez to go with the article.

• Jenny Jimenez

Huffman had some other images Jimenez had taken of Katie Kate, too, including this one below—and when it popped up on Huffman's screen, Mudede exclaimed that he loved the lines: the banister, the stripes on the walls, etc. It isn't a better photo of Katie Kate than the first one, but it does show the side of her head shaved (as mentioned in the story) and a little more of her apartment building (the setting for the recording of her album).

• Jenny Jimenez

Between Mudede's enthusiasm for the lines and my inexplicable desire to more accurately show the haircut (?!), to say nothing of Huffman's amazing capacity not to impose his will on other people (the more stressful things get, the more amazing this quality seems)—because of all these reasons, the better image was replaced with the less-good one. Even though, clearly, Huffman was right all along. He could have stubbornly insisted on his choice, but that's just not the sort of dude Huffman is. One commenter has been pretty blunt about it though:

So this is super shallow of me but i can't get over how truly awful that photograph of her is. Posture that gives her a hunchback, tight off the shoulder dress, undershaved head/weird hairstyle i am not cool enough to understand, from a high angle where she almost in the the center of the picture?

I applaud people who bravely put the things they've created out there into the world of haters, but man, any other photo of her has to be better than this one.

Dear commenter: You're totally right. In related news: I'm an idiot! On the article page, we've replaced the unflattering image with the image we should have run all along.

White Man's Book Does Justice to Black Power Music: Pat Thomas's Listen, Whitey! Is History at Its Grooviest
by DAVE SEGAL

Rap Urbanism: J. Pinder Finds His Place in Urban Hiphop
by CHARLES MUDEDE

Veteran of Disorder: Jennifer Herrema Switches Gears (Sort of) with Black Bananas
by GRANT BRISSEY

Things You're Not Supposed to Hear: Whitney Ballen's Debut Album Is Telling Everyone's Secrets
by MEGAN SELING

Sound Check: Trent Moorman and Benjamin Thomas-Kennedy Go to the Ballet
by TRENT MOORMAN

Granted: The West Launch Party in West Seattle
by GRANT BRISSEY

Up & Coming | Chuckletown | Data Breaker | The Homosexual Agenda | Underage | Poster of the Week | My Philosophy

This week's article on J Dilla features tributes from several local DJs/producers. One such figure, Fly Moon Royalty Action Jackson (aka Mike Sylvester), just missed the deadline, but we're going to include his piece here, because... unlimited cyberspace!

Electric Tea Garden hosts the Dilla tribute tonight. Donuts!

I couldn't exactly pin point the first time I heard a J Dilla production because he crept into my ear without me being aware. What I mean is, I was unaware that most of my favorite tracks from my favorite artists were produced by Jay Dee. I wasn't exactly the type of Hip Hop fan/ DJ that needed to know every goddamn detail about a song to like it. If the beat knocked then you had my attention. So as years passed I started to notice a trend.... like, "oh shit Dilla produced that, too?" I slowly came to realize that I was in fact a huge J Dilla fan without even knowing it.

He is the sound of Hip Hop that I fell in love with in the ’90s. He is the master of raw, edgy, neck snapping, Boom Bap. The way Hip Hop is supposed to sound (in my opinion of course). I feel that he never "over produced." What I mean by that is as an artist, when you are creating art you are satisfying something inside of you, it's tough to know when enough is enough when creating a piece of work. Sometimes you can have too much going on and it takes away from the raw essence or soul of the work. He didn't seem to do that. Some of my favorite J Dilla beats are raw and minimal.... and SO powerful.

I believe this is why he still is extremely influential. That sound has impacted so many of us and as Hip Hop splinters and changes it becomes more rare and in turn more valuable.... to the true heads.

[View J Dilla's "Lightworks" after the cut.]

Continue reading »

Because Trent Moorman spilled some sort of "Shaman juice" all over the computer and the screen went blank. In the meantime, please go check out some of this biz:

Sample from Kelly O's interview with the Pharmacy:

Do little old ladies ever come to your shows and try to pick up their prescriptions?

SY: Yes, Bree McKenna.

BB: In Iowa, an older lady came to our show and told us she was gonna take a cab back to her apartment and bring us back "her pills." I think she did, and I think I ate one of them. It was terrifying. She looked like a skinny version of [drag queen] Divine.

Stefan Rubicz: What about that creepy mom in Switzerland who kept trying to get us drunk on that weird licorice liqueur?

***

For and Against Kore Ionz: Is Roots Reggae Still Viable in 2012? Charles Mudede and Dominic Holden discuss.

***

Is J Dilla the Greatest Producer Ever? DJAO, J-Justice, Supreme la Rock, Alex Ruder, and WD4D wax rhapsodic.

As Always: All the good shows we could fit into print, not to mention, Data Breaker, in addition to My Philosophy, which is not the same thing as Sound Check with Diminished Men, which has almost as many jokes as Chuckletown, and The Homosexual Agenda, but way more than Underage or Poster of the Week.

HAPPY HUMP DAY.

In the meantime, please do look at:

Brendan Kiley on Erin Jorgenson's Redemption at One the Boards

Dave Segal on Pollens, whose "apestries rival those of Dirty Projectors for sophistication and gender counterpoint and interplay."

Charles Mudede on Wu Tang and the state of hiphop after "Triumph."

Sound Check: Trent Moorman interviews Black Breath drummer Jamie Byrum.

Plus, all the week's good shows we could fit in the paper, My Philosophy, the Homosexual Agenda, Poster of the Week, Data Breaker, Chuckletown, and Underage.

• My floor. They are down there Greco wrestling and fetishizing baby fetished penguins.

I’ve been patient. I like music a lot. On occasion, I crank music as well, even some industrial metal when the bed-of-nails mood strikes. Some music needs to be cranked. Iron Maiden’s “Powerslave” for instance. Or Soundgarden’s “Room a Thousand Years Wide.” But cranking music is like anything, and must be done in moderation. Not incessantly. I stomp on the floor sometimes to get them to turn it down. It worked once, I think. But the next day, they were back at it. One thing I don't want to do is piss them off. This could lead to louder more incessant cranking. I had a friend who once had noisy neighbors. He left them a note that said, “TURN YOUR SHIT DOWN.” And he built a satanic altar in front of their door with a helix and a claw and lit candle. His neighbors stopped playing loud music. I don’t want to build a satanic altar though.

What do you do about noisy neighbors? What are my rights? What are their rights?

Read Jen Graves's profile on new Seattle Symphony flutist

Demarre McGill's first name is pronounced "de-MAR-ay," and on the day I meet him near Benaroya Hall, he is dressed like a prep-school success with the slightest extra flash. He's an easy talker, polite, focused, and with a smile, like his mother's, that spreads the width of his face. "They almost named me Demarrio! Then I'd have had to be an R&B singer," he says, laughing. "I'd have made it work." He's interested in classical music as music, not as "the finest music," he says, and tells me that his regimen for auditions includes choosing an anthem he plays before and after tryouts. For Seattle, it was Lupe Fiasco's "The Show Goes On." "So thanks, Lupe—who's from Chicago, by the way," he says.

Continue Reading >>

Mike Ramos on Theophilus London:

But like him or not, London is a preternatural modern-day pop star. Not content with just pushing his music, he's creating his own lane and marketing his entire personal brand—a nebulous buzzword to most and a popular one to people who wear expensive suits and stage focus groups.

Continue Reading >>.

Dave Segal reviews Cate le Bon's latest, Cyrk

"Ciocarlia Si Suite"

Brendan Kiley on Orkestar Zirkonium's Too Hot for Sleep, and, as always, all your favorite (and least favorite) columns.

Because we're all busting our asses on early print deadlines.