Vancouver, BC’s 3 Inches of Blood will headline Crossroads to Damnation, a big 6-6-06 show set for Tuesday at the Temple Theatre, 47 St.Helens Ave. (Click here for the full lineup.) And in the weeks leading up to that night of metal and punk mayhem, I met up with vocalists Jamie Hooper and Cam Pipes to get the skinny on not only the show, but rumors that they were living in Tacoma and working on a new album for Roadrunner Records.

Here’s some of what they had to say as we sat at O’Malley’s on Sixth Avenue. Hooper

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I love British hip-hop, especially since so much of it seems to avoid the cliches that make top 40 American hip-hop feel stale. And Mike Skinner — aka The Streets, Wednesday’s headliner at The Showbox in Seattle, is among the most refreshing voices to emerge from the British grime scene in recent years. Here are a few clips from my recent interview with him.

* In the song “Push Things Forward,” the single that introduced The Streets to U.S. audiences, Skinner complains about rap fans buying the same old formulaic albums. In this clip,

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KNDD-FM (The End, 107.7) won’t make the official announcement until Thurday, but a source of mine claims that the Red Hot Chili Peppers will headline Endfest, which is set for Aug. 12 at Auburn’s White River Amphitheatre. That fits considering the End usually trots out many of the same folks as Los Angeles’ KROQ-FM, another station owned by Entercom, does for their big showcases.

A quick check of KROQ’s Web site and other online sources shows that the L.A. station had not only the Chili Peps but also AFI, Wolfmother, H.I.M., Matisyahu, Rock Kills Kid, Dashboard Confessional,

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Neko Case was at the center of a particularly nasty and ominous “God has spoken” moment Saturday at the Sasquatch Music Festival. She’s in the middle of her set on the Gorge’s main stage when — bam! — all of a sudden there’s thunder, lightning and hail, and I swear I spotted a funnel cloud taking shape on the other side of the Columbia River Gorge. While I don’t usually give any credence to those manic street preacher types who show up to protest “the devil’s music” at most Tacoma Dome shows, the thought of high tailing it to the

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* Of course I had to check out those cheeky little Arctic Monkeys (above), easily the most over-hyped band of 2006. And as many times as I’ve rolled my eyes at the hype, I must admit that the Monkeys were quite good good as they rocked fans with “The View From the Afternoon," "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor" and other songs from their jangly debut "Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not."



Plus, shaggy haired lead singer Alex Turner is

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I braved lightning bolts, bone-crushing mosh pits, an annoyingly leaky tent and roughly 50 bazillion miles of hiking (much of that uphill) and survived Sasquatch. And now that I’m back in my cozy apartment, I can share a few highlights and random observations about the Gorge festival’s breakout year:

* I can’t quite decide whether Beck or Nine Inch Nails delivered the best set of this past weekend’s festival. I may have to give the edge to Nails (see previous blog), but Beck definitely proved himself worthy of headlining the main stage Sunday night.



The

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287: Approximate times my left big toe got stomped during Nine Inch Nails’ set Friday night at Sasquatch, the Gorge’s annual kickoff festival.

Twice: Number of times I seriously contemplated surfing my way out of that crushing mosh pit, and losing my killer view, as paranoid thoughts of Pearl Jam’s Roskilde show and the Who’s tragic 1979 concert in Cincinnati popped into my head. Sweet sassy molassy! That didn’t feel like a mosh pit; it felt more like being in a steel cage match and having to wrestle 20 people for about an hour straight. (Guess that makes

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The Gorge Amphitheatre’s annual kickoff party, Sasquatch!, has grown from one to three sprawling days that will bring Nine Inch Nails, Death Cab for Cutie and Beck out to the desert near George over Memorial Day weekend, among more than 40 others. (Click here for the rest of the lineup.) The big gala is suddenly being mentioned in the same breath as big national festivals like Coachella, Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits.

So a while back I caught up with Adam Zack, the House of Blues talent buyer who dreamed up the festival and who is in

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Steven Seagal may be a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but this weekend he’s a blues man. And since he’s all about music, EJ and I conspired to post my Seagal interview in the excellent and outstanding Bring the Noise blog. (You owe me one, EJ!)

I had to edit some of the interview for space, but most of the good stuff is still intact, including a lot of stuff that didn’t make today’s story. Seagal talks about his new movies, and you can find out which musician he considers the “greatest living guitar

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According to the latest Endmail that just landed in my inbox, Endfest — KNDD-FM, The End’s annual summer rock showcase — will take place Aug. 12 at the White River Amphitheatre. The station plans to make related announcements on air at 5 p.m. on June 1.

I thought I might be able to get a jump on the announcement by checking Pollstar, but all they have listed for that day are Rock Kills Kid.

My End listening has been sketchy of late, but allow me to predict a few bands.

Main stage: Yeah Yeah Yeahs,

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