Tacoma Rock City

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Tacoma Rock City

Archives: Dec. 2007

Dec.
21st

50 songs, 50 artists for 2007

Rolling Stone’s 100 best songs of 2007 list list lost all credibility the moment they included Avril Lavigne’s "Girlfriend." What? Have they not heard Mickey? Or the Rubinoos "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," two songs Avril clearly ripped off – allegedly? This is a travesty!


So I thought I’d come up with my own list and ask for some of your favorite songs. But I thought I’d do something a little different from a straightforward best songs list, which would feature multiple entries from all of my top albums, anyway. Boring. Instead, I mentally filed through all the

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Dec.
19th

Queens of the Stone Age set list

Here’s that set list I promised, with a couple of amendments. They didn’t play “I Think I Lost My Headache.” And they came back for an encore that included “You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire” and an epic version of “Song for the Deaf.” Scroll down to my previous post for pics and a more detailed report. Or if you were there and you wanna chime in, leave a comment.


Dec.
19th

Queens of the Stone Age were sick, sick, sick Tuesday night

"I’ve always wanted to play in this place – always," declared Queens of the Stone Age leader Josh Homme during the early portion of his band’s set Tuesday night at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre. Homme lived in Seattle for a while in the ’90s and must have attended his share of shows at the venerable old theater. And on Tuesday, Homme and company commemorated this kinda sorta homecoming by demolishing the Paramount with a titanic blast of good old fashioned RAWK! (Stops typing momentarily to raise devil horn salute.)


I’ve seen the Queens five or six times,

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Dec.
17th

The Crocodile Cafe closed?

Various sources, including Seattle rock blog Three Imaginary Girls, have reported that the Crocodile Cafe abruptly shut down over the weekend. Those of you who routinely make the half-hour trip north to catch shows in Seattle know the Croc as a pillar of the regional rock scene, having hosted concerts by the likes of Nirvana, Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie since it opened in 1991.


I got no answer when I called the Croc today, but I’ll post more once I’m able to dig up something.

Dec.
17th

Is Dewey Cox the new Spinal Tap?

Spinal Tap. The Blues Brothers. Dethklok. To that list of great fake TV and movie bands we now add Dewey Cox, the subject of the new faux biopic “Walk Hard.” And recently I caught up with singer-songwriter Dan Bern, who wrote or co-wrote several of the tracks you’ll see John C. Reilly sing at your local cineplex beginning this Friday.


Dan Bern on writing for Dewey Cox


And while were’ at it, let’s pay tribute to a few of the fake bands that have paved the way for our man Dewey.:


Dec.
17th

I wanna beeeee … Santarchy!!

On Friday night, you may have noticed a bunch of Santas, all filled with the holiday spirit (or just spirits in some cases) yelling holiday greetings at you from a big yellow bus cruising the Tacoma Mall parking lot or otherwise wreaking havoc at your neighborhood watering hole. What was that about?


Well, that was the first ever Tacoma Santarchy, a historic event that looked something like this. Ho ho ho! Merry Christmahannukwanzaamas!





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Dec.
14th

Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme talks Desert Sessions, Amy Winehouse and being in his own Ween

Queens of the Stone Age is among the most consistently awesome bands of the last decade. So needless to say, I’m pretty excited about their show next Tuesday at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre. And I was equally excited to get a shot at the band’s leader, Josh Homme, yesterday.


Too bad I had technical difficulties during the early part of our conversation (read: I’m an idiot and didn’t have my recorder right setting, something I thankfully noticed three minutes into it.) That’s when Homme talked about living in Seattle in the ’90s, where his bro still lives. And when

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Dec.
14th

If you miss Robin and Maynard …

… then you’ll want to check out a 42-minute podcast that the dynamic radio duo recorded for the Christmas in the Northwest Web site. The podcast – which features show regulars Roy Otis, Officer Lee Groinman and others – will be in rotation with songs from the first 10 "Christmas in the Northwest" CDs, today through Sunday. Proceeds from the CDs benefit Children’s Hospital every year.


Robin Erickson and John Maynard were, of course, staples of Northwest radio for more than two decades on KQBZ-FM (100.7, currently KKWF-FM, the Wolf), KISW-FM (99.9), KZOK-FM (102.5) and the defunct

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Dec.
12th

Nine Inch Nails remix fun

I’m a huge Nine Inch Nails fan and couldn’t wait to hear how Saul Williams, Bill Laswell and a handful of other folks had chopped up and rearranged the tracks from Nails’ last album on the new “Y34RZ3ROR3M1X3D” CD. I’m partial to what Williams and the Faint did with “Survivalism” and “Meet Your Master” respectively.


But the coolest part new album – for hands on music fans, at least – is the data CD. Nails’ Trent Reznor is among a growing number of artists that give fans tools for coming up with their own mixes (see also: Beastie

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Dec.
12th

R.I.P. Ike Turner

Rock pioneer Ike Turner died today, a man whose musical legacy was often overshadowed by tales of how he reportedly terrorized ex-wife Tina Turner. Find one of many obits here. And below is my last interview with the man back in 2001. He claimed he wasn’t the woman beater portrayed in the film “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” but did cop to a bit of philandering and drug abuse. You be the judge. And if I can find the tape from the interview, I’ll have to post some clips:



Ike Turner is a man

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