Seattle’s Jeff Ramsey has worn many hats throughout his career, his work experience ranging from the bar and restaurant industry, to the music and entertainment biz and the overlap of both. Most recently, Ramsey teamed up with Pike Place Market's beloved burlesque and cabaret theater, Can Can, to help redevelop the venue’s menu, service standards, and overall aesthetic.
Read MoreThe Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio is fast becoming one of the city’s hottest groups. Featuring guitar virtuoso Jimmy James and steady-handed, prolific drummer David McGraw, the band is fronted by Delvon Lamarr, the charming songwriter and fantastic organ player. Capable of getting a whole room to shake while also sparking the collective thought, “Who the eff are these guys???” the trio, which recently signed a record deal with famed soul label Colemine Records, is an instrumental powerhouse. With a release show planned for the end of the month, we wanted to catch up with Lamarr and see what’s up in the world of one of the most exciting bands in Seattle.
Read MoreSeattle’s Unika Noiel, head chef of the Pioneer Square Italian restaurant Che Sara Sara, is also one of the city’s foremost experts on cooking cannabis-infused food. Whereas most retail edibles are sweet, like cookies and gummy worms, Noiel’s infusions are more of the soul food variety, ranging from fried chicken to catfish to watermelon salad.
Read MoreIt’s a few minutes before 11 p.m. on Saturday night and Krist Novoselic is backstage at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard. The 52-year-old former Nirvana bassist is gearing up to play the album release show for his new group, Giants in the Trees, and jokes about texting his fictitious life coach. “He’s telling me things like, ‘You can do it’ and ‘You deserve it,’” Novoselic smiles.
Read MoreMichael Wansley remembers very clearly the day he first got sober—Seafair Weekend 1999—after waking up in bed with a stranger, full of regret. He remembers a night in Paris while on tour with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, in a small club surrounded by hundreds of people waving bottles of champagne at him from every angle after he’d finished his famous deep-voiced hook on “Thrift Shop.” And he remembers a simple but effective idea his AA sponsor told him one afternoon: “Michael, you never have to take a drink again.”
Read MoreWhen the video for “Jaguar Stupid” begins, we see a figure wearing a geometric, shining metal mask. It’s an elaborate, wolf-like visage—and it’s also the means through which the video’s star, Seattle vocalist Otieno Terry, recently found comfort in his own identity. Releasing his first solo record, The Woods, on October 31 (with a show planned November 4 at the 2312 Gallery), Terry offers a statement piece that boldly says: I’m here, front and center. Watch out.
Read MoreDad Jokes was never supposed to be famous. But once Good Morning America got hold of it, there was no turning back.
Created in March by Los Angeles-based producer Patrick Houston, one of the folks behind All Def Digital, Dad Jokes is an online series in which two comedians are pitted against one another in a you-laugh-you-lose format. The comics tell bad, corny, but oh-so-fun dad jokes to score points.
Read MoreWith a head of floppy hair underneath a forwards-facing baseball hat, singer-songwriter, Mac DeMarco, grins his signature gap tooth smile. To many, he’s an unlikely hero of music. To others, his talent and skill are obvious. The psychedelic-voiced minstrel of contemporary mellow rock music croons, singing his songs about lost youth and the dire creep of time. And on his latest record released in May, This Old Dog, the Canadian-born DeMarco laments the loss of his father, spiritually and, likely, physically. We had a chance to talk with DeMarco before he embarked on yet another series of national gigs to ask him about the new record, his smoking habits on stage, his relationship to death and much more.
Read MoreFamed Seattle rapper Macklemore has returned to the national stage with his latest solo release, “Gemini.” The album showcases a renewed sense of freedom the rapper (aka Ben Haggerty) is best known for — a creative place he seemed to have lost sight of with his last album but has rediscovered in this one with a little help from his friends.
Read More“This is independent wrestling, bro,” said John Hennigan. Also known as John Morrison, Henningan is a former WWE professional wrestler who hit the stage Friday night at Washington Hall as part of DEFY8: Kings Among Men, a wrestling showcase staged by a recently established local outfit called DEFY Wrestling. “This is where wrestling happens today," Hennigan said, "not in some half-empty arena.”
Read MoreIt’s unclear what one is supposed to expect when going to see the “virtual band,” Gorillaz, play live. Prior to their show Saturday night at KeyArena, rumors swirled about the group playing anonymously behind a big projector screen. Or maybe they’d come out dressed in costume, appearing like the iconic animated characters from their music videos? Known for their curious cartoons and comforting, catchy vocals over unabashed hiphop beats, Gorillaz hit the stage Saturday night amid befuddlement—but, by the end of it, everyone knew exactly who they were.
Read MoreMac DeMarco, the Canadian-born, laid-back minstrel of mellow rock ’n’ roll, says he is “addicted” to the excitement of creation. For the chain-smoking, whiskey drinking musician his main professional ambition is to keep making music — in large part, he says, so that he doesn’t have to experience any “withdrawals.”
Read MoreThe HBO television show “Room 104,” produced by brothers Jay and Mark Duplass, employs myriad storytellers to depict the sordid history of a graying roadside hotel room. Two of the raconteurs tapped for the task were Emerald City writer-directors Megan Griffiths and Dayna Hanson, whose paths to the acclaimed show were as different as a boxer’s punch and a dancer’s pirouette.
Read MoreKrist Novoselic has begun the grind again. The 52-year-old former Nirvana bassist, who has since formed a couple of short-lived groups between joining the Foo Fighters and Paul McCartney on national stages, has launched a new Northwest-based band, Giants in the Trees, a mix of rock, pop, and folk music.
Read MoreAfter more than 30 years in the music business, singer-songwriter Mark Lanegan has learned a few things about himself as a creative individual. For someone who at times begrudgingly took on the role of lead singer for the bands he's fronted—most notably the Screaming Trees—Lanegan has grown leaps and bounds as a songwriter and, particularly, as a frontman. So much so that he still finds surprises in his line of work.
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