San Francisco-based singer, Meklit Hadero, considers Seattle a second home — or a third home, or maybe a fourth. For the soulful, jazzy singer-songwriter, who was born in Ethiopia and raised in the United States, the Emerald City is a place where she can reconnect with family and with a part of the world in which she lived for more than a year. And Hadero will do just that on Nov. 30 at the Columbia City Theater, when she graces the stage to perform songs from her immaculate and expansive catalogue. To preview the gig, we caught up with the songwriter to ask her about her beginnings as an artist, how she honed her writing style and what she looks to, when the world can seem too much.
Read MoreNo one knows when the first taco was created. But the tradition of putting meat and veggies into a corn or flour tortilla has lived for thousands of years. The beautiful thing about a taco is that anyone can make one. But the precarious thing about a taco is that not everyone can make them well. I grew up in Princeton, N.J., eating tacos with hard yellow shells. My mother, bless her heart, would cut up lettuce and tomatoes and add them to a four-quadrant plastic platter with shredded cheddar and grocery-store-packet-seasoned beef she made on the stovetop. I loved them. But I also realized there was another world out there with perfectly blended sauces and meat that echoed with flavor.
Read MoreEven though he’s won eight state championships and coached some of the most talented and successful players in the world in his nearly 25-year career, Rainier Beach high school boys basketball coach Mike Bethea approaches each season like it’s his very first.
Read MoreMichael Franti is a generous soul. Franti — who is coming to the Moore Theatre on Monday, November 19th to debut his documentary, Stay Human, and play an acoustic set — is thoughtful and talkative when it comes to questions about anxiety and depression, spreading joy and listening to people’s stories. As someone who has battled mental illness, Franti says he’s learning more and more to lean into connecting with people, rather than keeping isolated in his art. Along his world tours, Franti says he tries to inspire the people he meets, advising them to channel the energy of their pain and push forward as the world seems to be crumbling all around us. And to preview Monday’s event, we caught up with Franti and asked him about the new album and movie, what his goals are for the works, and why he doesn’t ever wear shoes.
Read MoreJohn Popper can sing the complicated jazz tune “Whiplash” practically in his sleep. The song, featured prominently in the Oscar-winning movie of the same name, is burned into Popper’s brain because of the same man who inspired the devilish bandleader in the film: Anthony Biancosino. “Dr. B,” as he was affectionately known, was an award-winning high school band teacher at Princeton High School in Princeton, N.J. (where Popper and Whiplash director Damien Chazelle both attended, decades apart). And while he wasn’t nearly the authoritarian as he’s exaggerated to be in the 2014 movie, Dr. B did help Popper — the frontman and harmonica player for the Grammy-winning band Blues Traveler — flourish as a musician.
Read MoreSean Daley is the rapper, Slug. And Slug is one half of the Minneapolis, Minnesota, hip-hop group, Atmosphere, which released its latest LP, Mi Vida Local, on October 5th. With an upcoming national tour slated for the group, which includes a stop in Seattle at the Showbox SoDo on March 2nd, we thought we should catch up with Atmosphere’s frontman and talk about the new album and what tour life is like. For such a prolific duo, which has created underground hits like “God’s Bathroom Floor” and “Trying To Find A Balance,” we wanted to talk to Slug about the idea of a perfected song and how he maintains the energy to write, record, tour and manage his outstanding independent record label, Rhymesayers.
Read MoreLos Angeles-based rapper and artist, Charlie Stewart (aka Chali 2na), who is perhaps best known for his role in the beloved hip-hop group, Jurassic 5, is coming to Seattle on November 8th. Playing with Blackalicious at the Nectar Lounge, the deep-voiced emcee, who has worked with everyone from Ozomatli to Nelly Furtado, will bring his charming, insightful and booming rhymes to the crowd in Fremont for a night to remember. But before he graces the famed Emerald City stage, we wanted to catch up with the emcee and ask him how his career started, how he got his name, how he developed his signature baritone and much more.
Read MoreAfter the explosion, Tim Pipes nearly threw in the towel. Then, a month later, he was robbed. Pipes has also undergone spinal fusion surgery and back surgery to remove a herniated disk. He’s been through a difficult divorce. But despite all these, the place he loves most, The Angry Beaver, a small, 80-person hockey bar he owns in the heart of Greenwood — that serves countless batches of poutine — has subsisted. And he has subsisted right along with it.
Read MoreA year ago, Fiona Pepe was in search of inspiration. The Seattle dancer and photographer had left a 10-year career as one of the head performers at the sultry and beloved Can Can cabaret theater. On an excursion to France, she found herself strolling through the Parisian streets one morning. Looking for any decent book, Pepe picked up a tome titled The Mistress of Paris, which would quickly change her creative aspirations.
Read MoreWhitney Mongé’s voice cracks, crumbles, aches and breaks your heart. It’s one made of 100-year-old salvaged northwest wood, complete with embossed grains, nicks, and honest imperfections. Often compared to the great Tracy Chapman, Seattle’s Mongé, though, is unique and stands sturdily on her own two musical feet. And never has this been more evident on her upcoming EP, the six-song Carry On, an intimate window into the artist’s songwriting, which is set to be released November 27th and 28th at Jazz Alley with co-headliner Naomi Wachira. To preview that release, we have the honor of premiering Mongé’s lead single from the new record, “Be Mine,” a romping, joyous tune about the excitement and confluence of new love and lust. And to accompany this premiere, we caught up with Mongé to ask her about her new album, what she’s learned since releasing her last record and how many takes it took to get the perfect vocal scream on tape.
Read MoreThe Seattle-based rock ‘n’ roll band, Tres Leches, thrives in poorly lit, vulnerable spaces. The group, however, doesn’t use darkness as a cause for being closed off. Rather, the trio, which is known for strapping on instruments only to switch them mid-song, uses dim spaces to open up to one another within them, exchanging the creative energies and personal conversations that have helped fuel their punk prowess.
Comprised of Alaia D’Alessandro, Ulises Mariscal, and Zander Yates, Tres Leches began three years ago in D’Alessandro’s parents’ basement. They flourished as a result of their lighting feng shui.
“Playing in dark spaces influenced our songwriting,” says D’Alessandro, “Not in a way that we’re sad about, or anything. It’s more like that feeling of being there but you’re with your friends and you can open up.”
Read MoreWhen you hear Texas native, Leon Bridges, sing, you observe a galaxy of things. But the star around which all the man’s many attributes circle is most assuredly his innate sweetness. There’s gentleness and kindness embedded into all of his music and it’s because of these that Bridges’ soulful songwriting shines. And, not surprisingly, these same traits come through when you talk on the phone with the singer, who will perform tonight in Seattle at the WaMu Theater. But before the big show, we caught up with Bridges — who’s worked with Emerald City standouts, Macklemore and Odeaza, on recent tracks — to chat with him about his early days as a young musician at open mics, how he developed his other-worldly voice, and what he thinks about love at this stage in his life. His most recent full-length, Good Thing, is out now via Columbia.
Read MoreBrooks Nielsen has a golden voice. The lead singer for the California-based “Beach Goth” band The Growlers, who play Seattle two nights this weekend at the Neptune Theater (Sep. 7th and 8th), sings like his vocal chords are made of precious metal-encrusted bouncy balls. The prolific group, which just released a B-sides album called, Casual Acquaintances, worked in the studio with Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, to produce a more condensed sonic vibe. And while The Growlers keep experimenting with their stuff, the band is perhaps best known for their deliciously eerie LP, Chinese Fountain, a pastiche of poetry and musical profundity. Prior to their upcoming Emerald City weekend shows, though, we wanted to catch up with Nielsen to ask him about The Growlers’ early days, how his vocal tone developed, and how he feels when he writes a new song.
Read MoreTacoma-born musician, Jerry Cantrell, is thought by many to be a guitar god. A co-founding member of the wildly popular grunge band, Alice In Chains, Cantrell’s prowess on the electric guitar along with his ability to write and sing devastating vocal harmonies, has carved out a place for him forever in rock ‘n’ roll history.
Read MoreKEXP is excited to announce a new host for the Pacific Northwest’s longest-running local music radio show, Audioasis. Beginning September 8th, Eva Walker will become the new host of Audioasis on KEXP, airing 6-9 PM on Saturday evenings. Walker, of Seattle rock ‘n roll band The Black Tones, is a born and raised Seattleite, a music teacher, and a lover of music of all kinds.
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