Look forward to fewer arbitrary ticketing fees from the Crocodile this summer. After they flush out the shows already on their lineup being sold through Ticketmaster, all advance tickets purchased online will come with a flat $2 fee plus standard credit card charges. How, you might wonder, has this miracle of sensible pricing been brought to us? It turns out that in addition to running an alt-weekly, blogs, and a world of questions, the technological gurus at the Stranger also had some time on their hands to develop a way for people to buy tickets on the internet.

Sounds a little bit like Brown Paper Tickets, without having some of the profits directed to charity (unless you count keeping the Stranger in the black as a charitable cause). It is worth noting that they plan to roll the system out to other organizations (with discounts for community groups and nonprofits) in the coming months.

In any case, let’s all hope that there’s some sort of celebration to mark the last Ticketmaster show at the Croc.

Starting tonight, and running through the weekend, a large majority of the shows you’d want to be seeing anyway will have the added benefit of helping to raise money to support a good cause (beyond your enjoyment of great music). This year, more than forty local, national, and international bands have teamed up with Noise for the Needy to support Transitional Resources, a licensed mental health center and residential program that offers a full spectrum of optimistic and respectful mental health services to adults with major mental illnesses. Founded in 1976 as a residential treatment program for fifteen, the West Seattle-based center has serves over 200 individuals each year through six different programs.

As for the live music, there are so many options to draw you in, you’d be hard pressed to go wrong. Throw Me the Statue has an eagerly-awaited album coming out very soon, Grand Archives are back from a big European tour with likely previews of new material, I Was A King have come all the way from Norway for you, and as far as I can tell, you have to be dead to not be having fun at an Art Brut show or dancing sweatily when you’re in the capable hands of the Emerald City Soul Club. Similarly, if you’ve been in search of incentives to check out rising local stars, there are no shortage of showcases. Black Ties and Neckties put on the most theatrical horror show of a rock spectacle while still being a real band, Cataldo charmed me senselessly when I caught them as openers a few months ago, Speaker Speaker are a heartskipping good time, and I’ve been particularly negligent in not getting out to see New Faces, the Pica Beats, and Hey Marseilles despite hearing nothing but praise sung from every corner.  

The impressive lineup is listed below. For more information about the charities, venues, bands, and tickets, visit noisefortheneedy.org

Wednesday June 10

• Slender Means, Fences, New Faces, Red Sea Sharks : Neumo’s, 8p, [$10]
• Coulter, This is a Process of a Still Life, Safer, Skeletons With Flesh On them : the Comet, 9p, [$7]

Thursday June 11

• Throw Me the Statue, “Awesome”, Velella Velella : Tractor Tavern , 9p, [$10]
• Adam Stephens and the Finite Plain, Widower, Jack Wilson & the Wife Stealers, Shane Tutmarc : Sunset, 8p,[$10]
• Half Light, Trentalange, Cataldo,  Cosmic Panther Land Band (All Star Line-up) : Conor Byrne, 9p, [$7]

Friday, June 12, 2009

• Grand Archives, See Me River, the Curious Mystery : the Crocodile, 9p, [$12 ($15 d.o.s.)]
• the Whore Moans, Speaker Speaker, Wallpaper, the Greatest Hits, the Raggedy Anns : Underground Events Center, Belltown, 8p, [$7]

Saturday June 13

• Art Brut (UK), Miike Snow Neumo’s, 8p, Bar w/ID, [$13]
• Black Eyes & Neckties, Telepathic Liberation Army, Loving Thunder, the Beats, Man: Wildrose, 9p, [$7]
• Kissing Potion, Fells Acres, High Dive, 5p, $5
• Furniture Girls, Hotels, Born Anchors, Anomie Belle : High Dive, 9p, [$8]
• Brent Amaker & the Rodeo, the Valley, An Invitation to Love, the Beautiful Confusion, the Thoughts : the Comet, 8p, [$8]
• Point Juncture, WA, the Pica Beats, Black Whales, Grant Olsen (Arthur & Yu), Djs Tom Conqergood & Cuddleup : Chop Suey, 9p, [$10]
• Emerald City Soul Club (Resident DJs: Gene Balk, Mike Chrietzberg, Brian Everett, George Gell, KennyMac, Alvin Mangosing, Marc Muller, Mike Nipper; Guest DJ: George Rodriguez) : Lo-Fi/Victory Lounge, 9p, $10

Sunday June 14

• Constantines, Crystal Antlers, Hey Marseilles, I Was a King : Neumo’s, 8p, [$12]
• Reptet, Gravelroad, Purty Mouth, Sam Marshall Trio : the Comet, 5p, [$6]

Even though Dan Boeckner is a critical player of the Voltron-like organism that is Wolf Parade, its hardly worth considering Handsome Furs a mere side-project. With this year’s Face Control, he and his wife Alexei Perry have recorded one of the better albums to show up on iTunes libraries this year. It bursts and snarls with electronics and deep beats around unresigned vocals, and suggests something compelling about early twenty-first century humanity, or at least gives you the feeling of being rejected from a buffet for not meeting the attractiveness standards of capitalist Russians [times].

In person, people are sure to dance and raise beer bottles and sing along loudly at their favorite parts. They play tonight at Neumo’s with Feral Children and the Cinnamon Band ($15, 8 pm [neumos]) and we have a pair of tickets for one of you. Send an e-mail to seattle.mebtlogs@gmail.com and I’ll pick a winner by this afternoon.

jens lekman at the crocodile last night.

At last night’s show Jens Lekman admitted to not having slept in days, but that didn’t get in the way of putting on an exceptionally charming beyond description show that spanned new material as well as beloved classics like “Black Cab” and “Maple Leaves”. Even as his voice withered away through the now-iconic tale of a summer visit to Berlin for vegetarian dinner and posing as his lesbian pal’s fiancee, he managed to return for a haunting rendition of “Shirin” to close out the evening. For your sake, here’s hoping that he spends today resting and sipping tea dosed with lemons and honey so that tonight’s can will live up to last night. [crocodile]

Like the rest of the known universe, we have finally gotten around to asking a robot to tell twitter when we make new posts. Or rather, a nice robot calls our site and asks if there’s anything new and then it tells another robot to put the link and some text onto twitter and then you can see it in your twitter machine!

I am an old person who uses RSS to read ‘blogs and twitter to tell my friends about sandwiches and dancing monkeys; but if this sort of thing interest you, then take a look at twitter.com/seattlemetblogs and do what you will.

As an extra incentive for becoming our follower, we’ll also use that account from time to time to give you a head start about exciting giveaways, events, and our occasional thoughts on the weather. As for free tickets, there’s one up there right now, just waiting for you to find it. Clickety click.

ra ra riot, friday afternoon on the HUB lawn. more pictures [flickr].

A scorching Friday afternoon found the HUB lawn on the University of Washington’s campus well attended and consuming fruit on sticks. Ra Ra Riot warmed the crowd beyond the soaring temperatures and by the time people with less flexible schedules arrived as the clock chimed five, a healthy contingent had risen from their grassy seats to dance in the front row. Their numbers and enthusiasm only grew as Built to Spill arrived. More pictures, in the photoset. [flickr]

look behind the masks on monday; photo courtesy clues. [constellation]

After a relatively quiet period former Unicorn Alden Penner has teamed up with onetime Arcade Fire-er Brendan Reed and a handful of other Montreal pop luminaries to create a Google-challenging new band called CLUES, which seems poised to live up to the promise of its legacy. Although they played a bit last year, they’ve buckled down, recorded and released an album, and are hitting the North American tour circuit in 2009. On Monday, they’ll be here in Seattle headlining a show with the likes of Aqueduct and Mount Eerie, whom I will do my best to recommend at every possible opportunity. His last show at the Fremont Abbey was quiet and funny and beautiful, and it will be interesting to see how this one, at a more conventional, rockish venue shapes up.

One of you lucky adventurers and a pal will have the chance to check out all of this for the low cost of free. Drop an e-mail to seattle.metblogs at gmail.com with your full name and I’ll pick a winner on Sunday morning. Inclusion of fun facts about Quebecois dietary habits might improve your chances of winning. If you’re not willing to try your luck, click over to Neumo’s and get yourself a ticket for $12.

Clues, Aqueduct, Mount Eerie; 1 June; $12, 8pm. [neumos]

On a day that Steve Pool opens his forecast with “Break out the bangles and the leg warmers (OK, maybe not the leg warmers) but we might be getting our first taste of the 80s this year.” [komo], you know that it might be difficult to remain cooped up under the oppressive drone of building-wide climate control while the PEMCO clock just outside your office [newly?] reports that the roof is generating 147kw of solar power.

What more perfect afternoon diversion than a biggish name rock show for free on the still green grassy lawn of the University of Washington? From 3 until 7 pm, the HUB lawn will be home a stellar summer lineup starring Built to Spill and Ra Ra Riot. Both the former’s tendency for shimmery guitar jams and the latter’s buoyant orchestral pop seem perfect for the sunny afternoon. It’s all the sunburn potential of a music festival without the trek to the desert and the occasional inspired rocker rant!

It’s free to faculty, staff, and students, who are due for a study and frisbee break, but I can easily imagine that those of you without Husky cards would have too much trouble sneaking a thorough listen. [rainydawgradio]

white stag [pwelverumandsun]

MBV brings the good news that a new record from Mount Eerie is available now, for a limited time, on the internet, starting today. Unlike a lot of recent releases by Mount Eerie, this one contains new songs recorded by Phil Elverum while living in the White Stag building in Portland at the invitation of Mathew Stadler. During a few days in March and April, he “wandered the building at night with recording equipment after students had left and ruminated on the site, specifically what the spot might have been like before the building was even there” and the resulting album contains “sloppy 4 track recordings with the presence of the building clearly audible.”

Get it online [pwelverumandsun]; read more about it. [portlandmercury]

james mercer of the shins, performing last night at the showbox; more photos of the shins & the delta spirit [flickr]

It’s the second night the Shins at the Showbox. Bless them for choosing to do two night engagement at the smaller Showbox rather than the larger, less appealing, SoDo version. I’d forgotten just how great the original (“at the market”) was for shows: even for last night’s sold out performance it rarely felt overstuffed. The Delta Spirit, looking incredibly comfortable onstage and sounding nothing like I imagined San Diego, opened with a shortish set that often found a majority of their members contributing to the percussion section, banging away on trash can lids and shaking maracas while frontman Matthew Vasquez energetically held down vocals and harmonica in a vaguely CYHSY way, except with more intelligible words and soul.

The Shins, sporting a reshuffled lineup — with Eric Johnson from the Fruit Bats on keys, former Grand Archiver Ron Lewis on bass, and (according stereogum commenters [#]) Joe Plummer on drums. Missing was Marty Crandall, which meant that there were 100% fewer undergarments thrown onto the stage, but the talented roster played through a darkly reworked collection of songs spanning the band’s recording history; notably breaking out “Sphagnum Esplanade” and “Weird Divide” from the deep and beloved back catalog. In particular, moodier songs like first set closer “Those to Come”, made use of the talented lineup with backup vocals, but unlike many other big harmony acts like labelmates Fleet Foxes, you get the sense that Mercer and company want the twisty lyrics to sting just a little bit.

If you can brave the rain, hit the sidewalks early to find someone with an extra ticket.

-

Also sold out is Iron & Wine‘s second night in support of Around the Well, a two disc collection of rarities, out of print, and unreleased songs — including the hard-to-buy unless you’re willing to purchase the In Good Company soundtrack “Trapeze Swinger”. The big show moves from Vera to the Triple Door, which seems like almost the most ideal possible venue for Sam Beam. However, if you didn’t get tickets and don’t want to press your luck (all tickets were will-call and are non-transferrable), line-up at the Capitol Hill Sonic Boom to catch the free in-store performance at 6 pm.

vivian girls at neumo’s last night with abe vigoda. more pics in the photoset. [flickr]

When Vivian Girls and Abe Vigoda played last night at Neumo’s, the room was in its infrequent curtain configuration, with the big red velvet dividing the room in half and the mezzanine closed. For all of the buzz of the bands, the more intimate setting was just about right for the modestly sized but highly enthusiastic crowd. Abe Vigoda took requests, chatted with mustachioed guys in the front row, and broke a guitar twenty minutes into their set. They tried to take that as a sign to quit, but were offered a replacement from the headliners and soldiered on for a couple more (after some “Blue Velvet” stalling techniques). Vivian Girls, apparently fresh from filming a video involving pies, turned a couple new songs and less than a half hour of recorded material into a full show through the magic of extended noise jams. These instrumental interludes served as cover for them to take turns fleeing the stage to get drinks to remain in compliance with our antiquated liquor laws. At some point in the show, a guy sneezed and I momentarily felt irrational paranoia. Later, someone appeared out of nowhere with a fancy drink in a martini glass. The band spotted TacocaT and deemed them the greatest band. For their final songs, they did something of a chinese fire drill for last drinks and wound up switching instruments with each other mid-song. In the end, though, it wasn’t the screaming guitars or turned up vocals that induced ear-ringing, it was the high atonal howl of the audience demanding an encore.