Recent Stories in Music

"A Place To Bury Strangers @ Neumos.. March 12th,2010" by jandrew33, via The SunBreak Flickr pool

There was something I had forgotten about A Place to Bury Strangers since the last time I saw them, at Chop Suey two years ago: The Brooklyn noise-rock trio doesn't like people looking at them. Sure, they're standing onstage in front of a sold-out Neumo's crowd, but they play in heavy clouds of smoke machine fog. They either have the lights way down (see frontman Oliver Ackermann, right) or turned all the way up, with shards of white aurora borealis streaming over the band. APTBS waited till towards the end of Friday's set to turn on the strobes, and when they did, most of the crowd found themselves unable to look at the stage and stood wincing from both visual and auditory overload.

It's fitting though, as it's not as if this is a band that needs much interaction with the crowd. You don't sing along or dance to APTBS songs; you just stand there and let the noise wash over you. The band played songs from both of their full-length releases, not that you could really tell what was what.  It's all head-sploding distortion of one type or another.  I could pick out songs here or there, like first album reverb jam "To Fix the Gash in Your Head," but for the most part, just surrender and give yourself up to the noise....

Live from New York, it's another Saturday night with Pearl Jam. Tune into Saturday Night Live this evening to see Jude Law play funny and Seattle’s reigning rock band play two tunes from their latest album, Backspacer. Giddily retweeted clues suggest Pearl Jam will play the gorgeous "Just Breathe" and chunky-riffed "Force Of Nature." (Wouldn't it be cool, though, if they surprised everyone with a cut from the forthcoming—probably—Backspacer-session EP?) Cross your fingers for a skit that has the real Eddie Vedder trading verses with Bill Hader's EV....

When A Place to Bury Strangers released their 2007 self-titled debut, the press promptly dubbed the Brooklyn trio "the loudest band in New York."  APTBS' appropriately-named follow-up Exploding Head is more of the same: skull-crushing shoegaze with nods to both My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain.  It's a wall of noise, a whiplash of volume, a sonic assault of customized effects pedals crafted by frontman Oliver Ackermann himself. Wear a pair of earplugs and then put in another set of earplugs, just to be safe.  Your ears will thank you.

They'll be playing Neumo's tonight with The Big Pink, who will assuredly have nearly as many effects pedals, but probably won't be quite as loud. The British producer duo put out one of the best albums of last year, A Brief History of Love, and will definitely have the crowd dancing through the noise.

• A Place To Bury Strangers, The Big Pink, Grave Babies, and io echo play a 21+ show at Neumo's tonight. Doors at 8 p.m., $15.  Tix are almost sold out!
  

"It's like how the Clientele are a ghost band because everything we do is through this pop-art lens. We won't play a folk song, we'll play a Peter Blake painting of a folk song," lead singer Alasdair MacLean told Pitchfork, adding that he felt the latest album, Bonfires on the Heath, might make a good going-away present.

That, in addition to The Fleet Foxes once calling The Clientele "Britain's best band," makes this evening's appearance at the Tractor Tavern special (tickets: $12). The weather is just right, too--some wind and rain and MacLean's surrealist poetry over jingle-jangle guitar will make it clear that the Foxes are on to something. Listen closely.

"For fun," the Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold is opening for Joanna Newsom, just a few times, on her tour, Pitchfork tells me. I don't see Seattle anywhere on that list, so it's nice the Pecknold has added this video to his YouTube channel. Never satisfied, Pitchfork would like a duet.

If Governor Rick Perry, Texas' newly nominated Republican candidate for the US Senate, goes through with his lowest common denominator-baiting calls for the state to secede from the Union, I hope he lets America keep The Strange Boys.  We need 'em. The newly six-piece Austin band delivers straight-up rock that sounds as if it could have been made circa 1965.  It's all very "Louie, Louie," so feel free to recommend them to your dad in an attempt to cross the generation gap (but don't get stuck listening to all of his British invasion vinyl).  On the band's second full-length Be Brave, just released last week, the Boys bring plenty of their garage sound, fuzzed-out jangle, and ragged vocals to the fore.  Tonight, they hit up the Comet, along with Lovvers and Chain and the Gang.  Just add whiskey, but don't mess with Texas.

• The Strange Boys play the Comet tonight with Chain and the Gang and Lovvers.  9 p.m., $10, 21+.

Michael Lee of Mal de Mer. Photo by Laura Musselman.

A couple weeks ago on a Monday night, I was sitting in a booth at the Lava Lounge in Belltown with three of the four members of Seattle indie rock outfit Mal de Mer, discussing their current work and upcoming show at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard (Tues., March 9, with The Shackles and Beaches; $6 at the door, 21+). Trying to make up for her absence, the conversation frequently turned to keyboardist and backing vocalist Kim Kelly, the former singer and guitarist for the now-disbanded punk band The Amazombies.

"When we talked about doing this a little more seriously," said Michael Lee, Mal de Mer's guitarist and lead singer, "we knew that she could play piano, keys, but at first she told me she didn't want to do that because she thought she looked stupid."

"You couldn't just get her a keytar?" I asked, smirking (we had already put down a few beers).

"That was joked about," Lee responded, straight-faced.

From across the table, drummer Eric Wennberg piped up: "They're expensive, actually."

"They are pretty expensive," agreed bassist Jimmy Curran.

"It's like twelve-hundred dollars for a nice Roland keytar..." continued Wennberg, while Curran added: "Though I think I might know where to get one..."

"Really?" Wennberg asked, before Lee, finally drawn into the downward spiral of jokingly bad ideas, suggested with a wry grin: "We could call her 'Keytara.'"

Mal de Mer may be fresh to the scene, but the band comes with a healthy pedigree in Seattle music. Besides Kim Kelly and The Amazombies, Curran was the bassist for The Divorce, Wennberg still plays drums for Slender Means, and Lee started his musical career as a teenage grungester from Tacoma with Subminute: Radio, before playing guitar in a string of Seattle bands.

The band members all got to know one another over the years through the Crocodile Cafe. "Jimmy and I both worked there," Lee explained, "and Eric was always there, Slender Means played there all the time. And The Divorce played there all the time, all our bands played there."...

Seattle Chamber Players (l-r) Laura DeLuca, David Sabee, Mikhail Shmidt, Paul Taub

Michael Upchurch previews the Songs of Wars program, which is a co-production of SCP and Pacific Operaworks:

On the one hand, you have German composer Heiner Goebbels' "Songs of Wars I Have Seen," an eclectic setting of excerpts from Gertrude Stein's 1945 book "Wars I Have Seen." On the other hand, you have Claudio Monteverdi's "Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda," a 1624 piece said to mark the first time a composer employed musical sound effects that directly mimic the action onstage.

I know, right? Who hasn't heard of Heiner Goebbels? Just about everyone in the U.S. It's freakishly out there for a small organization to pick a composer whose not yet known here and a composer who was super popular, you know, about four hundred years ago. Then why not stir in crowd-pleaser Gertrude Stein? (The UW's Jessica Burstein has a helpful podcast titled "Gertrude Stein for No One.") I have the feeling that no one ran this past marketing.

It's exciting. It's like we live in a real city, where our artistic William Tells don't aim their arrows squarely at the middlebrow, but at the not-quite-attainable apple....

Last fall, Scottish quartet We Were Promised Jetpacks played Neumo's, along with their fellow countrymen Frightened Rabbit and The Twilight Sad. It was a great set, full of sound and fury and soaring vocals and broken guitar strings--all of which was over in thirty minutes, as they were the opening opening band. Well, the lads have finally gotten their headlining spot, as We Were Promised Jetpacks return to Neumo's tonight. Expect lots of big choruses, melancholy guitars, and heavy accents. And FREEEEEEDOOOOOMMMM.

As to the rest of last fall's Scottish lineup, Frightened Rabbit is headlining a show at Neumo's come May 16th, and The Twilight Sad is opening for MONO, also at Neumo's on May 11th.

• We Were Promised Jetpacks, The Lonely Forest, and Bear Hands play Neumo's tonight. Doors 8 p.m., $15, all ages.

In the era of Gogol Bordello, Balkan Beat Box, and Beirut, artists borrowing from the library of Southeast European trad are in abundance. Unfortunately, most of them don't do it well, which is precisely why Kultur Shock, Seattle's own Balkan art punk outfit, is a can't-miss band when they take the stage at Chop Suey this Saturday night, March 6, for one of their all-too-rare hometown appearances (with Orkestar Zirkonium and Chervona; tickets $12 advance, 21+).

Formed in Seattle a decade ago by Gino Srdjan Yevdjevich, a former Yugoslav pop star and theatre artist who fled the siege of Sarajevo with the help of Joan Baez and other Western artists, the group has evolved from a trad outfit playing restaurants to a powerhouse of a rock outfit that borrows as much from Macedonian gypsy tunes as Black Sabbath.

Most bands who claim to be "big in Europe" would be feeding you a line, but in Kultur Shock's case it's the God's truth. Last year, the band played more shows in Istanbul than Seattle, and even took a month-long summer tour of Russian music festivals. Relentless touring in Europe, anchored in the band's home turf of the Balkans and supported by the diaspora throughout the rest of the continent, has earned them a fanatical fanbase.

Yevdjevich's incredible vocal range is supported by a muscularly talented musical outfit, led by guitarist Val Kiossovski, a former Bulgarian prog-rocker who made his way to US in the early Nineties. The rest of the group features a loose lineup of top Seattle musicians, like Amy Denio and Paris Hurley, anchored by the rhythm and bass section of drummer Chris Stromquist and former Sage bassist Guy Davis.

From early albums like FUCC the INS and Kultura Diktatura, on which the band yukked up their immigrant roots, Kultur Shock has developed an increasingly subtle and complex musical approach on display in their last LP, Integration (2009), which documents the strife of immigrants caught between their new Western homes and their traditional culture.

"Now you really look like West Europeans," Yevdjevich croons on "Guerrilla," a song about youth struggling to navigate the cultural minefield of their new home countries, "from Deutsch or France or the Nederlands...nobody can tell." "The Motherland doesn't understand," he continues, before the rest of the bands kicks in with a chorus bark of "Integration!"

Lyrical content aside, though, Kultur Shock is one of the most fun, fast-paced, anarchic live shows you can see, and even if Seattle audiences don't quite rise to the same level of barely-contained anarchy that the band manages in the clubs of Sofia or Zagreb, it's still likely to be one of the sweatiest, danciest concerts on the bill for March, so if you've never seen Kultur Shock before, now is your chance: seriously, this is a band not to be missed.

Friday night, the Triple Door was full of music fans eating and drinking and taking in the Swedish singer-songwriter double-header. (It goes without saying that, as always, the service at the Triple Door was impeccable.) First up was Taken By Trees, ex-Concretes' Victoria Bergsman's multi-culti solo project.  She recorded her last full-length, East of Eden, in Pakistan, so on the album, as well as live, there's all the exotic sounds of Central Asia side by side with Victoria's chilly Swedish voice and low-key stage presence (see "To Lose Someone" above). 

To be fair, Taken by Trees did partner their live performance with a video running behind the band featuring repetitive images of snow leopards, tigers, and other cute kitties--so I'm not complaining. Her cover of Animal Collective's "My Girls" ("My Boys," also on East of Eden) was well-received, and Victoria brought it back home by closing her set with a song in Swedish....

Tonight, the Triple Door has a doubleheader of the Swedish chanteuse variety: Taken By Trees, the solo project of Victoria Bergsman, formerly of The Concretes, and El Perro Del Mar, the Spanish name for Gothenburg singer Sarah Assbring. [Insert ass joke here.]

Both make lovely and sad music. Taken By Trees errs on the side of exotic, with Bergsman crafting Swedish songs via Karachi, a far cry from her Motown-meets-Mazzy Star work with the Concretes. Her latest album, East of Eden, was recorded in Pakistan (check out Taken by Trees' documentary), and it shows. The album's instrumentation leans Sufi, with keyboards and marimbas lending depth and warmth to Bergsman's chilly voice.

Meanwhile, El Perro Del Mar has always been a lovely downer, starting with the third track of her first album, where she drunk-dials her ex and implores him, "come on over, baby, there's a party going on," and makes the subsequent "be-bop-a-lula" sound heart-wrenching. Her latest album, Love Is Not Pop has some (relatively) upbeat laid-back pop songs mixed in with her usual sway-happy ballads. And definitely check out her cover above of the XX's "Shelter," recorded nine days ago.

Sounds like on this tour, they've been putting on shows featuring video and multimedia, which would work well on the Mainstage. Taken By Trees and El Perro Del Mar play the Triple Door tonight. Doors are at 6 p.m., show at 8 p.m. Tickets: $18.

The male portion of The Magnetic Fields. Photo by joshc.

It's hard to know what to make of these Magnetic Fields. They are a completely non-dynamic band who somehow have a strong stage presence. Singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt is at times downright captivating, though he is also dour and morose. Sure, at Town Hall last night he had a cold, but when I saw him five years ago, he also had a cold then. I think it's safe to say he officially has the consumption. That would make me a little grumpy too.

They're all Stephin's songs, of course. He's got twenty-three or so albums under a variety of monikers (among them Future Bible Heroes, The 6ths, and The Gothic Archies), nine as The Magnetic Fields. Assuredly, at the second Seattle show tonight (some tix still available on Craigslist), he will have a completely different set list.  Last night's crowd got a few from 69 Love Songs, some from i, and plenty from the latest album Realism, the companion to 2008's Distortion. But we also got the b-sides and varieties: one of his Lemony Snicket songs, one of his Hans Christian Andersen songs, two Pieces of April songs, and "100,000 Fireflies," the band's first single. ...

Mikhail Pletnev with the Russian National Orchestra (Photo: RNO)

Wednesday evening the Russian National Orchestra set up at Benaroya Hall for a one-night performance of Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, and Dvorak, and wandering through the lobby prior to the concert, you sometimes were immersed in Russian conversation to the exclusion of English.

The hall was packed to the balconies--the RNO has press clippings other orchestras dream of, and it would be a special event to hear them in Benaroya, which has press gushing about its lively, warm acoustics that other halls only dream of.

For that matter, the stage itself would end up packed, as brass and woodwind players piled on for Dvorak's Cello Suite and Shostakovich's Ninth Symphony. Seattle Symphony musicians were part of the extra effort, though one blended right in--there off to the left was Mikhail Shmidt, who was born in Moscow.

RNO conductor Pletnev is not an imposing figure, but he runs on his own time. He refused the excitement brimming over from the crowd to focus instead on the mournfulness of the opening work, Tchaikovsky's Elegy for String Orchestra, which was an exercise largely in pulling time into almost translucent sheets of sound, flinging them up in the air, and watching as they turned...slowly...invisible. Pause. Begin again. Paradoxically, silence turned out to be what I remember most from this piece, silence and the question of whether to break it.

For the Dvorak Cello Concerto in B minor, Sergey Antonov joined the proceedings. The concerto is hugely popular and, with Dvorak, you often end up with the impression that his homesickness for Bohemia during his sojourn in the U.S. did him the greatest favor it has ever done any composer. The musical contrast of nostalgic and rousing melody, the mercurial shifts in mood and color, are hard to resist....

I think I heard somewhere that good writing usually divulges some dark, personal secrets. I can't claim to be a good writer, but here are two secrets I shouldn't tell anyone.

1. In 4th or 5th grade, my mom walked in on my friend Mike and me. We were in front of the mirrors in the living room, playing air guitar and singing. The tape playing was Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet.

2. I like Dashboard Confessional.

There, I said it. Now that these horrible secrets are out in the open, we can have an honest conversation about what happened last night at Key Arena. According to the three young girls that sat next to me, what happened was "awesome."

Dashboard Confessional opened the show to an arena about half-full. Whenever I mentioned this lineup, my friends thought the combination of bands was strange. Perhaps it was some sort of attempt by Bon Jovi to attract a younger crowd. Judging by the reaction of the audience, they weren't there to see Chris Carrabba sing about his ex-girlfriends. A couple ladies in the front were up and dancing, but in general, all I saw were people sitting and politely clapping or the red cushion of an empty seat....

Do not be afraid to admit it--I know you're as excited as I am for this.

Eighties rock legends Bon Jovi are resurfacing once again with their recently-released album The Circle, and the North American tour kicks off here in Seattle tonight. Even if you didn't grow up in the '80s, surely you know that Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora were inducted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame last year and The Circle has spent some time at #1 on the Billboard charts. This alone should be enough motivation to get you down to Key Arena to see what rock from the '80s is really all about.

For the kids who were born after Bon Jovi's second round of popularity (the "It's My Life" era), Dashboard Confessional will be opening both shows. Chris Carrabba and crew also have a new album (Alter the Ending, released on the same day as The Circle), and I daresay that it might get some of the older folks in the crowd to become fans.

The tour will be in town for two nights and it looks like lower level seats may still be available for both nights. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster and range from $33 for an upper level seat to $500 for a VIP experience. Shows start at 7:30 p.m.

If you can't make it to the show, you can also watch the first couple songs live via webcast on Ustream at 8:30 p.m. Look for the hand permanently formed into a "rock on" sign--that will be me.

In case you missed it--because I know I did--the Sasquatch website was updated yesterday afternoon to include the breakdown of bands playing the fest by day. 

Now's where the difficult decisions come into play.  If you're just going to the Gorge for one day, do you pick Saturday for Broken Social Scene, Vampire Weekend, and My Morning Jacket (and hope for rain so that MMJ puts on a drenched three-hour set like they did at last year's Bonnaroo)?  Do you head out Sunday for LCD Soundsystem, Pavement, and Massive Attack?  Do you wait till Monday for the New Pornographers, MGMT, and Ween?  Or do you suck it up and prepare yourself for all three days and some truly hellish camping?  Decisions, decisions. 

Full lineup by day after the jump....

Tomorrow night is your one chance this week to hear the Russian National Orchestra live. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at Benaroya Hall, and the program includes Tchaikovsky's Elegy for String Orchestra, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9 in E-flat major, and Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B minor. (Tickets are $32-$106). With the RNO in Seattle is young cellist Sergey Antonov, the son of a Moscow Conservatory cello teacher and a cellist with the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra. Rostropovich is a big fan.

Tom Keogh charts the orchestra's meteoric rise since its founding in 1990 as an orchestra independent of state control. You could be forgiven for thinking the RNO exists mainly to give classical music critics the chance to outdo each other with superlatives. When they recorded Tchaikovsky's Pathétique, Gramophone labeled it the best ever, asking, "Should human beings be able to play like this?"

Shostakovich's ninth symphony is notable for its brevity (it generally comes in at under 30 minutes) and for its joyful, light mood. In fact, it has made listeners think of both Mozart and Haydn. Written to celebrate the Russian victory over the Nazis, it contained none of the thunder and tragedy expected from Shostakovich, who knew from brass and drums, and was yet another reason the Party felt like Shostakovich just didn't get what they were trying to do.

So while the Tchaikovsky and Dvorak will sweep you away, no doubt, the Shostakovich should be something to behold as well, and not--this time--because when you hear the music and close your eyes, you think of Stalin.

At the Crocodile last night, after the party rap of Fresh Espresso (which should really be called "Fresh Latte" as there's more milk than coffee in that band), after the lo-fi pedal-heavy, layered solo acoustic guitar "folk jams" of Atlas Sound, and before the always solid (even with ragged tour-beleaguered vocals) West Coast-leaning pop of Surfer Blood came the official announcement of a big chunk of bands performing at this year's Sasquatch Festival.  And it is approximately insane.

Before last night, they had only announced the presence of a reunited Pavement, and that alone was enough to guarantee a visit to the Gorge come Memorial Day.  But the rest of the lineup?  My Morning Jacket, Massive Attack, LCD Soundsystem, Broken Social Scene, Ween, Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Band of Horses, The National, The New Pornographers, Passion Pit--most of which is SQUEEEEE-worthy. Public Enemy, just for whaaaaaaaa's sake.  The Hold Steady, because nobody's perfect.  The xx, which sounds good in theory, but I'd guess that they will not translate well in the festival setting.  Miike Snow, which explains their cancelled April Showbox date. Shabazz Palaces, since they put on what most of the music cognoscenti is already calling this year's best local show. There's not too much so far announced by way of comedy, so expect more of that to solidify closer to May.  Still, it's a helluva start.

Once again, tickets go on sale at Ticketmaster and the (finally updated) festival website this Saturday at 10 a.m. PST.  Single tickets will be $70 per day through May 23rd, when the price goes up to $80, and day-of-show tix will be $86.  A discounted three-day-pass will be available this weekend only for $170.

Full lineup (to date) after the jump....

Last night at Chop Suey my friend was nervous about Toronto's Still Life Still, fearing that they wouldn't be as good live as on their debut album Girls Come Too.  But that anxiety was for naught.  Still Life Still nailed it at their first Seattle show, playing most of their album, as well as a new song with a disco bassline.  The Broken Social Scene comparisons are apt; even the time signatures are pure BSS. My friend described them as a Broken Social Scene with more blatant sexual anxieties, as evidenced in the song "T-Shirts," which features the recurring line "I don't mind your blood on my dick."  But by the time you get to the end of the song, and the line is followed by "it's love, it's love, it's love, it's love," you get the message, and it's almost sweet.  Not caring about the little things is love after all....

Considering that Valentine's Day falls on a Sunday this year, it feels as if it's been V-Day since, oh, Thursday or so.  (And the movie--which took in a surprising $52M this weekend--ain't helping matters.)  Well now that the holiday has finally arrived, everyone who normally doesn't like Valentine's Day is downright sick of it.  And Chop Suey is here to to help.

Head over to the club tonight for an utter lack of schmoopy-woopiness.  Still Life Still is completely at home in the Toronto scene. They've got the Arts & Crafts taut-yet-jammy sound down, even though they're still babies (the band formed in 1999 when four of the members were in junior high).  If you've grown tired waiting for the new official Broken Social Scene album, check them out.  Meanwhile, Wild Beasts is a band not afraid of the falsetto.  Singer Hayden Thorpe breaks it out often, and with much gusto.  It's both of these bands' first times in Seattle, so give 'em some Valentine's Day love.

• Still Life Still, Wild Beasts, and "guests" play an all-ages show at Chop Suey tonight.  Doors are at 7pm, $12.

"It's pretty brave to have a festival in February. I like it." - Lisa Molinaro of Talkdemonic

While "pretty brave," the Cumulus Music Festival is also pretty genius. February in Seattle is the perfect atmosphere for an experimental music festival centered around expansive instrumental rock bands. Twelve such bands from Portland, Seattle, and Davis, California played over the last three days at Mars Bar and The Funhouse. Crowds were relatively small but enthusiastic, increasing as the festival went on.

I took a moment between sets at The Funhouse to discuss with founders Mark Schlipper and Levi Fuller how the festival was going. They were very pleased with how the bands sounded and how everyone was enjoying themselves. There was a question as to whether the festival would happen this year or not, as third founder Kenny Day was in Alabama, so they were feeling like it all came together very well, especially given short notice.

This was my second year at the Cumulus Festival and I enjoyed the lineups this year just as much as last. This year seemed more organized into different themes each day where last year had a little slice of everything each night. However, this year was still widely varied and quite good.

On Thursday, it was tough to pick a favorite. I missed Paintings for Animals' experimental electronica, unfortunately. The Luna Moth was magnificently unrelenting with their crescendos and repetitious songs. Joy Wants Eternity was epic, melodic, had a beautiful mkII Rhodes sound augmenting the guitar, and was the crowd favorite. Yet, something about Scriptures (formerly This is a Process of a Still Life) made them stand out for me....

Seattle is the perfect place for instrumental rock music. We have talented musicians and long stretches of dreary gray skies to inspire epic songs. Luckily, the folks organizing the Cumulus Music Festival have already thought of this and set up three days of varied instrumental bands to showcase their experimental magic.

The bands playing this festival run through a wide range of (mostly) instrumental music. If you're in the mood for those gray skies mentioned earlier, the dark and haunting melodies of Diminished Men or The Ever Changing Sky might satisfy you. If you're a little angry that summer isn't all year round, the emotional stirrings of Bronze Fawn or AristeiA might suit you. Looking to stand around with your jaw hanging open for 30 minutes at some ridiculous musicianship that you can't quite comprehend? Bill Horist or Paintings for Animals have you covered.

I guarantee this festival will bring you something that you have not seen on a rock stage before. Whether it be poignant video presentations to go with the music, a strange combination of instruments or a fifteen minute crescendo, this three-night festival will be out of the ordinary.

To check out some of the bands before you attend, you can download the official preview.

• The Cumulus Music Festival begins 8 p.m. tomorrow, February 11th, at Mars Bar. It continues at the Funhouse on the 12th and finishes up back at Mars Bar on Saturday. All shows are 21+ and $8.

A review in The New York Times from a couple days ago noted that in a recent radio interview, pianist Garrick Ohlsson said, "to be a little crass...Chopin sells."

Well, why shouldn't he? Chopin's compositions for piano pushed the art into new territory, and his work is known and beloved by even casual classical music listeners all over the world (to say nothing of Poland, which idolizes Chopin about as much as Pope John Paul II). Whatever the case, that "crass" logic is at work this week at the UW World Series, when Ohlsson returns for his second recital of Chopin's work, after an earlier appearance in January. (Tues., Feb. 9, 8 p.m.; tickets $20-$37.)

Ohlsson's name has been associated with Chopin since 1970, when, at the age of 22, he became the first American to win the International Frédéric Chopin Competition, held every five years in Warsaw. This year being the fortieth anniversary of Ohlsson's win, in the midst of the Cold War, as well as the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth, Ohlsson has been touring around the country, performing all-Chopin repertoires to ecstatic crowds.

UPDATE: The Seattle Times has a nice Q&A with Ohlsson today, worth the reading.