• Orchestraville – Invent The Machine/Poison Berries.  These two records are amazing.  They keep on giving the more I listen.  The production is outta hand, the songwriting impeccable. The more I listen to Invent The Machine, the more I am enamored.  ‘Annual Clearance’ is choice. And different tracks on Poison Berries keep surfacing, discoveries made upon repeat listens. 
  
  
  

• Speak – Speak. Tons of great jazz in Seattle this year, as even recognized by The New York Times. The Flotzam interview with Cuong Vu was just the beginning of discovering much jazz to be had here. Check out some samples from Vu’s band, Speak.

  SAMPLE SOUNDCLIPS:

  Amalgam in the Middle:
  
  
  
  Polypockets:
  
• Guided By Voices Reunion Tour – Take your pick from a bunch of epic shows, all recorded with great fidelity from the Don’t Stop Now band.
• The Mommyheads – Finest Specimens – Listen here: http://www.dromedary-records.com/streams/the-mommyheads/finest-specimens/player.html  -- Best of The Mommyheads!
• The Parson Red Heads  - Randomly stumbled on this band and fell for them:
  
  

  Punctual As Usual

  Punctual As Usual

  Out To Sea

  Out To Sea

  
  
  

GBV was stellar last night at an almost sold out Showbox SODO.  Band on their game for aging rockers. Pollard livin the rock'n'roll dream. Stage banter awesome. (See an archive of #GBV tweets here.) One line about "100% chance of rain in Seattle. But that's okay, cause you go inside and rock." Reminded me of the record done that's just stage banter, Relaxation of the Asshole.

Hell of a set, playing all the anthems. It was a sing along kinda night. Think they are playing the same set every night on tour. You can get a sense of the dealo at http://gbvdigital.com. Here the set in all its 90s glory:

1 Intro
2 A Salty Salute
3 Shocker In Gloomtown
4 Tractor Rape Chain
5 Pimple Zoo
6 Closer You Are
7 Buzzards And Dreadful Crows
8 Break Even
9 My Valuable Hunting Knife
10 Hot Freaks
11 A Good Flying Bird
12 Cut Out Witch
13 Lethargy
14 Striped White Jets
15 Matter Eater Lad
16 The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory
17 Awful Bliss
18 14 Cheerleader Coldfront
19 Quality Of Armor
20 Gold Star For Robot Boy
21 Gleemer
22 Dodging Invisible Rays
23 Queen Of Cans And Jars
24 Unleashed! The Large Hearted Boy
25 Echoes Myron
26 My Impression Now
27 I Am A Scientist
28 My Son Cool
29 Game Of Pricks
30 Smothered In Hugs
31 Postal Blowfish
32 Don't Stop Now
33 Motor Away
34 Jar Of Cardinals
35 Exit Flagger
36 Some Drilling Implied
37 Johnny Appleseed
38 Weed King