I kid because I love. Anya Marina is my friend. I luf her. But it was purely coincidental that John fisher was off today and I had to fill in host Anya in the lounge. Actually, it’s really hard talking to a friend in an interview setting. Try it with one of your friends sometime. Try and make it natural and entertaining but not too cliquie-cum-gossip girl! See how easy it devolves into laughter and inside jokes?

I tried to avoid that with Anya today.

And she surprised me by bringing in Michael Lerner of the band Telekenisis! Michael’s dad is John Fisher’s former partner and long time Mountain DJ Mike West. So now there were two friends in the lounge.

But it all really turned out ok. Anya told great stories about her involvement in the Twilight phenomenon, gave tips on doing radio interviews, and gave us a sneak peak at her forthcoming album. (Hear the whole interview and performance from our homepage) after it was all over, we high fived. Yeah, we did that.

But then Anya got mad at me and gave me the finger for asking her to rerecord this song without talking over the top of it.

And now we’re not speaking to each other at all. I kid! Again! That performance was stunning and so is she. That finger part, just a twitch. Promise.

. . . here:

See you in a few days!

Consequential: This is for the Voice Project, which raises awareness of war and the efforts to reunite families involved in war atrocities in Northern Uganda.

Inconsequential: That is one tall chair!

Consequential: New Peter Gabriel is a cause for celebration

Inconsequential: It’s just really good to see him. He’s so elegant and sophisticated even when covering a down and dirty song by Tom Waits.

Yup, that’s me, lining up for surf ‘n’ turf at the buffet at Snoqualmie Casino this weekend. I was out there for Toast of the Cascades, a really fun event with Mountain music by Kristen Ward, Tyrone Wells, Meiko, and Mat Kearney, plus samples of a few dozen wines, all outdoors in a beautiful woodsy setting.

Here’s my pal Mark Chipello, Tyrone Wells’ drummer. We all became friends after Tyrone came with us on one of our infamous Mexico trips a few years ago :

If you ever wondered how the band remembers which songs to play, here’s a peek at Tyrone’s setlist, taped to an amp basckstage:

It was my first trip out to Snoqualmie, and I was really impressed with the venue, the food, the people, the setting . . . .and of course it’s always great to mix and mingle with Mountain listeneres, especially when the sun is shining!

How could you not? Cute, charming, a hint of a southern accent, and a Husky tea cup. She had us at cute, but there’s much more to this Emerging Mountain Artist. Meiko graciously sat in The MD’s office for a chat, and showed her Husky pride, too!

And bonus: here’s the song about the yellow dress. Catchy, no?

You know that Van Morrison’s coming to The Gorge on Augst 8, right? We gave away tickets all this week on The Mountain, and you can still click through to a presale opportunity on the main page of our website.

BUT . . . . Our friends at Seattle’s public TV station, KCTS-9, are running a tasty Van Morrison performance on Saturday night at 9:00pm as part of the Austin City Limits series.

And one of the premiums for viewers who contribute to channel 9 is tickets in the first three rows for the Van show at The Gorge!

Click here for details . . . and check out this clip from the show:

This band grows on you like a hipster’s beard: Mumford and Sons.

Check out this vid for the cave. Not sure which is cuter, the boys on bikes or the boys on the beach. Watch these charming men!

Yes! David Gray and Ray Lamontagne are touring together this summer, and they’re coming to the Concerts at Marymoor on September 12. Why am I telling you this? Because I’m giving away tickets to the show every afternoon this week at 4:20 during the Mountain Music Calendar.

David’s ninth studio album, Fouindling, is arriving in August, so he’ll have some new music to play, including A Moment Changes Everything, which we’ve been playing on New Music Tuesday on The Mountain. You can listen to it while staring at an image of David here:

Ray’s putting out a new album in August (on the same day as David’s, in fact) called God Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise. Judging by the first track, Beg Steal or Borrow, he’s added a bit of a twang to his sound:

So . . . . .listen this week at 4:20pm and let me hook you up with tickets!

It was a cross-genre music fest at the station today. Emerging Mountain artist Ben Fuller dropped by for a performance in The Lounge. You can watch and listen to the whole thing from our homepage!

Then our sister station The Wolf kicked us out (with cowboy boots, natch) and LoCash Cowboys rolled in with their southern charm and 3-part harmonies. They played a great song called “Here Comes Summer” about beaches and babes and tans and convertibles that made absolutely no sense to we Seattlites.

And finally, VP of Content Kat & I crashed an Endsession with The Heavy! These are the guys who do the song that the giant sock puppets and stuffed animals rock out to on some car commercial. Memorable song, not memorable car.

Here’s the spot:

Mohawks. Beards. A horn section and a singer who really does sound like James Brown. Here’s my view of The Heavy:

Why hello, Seattle! It’s Kat, VP of Content. (I’m the one on the right.) It is so good to be back in town.

I came back for what I thought would be a fantastic U2 show – and we all know how that ended up. Best wishes to Bono as he recovers from his surgery.

So I’m in Seattle, and U2 isn’t… but, where there is a U2-related tragedy, there is the MD herself, Shawn Stewart, to save the day. She had the skinny about a U2-ppearance with Zoo Station, who are, need I say it, a San Francisco treat. In a mid-sized bar with some close friends, we enjoyed a great set of all of our favorite U2 jams. Our Bono stand-in certainly has seen enough of Bono’s moves – he had him pegged!

Our lovely MD hosted the event, complete with U2-related giveaways and classic Mountain charm:

Shawn with loyal  listeners Elaine & Margaret:

Now, this thought might be better suited for a segment of “Hey Genius!”, but I’m convinced — we should invest in a t-shirt cannon. After a few failed t-shirt toss attempts, Shawn and I concluded that t-shirts were never meant to fly without the likes of a cannon-type device:

Look forward for more fun events like this in the near future — perhaps with that t-shirt cannon!

- Kat