Now we each answer those questions in our own way. Here are our current Mountain Music Discovery picks. You listen and then decide: Which song deserves the coveted honor of becoming The Nug Of The Week?

Last week you chose Shawn’s pick, Warren Haynes. Who do you like this week?

John Fisher
The Hours “I Wanna Be Happy”

If you like XTC or Squeeze, or ’90s Brit-pop like Pulp, you’ll feel right at home with this track from the English band The Hours from their new EP I Want More:

Shawn Stewart
Danny Barnes “Fun”

How lucky are we that Texan Danny Barnes decided to settle in Seattle a few years back? This banjo/guitar guru plays around town a lot. Go see him! In addition to being a great player, he’s a licensed pilot, skateboarder, motorcyclist, flyfisher, unicyclist, trap shooter, and disc golfer. This song from Danny’s new disc Rocket is 100% “Fun”.

Marty Riemer
My Morning Jacket “Wonderful (The Way I Feel)”

It’s a Sunday Brunch – or a gray, fall day – kind of a song. A delicate new ballad called “Wonderful (The Way I feel)” from My Morning Jacket:

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I had a chance to poke around the Seattle Auto Show earlier this week at the CenturyLink Field Event Center, and I was looking forward to getting up close with some of the cool new cars at the show. Craig Chastain, the media guy for the show, was kind enough to personally escort me around to show me some of the highlights — probably because he didn’t trust me on my own. Anyway, here he illustrates a hot new trend — small cars that are well equipped and fun to drive, like the new Fiat 500. Let’s have a look:

You can get all the details about the Seattle Auto Show here — the show runs through Sunday. Tomorrow, I’ll take a look at another Italian car, but this one’s a little pricier — $390,000. (That’s dollars, not lire!)

Tacoma’s own musical hero and contender on The Voice Vicci Martinez dropped by the Mountain studios to fill me in on a benefit for Children’s Hospital that she’s a part of on Friday night.

It’s called The Last Wonder of the World, and here’s how the Seattle Symphony describes it:

The Last Wonder of the World, the Symphony Guild’s 14th annual benefit concert, explores the complexities of the unbreakable human spirit in all its beautiful abundance. This year’s concert celebrates the enduring hope and unbreakable spirit of Seattle Children’s Hospital patients and of all of us.

Or, here’s how Vicci describes it:

Sounds cool! Click here for the details and to buy tickets.

Next week, Vicci fills me in on her musical adventures since leaving The Voice.

Jakob Dylan’s wandering off into solo territory (6 years/2 solo albums) has been going on so long, you never thought The Wallflowers would reunite. But this just in from Rolling Stone:

Jakob says “I’ve got new songs and we’ve all been talking. We’ve been trying to carve that time out for a while.” Dylan adds that he’s been a bit weary of touring as a solo act. “I can’t do what I do in the Wallflowers without them. I miss it. I’m happy to put the acoustic guitar down. That was something I wanted to do, but I never planned on hitting the road and just being the guy with a guitar out there. That never has been exciting to me. I came up loving bands and I want to be in one.”

After seeing solo Jake at Mountain Music Fest last year, I think we can all agree that while lovely, he’s right that he can’t do what he did with The Wallflowers…ROCK! Let’s hear it for this reunion!

to the new Metallica/Lou Reed collaboration, “No, no, no, no, no…”

Pitchfork gave the album a simialarly scathing review:

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15996-lou-reed-metallica/

But you don’t even have to bother reading it. Just check out Puss when his owner previews the platter. Just a word of warning, the more you watch, the more Lulu you have to listen to!!

Months after the death of Amy Winehouse. the first posthumous album has been announced. It’s Lioness: Hidden Treasures, containing unheard and unreleased material from Winehouse and is slated for a December 5th release. There’s also material that was intended for her third album. Here’s a track that leaked today, featuring the rapper Nas:

Remember when Ricky Gervais hosted the Golden Globes and caused such a ruckus when he poked fun at “Hollywood royalty?” One of his targets (well deserved if you ask me) was that year’s Johnny Depp/Angelina Jolie movie The Tourist. In this funny little video, Johnny (wearing his full Hunter S. Thompson uniform) proves that he carries a grudge for a long time, as he pays a little visit to a startled Mr. Gervais:

Now rumors are flying that Ricky will indeed return to host the Globes. Here’s the scoop.

Here’s what I saw when I was roaming around before the show opened, including an encounter with a Seattle TV celeb:

And here’s my quick tour of a bunch of the important cars at the show this year:

I’m going to get a close-up look at some of the notable cars at the show, like the Fisker Karma and the Lamborghini Aventador. Check back tomorrow and through the weekend. And for details about the Seattle Auto Show, which runs through Sunday, go here.

Get your tickets for Flo & Co December 8th at WAMU. They’re going fast!
 http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0F0047…

and all I got was this photo signed by the band.

The Last Letter Game was rolling when the band visited The Lounge on Monday so I didn’t get to see a note of their performance. I’m guessing you didn’t either! We can remedy that:

And then I got Frayed!

If you live in Seattle the chances of you being a hipster are 73% higher than the rest of the United States (except Brooklyn, natch). If you are in a band, live on Capital Hill, or have a beard, the chances are even greater. But how do you know for sure?

Follow this simple flow chart to find out!

What a relief, I am NOT a hipster : )

Isaac Slade, the Fray front man, wanted to play me a couple of top secret tracks from the new CD, so he got out his iPod . . .

. . . and crawled under the desk of our promotion director, Kelly, so he could play the iPod through her speakers:

We listened to the new stuff, which is quite epic-sounding. Big. And Isaac sings with reckless abandon. He attributes that to the guy who produced the record, Brendan O’Brien, who’s worked with Pearl Jam, Springsteen and others. He encouraged Isaac not to strive for perfection, but to be more spontaneous and raw with his vocals — and you can hear the difference.

They did a great session in the Lounge:

and then — bust out the fake smiles! — we posed for pix afterwards:

The new Fray album Scars & Stories will be here on February 7, and then comes the tour in the spring.

Here they are singing “Heartbeat,” a song from the new album, in the Carter Subaru Mountain Music Lounge:

Okay, maybe I get a little carried away when it’s time for the Seattle Auto Show.. What can I tell you? I geek out on the cars just a little bit. Which is why it was pretty cool that they gave me the brand new VW Beetle to drive for a week, because it’s one of the new cars you can check out at the Auto Show. Tomorrow, I’m actually going inside the CenturyLink Field Event Center to get up close and personal with the new cars, concepts, green cars, trucks and everything else they’ve got this year. Until then, here’s Part Three of my Beetle adventure:

Here’s that link I was talking about: www.seattleautoshow.com for show hours, prices, parking info, etc. See you there!

…his alma mater, actually. The guitar god visited kids at Mission High for the first time in decades. He looked sharp in an all white ensemble, jammed with the guitar club, and got the teenage girls to dance. Bet that hasn’t happened in a while ; )

I kid. It’s actually very cool.  And Carlos came with a great message, saying: “The best is not ahead. The best is right now,” Santana said to students. “Enjoy it. Don’t hurt anyone. And live with supreme integrity.”

Check out this great little video of his visit, and while you’re there, admire that drummers hair!

Bank of America said Tuesday it’s axing its plan to charge a $5 fee for customers who use their debit cards to make purchases.

In September, the bank announced that it would begin charging most customers the monthly fee early next year.

But after widespread customer revolt and announcements by several of its rivals that they won’t charge similar debit-card fees, Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) backpedaled on its plan. Customers who use their debit cards will no longer incur the fee starting in January.

“We have listened to our customers very closely over the last few weeks and recognize their concern with our proposed debit usage fee,” said David Darnell, Bank of America’s co-chief operating officer. “Our customers’ voices are most important to us. As a result, we are not currently charging the fee and will not be moving forward with any additional plans to do so.”

Back to Shawn now…keep up the pressure, people. And keep your $5 in your pants!

I was cold so I walked up to a friendly looking home and was greeted by a really sweet couple who invited me in and offered me candy:

While I waited they kept squeezing my fingers, calling me boney, and feeding me candy. I had to pry myself away. As I walked back toward my car, I followed the strains of some haunting music where I discovered:

These corpses rocked hard, told jokes, and generally entertained throngs of kids with a whole show that was even projected on a big screen for the whole neighborhood to see. They were kind of like The Gorillaz of the dead band set.

Not a bad place to be locked out of your car after all. Thank you Triple A for coming to my rescue. I was home 1/2 hour later! Inside, Charlie and I were met by the ghost of Joey Ramone. That’s my kind of haunting. I’m not sure what kind of spell got cast on The WGD while she was trapped in the car, but she just doesn’t seem like her old self!

Florence + The Machine are headlining our Winter Warmth concert on December 8 at the WaMu Theater (along with The Head and the Heart and Mat Kearney. Details and tickets here.) And — perfect timing — Florence is on the current cover of NME, the British music magazine, and they did a little chat with her about her new album while they did the photo shoot for the cover. She’s very soft-spoken!

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You like cars? Me too. That’s why this is an exciting week around here — the Seattle Auto Show starts on Wednesday. Just to get me even more revved up than I already was, the Auto Show people thought I might like to spend a week behind the wheel of the new Volkswagen Beetle. Not the New Beetle that came out in the late 1990s after a long hiatus, but the NEW New Beetle that’s longer, lower, wider, and quite a bit sportier. It’s just one of the dozens of new cars you can see at the show, which runs Wednesday through Sunday at the CenturyLink Field Event Center. Here’s Part Two of my Beetle adventure:

Only one more day till the show opens! Find out more about the show by going here. See you there! (And more about the Beetle on my blog tomorrow.)

Right now beyond the door of the studio, The Fray are playing a live set in The Music Lounge. If like me, you are not in the audience, you can hear one song at 3:15 today and watch some sweet video tomorrow once we get it all dolled up.