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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 : )
The Fray dropped by for a session in the Carter Subaru Mountain Music Lounge on Monday morning. No show in town; they were just letting everybody know that their new album is on the way in February.
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!
The people have spoken! Bank Of America is having it’s “Netflix Moment”. CNN reports:
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.
“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!
This actually happened! I locked my keys (and dog!) in my car in a strange neighborhood last night. I was left standing on the corner of 38th Ave SW & Hanford with Charlie’s leash and my cell phone in my hands and nothing else just as night fell. I’m sure all the parents taking their goblins trick or treating thought I was some kind of child stealing witch.
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!
” . . . but most of the songs on this album were written without one.”
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.
