“You must be Michael.” He notices me standing just beyond the crowd of people asking for autographs and just for the chance to shake his hand and say good show. David Bazan grabs the one guitar that he came with and checks his pockets for his keys in his corduroy jacket as we walk from...

Last year, I attended church at Mt. Zion Baptist located on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. An old lady spotted us as obvious visitors, walked up to us, greeted us with two gentle hands and welcomed us to her church. And as I stood during worship, I felt something I’ve rarely felt at a worship...

For most of this last year or so, I have been under the impression that Beck could never top The Information. I thought that there could be no way that an album so free and precise could have a topper, or even an album able to stand beside it. What I did not count on, though, was that DJ Danger Mouse...

I am all for simplicity. I think there are few artists you can handle dense complexity, few who can grab chaos by the horns and drive it into town with the listener holding on all the way in. I think Bon Iver (real name: Justin Vernon) is not of the chosen few, and so delivered For Emma, Forever Ago...

More than a rapper, more than an entertainer, Lupe Fiasco is a storyteller. And a good one at that. In his latest saga, The Cool, we follow the story of a young man, rising from the grave after being murdered, visiting the all too familiar streets of Urban America. The Cool is a concept album in...

On a misty northwest Saturday night, I stood in line outside the Crocodile Cafe in downtown Seattle with a hundred other hipsters waiting to be let in. We waited for the warmth provided by drinking beer, nestled shoulder to shoulder with other twenty-somethings, listening to timeless rock and roll by...

I first heard The Coral on the Conan O’Brien show, performing “Dreaming of You”. There was some indescribable quality about their clean, Britpop sound that resonated with me and I knew that this would be a band that I would stick with. Throughout my commitment, they have continually...

When I heard that Kanye West was producing the new Common album, Finding Forever, I was more than excited. I have been very impressed with the hip hop coming out of the Midwest (Lupe Fiasco , Brother Ali) so it seemed that the combination of the two most respected Chi-town MCs could mean nothing but...

I came to Seattle for an education. Although my wonderful professors have taught me many valuable lessons, I have learned more about the world, about people, and about life simply from living in my incomparable surroundings. Seattle has an atmosphere like no other, and this is especially true among...

Brother Ali tells the truth. He has to. When it comes to aesthetic and commercial appeal, he does not have much to sell. I cannot see many record execs pasting the pudgy albino from Minnesota on any billboards or casting him in movies. Instead, Brother Ali speaks from a place that not many MCs reach...