This Saturday night, January 16, 2010, the Series Two, Episode One of live Family Feud style trivia and music blow-out GRUDGE ROCK commences! This time with indie rock romance Gorgeous Georges BOAT taking on the more Rowdy Roddy Piperish tech-soul rockers Head Like A Kite! Girls will scream! Boys will faint! The winner gets the Door Money and there are plenty of Consolation Prizes! And two sets by two great Seattle bands live on stage at the Crocodile. (Be there before 10 PM, because it goes on on time!)

I interviewed MC Jake Stratton in the first part of this three-chunk series covering The Event, and now comes a little chat with D. Crane of the pretty boys with the big batch of fans, the ever-loving BOAT.

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Grudge Rock, created by the brilliant ringleader Jake Stratton, leader of beloved first-ever sci-fi/hardcore band BloodHag), is styled as a 70s game show (Family Feud format) with bands playing and competing against each other. The winning band gets all the door money, but there are fabulous consolation prizes and more.

The show this Saturday, January 16 is GRUDGE ROCK SEASON TWO - EPISODE ONE, and it will be "party-inspired electronic rock music vs. indie pop" with fan favorites Head Like A Kite and BOAT.

This will be the first time the event is hosted at The Crocodile, as it has been running successfully at the Re-Bar and now needs bigger digs. The first WWF-styled boast was sent out by HLAK: "OPEN LETTER TO BOAT: You guys are toast. You can’t match the mental prowess of Head Like a Kite. We’ve got a panda bear that recites “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and Trent can spin seat cushions with one finger. Prepare yourselves for the consolation prize."

Just look at who is sponsoring the show: Pabst Blue Ribbon, Jameson Whiskey, Scarecrow Video, Fantagraphics Books, Pierced Hearts Tattoo & Piercing, Singles Going Steady, Trading Musician, Hardware Salon, Snoose Junction Part Dieu and Verellen Amplifiers. It's $10 (over 21, sorry), with 9 PM and the show starting exactly at 10 PM.

Here's our interview Mr. Stratton about the history of Grudge Rock, to be followed by interviews with both BOAT and Head Like A Kite.

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The last time I saw They Live! perform was at the Showbox and they were opening for Ghostface Killah, the seemingly popular Wu-Tang Clan emcee on a Friday night. The ticket sales were way below expectations and the large Showbox seemed spacious and vacant. The first two groups to take the stage did little to engage the crowd and the audience probably wouldn’t have cared anyway as neither of those groups featured members of the Wu-Tang Clan. When They Live!, the local hip hop crew of Gatsby and Bruce Illest, took the stage, they came out with all guns firing and quickly turned the show around and suddenly everyone in the crowd was enjoying the time, not killing it and waiting for the headliner. Although he wasn’t there at that particular show, I believe I understood what local music journalist (and my friend) Travis Hay meant when he wrote, “there is nothing happening in Seattle right now that can match They Live!'s energy, stage presence and rapping skills.”

They Live! take their name from a 1988 John Carpenter sci-fi film that starred Keith David and pro wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and has become a cult classic. Gatsby is Larry Mizell, Jr., known for being in the popular group Cancer Rising, as well as a writer at The Stranger (whose weekly column “My Philosophy” is a must-read if you want to follow the flourishing local hip hop scene in as-close-to-real-time as you'll ever get) and now DJ on KEXP, hosting the weekly hip hop show “Street Sounds” (on Sundays from 6-9pm). His partner is djblesOne, who is a member of the b-boy crew Massive Monkeys and goes by Bruce Illest. They’ve become one of the standout groups in 2009 in a scene that has blown up and has limitless potential.

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at The Crocodile

Saturday night, The Lashes rocked the Crocodile. For a reunion show, their antic filled set felt less like a nostalgia trip and more like a gosh darn celebration of what's good and fun in the world. The night included appearances by an oversized Santa, tons of fake snow and an onstage phone call to one very disoriented grandmother. Oh yeah, and Ben Lashes kissed a fan from the stage. Here are a selection of dizzying photos from the night. Enjoy!

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Fresh Espresso, the hot-shit hip hop duo of P Smoov and Rik Rude, have just released a video to their song "Big or Small" a few days ago. It is in advance of Go! Machine, the two-day celebration of Northwest hip hop at the Crocodile on Friday and Saturday. It comes from their excellent album Glamour.

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Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter John Ondrasik (who performs under the stage name Five For Fighting) will be playing an intimate acoustic set at The Crocodile this Thursday at 7 PM.  The show is part of a 14-city tour in support of his latest studio release, Slice.

Opening the show will be fellow labelmate Angel Taylor, who has garnered rave reviews for her debut record, Love Travels.  Make sure to get there early and catch this amazing 21 year-old singer/songwriter who Billboard has named one of their "15 Artists to Watch in 2009."

Tickets are available for purchase online. Thursday, November 5 @ 7 PM at the Crocodile; $25, 21+.

UPDATE: The show has been canceled. John Ondrasik wrote on Twitter this morning that his voice is gone. Presumably, refunds will available at point of purchase.

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Fact: everyone loves Mission of Burma. Amiright?

Proof: if you happened to be in Boston on October 4, less than a month ago, you were in Boston on Mission of Burma Day. Even more convincing, even Wikipedia loves MOB:

Mission of Burma's efforts are largely concerned with extending punk's original vocabulary without losing its essential rebellious spirit. Using rapid shifts in dynamics, unconventional time signatures and chord progressions along with tape effects, Mission of Burma challenges the prevailing idioms of punk while attempting to retain its power and immediacy.

The converse of which is that the exact opposite of the percentage of people who love Mission of Burma is equal to the same percentage of people who like paying for stuff. So, we want to send one of our readers (and a guest) to share in the love of MOB live at the Crocodile on Wednesday, November 11. Just e-mail us by Monday, November 9 at 9am with "BurmaIsNowMyanmar" in the subject line. One name will be drawn at random and it'll appear on MOB's guestlist  +1 on Wednesday night.

{Photo by Kelly Davidson}

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I've mentioned the monthly night "The Rumble" here a few times now (it's the third one this Monday night at the Crocodile) and I want to see it succeed. I do like the people involved with the event, but that should be immaterial. What is important is that there's a monthly night at a rock club that brings in good bands and is free. This one is headlined by Hotels, a neo-New Wave band that loves the synth-heavy sounds from the 1980s and has some very catchy songs of their own. Also rounding out the bill is Apes of Wrath (from San Diego), Alligators (from Los Angeles) and (full disclosure, a friend) DJ Carly (from Seattle's USE).

Hello Boils and Ghouls! Want your Halloween treats early? If you want something sweet that you won't find a razor blade hidden in, come celebrate the final days of Rocktober with the spectacular British band The Heavy, playing at the Crocodile on 10/31/09. They will satisfy better than a Snickers, so, not unlike a York Peppermint Patty (and because all the other candy slogans I can think of sound FILTHY), catch the sensation! They will be touring on the virtually perfect The House that Dirt Built, and are guaranteed to put a jones in your bones, the dance in your pants, and will fill your bucket or pillocase of rock with king-sized jams, no toothbrushes, pennies, or dusty butterscotch disks guaranteed! The Heavy brew a heady potion with eye of punk and tail of funk and a drop of soul or two. Don't miss this chance to shake your chains and wail with one of the best bands that the UK has to offer.

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at The Crocodile

Over the buzz of the crowd, Ash Bowie thanked us for coming out on a Tuesday. I think Polvo fans would come out even if their grandmother was being buried that day.

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