Guides
The Weekly Volcano would like to thank all those who took the time to vote in the best of Olympia 2014 Readers' Poll. You are the best. Best politician: Darren Mills Best politician you love to hate: Karen Rogers Best Thurston County nonprofit organization: GRuB Best local hero: Rob Richards Best Thurston County based website:
Guides
The Weekly Volcano would like to thank all those who took the time to vote in the best of Olympia 2014 Readers' Poll. You are the best. Best shoe store: Hot Toddy Best record store: Rainy Day Records Best grocery store: Olympia Food Co-op Best tattoo shop: Lit Fuse Best hair salon: Jamie Lee &
Guides
"Our role isn't to create popular bands," says Johnson, "we're just here to document them." The founder of K Records, Calvin Johnson, who dug into hearts with his bands Beat Happening, Halo Benders and Dub Narcotic Sound System, who played records on Evergreen's independent radio station, KAOS, when he was just
Guides
The Alpine Experience is dead; long live Centro. The longtime outfitter, which again was our readers' pick for best outdoor gear store, is being born again, evolving into something that's not exactly an outdoor gear store. Rather, think of it as an urban adventure marketplace, including The Bike Stand, Olympia Footwear Co.,
Guides
Best retail combo PSYCHIC SISTER Just as restaurants offer you fries with your burger or rice with your curry, retail shops tend to offer combinations of goods: Gift shops have cards; shoe stores have socks. But those classic combinations are nothing compared to the offerings at Psychic Sister. Sure, the vintage clothing
Critics' Picks
[BEDROOM POP] + FRI, MARCH 7 Near as I can tell from what little music is available of Coma Figura, one might describe them as a sort of Foxygen or Titus Andronicus for the bedroom pop set. These are bands that mash together influences and jumble them up into something that
Music
If the punk movement was about tearing down the bloated, cliched foundation of popular music, then post-punk was the beginning of the steady rebuilding process. Like all manner of nebulous music terms, post-punk has come to mean a variety of different things to different people. Bands grouped into the post-punk
Arts
"Live, from our studios somewhere in cyberspace - it's "Beats and Eats" - a happy hour for your mind," says the announcer, in the style of early radio and TV broadcasting, voice booming over a catchy background jingle. "The virtual lounge is open. So come inside, grab a stool and
Arts
Sometimes, when I'm drunk in the early morning hours, I'll find myself falling down a rabbit hole of accidentally important live albums - documents of moments in time that are impossible to replicate. I've Never Seen a Straight Banana, for instance, captures a private performance Tiny Tim gave for three
Archives
“Accomplice” Harlequin Productions gets a little saucy with “Accomplice” by Rupert Holmes. The show is set in an isolated English country house on a dark and stormy night. This twisting story of murder, lies, love, and lust contains violence, partial nudity and sexual innuendoes. [State Theater, through Sept. 15, 8 p.m.
Archives
THE T-SHIRTS Las Vegas style party Self-conscious disclaimer: I am a horndog. That, of course, puts me in league with every other Y-chromosome-carrying primate in the world. But being a horndog doesn’t mean I’m a chauvinist. I don’t consider men inherently superior intellectually or more capable physically, despite our God-given ability to
Concert Alert
We list major concerts going on sale this weekend, as well as national touring acts performing in the Puget Sound this
Food Matters
WINE AND CHOCOLATE Treos in Old Town (2312 N. 30th, Tacoma) will host a Wine and Chocolate pairing featuring delectable artisan bon bons handcrafted by two sisters of Wow Chocolates at 6 p.m., Thursday, March 6. For those who wish to forgo the vino, the roasted bean also pairs well with
Show And Tell
Nelson Mandela. That he doesn't require any introduction beyond that is testament enough to his greatness, and I dare not risk disrespecting the man with any of my standard snarky non sequiturs. I'll just say that the story of how Nelson Mandela became the Nelson Mandela whose legacy lives on
We Recommend
Lark vs. Owl refer to their music as "the new hard rock," which is the sort of self-aggrandizing statement that I can totally get behind. While a duo of multi-instrumentalists utilizing ukulele, glockenspiel and loop pedals - not to mention the very name of the band - may not smack
We Recommend
Near as I can tell from what little music is available of Coma Figura, one might describe them as a sort of Foxygen or Titus Andronicus for the bedroom pop set. These are bands that mash together influences and jumble them up into something that surges past imitation and into
We Recommend
Olympia's Broken Water is terrifically mesmerizing. Listening to the avant-garde, shoegaze threesome forces a sort of centering that is hard to come by. For instance, when typing and listening, I literally had to pull my fingers from the keyboard, lay my head back and close my eyes will the talents
We Recommend
Jay-Z proclaimed "Death of Auto-Tune," but by judging from the prolonged career of rap/pop artist T-Pain, the death of auto-tune has been much exaggerated. T-Pain's career has continued to flourish; his recent hit, "Up and Down", is still pumping on the radio airwaves and in the clubs. In fact, the dread-headed, top
We Recommend
If the punk movement was about tearing down the bloated, cliched foundation of popular music, then post-punk was the beginning of the steady rebuilding process. Like all manner of nebulous music terms, post-punk has come to mean a variety of different things to different people. Bands grouped into the post-punk
We Recommend
Lately our society has become lazy. Our interest in the Great Outdoors has been replaced by an extreme interest in technology. Olympia Film Society is on it. The organization presents an interesting mash-up of our favorite, and least favorite, things to do. Its Trail Running Film Festival will allow us