It's Tuesday, and that means another new release from More Than Shapes: The House Show songs. This time, it's one of my personal favorite moments from the night: John's incredibly compelling cover of Neutral Milk Hotel's "The King of Carrot Flowers, pt. 1". As Adam states, "...in the wrong hands a cover song can be a crutch, or an awkward homage, or a flashy attempt at credibility by co-opting someone else's. In the right situation though, a thoughtfully chosen cover song signals the turning point in a set like few other things can. It's a chance for a performer to say "this is what inspires me" without actually saying it." One could argue that in the realm of discussions on the topic that truer words had never before been spoken.

Many try their hand at the perfect cover, and few succeed. However, with those tries come a chance at brilliance: results like Eef Barzelay's ever-slaying choices come to mind, most notably his rendition of "Don't Stop Believin'" heard on his most recent trip through Seattle this past holiday season; or Nada Surf's delivery of "Enjoy the Silence" from the stage of the Tractor a few weeks ago, or the Postal Service's mindbendingly beautiful version of "Against All Odds". However, on this particular evening, with this particular group of folks, and this particular artist choosing this particular cover -- a magic moment took place that superceded any other cover we could recall to memory with the sufficient force needed to drown it out. This moment, this song, the combination of everything we love about John fused with the brilliance of Jeff Mangum in a crowded Ballard living room -- it was almost more than our collective hand-stamped hearts could take. It may be the shortest song in the series, but it's a contender for leaving the biggest mark.

Give it a listen and see for yourself. And if you haven't seen them already, there's two other releases earlier this month that you can take the time to soak in here and here.

{Special thanks to Laura Musselman for putting this request in the jar at the show!}

Adam Pranica, filmmaker and principal over at Dorsia Films and true indie rock enthusiast, with the perfect opening line:

"In the winter of 2011, Victoria VanBruinisse came up with a crazy idea to invite John Roderick of The Long Winters over for a potluck dinner. He played a few songs, told some stories, and ate all of the food."

And that's pretty much the long and short of it. When I found out that I was going to be in New York at CMJ for this past year's City Arts Festival, and would subsequently be missing the only performance by the Long Winters for the 2011 calendar year, I almost cried. Not literally, but still. It was a huge disappointment, a sigh to end all sighs, the conundrum that comes from being vested in so many interests and not being able to be everywhere at once. And so I did what any fan would do: I suggested to John that perhaps he might want to play a show in my living room.  I base much of my interactions on the simple methodology of the old adage that it never hurts to ask, because as the lottery tells us, you can't win if you don't play.

Well, we played alright, and we won. All of us, and that's you {yes, you!} included, because we won something big: a beautiful, candle-and-twinkle-light-lit evening with two dozen of our closest friends, where we enjoyed food, comraderie, and a series of brilliantly performed songs by the one and only John Roderick. And because of the genius embedded in Adam Pranica, Tyler Kalberg, and Zach Varnell -- the latter two being names you should recognize from the Notes from Home series -- we get to share the collective product from that near-perfect night with the world.

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The weekend kicked off early with a spectacular, layered performance by Feist at the Moore Theater this past Thursday night. Taking the stage after a perfect warm up set of equal parts smartypants literary comedy and ivory-tickling brilliance by Chilly Gonzales, Leslie Feist and her accomplices proved worthy of every last penny of her ticket price. The show combined elements of well-worn comfort food-esque "classic" Feist songs, an almost... dare we say, modern new-age vibeyness, which alternately clashed and blended with an homage to one element of the guts of full-frontal big-room performance: a sometimes kaleidoscopic, sometimes trippy-traily lipstick camera-run backdrop of the band behind the band a la Jefferson Airplane. While it was a lot to unpack at times, for the most part the pieces of the show fused together beautifuly, mostly due to the backbone of Feist's unashamed full-lunged vocals -- which would have been worth all those pennies without a solitary stitch of the performance-fanfare that accompanied her.

Chilly Gonzales:

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City Arts Fest is looming, and with it, a Long Winters show at the Showbox this Thursday -- we'll get into that in a minute, but first we've got to take a minute to squee! about what a weekend we had!

We were fortunate enough to attend a house show this Saturday where none other than John Roderick himself came by to play a few hours of music. Talking about needing to pinch our 2003 selves! After a super homestyle vibey potluck dinner, John took the 'stage' in front of the fireplace and graced us with song. Our ears were privy to classics -- in no particular order -- like Car Parts, Cinnamon, Scent of Lime, Unsalted Butter, Medicine Cabinet Pirate, Mimi, Shapes, The Commander Thinks Aloud (and way more that we forgot to write down in our squee-like state), and some killer covers like The King of Carrot Flowers {Neutral Milk Hotel} and Solitary Man {Neil Diamond} among others. So much gorgeous song, coupled with some wonderfully intimate banter, quite literally made for a perfect night. Our friends from Dorsia Films were on hand to capture much of the evening on the A/V front, so hopefully we'll get to relive all that magic someday soon.

While we wait for the official set list, here's a few photos we managed to capture in our uber-elated state:

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Welcome to Rocktober, everybody! And what better way to start the month than with a celebration of what makes the Seattle music scene so great? Yep, we're talking about KEXP. The fall pledge drive is on, and it needs your pledge of support!

You can call anytime this week {locals call 206.903.KEXP, toll free is 866.903.KEXP}, log in online and do an electronic pledge, or walk yourself on over to the station and give. There's tons of great thank-you gifts -- shirts, totes, lunchbags, 500 Club memberships -- nothing is too small to count. Whether you can give five dollars, five dollars a month, five hundred dollars, or five hundred dollars a month, everything makes a difference and everything is appreciated. We've given to the station at varying states of financial gain (and diress), we've been one-time donors and Amplifier Club members, and year after year we remain in good standing in whatever capacity we can, giving our hard-earned money (and time, when we can!) to support a cause that's near and dear to our hearts for so many reasons.

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It's that time of year again! After a somewhat of a non-summer, we're about to turn the corner and embrace all things Autumn: apple-picking, sweater-wearing, breaking out our favorite boots and spending cool evenings bundled up on the back porch, sipping warm libations and playing our favorite records. And of course, what's fast becoming one of our favorite cool-weather traditions: ushering it all in at the annual Cider Press at the Corson Building, a benefit for Teen Feed.

This year, Teen Feed will be hosting not only the physical pressing of the cider on the gorgeous grounds of the Corson Building, but also presenting music from Shelby Earl, fairweatherfrnd, and Big Crinkly Trio. A donation of $30.00 gets you into the event, complete with entertainment, a bottle of cider, and a 'light buffet' of delicious proportions. (If you've ever had a chance to take on the Corson Building fare, you know the deliciousness of which we speak!)

Everything gets going next Sunday {October 9th} around 2pm. Here's some photos from last year to jog your memory -- it was truly a gorgeous afternoon! Starring the wonderful weather, Greg Vandy, and the Maldives:

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There's so much to do on top of digging the bands at Bumbershoot -- comedy, performance art, vendors -- and one of our favorite extracurricular activities while we're on-grounds at Seattle Center is to take the time to dig on Flatstock. Posters as far as the eye can see, artists and admirers afoot, with more per-inch graphic creativity and inspiration than practically anywhere else on the planet.

This year, you can get a sneak peek of what's good this year at Inklings: A Flatstock Preview, taking place Saturday, August 20th at 112 PrintWorks out in Fremont. The latest prints from all 75 Flatstock Seattle artists will be featured, a taste of what's to come at Fisher Pavilion during Bumbershoot proper.

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Happy Monday, everyone! Here's hoping you had a good weekend, because we sure did -- we celebrated the movin-and-shakin-est of nights this past Friday at Columbia City Theater, helping our friends at Sound on the Sound celebrate their fifth anniversary with a sold-out show. The sparse, stripped-away, super-catchy Mallard opened up the night (and to a nearly packed house, at that), the Petty Party / American Girls took to the task of getting the dancers warmed up with -- don't laugh, we're serious -- an entire set of Tom Petty covers, and Pickwick blew the roof off to a full house of dancing, happy fans til well past midnight.

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You have got to be frigging KIDDING US.

First there was the gorgeous cover for the AV Club. Then the Kickstarter project to fund this EP. And now, the cumulative effort of your dollars + Eef Barzelay's unstoppable genius has yielded the product that's a contender for EP of the year: Clem Snide's Journey.

We really don't mean to seem cliche here, but this EP is loaded to the hilt with absolute gems. From the gorgeous, sparse "Faithfully" to the sweet uke meandering of "Lights" to the dying strains and cry-outs at the close of "Anyway You Want It" -- we are somewhere between spun-out, white-light blissyness and a teary-eyed, this-is-so-going-on-the-next-mixtape sad-bastard melancholy lovefest.

There's joy, relief, heartbreak, and the occasional expletive abounding on the interwebs as we send the link off to all of our friends (which we'll spare you, of course). However, we will say these expletive-free words: Buy This Album. Right Now. Because the fact that all this amazing exists for a mere dollar a track is mindbending, to say the very least.

It's all waiting for you to {stream and} purchase at the Clem Snide / Eef Barzelay bandcamp page here.

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We've heard from a very reliable source (okay, maybe just the internet-at-large, but still) that the Pickwick show going on over at Columbia City Theater this Friday is about to sell the F out. Those boys put on quite the dance party, and if you're planning on attending, you'd be wise to scoot on over to the Brown Paper Tickets page for the event and get your tickets right now.

No really. Right now.

Did we mention that American Girls (reportedly The Best Tom Petty Cover Band Ever) is the main support? And that the night is to help our friends over at Sound on the Sound celebrate their fifth anniversary?

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