Let’s take the guesswork out of show attendance with this highly scientific questionnaire. (Note: Scoring totals are a tool to measure quantitative appeal and not a ranking of qualitative worth.) Go: 1. I am: a. over 40 b. 30-39 c. 25-29 d. 21-24 e. under 21 2. My favorite T-shirt is: a. faded tie-dye b. […]
The Setlist
Our picks for the week’s best live music plus interviews and music news.
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Suggestions, Absurd & Otherwise
We are entering the holiday season. I know this because I have seen the jingle bells and singing Santas at the stores and my student friends are ricocheting between freaking out about finals and freaking out about visiting family. Fortunately, not only do we have the panacea of live music to help us through this […]
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Your Excuses Are No Good
The biggest problem we have this week, dear friends, is how to justify not attending everything — you could go out night after event-filled night and still find yourself FOMOing over what you missed and saying sorry to friends for not being able to do it all. (Please accept my apology in advance.) Thursday: Adjective-laden […]
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Conundrums
November is a troublesome month. On one hand, you might be trying to recover from October indulgence and saving up for December holiday madness. On the other, local partying options aren’t slowing down one whit. Thursday: Dynamite drums For example, percussive masters Steel Standing release Fine Line at the Arcata Playhouse tonight. The album features […]
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Monster Mashups
Halloween is inarguably the best celebration of the year. New Year’s Eve is fine, but wrapped within the year-end partying is the knowledge of things left undone and the obligatory attempt toward improvement via resolutions — or the acceptance that this is as good as you’re going to get and all that the realization implies. […]
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Forever Young
Oh, Humboldt! I’m in love with live music all over again. We’ve had a long relationship, bands playing shows and I, but you know how it is — sometimes you feel like you’ve done everything there is to do, comfortable with what you like and sure about what you don’t, quietly missing the spark of […]
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Rock of Ages
You may be familiar with All Ages Humboldt’s Facebook page. If so, you saw the sad post about the Placebo losing its home at The Ink Annex on Oct. 31. This development leaves the folks behind the all-ages events without a space to host them. “If anyone knows of a possible new location for The Placebo,” the plea […]
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Musical Underground
How about that Arts Alive!? They tend to be well-attended, those events, but October’s was off the charts, partly due, no doubt, to the Santa Barbara-like weather, but also to the high number of particularly beckoning shows. One of the best parts, as always, was the constant musical accompaniment along the streets. Buskers mostly always […]
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Worldly Matters
Humboldt! We have many things happening. A really big show Many readers know famed violinist-singer-songwriter Jenny Scheinman launched her stunningly successful career from the wilds of Petrolia. Within those homestead beginnings, a major talent was cultivated. Scheinman moved to Brooklyn in 1998, her album 12 Songs ranked among the New York Times’ Top Ten Albums […]
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Things Get Serious
I hope you took my advice and checked out El Ten Eleven on the HSU Quad. It was pointed out to me that the first time I saw the mindblowing duo — the first time they played here — was seven years ago in the infamous corner of the Alibi. This I-saw-them-when story exists in […]
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Musical twists
According to the calendar, this weekend is technically summer’s last hurrah. But according to sunny days and balmy breezes, we’ve got a proper Humboldt summer for some time yet. Whenever you decide to acknowledge the changing of the seasons, the equinox itself will arrive on Monday, meaning longer nights and more things to do after […]
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The Method to the Madness
Hey there, dear readers! Let’s indulge ourselves with an appetizer prior to the main course, shall we? Before we get to this week’s music highlights, an account of how those shows are selected. Because first and foremost, this column exists to serve you, the people who’ve taken a few minutes out of your day to […]