an open letter to our beloved bands

Dear Music Artists,

As you may/may not know, the recession has hit those of us who do not have "touring" in our job description rather heavily.
The plus side is that all of your lovely VK ladies have since returned to graduate school and/or gotten recession-resistant jobs.
The bad news is that grad school + these jobs suck up almost all our time, and we're still broke.

It's a delight when you tour through town, but the exquisite dearth of disposable income has made it difficult to invest in new music or go to shows. (Spoon, with your $30+ tickets for crappy seats at the Moore Theatre in Seattle, I'm talking to you.)

Suggestion: instead of trying to impress the hipsters with vinyl 7" releases or putting on elaborate shows that are out of the average working woman's price range, do what everyone else is doing and scale back a bit.

The Dimes (@The Tractor Tavern) and The Morning Benders (@The Crocodile) both put on great shows for <$12 in the past fortnight. Maybe the rest of you should look into that sort of thing.

Sincerely,
the struggling music fans who are your bread & butter.

You won't see me floating

I got turned onto Portland, Oregon-based band The Dimes during my recent trip to the Rose City. A friend of mine (who shall remain anonymous, but inexplicably remains in the band's Myspace top friends) waxed poetic about the group hailing from the Mississippi district ("NoPo" for you PoMos) and their shiny, poppy indie tunes. I listened once and now I'm hooked!

These adorable young men just finished a tour (which sucks for those of us discovering them after the fact). But seeing as their sunny, Decemberists-like riffs will be stuck in your head once you hear them, and the fact that if you run into them on the street they'll likely have a beer with you, well, seeing them on tour seems redundant!

Given the band's four members seem to have an affinity for latching onto favorite fans and thusly are seldom seen separately, we've decided it's entirely appropriate to try out her new brand of cheesy, band-specific pickup lines: "Where's the other 30 cents?" "Brother, can you spare a... well, you know!"

Forgive us. Once you hit the cheery "Whoa-ohhhs" and bell-like strummed guitars, you'll be singing along after the first listen. Seriously, keep an eye out for these guys! I think we can expect great things from them.

Stream!
The Dimes - Catch Me Jumping.mp3
The Dimes - Forget Me.mp3

Buy The Long Arm Came Down