Flagland is a NYC 3-piece self-described “panic rock” band. Despite some nihilist tendancies on their 2014 record, “Love Hard”, there is room for sweet hopefulness in the song “Sugarcube”: “When I’m feeling dark, you take me to the park. When I’m feeling black, you take me back. Yeah, my cup is bitter stuff, but you make it sweet.” The diverse 20-song album is comprised of this sweet diddy as well as head-bobbing rock songs, some glockenspiel action, sarcastic quips, and tracks that are the healthy alternative to kicking your foot into a wall. Flagland cites influences like Pixies, Nirvana, and Weezer and play with super gusto. They will be playing Brooklyn Night Bazaar on a way cool lineup with Teen Suicide/LVL UP/Crying/Amanda X/Washer March 27th and Aviv on April 3rd.

-Leora Mandel 

3-piece NY outfit Palberta treat music like a playground—they run up slides, stand on swings, and climb to the top of the jungle gym carrying flags in thier teeth. A little riot grrl and a little noise, part clever and part temper tantrum, they pluck and sting and stomp around. They put on wild shows, radiating confidence, chemistry, and camaraderie with their audience. Palberta plays Silent Barn with local favorites Ava Luna (who graced the cover of The Deli a few years ago), LVL UP, and Palehound on April 18th; bring those dancing boots. – Leora Mandel 

Magma Fest 2015 is here! For the entire month of March the wonderful people at Hollow Earth Radio will be throwing shows at multiple venues and non-venues alike, all of which are all ages. Last week we saw Chastity Belt play at a boxing ring next to a community garden in the Central District. This week on Friday, March 20th we are brought an exceptionally well curated event at The Cockpit (an unassuming little alleyway in the middle of Capitol Hill), featuring some of Seattle’s most known unknown…

While there are definite nods to prog-rock in Bod’s sound they ultimately replace quantity with quality, a trait that prog-rock has a hard time doing. Gigantor begins by fooling you into thinking that you accidentally put on the soundtrack to Labyrinth, which is immediately, yet so casually, tossed aside when the verse introduces an organ and drum machine duet reminiscent of Clinic. Cue the mellotron and… ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in space, but not for long; incomes a chorus that has us exclaiming YES In a roundabout way…

A gazebo is both a symbol of elegance, while simultaneously being an outpost for bums and teenagers to smoke spliffs in. It’s in the disparate parts where we find the charm of this strange but alluring structure. Similarly, Gazebos the band creates a whimsical mélange of sweet AND savory powerpop. Singer, Shannon Perry croons like Exene Cervenka singing Strange Fruit, while the band dangles the jangle of Television personalities and dance around power pop ballads in a pair Black Vinyl Shoes, in a way only R. Stevie Moore knows how to do. So naturally, it’s no surprise to see that the great R. Stevie and Gazebos have, in fact, collaborated.

Great Spiders is the pseudonym of a guy named Omar. We imagine Omar as a shy kid with a bowl cut who listens to Steeleye Span, and Brewer and Shipley and other 70’s AM radio gems, while daydreaming about one day when a real girl will ask him to dance. On ‘Get Out of Love’ exactly that happens, and Omar finds himself falling for a girl who listens to Slade and The New York Dolls. She is embodied by a riff so classic rock it ain’t funny, which throws Omar’s song legs akimbo and has him asking how to get out of love. It leaves him wishing for something more in between, something more casual, like hanging out down the street with big stars in the sky and not in our eyes.

Closing out the night will be Religious Girls (the only non-Seattle band of the evening who are as equally amazing as the Seattle bands) and are not to be missed!