Seattle’s Hard Rock Cafe is opening its doors next month and the music-themed restaurant will be featuring more than a menu peppered with tourist-priced burgers and walls littered with pieces of music memorabilia.

Along with having food options aplenty, Hard Rock Seattle will also feature live music regularly in a 400-person capacity theater located at the business’ second level.  The folks over at Hard Rock Seattle are calling it “one of Seattle’s most intimate and state-of-the art live venues.” It will feature a top-of-the-line lighting rig, several video screens and Hard Rock’s plans include booking local and national talent for the venue’s stage.

The music will mostly be happening on the weekends and will include a variety of genres. On the local talent front, Hard Rock Seattle is planning to host monthly residencies for local artists where artists play shows at the Hard Rock every Tuesday for a month. Also, there will be weekly all-ages shows on Sundays. No artists have been named for the residencies or concerts to be held at the theater but the venue’s talent buyer is currently seeking out local acts. The residencies are a great way for the venue to distinguish itself from other local clubs and a great way to showcase local artists. Click here for details if you’re interested.

Overall, having another live music spot in town is great for the scene. It will give local artists more opportunities to showcase their music and it appears as if the venue will have a big focus on local music if Hard Rock Seattle keeps its word. Also, fancy lighting, an intimate setting and video screens seems like a pretty cool combination that gives Hard Rock Seattle another way to separate itself from its competition.

However, the venue’s high-rent location along with the likeliness that Hard Rock will cater to tourists, probably means ticket prices will be a bit on the spendy side. But a high-rent location equaling steeper ticket costs isn’t something that’s new to local clubgoers (I’m talking to you, owners of the Crocodile).

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Did you ever wonder what would happen when the Dungeons & Dragons dorks you knew in high school grew up and traded in their 20-sided die for six-stringed guitars?

Me neither. But I found out Saturday when Discs of Fury told the epic tale of Marvin Laser before a near-capacity crowd at the Crocodile during a theatrical rock opera for the ages.

Sure terms like “epic” and “for the ages” are a bit cliché, but really when you’re watching the spectacle that is Discs of Fury these are very appropriate words considering DOF is more or less a big, dorky, talented and rocking cliché itself.
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I wrote the below profile about local label Hardly Art for Crosscut. The full article can be read after the jump.

Hardly Art is hardly your typical indie record label.

How can it be when it boasts the distinction of being an imprint label connected to Sub Pop Records? However, the label hasn’t banked on its Sub Pop roots to ensure success. Sure it has financial support and help in the distribution department from papa Sub Pop, but after nearly three years in business Hardly Art is turning itself into the big little label that could and starting to make a name for itself outside of the Sub Pop legacy.

At the rate Hardly Art is growing it could almost be considered more of a sister label than an imprint. Think of Sub Pop as the punk-rock-loving big brother with a GED and Hardly Art the hipper younger sibling who attends art school. The analogy isn’t much of a stretch given Sub Pop’s history with the g-word and the stable of current scene favorites The Dutchess & The Duke, The Moondoggies, Arthur & Yu and others who call Hardly Art home.

“Basically Sub Pop wasn’t able to work with a lot of smaller bands and wanted an outlet for that so they could get back to what’s going on on a smaller level locally,” said Sarah Moody, Hardly Art’s general manager. “All of the things we do are geared towards those smaller bands and we create a more welcoming label environment for them instead of this big scary label experience.”

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