ROBBIE JORDAN RIP >>>

This past Saturday sax man Robbie Jordan was found dead in his car.  While the cause is still a mystery, it is still a big blow to blues fans in the Northwest and beyond.

I first met Jordan in the early 1980s. At the time he was blowing sax with the Dick Powell Band alongside the late Rich Dangle of The Fabulous Wailers. It was through my connection to Jordan that piqued the interest of my father, guitarist Little Bill. Only a few weeks after they met, the duo - along with drummer Tommy Morgan, B3 virtuoso Buck England, Dangle and newcomer trombonist Randy Oxford — were in the studio recording a demo. Jordan's arrangements, coupled with my dad's songwriting, helped give the band - the Bluenotes - instant success. It still remains my father's favorite version of the band.

The band took home countless Washington Blues Society BB Awards, and played an average of 150 gigs a year.

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MUSICALLY SPEAKING >>>

Sure, I'm heading to Austin tomorrow for SXSW - but that doesn't mean I've been given the go-ahead to blow the whole week off. On the contrary, a situation like this actually requires much MORE work - as I'm frantically trying to get all the Volcano's ducks in a row before taking off.

On that note, here's a look at what you can expect this week, musically speaking, from the Volcano:

Tune-Yards: The Volcano's Rev. Adam McKinney talks with Merrill Garbus, the women behind Tune-Yards, who will play Northern in Olympia next Tuesday, March 23, with Xiu Xiu.

McKinney sums up the band thusly:

All the same, I still find myself caught off guard by Tune-Yards, AKA Merrill Garbus. She's a true original, and an apparent master of her medium: tape music. She's one of those people, like Hendrix was with the guitar, who can take her tool and bend it, stretch it, distort it, and reform it anew. Listening to her debut full-length, Bird-Brains, for the first time was legitimately exciting for me.

Check out McKinney's full article in Thursday's edition of the Volcano.

GREEN APPLE QUICK STEP: It's not often that Ty Willman gets the band back together - but he's doing it on Saturday, March 27 at Hell's Kitchen. The band in question, of course, is the venerable Green Apple Quick Step - perhaps the poster act for post-grunge, hype-pumped Seattle. Although GAQS disbanded in the mid-90s, the band retains a strong following to this day - a following only inflamed by the knowledge of an unreleased album, New Disaster, that Willman has serious designs on finally making available.

Originally from Tacoma, and the band Inspector Luv and the Ride Me Babys, Willman took time to speak with the Volcano by phone this week from L.A.

"You'd be pretty amazed of how you jump back on the ball," says Willman of playing with Green Apple Quick Step - which these days includes Geoff Reading (of Volcano fame), Dana Turner, Mike Squires and Christa Wells.

"I grew up in Tacoma, went to high school in Tacoma. It seemed like the first place to play a show."

Check out the rest of the Volcano's interview with Willman in Thursday's paper.

PLUS: Manhammer, Basemint, Catcher, Post Stardom Depression and Womberang

THIRD THURSDAY ARTWALK ON A BUS >>>

Every Third Thursday ArtWalk participant has had that Moment. The Moment you know you will look back on six months (or a year, or 10 years) from now and laugh. Laugh and laugh and laugh, just laugh hysterically that you couldn't find the Tollbooth Gallery, or that you got lost on one of the 14 floors inside Sanford and Son, or that you had to lie down on the sidewalk due to fatigue halfway up to the Fulcrum Gallery on Hilltop.

Or maybe you don't laugh. Maybe you're an ArtWalk hatter because of the Moment.

Angela Jossy of the Speakeasy Arts Cooperative wants to eliminate the Moment. She wants to make it easier for you to enjoy the Walk.

She has a bus.

WEEKLY VOLCANO: So you have an ArtWalk Bus.

ANGELA JOSSY: Yup, I'm organizing an ArtWalk tour via bus Thursday night beginning at 6 p.m. at the Speakeasy. The "Art Bus" will hit Embellish Multispace Salon, Tacoma Art Place, Fulcrum Gallery, 253 Collective and Mad Hat Tea Company before dropping everyone off at the Rialto Theater at 8 p.m. Next month we will add more stops, make two round trips and have it running three or four hours instead of two. I want to start with a more modest plan on this first attempt.

VOLCANO: Steph DeRosa isn't driving, is she?

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ONE OPENS, ANOTHER CLOSES >>>

People craving a cup of joe in Tacoma's Theater District can finally look further than their own kitchens and office coffee machines. Café Messina - located at 744 Market St. - opened this week for business. Serving Urban City Coffee Roasters coffee and baked goods from the San Francisco Baking Company, this roomy coffee shop also serves soups, salads and sandwiches.

It is with a sad heart that I announce that Vinum Wine & Coffee Lounge has closed at 10th and Pacific in downtown Tacoma.

WHAT WE HAVE FOUND TODAY >>>

Could parachute-wearing bears sniff out Osama bin Laden?

Today in 1999 the U.S. Department of the Interior listed nine salmon species as endangered, which impacted many people in the Northwest.

Don't feed those babies just to shut them up. A Penn State prof says the practice may increase the likelihood of your youngster becoming overweight or obese later in life.

Fearless Felix is back for his most daring plunge ever.

TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 2010 >>>

1. Bestsellers - the independent film that was written, shot, edited and produced entirely in Tacoma - will screen at 6:45 p.m. inside The Grand Cinema. A Q&A session with writer and editor Rick Gratzer about the film and production process will follow the screening.

2. Author Matt Hern will discuss his book, Common Ground in a Liquid City: Essays in Defense of an Urban Future, at 6 p.m. inside Orca Books. It's an engaging look at the future of urban life.

3. The Banned Book Club will discuss Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott and cocktails at 7 p.m. inside the Tempest Lounge.

4. The Urban Onion in Olympia hosts Tough Guys Tuesdays film night at 7 p.m. The action double feature will include drink specials.

5. Kareem Kandi hosts an open jazz jam at 9 p.m. inside SAX Restaurant.

LINK: Music showtimes in the South Sound

BORN TO BE BAD >>>

The Runaways were a teen-girl band of the '70s whose influence reverberates to this day. Its members included Joan Jett, Cherie Currie and Lita Ford.

The film The Runaways, which opens Friday at The Grand Cinema, follows Currie and Jett who become fast friends, drinking pilfered booze under the Hollywood sign and eventually front the teen proto-punk band brought together by weirdo/record producer Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon). Jett, incidentally, is being played by Kristen Stewart (Twilight) and Dakota Fanning stars as Currie.

The Real Thing

The Fake Thing

BURGERS AND DOGS FANCIED UP >>>

Burgerama

The history of the hamburger is fairly mythical. The Menches family of Ohio say they invented the hamburger at an 1885 fair in Hamburg, New York, when heat and humidity forced them to stop butchering pigs. In all probability, the hamburger was a good idea waiting to happen, and a bunch of folks stumbled upon it around the same time.

The Ram Restaurant & Brewery might not have invented the hamburger, but it has been serving them since 1971 when the Ram Pub opened in the old Villa Plaza in Lakewood. Ah, good times.

Today, The Ram has locations throughout the nation, and the burger is still front and center on its menu — more so than ever with its current promotion, Burgerama - "The transformation of the burger to an artform." The restaurant chain has created "10 works of art," according to promotions, which includes The Ricardo, Moody Blue Cheeseburger Salad, The Elvis, Reuben - Make Me A Burger ... and the two huge burgers I tried Saturday night at the Ruston Way location: the Hillbilly and The Cheeseburger Skirt. The Hillbilly comes with frizzled onions, blue cheese crumbs and blue cheese mayo. The Cheeseburger Skirt - and speciifically "The Skirt" is a bunch of cheese allowed to overflow and fry on the griddle, creating something like a dairy based piece of female clothing. It's a stretch, but it will fill your stomach. Both burgers, actually, are a lot of food - especially with fries included.

National Corn Dog Day

Like the hamburger, the origin of the corn dog is debatable. Doyle's Public House in Tacoma doesn't really care about the history. They know National Corn Dog Day is Saturday, March 20, and they're ready to celebrate. Held amidst the revelry of the NCAA March Madness hoops tourney, the Stadium District bar will offer $1 corn dogs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday - in addition to tater tots for 5 cents a pop.

Bonus

By the way, the Varsity Grill in downtown Tacoma is offering something called the Mac 'n Cheese burger beginning tomorrow.

FUTURE THING IS COMING >>>

Live Nation has announced that international pop star Lady gaga will bring her Monster Ball Tour to the Tacoma Dome Saturday, Aug. 21.

"It's still called Monster Ball, but it's more of a musical and less of a concert," Lady Gaga said in a February interview with KIIS-FM's Ryan Seacrest. "It has a New York theme, it's a story, and the story is that me and my friends are in New York and we're going to the Monster Ball, and we get lost."

Tickets for The Monster Ball go on sale in select markets including New York, Vancouver, Toronto, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Boston beginning March 19 at LiveNation.com. Tickets prices and on-sale date for the Tacoma Dome show haven't been announced.

For tour and ticket information, visit: www.ladygaga.com

WE'LL PRINT THE TACO BRACKET IN THURSDAY'S WEEKLY VOLCANO PRINT EDITION >>>

Tacos. Everyone eats them. Everyone has a favorite. Maybe your obsession is with the taco truck down the street that has those authentic Mexico City street tacos - or perhaps you drive across town for the one the size of your arm.

The best taco in the greater Tacoma area? You think you know where to find it. We all do.

With your help, we'll pit 64 of the greater Tacoma area's best tacos in a shell-to-shell battle - a titanic, tortilla-wrapped tournament the likes of which has never been seen in these parts. This will be a tournament, folks, not a playoff. Each match is do or die - one misstep and you're out of the dance.

Weekly Volcano's Tournament of Tacos begins Thursday, March 18, followed by three weeks of competition right here on our blog, Spew. Every day we'll post a matchup (or four) that you can vote on. We'll reveal the winners on the following day. You'll keep eating and voting until we're down to the final two tacos on April 5, which we'll announce live at Station 56 in Tacoma.

We will print the Tournament of Tacos bracket with the first round of competitions in Thursday's issue of the Weekly Volcano.

Get eating, fill out your brackets and root for your faves.