M. Mararian, Youth Explosion from Les Enfants Diabolique. Ink on Bristol board.

Andover, Massachusetts native and artist M. Mararians’ new solo exhibition, Les Enfants Diabolique opens on Friday, December 12th at the McCaig-Welles Gallery in Brooklyn. Les Enfants finds Mararian doing what he does best, drawing inky images of babies and children being undone by the ills of our overindulgent society.

Michael Mararian from Les Enfants Diabolique. Mmmm. Red meat. The other red meat.

Michael Mararian lives and works in Buffalo, New York. You can see more of Mararians’ Inky Dreadfuls here. Mararians’ Les Enfants Diabolique runs through February 1st, 2009.

I’m gonna stay in this very spot with all your records until you get back together again…

I don’t know the current vital signs of your favorite local band but you might want to check. My inbox has been full of sad-breaking-up-the-band news lately.

The Cops go kaput…

The Cops, still be riding high on the success of their 2007 record, Free Electricity are going on hiatus after nearly five amazing years of rocking the shit out of Seattle and beyond. The Cops will play two more gigs at The Sunset on Thursday, December 18th with Cancer Rising (!) and on Friday, December 19th with The Whore Moans (!) and Kinski (!!). As a very good looking friend of mine said, as he told me this sad news, “I know where I’m gonna be on Friday, December 19th”. And now, so do I.

Ms. Led, New Agenda.

Ms. Led will play their last show on January 23rd at The High Dive. This news gave me particular pause as no more Ms. Led punches a big hole in the music scene here in Seattle. Ms. Led has always been a source of awe and inspiration to other bands and musicians in this town. Ms. Led’s record label, Fish The Cat, has also helped pave the way for other local artists like the awesome Spanish for 100. To say that Ms. Led will be missed understates the impact and contributions this band has made to the music community in Seattle over the last nine years.

The Transimssionary Six, Zero Gravity, from 2008’s Cosmonautical.

The duo of Paul Austin and Terri Moeller, aka The Transmissionary Six , will play their last gig ever at The Sunset on Friday, December 12th. Only eight months ago the band released their fifth full-length, Cosmonautical to, albeit quiet acclaim. Terri Moeller’s sleepy, swaying vocals always get me. Sadness.

The Freakouts practice space, where the magic used to happen.

Earlier this year, The Freakout’s added this text [Broken Up] to their Myspace. Then, in September, one of my local favorites, Iceage Cobra announced their break-up by saying (via their Myspace): “Bands break up, deal with it”.

IAC is right when they spoke so bluntly about their demise. It’s true, bands break up all the time. And yeah, your favorite band probably didn’t break up just because you didn’t go to see them play that gig at The Comet. However, it’s impossible to deny the negative impact that our shitty economy has had on the members the music scene. So please, make sure you support your local music community any way you can.