If you follow this blog, you know when and where Pearl Jam is playing in Seattle this fall. (If not, click here, slacker.) And Live Nation just released ticket details.

Prices are set at $68, and they go on sale at 10 a.m. on Saturday (July 18.) Of course, there's a special pre-sale for members PJ's Ten Club, which started on Monday. Check the band's fan site for info on signing up.

Thanks to some technical difficulties, I talked to Northwest rock journeyman Scott McCaughey not once but twice in the last few days. That would be Scott McCaughey of Young Fresh Fellows, the Minus 5, the Baseball Project and R.E.M. fame (and probably about 10 other bands I’m forgetting or don’t even know about.) And, OK, it was more like user error than "technical difficulties." I yanked the phone jack out of my recorder and had to call the guy back for quotes. And I'm glad I did since I got these killer clips to share with you the second time around.

Clip 1: On why there’s so much pedal steel guitar on the Minus 5’s new “Killingsworth” album

Clip 2: For that matter, why there are so many Decemberists on the new album

And the occasion for this interview? McCaughey is bringing his latest Minus 5 lineup – which includes R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, ex-Decemberists drummer Ezra Holbrook, bassist John Ramberg, Portland singer-songwriter Little Sue and pedal steel player Tucker Jackson – to Hell’s Kitchen Friday night. Should be a fun night.

Here's Slayer playing "War Ensemble" at White River last night.

Marilyn Manson, Slayer and company dropped in on Auburn’s White River Amphitheatre last night with Mayhem Festival, a satisfying replacement for Ozzfest, which quit coming around these parts a couple of years ago. Manson’s set kicked off with "We're From America," the best cut off his now "The High End of Low Disc," and included “Disposable Teens,” “Irresponsible Hate Anthem,” “Tourniquet,” “Beautiful People,” “Four Rusted Horses” and “Arma **** geddon.” But aside from performing “Irresponsible Hate Anthem” draped in an American flag and a few coy sex and drug references, there was surprisingly little shock and spectacle during Manson's set. What? No spider stilts, topless dancers or flaming Bibles? Chyuh! That guy's goin' soft. However, he did cop some guy’s cell phone, though, screaming the refrain of “Hate Anthem” at the guy on the other end of the line before tossing the handset out into the crowd. Ouch! Don’t think the warranty covers that.
ERNEST JASMIN

I’ve come to think of Slayer as the AC/DC of thrash metal. They’ve got a pretty specific thing they delivery – in their case, relentlessly morbid mosh anthems about Nazis, serial killers and stuff; and the only new song they played, “Psychopathy Red” (about a Russian serial killer, for the record), could have been an outtake from their mid-‘80s classic “Reign in Blood.” But like AC/DC, the fans still eat that stuff up two decades into their career. Check my interview clips with Dave Lombardo to hear what he had to say about consistency.
ERNEST JASMIN

Backstage God Forbid’s Byron Davis made a quick call before doing a few interview’s. Mayhem’s lineup Tuesday also included Killswitch Engage, Cannibal Corpse, Trivium, Behemoth and more, spread out on two stages. Ozzfest? We don’t need no steenking Ozzfest!
ERNEST JASMIN