When you think of Seattle you think of Modest Mouse, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney. Or you’re probably thinking of anything notable released by Sub Pop. And why is it that you’re still thinking about flannel? It seems that Seattle hasn’t been relevant since the early to mid nineties, a time that I suspect you remember faintly if at all. For the folks of my generation, Seattle barely exists but for what we know in our study of groups quickly becoming “classic rock”.

A band or particular scene takes the world by storm, overshadowing any development that fails to approach the drama and grandeur of the last. It seems that later national or international acts emerging from Seattle (cf. Fleet Foxes; Band of Horses; Death Cab For Cutie) don’t evoke the same association with place as their forebears.

This might have something to do with the way music is currently produced and consumed.

This may have something to do with the fact that Band of Horses is now based in South Carolina. And Death Cab For Cutie is actually from Bellingham, a town [1.5] hours North that a non-Northwesterner would have no clue about.

No matter what the reason for Seattle’s seeming invisibility on the modern music scene, the fact remains that good music is indeed being made there; music worth knowing about. A brief and biased overview of said music is presented below; my Somewhat Random Selection Of Music I Find To Be In Some Way Significant To Seattle As A City Where Music Is Made. This is by no means an exclusive list; nor is this a list that pretends to make any statements beyond vague impressions of like and dislike. These picks are heavily influenced by my personal relationships with the musicians themselves. I do not pretend that this list is either complete or accurate yet maintain that it is as good an introduction as any to Seattle music. Totally missing from this list is any representation of Seattle’s Hiphop and Americana scenes.

iji

iji

On his most recent release, Cool Dream, Zach Burba sounds like a combination of Edwyn Collins and Kevin Barnes. Or perhaps Stuart Murdoch minus perversion. Writing as iji since he was fifteen, Zach has like ten million self recorded releases and represents the music I like best out of Seattle. I saw iji play intensely to no one at the Ballard Mine—in my usual hyperbolic way I imagined that it was indeed something like what seeing early Belle & Sebastian may have been like. Now that I think about it, the B&S comparison doesn’t hold up compositionally or emotionally. I still, however, hold that there is a vague aesthetic resemblance—soft guitars, horns, and sincerity. Zach would later describe iji as a “Ska band”…

Live, iji is composed of friends representing 5-6 other projects (Sundance Kids, Megabog, Mill Kids, Huge Cookies, Gazelle), of which Zach is also a member, has been a member, or probably will be a member. He and his band are adorable.

Wet Paint DMM. Photo taken by: Ryan Furbrush

Wet Paint DMM

Wet Paint DMM is a three piece that sounds a little like DNA and a little like Ponytail. Their singer is theatric and their guitarist plays abrasive but effective lines and jabs under the singer’s yelping. Sometimes there is a neat delay effect on the bass drum. I’m telling you this once, and only once: this is going to be an interesting band to watch. I can’t wait to ebay their CD-R demo for 50-85 dollars next year.

Stephanie

Stephanie

Stephanie is a four piece that sounds a little like Joy Division with an iPod. The singer, however, is nowhere near suicidal. He wears fun costumes and is melodramatic in a self-aware fashion. The keyboardist is very tall and plays effective lines. Stephanie plays Cairo a lot. The bassist has strong cheekbones and was in a band called Dimples, since broken up.

Brain Fruit. Photo by bearclaw.

Brain Fruit

Brain Fruit play with a hand of bananas on their massive rack unit. They sound a little like something I would cite if I were on top of my electronic music listening. I think about the color ‘green’ when they are playing. They sound a little like this—lovely textures, repetitive patterns with minor alterations that build, moving the song to new places, sometimes a climax with a soloistic keyboard part or something. They play like two songs a set and look super professional and focused while they manipulate parameters and hit keys. They are my friends and are mixing my band’s record.

TacocaT

TacocaT

I want to marry every single member of this band. They sound a little like a faster, rowdier girl group in garage band formation. They are sort of flippant and very fun. I used to work with both the drummer and the singer. I utterly failed a job interview with the singer’s current employer.

Pill Wonder

Pill Wonder

They are good. Don’t know much about them besides that they are signed to Underwater Peoples, a D.C. label, have at least one good song (“Wishing Wale”) and have possibly broken up.

PWRFL Power. Photo by Anna Ryon.

PWRFL Power (Kaz Nomura)

Kaz is the reason I moved to Seattle. Really—while pondering my possible move, I walked into a café in West Philadelphia with the intention of working on a final. As it goes, there happened to be a show at the café and Kaz was on the bill. I found out that he was from Seattle and took it as a sign.

Butts. Photo by Kyle Johnson

Butts

Two-girl garage group sings about panty exchanges and smoking. Their band logo features the band name, a ¾ profile of a set of buttocks taking the place of the “B”. They are really funny and nice on stage. I have conversations with both of them on Facebook and in person and they both seem like genuinely nice people. Not sure if they are in it to “make it” or if they are having too much fun to even think about it.

Herr Jazz

Herr Jazz

We went on tour with them; they borrowed our drummer. In Portland, some Reed girl mentioned that his band sounded “a lot like Vampire Weekend”. Ben asked, “Who are they?” They are a wonderful band; Ben plays guitar like an Afro Jazz vampire (or something). Ben once stripped to briefs during a corporate sponsored show. This was after having us hoist him into the air during a song and before denouncing the sponsor.  He connects well with positive youth who’d like to dance hard in a consensual manner.

Flexions

Dave, who plays guitar in my band, and I saw them open for Gary Wilson at Nectar about a year ago. We thought it was OK but nothing to write home about. We agreed that they needed a drummer. I saw them last month at Cairo—they had a drummer and they were good. I think. I was squished in the storefront section of Cairo trying to talk to a girl. Still not terribly familiar with the music.

USF

USF

Half of this chillwave duo writes for the Stranger music section. USF was originally named Universal Studios Florida. Wonder why they changed it. I saw them and did not like them.

Big Spider's Back

Big Spider’s Back

I “did sound” for him at the Ballard Mine. Meaning, I made sure that his mixer was turned up. He was pretty cool. I was about to unfavorably compare him to Panda Bear but I’m caught wondering whether that’s fair or not. I hear he’s moving to Brooklyn. I should probably give him a fair listen.

PartMan PartHorse. Photo Gregory Perez.

PartMan PartHorse

I don’t know much about them but they are supposed to be a big deal. I went to a show they were headlining to see Stephanie but missed Stephanie. I watched Dimples and Butts then decided to leave for another show. They apparently put a song out in which they “talked mad shit” on other bands in Seattle or something. I think they may be badasses.

FAT PEOPLE! Theres just something about them that makes life 110% better.  Watching one complain at a restaurant (Burger King) because they didn’t get enough “freedom fries” in their large order is enough to make your life(my life)! The major downside to fat people, is that they eat everything in sight. My father actually lost his arm in a horrible fat person incident. So i’m not really “down” with them.

In this vid a fat man crushes a small “skaterboi” and he tells him to cya later boy (and hands him off to paramedics). It also doesn’t help that the man is from Fox News.

A few days ago, a meme was born. A young performance artist named Natacha Stolz performed an art piece called “Interior Semiotics” and shocked a room full of ‘bros’ and ‘altchicks’.

Here’s a background story from KnowYourMeme:

On March 27, 2010, an art house show, Forever(21) (not affiliated with the retail chain) was conducted in the West Town neighborhood of Chicago, IL. This show was organized by the Latin American Student Organization and an art group called Pizza Slut, both affiliated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).  Featuring works by several artists, the main fixture of the night was a performance by young artist Natacha Stolz.  Entitled “Interior Semiotics”, this performance art piece was largely nihilistic in nature.  A video of the performance was uploaded to YouTube on May 8, 2010, but initially garnered
little to no views.

There are almost too many implications in this video to dissect. Sadly, absolutely none of it is relevant to what the artist was likely hoping to have put across. The first thing to look at, and likely the easiest target (e.g. the comments on the video and on any of the sites showing it), is the crowd. Yes, it is made up of people with ‘hip’ haircuts, a macbook is in use, a couple ‘artsy’ people with cameras, a lot of piercings, and enough flannel to scare a forest (sort of). In a group it may make whole thing pretentious. Individually, who knows what these people are like. In fact, some of the people at the end were really funny. Half of the crowd didn’t believe it either. Whether or not it was due to the incredulity or the absurdity of the piece is entirely up to interpretation, but if you take a close look at the end of the clip and you get that awkward “I don’t know what just happened or why it happened, but I know we should clap because someone just showed us something” clap. It’s the same clap you give to that kid in your poetry class who takes himself way too seriously, but no one is nice enough to let them know that they’re doing nothing but making everyone uncomfortable. You could tell that half of these people were likely dragged to this place or got there and, once they realized the act that was about to take place, couldn’t get out for fear of social faux pas.

Secondly, let’s take a look at the artist:

This gives a human face to the cold, cold internet. Actually, the video is kind of fucked up, but it gets the point across. In a pessimistic way, you could say it’s saying she was a normal girl outside of her pretentious art piece. A less dickish take on it is that this person is not just the ‘pretentious hipster’. She’s a woman who makes art. It’s simple. It’s so happens she ha a hard time opening a can f fucking Spaghetti O’s. Plus, it takes a lot of courage to finger yourself and then urinate in a can with nothing to wipe it off with but your shit.

So, basically internet: stop messing with this person. The boundaries of postmodern are always in flux. The question of ‘What is art?; is almost as ambiguous as the ultimate mindfuck, “What are we here for?” or “What is the meaning of life?”. So, screaming how bullshit her piece is like it’s fact makes about as much sense as trying to actually answer to the meaning of life.

Here’s the only person who wasn’t busy spouting ‘I hate hipter’ bs and actually took the time to try and analyze her work on Reddit.

From Alphabetgun:

Here’s my best attempt to figure out what she was trying to artistically present here. Let’s start with the obvious:

I think she had — let’s be extremely generous here, for no real reason — mechanical problems with the Spaghettios can. That shit was giving her real-life troubles. That was supposed to be opened like an adult and she wasn’t capable of that under pressure.

To the point: I think it’s a pretty classic feminist objectification trope, probably presented as some sort of rape parable.

Soil represents earth — true meaning — and how it has been muddled and confused by consumerism and objectification (El Spaghettios) to the point that it is completely unrecognizable.

So she is in this sexually/domestically abusive relationship with someone specific and/or American society. But since this constant rape of identity has been stirred so deeply into culture and reality, she chooses to finally rebel against her situation using the only way she can attain power over this faux-reality — by declaring that this world and this abuse has so little value that she could rape herself and remain entirely disaffected.

Of course, it’s possible she meant to present this with no subtext — a “this world means nothing, so here’s this ambitiously ludicrous act that is going to make everyone wish they didn’t come here” sort of thing that completely staggers the audience. It’s a bit manifestoesque in its simplicity (“we assign meaning, we live by worth and assign value, but everything is shit”) if that’s what she was going for, but it’s certainly an option.

So the best option is probably a combination of both. This is most likely told by a narrator in the midst of crisis, post-sexual abuse or abusive relationship, who has a view of Earth so jaded that she chooses to assign no value to it anymore, deeming it all an unreality.

Thusly, in an act of protest of her societal (and, probably, actual) rape by society, she opts to rape herself with the Earthspaghetti to prove it means nothing to her, to prove that any future rape is so unreal that it can no longer affect her.

But she’s still left to complete her only human-drone-in-a-corporate-world, typically-feminine task: To clean up after the mess she’s made and move on.

This is what I would tell my girlfriend in order to get laid that night, anyway, and then I would smile a big fucking puppy smile and stare at the tiny amount of clothes she was wearing. (That’s the good thing about hipsters, remember — they wear almost no clothes, regardless of the weather.)

It usually worked.

So I never expected my column to ever get past ten articles. Now the whole 100 thing looks kinda messy but so are these articles.  Can’t win them all.

It’s my birthday so I don’t really have time to write up a bunch of hilarious things for you to “lol” at. I’m also not in my right mindset (don’t drink alcohol). So I will leave you with some Christmas in August vid that seems funny right now.

In an effort to raise awareness, the new Found Theater Company is organizing a benefit concert at Quig’s Pub on Friday August 13.

It looks like the line-up is:

Pete Bradley

Robert Carlton III

Claire Fuller (of American Idol)

Victor Gennaro

and DJ Sara Cederberg

With special performances by Found Theater Company members and friends; Kathryn Sullivan, Lee Minora, Claire Lenahan, and Sara Doherty.

It is certainly an eclectic mix of performers, ranging from the bluesy style of Fuller to Gennaro’s rock n’roll upbeat anthems. What’s exciting about the event is the fact that it is basically Found’s premiere event. Their 2010 production titled Tales is set to open on September 3rd, as a part of the Philly Fringe Festival. Under the directorship of Fullbright Scholar Felipe Vergara (Something with Wings), the show is sure to be a total mind-fuck.

On August 13, you can drink up and mingle with company members and the cream of the Philly Theatre crop. Only $7.00 gets you in the door and the event lasts from 7:00-10:00 PM. Also raffles will be given out (which should definitely include free tickets to Tales!).

Quig’s Pub is located at 1714 Delancey Pl. (above Plays and Players), Philadelphia, PA 19103. For more info go to talesatthefringe.blogspot.com.

My name is Frank Koziol and I am a literary geek. I love books and love all things book-like. Unfortunately, I can’t spell and I have difficulty getting my ideas across on paper. ANYWAY, this vid (I think i’m just calling videos, “vids” now. It seems more 2k10) was a project for some bros english class or something. It’s “sick wit it” and the rhymes are “fresh”.

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t read The Great Gatsby then you may want to steer clear….but I assume that its like the bible and if you don’t know what happens, you’re kinda screwed anyway.

Do you remember when you were young and people would tell you not to “cry over spilled milk” even though you have never actually done that? People who cry over spilled milk need to be punched in the face for being a “bitch”. Theres things far worse to cry about like stale pizza or killing a lot of jews.

Many of us have done photoshoots or camera work for a wedding. When you’re asked about the job, there’s little detail given outside the normal parameters of filming something that is ‘timeless’ and that they can show their kids or family when they get older. This would normally stop you from doing anything that is contemporary or ‘hip’. This is what you want to do. This is also why you can’t do it.

Hipsters: the couple that discovers obscure music, is vegan, and were both in a band that plays together – stays together. Seriously, though congrats to the couple. I wish PP could use this as a promo.