There used to be a guy who fancied himself as a “street musician” who would set up across the street from my apartment every night and blare obnoxious guitar riffs through a pocket amp.  He had, what seemed like, no more than a rotating 3-song setlist.  He mostly just played Jimi Hendrix covers, using the muddled distortion and the fact that he was a black man with a guitar in Seattle to his favor.  The drunken frat boys and under-dressed skanks, clopping around like clydesdales ate that shit up.  Then again, they only caught about 12 seconds of it as they wandered by in a drunken stupor.  Try putting that 12 seconds on repeat for hours.  It was a smooth move for the “guitarist” and he marketed himself wisely.  Who’s gonna talk shit to this guy around here?  Nevermind the fact that the one thing that he produced was obnoxious and that he wasn’t actually Hendrix.  This Seattle; that would be sacrilege.

Today I witnessed a video of a man who I actually would have appreciated having perform in my neighborhood.  This footage isn’t devoid of gimmicks [he's a one-man-band playing a Wu-Tang song, for chrissakes] but something about it still holds genuine.  It’s actually pretty awesome and, although this particular footage is of the musician performing a cover, he is much more than a one-note.  In fact, through my research, I’ve discovered that he’s much more than a street performer, or even a musician, but that’s not important for now.  We’ll get back to that more after the video. (more…)

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Back in March, we posted a review about the Spike Jonze-created short film, “I’m Here“.  The project, which is provided for free of charge on it’s own specially designed website, focuses on the love connection between a pair of robots, inhabiting some alternate version of Los Angeles.  Of course, there are underlying elements in the film which are much deeper than that.  The complexities of love, self-worth, social hierarchies, risk, trust, and even life itself are all explored throughout its half hour running time.

After reviewing the film we got a few comments, all relating to the soundtrack which accompanied the piece.  For those who haven’t read that last article about the project, the following excerpt should bring you a little more up to speed on the subject. (more…)

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Keeping with the tradition started in 2002, the 9th annual Sasquatch Music Festival was again held at the Gorge Amphitheater in the city of George, Wa over memorial day weekend.  I had my media pass for coverage solidified, but my lady, Kim, didn’t have one and I hadn’t exactly locked down my transportation situation for how I had planned to get to there.  This, of course, was in keeping with our own tradition of doing everything half-sketch.  Time was winding down, so I needed to crank the “hustle” dial up to 11.  As stated in our previous piece about this year’s Sasquatch, a key element of our coverage will address the festival experience from the perspective of an attendee and not just as a “reporter”.  That element will come into play now, as I talk about getting your broke ass to the show, dodging ticket scams, and working the hustle in your favor.

STEP ONE:  The Ride

A week before the festival,  friend/artist, Thea Wolfe (creator of the WEEN coloring book) had a farewell party before her big move down to the Hollywood area.  Unfortunately, this meant that we wouldn’t be kicking it during the WEEN set at the festival, as planned.  On the upside, I met someone at the party who offered to give Kim and I a ride up there.  This actually worked out remarkably well, but I will refer more to that later, during the actual day by day reviews.  The main point is that carpooling isn’t necessarily a bad avenue to take. (more…)

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Another link was just sent to me that forced me to drop everything that I was doing to make it a priority.  I was very focused on sifting through and digitally retouching hundreds of photos from last weekends Sasquatch festival.  Then I got a heads up from photographer Lars Peterson directing me to what is the greatest thing I’ve seen since that WEEN set on Monday night.  I’m not exactly sure what this video is all about, but it appears to have been filmed at some sort of talent contest in the Philippines.  You will notice a trophy off to the side of the stage [pictured above] as well as the words “lipsynch” and “contest” plastered across the the bottom of the back wall in glittery letters.  From what I can tell, the top of the wall reads “Sulucan Youth & Volunteer Movement“.  One thing that I am sure of is that this video is ridiculously amazing and that it’s necessary to view it from start until the very end.

The original video seems to have come from a Facebook page of a man by the name of  Thinnz Catipay.  From there I searched it out and tracked it down on youtube.  The following video even credits Catipay through the following comments in the youtube info section “Video extracted from facebook. Uploaded by Thinnz Catipay.“  We don’t speak the language or understand the comments so, if you know more about what’s going on here, please comment below.  Either way, we’re getting plenty of enjoyment from it, as is.

Enjoy! (more…)

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When the last album was released from the Sri Lankan/British superstar, Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam (aka: M.I.A.), I found myself sitting alone at a local bar and sucking back a full pitcher of Mac and Jacks African Amber ale to my head.  I had been working a lot at the time and had heard that the local spot was doing their own version of a CD release/listening party for the album with some little giveaways.  I decided that I would take that opportunity to go down there by myself, drink a pitcher of beer, and check out the new tracks.  Hardly anybody showed up and, although I didn’t win the album itslef, I did go home with a boxload of KALA stickers an shirts that they were unable to dump off on anyone else.  This resulted in one of our first giveaways that Monster Fresh had ever held.

Sean Prince and I had gone to seen her perform a couple of years prior as the opening act for LCD Soundsystem.  That show took place at the Showbox in Seattle, a venue that both acts have likely outgrown by this point in their individual careers.  The whole show was pretty amazing, but it was actually more of a back up plan for us, as her previous performance at Chop Suey had been canceled due to the usual problems surrounding the artist: Green Card issues and the fear of potential terrorism.  These days, it seems like LCD Soundsystem has gotten fairly huge and M.I.A. has, by all accounts, become a legitimate “superstar“.  The irony of someone like myself writing reviews about anything related to pop-culture is that I am pretty much oblivious to what is or is not popular these days.  I can go to a show thinking that an artist is “underground“, whatever that means, only to find out that the venue is completely sold out.  Then, I can go to a show with the fear that it will be packed and only find 6 people in the audience.  I didn’t realize that M.I.A . was so fucking huge until I saw her performing with Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, T.I. and Kanye West, while she was pregnant at last years Grammy Awards.  My frame of reference was coming from a time when both she and LCD had only just released their first albums.  LCD Soundsystem‘s 3rd studio album is set to drop next month in the UK and now, Arular herself is letting out some samples of what her own latest effort is going to sound like as well. (more…)

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About 4 years ago, I spent a lot of time on Threadless.com.  In fact, one of the only reasons that I visit the site so rarely, at this point, is because I’m always so busy with this one.  I had been working the graveyard shift as a night auditor at a shit-hole of a hotel across the street from a public park full of crackheads and the one thing that I had to occupy myself during the long nights was a computer screen and the internet.  A lot has changed, both with my life and with Threadless, but every once in a while, they produce something so crazy and awesome that I remember what drew me to them in the first place. (more…)

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