Seattle’s own Nadamucho.com recently released a CD compilation titled:
Nada Mucho Presents: Sounds From The Seattle Underground (global seepej records)

It’s a 18 track CD which features such artists as At The Spine, Head Like a Kite and The Lonely Forest to name but a few. Culturemob interviewed Matt Ashworth and Kyle Kauzlarich from Nada Mucho to talk about the CD and get the latest Nada Mucho News!

Nada Mucho est. 1997 is a cool online Seattle based underground publication that strongly advocates the cultural scene at large. They’re extremely supportive of artists. A small example of this is their comments about a local band. Matt says this about the band The Lonely Forest:

…they were amazing at the cd release show first time around, and i’m stoked to bring them to a bigger venue this time at the tractor…

Kyle says this about the band The Lonely Forest:

…they’re (the lonely forest) are a great example of what keeps us going as non-musicians to continue to keep the community moving forward.

That’s not all they talk about. Dig this article written by Matt Ashworth and catch the picture of a 1990 semi-smiling Matt in High School. Dude! He still manages to keep the story about music.

You can get your copy of Nada Mucho Presents: Sounds From The Seattle Underground at CD Baby or just click here!

See NadaMucho at the Sunset Tavern on October 10th (Seattle): Click here.

The Nada Mucho Artist Page on Culturemob: http://culturemob.com/artists/19314496

Harvey Milk and Myspace. I’ve taken an interest in the band Harvey Milk. Mainly because they’re amazing. So today when I checked out my myspace news feed, I found their latest blog about myspace.

Too bad about the music…

myspace has decided that almost every song that we try to upload is a copyright infringement and has threatened to cancel our account if we continue to upload songs that fit this description.

at no point did we ever try to upload songs that were not ours so this is complete and total bullshit.

we decided that keeping in touch with eall of you through this site is more important than a couple of songs (that myspace rips to shreds anyway) and have decided to leave you with “war” unless and until myspace gets their shit together.

I just want Harvey Milk to know that if I were the owner of Myspace, I’d let them post any song they wanted! I do work at culturemob and you can find past and present gigs of Harvey Milk here: http://culturemob.com/artists/247385

The Harvey Milk Myspace Page:
http://www.myspace.com/harveymilk

Comicbookmovie.com heard a rumor that WB (that’s Warner Bros) is interested in casting the legendary One-named singer as the Catwoman for Batman III the movie. They have a Poll asking the good nerds of comicbooksville (me) what we think of Cher being cast. www.comicbookmovie.com/news/articles/4981.asp

They’re not saying it’s true, they’re just saying that’s what they heard. I mean, that’s about as crazy as Johnny Depp buying the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle…um! Oh and speaking of which, there’s another rumor that Mr. Depp is being tapped to play the Riddler in Batman III.

Batman is of course the big bank comicbook movie blockbuster that…well, you know what I’m talking about. Look, the fact is, there’s no way they want Cher to play the Cat. My guess is this is just another of those clever diversions devised by director Christopher Nolan. You know, keep people guessing??? Do not take the bait! But hey, stranger things have happened. I mean, you do remember the movie DareDevil right?

Catch the Dark Knight for a fifth time! Find it here at culturemob.com.

TK Webb & The Visions are scheduled to release their debut CD titled ANCESTOR (Kemado Records) on September 2nd. I got an advance copy to check out.

This is the second work with TK Webb I’ve heard and this one is definitely harder edged than his solo work. My favorite tracks include: **3). God Bless The Little Angels 4). Closed Caption Slang 6). Shame 7) Hope You All Are Gone.** There may be a song or two to check out on their myspace page: www.myspace.com/tkwebbandthevisions

On God Bless The Little Angels there’s this great intro with an organ and a guitar that lets your mind drift towards tranquility. All things tranquil are suddenly replaced by ferocious loud band sounds. Then the track really takes off. With hints of early Jane’s Addiction and even a touch of the classic “life’s been good” by Joe Walsh, TK Webb & The Visions have found a way to wake up the Rock Genre. I played this track over several times.

Patience & Fortitude would have made my top 5 on the vocals alone. With its Neil Young influences, I’d say it will stand the test of time. The actual CD includes all track lyrics like this catchy line from Closed Caption Slang:

…but for the confused it stands to reason to wander off alone and hold your own hand upon back lit rock…

Ancestor is an edgy rock CD and it’s cool as hell!

TK WEBB & THE VISIONS will be playing at Seattle on Thursday
September 4th at El Corazon as part of a
co-headlining
tour with Witchcraft from Orebro, Sweden.
Graveyard
will also be on the bill.

For more information about the show go to: http://culturemob.com/events/158400

“KLANG!” is the debut cd released by Seattle band motorik.

This 9 song CD (recorded by Jack Endino at SoundHouse and Gary Mula at Calleye) is all heart and no nonsense. They have the sound of a garage rock band with punk influences. Three tracks to pay attention to are 2> box of knives, 4> it’s just sugar and 5> utopia parkway.

Box of knives is the sound of a San Francisco smoke filled punk club in the late 80’s. Towards the end of the track, guitarist Adrian Garver (D.C. Beggars) plays a high pitched siren like riff that defines the entire CD. My favorite is a track called it’s just sugar. Sio’s (Andover 7, Nod, Smile) intense vocals offer no amnesty for the casual listener. She’s not trying to make friends, she’s belting out painful memories (or so it seems by this listener). Finally, utopia parkway is what you get when your drummer isn’t going to take no for an answer. In fact, drummer Hoagie Gero (D.C. Beggars) is tight, loud and extremely creative throughout this CD. I mean, who is this guy anyway?

Klang! is an ambitious garage rock CD that could have easily fell short of it’s destination. A lesser band would have turned around and gone home. Instead, the combination of these three artists manage to demonstrate what good instincts and a healthy disregard for “SOS” can do. I loved it!

go to the motorik artist page at culturemob.com!

What is better than heady electronic music, a dance floor full of freaks, and live art being created on hot chicks? Not a lot- add some alcohol and I think you have a party on your hands!

Last night’s Get Tha Funk Out at the Crimson C was a spectacular and swirling mix of the Seattle underground’s finest; with live art created by Grym and head party pimpstress Lynzie. Go-go dancers were the canvasses; they stopped shaking it just long enough to get radioactive elephants, tripping musical notes, and random abstractions painted on their chests, arms, stomachs, legs, and faces.

Photographers Matt Matsuda and Ev were bouncing around taking mad pics, and besides the live body painting going on there was also several artists’ work being exhibited including works by the amazing Burgandy as well as the photography of Matsuda.

DJ sets by A.J. Spider Sorbello, Roman, Noisemaker and PrEssHa kept the night bumpin’ until two in the morning with what was certainly the best music going on in Seattle.

On to the pictures:

It’s a hard job, but somebody has to do it.

You know you want to see more photos-

There are more from Cedric here, and check out Matt Matsuda’s clever pics here.

We’ve escaped our former-ammunition-warehouse-above-a-gun-shop-and-taboo-video-“offices!”

You can now visit the mobsters and our infamous Green Couch in the NEW secret HQ in lovely Fremont. (If you’ve got the secret password.) The new office boasts air conditioning, heat, a kitchen, janitorial services and all the other niceties that we did without for oh-so-long. On top of it all, since we’re not all in one room, people can actually concentrate! Chadwick is reporting a 37.8% increase in productivity. Look out world!

Thanks to David and everyone who made the move happen.

Meet Santino Rice!

He’s going to be putting on a big event at Seattle’s famous Heaven Nightclub Friday August 22nd. Event details: http://culturemob.com/events/144768

Heaven Nightclub (Seattle) is giving Culturemob.com a VIP Section for the Santino Rice - Red Carpet Fashion Event on August 22nd (http://culturemob.com/events/144768). Guess what? You’re invited!!! You’ll be hanging out with culturemob in our very own VIP section.

You must be a registered culturemob user and at least 21 years of age to participate. Contact me at cedric@culturemob.com to be put on our special guest list (space is available on a first come, first serve basis). Get in while you can! This offer expires Monday August 18th (sooner if we run out of available space).

A Santino Rice Fashion Video via YouTube:

You can check out his blog at http://santinorice.com/blog/

About Santino Rice:

I’m Santino Rice, a fashion designer living and working in Hollywood California. I was a contestant on Bravo’s Project Runway Season 2.

Our previous blog about Santino Rice: http://blog.culturemob.com/santino-rice-red-carpet-fashion-invite

CultureMob.com is an events website and as such does not dip its toes into the wonderful world of le restauranteur. This is good; I love to eat almost as much as I love to dance and would no doubt wax Proustian for pages and pages on my favorite wasabi or taco truck or happy hour pizza.

However the Teatro Zinzanni is not dinner- it’s an event, where they just happen to serve up a gourmet five-course food experience along with the cirque, comedy, and cabaret. Dinner is intertwined with the performance, and the whimsical and dreamlike nature of the evening makes you feel like you are an essential element of the circus troupe and will be leaving on their gypsy caravan right after dessert with the rest of the clowns and acrobats. Before you even realize it the show has begun; as you order wine and chit chat with your date you notice that quietly the actors have infiltrated the floor and are slowly wandering between the tables, straightening forks and being freaks.

The Teatro itself (in it’s new location in Lower Queen Anne) is actually a 18th-century antique cabaret tent brought over from Belgium specifically for the Teatro Zinzanni, and you definitely want to arrive early so you can cruise the sweet boutique and try on all manner of feathery and sequined caps, sexy cat-eye masks, gaudy baubled necklaces, dark velvet capes, rhinestone tiaras, rainbow boas, and satin top hats. Properly glittered-up and adorned you can now make your way over to the bar for an aperitif, take a picture with your friends dressed like a vaudeville performer, or get your face painted with sparkly swirls. An evening like no other is about to begin.

You are shuffled into the circular interior of the theater that is filled with all manner of tingle-making things and people, dripping with all the atmosphere of an Old World burlesque revue from the craziest dream you ever had. On acid. In the Middle Ages. You halfway expect to see monkeys jump out of the ceiling and start tap-dancing on your table with the silverware and napkins.

The new Teatro Zinzanni show is called “Quest for a Queendom” in which the stooge-licious Queen Wilma of fantasyland Zinzannia searches high and low for a suitable beau. You get to laugh along with her and dazzle at the acrobats, clowns, and aerialists. The seats in the middle of the floor are the best, of course, although here you run the risk of participation in the show itself; in other words the Queen might choose you to inspect for a possible courtship. And she is one picky woman (though really aren’t we all?).

Each of the five courses was an amazing lip trip, starting with a chevre/fig/cracker/melon amuse-bouche. Next up was a luscious fire roasted tomato and red pepper soup served with a dollop of avocado cream, its consistency hovering somewhere between pureed and chunky and heaven. The summer salad included crunchy green beans and multicolored tomatoes under a zesty vinaigrette, and my main course was the grilled wild-caught albacore tuna with a smoked paprika crust- another divine encounter. Follow this up with a caramelized peach tart dotted with blueberries and black coffee, drench it all in a couple of bottles of red wine and you have a dinner fit for a queen and her king, if she can find one. With the amazing spectacle happening all around, Teatro Zinzanni could skimp on the food quality and you probably wouldn’t notice- but this was one of the best chi-chi dinners I have had in a while! And did I mention I love to eat?

All the performers are amazing; some are hilarious, some are buffoons, some are stupidly talented gymnasts, and some are just freaks. I particularly enjoyed Les Castors (the Parisian acrobats) and the Chinese strap aerialists. It could have been the wine or the thirteen years of gymnastics classes in my past, but every time I see aerialists twirling and hanging from the ceiling I think, “I could do that!” Is it too late to run off (to Queen Anne) and join the circus?

Stealing the show for sure was the Queen’s manservant Manchester and his unwieldy brocade codpiece. Played by Seattle’s own Kevin Kent, Manchester is a hilarious not-so-straight man that takes care of the bumbling Queen during her quest. His smart-ass comments and spot-on facial expressions keep the whole show rolling, as well as the audience; you will walk out wishing you had a manservant named Manchester to keep you on task, crack jokes, and embarrass everyone around you.

The Teatro Zinzanni is an experience unique in this world; only Seattle and San Francisco have the pleasure of this performance, a crazy dreamland where they entertain you and feed you and send you back out into the real world with sparkles in your eyes and a smile on your face. The audience interaction is one of the best facets of the evening, and whether they are painting your face or encouraging you to slow dance along with the actors, you are part of the show. You leave having been dipped in the culture of Zinzannia- and it tastes delicious! 

Quest for a Queendom runs through October 19 every Wednesday through Sunday evening and the experience is one that will never be forgotten, even after all that wine.