GUEST BLOGGER: S.P. MISKOWSKI

In a perfect world, the good relationships we’ve lost would get a second chance. With grace, an engaging cast, and impressive technical expertise, Seattle director Lynn Shelton offers a vivid tale of friendship between two men who have every reason to grow apart in drama My Effortless Brilliance.

Novelist Eric Lambert Jones (Sean Nelson of local band Harvey Danger) decides to use his latest book tour as an excuse to drop in on estranged buddy Dylan (Basil Harris) who leads a rustic existence in a cabin in eastern Washington. They are joined for booze, late night conversation, and a shambling cougar hunt by Dylan’s friend Jim (Calvin Reeder), whose presence further demonstrates the gap that is widening between the two men.

The film is layered with carefully devised character histories, created by Shelton in discussion with the actors. Yet the dialog has been improvised within each scene. The result is a joyously fresh and moving story with the best of both worlds- a solid structure and playful, believable interactions. The silences between characters are given as much respect as their words. In the balance, there is a spoken and unspoken truth, a sense of both the inadequacy of speech and its necessity for human comfort.

Jeanette Maus completes the cast, with a charming comic turn as an enthusiastic book tour interviewer.

My Effortless Brilliance is a delightful reminder that we often like people for strange and subterranean reasons. We may not be able to justify them. We may have nothing in common. Yet when we meet–even after years–the conversation picks up mid-syllable. For better or worse, we understand one another. Where do we assign such friendships in our lives? 

Screening of My Effortless Brilliance at the Seattle International Film Festival takes place on Saturday, May 24th at 9:30PM and on Monday, May 26th at 4:00PM, at the Egyptian Theatre.

Hey all you crazy, fevered, music-obsessed Seattleites out there! There’s a new forum for enthusiasts to get a good dose of first-hand Seattle music news from people in the know: SeattleSubsonic, otherwise known as “The Sound From Under the Clouds.” Pretty good, huh?

Local music freak, uh, I mean local music fan Kevin LeDoux, formerly of the Northwest Music Blog, has started a new website with a stellar lineup of writers and featuring all the best in Seattle sound, including recommended shows, venues, and blogs; they also have a calendar of upcoming events and articles about the freshest local acts bubbling up as well as the big tours making the rounds.

So why are we promoting another blog on the CultureMob blog? Shouldn’t we be snarkily trashing SeattleSubsonic with a hipster sneer, straight out of our tight pants and from behind messy purple hair? NAH. We’re not like that. Seattle’s a big little town and the more local music support and artist promotion circulating around, the better. This city is known for music (just ask my generation) and no mayor, no closed venues, no decibel meters can stop that. Seattle’s music enthusiasts can and must work together to foster the creative arena, support the artists out there every day doing their thing, and build the Seattle music scene up from a buzz to a barbaric yawp.

Seattle has heaps of interesting music blogs out there reporting back on various aspects of the local music scene, such as NWTekno, Nada Mucho, LineOut, Three Imaginary Girls, Sound on the Sound, Reverb, Seattle Live Music, and many more, all with the same goal: to get you out there and involved in the amazing music scene, whether you like electronic music, punk rock, jazz, or all of the above.

And besides, CultureMob.com is the only website where you can find events concerning all your entertainment interests; not just music but movies, comedy, theatre, dance, sports, festivals, lectures, and community gatherings. Only on CultureMob can you track your favorite performers and get alerted when they come to Seattle, add a MySpace or Facebook calendar to your profile, email your friends about upcoming events, and post previews, reviews, and comments of artists, events, and venues.

So check out SeattleSubsonic and in the immortal words of one of my good friends and local artist: GET INTO IT! It’s your town, your life, your evening: make it one for the blogs.

You know Produkt. You might not know that you know Produkt, but you do. You have no doubt seen these cats on dance floors, behind decks, taking pictures, painting, drawing, and promoting the Seattle electronic music scene all over the city, night after night, club after club.

Humans don’t fit into one category, as easy as that might be for us, and this is why the diverse artistry which Produkt provides and CultureMob.com are such a beautiful match. We all have many interests. I love electronic music, which is why I check NWTekno about a thousand times a day. However, I also really like horror movies, sketch comedy, reggae, festivals, sculpture exhibits, and swing dancing- and this is where CultureMob comes in. We cover the whole spectrum of entertainment and recognize that everyone has multiple interests in the arts and wants to discover local events without going to twenty different websites.

Produkt realizes this too, which is why at an event like the upcoming Gruvsessionz at Heavens Nightclub you will find not only skilled DJs spinning a variety of beats from house to techno to drum and bass to glitch, but also local visual artists doing their thing live, go-go dancers who truly love to dance (and just happen to be total hotties), and photographers documenting the good times (just in case anyone’s memory is a little fuzzy).

I support Produkt for one reason which is really two: PRODUKT GETS DOWN. Known as the “dopest crew in town,” the Produkt peeps are all about having fun and living it up; however they also take care of their business, heavily promoting each other as well as local artists from outside the group. Produkt stays engaged with the Seattle scene, organizing new events and injecting electricity into the nightlife of the city, which all too often suffers from a hipster-ethos, an I’m-too-cool-to-care vibe. I always hear people whining about how hard it is to make friends in Seattle, and that no one dances in this town. Those people obviously have never been to a Produkt show.

Even the group’s name connotes this passionate response to artistic expression. Just as Produkt provides new experiences for Seattle, they too are a Produkt of the music they deliver. With all of the art happening all around, how could you NOT become excited and go out and dance and have fun? As much as humans create art, it creates us too. Come to a Produkt event and you will find a dance floor full of smiling faces rocking out. And did I mention the hotties?

Produkt has already proved successful with the ongoing series of Analog nights which occur the last Friday of every month at Rebar; next up is the May 30th Analog IX: I Like Orange and Techno. Their newest conquest is Gruvsessionz which will take place the second Friday of every month from here on out at Heavens Nightclub. This Friday is the debut of the new monthly which showcases not only resident and guest DJs Lee Jonas, Awggie, Richie Spoons, Pressha, and Goner but also the holographic art of Lazer Guided Visions artist Raja, fire performances by the Womanipuria Fire Troop, and experimental bellydance theatre by the Hands of Kali. All this action will be documented by professional photographers and journalists and of course, the Produkt dancers will be out in force, as smart and sassy as they are beautiful. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Gruvsessionz is free before 10PM, $5 until 11PM, and $7 until 2AM, and if you haven’t been to Heavens Nightclub in Pioneer Square, then you are missing out on one of the biggest and best dance floors in Seattle. Come and experience the encompassing experience that Produkt creates; immerse yourself in music, dance, art, fire, and best of all- a group of positive partyers who bring it on and hold it down. See you on the dance floor.

Now this rumor is completely true:

All of you who went to One Family Gathering last weekend already know about the cops’ “questionable” behavior, but now the major press is getting in on it too. Festival founder and Seattle resident Bud Weather was interviewed by Rolling Stone Magazine for almost an hour yesterday about the illegal police action(s) that went down last weekend around and at the unity-themed One Family Gathering music festival in eastern Oregon.

Stay tuned for more details.

We fought the law, and… (ah that’s a stupid song anyway)

Last Thursday I showed up to Midtempo Madness at the new Pioneer Square nightclub Crimson C at 10PM, my normal time of arrival, being the total nerd of the club scene and all. I fully expected to, like usual, be the first one on the dance floor and get the party going. Pushing my way past the smokers outside to the heart of the club, I realized that this party didn’t need me to get it going- the dance floor was already packed! It had started like wildfire with NoiseMaker on the decks and this was no ease-into-it night: to my thrill, everyone was getting down. My purpose in life is to get people to get down, on the dance floor or otherwise, but this crowd, with a stellar female presence, needed no help from me at all. The sheer excitement for the lineup had everyone buzzing and smiling and dancing, club nerd one and all.

After yet a-whompwhompwhomp-nother inciting and enticing set from Seattle’s funky crunkbrother NoiseMaker, rapper Souleye and DJ team BLVD proceeded to lay it down thick; the dance floor went wild and minds were blown right out of that little club. You can always tell when the experience of new music has gotten under the skin of someone: moon eyes, mouth hanging slightly open, distinct lack of articulate vocabulary, palms upturned in a gesture of thrill and disbelief: what do you MEAN I have never heard these guys before? The combination of Souleye’s gritty and organic rap lines laid over the twisting electronic loops of BLVD is an anti-match made in deep in the human consciousness; we crave this variety. Sameness is a safe and warm feeling, but we don’t settle for contentment. We want to be on fire, and to light it we need originality, diversity, and risk. We need this music.

I can’t explain electronic music, but I can explain what it does. In this case, your mind starts drifting off to the ether-sphere of sound with the long, guitar-studded electronic mash of BLVD and then is brought back to earth by the gritty and genuine words of a poet. It’s the mix, the to-and-fro, the take-it-away and give-it-back-again that takes music from being a constant good thing to being absolutely great. The boys of BLVD and Souleye have discovered this thrilling melange of earth and ether. It speaks so well to the human audience because we too are part heaven and part earth, part spirit and part body, part electronic sound waves and part rap. The dance floor of Crimson C spread right up through the tables and bar area as no one could resist the hot gooey bass. And damn that boy can rap!

Then, holy Thursday night, came Vibesquad, a producer whose bass takes no absolutely no prisoners whatsoever. I thought the whole of Crimson C was about to shake right down to rubble, leaving only the dancers and DJ there- and no one would even have noticed, so powerful is the spell of this DJ. The twisted, mutated sounds; the crackles, beeps, growls, and thumps don’t just speak to us alive out here in the world, they insist that we open our eyes and move. In the presence of Vibesquad, you have no choice but to exist in the present. Everything else goes away and we lap up the sounds, like starving refugees from society, our bodies as our spoons.

I am an unofficial ambassador of crunk, you might say, and had been telling my friends about this show for weeks and insisting they go. All through the night people kept coming up to me saying, “Oh wow, Shilo, you were right, this is AMAZING! I can’t even believe it!” Then a little shake of the head and the aforementioned glazed look of new music discovery. That is also what I live for- to share with others the transformative power of music that I have experienced in my life. Why do I, why do we, love it so much? Why do we love the thick, dirty bass and the filthy beats so much? I may not be able to explain it but I sure as hell can understand it. I want you to as well, but be warned- once you go off the deep bass end, there is no going back. Once you put on the suit of Captain Crunk, no other electronic music will quite do it for you: not drum and bass, not dub step, and certainly not house.

So what is this blond girl going on about? Why is she so ’bout it-’bout it with this music which doesn’t really have a name but is seeping up and over the nation from the West Coast and Colorado and conquering dance floors wherever it goes? Find out for yourself at Dirty Velvet May 16 at Nectar when Noisemaker, Novatron, and Kraddy and OOah from THE GLITCH MOB start a musical riot in Fremont. Buy tickets now; the show will sell out, and it is quite possible that people will be falling from the balcony, going into spastic dance fevers, twitching their minds all the way over to new dimensions, and having so much fun their hearts explode and they wake up in their yard. It might even happen to you, so get ready for your next life-changing music experience.

Do I have to say it? See you on the dance floor.

Local drummer Jeremy Jones will be hitting it hard with his quintet at a CD release party at the Triple Door this Thursday, May 1st. I’m a huge fan of Jeremy, who’s become one of the hottest jazz drummers in Seattle in his five years since he moved to the area. Jeremy has quickly become one of the first-call players for many local jazz groups.

In full disclosure, Jeremy holds down the drum seat in my own quintet more often than not, but that has little bearing on my reasons behind writing this post. Ever since Jeremy gave me his first demo of his original music I was sucked in by the sheer passion of his playing.

This Thursday, Jeremy brings a powerhouse line-up of many of Seattle’s best musicians to the stage of what is arguably the best music venue in town. Joining him are Thomas Marriott on trumpet, Steve Treseler on sax, John Hansen on piano and the venerable Phil Sparks on bass.

So get off the couch and get your butt out to the Triple Door on May 1st to catch Jeremy Jones’ CD release party. Seriously, it’s great music and it’s the Triple Door. That means good sight lines, excellent sound, tight as hell rhythms, espresso martinis and Wild Ginger fragrant duck. I’m sorry, but if you’re a local jazz fan and not there you’re just plain stupid.

You may not be able to crawl around the streets of Seattle six nights a week, feverishly searching for electric local artists that stir the heart and entice the mind, but I can, and I do, and then I bring them to you in my weekly report: From the Streets of Seattle. You are in for a sweet sticky treat this time, as I introduce you to a most-loved underground artist, an inspired DJ whom everyone seems to list as their top friend on MySpace and no one ever wants to miss: NoiseMaker.

Every time NoiseMaker (a.k.a. Joshua Hale) steps up to the decks I know it will be a crazy fuck-up of a night, and so does Seattle. He always brings dancers out to the floor and then sets them on fire with his slamdown of sound. NoiseMaker is my favorite DJ in this city, which is a big fat salty ocean full of DJs. I may say this to my other electronic wizard friends (sorry yall) but with Josh I really mean it, and I’m not alone. Heaps of other DJs, promoters, photographers, artists, and go-go dancers in the city have declared the same sentiment: NoiseMaker is their favorite DJ in Seattle.

In his current demo Psy-Breaks (listen to and download a free teaser here), a ridiculous warping of musical fusion takes place. On one track Bananarama’s Cruel Summer transmorphs into an entirely new animal, a sweaty, snarling, twisted season that makes you run to the dance floor, disrobing all the paraphernalia of the presupposed reality of life on the way. Get familiar with this DJ so you can say that you knew him when, that you were dancing under a bridge in the freezing cold at five in the morning with the soundmaster of tomorrow.

So what’s up with this DJ?

NoiseMaker ignites crowds like the anti-fireman of the sound revolution, a peaceful warrior and artist who sets to flames all who hear his unique and expressive style. His weapon is a smart-bomb of beats, an imaginative interpretation of music which is virtually an orgy of genres from glitch to hip-hop to dub step to 80’s pop hits to drum and bass to thug rap from the eastern suburbs of Paris. His sets are always fresh and full of provocative melodic contortions; NoiseMaker owns the word bold. Unafraid to take risks, he chops up everything from Rage Against the Machine to Justin Timberlake with no apologies and with much love from his audience. He is not constrained by any one musical variety and his artful combination of ancient and futuristic sounds speaks loudly to those in the world living for the present. On NoiseMaker’s dance floor tribal drums blend effortlessly with cascading electronic tones, songs from animal mouths are laid over your great-grandchildren’s cut-up bass mixes, and pulsing jet airplane crashes collide seamlessly with the dark layers of deep, emotive aggression you would find on a post-apocalyptic carousel ride. You better hold on tight kids, this is the red pill.

The Seattle crowd salivates for his thick, heavy bass; fuck that, the obese bass, the shamelessly sticky grinding ribcage-rattling thunderfunk that drives humans into transcendent madness. NoiseMaker does not settle for music as solely an aural experience; his sets engage the whole body, from dancing toes to the tips of sweaty, slinging hair. It’s not just the random masses whose unconscious inner artists pull them shaking and vibing to the dance floor in reverence of this commander of crunk; countless other DJs are always on his floor getting down, constant proof not only of NoiseMaker’s talent but also of his appeal as a performer and his ability to connect with the beat-hungry souls who crave the palpable energy exchange that he creates. He never fails to stimulate his ever-present crowd, his dynamic musical designs produce an environment where die-hard fans collide with wanderers who step onto the dance floor with, “who the, how the, what the hell is this?” on their tongues in response to his original and engaging performance, and the room explodes with the passion of the new, the bold, and the fresh, which NoiseMaker loves to deliver- you can see it in his eyes.

Most exciting of all is the fact that NoiseMaker’s sound continues to develop and his contribution to the Seattle and West Coast electronic music scenes progressively deepens with each night he spins. Besides being involved with the Seattle DJ collective Beatcon Crew and the monthly dance mania and brain-killer Spy Party, he has also performed alongside such talents as BreakBeatBuddha, Novatron, Kadeejah Streets, KJ Sawka, Skoi Sirius, Chris Fortier, DJ Crime, Influenza, Dig Dug, Psychoz, DJ Pyro, and many others who are stretching the definition of music into a new and exhilarating creature. The future of art is happening right now, and it sounds like NoiseMaker.

Try to be as fearless and original in your life as NoiseMaker is with the music he throws. It’s no secret that I heart the glitch more than most things on earth; it is the embrace of futuristic sounds in combination with the deep bass that I respond to, the brash back-talking ethos of Hell yes, I’m pushing buttons- and look what it does to my dance floor, the musical representation of the post-modern void of a world we live in which could end any second with the press of another kind of button. I am far from alone, and this revolution will not be televised. Come and experience with us dance rioters the mmm-mmm-good glitch and NoiseMaker this Thursday night at Midtempo Madness at Crimson C with Souleye, BLVD, and Vibesquad. This lineup is so sick, it’s practically dying. I’ll be at home: on the front of the dance floor, that is. See you there.

Last night around 6:15 PM across from Neumo’s was a long line of Seattle women: pretty, professional, heel-wearing, yabba-yabba gabbing women, waiting in the rain to get into the monthly event by Girl Power Hour. April’s installment was at The Sole Repair Shop and the theme was Girl Power Hour Goes Green; the ladies were lining up not only to network with other similar creatures but to learn new ways of living sustainably and creating and environmentally conscious world.

The night was very multi-faceted, a perfect match for the attendees who no doubt know a thing or two about doing multiple things at once. I talked to women from many different professional arenas: artists, relationship counselors, lawyers, businesswomen, models, and more. The turnout was great, it was almost a stretch to create floorspace for the sustainable fashion show by The Finerie. The women really responded to the chi-chi eco-chique that filled the floor with purple silk dresses and other sustainable fabrics (overheard: “Silk is sustainable? YES!”). Local nibbles, chocolates from Theo Chocolate, and organic donuts from Mighty O were also a hit, as well as the lavender and kumquat cocktails made from Square One Organic Vodka. All through the night Seattle’s first “Green Deejay” Tecumseh of Bamboo Beats played easy salsa rhythms, henna tattoos were created, and tips on how to conserve energy were projected up onto the wall.

The theme was green but the focus of the night, and of Girl Power Hour, is networking for cool women; getting like-minded chicks together to meet and make alliances, to promote each other in a man’s world (and yes, it still is, in case you were wondering). For this Girl Power Hour founders Darnell Sue and Samantha Lawton deserve major props; they are trying to create a New Girls Club to promote females in the way that the Old Boys Club does for the fellows. Women and networking go together like, well, women and networking: we LOVE to talk, and we are good at it. Girl Power Hour attempts to harness this female talent into more than yakking about celebrities’ fashion choices or what-he-said; in fact the women of Seattle can talk ourselves to a world where women help each other out and up, cocktail in hand and confidence in our smiles.

Next month’s Girls Go Green event takes place May 15 at Belltown’s See Sound Lounge and supports The American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Movement: expect lots of red dresses, pole dancing by D’Vine Movement, and beats from a very talented (and very lucky) DJ Jeromy Nail. More monthly cocktail schmoozes are in the works; check out the Girl Power Hour website for more details, to R.S.V.P. for events, sign up for newsletters, and find out how you can get involved with this dynamic group of women.

THURSDAY:

• Kick your weekend off in an environmentally sensitive way: take the bus to Girl Power Hour Goes Green at The Sole Repair Shop up on Capitol Hill. Learn how to make conscious choices about fashion, food, and much more- but you have to be female to join in the fun.
• The Wood Brothers share their blend of bluegrass and roots music at the Triple Door; I really love the food and music combination especially when it goes down easy like this talented sibling duo.
• Feeling like a little off-to-the-side hip-hop for your Thursday night? Pigeon John graces Nectar and brings his particular and peculiar brand of rhymin’ to Seatown; it’s his CD release party with Ohmega Watts in the house as well.
• Cap off Thursday night-where else?-at Contour and dance into the tiny hours with local deejay legends Mark F-R, Flave, Llyod Tatum, Noisemaker, and Chicks Ahoy (a.k.a. two really hot girl deejays spinning a little punked-out 80’s tasting mash-ups). You got somethin’ better to do?

FRIDAY:

• Soon-to-be-famous killer rock band Derby from P-Town lights up The Sunset in Ballard. Haven’t heard of them? Get to Ballard tonight and discover your next favorite band.
• For all your reggae-heads out there, Clinton Fearon and the Boogie Brown Band lively up Nectar Lounge once again; this is always a good show if you don’t want to go too crazy but still want to get down and groove.
• Mount Eerie at The Vera Project comes very highly recommended as showcasing the true artistry of Phil Elverum not just some other crapola musician. It is all ages however, so you have been warned…

SATURDAY

• For a sweaty Saturday night, head to Neumo’s for The Teenagers who will be filling the space with much pop mania and good vibes- even if they are still wearing training wheels.
• I love the High Dive and it’s gonna be bangin’ on Saturday night with powerhouses The Valley, Iceage Cobra, and the DT’s from Bellingham; if you like your rock and roll raw and dirty, this night was made for you.
• Snoochie Boochies 3 at the CHAC isn’t just a fevered dance party and record release party for DJ4NORML; they’re also donating all proceeds from the event to the effort to legalize marijuana, just in time for April 20th- Rick Steves would approve.
• To continue celebrating the annual stoner’s holiday, head down to Crimson C, the new club dujour, for the party whose name leaves no need for an explanation: We Thought If We Were Going To Throw A Party, Wee’d Need A Theme. Potheads dancing? This oughtta be good.

I went to The Animals At Night CD Release Party at the Nectar Lounge last night and wrote a comment about it here at culturemob.com. There’s a special message for all musicians about something The Animals At Night did to promote themselves. I think everyone should consider it.

Here’s Graig Markel (on keys), Joe Patterson (drums) and their special guests performing live last night.

If you happen to run into Graig walking down the street. Stop and say hi to him because he’s the type of guy that will take a second to say “what’s up!”

You can always find more events at CultureMob.com