Earlier this week local arts magazine and champion City Arts announced that they’d be hosting the first ever City Arts festival this October at venues around Seattle. But don’t let the word “first” trick you into thinking this is some amateur event, for their inaugural festival City Arts has crafted a line-up filled with national, international and local talent that rivals established festivals like Bumbershoot and Capitol Hill Block Party.

Just take a peek at an abridged list of the line-up:

Belle and Sebastian / Blue Scholars / She and Him / Big Boi / Gogol Bordello / Blitzen Trapper / The Vaselines / Roky Erickson / Brother Ali / Foals / Dum Dum Girls / Macklemore with Ryan Lewis / The Weepies / Fresh Espresso / The Head and The Heart / The Maldives / Sera Cahoone / The Atomic Bombshells / Brent Amaker and The Rodeo / Tilson / Star Anna and Her Laughing Dogs / Head Like A Kite / And Many More …

I chatted with Leigh Sims from the Festival this week and she told me what initially was an idea for a singular event to celebrate the beginning of “the fall indoor arts season,” blossomed into a full-on festival because there were just so many great ideas flowing. Not only does the October date separate this from most of the summer-based Pacific Northwest music festivals, the spirit of collaboration and creating once-in-a-lifetime events is also distinctive. At the fest you’ll have a chance to see Belle & Sebastian at Beanroya Hall with strings, Head Like a Kite with The Atomic Bombshells and Brent Amaker & the Rodeo for a rowdy sexy night and an all-star local hip hop show featuring Blue Scholars, Macklemore, Mash Hall and Fresh Espresso, plus out-of-towner Brother Ali. And that’s just a few … you’ve also got The Weepies with The Head and the Heart, Roky Erickson with The Maldives and a promising event called “Poetry and Hip Hop Church.”

Wrist bands go on sale tomorrow for the festival and I’d pay the $125 for VIP Access to guarantee entrance to the big events.

Capitol Hill Block Party ::: photo by Josh Lovseth

It’s all-summer-festivals all-the-time in Seattle right now. We’re still recovering from Sasquatch last weekend. Bumbershoot’s line-up was announced yesterday and today we get the initial line-up for the first three day Capitol Hill Block Party. The line-up features some big name national headliners including MGMT and Jack White’s Dead Weather as well as a bevy of local hip-hop.

Here’s who we know will be playing Capitol Hill Block Party this year, we’ll keep you posted as more performers are announced.

Friday:

MGMT, Holy Fuck, Yeasayer, Shabazz Palaces, Bear in Heaven, Unnatural Helpers, Fences, Champagne Champagne, Head Like a Kite, Naomi Punk, Macklemore, USF, Chris Pureka, Mahjongg, Jaguar Love

Saturday:

Atmosphere, Blonde Redhead, !!!, Nig Marchers, Obits, Blitzen
Trapper, Mad Rad, Eastern Grip, Zola Jesus, Seattle Hip Hop Showcase with: Grynch/Spaceman/State of the Artist, Here We Go Magic, Past Lives, Drowning Men, Thee Satisfaction, Beach Fossils, Cold Lake, Black Breath, Grand Hallway

Sunday:

Dead Weather, Blue Scholars, Harlem, Fresh Espresso, The Dutchess and the Duke, Victor Shade, The Globes, Truckasaurus, Cynic, Villagers, Flexions, Police Teeth, Steel Tigers of Death

Tickets are available now at: https://thestranger.com/blockpartytickets.

You can purchase single day tickets in advance for $23 or $60 for a three-day pass. At the gate you can only purchase single day tickets for $25.

People of New York City! Music bloggers who are lucky enough to be going to NYC for CMJ! Bookending this years CMJ festivities are two showcases featuring the talented bands and local labels of the Pacific Northwest, and we assure you, they are very worthy of your time. The Maldives, who tour minimally outside of Seattle are coming special for the Mt. Fuji showcase, so please don’t miss your chance to see them. And I think you’ve probably heard of a little Seattle label called Sub Pop and it’s offshoot Hardly Art…

October 20th at Bruar Falls, 245 Grand St.
Mt Fuji CMJ Showcase featuring
10.15pm Whore Moans
11pm Maldives
11.45pm Black Whales
(See the poster above)

October 24th at the Mercury Lounge
The Sub Pop/Hardly Art CMJ Showcase featuring
7pm Unnatural Helpers
8pm Dum Dum Girls
9pm Moondoggies
10pm The Dutchess & The Duke
11pm Golden Triangle
12am Pissed Jeans
1am Obits
2am Male Bonding

KEXP will be there broadcasting live performances every day and hosting a film festival. Locals the Blakes and the Moondoggies will both be stopping by to get in a session, in addition to bands like the XX. It’s actually a pretty wide ranging lineup, very much in the spirit of the fest.

There are a few other showcases which will will be featuring other Seattle area bands including:

October 20th at the Santos House Party Basement
10.30 Flexions
11.30 Unnatural Helpers

October 20th at the Suffolk
9.00 Tennis Pro

October 21st at Wicked Willies
9.00pm The Purrs

October 22nd at Googies Lounge
8.00pm Kasey Anderson

October 22nd at Union Hall
11.00pm Army Navy

October 23rd at Googies Lounge
7.30pm Kate Tucker

October 23rd at Crash Mansion (Downstairs)
9.15pm The Blakes
10.45pm Army Navy

October 24th at Union Pool
7.40pm Flexions

October 24th at the Gramercy Theater
10.10pm Blue Scholars

October 24th at the Suffolk
10pm D. Black
11.00 Champagne Champagne

This is your chance NYC to see a number of bands we’ve helped to get you to know and there’s plenty of talent to chew on from those listings alone.  Of course there is an insane number of other non-Seattle bands playing CMJ, you can find the complete schedule for the festival online.

Blue Scholars at Caffe Vita ::: Photo’s by Josh Lovseth

Today Seattle’s Blue Scholars are releasing their first collection of new songs in two years, an EP titled OOF! that is also a collaboration with Caffe Vita. The EP is six new Blue Scholars songs, plus the instrumental versions of each of those songs, for a total of twelve songs. The beats that Sabzi put together for this record were strongly influenced by Island style dance music, and in “HI-808″ Geologic’s words bring the Island attitude to life.

The music video they made for “HI-808″ has been receiving some much deserved attention and play time recently:

“HI-808″ - Blue Scholars

As a part of the promotion for this record today the band is traveling around the city playing impromptu street shows at locations that are announced only an hour beforehand on their twitter account @bluescholars. I caught their post noon show at Caffe Vita just as the sun was peeking through the clouds and a crowd of around 25 had gathered. Tonight they’ll be having a release party at Ohana in Belltown where I imagine between bites of sushi they’ll treat to crowd to something special.

I highly recommend you at least stream the entire OOF! EP over at Matson’s blog while reading his exhaustive coverage and review the record. He thinks it’s the best thing they’ve done. You can get the physical copy with special packaging at Caffe Vita or from the Scholars themselves, or online in a digital format at your preferred retailer.

Blue Scholars along with fellow Massline veterans Common Market start their three day joint residency of Neumos tonight, and the first two shows are sold out. Tonight Common Market continues his experiment of holding it down with live funk band Vunt Foom for just this one night, while electronic act Truckasaurus starts the party. Tomorrow and Monday lucky T-Town boy Macklemore snags an opening spot, with Sunday’s bill being filled out by The Physics. Monday Dyme Def get’s an opportunity to steal (or at least start) the show.

Tickets for Monday’s show are $15 and it is 21+.

The New Faces ::: Photo by Josh

Once again this year Seattle is sending a bevy of bands to the biggest fest in the west in form of SXSW, as well as having a Seattle themed day party while in Austin. At this year’s party local hip hop is ably represented in the form of Massline veterans Blue Scholars and Common Market along with party starters Champagne Champagne. Seattle themed parties in previous years haven’t been so inclusive (for whatever reason), so I’m glad to see a wider swath of what Seattle has to offer represented. For the complete schedule and RSVP details (which are also in the poster below) visit the Mayor’s Seattle Music Office site. Sadly, as previously noted we won’t be making it to Austin this year… the economy’s got us by the balls too.

For those of us who won’t be making it, this Friday March 6 a group of those bands, Champagne Champagne, Hey Marseilles, and the New Faces with the addition of Battle Hymns all take the stage for the SXSeattle Sendoff Show at the Tractor Tavern in Ballard. All of these bands have the SOTS stamp of approval and represent a cross section of the best popular music that Seattle has to offer in 2009. Get tickets online.

Since there were so many incredible local releases this year, it would’ve been negligent to not have a solely local Best Songs of 2008 list. I expanded the idea of ‘local’ to go beyond Seattle and include our musical neighbors to the south, Portland. Hope you enjoy my first Best of list of 2008, more lists coming soon!

1. The Moondoggies - Changin’

2. Wild Orchid Children - Birth of a Cabin

3. The Dutchess and The Duke - Resevoir Park

4. Kay Kay and His Weathered Undergound - Night of The Star Child’s Funk

5. The Whore Moans - Nerve Tonic!

6. J. Tillman - Steel on Steel

7. The Fleet Foxes- Mykonos

8. Sera Cahoone - Only As The Day Is Long

9. See Me River - Don’t Pray For Blood

10. The Hands - Praying Hands Make Fist (Or Be Chopped Off)

11. Blue Scholars - Butter & Guns

12. Bark Hide and Horn - Trumpeter Swan

13. Thee Emergency - Hopped Up For The Git Down 

14. The Builders & The Butchers - Bringin’ Home The Rain

15. A Gun That Shoots Knives - Stay in School

16. Shy In Sunshine - Recognition

17. We Wrote The Book on Connectors - Mimosas

18. Starfucker - Pop Song

19. The New Faces - Impulse

20. Hey Marseilles - Rio

(p.s.) According to my Itunes, my most listened to local track of 2008 is Kay Kay’s: Night of The Star Child’s Funk.

Starfucker at the Greenhouse ::: Photo by Josh

Portland band Starfucker gives us a taste of their forthcoming LP. The song, titled “German Love,” is off their first LP set to arrive in September. It’s a winner. |dl it at End Hits|

Dream Lineup: Wilco announce opening dates that include Fleet Foxes. The dates in August (18, 20, 21, 23) are all in the Northwest. |pitchfork|

Good stuff out this week. Team Gina and The Notwist have new ones you should sample, and the Bowerbirds are nationally reissuing their Hymns for a Dark Horse, an album that comes with our highest recommendation.

Oh yeah, and the album with that inescapable song “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry came out. Seriously 107.7fm. You don’t have to play it every hour. Did you know she used to be a Christian singer, albiet with a different name? I refuse to link to her site or give her any tag love. Ugh.

Big acts are announcing their late summer and fall dates. Here are a few future Seattle club dates, post Capitol Hill Block Party that I think are notable (this is my first time really thinking past that weekend):

Conor Oberst @ Neumos on July 30
Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, Awesome and BOAT @ Neumos July 31
CANCELED! The Faint @ Showbox Aug 2
POSTPONED! Stars @ Showbox Aug 23
Bon Iver @ Neumos Aug 30
Okkervil River @ Showbox Sept 17
CSS @ Showbox Sept 18
Blue Scholars and Hieroglyphics @ Showbox 26 & 27
Raconteurs @ WaMu Theatre on Sept 19
Black Kids @ Neumos on Oct 10
Leo Kottke, Louden Wainwright III @ The Moore Oct 12
Lykke Li @ Neumos on Oct 29

With Bumbershoot happening at it’s end I kinda think August will be a slow month for big acts. And I’m okay with that. Being outside of the club in the hot months is fine by me.

And in not local but still notable news …

Chinese Democracy does exist. And it’s leaking. And people are saying it’s actually good. Oh boy! |Metal Sucks|

 
Kay Kay and His Weathered Undergound ::: Photo by Abbey

How this one slipped by us, if it is happening, we will never know. Blue Scholars and Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground (along with Minus the Bear) playing a free concert on the UW’s HUB lawn in less than an hour? Supposedly so! We can’t find an official press release, but a few other blogs are talking about it.

In PDX instead of bake sales they have indie rock shows and bands like the Thermals play to make sure elementary kids have a music teacher or usable loaner instruments to practice with.

For this years 2nd Annual Portland Music in the Schools benefit show, a bevy of hot local acts are on the bill including the Blue Scholars headlining and PDX’s YACHT and The Shaky Hands in support.

Here are the important details of how Portland loves (and you can love) their public schools music program:

Music in the Schools Benefit Show
at The Crystal Ballroom in Portland, OR
Friday, May 30
Students $12/General Public $17
Doors at 6:30pm with the schedule going as follows:
Typhoon
The Shaky Hands
YACHT
[quick break]
State of Mind
Gray Matters
*SPECIAL GUEST*
Onlyone and Illaculate of Sandpeople
Blue Scholars

Find tickets at the benefit’s official site.

It’s sad that public school music programs need benefit concerts to provide what the adequate funding, but it’s great to see a community taking it into their own hands to ensure a proper education for their children.