Belles of the Sound

The Gorge in George

My favorite thing about attending concerts at the Gorge is that for the extent of your stay, your only job is to be weird. No matter the musical genre, all concert attendees get weird for a 24- to 72-hour period. What does Gorge Weird look like?

Gorge Weird looks like a sea of tents and cars in a giant grass field in the middle of nowhere, and everyone seems to think this is normal.

Gorge Weird looks like a bunch of strangers setting up tents four feet from each other, initially ignoring one another, but becoming BFFs by the  second case of beer.

Gorge Weird looks like a man named Grizzly wandering the fields wearing only a sarong looking for his one true love, in complete faith he will meet her that day. True story.

Gorge Weird looks like multiple men of no relation or acquaintance with weird names, wearing skirts and wandering the fields on various missions.

Gorge Weird looks like a van adorned with discos lights that shows up to every concert – country, rock and folk alike —  blaring techno music from morning to, well, the next morning, for a mob of uber-stoned ravers.

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The 2nd Annual Heineken City Arts Festival 2011 Poster

Piling onto Shannon’s post yesterday about all the concert’s coming up this summer, there is one fall concert festival that you need to start planning for now!

Kicking off October 20-22, 2011, is the 2nd annual Heineken City Arts Fest in Seattle. With more than 20 venues across the city and a killer lineup featuring Ozomatli (my personal fave), Robyn, Built to Spill and more (full list below), you just can’t go wrong! Full festival passes went on sale last Friday, August 5 and cost $69. After August 24, you’ll be able to purchase tickets to individual shows, but you can bet that the prices won’t be as economical, especially if you’re planning to hit up several shows.

In addition to the abundant musical selections throughout the festival, this year they have expanded to include performing and visual arts as well!

This festival is brought to Seattle by City Arts Magazine and more than 23,000 tickets were sold last year, its inaugural year! So, act quick and get yours before they are gone!

Full lineups after the break. (more…)

This is how I feel right now:

Which is why today, I’m going to be bad blogger and submit a cop-out post. What is a cop-out post, you ask? A cop-out post occurs when I don’t have the mental bandwidth or attention span to generate a worthwhile rant or expose, so I throw some information on to a page, and hope that my readers will forgive me. Shame on me, you deserve better and I’m sorry. I promise my future posts will be much more engaging. If you could see me now, and realize how much I actually do look like the lady in the above cartoon, you would understand. Maybe even have a little sympathy.

But moving on, I’ve complied a little list of Seattle happenings this week that you may not have heard of. All the events are a bit random, sort of like this post. But if one person participates in Beard Papa’s Cream Puff Munch-Off, and reports back to the Belles about his or her experience, this may be the most worthwhile post I’ve ever written. Especially if the reader in question snaps of photo of Beard Papa. Cause you know he’s got to be crazy looking.

Cider and oyster tasting prefaced by presentation by acclaimed food writer Rowan Jacobsen

Today — Palace Ballroom — 7 p.m. — $25

“[Rowan Jacobsen will] be joined tonight in a conversation about terroir with local chef/author Greg Atkinson, Northwest seafood icon Jon Rowley, and cider connoisseur Sharon Campbell (of Tieton Cider Works). An oyster and cider tasting will follow the talk.

Wingman Pre-Launch Happy Hour

Wednesday September 22 — 6:30 p.m. — Above Pintxo — Free w/ app download

“Come enjoy free booze and food, win hot door prizes, and help test and launch the new Wingman iPhone application at a Belltown secret spot. Tech fans, social media mavens and their friends are welcome and invited!

Capacity is limited to 150 people, so please RSVP if you plan on attending. Remember to download and sign up for the app before you arrive! Point your mobile phone to http://install.justwin…/ or find it in the iPhone App Store.

Launching soon and in Seattle only, Wingman is the new location-aware iPhone app that makes it easy to flirt and mingle with real people who hang out at the same places as you. Filling a niche somewhere between mobile dating and social networking, Wingman allows you to express interest anonymously with people who’ve been to the same places as you. Like maybe the hottie you’ve been sizing up at Stumptown, or the guy at the bus stop each morning, or the elusive office intern (yikes!). And because Wingman integrates with Foursquare, there’s no need to check-in twice: get your latest badge on Foursquare, but then use Wingman to get your flirt on.”

Beard Pap’s Cream Puff Munch-Off

Thursday September 23rd — Little Red Hen — 6:30 p.m. — Free

“Watch Seattle musicians Matt Badger of Ravenna Woods, Andrew Chapman of The Keeper, and one lucky bearded reader chow down on Beard Papa’s notoriously messy cream puffs for a chance to win a Beard Papa’s gift card, a barber shop visit and the 2010 Voracious Munch-Off Title! Those rooting them on will gain a lifetime of memories, made even more indelible by the Hen’s cheap, stiff drinks and pan-Asian (by way of Texas) cuisine.”

Fremont Oktoberfest Brew Ha-Ha 5K

Sunday, September 26th — Solstice Plaza — 10 a.m. — $20-$30

“Why? There’s a 5K that mostly runs along the Burke Gilman trail and lower Fremont as part of the Fremont Oktoberfest.
If that’s not enough, there is a beer garden within close proximity of the finish line (it is Oktoberfest, after all). If that’s not enough, the race is dog friendly and your dog is also allowed in the beer garden. If that’s not enough and you’re feeling out of shape, there also is a beer belly division (women 175 lbs+ and men 220 lbs+) with separate prizes. If running isn’t really your gig, there is a separate street scramble that starts 30 minutes later (or if you’re fast enough, you can do both).”

If you participate in any of the above, be sure to tell us about it! You know how we love hearing from you

Oktoberfest is all around – sneaking up on us with crisp cool nights, a hint of harvest color and of course, grocery shelves stocked with enticing and delicious fall ales. The season is not all about dark brews and neighborhood festivals, we can’t leave out the food. And what goes better with a festive Oktoberfest celebration… than sausage?

Redhook Ale Brewery in Woodinville is inviting you to celebrate with them this weekend, Saturday, October 18 at Sausagefest. Leave it to Redhook to pull through with one of the best pairings of food and beverage in the world. The festivities also include live music and FOOTBALL (UW vs. Nebraska) on the jumbo screen.

For $5 pre sale (which includes a festival mug), toast to another summer come and gone in the Northwest on the lovely grounds of Redhook as it is transformed into a vibrant festival that’s all about meat, beer and music. Tickets can be purchased through BrownPaperTickets.com and at Redhook’s Forecaster’s Pub. $10 tickets at the gate day of the event. Tokens will be sold on-site for $1 per token (no pre sale tokens). Food samples and beer will be purchased by attendees with tokens at each vendor booth. Off-site parking with shuttle service available to and from the festival.

But more about the meat, local food vendors serving meat-centric dishes include, Rain Shadow Meats, Dante’s Inferno Dogs, Salumi, Smokin’ Pete’s BBQ and Skillet Street Food just to name a few. Salumi will be serving a salami sampler, Uli’s Famous Sausage with a sausage sampler, Fletcher’s ESB brats will be served at the Forecaster’s Booth, and Dante’s inferno Dogs will have a bacon wrapped brat and jalapeno and cheese sausage.

Redhook is donating one dollar from every Sausagefest ticket sold and 10 percent of all vendor merchandise to the Market Foundation which raises funds to support the four human service agencies located in the Pike Place Market: the Pike Market Medical Clinic, Senior Center, Child Care and Preschool, and the Downtown Food Bank.

I’m feeling festive already… and hungry! Enjoy, and let the Belles know if you head out.

What happens when you combine a guitar-playing hobbit, a regenerating beard, an unassuming bumblebee, a fashionable charmer, a little girl, a time-keeping robot, the unintentionally funny one, and the mature teacher? You get a damn fine mix of people and instruments that make up Seattle’s-own Exohxo.

An eight-piece pop/rock band, Exohxo is comprised of Danny on vocals and guitar, Jasen on vocals and guitar, Jason on bass and vocals, Kyle on keyboards and vocals, Johnny on drums, Hiromi on violin, Elizabeth on viola, and Benjamin on violin.

The band is the brainchild of members of the group Speaker Speaker. Toward the end of 2008, Danny and Jasen wrote and recorded songs for Exohxo’s first album, Other Ghosts. Live performances around the Emerald City, and airplay on The End (107.7), as well as articles in online magazines, The Stranger and Seattle Weekly have given the band a certain amount of local fame.

The Internet played a big part in getting the band together, with some members responding to craigslist want ads, and another who answered a request on Twitter. The original plan was to have an always-changing succession of members, but once everyone started playing together, it worked so well that they’ve been together ever since.

A month ago, Exohxo recorded an EP with Conrad Uno (of The Presidents of the United States of America, Mudhoney and the Posies), and created a five-song EP called The Pitfalls, the Possibilities, the Peril and the Promise. The album varies stylistically and includes everything from ballads to driving rock, and features nearly 30 people when you include a ten-piece choir, a string quartet and a thirteen-piece orchestra.

After their very first live show, The Stranger’s Megan Seling had this to say, “it was as promising and charming as any first show should be for a band that has existed only about two months.” Others have compared Exohxo with the Hold Steady and Arcade Fire.

Check out their music on MySpace or Facebook, and the songs from the new EP here. Not enough Exohxo for you? Go see them in person on June 3^rd at Neumos at 8pm, and get ready for something different.

Ok, I need volunteers…to live vicariously through.

I’m serious, I was just perusing the Seattle Times webpage and discovered their Outdoor Concert Highlights piece, and got very lethargic.  Alas, funding and timing are not on my side this summer, but if I can’t go to any of them, then at least I can talk about them in hopes that someone will go and share some highlights with their fellow Belles of the Sound friends.

Now, I definitely don’t consider myself a connoisseur of music.  I totally appreciate all the different genres (yes, that includes country), but I usually don’t find out about local bands unless someone wacks me over the head with them, so to speak.  I blame this partially on the fact that I have not yet replaced my car radio that was stolen the better part of two years ago now, so the only opportunity I have to listen to the radio is when I wake up in the morning.  And who am I kidding, I usually am still half asleep anyway.

But I digress.  Back to the music.  There look to be some pretty cool concerts in store for Seattle this summer.  Among them include the ever popular Sasquatch (of which I am embarrassed to say that I have never been to), as well as Bumbershoot , of which I have been to and which holds a special place in my heart because it is where I discovered Rodrigo y Gabriela.  And, as the article mentions, these two just so happen to be coming to a concert near you (at the Marymoor Park that is) this August 13th.

Other highlights according to my humble opinion include: Kings of Leon and Bad Religion at the Gorge, oh and Dave Matthews Band (that goes without saying).  The article lists several other bands and locations, however at first glance I either don’t know who they are or have no interest in seeing them (maybe with the exception of Lilith Fair), so I will let you investigate further on your own.

Also, the article lists the Capitol Hill Block party, which dates have been set for July 23rd and 24th.  I missed out on this last year and regret it so I would love to hear any reviews when it happens again this year.

Well this is hopefully a head start for everyone.  So many music to listen to, so little time, so get to it!

Kind of just a collection of thoughts about going to the show…

Being an opening band at a relatively small show has got to be one of the harder things to do in music.  You’ve got a bunch of people who have no idea who you are waiting for you to get off the stage so that the band they came to see can come on.  I haven’t been to a lot of shows in other cities, so I don’t have much to compare, but Seattle audiences are quite polite to the opening acts.  Even if the band is mostly no good most people will watch respectfully and even do a little halfhearted swaying to the beat.  Thursday night at the Showbox at the Market was like that.  I went to see Florence and the Machine (which I’ll get to a bit later) and the opening band was some group called Holy Hail from New York.  I don’t even really know if they were bad.  The sound was awful.  I couldn’t hear the girl singing.  I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who like them and I am just out of the loop but they played for less than 1/2 and hour and it was hard to care about much of anything they did.

On the other hand, the band I came to see was great. Florence Welch, lead singer of Florence and the Machine has a strange presence.  When she stands on stage and talks she is the perfect picture of a demure British girl.  She wore what almost looked like an old fashioned wedding dress.  She seems a little nervous and she’s quite soft spoken.  However, when she sings her voice has a crazy power to it.  Her dress splits open in the front revealing short black shorts and it seems to be a good metaphor for her as a performer, proper at first glance and wild underneath.  The combination of lights, drums, and most importantly her voice made for something special. Check it out.

Lastly, I thank the Showbox at the Market for having alternative seating that doesn’t necessarily require that I end up, as I always do at concerts, behind some 6’4″ dude with an Afro who totally needs to stand right in front of 5’2″ me.  I have been to more than one concert where I can’t actually remember ever seeing the band.  It’s not quite the whole experience.  We had a great seat up in the bar and I didn’t have to spend the whole night waiting for a glimpse of the bass players arm or something.

So who off the top of their head can tell me who Leonard Bernstein is?   I’m sure some of you can.  However, for others, the reason his name sounds familiar might be because it’s the only part of that R.E.M. song that everyone knows.  You know (singing) “It’s the end of the world as we know it, mumble mumble mumble LEONARD BERNSTEIN mumble mumble mumble…”  Ringing any bells?

Regardless, even though some may not know his name, a lot more do know his work.  Arguably his most well known and widely appreciated work is West Side Story (Just an unnecessary side note: Thought I do love parts of that musical (because who doesn’t love ballet-fighting?) the film version always bothered me.  I’ll never really understand why they chose Natalie Wood (who is Russian) to play a Puetro Rican girl and have her sing (but have all her songs dubbed in by someone else.  Oh well). He was also a great conductor from the age of 25.

But what is the point of all this you ask?  From now until June various artists in Seattle are honoring Leonard Bernstein’s works during the “Seattle Celebrates Bernstein” arts festival.  Most prominently the 5th Avenue Theater will be putting on two of his slightly lesser known musicals (read: not West Side Story).  First up is On the Town which is about sailors having an exciting day in New York.  While that sounds like it might get seedy you must keep in mind that these sailors spend an awful lot of time singing like Frank Sinatra and dancing like Gene Kelly (both of whom were in the film version).  It’s pretty standard musical fare.

The second show up however is Candide.  Now this one I have never seen in any form, so all I have to go from (assuming I don’t Google it) is the blurb on the 5th Avenue Website.  It is based on a Voltaire novel with which I am only barely familiar and it is said to involve plagues, pirates, the Spanish Inquisition, and a song entitled “Glitter and be Gay”.  I must say I am intrigued.

In addition to the shows there are also quite a few other talks and performances set up to showcase his works and teach people a little about an important figure in American music.  So if you have ever sung a rousing chorus of “I Feel Pretty” into a mirror (or anywhere else), you can thank Mr. Bernstein and you should go check something out.

Another unnecessary side note: I  nearly fell for one of NPR’s April Fool’s stories, The Art of Reading Funding Credits.  It seemed just boring and nerdy enough to really exist.