L-R: Head Like a Kite, Fresh Espresso, Truckasauras (images from Sound on the Sound and Kyle Johnson)

"Director's Cut" by Head Like a Kite feat. Tilson

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"Angels Sound Like Bottle Rockets" by Truckasauras

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"We Desire What's Real" by Fresh Espresso

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Head Like an Espresso Truck is a Seattle-centric display of musical bonhomie and experimentalism, a one-off team-up between local acts Head Like a Kite, Fresh Espresso, and Truckasauras. It goes down Friday, Feb. 12 at Neumos and then never again.

The concert channels our city's pop musical zeitgeist by exalting the possibilities of the hybrid. In Seattle's current pop landscape, the genres of '60s/'70s garage rock, folk, and the now-meaninglessly named "indie-rock" are all seeing a few one-trick ponies make great art while everyone else just stands around. Swollen with broken-record bands, the traditionalist style is staling, and the best new music is in fringes and overlaps.

As an event, Head Like an Espresso Truck is one big fringe overlap. Each participating band is a blend — Head Like a Kite is electro-pop/rock, Fresh Espresso is electro-rap, Truckasauras (aka the best band in Seattle) is instrumental electro-post-rock/hiphop — and the event will blend them together, making various metablends. Using the same set of instruments, each will play a solo set, cover some of the other groups' songs, and then participate in a tripartite group finale. It will be jam-y, but rehearsed.

I have it on good word that Truckasauras will cover Fresh Espresso's "Diamond Pistols," one of Seattle's biggest '09 rap smashes. Judging by Truckasauras' previous success with covers — an analog synth flip of KRS-One's "The Bridge is Over," a screaming/soaring take on Sleepy Eyes of Death's "Crushed by Stars" — I'm expecting greatness. The original "Diamond Pistols" syncopates a big melodic hook with the beat for a vicious swing, and it'll be interesting to see what Truckasauras does with that, whether it plays up the song's cock-and-blast energy or tries to pull off something more subdued.

Something else to look forward to: Truckasauras' Tyler Swan will have his drums on stage, which doesn't normally happen (he normally uses drum machines in the band). He's a local drummer worth celebrating, capable of turning out nuanced break beats on a three-piece kit. Head Like a Kite drummer Trent Moorman is no slack either, and he'll have his kit on stage, too. It's not unreasonable to expect a drum-off.

Wrapped up in the structure of the event is a sales pitch, and it's one we need to hear in this city more often. It says: "Tonight, you will be entertained because we have theorized, practiced, and prioritized the live experience. We are focused on making something happen before your eyes and ears, rather than doing what all the other bands in Seattle are doing, which is use staggered, limited-time stage allotments to play identical sets to the ones they played last week."

Really, there's not much reason to see a local concert if it's just going to be groups trying to look like they know what they're doing. Much better that local musicians push themselves. Head Like an Espresso Truck is part of the solution.

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For those not catching local psychedelic space rap/jazz group THEESatisfaction tonight at Neumos (preview here), may I suggest checking out Van Dyke Parks at the Triple Door. The composer, arranger, songwriter, and performer is partly responsible for multiple strokes of American genius, from the lyrics to The Beach Boys' pivotal "Surf's Up," to the strings on Joanna Newsom's "Ys" album, to his own landmark 1968 psychedelic/Americana parlor pop album "Song Cycle."

I've been listening to "Song Cycle" a lot lately, and one thing I can't get over: Why hasn't some enterprising young musician sampled and looped the piano/clack intro to "Donovan's Colors"? It should be re-purposed. It needs to breathe.

I mean, the song is pretty, and totally ambitious, stuck to Donovan's pleasing chord progression while shifting through about 20 differently arranged and orchestrated takes on neo-ragtime, but the intro tells a whole story by itself. The piano sings brightly for those few seconds, the percussion thin and powerful, like a movie clapper, and a rhythm is established that's heavy but mostly implied, like inaudible cannons booming underneath a twinkling shell. It's an eyes-widening musical aside. It deserves to be a whole song.

Sabzi, Jerm, Tay Sean (L-R)

"Just So You Know" by Helladope (Beacon Hill Slumlord remix) [Sabzi remix]

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"Just So You Know" by Helladope (Vinyl Toy remix) [Sabzi remix]

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"Just So You Know" by Helladope (instrumental)

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These tracks are from "Strickly 4 My DJz," a freely downloadable online-only release from Seattle rap/R&B group Helladope. The zipped folder came out last fall with little fanfare, and includes tracks from "Return to Planet Rock," the soon-to-be-released debut album from producer/rapper/singer Tay Sean and rapper/singer Jerm.

"Strickly 4 My DJz" consists of one tweaked-out trip with local psychedelic space rap/jazz group THEESatisfaction ("Cosmic Voyage"), two unstoppable R&B/rap jams ("Shine On" and "Rainwater") and multiple versions of "Just So You Know," a low-key titan of a track that blends R&B, rap, and house music into a smooth, bass-heavy emulsion. It's a lifestyle jam about drinking, smoking, and trying to get with women in Seattle's South End, and has a natural vibe, like all these guys want to do is have a good time and feel the beat.

And what a beat it is. Accented with slippery electric pianos and trebly synthesizer pinpricks, the instrumental side of "Just So You Know" occupies a netherworldly space between genres without sounding like a forced novelty. It moves fast (around 130 beats per minute, I'm guessing) but also slow, half-time if you want to hear it that way. It's similar to Southern American rap in that one can choose to bounce to it or slide. For the same reason, it's ideal for remixing, something "Strickly 4 My DJz" encourages by giving it away in swearing, swearing-free, instrumental, and a capella versions.

So far, the reigning king of the "Just So You Know" remix is Renton's own 10-4 Roger, who focused on slowness and flipped it into a fading-away dub banger right after "Strickly 4 my DJz" came out (listen here). The song is still inspiring attempts. Recently, Seattle transplant DashEXP tried a dubstep take with mixed results (listen here).

I didn't listen to "Strickly 4 My DJz" when it came out. I already had mp3s of the original songs, and for whatever reason wasn't checking for the remixes on it. Maybe I didn't know they were there. I shouldn't have been so careless.

Turns out the "Beacon Hill Slumlord" and "Vinyl Toy" remixes of "Just So You Know" on "Strickly 4 My DJz" are by Sabzi, producer/DJ for Blue Scholars, still Seattle's most popular contemporary hiphop group. I listened last night and this morning and have this to report:

Both remixes are radical melodic reworkings of the song, a bold move because "Just So You Know" is already quite hummable. The "Beacon Hill Slumlord" remix is a major success, anchored by a beat made from drum sticks clacking together and a weird, wet-sounding snap/clap that reminds me of the percussion on Darkstar's dubstep monster "Aidy's Girl's a Computer." Smooth organ runs through the verse, slow-burning and gently minor-key, while the keyboard and synthesizer sounds of the original's chorus are revised, playing their same rhythmic roles but with different notes. It's a great remix. Almost as good as Roger's.

The "Vinyl Toy" remix sounds like it should be an Akon song, the way it blasts synthesizer brightness out of speakers, busy and cutesy. It's not my flavor, but I appreciate the craftsmanship.

I'd be remiss in not passing this along. Not only have I been wanting to check out Capitol Hill's Electric Tea Garden since it rechristened itself with the name — like this Yelper, I always called the space "the Artificial Limb Company" — but have also been meaning to see area trumpeter Owuor Arunga (pictured at left) in a starring role. Seattle hiphop fans probably know Arunga from his back up work supporting local rappers as part of an ensemble (recently, Macklemore at the Triple Door). Now he's taken it upon himself to organize an all-local concert based on the electric period of Miles Davis, who, if press releases are to be believed, had a profound musical influence on him. From the release:

A bevy of talented artists will be playing music from Davis' electric period, including Thaddeus Turner (guitar), Gerald Turner (bass), Mark Cardenas (keyboard), Mark Sampson (keyboard), Andrew Joslyn (horn), Doc Rhodes (saxophone), Grant Shroff (drums), and a few special surprise guests. This was made possible in large part because of the efforts of trumpeter Arunga, who brought the musicians together for this one-of-a-kind event.

Miles Davis Electric, 9 pm — 12 am at the Electric Tea Garden,1402 East Pike Street, Seattle 98122 (across the street from Chop Suey); 21 and over, $5 cover.

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Nobody makes instrumental, electronic-leaning music that's as lush and sentimental as the soothing sounds of Four Tet. The Londoner is known for using real-sounding samples — drums from kits, strings from instruments — to make subtly glorious melodies, and there's a certain spatial crispness that pervades in his compositions that makes them ideal for headphones. Semi-recent collaborations with dubstep force Burial (Four Tet's high school mate) indicated a new direction for the artist, away from stuff rappers could conceivably rap over and towards stricter dance music, and "Sing" is further along that route, centered around a keyboard loop that interrupts itself and forces a peculiar swing. It's bleep/bloop territory, but the sounds are soft and bright, and when tones creep in like muted marimba (?) and keening faux strings, Four Tet hits his stride, introducing snippets of breathy, ecstatic female singing and taking the track deep into his own world. The voice makes notes, not words, and the song does what it sets out to do: capture some of the movement of dubstep, the UK's most exciting contribution to electronic music in recent years, and bring it into Four Tet's beatific universe.

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"She Just Likes to Fight" is one of Four Tet's songs that doesn't sound anything like electronic music. It sounds like a band with clean electric guitars, a really good synth/laptop player, and a drummer with a kit that includes plastic bottles, digital pads, and all manner of chimes. It's the most overt heart-tug on "There Is Love Inside You," the same album "Sing" is from, and at any moment, once expects the guy from Bloc Party to show up and start crying, or Mike Skinner (The Streets) to kick a breakup rhyme. It doesn't happen, though. "She Just Likes to Fight" stares into the sunrise, stretches, and is finished.

Four Tet plays Chop Suey Feb. 23.

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Forget Martyn, this song is about British DJ/producer Zomby. The man is famous for pizzicato synth arpeggios clustered in triplets, and in track after track, he shows us what can be done with them, how they can be layered at various speeds and with various effects to make unusual rhythms out of the spaces between notes. Zomby's "Hear Me" remix is another lesson, a brisk, tapping beat, droopy bass hits, and plinking, pinging synthesizer acupuncture.

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From the album "Snow Motion," "Bisexual" is local group THEESatisfaction's ode to not being afraid of flip-flopping on the imaginary line between hetero and homo. Since moved into the mid-fi realm (and soon to enter hi-fi with Capitol Hill producer Erik Blood, the man who produced the Shabazz Palaces album, which THEESatisfaction loves a lot), "Bisexual" is the group being lo-fi. It's two illustrative, lifelike vignettes sing-rapped over a fading-away, stretched-out synth break. It's short and a lot of fun.

THEESatisfaction plays Neumos Feb. 9.

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This one comes from Kanye's blog. On "Highs N Lows," Clevelander Kid Cudi — excuse me, KiD CuDi — uses an "I be high when ________" vs. "I be low when ________" lyrical scheme to portray himself as regular dude whose life is better when he's getting laid and worse in when he's overtaken by emotional ruminations and bouts of loneliness. His vocal style is singing and rapping and spoken word, and "Highs N Lows" is a good example of how CuDi sort of just takes up space on tracks. The off-key singing at the end could be excised, but mostly the song is a focused effort, and the beat, while maybe not a product of genius, is worth noting: it's Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay" looped up and put on repeat. The wheeze and sway of the sample sounds like being high and low at the same time. Nice trick.

All images produced by yours truly.

A few hours ago, I blogged this mini-essay about Cocaine Blunts aka CBRAP aka the best rap blog in America. Short version: Blogger/writer Andrew Nosnitsky's computer was broken, and he needed some dough to buy a new one, and had asked his public for financial aid.

Now Cocaine Blunts has a new post up here that says its public came through with adequate funding and regular blogging will commence Monday, Feb. 8. The blog was saved within 24 hours of the initial S.O.S. post.

First, hooray.

Second, it seems like this situation is telling us something about paying for content on the Internet and pledge drives vs. pay walls, etc., but I don't know what. Deep thought about that future-of-journalism issue begins now.

After no new posts for a week on the country's best rap blog, Cocaine Blunts, blogmaster Andrew Nosnitsky broke the silence yesterday.

He wrote that his computer was broken, that he was short on money, and put up a PayPal link for readers to help him buy a new one.

Nosnitsky, or "Noz," as he's primarily known to his blog audience, is a Washington D.C.-based freelance music writer for The Washington Post, NPR.com, Washington City Paper, and various music magazines and websites, but he's mostly known for his blog, which is also called CBRAP.com. Though relatively obscure to the general public, he is a tastemaker's tastemaker whose writings and blog posts directly and indirectly influence everything rap-related in The New York Times, New Yorker, and on Pitchfork.com, especially stuff by music writers Jon Caramanica, Sasha Frere-Jones, and Tom Breihan.

For an example of Noz doing his tough brand of hiphop philosophy, check this piece: "'Grown Man' Rappers Like Jay-Z or Common Are Mature Only in the Absence of Immaturity."

Though Noz often seems to influence tomorrow's zeitgeist — his dedicated coverage of prolific rappers Gucci Mane (Atlanta) and Lil' B (the Bay Area) were/are significant tastemaking factors in current blogosphere/mainstream media rap criticism, and Sasha Frere-Jones calls Cocaine Blunts "The Now of hip-hop" — his blog is first and foremost a lesson in the fact that in 2010, there is no "rap," or "hiphop." As in, there is no single thing we talk about when we say those words. From now on, we must all think about rap as a decentralized group of regional factions, each with their own histories and occasionally criss-crossing momentums and outputs. There is no unified hiphop front, but many styles, many stories. This is Noz's main point, his primary contribution to music scholarship.

I've always liked that while Noz is scary-smart about rap, he knows what he doesn't know. A recent post dedicated to Seattle was a meaningful history lesson told in Q&A form with answers and multimedia supplied but local figures Jake One and Mike Clark.

Recently, a rap blog called KevinNottingham.com came under serious fire for charging artists to review their songs. The reasoning given by the blog was that KevinNottingham.com was too expensive to run even with ads on it, and something had to be done. Of course, once the news came out, the blog lost all critical credibility. Personally, though I never checked it before, now I never will.

Noz, on the other hand, is severe with his criticism and doesn't engage in it that often. His blog is not a survey course, not easily used as a promotional tool. Instead, he follows individual artists and highlights specific time/place scenes. Really, he's too much of a connoisseur to be part of the online network that labels and artists attempt to use to promote their products. He's not selling anything, not being used by anyone. It makes sense that he's asking for money the way he is, up front and out in the open.

It'll be interesting to see how quickly people come to Noz's rescue and help him buy a new computer. He has ads on his site, but in a way, his asking for money is like NPR doing a pledge drive.

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Anchored by a droning electric guitar hook, the Milkshakes' "Love Can Lose" is one of those destroyed-sounding garage pop numbers that wistfully storms out of speakers, plainly amateurish but immediately effective as a repository for feelings. It belongs in a coming-of-age or striking-out-on-one's-own movie. I was put on to the song by local DJ and Shorecrest High School graduate Spencer Manio while researching an unrelated topic for an upcoming article.

Googling around about Billy Childish, the main force behind "Love Can Lose," I learned he is fairly well known in certain circles of lo-fi rock listeners, prolific in the artistic fields of music, poetry, and painting, among others, and that Seattle's own Sub Pop released some of the Englishman's non-Milkshakes music. Also, according to its MySpace page, the Milkshakes band (also "Thee Milkshakes") was formed as a reaction to the impression that punk rock had turned into "synthesized crap."

The South by Southwest music festival happens March 17-21 in Austin, TX. A lot of acts are playing, and they're all listed here. The schedule is not yet solidified, as far as dates and times.

Seattle groups to play SXSW:

Blue Scholars
D. Black
Grand Hallway
Grynch
Ivan & Alyosha
Jen Wood
Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter
Past Lives
Rocky Votolato
Say Hi
Smoosh
The Dutchess & the Duke
The Intelligence
The Moondoggies
Trespassers William
Vince Mira

Party time

*Streams of Joanna Newsom songs "Good Intentions Paving Company" and "81" have been removed at the request of her record label, Drag City. In an email, a representative from the label said the only authorized Newsom streams are on the Drag City website.

The songs come from "Have One On Me," Californian singer/songwriter/harpist/multi-instrumentalist Joanna Newsom's upcoming triple album out Feb. 23. Worldwide, she is perhaps the premier musician working in densely poeticized, delicately composed, ornately produced Americana pop. She sings like Joni Mitchell crossed with a hundred-year-old woman gifted with mystical visions.

The lyrics of these new songs take time to break down, and frankly, I'm not there yet. But that's part Newsom's appeal: you can let her words wash over you, lose yourself in her pinched, soulful voice, appreciate her songwriter-y tics, and still have plenty of soaking up to do. Tough to imagine how long it'll take to get through her triple album.

"81" is harpy and sounds like a slo-mo snow flurry in a medieval village. Bruges, maybe. "Good Intentions Paving Company" is something else. A bouncy number with a bright, twisty melody, it's a parlor tune embellished with gold rush nostalgia, piano-based with banjo, mandolin, horns, intermittent drums, and braided background vocals that quiver and wrap around, supplied by Newsom herself, it seems. I'm coming around to "81," but "Good Intentions Paving Company" is pretty undeniably masterful.

If Newsom's coming to Seattle, it hasn't been announced yet. Tour schedule here.

THEESatisfaction's Stasia Irons (L) and Catherine Harris-White (R)

"Thee Trip" by Helladope (Tay Sean and Jerm) feat. THEESatisfaction

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"Icing" by THEESatisfaction and OC Notes

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"Magnetic Blackness" by Champagne Champagne feat. THEESatisfaction

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Almost exactly a year ago, local "psychedelic space-rap/jazz" duo THEESatisfaction played Neumos for the first time. It was one of Stasia Irons and Catherine Harris-White's earliest concerts as a group, and the girlfriends only had seven or eight songs in their repertoire. They were nervous as all get out.

Now they're seasoned vets who love performing, and regularly light up stages from the Central District to Belltown, Capitol Hill to Ballard. They work rooms with confidence that says, yes, Seattle will accept gay, Afrocentric musicians that vocalize jazz over low-key hiphop instrumentals and dance like New Jack Swing hippies.

The women, in their early 20s, headline Neumos this Tuesday, Feb. 9. It's their second show at the venue since their oh-so-green opening slot last year.

Now, local press is all over THEESatisfaction, from this publication to local weeklies to area blogs. Among fans, every song that hits theesatisfaction.bandcamp.com — the place to go on the Internet for the group's music — is rapturously received. Music lovers of all ages and genre predilections are abuzz, becoming repeat concert customers, bringing friends so they don't have to keep explaining this weird, awesome thing for which there is no comparable variable. KEXP plays the group's hits, especially the wilting, mid-fi "Icing" and skeletal "Magnetic Blackness," a collaboration with local rap group Champagne Champagne and our city's current #1 black power jam, slated for limited release on 7" vinyl in the near future. Area director Lynn Shelton ("Humpday") prominently features the group in her soon-to-be-released webisodic series for MTV.com, which is a bigger deal than it sounds; the show even uses "Magnetic Blackness" in its now-virally-circulating trailer. And forget about all the artists trying to collaborate with THEESatisfaction these days. The list has grown from friends and respected colleagues to strangers and hangers-on. Everybody wants a piece.

It's not hard to understand why. On record and on stage, the couple is a striking picture of modern love: Black, gay, ecstatic, depressed, tripped-out and humorous. The complexity hits pleasingly and all at once, disorienting and life-affirming.

"Hopefully it makes you feel more comfortable, and you can just say what you're feeling," says Harris-White.

The group comes across hiphop-y, owing primarily to its stage setup of two microphones and a DJ ("Chocolate Chuck," Harris-White's brother, a University of Washington student) and routine concert placement next to local rap acts. But the women are trying to play more diverse bills these days, and don't consider their music hiphop. They call it "afronautical," or "intergalactic soul," or the aforementioned "psychedelic space rap/jazz."

They're children of the hip-hop genre, though. Both were profoundly influenced by pioneering jazz-rap group Digable Planets, whose MC Butterfly (Ishmael Butler) hails from and lives in the Central District, and these days fronts the artistically abstract, unapologetically Black-centric Shabazz Palaces, a group Harris-White and Irons both think is pretty much the best thing ever.

Irons remembers her dad dancing around the house to Digable Planets' "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)," a 1993 spoken-word style crossover rap hit that was essentially about being black and cool.

"I think everyone's parents did that," says Harris-White, though they most certainly did not.

She says she wasn't forced to read Malcolm X growing up, but his books were around the house. She and Irons both identify their parents as very active and involved in their communities — school, government, and (Christian) church. Although coming out of the closet was rough, neither Harris-White or Irons were shunned at home for their sexual orientation.

"They love us and support us," says Irons, who also says she would marry Harris-White right away if Washington State allowed it. "They just know that we're different."

Stasia Irons (R) and Tay Sean (L)

Photo by Mat Haywood

The above image comes from local blog Ear Candy Beat, whose author Travis Hay pointed out Seattle's Hard Rock Café is hoisting Kurt/Kurdt Cobain's Fender Mustang for a guitarquee. My first thought: You know there was a marketing discussion about whether or not it should be Cobain's or Jimi Hendrix's guitar.

Walking around Seattle yesterday, I noticed SAM is planning an exhibition called "Kurt" starting May 13.

It's foolish to think anybody could predict what Kurt Cobain would have said about these developments were he alive today. But it's tempting to guess. After all, this was the guy who went on the cover of Rolling Stone wearing a t-shirt that said "CORPORATE MAGAZINES STILL SUCK." It's hard to think he wouldn't have had an opinion.

Of course, on one hand, it's a significant bummer when art that was once cool and sincerely counter-cultural gets neutered or put in a zoo. On the other hand, Hard Rock Café and SAM aren't actually touching Nirvana's or Kurt Cobain's art. The Hard Rock is touching Cobain's stuff — his guitar (or its likeness), the snow globe that was on the top of his and Courtney Love's wedding cake (displayed inside) — and SAM is touching art made by people who took Kurt Cobain for a subject, like Alice Wheeler.

"Kurt Cobain MTV's Live & Loud, Seattle, WA, December 13, 1993," 1993, Alice Wheeler

The common ground between the Hard Rock and SAM on this issue? Both are engaging in Nirvana nostalgia and Cobain lionization, two of Seattle's most popular pastimes.

It's understandable if you missed local electro-acoustic/post-rock/almost-jazz band Foscil opening for DJ Krush last Sunday, but only if you were at home with your computer, watching me live-blog the Grammys.

Videos of the concert surfaced yesterday on Focil's sister band Truckasauras' blog, courtesy Meghan Palin. Here's one of them, the whimpering, minimalist, glacial-paced "Be the Bullfighter Part 1" from the group's "Residential" album. To me, the song's always sounded like an alien life-form trying to survive in the unforgiving vacuum of outer space.

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He was the best DJ Spokane ever had, but now James Pants lives in Denver. Rumor has it he's in Europe right now teaching people to use a recording studio. Wherever he is, he's left us with "Seven Seals," a late-2009 album that stands among the year's weirdest. It's not a DJ mix, but an album-album, and sounds like the work of a band, though Pants made it as a one-man show for the most part. It's a mix of '80s goth, basement synth-funk, and what his label Stones Throw is calling "minimal wave," all produced super-capably but with a lo-fi sensibility.

"A Chip in the Hand" is a soft-focus synth bleater, smooth and adagio, with a danceable verse and hummable chorus. Surprises include a background tambourine that rustles through the whole song and an outro saxophone solo that sounds like it's played by someone's shadow in a darkened urban alley.

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"I Live Inside an Egg" is amphetamine Pants, an uptempo combination of a hissing, old-school drum machine, single-string electric guitar lines that sound distressed and trebly, and a maniacal synthesizer chord progression. It's the the sound of going insane, or having a heart attack, but it's also catchy in a post-punk kind of way.

Image from the Inlander

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From Portland band Reporter's to-be-released "Time Incredible" album, "Geronimo's Bones" connects the dots between the naive and tuneless/tuneful singing style of San Francisco band Deerhoof and fellow Portlanders Glass Candy/Chromatics' dark disco. There's some blown-out drum machinery, but it's all about the wet texture of the delay pedaled guitar, singer Alberta Poon's breathy high-pitchedness, and a sample lodged distantly in the mix that sounds vaguely like an exalting choir.

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The more I listen to Tacoma band the Nightgowns' "Sing Something" album, the more I come back to "White on White," a song that starts out like it's going to be peppy synth-pop, but quickly slides into a melancholy groove. As an uncomplicated analog drum machine beat bops along, synths stack up like fuzzed-out waves and voices layer richly, deeply. It sounds like slow suicide, or falling asleep, somehow a soundtrack for gracefully ceding control.