View City: July 2012

I have spent a lot of time keeping tabs on the endeavors of Seattle rapper Nacho Picasso. However today, the spotlight shifts to Nacho's hype man, and fellow Moor Gang member Jarv Dee. The second video to come off Jarv's 13 track album Dopamine, which was released in April, the "Hot Box" video is proof of why Jarv Dee's talents should be generating an amplified amount of interest from the city's music listeners.

The track features the instrumental group Raised By Wolves, who produced the ominous and undoubtedly drug influenced beat. The song is a non stop vocal onslaught from Jarv Dee, who is continuously heard throughout the track. The Seattle up and comer goes hard on each verse, pulling out one punchline after another. The song's chorus lives up to the lyrical standard that each verse sets, "This is the hot box, no windows cracked, we keep them fumes in, like a gas cap, no seat belts, but we all strapped". The track fades out with a haunting outro, as Jarv's voice gets bassed out to the line "adjust the sub in my trunk, so my bass it, so my bass it".

The video to "Hot Box" is a perfect reflection of the track. Just like Jarv Dee's rapping, the video is a non stop visual assault (in a good way). Camera shots constantly change as the viewer catches distorted close up visuals of Jarv rapping alongside his buddy Nacho Picasso and rolling around in his porsche.

Definitely check out the video, and get the free download for Dopamine.

Despite living within walking distance of the annual music festival, this year marked my first visit to Seattle's Capitol Hill Block Party. While the lineup appeared to be weak upon first glance, Friday and Saturday night were by far my best two nights of the summer, and possibly this whole year.

My initial plan was to just go Friday, the first day of the festival. Carefully planning out which concerts to see, I did some extensive research on the scheduled artists to ensure that I was getting my moneys worth. Subconsciously there was certainly a part of me that wanted to make up for the grotesque ticket prices I had to give in to 2 months ago at Sasquatch. 30 dollars per day definitely ended up being a fantastic deal.

After hopping off the 49 metro bus and meeting up with a couple friends, I started off my block party experience with the Seattle hip hop group Kung Foo Grip on the Vera stage. An old school style, energetic stage presence, and intelligent lyrics highlight these up and coming young MC's. Their set was a perfect introduction to the many concerts that would follow.

Next we caught the second half of the Minneapolis hip hop group Doomtree's set on the main stage. Doomtree has an odd look. The group consists of five mc's and two Dj's/producers. The DJ's looked normal enough. Both appeared to be in their mid 20's and they made their beats live which was cool. But then there were the MC's. There was a white woman, a short Hispanic man, a black dude, and two white guys. They all looked like they were in their mid 30's, and they all looked like they were more fit to be high school history teachers than rappers. However, they had an interesting take on independent hip-hop. Their sound was similar to Atmosphere, and many less known Seattle groups. Their live show was tight and well rehearsed. Their song "Bangarang" epitomized their style with the lyrics, "Doomtree Bangarang all these other rappers sound the same, beats sound the same, raps sound the same". That's right Doomtree, you guys do not sound the same.

After Doometree we went back to the Vera stage to check out Seattle rapper Spac3man. His set was energetic and fun. However, his block party crowd was not nearly as into it/as drunk as his Sasquatch crowd. Halfway through set Spac3man stopped mid song asked "Are you guys rocking with me or what?". The crowd stepped it up after that. I mostly just kept a hand in the air out of fear that Spac3man would call me out if I didn't. No offense to Spac3man though, I really enjoyed the set.

After Spac3man ended his show by performing his last song in the middle of the crowd, we jetted back over to the main stage for Youth Lagoon. Youth Lagoon features keyboardist and singer Trevor Powers along with a guitar accompanist. I'm not sure how to classify Youth Lagoon's music. Maybe I'm completely wrong but I felt like it was a way more depressing, distorted and indie version of Owl City. My two friends hated it, and left after a couple songs. However, I insisted on staying and made my way up to the front. The dream-popesque style of Youth Lagoon put me in a trance, and the steadily building beats and falsetto vocals proved to be moving characteristics of the Boise Idaho band. Youth Lagoon saved their best song for last with the track "17". The was so touching and simple that it nearly moved to tears

From the end of Youth Lagoon to the beginning of the headlining acts, the festival was fairly quiet, with most people making trips to the beer garden and the clubs within the festival grounds. However, we did catch a couple songs at the Fly Moon Royalty concert at the Vera stage. Perhaps my best discovery of the day, the electro hip-hop group played their newest song "Betty's Kitchen". Fly Moon Royalty finished with a cover of Sir Mix-Alot's "Baby got Back".

As the sun set on south Capitol Hill, we headed back over to the main-stage to get good spots for the 9:15 Allen Stone concert. Based out of Seattle, Allen Stone has made a name for himself as possibly the most prominent soul musician in the northwest. Good vibes filled the air as Stone rocked a packed main stage crowd. With the help of his full backing band, the Seattle soulster gave a killer performance. Playing one feel good song after another, the Allen Stone concert truly hit the spot. The best moment of the show? Stone demanded that the audience split in to two sides and have a dance off. "There's some weird stuff that goes on on Capitol Hill" yelled Stone, "But when this song kicks in I need to see some of the weirdest dance moves Capitol Hill has ever seen!". Needless to say, as the song kicked in the crowd went crazy.

Towards the end of the show Macklemore and singer Ray Dalton were spotted backstage, and rumors of a surprise concert circulated through the festival. Unfortunately that didn't happen.

To finish off the night, we once again headed back across the festival to check out the Nacho Picasso concert. Nacho and hype man Jarv Dee played to loyal and faded crowd. Plumes of weed smoke were ubiquitous, as the crowd emphatically sang along with every one of Nacho's punchline raps, proof of the rapper's rise to fame in Seattle. "What yall know about Numbnuts?" yelled Jarv Dee, as the instrumental duo Blue Sky Black Death played the intro to Nacho's hit song. Nacho, Jarv Dee and the entire crowd passionately sang along with the song's hook. "Numbnuts, the drugs don't numb much". Unfortunately Nacho did not perform my cut "Tom Hanks". However, the majority of his set consisted of new material of his latest album Exalted. My favorite song of the concert that I had not heard yet was "Kickin Out Windows".

Day one of the block party proved to be an awesome experience, filled with good music, good friends, and new discoveries. The best part? I realized that this was MY neighborhood block party, as the drive home took no more than two minutes.

In many regards, my experience on Saturday night was opposite to Friday's. I showed up late, with little knowledge of the night's performers. After Gubernatorial hopeful Jay Inslee took the stage and suggested that we all listen to the new song "Same Love" by, as he said it, "The Macklemore", I watched the first couple song's of the Twin Shadow performance. The music was alright, but the Twin Shadow front man's (whose name I don't feel is worth looking up) style of singing was slightly off putting. After the singer/guitarist mocked Seattle... "You guys had a good run a couple decades ago", I angrily booed and walked out of the main stage confines.

Needless to say I wasn't really feeling the block party at that moment, and soon began to worry that the 35 dollars I had shelled out for the day's ticket had been a waste. I retreated to the turf of Bobby Morris field across the street with a couple people and took a break from the overwhelming crowd of hipsters. We were all feeling burnt out, but after a nice break we headed back to the main stage, ready to rage to the sets of Aesop Rock and Major Lazer.

A rowdy crowd rocked with Aesop Rock's classic alternative hip hop cuts. The group's act was polished and professional, and audience members quickly felt encouraged to throw a hand up in the air. The highlight of Aesop Rock's set was when the MC's cut a fan's hair on stage during one of their final songs. As expected, the fan hopped off the stage looking pretty wild.

Next was Major Lazer! I had never really listened to the group's music before, I wouldn't classify myself as a techno/dubstep/dance music fan, and I also lost my whole group of friends...But it did not matter at all. Major Lazer along with DJ Diplo put on possibly the craziest show I have ever been to. The group's hype made many requests in the hope that they would get the crowd to go wild, which included asking audience members to take off their shirts and asking the dudes on the surrounding apartment balconies to throw water on the crowd. These gimicks worked. The crowd really did go crazy. Lazers and strobe lights flashed over East Pike Street as Diplo crowd surfed in a hamster ball, backup dancers engaged front row fans, and Major Lazer shot confetti cannons into the night sky. All I could think was "Wow, I come to this same street to get groceries, and right now there is a massive rave happening". "This is my block party!" I yelled, as surrounding concert goers gave me high fives.