Bridget Egan – The first listen of Shabazz Palace’s latest release Lese Majeste is overwhelming. The sounds are spacious, the wordplay tight, the beats relentless and then there’s all sorts of stuff that’s beyond description. The 7-suite, 18-track album takes you on a journey through subterranean moods, siren song and cosmic expanses into a brand new musical space-time.
Chris McCann – The first thing I noticed as I walked into Bumbershoot on Sunday was the lack of lines. No lines to get in, no bag-check lines, no torrents of people creating Class 5 rapids near the Shiskaberry’s stand. It was strange.
Nick Anderson – The bartender at the Five Point is bopping to the country music leaking from the jukebox as she taps orders into the POS. It’s 10:48 AM, rain like a faucet and the lines here at Seattle’s best 24-hour diner are out the door, barflies draped along the length of the counter.
Jim Toohey – Before the show started, I heard someone say: “and don’t forget to make music.” It may have been one of the members of Negativland, the Bay Area sound collective that emerged in the late 70s and has managed to piss off U2 and Kasey Casem in the 1980s; collaborated with Chumbawumba to cut up the theme from the PBS kids show The Teletubbies in 1999; and recorded a song called “Christianity Is Stupid.” It may have been one of the band members.
Gemma Alexander – Saturday was a good day for hip hop at Bumbershoot. I knew going in that Wu Tang Clan wasn’t going to be an option; neither of my kids has ever seen the back side of 10 p.m. But the shows early in the day are always the place to discover the bleeding edge.
