What do when you take the grime and glamor of Fresh Espresso, combine it with the electro craziness of Truckasaurus, throw in some of the indie slickness of Head Like a Kite, add Tilson and a pinch of a guy in a panda suit for good measure? You get Head Like an Espresso Truck at Neumos.
This Friday Head Like a Kite, Truckasaurus and Fresh Espresso will simultaneously take the stage at Neumo's for one night of thumping beats, expert flows, virtuoso synth work and cross-genre experimentation. There will be no set changes, and the bands will instead cover, rearrange and jam over each other's individual songs. Rather than another show with three bands on the bill, it's going to be an event so unique it's getting its own name (and another dope Terry Radjaw poster to go with it): Head Like an Espresso Truck. If you're not already sold on the principle alone, here are five good reasons why you should be at Neumo's come Friday night.
1. The three bands' styles complement each other perfectly - Fresh Espresso is synth-heavy hip-hop with plenty of electronic leanings. Truckasaurus is a unique blend of Gameboy-laced instrumental electronic with an inclination towards the hip-hop end of the beat spectrum. Head Like a Kite has their own brand of hip-hop-friendly electro-rock, and have worked with other rappers in the past. These three unique styles will undoubtedly come together in a major way to create some serious musical fusion.
The lineup for the 2010 Sasquatch! Music Festival will be announced one week from today at the Crocodile during the Sasquatch! Launch Party which will feature Surfer Blood, Atlas Sound and Seattle's own Fresh Espresso.
Tickets for the event are free and can be picked up at Easy Street Records beginning Friday with a limit of two per person, or you can win tickets by listening to 107.7 The End. The launch party will be hosted by Luke Burbank and it marks the first time the festival's lineup will be announced live. I would've gone to the Crocodile to see Surfer Blood simply based off the band's recent show at Chop Suey and the excellence of their newly released record Astro Coast. The Sasquatch! lineup announcement is a bonus.
You see, I wanted Go! Machine to be something it wasn’t, or at least something it has yet to become. I walked into the two nights of DJs, MCs, b-boys and b-girls at the Crocodile expecting to witness a changing of the musical guard. I thought I was going experience one of those palpable “I was there” moments that instantly defined the rapidly evolving local hip hop scene. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
Instead, what Go! Machine gave me was two nights of raucous hip hop performed by some of the most talented musicians this city has to offer. While the mini-festival didn’t meet my lofty expectation, each night featured its fair share of memorable moments. Songs were performed live for the first time (Grynch’s “You’re On”), lots of great collaborations happened (Thee Satisfaction’s “Magnetic Blackness” featuring Champagne Champagne was a stand out) and at least one person featured on the bill was booed off the stage (That would be Spencer Moody of the Murder City Devils, but to be fair he did tell told the crowd to “fuck off.”). The Out For Stardom gang and the crew at the Crocodile definitely delivered the goods musically during what turned out to be two of the most exciting nights in the history of Seattle’s burgeoning hip hop scene.
Here are some quick thoughts on the two night hip-hop explosion that was Go! Machine:
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