Angel Ceballos

Brite Futures (Formerly Natalie Portman's Shaved Head) is saying goodbye. The local electro-pop band that formed in high school, signed a major label deal, didn't release a major label record, and has generally been responsible for keeping Seattle sexy is playing its final show at the Vera Project on June 16.

In a note on their Facebook page (in full after the jump), the band said:

This separation is not due to a falling out or any ill feelings between us personally, but with the band's momentum dying down and other aspirations beckoning, we've begun to look toward the next stage in our lives.

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In which we check back with a couple of stars from Weeklys past: Tacoma's hit-making ghosts, The Writers Block; and Noel Brass, Jr. of Afrocop.

Renee McMahon

The Writers Block: William Jordan (L); Clemm Rishad (R)

Since gracing our cover (with Nicki), Tacoma's The Writers Block (Clemm Rishad and William Jordan) have been hard at work on their solo careers, and this week we get our first taste of new product. Songwriter/rap rapper Rishad just premiered the lead single, "The Beginning", from his upcoming album of the same name on The Source's website, and it shows off his blossoming skill as well as previous hit "Back to the Paper". In his success, he's become more self-aware and self-referential, but laces his lyrics with a touch of humility, and invites you into the fold with a welcoming voice.

William Jordan's next offering, Electric Ill 2 is also in the works (and what I've heard is pretty fantastic), so we'll keep an ear out for that. In the meantime, enter to win a chance to perform at KUBE 93's Summer Jam (where Rishad, Jordan and their Sky Movement crew have their own stage), and listen to "The Beginning":

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Derek Orbiso Dizon

By Rachel Belle

Last summer I interviewed my grandma, to record all her stories ("I was married in a jail!") before it was too late. She talked a blue streak, in the thick Brooklyn accent I've learned to emulate perfectly, and she was the happiest and most animated I've ever seen her. "What's the next question?" she'd ask every time I tried to switch off the recorder. Old people love to be asked questions!

Sometimes asking old people questions leads to forming an amazing band. Case in point: Seattle/Bainbridge Island band St. Paul de Vence.

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Blank Studio

Click image for larger.

The Summer Meltdown, held south of Bellingham at Darrington's Whitehorse Mountain Amphitheater, returns for its 12th year August 10-12. But if you're familiar with the jam-band based festival of years past, you'll do a double-take when you see this year's lineup, which includes Beats Antique, Blitzen Trapper, Vicci Martinez, Pickwick, Lukas Nelson & the Promise of the Real, and El Ten Eleven, as well as Seattle favorites The Moondoggies and Hot Bodies in Motion.

The team behind this shakeup, Craig Jewell and Austin Santiago of Bellingham venue the Wild Buffalo, were wisely brought in to rehydrate the booking by the festival's founders, the Seattle band Flowmotion (who now go by The True Spokes, and yes, they're playing the fest). With its mix of of-the-moment acts and jam-y stalwarts, topped with a pastoral setting, it sounds like a mini-Bonnarroo that's not to be missed.

"[The founders] are keeping the things they really enjoy about the festival, such as keeping it small and at the same grounds, while reaching out to music that a younger, more diverse audience would like," Santiago says. The organizers aim to preserve the intimate family feel of long-time festival-goers with an early Thursday entry option and a family camping area. In addition to a location that's nestled between a mountain and a river (the Stillaguamish runs directly behind the main stage, and people are encouraged to swim and hang out on the banks throughout the fest), the limited ticket sales ensures plenty of space. "It has a magical feel to it. You can't believe there's not more people there," says Santiago.

Full lineup (and a larger poster) after the jump.

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Ron Meriales

The situation I'm at Moe Bar on a recent Monday night, sitting across from local hip-hop artist Jarv Dee, 27, and his glass of Hennessy. He wears a flat-bill cap and, on his left hand, an enormous ring of two gold Egyptian pyramids that encases his pinky and ring fingers. They look like artistic and sharp brass knuckles. "I was kind of ducking away when I walked across from the police a couple days ago, because they do look kind of scary," Jarv says, laughing. "I don't know if I can get in trouble for these!"

How He Got Here Jarv, who was born in Seattle and lives in Renton, says he started writing raps and recording them on a tape player in third grade; he strayed from rapping for a few years for a different art form: tap dancing. "If you're a fan of music, you gotta try everything, test the waters," he says. The pinnacle of his dance career came in 2002, when he was 17 and danced onstage with Gregory Hines at the Paramount, a year before Hines died. Jarv says he'd like to do a reunion with his old tapping group. I ask if he has tap shoes. He rolls his eyes at me. "Of course. Of course I have tap shoes."

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Joy Mills
Trick of the Eye
Out now, joymills.com

Springing from her Americana side projects Risky Liver and The Starlings--along with a gig singing back-up vocals on Zoe Muth's Starlight Hotel--comes alt-country singer-songwriter Joy Mills first solo release. Recorded and mixed by Conrad Uno (Fastbacks, Mudhoney, Sonic Youth) along with the Artist Support Program at Jack Straw Productions, Trick of the Eye is an easy rolling, urban country debut, right in step with the likes of Zoe Muth and Davidson Hart Kingsbery.

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Um, looks like that Canadian shaman is over-feeding J.T. again. After Pitchfork posted a mostly-positive review of Tillman's new album, Fear Fun, under the Father John Misty moniker, the Sub Pop artist has spent much of the day tweeting (and re-tweeting) about how wronged he was. Like I said, it's mostly positive. But Tillman takes issue with a number of reviewer Stephen M. Deusner's modest, respectful criticisms of the record. This one in particular seems to have set the man's bloated ego off:

The arrangements entertain a rhythmic stiffness that sticks strictly to the beat, without any syncopation to suggest the messy experiences Tillman's lyrics evoke.

Burn?

OK, here are a few of the tweets. But you gotta start following @fatherjohnmisty to keep up. This is getting pretty hysterical.

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Laura Duffy

Death Cab for Cutie -- featuring frontman Ben Gibbard -- played the Paramount on Sunday, May 13.

This post is part of a series in which longtime Seattle music photographer Laura Duffy provides her thoughts on what it was like to be at and shoot shows.

By Laura Duffy

There's this contingent of my peers, late 20-somethings/early 30-somethings, who have a very deep-rooted and fervent connection to Death Cab for Cutie, especially in this town. We grew up with them, their records providing the soundtracks to our road trips and breakups. Every song has a specific time and place in our own lives attached to it. We are possessive of this band: we were there way back when, we're still here now. We've seen them so many times, in so many cities, on so many tours; they're ours. But we're proud of them, we are happy to share them with the moms and the kids, because we get it and because this band deserves success. We've seen them at tiny clubs and arenas, and we'll always get on social-media outlets afterward exclaiming "THOSE GUYS!"

But last night at the Paramount was so different from what I've seen from them in the past. Having the incredible Magik*Magik Orchestra add a new layer of warmth and drama to these songs we've heard countless times, both recorded and live, breathed new life into the songs, the band, and the audience.

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Demdike Stare
Saturday, May 12th, 2012
Black Lodge

On record, the defining feature of British experimental electronics duo Demdike Stare is absence--or space. Occasionally, a beat will clatter around their tracks, or a sample echo through, but mostly their songs are full of dark empty spaces, distant ambient sounds, or mild, wind-blowing white noise. Going into seeing them at Black Lodge as part of Second Sight's Psychic Circle festival, the question was: how would they translate their sound to a live room. Would they maintain that sense of space and subtlety? Would they amplify everything into noise?

This was the Demdike Stare's first time playing a "DIY" style venue in the US (the acronym has other connotations int the UK--they'd probably just call it a squat) according to Second Sight/Actual Pain's Thomas Cowgill--with roots in the electronic world, they're apparently more accustomed to playing proper electronic-oriented clubs in Europe--and there was a last-minute problem with some blown tweeters in the PA, which then had to be scrambled and re-rigged. So it's possible that Demdike Stare's show on Saturday was uncommonly loud, ad-hoc, and noisy--or it's possible that the best way they've found to give their music some impact live is to turn it all the way up. Suffice to say, what defined their sound at Black Lodge was sheer physical presence: you didn't feel space in that room, you felt sound smothering you.

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Dave Lake

Seattle Rock Orchestra Performs The Beatles
Saturday, May 12
The Moore

Let me start by saying that if you haven't seen the Seattle Rock Orchestra perform, you really should. It's a unique project that is always impressive and it's populated with some of the best musicians in Seattle. Their latest performance, which played Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at The Moore, was a pair of albums from The Beatles. The one downside to taking on The Beatles is that their catalog is (a) already heavily orchestrated thanks to the genius work of producer George Martin, and (b) there have been a lot of similar orchestral projects over the years. Whereas The Arcade Fire and Radiohead don't translate to a 50-piece orchestra as easily as the Fab Four, that's also part of the reason those SRO performances work so well. The orchestra brought out new dimensions in those bands -- and the same can't be said from hearing The Beatles done similarly.

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