Emerald City Soul Club—the northern soul dance party that happens monthly at Lo-Fi—will mark 10 years of making sophisticates shake their asses to rare 45s cut during the '60s and early '70s with a weekend-long celebration. Any event lasting a decade deserves respect, and ECSC has maintained its monomaniacal ethos with expert curation from its seven DJs while consistently packing out the venue. I asked resident selector and Stranger staffer Mike Nipper to reflect on ECSC's accomplishments over the last 10 years: "Before ECSC happened in Seattle there had been nothing like it. Well, maybe, but not since the '60s, so it had been decades since Seattle had seen any strict soul dances. It was started with just the hope the night would catch on organically, because Seattle wasn't known for soul dances and we knew we would also need to keep the night from being bogged down by scene cliques. We wanted the night to be about everyone enjoying the music, not just record nerds or soulies.
"In the past 10 years we've (hopefully) inspired a few of the nights that are still active, and a handful that aren't, but which are/were well loved and just as sweaty," Nipper continues. "We've also had guest DJs from all over the world play at our weekenders, we worked with local funk group Eldridge Gravy & the Court Supreme and helped them release a hot cover of Eddie Parker's "I'm Gone," and for our second anniversary, we had soul greats JJ Barnes and the Brothers of Soul perform live. JJ Barnes was a big enough deal to book, but the BoS?! Those gents hadn't preformed together in years! ECSC may still be the biggest rare soul night in the US."
Here's a short documentary made at ECSC's 2010 weekender.
And here are 12 tracks chosen by ECSC's resident selectors that defined the collective's first decade:
Michael Chrietzberg
Brian Everett
Mike Nipper
Marc Muller
Gene Balk
George Gell
Bonus: ECSC's Top 10 Rare Soul Tracks
Junior McCants - "Try Me for Your New Girl"
Lester Tipton - "This Won't Change"
Don Gardner - "Cheatin' Kind"
Del-Larks - "Job Opening"
Eddie Parker - "I'm Gone"
CODs - "She's Fire"
Mello Souls - "We Can Make It "
Inspirations - "No One Can Take Your Place" (1960s version)
Magnetics - "Count The Days"
The Cairos - "Stop Overlooking Me"
ECSC Weekender starts tonight with an open decks meet and greet at Narwhal and continues Friday and Saturday nights at Lo-Fi with resident and special guest DJs such as Greg Belson spinning rare northern soul singles. Also, on Saturday (1 pm-8 pm), the Big Dig record show happens at Vermillion and day-time DJ session at Stout goes down from 12 pm-4 pm.
