James Pants is a producer from Spokane. James Pants recently
released a solid hiphop/new wave/soul album, Welcome,
on Stones Throw Records. How in the world did a person from
Spokane get signed to one of the most influential underground labels in
hiphop? Pants’s explanation: “In Spokane, rent is very, very cheap and
so James Pants can afford to buy records and not work too awfully
hard.” (Nectar, 412 N 36th St, 632-2020. 6 pm, free–$20,
21+.)

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...