Is Burien the new Brooklyn? I hope not, despite a well-meaning
e-mail from B/IAS—short for Burien/Interim Art
Space—touting Burien as a budding, affordable Brooklyn for
artists.
One Brooklyn is enough. When visiting New York’s trendiest
borough, I savor the art galleries and warehouse gigs. Yet I also
lament the absurd rents and hipster clones sheathed in shaggy,
holy-man beards, madras shirts, and jeans tighter than sausage
casings. Why would anyone want to dress like my parents did in the
1970s?
Let Burien be Burien, but with adventurous art. This weekend, B/IAS
does Burien proud by blanketing a city block with a colossal
surround-sound playback system. Aptly named “Pieces of 8,” the
festival (Sat Aug 15, downtown Burien, SW 150th St and Fifth Pl, 10
am–11 pm as well as Sun Aug 16, 10 am–6 pm, free) features
immersive electroacoustic works by a slew of local composers, including
Seattle electronic-music forefather Marc Barreca, David
Hahn, Scientific American, and singer/composer David
Stutz, who performs live with digitally processed recordings of
frogs, birds, and insects from the Amazon rainforest. Every work
appears to be a premiere or at least new, except for the Flaming
Lips‘ Zaireeka. Dave Fridmann and Scott Booker revive
and replay the infamous DIY surround-sound album of sloughing, echoing
guitars and enigmatic ambience. Burien is just a 15-minute drive south
of Seattle; see www.interim-art-space.com for a
full lineup, map, schedule, and directions.
Two festivals continue closer to home. Perfect for people-watching
and soaking up music, Sounds Outside (Sat Aug 15, Cal Anderson
Park, 1635 11th Ave, 1–8 pm, free) presents a marathon of
adventurous jazz with the Melbatones and Figeater along
with Skerik’s fun and funky Syncopated Taint Horn Quartet.
Reedman Greg Sinibaldi corrals top-flight players for his
quintet, notably saxophonist Mark Taylor, bassist Geoff
Harper, and Byron Vannoy. Making a rare Seattle appearance,
Olympia-based out-jazz titan Bert Wilson closes the show.
Positioned as the antipode (and for some, the antidote) to Hempfest,
MethFest (Thurs Aug 13, Rendezvous, 10 pm, $6; Fri Aug 14,
Funhouse, 9 pm, $7; and Sat Aug 15, the Morgue, 6 pm, $5 with a
nonperishable food item) musters a small army of bands to probe the
nexus of harsh noise, sound collage, electronics, and rock. Forest
of Gray, hardcore vets MDC, Ground Tissues, and
Hemingway are just some.
For quieter listening, check out the Seattle Percussion
Collective (Fri Aug 14, Chapel Performance Space, 8 pm,
$5–$15 sliding-scale donation), performing pieces by Keiko
Abe, John Cage, Stuart Saunders, and two works by the
most underrated (and whimsical) composerShe’s of the
post–World War II avant-garde, Mauricio Kagel. 
