Seattle is overflowing with options.

At last year’s Stranger Genius Awards party, after the awards were presented for Visual Art, Theater, Film, Literature, and Organization, there was music. Bands performed shunted to one corner of the Moore Theatre’s stage and DJs played in the basement bar, while the official Geniuses mingled, mostly in the lobby. These musical artists—acts like brainy indie-pop band Throw Me the Statue, goofy hiphop collagists Mash Hall, and young “chillwave” duo U.S.F., as well as DJ outfits Emerald City Soul Club and Trouble Dicso—weren’t being honored, they were working; they were closer to the evening’s caterers than the year’s Geniuses. Like every other year, music was at the Genius Awards, but it was pushed to the periphery.

And so it’s been with the awards themselves. Last year, Charles Mudede presented the Film Genius Award to Zia Mohajerjasbi (younger brother of Blue Scholars DJ/producer Sabzi), who was honored largely for his music videos. Mudede wrote in that week’s issue: “More than anyone else, his images have captured the new energies of Seattle’s emerging hiphop scene.” Brendan Kiley presented the Organization Genius Award to the Pacific Northwest Ballet, praising the company for staging “a fierce 15-minute solo by Marco Goecke set to C.P.E. Bach and [punk rock band] the Cramps.” Lindy West pointed out that Theater Geniuses the Cody Rivers Show took their name from “a satirical country-music character they used frequently in early performances.”

In years past, winners have included visual artist Wynne Greenwood of experimental video rock band Tracy + the Plastics, and theater-makers Implied Violence, whose work has frequently incorporated local musicians such as the Dead Science alongside recordings by the Wu-Tang Clan.

So where was the Music Genius?

It’s been something we’ve debated at The Stranger for years. The main argument against having a Stranger Genius Award for Music has been that we already give enough attention to music. It’s true that The Stranger devotes more space to music than to any other single arts section in the paper—we’re as much a music paper as a gay paper or a Seattle paper.

And in years past, we’ve given back to the Seattle music scene via the now-defunct Big Shot competition, a battle of the bands driven by reader votes with prizes that included money, gear, recording time, and passage to SXSW. But Big Shot ended years ago and nothing has replaced it.

It’s not like musicians don’t need the money as much as other artists do. Anyone who thinks musicians are all swimming in piles of money, Uncle Scrooge–like, just isn’t paying attention. The music industry is in shambles, its primary means of making money (selling physical recordings of musical performances) gutted by the advent of easy file-sharing technology. (Has visual art suffered so specific an economic meltdown? Has theater?) Even when the music business was at its most robust, not every musician was buying mansions. For every artist making money, many more struggle to make ends meet, and that’s as true for musicians as for artists in any other field. The no-strings-attached $5,000 prize of a Genius Award could buy a band a van and enough gas to tour the United States.

So this year, we’re thrilled to announce the first annual Stranger Genius Award for Music. That’s got a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? But what will genius sound like, exactly?

Well, what’s most promising for the new category is just how much ground it could potentially cover. It could go to outré hiphop act Shabazz Palaces, for his expert and adventurous destabilizations of that genre’s forms and norms. It could go to Throw Me the Statue songwriter Scott Reitherman, for his uncanny way around a wordy, brainy but utterly catchy pop tune. It could go to Decibel Festival founder Sean Horton, for his massively successful efforts to put Seattle on the international map not just as a rock town but as a hotbed of world-class electronic music. It could go to Jherek Bischoff, for his work with the Dead Science and other bands and for his more avant-garde compositional work. It could go to the Portable Shrines collective, for its work in facilitating an underground of new psychedelic happenings in Seattle’s music scene. It could go to THEESatisfaction, for their Star Wars rebel (without a “pause”) rap and R&B. It could go to Foscil and Truckasauras, for the linked crews’ serious electro-acoustic jazz improvisations and their more popular and impish electronic party music. Or to countless others.

And we’re open to suggestions. The first year of the Stranger Genius Awards, we invited the public to send us their ideas about who they thought deserved to be honored with the cash prize and the profile and the party. After all, there is no application process for the Genius Awards—the last thing we want artists to be doing is filling out paperwork—and we wanted to make sure there wasn’t anyone we weren’t thinking of. Sure enough, there was someone we weren’t thinking of—Chris Jeffries, a theater artist and, of course, musician. Readers recommended him, and he totally deserved a Genius Award, so he won one.

So now we put it to you: Who do Stranger readers think should be honored with the first Genius Award for Music? And more importantly, why? Music, as much or more than any other art form, incites incredibly passionate debate. It’s personal. Everybody has an opinion, and everybody has a favorite musician or band they think deserves greater recognition or material success. We want to hear your arguments for who deserves this award and what makes their work great—make your case in the online comments for this story.

Seattle is overflowing with musical genius. The only hard part will be narrowing the nominees down. recommended

139 replies on “What Does Genius Sound Like?”

  3. Karl Blau. 15 years of being the NW’s prime architect of lo-fi dub-folk-electro-jazz-grunge, and still innovating. Post-genre before post-genre was cool. His adventurous influence is felt widely, yet he’s doing his best work RIGHT NOW.

  5. I nominate Steven Severin. This city’s scene wouldn’t be as awesome as it is without him. He gave breaks to many DJs and bands back in the day that have gone on to shape Seattle music scene from top to bottom.

  6. The Whore Moans! They are fantastic. They bring together some heavy, soul shaking music, with some incredibly intelligent lyrics. One of the best live shows you can catch in this city.

  7. I love Shabazz Palaces, but it seems silly to give $5,000 to a guy who has a Grammy already and rides in Jag.

    Thee Satisfaction seems the most likely to warrant the award. They are fresh, fun and breaking down barriers and stereotypes. For my money, that’s genius.

  8. Alan Bishop, from the sun city girls should be nominated way before Thee Satisfaction, his Subliminal Frequencies label is amazing

  10. Jherek Bischoff…Hands Down. Just give it to him now. Everyone else is also well deserving-what a flattering round of picks!

  11. @8 is unregistered and therefore hidden, so I’ll reiterate. The Sublime Frequencies label is indeed an invaluable local treasure and should be on the list for sure.

    I’m so glad there’s finally going to be a Genius award for music! There are so many worthy contenders…

  12. I say Portable Shrines… damn near the only shows worth going to from start to finish and THE only shows that provide a full experience. p.s. imagine what they’d do with the money… Escalator Fest would be unbelievable… and that is something Seattle needs.

  13. The Lights. They have been putting out dirty/sexy/innovative rock and roll for years, they respect each other and represent what a true musical collaborative should look like, and they continue to build a huge local fan base, even with no major label support. Tell me what other band has done that. They deserve some recognition.

  15. Pearl Jam, just for the lyric, “when sumthin’s cooold, I’m gonna put a little blanket on it”. That’s like the E=MC2 of music, and I bet Stone good get a pretty decent hair cut, or a new pair of shoes with $5k.

  21. Lars Finberg should absolutely be represented in this. As one of the original members of the A-Frames, he then went on to create and front The Intelligence, but as the sole songwriter who also plays ALL of the instruments on the albums himself, he’s recorded some of the most brilliant, infectious, catchy, weird and memorable punk/pop in this city over the course of the last 10 years. Also fronts best new band in Seattle, PUBERTY.

  22. Well, since you brought it up . . . Jherek Bischoff. Not only has he been a member of such groups as The Dead Science and the Degenerate Art Ensemble, he has also produced, recorded and played with Xiu Xiu, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Carla Bozulich, Jason Webley and Paranthetical Girls. And now he is focusing on orchestral instrumental music with his most recent project featuring the likes of David Byrne and Caetano Veloso. A 30 piece orchestra performed his works at Town Hall last September and and a 20 piece group did the same at City Hall just a couple months ago. Definitely some serious geniusness!!

  25. Agree with “thegumbos” above. We saw Jherek Bischoff perform recently and the beauty of his avant-garde orchestral music brought me to tears. He probably is a musical genius. If you haven’t seen him yet….go.

  26. I nominate Camille Bloom. . .She’s incredible, her voice is pure, and she stands for so much. The whole package!

  27. Are you kidding me? Jherek Bischoff is the musical mastermind behind some of the most innovative and creative music to emerge out of Seattle in the late 90s. Listeners have only to listen to his work with the Dips to understand this.

  30. Holly Figueroa O’Reilly. She is back to writing and making music after a serious illness left her unable to sing or play at all for a year or so. Just give a listen to 2007’s “Gifts & Burdens” to see why this is a very good thing indeed.

  32. The Spits. (Done, like that. “Competition” over. End of Story)

    Apologies to all this Jeremy Bischoff or whatever, but the Dead Science is one of the worst bands I’ve ever heard. Like fingernails on a chalkboard. And I’m sorry to say, BUT THAT GUY SUCKS.

    The Spits.

  34. Didn’t Eric Blood produce at least two of those bands? Shabazz Palaces and TheeSatisfaction? His debut solo album is pretty amazing and doesn’t sound like anything from Seattle.

  35. I will throw in the name Alex Guy. She’s played viola/violin with loads of different people (Jherek, Jason Webley, Laura Viers, and on and on) and her newest record just came out on Eleven Records a couple months back.

    I’d like to see the grant go to someone who is doing a lot, but isn’t necessarily a top-tier name that everyone instantly recognizes (Shabazz Palaces, Jherek Bischoff, etc). That way someone who otherwise wouldn’t could come to the attention of many folks.

  37. Jared Mills, from ManPlus and Noddy. Duh.

    He writes amazing music that is poppy and dancy and fun, with some of the saddest lyrics ever. While most artists that I have met with the ability to be very prolific tend to be lacking in the quality, that has never been the case for Jared.

    He is a total music genius, and the ManPlus are awesome fucking possum.

  40. John Roderick – reclusiveness, poor hygiene, public snarkiness and not releasing anything for years are all classic genius moves

  43. I nominate John Ramberg of The Tripwires. He’s the full trifecta of rock-n-roll genius: guitarist,singer and songwriter extraordinaire. A true Seattle musical genius with more than 20 years cranking it out in the local music scene. He brought his Cheap Trick influenced guitar prowess to Gary Heffern’s Cunninghams when he was still in high school and Motley Crüe gloves. Formed his own band Stumpy Joe with his pals Mark, Christian and Scott, they put out an album on Poplama that showed us he could write some damn fine rock songs (check out “Proverbial Straw” a Dylan-does-garage-rock-classic). After those boys broke up came 10 years of The Model Rockets with Grant, Boyd, Graham, Scott and Mike. They put out 4 albums of pure pop-rock genius during their career (check out “Ditched at the Grand Illusion”, “Talk of the Cul de Sac”, “Rusty Roller-coaster” and the mini-rock-opera “Pilot County Suite”, these guys traveled to Spain a few times to extremely enthusiastic crowds that put us Seattlite shoe-gazers to shame. They also once played a note-for-note impromptu Beatles cover set at the EMP Sky Church for a VIP audience that I know for a fact they couldn’t of had much time to practice for, if a set of covers could be called genius, that night applied. After a stint with Neko Case during the “Virginian” record and tour, he formed The Tripwires, with Mark Pickerel and the Sangster brothers. So far they’ve come up with two albums of Nick Lowe / Equals style Pub Rock, a must for any fans of tight songwriting and danceable pop songs, see them live now. When John’s not playing with The Tripwires he might be on stage with the Minus 5 taking it up a notch with a high energy covers like “Betty Lou” when Scott McCaughey needs a break. Not to be limited to music, Mr. Ramberg is an excellent visual artist and graphic designer, with a masters hand in the look of the record covers his bands have needed over the years. I’ve met a few musical geniuses, Mr. McCaughey, Kurt Bloch, Mark Hoyt, Jeff Taylor, Eric Richards, The Purdins to name a few, and yes, as his brother I may be biased, but John Ramberg is my pick for The Strangers music genius award.

  44. @37
    I totally concur with the Man Plus and Noddy suggestion! The guy has written hundreds of songs since I first saw him play at the Beacon Hill Pub and just tosses out these nuggets of gold. I haven’t played a show with him in years, but he continues to pump out the catchiest stuff you’ve ever heard. I was always in awe of how easy it is for him. He is the best songwriter, a nice, funny guy and a genius for sure.

  45. As a once skeptical, now avid supporter of the Decibel Festival I can attest to Sean’s remarkable drive as director and genius as a curator, DJ and composer. Though it’s still a fairly underground phenomenon in the NW, Decibel has quietly become one of the most respected music festivals and production companies in the world. I know this because friends and acquaintances of mine from all over the world travel to Seattle every September to experience Decibel. The fact that they continue to expand the audience and international talent every year, as a grass roots organization with little funding, is pretty astounding. Based on their preliminary line up, I would venture to say that the 2010 festival will be Horton’s most praised edition to date.

  46. C’mon, never mind the oh-so-temporary pop phenoms, what about:

    Keyboardist, composer and teacher/mentor Wayne Horvitz — king of the downtown NYC jazz scene before he moved here and has continued his great experimental and collaborative genius projects…!

  47. Sublime Frequencies.
    Sublime Frequencies.
    Sublime Frequencies.
    Sublime Frequencies.
    Sublime Frequencies.
    Sublime Frequencies.
    Sublime Frequencies.
    Sublime Frequencies.
    Sublime Frequencies.
    Sublime Frequencies.

  48. I agree on that John Ramberg idea…the man is such a gem, such a Seattle treasure of pure pop genius. Year after year he just keeps coming back with more great songs, great bands, and fantastic energy. That being said, you could say that about all of the Tripwires!! The Sangster Brothers are their own institution…as is Mark Pickerel.
    Side tangent – there should be a separate category just to honor Mark Pickerel’s hair.

  50. Hollow Earth Radio – For Magma Fest, for being great people, for supporting a wide ranging bunch of music and musicians, for being persistent and regularly full of humor and zest for life.

    Or Bill Horist. I don’t need to elaborate on how much prestige and general musical goodwill Bill spreads around. He is also a deserving musician. He tours endlessly, releases new music constantly and really ought to be a role model for anyone trying to their own (solo) thing.

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