The Soils
Thurs May 2 at Zeitgeist.

Entitlement is a frustrating issue. Every industry, from baseball to music, has its share of types who feel they're owed something just because they've been working long enough to get the corner office with the view. The entitlement people get pissed when their asses don't get kissed every time they pull down their pants.

I've noticed a little entitlement attitude creeping around Seattle's music scene. Luckily, this city has plenty of great bands and good people working behind the scenes who don't broker in bullshit, but the whole cover-this-band-'cause-I-say-so attitude isn't worth standing in line for, and it's not something any music section that readers trust should put up with. Good music comes from good musicians--not the people running the label, doing the publicity, booking the club, or managing the act.

I was thinking about music-industry games when I headed over to the Zeitgeist coffeehouse to check out the Soils, a local act that's thankfully about as far from the Entitlement Club as it gets. The show I saw was the band's first gig ever, and their unassuming enthusiasm was genuine. Bassist Benjamin Hadley, drummer Donald McGreevy, and guitarist/singer Milky (short for Milk 'n' Cookies, "Like Guns N' Roses," Milky explains) sounded impressively smooth for their first time out of the practice space. The music was an eclectic fusion of jazz and rock with touches of funk, and the band slid between styles with ease, fitting under a progressive jam band umbrella simply because they refused to settle into one sound.

What could easily get scattered actually worked well, as Cookies injected positive calls for social change and "making love" within songs. The Soils' willingness to try out music that doesn't fit in a box was a 180-degree turnaround from the rock formula. Watching them play reaffirmed that the best part of being a music fan is getting sucked into the excitement people give off when they're willing to take chances with their talent. It also reminded me how easy it is to forget the entitlement bullshit when you focus on the most important part of the music industry--the music.