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Chong the Nomad Is Seattle's Best Harmonica-Blowing, Ukulele-Strumming DJ

by Dave Segal • Sunday at 6:48 pm

Chong the Nomad, elevating and elating.
Chong the Nomad, elevating and elating. Lester Black

Chong the Nomad (aka Alda Andara Agustiano) gave the Vera Stage crowd a DJ set with a lot of extras Sunday afternoon. From what I could tell, hers was a hybrid DJ/live performance, augmented by Agustiano’s formidable harmonica and ukulele-playing skills, plus her irrepressible dance moves and impressive jumping ability. Her shirt’s message—“I feel good”—was truth in messaging, and it was supremely contagious. Agustiano radiated an almost militant will to euphoria that recalled Janet Jackson’s stage and video presence.

Chong the Nomad’s originals from her 2018 EP Love Memo stood out as highlights, although we as a species will never tire of hearing Missy Elliott’s “Work It.” Agustiano has a deft way with heavy funk beats, marbles-scrambling bass frequencies, and torqued distortion. A couple of highlights included an odd, orchestral, mid-tempo techno jam to which Agustiano added slashing ukulele strums and an interlude during which she simultaneously played harmonica and beatboxed. Holy shit.

That one time a laptop-jockey played harmonica...
That one time a laptop-jockey played harmonica and beatboxed... Lester Black

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CHBP

Saturday Night at Capitol Hill Block Party: Bad Men, Mediocre Tacos, and Brockhampton

by Rich Smith • Sunday at 4:33 pm

Moons out, moms out!
Moon's out, mom's up! RS

Oh my god I'm so tired. The third and final day of Capitol Hill Block Party is already well underway, but I cannot imagine enduring another day of pounding $12 Red Bull and Vodkas while uploading blurry videos of bands to Instagram. However! Chase, Lester, and Dave are much stronger than me, and they will fill you in on all the musical and gustatory and anthropological goings-on at CHBP today.

But before my colleagues hurtle you into the present, it's worth talking about last night. In short: Sundries was good, the tacos were okay, and the voting preferences of Brockhampton fans are strange.

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Two Acts Quit David Meinert's Band Management Company

by Lester Black • Saturday at 5:43 pm

These guys didn't quit.
The Lumineers. These guys didn't quit yet. Josh Bis

Two of the acts currently signed to David Meinert's management company announced Friday that they plan to completely cut business ties with the Seattle businessman. Meinert was accused by five women of sexual misconduct, including two rape allegations, in a story published Thursday by KUOW.

Hey Marseilles said on Twitter Friday night that they are "working on a path forward" that will not include Meinert. Andrea Gibson, a spoken word poet, told me Friday that she would "not have any involvement" with any Meinert-owned company.

The Lumineers, the most commercially successful act currently managed by Meinert's company, have not made any public announcement regarding Meinert nor have they returned requests for comment.

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Music

Friday Night at Capitol Hill Block Party In Six Lists

by Rich Smith • Saturday at 4:28 pm

They turned 10th Ave into a booze lawn.
They turned 10th Ave into a booze lawn. Lester Black

Though I've lived in the Capitol Hill/CD area since moving to Seattle in 2011, I've never attended a Capitol Hill Block Party. I had heard the block party was not actually a party for people who lived in the neighborhood, but rather a block swap with Bellevue. Previous attendees have described evenings full of gratuitous underbutt, sin, suburbans, medium-spicy music, department store perfumes, high prices, heat, and long lines. But I had also heard the festival wonderfully reframes the neighborhood, offering a fresh perspective on the same old brand new condos sprouting out of the ground, the beautiful brick landmarks we know and love, and even the Shell gas station. And surely some of the music was excellent, right? Right! (Especially if you listen to what Dave and Chase tell you to listen to.)

Last night I found all of the above to be kind of true! Even though I only saw like 3ish sets, it was almost too much to take in. So I decided to condense my evening into a series of lists that will give you an idea of what you missed, happily or otherwise.

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Things To Do

Here's Everything You Need to Know for Capitol Hill Block Party 2018 This Weekend

by Stranger Things To Do Staff • Saturday at 12:43 pm

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Courtesy of CHBP

Capitol Hill Block Party is finally here! If you still need tickets to this weekend's music festival, you can buy them here. If you've already got your tickets, we've also got a full guide to the festival. Here are some quick links:

- Friday Schedule
- Saturday Schedule
- Sunday Schedule
- Map
- The Top 40 Artists to Check Out
- Full Block Party Calendar (complete with music clips and artist descriptions)

Have fun!

Music • CHBP

Confirmed: The Black Tones Are Going to Be Huge

by Dave Segal • Saturday at 12:04 pm

Its always nice when a buzz band surpasses expectations.
It's always nice when a buzz band surpasses expectations. Lester Black

Buzz bands reflexively trigger skepticism in me, and the Black Tones definitely have been accruing massive buzz over the last six months or so. But once you see the Seattle trio play live (this was my first time, and it felt so right), you’ll quickly understand why the chattering classes are losing their shit over them.

Led by singer/guitarist Eva Walker (who has the best smile in the city’s music scene, if my scientific survey of one is correct) and her brother, drummer Cedric, the Black Tones don’t do anything innovative, but they sure do inject excitement into traditional rock, blues, and funk moves. I like how they started their packed Barboza set with “Mr. Mines,” a Hendrixian funk-rock warm-up exercise that gradually built in intensity, highlighted by Eva Walker’s articulate wah-wah modulations.

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Music • CHBP

Where Were You While FACS Were Making Rock Great Again?

by Dave Segal • Saturday at 11:19 am

Like wiry angst in your rock? FACS got you covered.
Like wiry angst in your rock? FACS got you covered. Lester Black

Drummer Noah Leger’s FUCK IT T-shirt betokened great things, and Chicago trio FACS did not disappoint. My pick for the most interesting act of this event, FACS come at you with tense, terse post-punk with guitar that strafes with no-nonsense clangor and anger. Guitarist Brian Case specializes in an aggressive form of Morse code anti-riffing, emitting sulfuric sparks of wiry angst.

Playing to a sparse Vera Stage crowd (it was 5 pm, after all), FACS exuded pitiless No Wave menace. Their brutal, rust-belt rock songs are stripped down and ready for conflict, chronically on the verge of exploding; that they don’t just adds to the music’s potency.

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Theater

Remembering the Extraordinary Seattle Actor, Demene E. Hall

by Rich Smith • Saturday at 11:05 am

The longtime Seattle actor and singer died on June 27th.
The longtime actor and singer died on June 27th this year. Courtesy of the family of Demene Hall

Demene E. Hall, an accomplished actor who commanded Seattle stages and screens for decades, died on June 27th.

Last month Hall flew up to Alaska to reprise her solo role in Y York's Sycorax for the Last Frontier Theatre Conference. Within 24 hours, according to director Mark Lutwak, Hall fell ill. She was airlifted to UW Medical Center, but, due to complications related to her illness, Hall decided to end treatment. "She went out the way she wanted to," Lutwak said. "It was under her control, and it was all exactly the way she wanted it."

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Cops

A Brief History of Lip-Syncing Cops

by Nathalie Graham • Saturday at 10:00 am

Cops just wanna have fun.
Cops just wanna have fun. Avid Creative / Getty Images

As everyone knows, the lip sync is the pinnacle of art.

From Jimmy Fallon’s popular The Tonight Show segment-turned-actual-network-TV-show, what can be chalked up to a Hail Mary pass on RuPaul’s Drag Race, to Mariah Carey’s slip-up on New Year’s Eve, the lip sync has influenced the most important parts of culture.

Art evolves and ultimately, just like everything, it dies. In its most recent incarnation, the lip sync has been adopted by cops. Though it signals a decline in all meanings of the word, the Cop Lip Sync has become an art in-and-of itself and must—MUST!—be analyzed.

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Music • CHBP

Yaeji Kicks Off CHBP With Cool Tracks and Even Cooler Mom Jeans

by Chase Burns • Friday at 8:15 pm

No millennial rocks mom jeans better than Yaeji.
No DJ rocks mom jeans better than Yaeji. Lester Black

Yaeji makes music for all times. The DJ/producer/visual artist/fashion designer creates chill, expansive beats that live in a liminal space. It's English and Korean. House and hip hop. ASMR and a banger. She's good for revving up, as Sophia Stephens wrote for The Stranger, but also for cooling off after a night that went harder than expected. I frequently go back to her tracks. Yaeji's music is great for disassociating but not so much that I forget where I'm at or who I am or the shit I've got to do.

Her early set on Friday was a quick hustle through her popular tracks, but the level of teenage debauchery that went down in the crowd during that time was impressive.

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News

When Friends Do Terrible Things

by Dan Savage • Friday at 6:00 pm

When Jeffrey Lord, then a pro-Trump talking head on CNN, appeared on the Real Time With Bill Maher earlier this year, Maher described Lord as one of the nicest, kindest, and most decent people in politics. (Lord would later be fired for "using a Nazi slogan" on Twitter.) Seeing as Lord was so kind and decent, how could he possibly support Trump?

MAHER: He's the most vulgar human being. Vulgar. Why do you, nice, genteel, polite Jeffrey Lord, have this affinity [for Trump]? What is it? What is the attraction?

LORD: Two things. I have to say as someone who knows him and considers him a friend, he has always been, in my presence, polite, charming, sensitive. Truly. Truly.

Lord's defense of Trump basically boils down to this: "Well, he never grabbed my pussy." Donald Trump, an admitted sexual predator, gets a pass from his friend Jeffrey Lord because Trump never sexually assaulted Jeffrey Lord. Trump was always a perfect gentleman in my presence, says Lord, the president never did anything unseemly in my presence. And for Lord this is somehow proof that his friend Donald Trump couldn't have done the things Trump himself admitted to doing when he wasn't in Lord's presence—the things Trump admitted to doing when he was alone with women, the things more than twenty women have come forward and accused Trump of doing to them when Jeffrey Lord wasn't present.

Like a lot of people in Seattle, I've known Dave Meinert a long time. But it was only in the last couple of years that I began to see him socially and consider him a friend.

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Money

Why Don't People Think Jeff Bezos Is As Bonkers As Imelda Marcos?

by Charles Mudede • Friday at 5:50 pm

Why is this man not seen as mad?
Why is this man not seen as mad? Charles Mudede

Two big recent stories. One concerns the former Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak. The other concerns the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. This month, parts of the world learned of Razak's "excessive collection" of luxury goods: handbags, watches, jewelry, clothes, and 1,000 pairs of shoes. Those shoes, of course, recalled the "crazy" former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos, who famously owned nearly 3,000 shoes. The reporter for one article on Razak, "Just like the case of Imelda Marcos," even interviewed a psychiatrist, Dr. Abdul Kadir Abu Baka. The doctor described Razak's condition as a form of depression; people like him must accumulate expensive things or they "get distressed." The doctor also pointed out that the condition "is something similar to narcissistic behaviour;" meaning, "it is about flaunting wealth" with the idea that one "can get away with it." So, the accumulation of things is clearly seen as a form of mental imbalance, if not illness. But what about Jeff Bezos? This week, the whole world learned that his fortune had grown to $150 billion.

Bloomberg called Bezos the richest man on earth and in earth's history. To use words from "Rapper's Delight," he now had "more money than a sucker could ever spend." But the reporter of the Bloomberg story did not consult a psychiatrist about Bezos and his super-excessive wealth. In fact, it is not even considered excessive. 3,000 shoes, and you are nuts and bats. $150 billion, and there is some talk about maybe doing some philanthropy, and maybe some talk about how some of this money might soon be lost because Prime Day got off to a rocky start. What is going on here? Why do we not see the excessive pursuit and accumulation of money as a form of madness? I think I have the answer.

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CHBP

Capitol Hill Block Party 2018 Must-See: Teskey Brothers

by Leilani Polk • Friday at 5:35 pm

Teskey_Brothers.JPG

You’d never know The Teskey Brothers hail from Australia, nor that the quartet's lead singer was a young, fair-haired white man, unless you beheld him with your own bare eyes, as Josh Teskey is a dead vocal ringer for Otis Redding, his pipes perfectly smoky with a hint of whiskey-soaked rasp. And his namesake band with bro and back-up singer/lead guitarist Sam Teskey craft sounds close enough to the high-quality Motown/Stax soul, blues, and R&B of yesteryear that you won’t even care it’s not really Otis.

The Teskey Brothers play Sunday, July 22, 3–3:30 pm, on the Vera Stage. Find a complete list of (40) must-see acts here, check out The Stranger's full Capitol Hill Block Party calendar, and see schedules broken up by day—Friday, July 20; Saturday, July 21; and Sunday, July 22. Listen to some Teskey Brothers (and peep videos) below.

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Film/TV

Why Am I Compelled to See Tom Cruise Movies?

by Sean Nelson • Friday at 4:49 pm

Mission: Impossible – Fallout opens July 27 in wide release.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout opens July 27 in wide release. Paramount Pictures

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Defend your willingness to see the new Tom Cruise movie. (This premise will self-destruct in 474 words.)

Guess what: I can't defend it. Aside from the thing of just liking what you like, I really can't account for how much I enjoy Tom Cruise movies. By which I mean proper late-period Tom Cruise movies, the ones with stunts and running, especially the Mission: Impossible series—the sixth installment of which, Fallout, opens July 27.

By the way, this is not a review of Fallout. I haven't seen it. Yet. They didn't screen it in time for our deadline; why bother when they know how much people who care about cinema hate Tom Cruise?

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Savage Love

His Son Wants to Fuck Pokémon—Is There Anything He Can Do About It?

by Dan Savage • Friday at 4:22 pm

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Originally published March 19, 2014.

I am a liberal parent. I raised a daughter who is bi and poly. I always thought that I could accept anything that parenthood might throw at me. I knew that I could embrace my son if he were straight, gay, bi, trans, etc. If there is a controlling consciousness of the universe, it has a nasty sense of humor. Putting it bluntly: My son is sexually attracted to Pokémon. He dropped hints that I didn't really pick up on. But over the last few years, I have stumbled across evidence of his browsing habits that left me pretty clear about his proclivities. He is now 17, so thoughts that he would "grow out of it" are fading. My biggest fear is that he won't find someone to pair with. I love my children and want them to be happy. Should I address this with him? Try to discourage an orientation that, to me, seems kind of pathetic?

Dad Of Pokémon Enthusiast

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