Hero Worship: Grace Jones at Pony on Wednesday, 6.19

Get over the hump with a dance party at Pony entirely dedicated to the fantabulousness that is Grace Jones. Bonus! It’s a birthday celebration for a coupla prominent Geminis out there.

Audioasis Benefit Show with Nightmare Fortress, Grey Gardens, Haunted Horses, & Music for Evenings at Chop Suey on Thursday, 6.20

Spooky tunes will reign supreme at this local showcase benefiting affordable housing non-profit, Capitol Hill Housing. If you’ve ever bitched about all the “ugly, yuppy condo crap” going up around the Hill or lamented about the insane cost of housing in Seattle, here’s your chance to do a teensy little something about it.

Dickslap with Riz Rollins and Cherry Markos at the Eagle on Friday, 6.21

Kevin Kauer, the sex-ba-bomb mastermind behind Nark Magazine, Bottom 40, and a million gajillion of the best parties you’ve ever been to is BACK, BITCHEZ! Fresh off a nationwide tour, this Friday is your chance to show Nark how much Seattle has missed him.

Shameless Social ft. Lusine at Electric Tea Garden on Saturday, 6.22

Shameless takes great care to invite only the highest caliber DJs to spin at their Social parties, and this weekend is no exception. Texas’ Lusine will be the cherry on top of your electro sundae as he’s joined by a line-up full of sweetly satisfying goodness.

Pharmakon, Lust For Youth, Grave Babies, and Perpetual Ritual at the Narwhal on Sunday, 6.23

Bring on the noise this Sunday night at Narwhal as a bunch of bands known for doing things different take the stage. Known for their intense stage shows, all the bands set to play on this bill will drag you down to the underworld, with Pharmakon leading the way.

Peter Michel has been a musician since he came into this world. He picked up the piano at three years old, and has since been adding instrument after instrument to his broad repertoire. Once the touring drummer for Craft Spells, the Seattle native is now operating as a bit of a one man band. His new dream pop endeavor, Hibou, has only been in existence for a brief period of time, but it’s already attracting national attention from fans and media outlets alike.

Deriving its moniker from the French word for “owl,” Hibou’s sound is perfect for the impending summer, ideal for long days of sunning at the beach and backyard hang outs with old friends. In fact, summer as a season seems to be a great source of inspiration for Peter, who sites Seattle’s Discovery Park as one of his greater musical influences on this project, but claims he doesn’t allow himself to go there unless it’s summer. “Now that summer is here,” he says, “I will be at Discovery Park as much as possible, eating pizza and blasting summer tunes, swimming in the lake, hanging out with my dog, Geoffrey, attending BBQ’s…or if it’s rainy I’ll be in bed watching SVU.”

The 19-year-old wunderkind has already put so much music biz experience under his belt, it seems as though he has intuitively tapped into a model for success. This, of course, includes stellar work in the studio, creating tracks that naturally rise above the rest, but it also means understanding the importance of playing shows, and the right kind of shows at that. Bringing on a full band of live musicians for his shows, with the help of his booking agent, Peter has been able to expertly expose audiences to Hibou who are already in love with his band — they just didn’t know it yet. Last week the group played an in-store performance at Urban Outfitters in the U District, prime territory for listeners who are ahead of the trends and always seeking something new.

Coming off the high of his recently released Dunes EP (which is currently available for the low price of free-99), Peter has his sights set on the road, with plans to tour this coming August. While travel may satisfy this young songwriter’s sense of adventure, fans in the 206 need not fear losing him to more glamorous locales. “I’ve gotten the opportunity to travel all over the U.S. and Europe,” Peter says, “and Seattle is still one of the most amazing places I’ve ever known.” We couldn’t agree more.

Peter took the time to answer our Q&A for Brand New Talk last week before his show. Get a feel for his cheeky personality below, and definitely follow this guy on Tumblr for gorgeous gifs, free tunes, and answers to awkward questions.

How would you describe your day to day style?

Laid back with smell-good fabrics.

Is there a difference between what you wear everyday and what you wear on stage?

Never…at least not yet, I think we will save the white suit getup for our euro tour.

Do you guys coordinate wardrobe for your shows? What is your process for styling the band?

The only thing that’s coordinated are the tunes. Dillon and Bill have shown up to practice a couple times wearing almost the exact same thing…but that’s more telepathy coordination, which is a whole different story.

How has your style evolved since the band first began?

The band started about 3 months back, in-between then and now I’ve acquired a pair of new shoes I got for a wedding that I think are pretty charming. We are all going to Goodwill before our August tour to grab some clothes, I think we made a plan to have three full outfits, and mix and match until they fall apart.

Who’s style inspires you, who are some of your fashion icons?

In 5th grade I was in a band called Vicuna, we played at my elementary school talent show, & I dressed up exactly like Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day, who I was obsessed with. Since then I don’t know if I’ve honestly been inspired by anybody’s fashion in particular, I kind of try to keep away from that realm, as I work a retail job. If I had to had a fashion icon I might go with someone like Prince.

What are some of your favorite pieces from your own wardrobe?

I like to keep it simple, favorite pants are these roomy grey ones I’m wearing right now, and maybe just a soft white t-shirt or a long sleeved denim one for those breezy days. Also my big button necklace is always with me. I found it in my attic years ago and it is now a part of me.

If you could go on a shopping spree anywhere on the planet, a.) Where would you go? b.) What stores would you go to? c.) Who would you bring with you? d.) What is at least one item you would definitely be shopping for?

a.) Disneyland b.) That big one as you’re leaving Space Mountain. c.) My mom & my dog, Geoffrey. d.) Those Disney pins. Also, if they have a new Space Mountain T-Shirt, I’m all in.

Photo credits in order of appearance: Kendall Paulsen; Alexa Maple; Kendall Paulsen; Carly Stilson; Zaria Vetter; Alexa Maple.

Skin.

It’s the canvas for all things we apply on it. Without a clean, even canvas to start on, the clarity and quality of our work won’t shine through. Sometimes searching for the perfect foundation can be a little daunting; there are so many different kinds – powders, liquids, BB’s, CC’s, and now even DD’S!

Have no fear, by the end of this journey you’ll be a foundation-pro. The “Perfect Foundation” search can be an epic saga in and of itself, so here’s my two-part guide for finding your proper base so you can create your own ideal canvas every time.

So, let’s start with the basics. I have three general rules for finding the right foundation, my “3 C’s”, if you will…

Color, Coverage, and Consistency

Today, we’ll be talking about Color.

Color is probably the most important thing to focus on when choosing the right foundation for yourself. Choose the wrong color and you can end up looking sallow, ashy, tired, or even get that dreaded foundation “mask” (you know what I’m talking about). However, with the right color, you’ll look awesome!

On the quest for your right foundation color, you first want to figure out your undertone. You will most likely be either “warm” or “cool”, and sometimes people can fall into the “neutral” category. If you have a warm undertone, you will likely have yellow or olive hues to your skin. Cool undertones will tend to have more of a pink or bluish hue. If you tend to have blemishes or redness like me, look past those overtones and really see what’s underneath your skin.

Photo From WikiHow

You can do a couple different tests to determine your undertone. There’s the “vein test”; turn your wrist and take a look at your veins, if they tend to have a more greenish tint, you may be warm toned. If your veins look more blue, you may be cool toned. If you can’t tell, you may be a neutral.

Also take a look at your eyes and hair, do you have gold or reddish flecks in your iris (colored part of your eye), does your hair have a reddish undertone? This can indicate you are warm. If your eyes have more of a grey, black or blue hue and/or if your hair is naturally ashy blonde, jet black, or neutral brown without any visible red undertones, you’re probably cool toned.

Another good test is the “silver or gold” test, try on a piece of gold jewelry and then silver. If you decide the gold looks better on you (I am personally a gold jewelry fiend), warm may be your tone. If silver is what you prefer, cool may be your tone.

Here’s a hint for those with darker skin – you may automatically peg yourself into the “warm” category, but try some of those tone tests and you may be surprised!

I feel like I can’t stress enough that we need to break through the convention that Asian or darker skinned people are always “warm” toned and Caucasians are “cool” toned. It’s not always the case at all!

Let’s take us Peaches as an example. Here’s yours truly, and Miss Peach herself, Brooklyn. We’re both lighter skinned gals, but have very different undertones to our skin. It may be subtle, but she is certainly a cool toned gal (look at her eyes and the “blue” undertones in her hair) and I am a warm (hazel/brown eyes with reddish undertones in the hair).
Brooklyn would be able to pull off intense blood red lipstick since it’ll play off well with the cool undertones of her skin, while I on the other hand would look like I were dying, so as a warm-toned girl I stick with coral and peach tones for lips.

Some celeb examples of “cool” toned ladies are Reese Witherspoon, and Peachy doppelganger Katy Perry. Warm-toned celebs include Nicole Richie and Mila Kunis.

Undoubtedly, the best way to test for the right foundation color is under natural light. Unfortuately, many drug stores and department stores have terribly unflattering fluorescent lighting but do what you can to get the best view. Once you’ve found a foundation you like take the color that you think will closely match you and then get a shade lighter, and a shade darker so you have three total to test. Most drug store foundations will label their shades under “fair/light,” “medium,” or “dark/deep” to make it easy to differentiate. L’Oreal and their True Match line (a “daily” of mine for a long while) has probably one of the better selections of colors as far as drug store lines go. They still tend to be on the more “yellow” side as I’ve noticed many drug store lines lean toward, so if you’re a cool tone, be sure to look for the labels that are marked as such, or have keywords like “beige” or “neutral.”

As far as department store/high end brands go, Make Up Forever definitely has an amazing selection for practically every shade and undertone, but I will talk more about brands in Part 2.

Photo From MyMyBlog

Let’s get back to color matching. Take each shade and swatch a streak along your cheek or jawline. If you’re able to, go outside and look at yourself in a mirror. The color that best meshes in to your skin without a bunch of blending will be the one to get. If you tend to have oily and/or darker skin, it’s a good rule of thumb to get your foundation in a shade just a bit lighter than you think you’ll need. This is because the oils in your skin can tend to oxidize foundation, making it turn darker once it goes on your skin.

Now here we are, you’ve mastered foundation color. Be sure to come back for part 2 on Coverage and Consistency and learn all about the different types of foundation out there.

Until next time–keep it peachy, ladies!

Frank Correa is a character. A true artist in every sense of the word, the Peruvian native creates images by capturing moments on 35mm film, and turning them into outer space dreamscapes in Photoshop. His work is surreal, it’s sexy, and it’s sublime, much like Frank himself. His photographs are an extension of himself, a peek into his vibrant, kaleidoscopic mind. To look upon them is like seeing color for the first time, like Dorothy stepping into Oz and leaving the black and white world of Kansas behind her.

Frank moved to Everett, WA as a teenager when his uncles moved his family to the area after establishing themselves with jobs at Boeing. “It was great,” he says, “It was a really drastic change from where I came from. I think I liked the experiences I had and the friends. The city itself sucks, but I had a good time there. There was a lot of green, a lot of trails I could get lost at, and friends with similar interests.” Making the hop over to Seattle after high school was a natural transition for him, following friends and joining a Capitol Hill community that he already belonged to. And this is where it all began. Frank had played around with photography a bit in high school, borrowing big, outdated cameras from the photojournalism department of his school, but it wasn’t until he moved to Capitol Hill that he began to take it seriously.

“I started hanging out with Lauren Max,” he explains, “and she did a good job documenting parties and all that life that I was a part of. I was always interested in taking photos so she gave me her camera when she was done with it. She gave me that Rebel and I took photos with it, A LOT, and then the camera started to fail because Lauren already ran it almost to death and then I killed it for sure. It wouldn’t take photos anymore; it wasn’t focusing and just not working out. I remember I was doing a photo shoot at that time and my camera died, but thank god I had a disposable camera handy, so I ended up shooting with that. And I like how it looked and so after that I just started doing point and shoots, and still do.”

What Frank does now is a souped-up, take no prisoners version of that original style. It’s the result of the expression of his completely unbridled imagination. “I said fuck it,” he says, “no more limitations. Just do whatever you want. So I just went at it.” He describes his “bliss” as coming home, turning on his big screen TV monitor that’s connected to his computer hard drive, and zoning out on photo editing, exploring the infinite possibilities of the world he creates.

Frank Correa is a mystic. His blood is of the Inca, and in it there is magic. His presence is powerful and yet gentle, genius and yet humble. This is the root of why Frank is in the Seattle Peach 100. Sure, he is one of the most mind-blowingly talented artists in Seattle and possibly the world. But what draws us to this man is his sense of compassion and humility and openness. He is approachable and friendly and silly and sweet. He is easy to befriend, and I am grateful to have a man like him in my life. To get a sense of his playful personality, check out his Factsheet below.

All photos: Shot by Brooklyn, ‘Shopped by Frank.

All photos by Korbin Bennett-Gold

I wanted to be a fun guy on the last day, so I assembled the party time flag and volunteered as the Sasquatch clock tower for the day.

My morning plan to rekindle lost connections was a greater success than I could have hoped for. I strolled all the familiar avenues, and when people were not cheering for party time, they were inviting me in to play every type of lawn or table drinking game I have ever heard of. I found every person I thought to look for, and even some I didn’t. The first pass through I left my stuff all over the place in my forgetful revelry, and was so glad that on the way back it was all waiting for me. New and old friends alike made sure I was reunited with my flask, blanket, waterproof shell, and other forgotten items. I was so happy for the integrity in a place where “finders keepers, losers weepers” is a commonly the guiding rule.

Having so much fun socializing and losing things, I missed Mike Birbiglia at 3:30, but I had expected this to happen, the way the day was going. I loved his recent movie Sleepwalk with Me produced with This American Life, and I was sad not to repeat the star-struck TV-in-real-life moment I had with Nick Offerman. In my half-hearted effort to reach the festival before the end of his stand-up act, I ended up early for ODESZA.

Once per day, every year of Sasquatch, I expose myself to the sound of one new band who I have only heard or read about on the Sasquatch lineup page. Often the festival scheduling team surprises me by slotting in local Seattle talent that – despite my active participation in local music – I have never heard of. This year, the local ‘unknown’ I was most excited for was ODESZA.

Their self-released debut LP, Summer’s Gone, has been on repeat at my workstation throughout the weeks leading up to Sasquatch. The record can fill the auditory hole left in a silent room as well as, I learned, it can fill a dance tent of party rockers. The band is a production duo made up of Harrison Mills (Catacombkid) and Clayton Knight (BeachesBeaches). Their sound lives in the higher octave ranges cohabited by Artists like Gold Panda. The tonal range of the dreamy vocal samples and the instrumentation give a summer/beach feel to the music similar to fellow Seattle group, Beat Connection, whose song, “Saola,” ODESZA has remixed.

For their live set at El Chupacabre Monday afternoon at Sasquatch; ODESZA was submerged into a video-screened-lined DJ booth, bent low over their controls manipulating the sounds. When one or both of the members looked up to smile at the crowd it was a sure sign that the beat was really about to drop. I could see the joy from the dancing crowd reflected in their faces. Compared to the Summer’s Gone album, there was less of a Vox Mod-esque space journey in the live set. ODESZA was tending their responsibility to provide the dance tent with what it really wanted: non-stop booty shakers. They mixed an ebb and flow of the best dance sections of their catalog.

The show set a very friendly and positive vibe, living up to my expectations and exciting me for the bands I knew better the rest of the day. I stuck around El Chupacabre as Toro Y Moi (aka Chaz Bundick) set up. Usually when a debut album like Causers of This comes out and receives such wide acclaim from everywhere, a long awaited, nerve-racking, will-they-live-up-to-themselves sophomore release is hyped and speculated upon for more or less a year. Months after his 2009 debut 9-song EP, My Touch, Toro Y Moi released Causers of This (sharing zero songs with My Touch). He followed this within a year by two more EPs and his sophomore LP, Underneath The Pine. Almost as soon as anyone had heard of him, Toro Y Moi was an established name in the chillwave indie scene with a catalog demonstrating his quality over time.

It is always uncertain if an electronic rock artist like Neon Indian or Toro Y Moi will be able to deliver their manipulated sound live using the mysterious instruments that provided those samples, or if they will end up performing a lap top DJ set. Toro Y Moi delivered exactly what I had hoped for, giving us his true voice, and performing every synthetic wave with the press of his own finger, every wobble with a knob twist from his own wrist, and every shoegaze strum with his own pick. I was in awe, living in a happy bliss, only reluctantly separating to travel to Yeti for one of my longtime favorite bands, Menomena.

Two things about Menomena grab my attention right away when I listen to them. First, it’s that baritone saxophone. Wild Belle wet my appetite with their giant sax breaking it down rocksteady style on Sunday, but I was looking forward to the way Justin Harris would use the instrument to divide and re-pace Menomena’s songs on Monday afternoon. The second key to my heart is the vocal performance. I can not describe exactly the appeal to Danny Seim’s voice, but he has a way of separating each thought by using a vocal crescendo, peaking and settling as each line ends and the next begins. There is a common division among music listeners between those who live for the beat, and those who focus on the lyrics. I fall on the beat side of the spectrum, so when lyrics and vocals stand out to me beyond their musical relevancy, it means there is something special going on in their delivery. I really appreciate this when it happens because I do not try to ignore lyrics, they just don’t naturally offer the same appeal.

Having never seen Menomana before, I did not realize that multi-instrumentalist and co-frontman of the band, Danny Seim, played his live set at the front of the stage on the drum kit. As a drummer and performing artist, I get understandably excited whenever the role of the percussionist in a band moves past the back-stage relegation most common in stage setups. It also raises my expectations, and I enjoyed paying special attention to the complexity of the beats as well as their broken timing. The influence of the drum style became clear throughout the whole sound – the breaks and separations between sax solo, rhythm, and vocals that make Menemona’s sound unique all stem from the breakbeat style of Danny Seim’s percussion.

The next band on my schedule had so many expectant stars, hearts, and underlines around it that I could barely distinguish the word “Cake” in the Sasquatch stage column. The stars and hearts resulted from a young love affair with Cake. My first time in college at the UofA in Tucson, my good friend Chuck introduced me to Cake, and later that year invited me to road trip with him to a San Francisco New Years show the band was headlining. Live music, road trips, and San Fran were all new to me at that time; I could not hold back my enthusiasm for the adventure. Long story short none of us had learnt to meet dreams with practical time and expense budgeting, and I never did make it to the show. Since then, the west coast cities are all home to me, as is living in my car on the road. In fact it was that same friend, Chuck, who ended up going to my first music festival with me – Sasquatch – four years ago. But in all this time I had never seen Cake, and never stopped wanting to.

I learned a lot from spending that hour listening to Cake, particularly lead singer and frontman, John McCrea. He is a radical man, and passionate about what he believes in. Hearing his between-song diatribes against ‘the Man’ gave me a deeper understanding of the songs I had loved for years, and informed the tone of the band. John McCrea boasted that they had self-released their new album, and declared it a success against the predictions the record companies offered as Cake walked out their door.

In the spirit of independence, it made sense that Cake was reluctant to play their ’90′s hits in stead of their new record. After a few new songs, they relented to the unshouted demands of the crowd and got everyone dancing with “The Distance.” From then on they bounced around, not always new, but rarely a hit. Cake was asserting that the show was for us, but it was also for them. A collaboration underlined by John McCrea’s crowd involvement. He took several opportunities to divide the crowd, explain their different roles in the songs, and recruit 20,000 volunteers to perform songs like “Sick of You” from Showroom of Compassion. I was determined to stay through the whole set hoping to hear “Sheep Go To Heaven” and “Short Skirt, Long Jacket” (but was left wanting on both counts). I was not kept from satisfaction though when they ended with fan favorite “I Will Survive,” the opening track from Fashion Nugget.

My dedication to nostalgia nearly caused me to miss the start of Alt-J. My roommate had been stalking the area around Bigfoot looking to spot me, because he knew how much I loved this band, and we had been missing each other most of the weekend. I had been playing Alt-J’s new record, An Awesome Wave, for anyone unfamiliar with the band who visited our house in the past three months. I would introduce them by playing “Tessellate,” and then when “Fitzpleasure” came on, I would let the hair out and do exaggerated full bodied headbangs to the drone. Every headbanging muscle in my body was at the ready when the band began at dark on the final night of Sasquatch. They seemed to follow my lead, playing “Tesselate” right after the opener. The crowd responded with…slow swaying.

I bounced through six different places in the crowd that day, finding friends, making new ones – but never finding the party. There was no jumping around, no hyping the crowd. The band played about 15 feet deeper into the stage than they had to; the only person to move more than a foot from where they started was the bass guitarist, Gus Unger-Hamilton. This was because Gus plays with a wide metal stance and sometimes stomps a small rotation when he looks up through his short sheet of blond hair.

Perhaps the missing stage presence was focusing the crowd into a bored tunnel-vision, or in the back diverging watchers into side conversations. But all around me was a blur when I finally gave up on the people around me and took the space I needed behind the sound booth to rage out months of love for music waiting for the proper volume Bigfoot brought on Monday.

Following Alt-J, there was a mass migration to fulfill a calling we had all felt since the festival started. When the sun sets on Monday, there is only one place for everyone to gather and call it a week – the main Sasquatch stage at the edge of the great gorge for the final festival headliner. For 2013, that band was The Postal Service.

The last show that Postal Service played before last Monday was the closing headliner spot on the same stage at Sasquatch in 2004.  They have been dormant ever since, and as Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie) announced, Postal Service is back from the dead. 2004’s Sasquatch set was recorded as a live album, and that afternoon before the show a fair number of people were wondering, “Is there anything new? Are they going to just play the same set again” the answer was yes, and no. The Postal Service has been updated. They have re-mixed themselves, and performed Give Up circa 2013, with only a couple new songs that were not bad, but ended up being show stoppers in the bad way.

Impossibly, the updated classics we all know and love were better. I loved Give Up because, yes it had Ben Gibbards iconic twee indie vocals with the amazing Jenny Lewis, but also because it has amazing production. The beats are simple and clean, but are constructed electronically into sounds I have never heard. It had the complexity of trap or house music without the clutter. Restrained guitar and vocals allowed me to forget I was even listening to ‘electronic’ music.

The concert opened with “Such Great Heights,” the lights and speakers panning back and forth in tandem as band members took their places. They followed with “Sleeping In” and the whole place was on the same page, loving the new instrumentation, and not feeling like any of the original material was lost. The new sounds seemed more organic, changing as they were played, existing as a range of similar sounds. The sound waves free to play inside their octave, volume, or other constraint. “Sleeping In” had a dreamy, Ducktails-esque distorted ocean ring running through it. The guitar was given a slight surf flanger distortion, and still the feeling and vocals remained the same. The show left me feeling like more bands should update their best work with the benefit of modern talent and gained experience.

Rusko was still going strong when The Postal Service ended, but I broke tradition and did not even stop in. I was happy with the feeling I had. I was relaxed, and I was in good company for the final long walk home. When we arrived, I had time for a little food for once, as I watched many of my neighbors drive their packed cars away, and others collapse into their tents for the night. I could hear the celebration being stretched to its limits closer towards the main hub of the campsite and thought back to the years when I had watched the Tuesday morning sunrise over the grapevines. Sasquatch 2013 was deep. In sound, the slow, grindy, deep bass was the sound that carried through the weekend. It was deep in local flavor with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, OCnotes, ODESZA, Reign Wolf, and others. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes, the xx, Vampire Weekend, and The Postal Service all came back bigger and more incredible than their last time at Sasquatch. For my own experience, I have never been so busy during a Sasquatch, nor made so few mistakes or run into so few problems. This year was a nonstop party that went off without a hitch. Cheers to that, and looking forward to summer, and the Capitol Hill Block Party!

All photos by Korbin Bennett-Gold except: Photo 1 of Toro Y Moi, and Photos 1 and 4 of The Postal Service by Matthew Lamb; Photos 2 and 3 of The Postal Service by Christopher Nelson.

In 2010, Leta opened an Etsy shop in order to try to offload some of her collection and make space for new things. Her resulting vintage shop, Deja Vintage Boutique, has rapidly taken off, and perusing her online catalog, it’s easy to understand why. Let’s just say that Leta has expensive taste. A fashion preservationist first and foremost, one would be hard pressed to find anything in her shop that was made after 1975, and each and every item is in incredible condition. “I find unique pieces with a historical significance,” she says. “Nothing makes it into the Etsy shop that I would not wear myself.” Dealing in iconic prints and distinguishing silhouettes, Deja Vintage is polished to perfection.

While the shop is primarily an online-only operation, Leta does bring her assemblage along with her sometimes to pop-up art and vintage markets such as Art Ache at Chop Suey from time to time. However, don’t expect her to open a store front any time soon. “Online I have the opportunity to offer high end, collectible fashion that’s going to be seen by a global market,” she explains, “Seattle as a whole has a certain look in terms of fashion that I don’t necessarily feel I fit into. When I’m pulling a collection for a pop-up market, I tailor it to a street style, a less polished look.”

For those looking for a more hands-on experience and don’t want the watered down version of her incredible collection, Leta offers a very fun alternative. Clients can book appointments with her for a private personal shopping experience at her storeroom in Edmonds (where she grew up). “Sometimes I look at my store room in an unorganized moment and just say, ‘Yikes! I am a crazy dress lady,’” she says. The best kind of crazy, her storeroom is bursting at the seams with clothes that would make Joan Holloway go gaga.

Leta was peachy enough to answer some questions on her musical taste, which is surprisingly much more modern than expected. Read on to find out what this glamorous girl gets down to.

What 5 artists are you listening to the most right now?

Rodriquez, Rusty Willoughby, Macklemore, The Thermals, Shabazz Palaces.

What music do you put on first thing in the morning?

Bob Dylan

What do you jam out to while prefunking for a night out?

It depends on where i’m going – A mix from whatever awesome DJ i’m rushing to see for a Shameless party or some thing classic like older Black Keys albums to go out with friends.

If you could pick any band/artist to perform for your runway show, who would it be and why?

Rose Windows would would set the perfect mood for a dreamy, warm and surreal runway show.

What band/artist best represents your (design) style?

Prom Queen’s romantic, sexy and classic look perfectly fits my shop’s aesthetic.

What musician/band would you most like to style or design for?

I would love to dress The Tempers for a show or photo shoot.

What musician/band are you most excited to see play that is coming to town in the next few months?

I was lucky enough to see Rodriguez recently which was like a dream come true. I’m looking forward to see Born Ruffians, Detroit Cobras and festival season in general.

Photos 1-4 by Jacquelyn Portolese; Photo 5 by Last Night Blue; Photo 6 by Jacquelyn Portolese.

My world is a galaxy of mysterious possibilities when recording with the Bolex H-16 Rx-5

When I arrived inside the Gorge I was surprised to find local MC, OCnotes, rapping on the Cthulhu stage. According to my schedule, his show was set to start an hour from then, conflicting with my most anticipated new band Wild Belle. Needless to say, I was grateful to the powers that be for the schedule shift that let me have my cake and eat it too. 

If you are part of the growing Seattle hip-hop scene you might recognize OCnotes, AKA Otis Calvin III, from Metal Chocolates, his collaboration with Rick Rude (of Fresh Espresso). Unfortunately, the mic was plagued with sound problems to the point that OCnotes spoke more to the sound tent next to the stage than to the crowd. By the time the mic was satisfactory, his alloted time had ended. Luckily the band was grooving hard, playing us music to dance to while the trouble got sorted out.

Anticipating the rocksteady sounds of Wild Belle pulled me to their stage so I could post up right in front of the radiant singer, Natalie Bergman. She and her brother, Elliot Bergman, front the band, Natalie on vocals and Elliot on sax, keys, and backup vocals. I fell in love with Wild Belle immediately when I heard the opening track to their debut LP, Isles, on the Sasquatch website playlist. When “Keep You” first came on I ran across the room to see who they were and when they were playing, as if it would be too late if I was not quick enough. What struck me was the reggae influence in what otherwise had a similar foundation sound to Menomena.

I have learned to be cautious about my excitement for a band when I have only heard one single, so I reserved my suspicion that this band would win all of our hearts at the show. When Wild Belle started, I felt so satisfied. They are special. Natalie and Elliot are backed by a solid three-part rock band – drums, guitar, bass, but it is the talent of the two siblings that set Wild Belle apart. Natalie has the perfect under-emphasized rocksteady twang to her straight forward delivery, varied by a slightly raspy California croon that has a Chicago bite to it. She uses her own voice overdubbed as backup vocals when she sings in rounds. Elliot notably added to the vocals with strong male sections on “When It’s Over,” leaving us wanting more. His real contribution comes from his high-pitched, slow and steady organs, chill-lazer bee bops, and most notably, his baritone sax solos that bring the funk.

Yes, this was one of the best performances to catch last weekend at the Gorge, but if you missed it, don’t worry. Wild Belle is a new band, and not yet comfortable enough with themselves and their music to bring all the emotion held in the album to the stage. There was a strong support and love between the sibling duo in the front, and the musicianship was top notch. Natalie had the audience in her hands, they were captivated by her Sister Carol-esque, undulating, downtempo step as she sang to the field of people. As the band develops and gains experience, I anticipate the funky energy from the music seeping into the energy of the performance. Natalie will better understand the power of her own presence and use it to play with the crowd. My impression from the show was that the band was as blown away as we were. Once it settles in what an amazing sound they have invented, and they start owning it, the sky is the limit.

The show I got most excited for all weekend was Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. The year their first album, Up From Below, came out I saw the group perform five times and even hitched a ride in their bus from Tucson, AZ to Austin, TX. They are some of the best people. Thinking back to (lead singer) Alex Ebert’s embodiment of the messianic figure named Edward Sharpe, I could think of nothing better to record on film than the reflected light of his presence.

The day I started my vinyl collection I added the new Edward Sharpe album, Here, to my stack on a whim. I was not a promoter of the album right away when it was released. I was really looking for 12 more tracks just like the ubiquitous single, “Home,” from Up from Below. As I dug the grooves deeper, giving Here chance after chance to win my adoration, it finally did. It has now become one of my favorite albums of all time, and the phrase, “that’s what’s up” bounces through my head daily. Their show at the Gorge was my first chance to see them live since Here came out, and I was very excited for the expanded experience.

While they played their songs Sunday evening, I had the familiar impression that Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes were having the most fun out of anyone around that day. They were seeking out connections with the people in front of them; they expected to love everyone. Alex and Jade took turns touching hands, sharing words, and asking for stories from the audience. They were fully supported by nearly 20 additional musicians on stage, filling the large platform at the edge of the canyon. I had the impression that it was us who had been invited to join their happy hangout for an hour, and not the other way around.

When the show ended I was sad to see them all go. In that moment I wanted to move to L.A. and camp outside their houses until they finally gave in and let me come live with them. I imagined we could share group lay-downs on giant, soft, ornate rugs, all sleep in pairs of bunk beds in one room every night, and wake up together to pick kale from the garden and make salty lemon quinoa salads and chia pudding for breakfast every morning.

I snapped out of the day dream the Magnetic Zeroes had sung me into, and steeled my tired body for the trudge back to camp to dispel my recording burdens and let myself be light for an evening open to new people and experiences.

When I got back to camp, my VW bus dwelling neighbors had read my mind and returned to set up the grill and compose themselves before finishing the night with Mumford & Suns on the main stage. They invited me into their bus on the way out to give the grand one room tour and share a smoke and some conversation. I welcomed the upholstered couch and the comforting feeling they preserved in their travel home. I would be kicking myself if I missed Grimes, so I bid my neighbors ado and set out feeling fresh with my lightened load, and prepared for anything with my orange fur blanket, inflatable backpacking lawn chair, and multiple layers to have a warm Sunday evening on the lawn.

I walked up to Bigfoot right away upon rentering the venue, and attempted to weave through the Grimes audience to watch the show in progress. The pack was thick, and everyone’s attention was riveted on the woman in the distance going through fits of focus and bursts of poppy crowd focused jumping around. She was tweaking knobs on one of her multiple keyboards, while looping her high pitched voice to meld traditional pop sounds into a transcended vocal experiment that could not be identified as English, but neither was it garbled or incomprehensible sounding.

There were dancers cycling onto the stage in pairs, using their body contortions to show the proper way to get down to the music. This was useful, because Grimes was less giving us the refined dance beats we expect from Visions, and more sharing her on-stage experimentation. The work that she was doing was impressive. She synthesized her industrial, pop, goth, and experimental influences by hopping from one instrument to the next, altering the settings, tweaking the sounds, and then stepping to the front to record a vocal sample, or perform with her new adjustments before springing to the next instrument. I could hear the depth in sound resulting from a familiarity that can only have developed from spending quality time practicing and performing with the same tools. To be there was to be in the presence of the master.

My energy was at a weekend low point as I walked in the dark away from Grimes. I focused singularly on finding a spot on the lawn low enough to outpace the overflowing bass from the dance tent, and with enough room to stretch out and take full advantage of my lightweight camp chair. I may have also been on the search for a Mumford & Suns snuggle buddy, but to be honest, my energy was fizzling short of the attractive outward glow I usually maintain.

The Mumford & Sons set was thankfully a lot higher energy than I expected from listening to their records. The band has developed a distinct sound in the bluegrass/folk genre, established primarily by the lead vocalist, Marcus Mumford’s, unique London twang. As a banjo and bluegrass lover, the popular success Mumford & Sons have experienced since their Grammy performances has been very satisfying to me. It is rare to have folk artists receive the attention to warrant main stage headlining and ‘Album of the Year’ acclaim.

I was captivated by the banjo finger-picking and strumming by Winston Marshall throughout the performance and went just about wild when Marcus invited all of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes on stage to share the finale. Just as their songs individually start pleasant and build to anthemic acoustic conclusions, so too did the set list follow a build to an ending surprise I could not have dreamed up. For their two song encore, Mumford & Sons decided to do a cover of Fleetwood Mac‘s “The Chain.” All bets were off for this one. With Edward Sharpe’s help there were easily a dozen vocalists on stage, and thousands in the crowd. The sound was a huge and all-encompassing group celebration bringing us all together in a culmination of not just the Edward Sharpe & Mumford double bill, but also of the day, and the weekend to that point. By Sunday night, everyone is your friend. You may not have met each other yet, but just by being there you have enough in common interest and shared experience that it feels like being home with the extended family wherever you go. Looking at the stage crowded with two massive bands who have toured together and act like family – I felt the performance was the perfect embodiment of the camaraderie I had begun to see in the smiles reaching every eye I made contact with.

The Presets were closing El Chupacabra as the waves of people crashed down the back side of the main stage slope. I have a tradition of checking in on the dance tent at the end of my day to let the heady beats energize my step and to open an opportunity to meet some people who were there to party. As I entered the thick mist of sweat, I stepped into my favorite Presets song, “Ghosts.” I have heard great things about The Presets live show with a full band. I am not sure if it is the reputation of the ‘dance tent’ or there is pressure from the festival organizers themselves, but the The Presets had made the choice to turn their slot into a bumping DJ set. I could see that at least these couple thousand people were looking to shut their eyes and freak late into the night, but for me, hearing “Ghosts” and checking out the scene was enough. I wanted to preserve the ending of the night Mumford & Suns had provided for all of us, so I turned to march home, respect my body, my energy, and to rest up for the final day of the festival.

Photos 1-7 by Korbin Bennett Gold; 8-11 Matthew Lamb; Photo 12 by Christopher Nelson.

6/6/13 The Tempers, Metal Mother, Gold Wolf Galaxy, DJ Blvkopvl at The Comet

I hit up Seatown dahlia, Corina Bakker of the Tempers, and Oakland’s high priestess, Metal Mother, to chat about tour life and their upcoming show at The Comet.

Corina, of the Tempers broke down the zone’s vibe: “Saturday the 8th we will be sprinkling the grime of The Comet in glitter for a night of electronic beats, tribal chants, and cozmik space noise. Metal Mother from San Francisco will bring her unique blend of deep rooted electronic ambiance, Gold Wolf Galaxy will bring the beats you want to shake it to, and The Tempers will take you on a dark cozmik space quest. See you there, friends.”

Taara Tati gave us the lowdown on her tour and her spiritual vibes: “Oakland-based producer/vocalist/blissed goth, Metal Mother, is setting off on a west coast tour with a new, carefully crafted sound. Performing solo…and following her recently released LP, Ionika, this incarnation is seeped in lavish analog sensibilities and obscure realms of experiential expression. Come see what Vice, Mishka Bloglin, BlackBook, and many others are talking about.”

Party starts at 9pm, 21+, $6 cover.

Flyer design by Corina Bakker.