AstronoMAR on the fly between Juneau, Seattle
Former Juneau DJ reports on the hip-hop scene in the Northwest
I miss the sea breeze. I miss the bar-close shuffle every weekend. When I come back to visit, the mountains greet me with the same airtight cuddle that they always had in the past. But damn, it feels great to be in Seattle!
Last month I was blessed with the opportunity to spin at a local urban arts festival called Artoleptic, which features live graffiti murals and musical performances. I was initially going to DJ for the fully-faceted hip-hop crew Audio Dose, but the soundmen were trying to work out some technical mumbo jumbo and Audio Dose ended up not being able to perform, which left me playing for two hours. I had a blast! I got the same feeling I used to get every Monday at the Alaskan.
And just last week A.V. and I got to perform alongside Active I (from Top Left and Audio Dose crews) at an Obama benefit concert. We also shared the stage with Flipper, whose bassist is Krist Novoselic from Nirvana. That was truly an honor. But amidst the excitement I left behind the power adapter for my MacBook, which sucks.
Recently I've noticed that a handful of Alaska musicians and artists are migrating south. Smack and A.V. and I, all from Juneau, have already made our way down. In the near future, Vegas Paris (Anchorage), Ofay (Juneau) and JCW (Anchorage) will be calling Washington home as well. When Smack and I got down here, we spent a lot of time hangin' with another fellow Alaskan, Curtis Vodka from Anchorage. Our boy Curtis has toured the East Coast and Europe, and has been featured in many publications and compilations as well as blog sites - just Google him.
Although I'm in a land far, far away (America) I still make it back to Juneau often. In June I came up for the HomeSkillet Festival in Sitka. In late August the Viking brought me up for a weekend, and this coming weekend I declare the unofficial "Filejerks takeover." The folks at the Hangar are bringing Smack and myself up to play their "End of the Season" staff party on Saturday. The Filejerks, or FLJRKS for short, have played many Hangar-sponsored events, and we are definitely looking forward to this one as well.
In addition to playing this semi-private event, the FLJRKS will also be playing at the Rendezvous this Thursday and Friday, Sept. 18 and 19. We encourage everyone to come out and see what we've been up to. If you're our friend on MySpace, you know what time it is.
Alas, my computer is about to die, due to my newly obscured power adapter, so I will see you this weekend, Juneau.
• AstronoMAR is a former Juneau DJ who lives in Seattle. Find out more by visiting www.myspace.com/astronomar and www.myspace.com/filejerks.