Clearly Beloved is a gathering of five musicians, friends and storytellers. They write and orchestrate songs about fishermen; homesteaders; the feeling you get the moment before a shark attack; the flight of a carrier pigeon. Having at their disposal guitar, drums, bass, violins, marimbas, vocals, hand bells, toy piano, viola and glockenspiel, they are not opposed to using anvil and hammer, when the song calls for it. Nor are they opposed to dancing a tango with large paper mache dolls when required. They have not written about heartbreak, but do have songs about baking bread.
Kevin Shintaku — Bass, guitar, percussion, glockenspiel
Coby Tamayo — Guitar, drums, piano, percussion
Fang Chia is an experimental jazz-rock group from Tacoma, WA and the culmination of four friends playing music together for six years. After studying music at university, Coby, Kyle, Kevin, and Matt decided to form this band, combining jazz, African, electronic, classical, and rock styles.
The global devastation and human misery wrought by the lack of solid guitar worshipping and noisemaking activities—to say nothing of natural and man-made disasters—is unmistakable.To bring solutions to bear, the Seattle center of the Cult has been established to act as a “recruiting center,” which thereby set in motion broad-scale movements in the name of this, this and this. Guitarist and composer Ben McAllister works with a varying crew of electric guitarists to produce unique music that defies categorization.
Isthmusia is a young band out of Kingston, Washington, proving that you really can't guess where good music will be made. They are nothing if not eclectic, blending heavy elements with lighter sounds, powerful crashing with tricky math rock.
Moraine is an omnivorous Seattle-based instrumental quintet led by guitarist Dennis Rea and featuring violinist Alicia DeJoie, woodwind player James DeJoie, bassist Kevin Millard, and drummer Tom Zgonc. With its several writers and full complement of ace instrumentalists arrayed in striking combination, Moraine has built a reputation as one of the most electrifying and original instrumental rock bands anywhere, winning over listeners around the globe with its unique amalgam of art rock, forward-thinking jazz, world music, and more. Moraine has been enthusiastically received by audiences ranging from jazz aficionados to metalheads to partisans of progressive rock and has appeared alongside such renowned artists as Three Friends (Gentle Giant), Steve Hackett, Eddie Jobson, and Richard Pinhas. The band's 2009 release on NYC-based MoonJune Records, manifest deNsity, garnered more than 100 enthusiastic reviews worldwide, and its set at NEARfest 2010, the world's preeminent showcase for progressive rock, was considered by many to be a highlight of the festival. Moraine created a buzz on its spring 2011 tour of major East Coast cities and in late 2011 released its second CD, Metamorphic Rock: Live at NEARfest, co-produced and mixed by legendary Pacific Northwest producer Steve Fisk.
Obol is contemporary progressive rock, encompassing a wide array of pop and mainstream influences including Muse, Placebo, Devin Townsend, Marillion, Leprous, and A Perfect Circle. The songs are dreamlike enough to create visual images for the listener, but otherwise sound deceptively simple, accessible, and full of memorable hooks.
Pinto Wagonfire is a newer Seattle band with its individual roots spanning over three decades of writing and performance. Joseph, Dave, and Tom last performed together in the mid-90's band Chalkline Dogs. With the recent addition of drummer Will Bagby (from So-Cal jazz-rock group Rullian, among others) the spark for making music together was reignited. Purely an instrumental outfit at this time, their brand of Progressive hard rock is riff centric, and slightly cosmic, foraging the spirit of their past collectives with new, energetic creativity, and a collective love of Progressive music.
Shimmertraps is a Bellingham band that has developed an interesting sound combining modern electronics with psychedelic songcraft.
Smooth Kiwi
Personnel:
Joseph Vacca — Bass, vocals
Bobby Pelkey — Drums
Connor Kelly — Guitar, vocals
Carly Gilliland — Guitar, keyboard, vocals
Like a fresh kiwi, their music is vibrant, sweet, and satisfying. Together Carly, Connor, Bobby, and Joseph blend groove-centric jams with sensual vocals, funky bass-lines, tasteful drumming and exploration of atmospheric guitar tones, to establish a wide variety of sound from song to song. Photo by Jay Bierschenk
Super Z Attack Team started as a spin-off from the band Zhongyu, a studio-oriented project formed by multi-instrumentalist and composer Jon Davis. With the unusual instrumentation of Stick, bari sax, and drums, the trio incorporates electronics into music that straddles rock energy and the jazzy spirit of improvisation. They relish the intersection of planning and chance, always focussing on maintaining a groove, regardless of what meter they use.
Seaprog is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike.
About Shunpike
Shunpike is the 501(c)(3) non-profit agency that provides independent arts groups in Washington State
with the services, resources, and opportunities they need to forge their own paths to sustainable success.