Remodeling the House Music Nation

The last few months have seen a few changes in the "house music nation." Here's your update, in case you haven't been keeping up.

- Flammable's tireless curator, Brian Lyons, has skipped town to LA. The Sunday house music night, commonly referred to as "church," continues however, under the watchful eyes of Wesley Holmes and DJ Graham. Brian isn't gone for good, but is down in LA for the next 6 months for work, planning to return once that series of projects is complete. He's still doing the booking and making monthly returns as a resident over the next five months. Seattlest has to admit that the vibe has been a little different, but the crowds are coming all the same.

- A new night has cropped up that may be adding to the shift at Flammable. Described as "like Flammable, but on Saturdays," the new night at Des Amis (no name just yet) has been gathering a nice following, with good buzz and quality talent gracing the decks, organized by the always-competent Jon Lemmon. The basement space only adds to the night's underground feel. With the absence of Brian Lyons, some Flammable diehards have made the switch to this night, which is probably the highest praise that can be offered locally.

- The Baltic Room also has a new night to boast, titled F.O.B.. After the move of Wicked and Wild's dancehall flavor to the War Room, the Baltic Room handed the reins to M'Chateu, which is taking a different approach to the night. Rather than staying genre-specific, the night rotates genres weekly, moving between house, drum and bass, broken-beat and even booty music (more on that next week). It's mixing up the weekly and monthly models to broaden appeal. The night is still in its early stages, but with guests thus far coming from the Fourthcity camp and SunTzu Sound, the night seems poised for success.