At Last! "$5 Cover: Seattle" is Hitting the Interwebs
After many many months of playing the waiting game, MTV will finally start streaming $5 Cover: Seattle starting tomorrow, December 15. Local filmmaker Lynn Shelton (Humpday) directed the web series which features the members of 13 local bands in short, scripted, documentary-style webisodes as they gallivant about Seattle over the course of a weekend. Local music fans have been patiently waiting for the series to hit the web since it finished filming in the summer of 2009. The series follows 13 well-loved Seattle bands of all genres, including: the Moondoggies, the Maldives, Sean Nelson, Champage Champagne, THEESatisfaction, Tea Cozies, Thee Emergency, Whiskey Tango, the Lights, Weekend, God, the Spite and Corespondents.
Shelton's love letter to Seattle music had its theatrical debut earlier this year at a red carpet event hosted at SIFF Cinema. As the credits rolled, Shelton received the audience's full approval as she was greeted with a standing ovation. And the critical praise from local press was overwhelming. Shelton was able to capture the essence of the local music scene without falling into the cliches that so often appear in Seattle films - you won't see the Space Needle or tediously long shots of the waterfront. But you will see some of your favorite haunts in a mix of neighborhoods prominently featured - Tractor Tavern, Hidmo, Cairo and the Wild Rose to name a few.
Avid local music fans should recognize that in the past 18 months the Seattle music landscape has already changed and grown in some pretty big ways. For one, Ryann Donnelly of Weekend moved to New York earlier this year and took the project with her. And the Moondoggies and THEESatisfaction are no longer only semi-well known groups, they're now pretty big players in local music. Not to mention, in the summer of 2009, the buzz that was to surround hip-hop duo Shabazz Palaces was hardly a whisper, Americana rock band (and current local faves) the Head and the Heart had yet to form, and local rapper Macklemore had yet to release his deeply confessional and critically acclaimed comeback, the VS. EP.
So, I guess that means $5 Cover: Seattle is a really awesome time capsule, since there is, obviously, just no stopping the relentless creative strength and acumen of local musicians and nothing about our city's music scene stays the same for long.
