Capitol Hill Block Party 2011: Locals Get A Lot of Love

Here at Seattlest we've been striving to build up a knowledge of local music both because Seattle has an incredible stash of musicians and so we can share everything we've found with you. Everyone wins! This year's Capitol Hill Block Party has a big ol' heaping helping of local music yet again and we want to let you in on the ones that we're excited to see there. What's really great about CHBP is the majority of bands we see there are local. Yeah, they bring in a few big names for the draw, but you're there to see local bands have their time to shine.

We've personally been introduced to a huge number of locals through this festival. What's really great is the diversity of the bands as well. From folk-rock groups like Campfire OK and Grand Hallway, to full-on rock or punk bands like Absolute Monarchs

and Gravebabies, to heavy metal like Black Breath and Skarp, the entirety of the Seattle music scene gets a little light shed on it. This time we've decided to head off the beaten path that we've provided in the past. We're stretching out to a few different genres to see what local music has to offer and we've found some good stuff.

Telekenesis - Ok, so this isn't stretching too far. These guys have been around for a while and are a tried and true example of Seattle music. We probably don't have to say much about them other than they're worth listening too and then some.

My Goodness - This band was formed pretty recently but has received some incredible reviews. They were chosen as one of the top bands in City Arts magazine a few months back. This band shares its lead singer with the hardcore band Absolute Monarchs but they are entirely different animals. The first time we saw them play at Guerilla Candy's launch party at the High Dive earlier this year, we were hooked and we think you'll be too.

The Young Evils - This lovely group of people have been around for some time in the Seattle scene. They showed off their talents at last year's first ever City Arts music festival and will be hitting an even bigger audience next weekend when they play at the Sasquatch music festival. We're just happy to have them around, rock music is way too good to die out, so we're grateful that the Young Evils are keeping it around the Pacific Northwest.

Virgin Islands - We found these guys pretty recently when they played a KEXP in-studio last weekend. On the harder side of rock, their music is a hell of a lot of fun. Check out their video for the song "No Doctor", it's pretty impressive. We're positive their show at CHBP is going to be entertaining both to your ears and eyes.

Seapony -Talk about fun, this rock band brings a taste of California to the Pacitifc Northwest despite having roots in Kansas. They're super adorable and have been building up quite an audience since their showing on Pitchfork last year. We would consider this surfer rock, but they've been described as "twee" music. Honeslty, we're not sure what to make of that. The style is meant to encapsulate unpoilshed pop Seapony doesn't exactly throw off that vibe. Either way, we think you'll like what you hear.

Pink Mountaintops - In the interest of full disclosure, we had never heard of this band until the list for CHBP came out. We started investigating who was local and who wasn't. When we came upon this group and found out they were from Vancouver (if we consider Portland local, we gotta consider BC local) you could say we got a little excited. It's a little different than your typical rock found in these parts. They've been described as the kids who grew up on Sabbath but realized slow/soft rock can be good too. It feels to us like the seventies made a time-jump to the 80's punk scene then crash-landed in our backyard.

Federation X - This is another band that we bumped into during our investigations of this year's lineup. The Stranger's Lineout used the words "American Folk Horror" to explain their style of music. We know what each of those words alone mean, but together... it's a new concept. The closest we can get to using well-known genres is soft punk rock. Originating in Bellingham, they've spread out across the US sharing their time between New York, Bellingham, and Portland.

Black Breath - We will be the first to admit that heavy metal is not exactly our wheelhouse. Seattlest photographer Colby has dropped in on a few shows but as a general rule, we're pretty blind to that genre in Seattle. That is why we love CHBP so much, we don't have to specifically head out to a metal show to see that kind of music played and to check out the local talent. So far we're digging what we hear from these guys, plus metal shows tend to be crazy and seriously fun to watch. You can be sure we'll be up front snapping pictures of long-haired headbanging and rock stances galore.

Beat Connection - One last local group we're excited to see is in the electronic pop genre. With subdued vocals backed by tweaking electronic sounds and danceable beats, they're sure to please almost any crowd. Especially great on a warm summer day when the sun is pumping you with energy and you're ready to move... you'll be glad you checked them out.

Three-day tickets went on sale for CHBP this week so get them while they're still available. After fees they end up being $82.50, which isn't a bad deal considering all the bands that'll be gracing the many stages in Capitol Hill. Single serving tickets will be available starting June 3rd.

If there's bands we've missed or some that you're particularly excited to see let us know! Drop a comment, we want to hear what you're into.