These four local bands are on the cusp of bigness

For fans of Seattle music, 2004 has been both enthralling and bizarre. An extraordinary crop of bands broke nationally. But this meant that our community was exposed to the conflicting realities of fame.

For example, Death Cab for Cutie flourished as "Transatlanticism" lived out its title by slowly conquering the country and the globe, with stops at "The O.C." and "Wicker Park." Meanwhile, the Postal Service developed a distribution deal with the U.S. Postal Service.

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Matador signed Pretty Girls Make Graves and sent them trekking to Australia and Japan, while Modest Mouse found itself confined to an endlessly looping promotional video on a TV screen at Target.

It seems like a rebirth for our city, and we wonder who will follow in 2005. While predictions for who will become the "next big things" are often as reliable as a telephone psychic, we've chosen four local bands who may find their way into similar paradoxes in 2005: the hard-core band Kane Hodder, electronic diva Anna Oxygen, hip-hop duo Blue Scholars and electronic/hard-core crossover Idiot Pilot.

Each of these bands has worked to build a strong local following, and each has a record to support in 2005. And what's more, all of them know how to develop the audience/band connection that electrifies a live show. You may be asked to clap your hands -- and what's worse, you actually may want to.

Hand claps, hard rock


		Jim Bryant / P-I
	Practice, practice: For members of hard-core band Kane Hodder, from left, Nick Cates, Eric Christianson, Andrew Moore and Jeremy White, the quality of their live shows is the No. 1 priority.

The first thing you notice after a Kane Hodder show is sweat. Frontman Andrew Moore is drenched in it, the floor is sticky with it and the instruments are glistening with it. But, if you've been enjoying the show properly, you are too.

Since coming together in Bremerton in 2002, the five members of Kane Hodder -- Moore, guitarists Eric Christianson and Jeremy White, bassist Nick Cates and drummer Charley Potter -- have been committed to making their show the most important aspect of their band. Kane Hodder joins a cadre of like-minded local hard-core bands, including the now-defunct Botch and the Blood Brothers, who often leave the stage bleeding as well as sweaty.

"We've adopted three philosophies: Play every show like it's your last; don't be afraid to look stupid; and don't be afraid to get hurt," says Moore, who, along with his bandmates, now lives in Seattle. "If we aren't breathing heavy and hurting afterwards, we aren't happy."

Moore's relatively quiet speaking voice contrasts starkly with the unearthly yowls he emits on "The Pleasure To Remain So Heartless," Kane Hodder's debut full-length (released in October on Cowboy Vs. Sailor/Suburban Home). Though Christianson and White provide searing guitar interplay, Moore is the focal point. He contrasts his screams with operatic crescendos and soft melodies that may not sound out of place on a Harvey Danger record.

Moore's irrepressible charisma has the band's mostly all-ages audiences dancing and clapping along. In fact, Kane Hodder has built clap-along moments into several of the tracks on "The Pleasure."

"Sometimes, people will be clapping along or singing along and I'll start laughing because I used to be and I still am that person," says Moore. "I remember going to shows and being just as sweaty as the people up on stage because I was dancing so hard. It's cool to know that you're reaching someone in that way."

Fit to be feminist


		Karen Ducey / P-I
	Energetic and eccentric singer-songwriter Anna Oxygen turns her performances into an aerobic exercise.

Anna Oxygen coaxes sweat from her audiences in a different way: by making them do aerobics. Dressed in leotard, leg warmers and oversize sunglasses, the eccentric diva plunks away at her keytar (a 1980s keyboard/guitar hybrid), breaking only to change the image on her overhead projector or lead the crowd through jumps, jogs and floor exercises.

This may sound contrived and frivolous, but Oxygen has the chops to move it beyond mere spectacle. A graduate of The Evergreen State College and a classically trained opera singer, she uses her piercing voice and quick wit to make comments on pop-culture imagery. She roomed with Wynne Greenwood of Tracy and the Plastics in Olympia, and shares a similar feminist mind-set.

"The word feminism is a tricky word for people," she says. "There are times when I feel like that dialogue could be created. I'm always wanting to do that in Seattle."

One of Oxygen's methods is to reclaim imagery from her girlhood (hence the extreme 1980s fashion). On her 2003 debut, "All Your Faded Things," tracks such as "Baby Blue" and "Red Horse Cafe" present the hyper-real emotions of youth in a poppy, retro format. It's like looking at a crush's name scrawled on a yellow Pee-Chee notebook.

"A guy came up to me (after my show) and said he felt like he was looking at a girl's slumber party," Oxygen says. "He felt guilty and awkward because he wasn't supposed to be seeing it."

Oxygen isn't planning a grand concept for her next record, due in late spring on Kill Rock Stars, but she says the songwriting will be based more on her feelings. She also is trading the ancient karaoke machine she used to write much of "All Your Faded Things" for a computer and MIDI setup.

That's not to say that the result won't continue to use quirky imagery, however. "I have a vision of playing a show on Valentine's Day," she says. "In my mind, I see these red dots over a pink background and that's enough to get me going."

Beats, rhymes and life


		Grant M. Haller / P-I
	DJ Sabzi, left, and MC Geo of Blue Scholars. Sabzi says the positive attention they're getting is a product of the groundwork laid by other hip-hop bands.

Rather than fully embracing its small but vibrant hip-hop scene, Seattle likes to find a darling band and shower it with accolades and attention. Blue Scholars is this year's recipient, an honor the community-minded duo wears like a mantle made of bees.

"There are lot of people here in this city in hip-hop and elsewhere that have laid a lot of groundwork that have allowed us to come to where we are," says Sabzi, the DJ.

"As far as the acceptability thing goes, if someone appreciates our music, we appreciate them back," adds Geo, the MC. "If Scholars is the one hip-hop group that you like, we take that to heart. But how can you like our music but disregard what influences us? I hope that if we are that band for some people, we are a bridge to other groups as well."

Blue Scholars' eponymous debut, self-released this past spring, recognizes that, paying tribute to the spirit of conscious hip-hop (A Tribe Called Quest in particular), the Seattle scene and the struggles of the working class. ("Blue is for the color of the collar of my mother and my father," Geo rhymes on "Bruise Brothers.")

It also subscribes to the classic hip-hop theory that the DJ is the backbone of the band. Sabzi creates beats that are lyrical and fluid, and his skilled use of jazz and Persian music samples is part of what makes the music so accessible.

The band will rerelease the album in the spring, with new art, bonus tracks, international distribution and, perhaps the most exciting for the band's unofficial third member, manager Marc Matsui, "a real bar code."

But Blue Scholars are surprisingly relaxed about their future. "Everything that's happened so far is a blessing," Geo says. "It puts me on a path that I want to take. I'm part of a community where I can do the things I love to do. And if this ends now, at least I get to tell my son when he's listening to De La Soul, 'Hey, I played with them.' "

Who you callin' 'indie'?



	Bellingham-based duo Idiot Pilot (Michael Harris and Daniel Anderson) melds electronica and hard-core. Their concept? "Stark contrasts."

Don't call Idiot Pilot indie rock.

"We have never had any desire to be indie," says Michael Harris, singer for the Bellingham-based duo. "We've always wanted our music to reach millions of people, and the best distribution that you can have is a major."

Multi-instrumentalist Daniel Anderson adds, "We come from a place that's very DIY, but at the same time, we have no ethical problem in being involved with larger bands. We would be willing to sign to whatever label would be willing to distribute our music as far as it could possibly go."

Unlike most kids their age (Anderson and Harris are 18), they aren't just detailing a rock 'n' roll fantasy. Idiot Pilot signed to Reprise Records in May and "Strange We Should Meet Here," the debut record they originally put out themselves last spring, is being rereleased in January.

It's a bold move for a band based in the Northwest, where making money from your music is about as popular as President Bush. But then again, so is the idea of merging the digital sounds of bands like Autechre and Aphex Twin with Radiohead existential angst and crunchy Deftones rock. And playing without a drummer.

"We had this concept about stark contrasts," Anderson says. "We splice together electronica and hard-core, the most emotional and raw genre with the most mechanical and unfeeling. We thought if we were writing songs about machines versus organics, the best way to do that was to make 50 percent of the band machine."

Not all of this conceptual framework comes through on the band's record. At times, it's just a jarring cacophony of noise. But there are moments of startling brilliance, especially when Harris calms down and croons into his microphone and when Anderson sloughs away the feedback to reveal simple yet compelling melodies.

"I was worried about it at first," Harris admits. "Are we doing any favors by being this experimental with pop music? Are people going to get this?" He pauses, leaving the questions hanging. It's obvious his answer is yes.