I arrived at Cupcake Royale at 7 a.m. today (soooo early) to hear one of my favorite hip hop groups, Common Market, kick off KEXP’s Ballard Day.
“What’s up, Ballard?” asked RA Scion to the packed house, and he served up one track with the chorus, “Secede, secede, secede” — in honor of the neighborhood, of course. “Free Ballard, right?” he said to cheers. Massively talented DJ/producer Sabzi (also of Blue Scholars) joked about IM’ing during the performance (he ran everything off his Mac).
This is about half the crowd of decidedly twenty and thirtysomethings. NWSource jokes that KEXP is here to “de-gentrify Ballard for a day.”
This is all part of KEXP’s Ballard Day (that John Richards in the background), which is a reward for the neighborhood’s leading role in KEXP’s fundraising drive last summer. Who knew Ballard is KEXP’s biggest fan? The station is broadcasting live all the way up to 6 p.m., and then a full slate of Ballard venues will be hosting bands and KEXP DJs into the night. (Schedule and map)
Curious Ballardites, hearing the strains of rap music spill out on Market St., poked their heads in the door. (If you were listening live on the radio and heard a dog barking in the background, well, it’s that yellow dog right there.) KEXP members can also get discounts from nearly 20 different Ballard businesses today, like The Sneakery and Hazelwood. And if you’re a Common Market fan, they’ll be holding their EP release party tonight at the Vera Project.
Update: Paul Gibson (who must have been standing next to me at Cupcake Royale) has more photos on his Flickr page here.
Update: KEXP is blogging the whole thing. Lots of photos, too.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Peter // May 9, 2008 at 8:42 am
That’s nice of John to fly in from Brooklyn to be part of a community radio event. Maybe I’ll put on my KCMU t-shirt and head down there….
2 gooner // May 9, 2008 at 9:11 am
will absolutely make it to sonic boom for cloud cult. love those guys.
3 Denise // May 10, 2008 at 6:40 am
There is something seriously sinister about KEXP these days. A decade ago, it was community radio. Today, with the involvement of Paul Allens dollars, it feels more like the Cube. Yes, the music can still be good and interesting but the whole idea of a dejay remoting in from NY is just wrong.
4 Keith // May 10, 2008 at 7:05 am
Glad to see you made it Swedes … It was a great day. I hit about 6 hours in the AM then came down off my coffee high, crashed, then went back down to the Sunset. I have some pics etc.
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BTW, there is nothing sinister about KEXP. Maybe it is different than it used to be (can we give the whole bitter nostalgia thing a break for one day? … preferably longer) but it is still great independent radio … and it is a dying breed. I, for one, feel lucky to have access to it. Yeah there is Paul Allen money in it … but there is also my money in it. That’s what yesterday was all about: people from Ballard helping keep KEXP in the game and celebrating great music.
PS I don’t necessarily like NYC horning in one of our great things but that is just provincialism …. :-)
5 Jim // May 14, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Not sure why everyone’s hung up on Paul Allen still. KEXP is not funded by Allen. The plan from the beginning was to be self-sufficient after an initial gift from Allen, but KEXP is well beyond that now and currently receives the majority of funding from listeners. I don’t think the CUBE does that — and that’s such an odd comparison anyway. Besides, have you ever actually sat through 15 minutes of commercials? Not on KEXP, you haven’t. Anyway, we were really proud to be involved with Ballard, whose residents have been hugely supportive, and it was great to see all of the local businesses get involved too. Many said that they were getting far more customers than normal. But ultimately it was all about everyone who supports KEXP — why not go out into the communities who support you, whether it be Ballard or Brooklyn, and bring good music? I don’t think I saw anyone walk out of Verite Coffee grumbling that a hip-hop band was taking up their space. We were all so psyched we wished we could broadcast in a neighborhood every week! Capitol Hill? West Seattle? Fremont? Georgetown? Hell, yeah!
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