Sunday, March 7th at 3 PM
@ at Chicago Cultural Center’s Studio Theatre
78 E. Washington St.

You’re not going to believe this, but Seattle had music before Nirvana! And not just Jimi Hendrix or Sir Mix-A-Lot, either. The Emerald City was home to a thriving soul scene in the ’60s and ’70s, and this documentary digs up exquisite odds and ends from a rich musical past largely eclipsed and forgotten by the booming ’90s. It was Seattle DJ Mr. Supreme who stumbled on local soul and funk masterpieces in Goodwills and record shops, only to find that many of the once-celebrated artists he’d discovered—players from funky, outrageous acts like Black On White Affair, Cookin’ Bag, and Cold, Bold Together—were living in obscurity around him. It’s the incredibly funky tracks from those bands that make up the, ahem, soul of Wheedle’s Groove. Between archival audio and exhaustive interviews, the film plays out kind of like a Pacific Northwest version of Wim Wenders’ Buena Vista Social Club. The documentary isn’t just an eye-opener for regional musicheads or vindication for these bands, who almost unilaterally disbanded when disco DJs took over the clubs and airwaves; it’s also more proof that one doesn’t have to work for Smithsonian Folkways to uncover important pieces of music history. Pop giveth and pop taketh away, but these artists are finally gaining national exposure three or four decades after their heyday. It’s moving (both emotionally and ass-shakingly) to see them rediscovered before your eyes. CASEY JARMAN. 7 pm Saturday, Jan. 23.

Here’s a link to the article

• Anvil! The Story of Anvil!
• Respect Yourself, The Stax Record Story
• You’re Gonna Miss Me (Roky Erikson)
• The Night James Brown Saved Boston
• Be Here to Love Me: A Film about Townes Van Zandt
• The Devil in Daniel Johnston
• Agile, Mobile, and Hostile: A Year with Andrew Williams
• I am Trying to Break your Heart
• Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns
• Tom Dowd and the Language of Music

Here’s proof that Seattle is an underrated R&B paradise — 37 minutes of the hot-test funk and coolest grooves you’ll hear all year. Wheedle’s Groove is a supersession crew of Seattle old-timers, most in their 60s, and Kearney Barton plays like the soundtrack to the greatest blaxploitation flick never made. It’s all fantastic, but the money shots are covers of the Stone Roses (”Fools Gold”) and Soundgarden. Ever wonder how “Jesus Christ Pose” might sound as a slow-burn gospel throwdown? Trust me, you need to hear it.

Read the original article here.