In West Seattle, Über Alles:

West Seattle Summer Fest: Super Sonic Soul Pimps, Green Pajamas, more

(West Seattle Junction) This year, the West Seattle Summer Fest will celebrate its 27th year with two stages of music, hundreds of artists, food, an old-school video-game gallery, skate demos, a Rat City Rollergirls dunk tank, and more.

What makes West Seattle Summer Fest so great is that it really does feel like a neighborhood celebration.

"It's all about the community," says festival director Oliver Little. "Everything we plan is based on what West Seattle residents say they'd like to see. Our primary goal is to show off the neighborhood and get people out on the street together. Musicians and artists seem to dig this message and think of this as 'their' neighborhood festival. It's pretty incredible how many Seattle musicians live in the West Seattle area and are willing to play on the street."

Also in Up & Coming:

Grynch, Sol, Tunji, Rockwell Powers, DJ Marc Sense

(Nectar) Grynch refuses to sleep. His new EP, Chemistry, displays a hiphop mind that is carefully, brick by brick, developing a form of music that can withstand any kind of challenge or change in the hiphop climate. On the EP, Grynch maintains his leading theme, his leitmotif, which is how to be a rapper in a world that offers few commercial prospects. Meaning, how can you be happy just making hiphop? In the past, it was all about money and mass appeal. That is no longer the case. There's no more money to be made, and national recognition is elusive. In such conditions, does the rapper give up or make melancholy hiphop? Grynch says no. You can find happiness simply in making music and sharing it with those who really care about the art. CHARLES MUDEDE See also My Philosophy.

For more live music and shows, check our searchable online calendar.