Taking It All the Way

We ask, you speak:

That's the basic premise of the Music Awards polling we've done for three years now. It's not scientific, and in some ways, the winners this year were more predictable than the previous two: Indie Rock/Garage Rock winners Death Cab for Cutie in a walk; Hell's Belles holding it down in Cover/Tribute for the third year running; Dusty 45s maintaining their swagger atop the Americana/Roots/Country/Rockabilly list; Reggie Watts handily winning the poll's inaugural Vocalist category while his band, Maktub, swarmed back to the head of Soul/R&B after running a close second last year to Nu Sol Tribe (who finished eighth this year—hmmm); Damien Jurado back at the top of the Singer/Songwriter pile after Brandi Carlile's victory last year (she was third this time, after Carrie Akre). Blue Scholars, who won last year's Album vote (a write-in category not included in the 2005 ballot), sailed to victory in the Hip Hop category; Alice Stuart dipped to second in Blues below the Charles White Band after two prior wins, only to snag the Guitarist vote.

Even if we grant that the awards aren't especially flexible—none of the 2005 categories were write-ins—the most notable thing about the voting this year was how decisive most of the victories were. Only four winners beat the runners-up by fewer than 60 votes. Of those, two were photo finishes—Paul Rucker three votes ahead of Bebop & Destruction in Jazz, Seattle School five points over Degenerate Art Ensemble in Experimental. The most interesting mess, appropriately enough, was in Punk/Hardcore, where Blood Brothers fans checked only nine boxes more than were checked for second-place Go Like Hell—and a mere 42 more than fifth-place These Arms Are Snakes, with Schoolyard Heroes third, and fourth-place Idiot Pilot also picking up Best New Artist. (The fourth under-60 was DJ Fucking in the Streets, who outpolled DJ Riz by 29 votes.)

But the big kids this year were big indeed: Maktub, Death Cab, Hell's Belles, and this week's cover subjects did exponentially better than their runners-up (respectively: Type A!, Pedro the Lion, Maiden Seattle, and IQU). And it's the cover stars we shall now turn our attention toward.

United State of Electronica—keyboardist/singer Noah Star Weaver, guitarists/singers Peter Sali and Jason Holstrom, bassist Derek Chan, drummer/rapper Jon E. Rock, and vocalists Amanda Okonek and Carly Nicklaus—have won the category they share a name with for three years running. They began four years ago as the outgrowth of a harmony-drenched pop group called Wonderful, which featured Weaver, Sali, Holstrom, and Rock, who met at Seattle Pacific University in the late '90s.

U.S.E.'s first Music Award, in 2003, was won via a cute little EP and a seriously fun stage show. In spring 2004, the band self-released its self-titled album (the first couple hundred copies were hand-painted), which began to sell regionally (Bellingham and Portland are strongholds), then nationally and internationally, thanks to mentions in online indie bible Pitchfork, U.K. rock mag Careless Talk Costs Lives, and the posting of several MP3s to the popular Fluxblog Web site. Soon, the album took off in Japan—hardly surprising, given U.S.E.'s campy, cute-pop proclivities—and began garnering serious buzz, abetted by tireless touring.

Sonic Boom recently reissued the disc nationally with a bonus EP, and the band hit the road again, playing a pair of feverishly received concerts in Tokyo and Osaka, and two galvanic shows at Austin's South by Southwest. The second of these, in a severely overcrowded, out-of-the-way bar without a stage, was filmed for MTV. United State of Electronica has also gotten notices in nearly every national American music magazine, including a four-star Blender review. And they're gearing up for even more, particularly locally: In the next month, they'll play the Sasquatch Festival and tour the West Coast with the Hold Steady, a Brooklyn rock combo with whom they connected at South by Southwest (the two groups share a publicity firm) and who may be the only band in America that can match U.S.E. for onstage intensity.

All of which called for one thing and one thing alone: a Jukebox Jury, which took place last week at the shared First Hill apartment of Okonek and Rock, with Sali and Weaver sitting in.

Andrew W.K.: "Party Till You Puke" (2001) from I Get Wet (Island)

Noah Star Weaver: Crank that shit! [starts clapping along]

Amanda Okonek: I think we all know this one. [laughs]

Weaver: Louder, please. [pumps fist]

Seattle Weekly: U.S.E. have been compared to Andrew W.K. a lot.

Weaver: He's a very big inspiration for us.

Jon E. Rock: Have you read his Web site?

SW: I have not. I assume he rants on and on about positivity on there like he does in his interviews.

Weaver: I read what he wrote on the Web site before I heard his music, and I was already sold. [laughs] Then we saw him at Graceland three falls ago, and it was the most intense, amazing live experience I've ever had, seeing what could happen between the performers and the audience, just totally mixing, all going toward the same goal.