it means the weekly fubbed up, and is out of touch with its readers' likes and dislikes.

why you wouldn't feature the top-vote getter is beyond me, unless you had some interest to prop up rock music .. which it doesn't need-especially when innovative and more poignant musicians are reaching the ears of your readers.

it's like if you were to do a hip-hop/rnb survey of what's hot and the top vote getter over-all was kanye, yet you featured a top crunk artist, e.g. lil' john, instead on your cover.

it's just stupid.

I thinks it's more like if the winner was Lil' John and you put Mr. West on the cover.

touché, paulus. touché.

not only did Blue Scholars get most votes overall, best hip hop group, but Geo got best vocalist and Common Market, Sabzi from the Scholars other group, Common Market, got best new group. And Sabzi is the only producer/ band member to ever have the top two songs on KEXP at the same time. So of course the Divorce is on the cover! So when is the Stranger putting Sabzi on their cover??

Next Issue!

Next Issue!

I would find it quite hillarious if next week the stranger ran a cover with sabzi and geo on it.

oh and totally copied the weekly's cover layout and posing of the divorce.

it would be genious.

and all of two, maybe three people would get it ...

bot totally worth my amusement.

Hey Nigger Scholar,

I've been studying what you taught, is this right?

White male oppressors are trying to prevent musicians of color from being recognized.

Being voted best band by the Weekly readership is the highest honor for a musician.

Every real musician knows that he must spend as much time cultivating the image of "musican", as actually playing music.

Though it would seem that making music has nothing to do with photographs, in fact music critics, musicians, and the public is as concerned with publication cover photo as they are with how the music sounds.

Music critics are no longer able to seperate the "image of a what a musician is" with the "real musician". So instead of writing about music itself, most critics now write mostly about a band's marketing materials, and publicity.

But I thought you taught us that "Real Musicians" today that don't care about cover photos and don't even call themselves musicians are few and far between.

So a publication asking readers to vote on "best musician" really has nothing to do with music. Real musicians would never even enter such a contest, and even if they were selected could care less about anything the publication printed.

So why does our nigger scholar have his panties in a bunch about some stupid cover photo that has as much to do with being a musician as a can of pork and beans?

hmmm...I don't seem to remember much local hip hop at the stranger's big shot contests.

Our music editor, Brian J Barr, can answer this more intelligently, but here's the short explanation.

We made an editorial decision that The Divorce were a newer group with an interesting story -- that Blue Scholars are everywhere and there isn't much new to say about them.

Maybe the music-news judgment of an editor who used to write for The Stranger is "stupid." But to suggest that race somehow played a role is ridiculous. We've had people of color on our cover twice in the past month.

--Chuck Taylor, managing editor, Seattle Weekly

Nigger Scholar,

You taught us that the more the white oppressor denys being racist, the more racist he is.

That must mean that the black band really is better than the white band.

But the white man cover editor has to bury the real talented black people inside and not show them on the cover. And since the white man denys doing it, that's admission of guilt.

Isn't that how the lesson goes?

Should we start a boycott of those white musicians?

Just some facts:

The Divorce, per their own bio, formed in the Spring of 2001. Blue Scholars, per their bio, formed in early 2002. Thus, Blue Scholars are the "newer" group.

The Divorce has released 2 LPs and 1 EP. Blue Scholars has released 1 LP and 1 EP.

Both groups have been given plenty o'plenty of airplay by KEXP, and coverage by the SW and The Stranger. The Divorce has also enjoyed rotation on The End -- something covered in the SW story on them in the current issue.

Regardless of these details, both groups are arguably equally well-exposed. Both are good at what they do.

In my opinion however, Blue Scholars are the "bigger" story and more deserving of the SW cover -- they received the most votes, they are blowing up a lil' more than The Divorce, and they represent the rising Pac. NW hip hop wave very well.

thanks, fact checker, I was about to say, "WTF you talkin' bout, chuck? the the divorce is newer¿? and the BS be all up ons, as if the div aint?!? ¡shit, homes you crazy!"

but then I read your fact based post and refraind.

The Divorce - been around longer than Blue Scholars. Blue Scholars, have a release newer than the Divorce. Blue Scholars overall got more votes, won in three categories compared to Divorce's one, and DJ Sabzi's other group Common Market won best new artist. According to Blue Scholars website, Sabzi DJ's at two clubs, is working on other new projects, and BS is touring nationally, etc, etc. I browsed Blue Scholars site, and read Common Markets message boards. Pretty interesting community that seems to be going national. Lots of interesting things to report on them, and that is just from taking a minute to look into it. The difference? Probably not race as much as musical tastes. But are there ANY non-white writers at The Weekly? Any in depth coverage of hip-hop? Well, The Weekly did write about Blue Scholars twice in 2005. Doesn't look like any sort of feature since the new EP though. The managing editor doesn't seem to know a lot about music, but c'mon, it's not like The Weekly hasn't written about Blue Scholars in the past. On balance, it would be nice to read more about what the weekly's readers consider the best group in the city. they could have found a fresh angle, isn't that what music journalism is about? but it doesn't seem to be anything people should be freaking out about. and Student, your shit is just Crazy! With a capital C. As in Common Market, possibly the more intersting group for the cover. But The Weekly isn't exactly the place I look for out front coverage of the conscious hip-hop scene.

Chuck-

Adding to the fuck up of putting the divorce on the cover, your new editor you also slaughtered my band name (which is spelled Xiu Xiu NOT xiu Kiu)

he fucked up guy,

TWICE

I doubt that the Weekly would let the new music editor decide what goes on the cover. He's not the one who fucked up on this one.

Student, I am confused. No individual in any band mentioned here is even part black?

what I want to know is, what does the divorce have to say about this?

"We've had people of color on our cover twice in the past month."

When I read this sentence I thought for sure this comment was written by someone mocking the Weekly and not the editor himself. Shameful words.

I thought Charles was over-reacting until I read Chuck's weird post.
Let's hear from Brian Barr.

maybe because rap sucks!

It's sadly, typically American to view this is an issue of race. IMO, it's an issue of conservatism, which subsumes the focus on skin color.

The Blue Scholars have been on the front page before dippies! Let's mix it up and spread the love. Stop digging for dirt and do your frickin job- write about REAL news-worthy stuff.

"We've had people of color on our cover twice in the past month" is a sad, cringe-inducing comment from Chuck Taylor.

But Chuck, I don't remember the covers. Who were the people of color on your covers?

Why does anyone really give a shit about who the Weekly puts on their cover? they wanted to do a story on the Divorce, so they did...was there some sort of criteria that the cover story had to be the overall winner of the music awards? this is fucking retarded...move on!

I agree it may not be an issue of race, it was more likely a stupid editorial decision probably fueld by someone's vetted interest in propping up pop rock. and the truth is the BS story is similar to the divorce's "gigging and radio play" story... sans the myspace music folks marketing push. So why is yet another rocker's tale more interesting than an emerging hip-hop scene in the NW? and an especially intellectual hip-hop scene at that?

there wasn't anything interesting about the divorce's write up other than all the spelling errors and puncuation mistakes... (at least in the online version, chuck have your folks look into that)

now, what could have made an interesting story would have been doing a write up on the growth of Blue Scholars all the way back to the days of Geo's spoken word days with Isangmahal..

but, whatever. pop rock is interesting to a point I guess...

The SW cover photo and text definitely imply that The Divorce won the reader contest, when in fact they did not. I guess they think putting cute indie-rock boys on the cover will increase interest in the issue, however it does a great disservice to Blue Scholars, the real winners, and their fans.

Wow - "people of color" wow - that sounds hella old fashioned and a bit horrid to be honest.

I agree - this is getting silly. People are so fast to dog on the Weeklie - so why not just chalk it up to another dumb move on their part, like we always do?

I am sure Scholars arent hurt...and Divorce didn't scheme to get this for themselves I doubt...in the end its bonehead decisions made by bonehead peoples...

Boyd Main: I don't understand your moon language.

Look: it appears they're trying to rectify the situation with the graphic online:
http://www.seattleweekly.com/

Well, dudes, the reality of the situation is that the SW juuuust ran a huge Blue Scholars story; it's customary not to cover the same group/story heavily twice within a certain time frame.

Peanut: What I was trying to say was that there's no need to get as specific as accusations of the "r" word. A simple "jeeze, those old fuddy-duddies" covers that base, as well as other potential issues, such as conservative favoritism of guitars over samplers, things one understands over things one doesn't, etc.

Dear Strangers and faux hipsters puffing this post,

Get a life or a real cause. It is incredible and unprofessional to passive aggressively accuse someone/thing of racism.

This issue is going, going...

Gone.

Nice try Chuck.

they're bennetton with street cred...little more. hip hop has simplified my life greatly. its ideas and language has allowed me to think and express myself in guttaral shorthand. I frequently add DJ to my name and carry a coffin in my scion to back it up. welcoming a flood.