ironymaiden | $5 Cover: Seattle

dreamline and i went to the showing of $5 Cover: Seattle the other night. i got the tickets through SIFF, and i wasn't quite prepared...we arrived in our usual jeans and t-shirts, and the majority of the crowd was in their hipster-best.* MTV suits were there. there was even a wee red carpet and backdrop for snapping photos. the theater was sold out and i think there might have been 20 people who weren't involved in the project. i love that sort of fizzy atmosphere, but we were so outnumbered that i felt like a party crasher.

$5 Cover is a loosely interwoven story of a weekend in Seattle, featuring a double-handful of local bands. the dozen episodes add up to about an hour of content that will be on mtv.com in June. it's a perfect project for Lynn Shelton, shaping the performances of non-actors improvising stories from their lives. i liked it quite a bit...it's more subtle than anything else i've seen with the mtv label, and i enjoyed the musical content. (high points include Sean Nelson dealing with a couple of enthusiastic Harvey Danger fans, and the appearance of a Costco bale-o-toilet-paper.)

worth watching when they hit the internets. there is also a set of mini-documentaries about each of the bands directed by John Jeffcoat that look very good, and a set of sillier "B-side" shorts about things like the Top Pot donut eating contest.

i haven't been able to get Sexy Girlfriend out of my head since, so hopefully the exposure will be good for everyone involved.

* i was full of Get Off My Lawn. because damn, their clothes are ugly and the hair is worse. people choosing to wear the kind of glasses frames that were the stigmata of poverty when i was in high school really get up my nose. in my dreamworld, after i punch them i will forcefully brush their ratty hair.