Named for the former Seattle Supersonic star “Slick Watts,” the eighth track on Blue Scholars’ 2011 CineMetroPolis begins with a robotic sounding voice proclaiming, “You know, I be, I be in the, be in the town all day. I be, I be in the, be in the in the S-E-A.” Seeing as both my home and work are located within the city limits, I BE… IN THE TOWN ALL DAY! And, with an assist from Freegal,* thousands of songs referencing city living are available for free download with just a few clicks of the mouse.
In the year 2000, Issaquah indie rockers Modest Mouse released their major label debut, The Moon and Antarctica. The album was highly regarded by many critics, and hailed as one of the best rock albums of the year. 
Midway through the album, we, the listener’s collective cochleae, are greeted with a haunting ring. Suddenly, a rounded bouncy bass line and stripped-down, speedy drum line send us down the road toward, “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes.” As the groove moves, singer Isaac Brock’s voice breaks into the mix, double-tracked, as he sings both high and low through the verse before escalating into a screaming chorus. The intensity of the vocal performance goes all the way up to eleven whilst the instrumentation throughout the chorus remains steadfast in its groove. As the song moves to close, the band continues to add layer upon layer of interesting and odd sounds before drummer breaks the beat in half and a short swirling interlude takes us…
…to “A Different City.” With a warbling and frenzied guitar riff we are whisked away from the tiny cities to a new,
strange and fantastic land. The band takes a page from the Pixies playbook, juxtaposing the fast and loud intro against the much slower and quieter verse in which lead singer Brock sings, “I want to live in a city with no friends or family/I’m gonna look out of the window of my color TV/I want to remember to remember to forget you forgot me.” The song picks up steam as it moves through an energetic chorus and bridge, eventually progressing back to the opening riff and repeating the song form once more.
Before announcing in April of this year that they were going on hiatus, Austin electro-funk rockers Ghostland Observatory had been doing their thing for almost a decade. Released in 2005, their debut album 
delete.delete.i.eat.meat is full of catchy riffs and banging beats. The album’s fourth track, “Silver City” starts with a spacious synthesizer swelling over a slow and steady beat. As drummer/beat maker Thomas Ross Turner continues to stack new layers of drum and synth line on top of one another, singer Aaron Behrens’ heavily effected voice comes into the middle of the mix sounding more like a machine than a man. Toward the end of the song, a car door shuts as the engine fires and we hear the vehicle drive away, presumably headed out of the city in search of more wide open spaces.
To find these songs and others in Freegal, log in with your library card and PIN and search by artist, album or song title.
*Freegal is a downloadable music service that offers access to approximately three million songs, including the Sony Music catalog. The collection changes daily and covers thousands of artists on over 10,000 labels with music that originates in over 60 countries. Library cardholders can download up to three songs per week on their computer, flash drive or mobile device (via the Freegal app). There is no software to download and song files can be transferred to multiple devices, burned to disc and will never expire. You must have a Seattle Public Library card and PIN in order to access the service.
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