A Note from Kyle
July is a good month to be a music person in the PNW. The light lasts forever, the valley is green, and BrodieNation is back at Club Tolt.
We've got a stretch of Oleaje Flamenco dates this month that I'm really excited about — including a night at the Black Dog in Snoqualmie, which is one of my favorite rooms we've played. Si Sessions keeps rolling — we've got some highlighted sessions below, with several more currently in edit and others already scheduled to film.
This issue features upcoming shows from artists across the MRC community. That's what this thing is for — helping the artists in this network get eyes on their dates. Got shows coming up? Hit reply and I'll add them to the next issue.
More to come. Let's have a great July.
— Kyle
Upcoming Shows
Garrett Hendricks & Albuquerque Press Band This Weekend
BrodieNation Festival (Jul 9–12) · Club Tolt, Carnation, WA
brodienation.com
NW Flamenco Academy — Dance This Tonight
The Moore Theatre, Seattle · 7:30 PM · Amelia Moore, Jed Miley & Gordon Assadi · from $18
Get Tickets
Bob Antone & Tinkham Road — Haystack Festival Tonight
Friday, Jul 10 · 6:00–9:00 PM
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Monte Lynch — Haystack Festival Tonight
Friday, Jul 10 · 6:00–9:00 PM · w/ Kyle McCurdy on percussion
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Oleaje Flamenco — Flamenco Show at Cafe Paloma
Saturday, Jul 11 · 7:00 PM · Cafe Paloma, Seattle
Details
Elizabeth Petra — Eastern Sierra Tour
Jul 15 · Mountain Rambler, Bishop · 7–9 PM
Jul 16 · Distant Brewing, Mammoth · 7–9 PM
Jul 18 · Bar Sierra, Mammoth · 3–5 PM
Jul 22 · Wayfinder, Bishop · 6–9 PM
Sheyenne Leonard
Thursday, Jul 16 · Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle · 8 PM · $20–25 · All ages
w/ Townsend's Solitaire & Claire Conway
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Oleaje Flamenco — Fuente Flamenca at the Black Dog
Friday, Jul 17 · 7:30 PM · Black Dog Arts Café, Snoqualmie
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Oleaje Flamenco — Flamenco Festero @ West Brewing
Saturday, Jul 18 · 8:00 PM · West Brewing, Fremont, Seattle · 21+
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John Riziki — Live Music in the Lounge
Saturday, Jul 25 · 4:00–7:00 PM · Salish Lodge & Spa, Snoqualmie
Details
Bob Antone — Issaquah Wine Walk
Saturday, Aug 8 · 6:00 PM · Issaquah, WA
Bob Antone — Soulfood Coffeehouse
Saturday, Aug 22 · 6:00 PM · Soulfood Coffeehouse, Redmond, WA
Got an upcoming show? Hit reply and we'll add it to the next issue.
Industry Intel
Things I've been paying attention to — and why I think they matter to you.
You can now check if your music was scraped for AI training.
The Atlantic expanded its AI Watchdog tool to cover music — you can now search whether your tracks appear in massive AI training datasets (one has 12 million songs, another 9 million). I produce electronic music myself and I'm not anti-AI, but there's a real difference between tools that help artists create and systems trained on artists' work without consent or compensation. One caveat: showing up doesn't prove your music was used, and being absent doesn't prove it wasn't. But the transparency conversation is just getting started.
What this means for youCheck your catalog — it takes a few minutes. Artists who understand this landscape early will be better positioned to navigate what comes next, especially as AI licensing becomes a real negotiating point.
Playlists are losing. Community is winning.
The main takeaway from Indie Week 2026 in New York: artists with real, trust-based followings in specific places are outperforming those chasing algorithmic placement. Independent labels now hold 44% of the US recorded-music market — nearly double any major label group.
What this means for youThe infrastructure exists to build a real career without a label. But you have to choose: build a real audience or optimize for a number. Those are different games with different ceilings. MRC exists for the former.
Source: A2IM / Indie Week 2026
Your press kit might be costing you gigs before anyone hears a note.
Booking agents and promoters in 2026 want one link that opens fast on their phone and tells them everything in under a minute — bio, music, photos, contact. A PDF attachment that requires downloading and zooming is a soft no before it's even opened.
What this means for youIf your EPK isn't a clean, mobile-friendly link, fixing that is probably the highest-ROI thing you can do for your booking this summer. MRC can help — just hit reply.
Source: AboutMySound.com
Book the room that matches where you actually are.
The Snoqualmie Valley has real venues booking original music this summer. One principle I keep coming back to: a packed 50-cap room does more for your career than a sparse 200-cap room. The energy is better, the promoter remembers you, and you get invited back.
What this means for youStart where you can fill the room. Build from there. The MRC Gig Map has 150+ PNW venues if you're looking for places to pitch.
MRC Gig Map
Community Spotlight
If you're looking for something to do this month, go to BrodieNation.
It's July 9–12 at Club Tolt in Carnation — right on the Tolt River, deep in the Snoqualmie Valley, 60 PNW acts across four days. The Snoqualmie Valley's longest-running music festival, and honestly one of the best arguments for why this region has one of the most genuine grassroots music scenes in the country.
Two Si Sessions artists are on the bill this year — Garrett Hendricks and the Albuquerque Press Band. People who've come out to the mountain and performed for us, and who are now going to go play their hearts out in a field by a river. That's exactly what this community is supposed to look like.
Also on the bill: the Fern Spores, who are scheduled for a Si Session but haven't recorded yet. If you're going to BrodieNation, go catch their set.
I'm not going to make it this year — I'll be deep in wedding prep as Amelia and I get ready for August 1st — but if you can get there, please go. Support live music in your backyard.
Thanks for being part of this. If you've got friends in the music world who'd find this useful, forward it along — the more artists in the network, the better it works for everyone.