Crosscut Tout: A Truckasaurus/hip-hop mashup

Truckasaurus isn'ꀙt your typical Seattle band, so it makes sense that the group'ꀙs electro-meets-hip-hop mashup at Neumos tonight (Aug. 6) won'ꀙt be your typical show. The show, dubbed Kevin Collabo (named loosely after this guy), will see the Truck create musical backdrops for more than 30 of Seattle'ꀙs finest rappers to use as their lyrical playgrounds. Merging Truck'ꀙs instrumental dance music with Seattle'ꀙs hip-hop elite is the local music equivalent of chocolate and peanut butter, which should make tonight'ꀙs show a memorable, and musically delicious, experience. The list of participating rappers reads like a who'ꀙs who of everyone who has made a splash in the local hip-hop scene during the past few years. Champagne Champagne, Spaceman, Ra Scion, Geologic, Grynch, Tilson, Mash Hall and more will take the stage during what will likely be a series of one-off live collaborations. Since Truck'ꀙs job has been to create beats, something that can be done without a vocalist, many of the MCs will meet the band for the first time on stage tonight. 'ꀜPractice has been more like a situation of whoever can show up makes it, as far as the MCs are concerned,'ꀝ said Adam Swan, Truckasaurus'ꀙ keyboardist. 'ꀜIt'ꀙs been real nice to work with MCs. We want them to take the beats and run with them and I think that has been happening.'ꀝ As a band Truckasaurus uses keyboards, synthesizers, drum machines and various electronic gadgets (including a first generation Game Boy) to create electronic music as unique as the car-eating mechanical monstrosity that is its namesake. Working with MCs will give Truck'ꀙs music an added element tonight. 'ꀜCreating beats and making music is something we are always messing around with. Since we'ꀙll have MCs it means we won'ꀙt have to dive into the beats as much,'ꀝ Swan said. When the group performs live, it employs A/V guru Dan Bordon to create visually arresting scenes projected onto a screen behind the band. The scenes are filled with snippets of 1980s action movies, old WWF wrestling clips, and various other pieces of pop-culture cheese from the decade of DeLoreans and Max Headroom. Since Truckasaurus'ꀙ music is mostly filled with dense beats and electronic bleeps and bloops, sans vocals, the visuals often tend to take center stage. 'ꀜWe'ꀙre really just a bunch of gearheads twisting knobs and doing stuff like that so it can be pretty boring to watch,'ꀝ said Swan. 'ꀜWe consider Dan to be like our frontman since everyone is mostly paying attention to what he is doing.'ꀝ Bordon cede his role as frontman for the night, which is something Swan said is OK with Truckasaurus. 'ꀜThere are a lot of talented rappers in Seattle right now and it'ꀙs really great to be able to work with so many of them,'ꀝ Swan said. 'ꀜWe expect it to be one huge party filled with lots of bass and lots of dancing. If nothing else, people should come out to see the visuals.'ꀝ If you go: Truckasaurus, "Kevin Collabo" show, 8 p.m. tonight (Aug. 6), Neumos, 925 E. Pike St., Seattle. Tickets cost $10 and are available online.