Usually, when I write about house parties, I’m not talking about music and there’s a member of Top Heavy Crush involved. Usually, when I write about house parties, it’s something about who diddled who in the hot tub, who showed up with herbal jazz cigarettes, and who drank so much they passed out on the can. Usually, when I write about house parties, I’m incriminating myself and most likely another member of the Weekly Volcano family.

(That’s right, Bobble Tiki. I remember the time you took seven Jell-O shots, removed your pants, and then surprised everyone with an impromptu karaoke version of Rod Stewart’s “Hot Legs.” Of course, I’m sure you remember the time I beer bonged a half rack of PBR, and then reenacted every play of “The Drive” in that dude’s front yard using a Cornish game hen as a football. I’m not sure which one of us is the winner there?)   

Anyway, usually house parties are fantastic fodder.

Let it be known this week will be no different.  Once again, a house party provides the perfect subject for yet another installment of Rock Rhetoric. This week, however, the news will be of the musical variety — and something you really should hear.

Olympia, Wash., is, perhaps, one of the best little towns in the entire world to attend a huge house party. Olympia is a do-it-yourself type of place. So much so that, with all the amazing music that comes out of Olympia, the real moving and shakin’ rarely happens in actual clubs or venues. Why play at a bar when you can play in front of three times as many kids in someone’s sweat filled living room? That’s where the action’s at.

This Saturday, Jan. 20, what surely ranks as one of the greatest house parties to ever hit Tumwater (Olympia’s Spanaway) will go down at some guy named Nathan’s house. It’s cool if you crash it. I promise.

It’s a party so big, in fact, that it has a name.

Mikrofest III will go down at 2235 54th Ave. S.W., near Trosper and Capitol in Tumwater. Starting at 2 p.m., Mike Dixon, the Mona Reels, Kickball, Lake, Skrill Meadow & Part Dog, Sisters, the Sundance Kids, Robert, Helga, Fisher J Price, Car Scars, Problems, Birch Cooper, Goldstar, Fall of Electricity and Slow Dance Fast will take turns pumping up the party, providing a live musical sound track more eclectic than the mix of Christian rap, pussyfoot pop, and overpaid dance beats Shaun Alexander works out to.

As you may have surmised, a party like Mikrofest III takes some planning. This isn’t the type of party that spontaneously blows up and becomes “off the hook.” It’s the type of party that’s organized in advance — by people with bigger priorities than taking advantage of the fact that their parents are out of town and the liquor cabinet’s unlocked.

Brown Interiour Music is who you have to thank for this one, and yes, that IS how they spell Interiour. Don’t ask me why. Their passion is releasing kick-ass local music on cassette tapes, not spelling.

If you haven’t heard of Brown Interiour — Olympia’s top cassette label according to www.browninteriourmusic. com — it’s probably because it’s new on the scene.  Apparently it doesn’t take long to become “Olympia’s top cassette label.”  Brown Interiour was started by Mark Morrison in 2001 in Lancaster, Calif., but it didn’t make its way to Olympia until 2006. From the start Morrison’s been all about the tapes.

Things ran their course in California as things typically do, and long story short, Brown Interiour ended up in Olympia with Morrison teaming up with Andrew Dorsett and Matt Topartzer and vowing to bring all of the “exciting” music they found in Olympia to tape.

“Andrew and I started up Brown Interiour again (in Olympia) with the musicians we’ve met and are in contact with,” explains Morrison.

“The community has been really receptive. It’s just a great town to be making art in.”

Much like the goal with their label, Morrison and Dorsett sought diversity when creating the lengthy list of acts for Mikrofest III — a house party, mind you. To Morrison and Dorsett, Mikrofest is a “festival,” and they refer to it as such. You may have picked up on the fact that this is Mikrofest III — one was in California, and Saturday’s will mark the second in Tumwater. Mikrofest IV is already being planned for March.

“The idea was to have a really big house show. We wanted to find all the best talent we could,” says Dorsett.

“It will be nothing short of an extremely eclectic festival. The house isn’t huge, but it’s sort of empty. Our last Mikrofest probably had a crowd of around 100 people that rotated throughout the day. It’s a bring your own barbecue, too. The grill will be going all day. And there’ll be ample parking for cyclists.”

According to Dorsett and Morrison, this all started when: “We met a guy named Nathan (whose last name they couldn’t remember), and he wanted to have a house party.”

Sounds like Nathan’s about to have a house party, eh?

Let’s see if we can’t double the crowd from last time, get 200 people to show up, and slam that bike rack so full ten-speeds overflow into the street.

Mikrofest III (at Nathan’s) happens Saturday, Jan. 20, starting at 2 p.m. Directions, as well as a lineup of set times for all of the bands, can be found at Brown Interiour Music.   

Mikrofest III

With: Mike Dixon, the Mona Reels, Kickball, Lake, Skrill Meadow & Part Dog, Sisters, the Sundance Kids, Robert, Helga, Fisher J Price, Car Scars, Problems, Birch Cooper, Goldstar, Fall of Electricity and Slow Dance Fast

When: Saturday, Jan. 20, 2 p.m.

Where: 2235 54th Ave. S.W., near Trosper and Capitol, Tumwater, www.brown   interiourmusic.com

Cost: $3-$5, BYO BBQ

Tuesday

There are two new records coming out on Tuesday, Jan. 23, that you should know about — for entirely different reasons.

On an upbeat note, the Shins release Wincing the Night Away on Jan. 23. Let’s see if they’ll need another “Garden State” to make this one sell. My guess is no.

And on a disgusting note, John Mellencamp releases Freedom’s Road that same day. What the hell happened to you, Johnny Cougar? Freedom’s Road features that mind-bogglingly wretched tune that’s in all the truck commercials. The song single-handedly made football season less enjoyable. Does the Secret Service come to my house if I say I want John Mellencamp shot?