Mayor Mike McGinn's inauguration party at the Showbox SODO tonight features a pretty diverse musical line-up: The old soul men of Wheedle's Groove, the orchestral pop of Hey Marseille, the nine-piece alt-county band The Maldives, and hip-hop artist Gabriel Teodros.

Wheedle's Groove is the draw. A collective of local funk and soul musicians from the 1960s and early '70s, they recently reunited to put out an album on retro label Light in the Attic Records. They don't perform collectively very often, and they're also the subject of the recent documentary, Wheedle's Groove: The Story of Seattle's Soul and Funk Scene of the 1960s and 1970s.

The hip-hop act on the bill, Teodros, is the only overtly political act at tonight's political coronation, and actually, Teodros almost turned the gig down.

Teodros is a Beacon Hill and South End native with roots in the Central District as well. The bulk of his music deals with injustices against communities of color and doesn't pull a single punch when addressing issues like police brutality.

He seemed a bit perplexed that he was invited to perform at the mayor's inauguration, especially since he's been living on the East Coast since October after being denied entrance into London for what was supposed to be a three month tour. "I don't know why they called me," he said half jokingly. "You can look at me as the token rapper, the token person of color, token immigrant [his mother is from Ethiopia], the token whatever, pick one. Maybe they needed someone that could represent that."

He almost didn't accept the invitation to perform, he says. Teodros is not a big believer in the political process and contacted a variety of local rappers he trusts, Geo of Blue Scholars being one of them, for advice.  Teodros says he ultimately accepted the invitation and agreed to be flown back here to Seattle because he feared they'd just get another rapper to take his place, possibly one with a lot less to say.



"I feel like it's a really good opportunity to speak on certain issues that normally wouldn't get addressed by a musician at an inauguration," he says. "I'm not going to make my set preachy, but I'm trying to figure out how I can weave in the right songs to make an impact.

James Keblas, the director of the city's Office of Film and Music says McGinn's administration put the music line-up together on its own and Keblas' office had very little do with it.

"This was all McGinn's idea and the people around him, Keblas says. "It happened independently. The only thing we did was introduced the Wheedles Groove folks to them, who they already knew about, and put them in touch with Matt Sullivan from Light in the Attic records. But they did the line up all on their own, and I'm impressed. I'm impressed, because McGinn genuinely likes music. He made these decisions because he likes this music. It's just strange, you've got a leader that gets it."

McGinn hosts the inaugural music festival this Saturday at the Showbox SODO, 1700 1st Avenue South. Admission is free and it's an all-ages event