Blue Scholars

These photos are from about 20 minutes ago. Nothing is better on the University of Washington campus, save for maybe when the cherry blossoms are in bloom, then a warm sunny Friday and the Blue Scholars playing for free in front of the HUB. It's a tradition for the band, who always come back to play where they went to school, started out, and played a bunch of their early gigs...

ANTiSEEN

ANTiSEEN is celebrating their 25th year of "Destructo Rock" by touring with the most unlikely partner, old dirty rapper Blowfly. These photos are of their set at the Funhouse ten days ago. I have to say, I've never been that big of an Antiseen fan, they were always a little too rock for me and seemed to buy into their own shtick of being Southern badass rockers a bit too much. Unlike say, Nashville Pussy and the singer's preceding band 9 Lb. Hammer, both bands definitely played up the humorous angle in what they were doing. Regardless, I do have a couple Antiseen records and have been known to rock out to them on occasion. 1993's "Eat More Possum" in particular, which is pretty balls to the wall and has a great band introduction by The Cosmic Commander of Wrestling. I realized when walking by the merch table (AKA Funhouse's pool table) that Antiseen have an insane number of releases, so I'll refer you to their website for more info on the band and their full discography: antiseen.com. Singer Jeff Clayton is known for cutting himself open and bleeding a lot live, sadly their was no blood when I saw them, they had a shorter time slot and breezed through most of their songs.

Katrina Hellbusch (AKA Katrina Outcast)

This is a photo of Katrina Hellbusch cleaning up broken beer bottles outside a show she put on at the Black Cat Cafe in 1997. In the mid to late 1990's in Seattle, Katrina was one of the most important and influential people in the punk community. Her support through booking and promoting shows, helping out bands, and releasing records really was unrivaled. Through Outcast Booking she booked all-ages punk shows at various venues around town, including Rckcndy, the Velvet Elvis and the Black Cat. She was a music and all-ages activist, a guest writer for 10 Things, and she ran one kick-ass record label, Outcast Records. The first release on the label, the "We Are All Guilty" compilation LP, put Seattle's punk scene on the national map like few other local comps (one of my friends said it was a big part of why he moved here, he knew we had a great punk scene). Today Katrina runs Skin Deep Studios, teaches belly dancing classes and does massage therapy.

Discography of Outcast Records:

• OR001 "We Are All Guilty" NW Punk comp LP (with Zeke, Defiance, Masskontrol, Whipped, Inhumane, The Rickets, The Mukilteo Fairies, The Evicted, Amerifucked, Positively Negative, Killing Pig, Submission Hold, and Bristle
• OR002 Whipped "Agitator" LP
• OR003 The Bloodclots "Chaos Day is Almost Here" 7"
• OR004 Aspirin Feast/Chicken split 7"
• OR005 The Dunderheads s/t 7"
• OR006 The Degenerats 7"
• OR008 Whorehouse of Representatives/Mark Bruback split 7"
• OR009 Mark Bruback CD
• OR010 "Stop Rape Now!" An international punk compilation LP with all female bands or vocalists

More old Seattle punk flyers

I'm Ebaying a bunch of old punk flyers right now, including all the ones I've been posting lately. If you're interested in any of them, the auctions can be found here.

Primate 5: Apes vs. Bunnies

These photos are from a big bunny-themed birthday party this past May 10th at the Baranoff in Seattle's Greenwood neighborhood, which was headlined by The Primate 5.

A few more old Seattle show flyers

A few old Seattle show flyers

The Spud Goodman Show

The Spud Goodman Show was an often bizarre hodge-podge show in Seattle during the '80s and '90s. I remember first catching it on public access in probably the late-'80s. Spud would sit in a chair in his living room with a spatula in his hand drinking Pepto Bismol, with a host of other characters around him in costume, as he told dumb jokes, had odd commentary, and would interview guests. At times it was painful to watch, at others, there were fairly brilliant moments of improv. Spud's friend Chick would always have some sort of adversarial relationship with him vying for the attention of the camera and Spud would have to verbally smack him back into place. Other characters included Spud's parents (I have no idea if they were his real parents or not, but I wouldn't doubt it), a guy dressed like Elvis that would play an accordion, and other costumed weirdness. It was a great show to watch on acid (kinda like that movie Shredder Orpheus I mentioned earlier this week).

By 1992 The Spud Goodman Show had moved from cable access to KTZZ, Channel 22, the same station that hosted Bombshelter Videos and Northwest Rock Music Videos. A few years later the show ran it's course and KTZZ pulled the plug on it (and all local programming). Above is an old flyer adversing the show I think I picked up at a record store on the Ave. A lot of the shows' history and some archived footage can be found at spudgoodman.com, so obviously I'm not the only one that remembers the show.

Who is it?

This is a pretty funny photo from an old Halloween party, probably from around 1994. See the kid with the devil horns in the back? Guess who it is? Yeah, that's a young Spencer Moody, sportin' a devil outfit, a few years before forming The Murder City Devils.

Blowfly

Blowfly headlined possibly the weirdest show I've seen at Funhouse in ages Wednesday night. Two old school dirty rappers paired with two punk bands playing between their sets. Southern don't give a fuck punks Anti-Seen and Blowfly are actually touring together, someone with pure genius set that up. But in a way it makes sense, Blowfly's last album from 2006 was on Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label and it has a bunch of punk songs redone as hip hop songs (the album is called "Blowfly's Punk Rock Party"). On the album, the Dead Kennedy's "Holiday in Cambodia" has become "R. Kelly in Cambodia" (featuring Jello Biafra as R. Kelly's attorney), Black Flag's "TV Party" is "VD Party," The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go" is "Should I Fuck the Big Fat Ho"... uh, you get the picture. Totally crass, dirty, but really funny versions of old punk songs done hip hop style.

Blowfly is old school, no doubt about it, the fact that he's still going strong with his shtick 35 years later is amazing. Perhaps it's because he's been able to draw different crowds through the eras and now seems to be courting a punk/alternative audience. And let's face it, his act is pretty sloppy and goofy, I'm not thinking mainstream audiences would buy into it at all. But in dark sweaty booze-filled clubs, an old dirty rapper wearing a sequined superhero suit is the shit, crowds eat it up, girls dance dirty on stage, the whole audience sings and dances along. And such was the show at Funhouse a few nights ago, Blowfly brought the freak, and the audience got their freak on.

Blowfly was born Clarence Reid back in 1945. During the 1960's and early '70s he mostly was a songwriter for other acts, including KC and the Sunshine Band. But even as early as 1965 he has recorded his own material under the name 1965, including the single "Dirty Rap." After performing his own dirty versions of popular songs at parties for a few years and unable to find a label daring enough to release them, in 1971 he self-released his debut album "The Weird World of Blowfly." By that time he had his stage persona/alter-ego fully taking shape and the cover of the album featured Reid in an early version of is Blowfly super hero costume.

Throughout the '70s and '80s Blowfly continued to put out albums and tour occasionally, also occasionally running into legal trouble for his "interpretations" of popular songs done in his personal dirty style. As kind of a cult hero as the first dirty rapper, his old music was sampled by tons other artists, including Puff Daddy, Wu Tang Clan, Beyonce, Ice Cube, The Jurassic 5 and 2 Live Crew. This only secured Blowfly's legendary status. He signed to Alternative Tentacles in 2005 and two albums followed... then he laid low for a few years, but with the current tour, he seems to be back in action, I wouldn't be surprised to see another album in the near future.

Oh, and he has the creepiest looking vampire fingernails, check out the picture!

KingDRO

Dressed in all white, from head to toe, he put a CD in the player and walked on the stage with an air of mystery... then laid down some catchy and crude lyrics, mostly about himself and his body parts, in a great '80s funky influenced hip hop style. His name is KingDRO, which like all rappers, he told us quite a few times in his songs. This guy was hilarious and his music rocked when he opened for Blowfly two nights ago, he seemed like old school Seattle, which he may be, he was a little older, wiser, and had an old school feel about him. For more info or check out his music, go here: myspace.com/pimpdynasty And check out KingDRO's fucking Space Needle cape... awesome!!!

Old flyer for the Off Ramp's kitchen

Am I the only one the kept a bunch of shit like this? Probably. I've always been one to hang onto everything and document events with photos, notes and journal entries. Here's an old flyer from the Off Ramp hyping their kitchen, circa 1992 or 1993. The Off Ramp was thee club for my friends and I during this time period, there were tons of great shows there, cheap strong drinks, hash after the bash, and it was close to the U-District where most of us lived. As always, click the picture for the full-sized version:

Obama or The Decemberists?

News Busters, a website devoted to "Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias," is claiming that the 75,000 person crowd that showed up to Portland, Oregon's recent Obama rally were really there to see band The Decemberists open up for him (article here). They conclude that the media has completely dropped the ball on this issue:

"There's nothing wrong with a candidate using celebrity power to draw a crowd, but the media have a responsibility to report their presence. By ignoring the free concert, the Times and other outlets made it appear that 75,000 people were drawn only by Sen. Obama's considerable charisma."

Wait a minute, hasn't everyone in Portland already seen the Decemberists live about a hundred times? How many times have they seen the next president of the United States?

And don't The Decemberists usually play to crowds of about 1,000-2,000, not 75,000? I definitely think getting a popular local band to open up for Obama was a smart move that influenced the decision why some people attended, they got a twofer (two for the price of one), but it's impossible to quantify how much of a draw the band had. Honestly, a bunch of friends and family attended and they all went to see Obama... not one even mentioned The Decemberists or took pictures of them, yet they flooded my email box with pictures of Obama, the crowd, and tales of what Obama said. Who goes to a concert to see the opening band? That's when you're drinking beer in the alley. And the idea that "the media" has a responsibility to cover opening bands for presidential candidate rallies is ridiculously stupid. "Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias" shouldn't mean having a conservative biased instead.

I also think it's funny that "conservatives" (I put that in quotes because today's conservatives aren't true conservatives, while they are socially conservative, no conservative in previous decades would have supported the decision to invade Iraq, growing the federal government to the largest it's been in US history, or growing the debt 3 trillion+ dollars) think the media has a liberal bias, while most liberal people think the media has a conservative bias. As someone that's worked in the media, I can tell you roughly 90% of America's media is owned by about 5 companies that tend to be conservative, but really, for them making money is the bottom line, not politics.

ps- I love the Decemberists by the way and was happy to hear about the band supporting Obama

Swingin' Utters

I saw the Swingin' Utters open up for Naked Raygun a few months ago and thought they were great, albeit it pretty drunk. I think I have a big nostalgia factor with the band because we interviewed them early on in 10 Things (back when they were still called Johnny Peebucks and the Swingin' Utters) and I saw a few of their early shows. After the show I pulled out their oldest material and remembered why I liked them, it was a great blend of old punk, street punk and more melodic stuff. These photos are from the same 1994 (possibly 1995) Radio House party the AFI pictures I posted earlier were from. The two bands played on the same equipment and traded off every couple songs. It was a lot of fun for both the bands and the audience.

Shredder Orpheus

Shredder Orpheus was a movie filmed in Seattle, starring mostly Northwest actors, released in 1990. It's biggest claim to fame is spoken word/performance artist Steven Jesse Bernstein had a good-sized role in the film. I rented a copy from Peaches records in the U-District and dubbed it, my copy is pretty bad, but a quick look around the Web shows you can pick up a used copy for under $4 these days. Obviously even though it's a pretty rare movie, it's not exactly sought after. But if you're from the Northwest, the Bernstein content is worth watching and the movie is so bad it's funny. The soundtrack was composed by Roland Barker, musicians Amy Denio, Bill Rieflin and Dennis Rea all played on it. And a bunch of local skaters had parts (Wez Lundry who worked at Fallout and did Pool Dust zine, Chris Vanderbrooke and a few others).

Shredder Orpheus retells the tragic love story of Orpheus and Eurydice, only the setting is in a post-apocalyptic Seattle. A skateboarder named Orpheus lives with friends in old shipping containers in and area called "The Grey Zone." Mostly Orpheus and his friends street skate, talk shit, and play in a band called The Shredders. He plans to marry the love of his life, this kinda goth chick named Eurydice, only she gets kidnapped and taken to Hades, which is run a televangelist, who runs at TV station called the Euthanasia Broadcast Network. Can Orpheus and his rag tag band of punky skater friends save Eurydice? And will they pull off any decent skating on their way to save the day? I guess you will have to track down a copy to find out. I doubt this will ever make it to DVD...

Good Riddance

Good Riddance was a Santa Cruz, California hardcore band that formed in 1986. For the next seven years the band played a bunch of shows, lost and gained a bunch of band members, and at times went dormant. It wasn't until 1993 when things began to pick up, they started playing more shows, put out a demo, and Little Deputy Records in Austin released their first single. In 1994 they signed to Fat Wreck Chords and released their second single, "Decoy." The following year, Fat released Good Riddance's debut album, "For God & Country." This is the first record I heard by the band, my zine 10 Things was in full swing and Fat Mike and his label were very supportive with advertising, sending all new releases, lining up interviews, etc., so I had every Fat release early for review and absolutely loved the new Good Riddance album. Hell, I still play it all the time. The music was heavy and crunchy, often political, but at times pretty emotional and melodic. The band toured in support of the album, this photo is from a show they played in '95 at the Old Firehouse in Redmond, with labelmate Tilt. The band went on to release tons of records on Fat and tour everywhere, releasing seven full-length CDs between 1993 and 2007, when they finally called it quits. A year ago this coming weekend they played their three final shows. In March, Fat Wreck Chords released "Remain in Memory - The Final Show," a live album of the last Good Riddance concert. Rumors of a DVD release of the show are denied by the band on their MySpace page, but would rock.

The Retards

Last month I wrote about The Retards, but I stumbled upon this photo last night and wanted to post it too. I was at a show at The Black Cat Cafe I think in the Summer of 1997 when the kids from The Retards asked me to "Shoot a photo of us, like the Ramones, against a wall." They all had on matching red Converse All-Stars and black leather jackets. Awesome. We walked around a few blocks and found a suitable wall and took this photo. I think it ended up going on the back of their second single.

Nardwuar and The Evaporators

We here at 10 Things have been long time fans of Canada's weirdest export, Mr. Nardwuar the Human Serviette (serviettes are apparently what Canadians call napkins). Nardwuar is part music writer, part DJ, part musician, part Canadian historian, part interviewer and all fucking crazy. But it's crazy in a good way, everything he does is overemphasized, ridiculous, and somehow it seems he quite effortlessly makes everything funny. Before email, Nardwuar used to send me records for review with personal notes and letters, almost every sentence ended in an exclamation point... and that's exactly how he talks, like he's always talking to an audience and everything is bigger than life.

In the '90s Nardwuar started to make a name for himself with crazy interviews he'd do with bands and famous people, often being so annoying that he'd piss them off. His early videos included him getting kicked out of press conference with Gorbachev, getting tackled by Sonic Youth, drawn on with a sharpie by Jello Biafra, and hassled by people like Courtney Love and Henry Rollins as he tried to conduct interviews with them. Parts of those interviews and much more are on his recently released 2-disc DVD set "Welcome to My Castle" (which is named after a song his band The Evaporators has done for years).

Speaking of The Evaporators, on last times they came to town they packed the Comet. The audience included Neko Case, who came over after performing at Nuemo's to watch the band. The Evaporators combine pop punk and garage rock, and led by their fearless leader Nardwuar, they have hilarious lyrics and songs. Live they totally put out! Expect wacky costumes, hairy shirtlessness and crowd participation. And this weekend, Seattle, is your chance to see this garage rock'n'roll spectacle live! Touring behind their new CD, "Gassy Jack and Other Tales," The Evaporators are headlining at Funhouse on Friday night. The Voodoo Organist, TacocaT, and Science & Junk are opening. 9:30pm, 21+, $7. Be there!

The Bloodclots

The big hair, charged, UK '82 punk look of the Bloodclots just makes you wanna down a pint of beer and yell "Oi! Oi! Oi!" Here they are back in the mid-'90s, I'm guessing 1996, playing live at Second Time Around Records in Seattle's U-District. The band formed in 1994 and has had a few changes over the years (Jack Shit no longer sings, they've had a few drummers), but guitarist Maddy and bassist Squints have kept the band going for 14 years.

Discography:

• 1996, "Chaos Day is Almost Here" 7" (Outcast Records)
• 2000, "Clot You To Rot" 12" (Helen of Oi! Records)

For more information about The Bloodclots, check out: thebloodclots.com

AFI Playing House Party in 1994

Before they wore a lot of make-up and copped a goth/emo image, AFI were an East Bay hardcore band. Here they are rockin' the Radio House in 1994 when they toured with the Swingin' Utters. I don't know which is more amazing, how young Owen looks in the audience in his homemade "Anarchy is Cool" shirt or how young Davey Havok and the band looks.

Submachine

This one is from a party Submachine played at the Radio House, circa the mid '90s. Apparently the dress code was to wear a black vest with spikes on it... that looks like Jay Ford in the back.

Scared of Chaka at the Lake Union Pub

I featured one photo from this Scared of Chaka set at the Lake Union Pub in the mid-'90s a few months ago, here are the two remaining decent ones I shot. I love the second one, Dave Hernandez looks so fucking young, so unlike how he looks now (he's in the Shins). He also looks a little scared of the chaos of the pit/show. In the first one Damon is either riding on someone's shoulders or standing on the bar... awesome. This was a great out of control punk show.

Ken Cheppaikode and Dave Eck

This is a photo of Ken and Dave in my old apartment in the U-District. Both were friends and together got Dirtnap Records off the ground... this was probably taken before the label was started around 1998.

Ken had been doing a Dirtnap Radio show online and started a distro when he decided to start a record label. He laid out the text for his first 7", The Dontcares, on my old computer that I used to do 10 Things on. Dave helped out with the label in its early years and pushed for some of its releases, including The Briefs, which really helped Dirtnap Records take off. Dirtnap went on to become a big Northwest record label, releasing material by The Spits, Gloryholes, Cripples, Epoxies, New Town Animals, Exploding Hearts and many more, as well as a few out of town bands like The Lost Sounds.

Dave went on to open a club called the Hideaway in the old Sit'n'Spin space and run it for a couple of years, he's now married and has a kid. A few years back Ken moved to Portland where he bought Green Noise Records and got married. He continues to put out records, albeit at a slower pace, on Dirtnap, and started a vinyl only sub-label called Green Noise. For the latest releases and more label news, check out dirtnaprecs.com.

Northwest Pinball Show!

I just got the poster design for next month's Northwest Pinball show from Jay Barber, who did two covers of 10 Things back in the day. It's frickin' awesome. We had a meeting today up in Snohomish finalizing the details for the show, it's going to be fantastic, there will be about 120 pinball machines there, tons of excellent games to play and see. Mark it on your calendars now! There will be a raffle or two to win your own pinball game too! All the details about the weekend can be found at: nwpinballshow.com

Blood, Butts and Pussy

The title is a play off one of the best Sub Pop albums of all time, The Dwarves "Blood, Guts and Pussy." Clocking in with twelve songs in twelves minutes and with what Rolling Stone called the most offensive album cover ever, the Dwarves 1990 third album kicked off a new decade of rock with fast, catchy, funny blasts of straight up punk rock. And live... let's just say, The Dwarves put on a fucking show.

These photos were all shot by Bob Kondrak in the late '90s and ran in 10 Things, they are as follows:

• Blood = The Buzzbombs, circa 1999, with the guitar playing showing his bloody fingers

• Butts = Joe of Portland band the Silverkings, circa 1999
  
  
• Pussy = Margaret of the Demolition Doll Rods, a band known for not wearing too much clothing when they play live, circa 1998

Fallout Records

Fallout Records and Skateboards opened on Olive Street in Seattle's Capitol Hill nieghborhood during the Summer of 1984. It was originally opened by Russ Battaglia and Bruce Pavitt, who left the business later and started Sub Pop Records. I remember going to Fallout the first time probably in 1985 to buy tickets to see Agent Orange at Washington Hall. I'd previously been to Time Travelers downtown on my forays into the city record shopping, but Fallout was way cooler, they seemed to have lots more local stuff, plus tons of zines and a wall full of skateboards. Russ bought the first ad in 10 Things when I started my zine, he was a total stand up guy that ran Seattle's best record store, along with his wife Janet, throughout the '80s and '90s. Wez Lundry, Tim Hayes, Paula Senn and a number of other great people from the music scene also worked the shop. Eventually in 1999 Tim Hayes bought out Russ, who went on to start a bakery. Tim ran the store until it closed in 2003. For more info about the history and photos from some of the great in-store band appearances, check out falloutrecords.com. Tim is now a co-owner of the excellent Ballard bar Tigertail (there's a link to the right for it). Fallout is the home of so many great memories and musical discoveries for me... it's sadly missed both as an entity and the community that built up around it.

The Rotten Apples

Seattle band The Rotten Apples have had a bit of revolving door in band members over the years, but their one constant is frontwoman Dejha Colantuono. Dejha's vocals are smoky and powerful, and the band's pop punk meets rock'n'roll is always catchy and fun. The lyrics can go from being tough and strong to hopelessly romantic and back again, often telling a story and painting a picture that really draws you in. Their debut LP "Tuff Enuff" came out in 2002 on Empty Records, it was re-released by Sonic Boom Records in 2004. The album is great and definitely worth picking up. In 2006 they had a single out on German label Trash 2001 Records. I'm not sure the current status of the band, but you can hear a few songs and get more info here. This photo was shot at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard in 2000.

The Degenerats

The Degenerats were around in the later half of the '90s, this shot is from around 1998 I think at Uncle Rocky's on Seattle's Capitol Hill. This band is not to be confused with the '70s punk band of the same name. The band released one self-titled 7" on Outcast Records and were also on the first 10 Things compilation, you can hear their song "Crash the Establishment" here. Larry now lives in Oakland and plays in Jesus Fucking Christ and singer Nils is no longer a pudgy red-faced punk kid, he sings for The Greatest Hits and plays bass in The Shy Ones.