Buy my records!

I'm going through a decluttering phase and trying to raise a little cash to pay off the end of the Tablet debt, so I'm starting a big vinyl sale that should continue over the next few months. If anyone is interested, check out all the stuff I have on Ebay right now.

Bruce Pavitt's wife selling Sub Pop Nirvana test pressings on Ebay!

I dunno, what do you think? Is it tacky for Sub Pop owner Bruce Pavitt to have his wife selling the test pressing for the new Nirvana Bleach reissue on Ebay? Before it's even come out? Seems like if you were the label owner, you could make say 100 test pressings and make a lot of money selling them... hmmm. Regardless, Jyoti Pavitt is doing just that right now on Ebay. Closing in 20 minutes and already past a grand... for new vinyl that we don't yet know is very rare.

Update: It actually is out, I just never got my pre-ordered copies! I emailed Sub Pop and it sounds like they misplaced a few of the pre-orders and are on it, shipping tomorrow (thanks Sam at Sub Pop!). The test pressings sold for $1,776. I think that's pretty steep for something that just came out and the buyer doesn't know how many were made of. Also considering someone has been trying to sell the test pressings of the original Euro release on Tupelo on white vinyl for 5K for a long time and no one is interested. But the price always goes higher when no one is sure what to peg the value at, when a couple more of the test pressings show up on Ebay, which is sure to happen, they will sell for a lot less.

Extreme Pencil Fighting 3!

I attended the third installment of Extreme Pencil Fighting at the Rendezvous this past weekend. If you haven't been following Seattle's hot pencil fighting action, there's more background information about it in this earlier article. This weekend's event was just as funny and fun, possibly even more fun for me because my ticket stub number was drawn and I was one of the audience participants this year. Let me tell you, I suck at pencil fighting. And I competed against crybaby Bill Bates who faked like I fouled him by hitting his hand each time. I ended up breaking my pencil trying to step it up before I fouled out. Oh well, good times. The Yellow Dragon, who went to the championships, but was defeated by reigning champ The Bird in the final round, was kind enough to share with me a few techniques to try next time, if I do have a next time.

The Bird taking on The Yellow Dragon in the final championship match of Extreme Pencil Fighting Championships 3:

The Bird victorious once again... can anybody stop him?

Gloryholes reunion show photos!

The Gloryholes put on a fantastic reunion show Saturday night at Funhouse, here's a little taste of the action:

97-shiki 2008 Asia tour movie!

My friend Kammy drums for a kinda arty punk band from Chicago called 97-shiki. In November 2008 the band went on a tour of Asia that included South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, not countries a lot of US bands usually hit on tour. They shot a lot of film footage during the two week tour and I'm sure spent countless hours editing it down to this 35 minute tour diary movie. It turned out awesome, check it out:

97-shiki Asia Tour 2008 - FINAL from 97-shiki on Vimeo.

William DuVall, once a punk, now a rock star

Does anyone else find it weird that the old guitar player from hardcore band Neon Christ now fronts Alice in Chains?


Neon Christ

Also Saturday night: The Love Me Nots and Extreme Pencil Fighting!

While I'm definitely going to Funhouse Saturday night for The Gloryholes, I'm also going to try to hit one or two other events, namely Studio 66 at the Lo-Fi and Extreme Pencil Fighting at the Rendezvous.

I've written about Studio 66 a few times before, it's the '60s mod-garage rock-psych-soul-Brit pop night at the Lo-Fi on Eastlake that Chris Porter and friends put on. A typical Studio 66 will include '60s movies, psychedelic lighting, girls in tall boots and mini skirts dancing on platforms, garage rock bands and music to go with the theme. A fair amount of attendees take it seriously and get snazzed up with their outfits as well. Saturday's event includes The Fucking Eagles and touring band The Love Me Knots, who are fun and sexy enough live to make this a must go to destination for me. The action starts at 9pm and the Lo-Fi is located at 429 Eastlake Ave East between the Mars Bar and Victory Lounge. Here are the Love Me Nots playing Studio 66 last year:



Also going down Saturday night is the return of the World Extreme Pencil Fighting League. This theater/comedy/pencil fighting competition night includes a host full of funny costumed characters ad libbing their way through a pencil fighting contest and was really damn funny when I went to it a few months ago. If you're looking for something to do before bands on Saturday or looking for something unique, definitely check it out. It's at the Rendezvous' Jewel Box Theater and doors are at 7pm. It will sell out, so I'd recommend making it there well before it starts at 8pm.

Gloryholes reunion show on Saturday!

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Fangtastic: Murder, Mayhem and Fang

California '80s punk band Fang recently came to town and played a series of shows. I caught them live at the Funhouse, where these photos were taken. It was a great energetic show... but I still had reservations seeing them and shooting them.

For those not in the know, Fang was a pretty decent punk rock band during the '80s. Their "hit song" in punk terms was "The Money Will Roll Right In," which locals Nirvana used to cover live a fair amount. They also did the song "I Want to Be on TV" which Green Day played live and recorded for a b-side. Fang's singer Sam McBride murdered his girlfriend and went to prison in 1989. Just six years later McBride was released, causing a fair amount of drama in the punk scene. McBride, probably trying to escape his past a little, changed his name to Sammytown, but he still reformed Fang. For the past decade the band has had a revolving door of members, a bunch of releases and re-releases, and toured.

There is a documentary called "Welcome to Sammytown" about the murder that played the Seattle International Film Festival a few years ago, somewhat surprisingly it's on YouTube and linked from Fang's website. You can watch it here. And read the comments, you can see the controversy about McBride, if he should be free now, how he got such a light sentence (people think he was a snitch), and read and hear all about his drug abuse and craziness. I'm writing all this to say by publishing these photos I don't support the singer or band, I didn't pay to get in the show, but still had fun rocking out to them. They put on a pretty damn good live show, even if they have a fucked up past. McBride doesn't shy away from what he did and proudly wears a California Department of Corrections patch on his jacket, which I find totally bizarre.

20th Anniversary of Nirvana's Bleach

This past June marked the 20th year anniversary of the release of Nirvana's "Bleach" album. Whether you were a fan of what got known soon after by the international press as grunge or not, this was still one heavy kick-ass album that captured at least in part what was going on in local music at the time. I personally love this album, it's really the only Nirvana album I ever listen too, they went too far in a pop direction and got soooooo much hype when "Nevermind" came out that I just stopped paying attention. But "Bleach" was the perfect era of Nirvana for me and it's when I saw them the most live. Today Sub Pop releases a 20th anniversary deluxe vinyl version of "Bleach." It's a double album, the first being the original album remastered and on white vinyl, just like the original first run. The second album features a live recording from a February 9th, 1990 show at the Pine Street Theatre in Portland. Sweet! I just ordered mine, if you're a fan, you should too! You can order it directly through Sub Pop here.