10 Things Zine

Spits Spits Spits!

2010-10-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

I used to say Seattle punk band The Spits never can surprise me because I expect the unexpected with them. Crazy costumes and crazy live shows are the norm. But this month look what they've done, The Spits have totally surprised me! First, Fat Wreck Chords announced they would be releasing a split single with The Spits and NOFX on November 23rd. A split with NOFX, really? And then this bizarre comic book story called "Haunted Fang Castle" and accompanying soundtrack, which was released by Scion featuring The Spits. It sounds like the synthesized voices of the Wood brothers telling the tale of a band of misfits on an adventure to save a princess, with interludes of weird psychedelic music and songs. It almost reminds me of that scene in "Dogs in Space" where Michael Hutchinson shoots heroin with his girlfriend and he tells her the story of the dragon that gets a stomach ache every time he eats people. The music isn't what you would expect from The Spits and the art is funny. The unicorn is a donkey with a horn, the wizard looks like Santa Claus with glasses, the robot is really an '80s arcade game, and most of the characters are wearing jeans vests. Check it out!

MC5 Mondays!

2010-07-26T16:14:00.000-07:00

I love this video of the MC5 from 1970 doing "American Ruse". It's political, jammin' proto punk and they're rockin' the 'fro:

They told you in school about freedom
But when you try to be free they never let ya
They said "it's easy , nothing to it"
And now the army's out to get ya
Sixty nine America in terminal stasis
The air's so thick it's like drowning in molasses
I'm sick and tired of paying these dues
And i'm finally getting hip to the American ruse

I learned to say the pledge of allegiance
Before they beat me bloody down at the station
They haven't got a word out of me since
I got a billion years probation

Sixty nine America in terminal stasis
The air's so thick it's like drowning in molasses
I'm sick and tired of paying these dues
And i'm sick to my guts of the American ruse
Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
Phony stars, oh no! crummy cars, oh no!
Cheap guitars, oh no! Joe's primitive bar... nah!

Rock'em back, Sonic !
The way they pull you over it's suspicious
Yeah, for something that just ain't your fault
If you complain they're gonna get vicious
Kick in the teeth and charge you with assault
Yeah, but i can see the chickens coming home to roost
Young people everywhere are gonna cook their goose
Lots of kids are working to get rid of these blues
cause everybody's sick of the American ruse

Well well well , take a look around !
Well well well , take a look around !
Well well well , take a look around !
Well well well , take a look around !
Well well well , take a look around !

Athiarchist crashing Mayhem Fest!

2010-07-22T16:17:00.000-07:00

Athiarchist is a two-piece hardcore thrash metal band from Eugene, Oregon. The band had a brilliant idea to build a mobile stage and sound set up in a truck and tour the country playing impromptu, free, and mobile shows. Brilliant! This video is of them crashing the Mayhem Festival down in Auburn (Washington) a few weeks ago:

Follow the band's adventures via their blog and videos as the take the DIY route crashing the Mayhem Fest tour across America: http://mobilestage.wordpress.com

The Final Days of the Lusty Lady

2010-07-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

Seattle's legendary strip/peak-a-boo booth club the Lusty Lady recently closed it's doors. I know quite a few people that have worked there over the years and quite a few more that patronized it... and all of Seattle laughed at their funny sign captions. The Swedish Legal System fantastically filmed a cover of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" inside the Lusty Lady during its final week, featuring some of the Lusty's dancers. Awesome and totally goofy!

Eric Davidson and his Garage Punk Book

2010-07-06T22:08:00.000-07:00

I was a total New Bomb Turks fan back in the day. When "Destroy Oh-Boy!" came out I fucking LOVED that album. I played it probably every day for two years. So much energy, so much fun. You know how certain bands just do it for you? They hit on all levels? That was, and still is, the New Bomb Turks for me. The perfect mix of punk rock energy, garage rock rawness, speed, and catchy songwriting.

When NBT came to Seattle on their first tour to support "Destroy Oh-Boy!" they played the Off Ramp. I lined up an interview with the band through their booking agent (or maybe even by writing the band directly) and we did a fun hour long interview in a van outside the club that belonged to that dude Reverend Rot'n'Hell that used to do Gee-Zus zine in Vancouver BC (who seems to have dropped off the face of the punk rock earth!). I saw the band a number of times live, including an awesome show in Vegas at the Las Vegas Shakedown. To cap off a wonderful Vegas Shakedown weekend, when Amy and I went to catch a cab to the airport, both hungover and thrilled after an awesome Vegas weekend, the line was totally huge. Crap, would we even make our plane?

Eric, lead singer of the New Bomb Turks, was just getting in a cab and waived us over to ride with him to the airport. Super nice guy! He supported my old punk rock fanzine 10 Things from the get go, he sent me letters of support and I always sent him copies and reviewed everything his band put out. It's those connections in the DIY underground punk scene that can make or break a band, but I always had the feeling Eric didn't give a shit about networking and all that stuff, he was just a cool cat that supported what he liked. And for that, I and a lot of other zinesters always supported the band. It was a great era when zines were at their peak, there was a strong punk rock scene, and bands could almost make a living on big indie labels if they toured a lot and put out new records fairly often.

When I heard Eric was writing a book on garage punk, I really should have gotten my shit together and sent in photos and info on Seattle bands. After all, I've got literally a couple totes filled with photos and have dedicated years of my life to writing about and documenting this stuff. But I had so much going on in the past year I just never did. Luckily Tim Hayes, ex-owner of Fallout Records, gave him a bunch of stories and info on Seattle. And Tim Hayes is the motherfucking man, he has excellent stories!

Last week Eric came to town to do a book reading and sell signed copies of "We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001." Apparently he did a record store gig earlier in the day at Easy Street. At night it was pizza/drink joint Snoose Junction 2 up off of Greenwood Ave at Holman. It's a weird location, but a cool place, I've gone for drinks there a few times and seen Tom Price's Desert Road Classic or whatever they are called band there before. Alot of the usual suspects were there from the garage punk scene, but surprisingly not a huge turn out, maybe 30 people. Eric was very cool. Somehow with all the people he's met over the years he either faked it really well or totally remembered me. Actually, when I introduced myself he immediately said he name checked 10 Things in the book as one of the regional zines covering garage punk during that time, which was awesome. Later we rapped about the first interview I did with the band in the van outside the OffRamp... so long ago at the beginning of his band's career, long before getting signed to Epitaph and headlining big tours. Very cool and fun reading, he's still a stand up guy.

I've just cracked open the book, I'll give a review in a few weeks when I've had a chance to read and digest it all.

Cathy (ex-Fizz zine), Jenny Hayes, and Meghan (ex-Empty Records) and I debated whether this cover photo was actually taken in the time frame of the book, it seems likely it was after 2001. Still a killer shot of The Spits though:

Half the time Eric told side stories and tidbits of info that wasn't in the book instead of actually reading from it, which made going totally worth it:

My signed copy of the book:

He also read some stories that didn't make it in the book, apparently the publisher made him cut the content in half. He read them off printouts... possibly a part two at some point?:

The Librarian

2010-07-06T21:54:00.000-07:00

Recently I entered the world of Extreme Pencil Fighting after winning as an audience member at their show at the Rendezvous. My character, The Librarian, came together pretty well for the first Extreme Pencil Fighting show at The Funhouse (although the mini pencils started falling off my pencil bullet belt).

I even got an awesome naughty librarian posse to back me up!

The announcers, comedian Owen Straw and Rat City Rollergirls/Bloodhag singer Jake Stratton:

Bill from Bat Country vs. the Ultimate Warrior

Cover night at the GRN STRP house!

2010-07-02T11:46:00.000-07:00

The GRN STRP House has hosted some great shows in Seattle and it sounds like soon will be coming to an end. This weekend will be a doozy of show with a bunch of bands playing as cover bands:

The November Group returns!

2010-07-02T11:43:00.001-07:00

Catheters Renion Show

2010-06-30T13:42:00.000-07:00

For the Sunset Tavern's 10 Anniversary party last Friday, The Catheters did a one off reunion show. It was sold out and totally awesome!

The Gits!

2010-05-27T17:56:00.000-07:00

This is some great old live footage of The Gits. I loved this band so much and saw them a ton live. To this day Mia's lyrics and voice put a tingle down my spine. But her murder was so tragic I also almost tear up when watching footage like this and listening to old Gits records...

The Barfeeders!

2010-05-27T12:51:00.000-07:00

San Francisco punk band The Barfeeders played Seattle a few weeks ago. I saw these guys a couple times quite a while ago, I think both shows were at Gibson's downtown. They have a great blend of snotty and pop punk, are fairly goofy and a lot of fun live.

Stiff Little Fingers

2010-05-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

Stiff Little Fingers weren't just one of the best punk bands of the '70s, they were one of the best bands to ever play punk rock. Their first two albums still rank among my top 25 records of all time.

2010 Northwest Pinball & Gameroom Show

2010-05-18T19:36:00.000-07:00

This is a must go to event if you live in Washington or Oregon. 300 pinball and arcade games on free play with admission, along with speakers, prizes (a Ms. Pacman and two pinball machines), seminars and more:

Go to nwpinballshow.com for more info and to buy discounted tickets!

Aspirin Feast video!

2010-05-18T19:12:00.000-07:00

In 1987 I started dating this girl I met at the UW who had gone to highschool in the Tri-Cities. Through her I ended up meeting dudes that went to her school that were in punk bands, namely Christ on a Crutch and later Aspirin Feast, fronted by Mike Pitz. Mike and most of the guys from COAC had gone to Hanford Highschool. Aspirin Feast had about a 2-3 year lifespan and I'll give them a proper right up later when I rip some of their vinyl into MP3s. They played blistering hardcore punk and often had fairly crazy live shows. Tim from Aspirin Feast (who was later in Chicken) just sent me this link to some old video footage just added to YouTube. More should follow. This is Aspirin Feast live from 1989 at the Kennewick VFW Hall,Tri Cities, Washington:

Captured by Robots!

2010-05-04T15:45:00.001-07:00

I can't believe I'd never seen Captured by Robots before live until a few weeks ago. Needless to say, it's one hell of a live show!

Bloodhag's last show!

2010-04-28T16:57:00.000-07:00

Stovokor

2010-04-27T12:05:00.000-07:00

Klingon death metal warriors Stovokor oddly hail from the very human sounding town of Portland, Oregon. But for the glory of Qo'nos, their sound is mighty!

The Glad Girls

2010-04-21T15:31:00.000-07:00

The Glad Girls are a Seattle band that travel down the gravel road between the land of country and the land of indie rock. One might call them Alt-Country, but that term leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, so I won't. It's the kinda mellow catchy music I love to listen to on a Sunday afternoon. The band features folks who done time in bands like The Young Sportsmen, The Riffbrokers, and Muzzle.

Band members: Heather on guitars and vocals, Wesley on bass and vocals and Ryan on drums.

You can catch a few of their songs and find out about upcoming shows here. The photos are from a show a few weeks ago at the Shanty Tavern.

Soundgarden

2010-04-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

I know some of my friends think I'm crazy, but I had the password and info on buying tickets to Soundgarden's "secret show" at the Showbox on Friday and didn't buy tickets. Don't get me wrong, there was a time when I liked Soundgarden. Their first 7", Screaming Life ep, and about half of their Ultramega OK album on SST are pretty good. But the transition from original sounding underground rock band to updated '70s arena rock was already well underway by the time they signed to a major label. And those 5+ minutes songs with Chris Cornell howling, especially live, didn't quite do it for me. Here's my deal, if the songs are over 4 minutes long and have a guy screaming like a chick, it better be metal. It works for bands like 3 Inches of Blood, but not so much for Soundgarden, who to me became more like Led Zeppelin... watered down, drawn out, hair farmin' arena rock. So I passed on buying tickets, especially at $35 each and then with all the Ticketmaster fees tacked on (probably ended up being over $45 each). Friends that went said it was awesome, but today, listening to the recording, I'm thinking it was more an awesome experience, than awesome musically. Chris Cornell's voice still seems kinda shot and not so good. He's always sounded way better in the studio than live, but the disparity between the two has become more vast over the years. It will be interesting to see how his voice holds up through the full Lolapalooza tour. Oh, if you want to hear Friday's show, a live recording is here.

Android Hero pix from last week!

2010-04-19T16:35:00.000-07:00

I've written about Android Hero before here, I just saw them again on Thursday. Excellent band worthy of checking out of you like heavy rock crossed with punk. They definitely have some of the heavy crunchiness of old Am Rep bands (I've been listening a lot of Helmet recently):

The Barfeeders and Lopez return to Seattle!

2010-04-14T13:47:00.000-07:00

Great, almost Gibson's-worthy lineup (I think I saw The Barfeeders and Lopez actually play together at Gibson's) at Funhouse!

Irish Punk

2010-03-18T14:04:00.000-07:00

When I walked into Trader Joe's yesterday and heard them playing The Pogues for St. Patrick's Day, it made me think I really ought to do a post about Irish punk. I love The Pogues, I grew up in a big Irish-American Catholic family with my dad playing Irish drinking records by people like The Clancy Brothers. The Pogues always seemed like the perfect blend of that music and punk rock to me. But there is a lot more out there. Most notably Stiff Little Fingers, who's first two albums are in my top 20 favorite records of all time. There also is a great bootleg Killed By Death album I picked up with a nice sampling of '70s era Irish punk called "Bloodstains Across Northern Ireland." A copy is stashed here if you want to download it. The bands and track listings are:

Rudi-Time to Be Proud
Ruefrex-The Perfect Crime
Midnite Cruiser-Rich Bitch
Electro-Motive Force-Conscious, Wanted
Ex-Producers-The System is Here
Androids-Bondage in Belfast
Detonators-Cruisin'
Ex-Producers-Behind the Door
Pretty Boy Floyd & The Gems-Sharon
Doubt-Fingers, Lookaway
Defects-Guilty Conscience
Xdreamysts-The Heat is On
Protex-I Wonder Why
Victim-The Teen Age

It's definitely worth your time to download it and dig deeper into Irish punk!

Legendary Ave Rat Chris Harvey, AKA Slats, dies

2010-03-16T10:55:00.000-07:00

This is a shortened edited intro to providing the Silly Killers songs. Apparently what I thought was a fairly honest description people thought was inaccurate factually. I felt the accounts in The Stranger were kinda glossing over a major part of Slats life, but I do realize how maybe now is not the time to talk about it. Apologies to anyone I offended.

The first time I went to The Ave (also known as Seattle's University Way) was in 1984 on a road trip from suburbia in search of the famed record store Cellophane Square. I parked my parent's big ass Ford Country Squire green station wagon with some difficulty blocks away and headed over to do some record shopping. This was when I first laid eyes on a guy I'd later find out was named Slats. He was possibly the skinniest guy I've ever seen, in super pegged black pants, with '80s metal hair leaping out from under a big black hat with a bandanna on it. He seemed stuck right between punk rocker and '80s hair metal in a pretty awesome way. Over the next couple years of highschool, as I started hitting Seattle more often for shows and to shop on The Ave and Broadway, I kept seeing the guy around everywhere.

I moved to the U-District in 1986, where Slats was a fixture daily, usually hanging out with a motley crew of folks by Campus Food Mart, just down from the Post Office. For us younger folks, it was an area we could go to score some drugs, talk someone into buying booze for us, and find out about shows (the late '80s was the era of Washington Hall, Community World Theater in Tacoma, and The Underground on the Ave). Slats was already legendary for his look and hanging out on the Ave for years.

Slats, whose real name was Chris Harvey, had a major claim to fame. He had been in a punk band called The Silly Killers with Duff McKagan of Guns'n'Roses. The Silly Killers put out one 7" in 1982 that is pretty collectible in KBD circles today after being featured on a Killed By Death compilation, where a lot of people rediscovered the band. Gas Huffer covered their song "Knife Manual" on an Empty Records split with Mudhoney (who covered "Stupid Asshole" by the Angry Samoans), that's how I first heard the song. Here are the songs from the one and only Silly Killers 7" (MP3's courtesy of the excellent Killed By Death Records blog):

Great stuff! This is a photo of Slats with Blowfly live on stage at Funhouse from a year or two ago:

Slats was a fixture in the punk rock scene... same tight pants, same teased hair, same style of hat... FOR 30 YEARS. It was impressive the stayin' power the guy had. He was first a U-District icon, then later a Capitol Hill icon. Sadly, Chris passed away a few days ago, another Seattle fixture has disappeared.

Here's a great video slideshow of The Silly Killers circa 1982 with a then young Slats on guitar:

That new Runaways movie!

2010-03-10T11:04:00.000-08:00

I'm in the minority in that I both liked "Sid and Nancy" and "What We Do is Secret," I have no problem with Hollywood taking some liberties with a true punk story to make a film more entertaining. So I'm kinda excited about "The Runaways," and here's the first peek. It's a full length video to a re-done "Cherry Bomb." I have to say I like the original's energy better and hope the video doesn't give too much of the movie away... but this is still pretty awesome:

Dakota Fanning featuring Kristen Stewart - New Music - More Music Videos

New Jesse Bernstein documentary!

2010-03-09T11:04:00.000-08:00

"I Am Secretly An Important Man" is a new documentary film, currently in post-production, about the life of Steven J. Bernstein (AKA Jesse Bernstein). During the '80s and early '90s Bernstein wrote the kind of poetry I don't hate, which is rare. It was angry, dirty, cynical, funny, and often filled with themes about the underbelly of society. I first heard him in 1988 reading his poem "Come Out Tonight" on The Sub Pop 200 compilation and was immediately transfixed, I think I put it on every mixed tape I made that year. Sub Pop went on to release a pile of his albums, most notably "Prison" in 1992. Bernstein also appeared in the locally brewed 1990 movie Shredder Orpheus, doing the voice-over and starring as a crippled vet that lived on the docs and got around town wheeling himself by his hands while propped on a skateboard. In the larger picture, he was one of Seattle's most celebrated spoken word artists. He also lived a troubled life, plagued by drug problems, alcoholism and depression, he killed himself in October of 1991. Get this, he didn't just do it the easy way, he was alone in a cabin in the most Northern corner of the state, where he stabbed himself in the stomach repeatedly until he bled out. Brutal, yet somehow not that unexpected, given what kind of a man he was.

Watch the trailer for the documentary here!

The Cramps Totally Destroy Seattle!

2010-03-08T15:07:00.000-08:00

This album cover is of a pretty rare bootleg recording of pyschobilly/rockabilly/dirty punks The Cramps playing live in Seattle at Astor Park May 2nd, 1982. Astor Park was Seattle's early '80s rock club where bands that could draw a good-sized crowd, but not quite enough to play The Paramount would play. U2 played their first Seattle show here in 1980. Astor Park pre-dated me going to shows, but everyone from that era seems to recall it was a bar/club with crappy bathrooms, overpriced drinks, and often great shows. Local bands like The Cowboys, The Heats, Hi-Fi, The Allies and The Blackouts seemed to play there fairly often.

Anyway, back to The Cramps bootleg, it's a great live soundboard recording. The setlist is: Domino, Human Fly, Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White, I'm Five Years Ahead Of My Time, Primitive, Goo Goo Muck, Reality (Beautiful Gardens), TV Set, Sunglasses After Dark, Garbage Man and Psychotic Reaction. You can download a copy of it here.

Jay Reatard died of a cocaine overdose

2010-02-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

The autopsy report for Jay Reatard has been released, he died of a coke overdose and the alcohol in his system probably helped it along:

Spin Article

While I'm sure this won't change anything in the local rock scene, it would be nice if people clued into the fact that doing a bunch of coke can kill you. Maybe it's not such a cool drug after all.

Mea Culpa

2010-01-26T13:08:00.000-08:00

Mea Culpa was a fun, political punk band from Seattle that played around town quite a bit in the first half of the last decade. The band formed in June of 2000 and played it's first show the following November. In the years after they played throughout the Northwest and had one larger US tour, which was plagued with problems and I think essentially broke up the band. I remember we were in Vegas when they were supposed to play the Double-Down Saloon, so Amy, Carl and I went over to support a hometown band. They didn't show, then called and were broken down somewhere in the desert, so we bailed back to the strip and gambling with our friends. I guess they ended up hitting town and playing the stage at like 4am... at least they got to play, Vegas goes all night.

Mea Culpa released both a single and an LP on local label Empty, both of which are now out of print. They had a catchy blend of street punk and more aggressive '80s punk and were likened to early Clash, Billy Bragg, and early Social Distortion with a little Dead Kennedys thrown in. I really dig their one and only LP. The band broke up in August of 2004. Today Bill plays in Bat Country and Matt is in the Flux Capacitors and Android Hero.

Band members: Bill Bullock on guitar and vocals, Terry Cook on bass, David Byers on guitar and vocals, and Matt McGillivray on drums (Johnny Koubourlis also drummed).

Discography:
2002 "Corporate Nation" (Empty Records US)
2003 "They Put You In A Mask" (Empty Records US)

A few songs (MP3s):
Waiting for America
Good Cop Bad Cop
Corporate Nation

Lyrics to "Corporate Nation"
Commercialized society, dehumanizing all I see
Welcome to the New American Dream
Culture's a commodity, if it can't be sold it's not worth a thing
Fattened for the kill, no one hears the screams
There are police on every corner, their badges say "Place Your Ad Here"
I turned on the news to try and get the facts
And the only headline that I saw said, "Nothing To See Here."
They sell us freedom with our Coke, but our democracy's a joke
They've got the information
And while we buy into the sham, they're busy tying all our hands
Here in our Corporate Nation
They hook us young like a dealer with a lie to sell
Load us up with junk so we won't see the hell
They're leading us, they're feeding us to
They own the place you work and the shows you see,
Where you lay your head while they define your dreams
It's a free market for them, Stalinism to you
And all the public schools get privatized
But we are told to have no fear
But when Nike owns your high school don't be too surprised
To see sections of the history book on labor disappear
They're gonna teach our children well, what to buy and how to sell
They've got the information
Instead of swastikas, a swoosh, but it's the same old Hitler Youth
Here in our Corporate Nation
Life's more than a transaction for someone to exploit
And unless we take some action, we're gonna end up with no choice
Cultural Monopoly, Undermined Democracy
Welcome to the New American Dream
Our government's been bought and sold so many times we don't even know
Who's holding the reigns in the land of the free
But they keep saying my vote matters
And so I stepped into the booth
But the only thing I got to really choose between
Was the color of their power ties and the puppets in their suits
And I look behind the mask and they've twisted every fact
They've got the information
And I tear away the veil and I see we're all for sale
Here in our corporate nation

Not My Son

2010-01-22T10:33:00.000-08:00

My friend Carol used to front an pretty awesome punk band back in the '90s called Not My Son. Here's a video of them that someone posted to YouTube (something I need to do with a bunch of band footage I still have on 8mm):

Tonight in Seatown... Anti-Flag

2010-01-20T10:02:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of photo of Anti-Flag playing their first show in Seattle at the old Lake Union Pub from around 1995, just before their first album "Die For the Government" was released. 10 Things tie-in, drummer Pat Thetic's longtime girlfriend Wandi wrote for 10 Things for most of it's existence. Over the years Anti-Flag has toured here a ton of times, released 9 full-length albums, signed with a major (RCA) then left it for an indie label again, and toured the world. They've also remained politically active their entire career. Their music has always blended politics, pop punk and '70s punk in a way that's catchy and fun, while spreading a message. Tonight Anti-Flag plays at Seattle's El Corazon, along with guyliner sporting Aiden, Cancer Bats, Broadway Calls, and Trash Talk. The Dreadful Children will be playing the free afterparty in the lounge.

(El Corazón) While all of these bands reside under the broad umbrella of "punk," it's still a really odd lineup. Do fans of Trash Talk's nihilistic, Infest-inspired tantrums really want to sit through Anti-Flag's Anglophilic punk revival? Will the beards-beers-and-BO hardcore crowd really want to stick around after the Cancer Bats' set to see a bunch of teenagers dressed up like Tim Burton characters fawning for the emo power-balladry of Aiden? And do any of the aforementioned folks want to see Broadway Calls' clean-cut pop punk? Strangely, this tour is titled "The Economy Sucks, Let's Party Tour." If you can somehow appreciate the intended crossover appeal within this eclectic bill, you're in luck. Otherwise, paying $16 to see one band during a recession ain't much of a party. BRIAN COOK

Tonight in Seatown... Success!

2010-01-14T13:18:00.001-08:00

I think it's safe to say it's a pretty rare when El Corazon hosts an all local punk show and the one tonight looks pretty damn awesome. Headliners Success! play a catchy anthemy type of melodic punk with gruff vocals that invokes the sound of bands like Rancid, Swingin' Utters and Strawman (and actually a lot of old Allied Records bands), but with their own twist. Check out Succcess! here. Random Orbits play fast, catchy songs, halfway between '90s East Bay melodic punk and Fat Wreck Chords pop punk, with a little hardcore speed thrown in, they remind me a little of Good Riddance. Totally the type of songs you find yourself humming under your breath a day or two after listening to them. Heroes Among Thieves have excellent crunchy guitars, scream along choruses that no doubt brings lots of fist pumping. Catchy pop punkers Smokejumper I've written about a few times before, fans of Seattle pop punk bands of yore like Sicko and Red Rocket check out their songs online. A great showcase of the of the best young bands playing Seattle right now.

Jay Reatard found dead

2010-01-13T13:51:00.001-08:00

How sad, Pitchfork, and I'm sure tons of other websites, are reporting Jay Reatard is dead:

Very, very sad news: It has been confirmed that Jay Reatard has died. He was 29 years old. More details are forthcoming.

Goner Records writes, "It is with great sadness that we report the passing of our good friend Jay Reatard. Jay died in his sleep last night. We will pass along information about funeral arrangements when they are made public." The Memphis Commerical Appeal reports that Reatard was found in his home at 3:30 am this morning.

Reatard, born Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., was a staple of the Memphis garage rock scene for years before bursting on the national scene with 2006's Blood Visions and subsequently signing to Matador. His most recent album, Watch Me Fall, came out last year.

A statement from Matador reads, "Jay was as full of life as anyone we've ever met, and responsible for so many memorable moments as a person and artist. We’re honored to have known and worked with him, and we will miss him terribly."

The new Jello Biafra album, free!

2009-12-22T10:11:00.000-08:00

The new Jellow Biafra album is available free to download from Amazon. And it's surprisingly heavy/crunchy punk with the same pissed off vocals and lyrics you'd expect from Biafra, that guy hasn't slowed down at all in his 40s: Download from Amazon for free here.

It's a Fucked Up Christmas!

2009-12-21T14:04:00.000-08:00

Fucked Up reworked "Do The Know It's Christmas?" and recorded it as a benefit, along with Andrew W.K., Bob Mould, David Cross, Ezra Koenig, GZA, Kevin Drew, Kyp Malone, Tegan and Sara, and Yo La Tengo. It's so much better not having Bono wailing on it...

Dragstrip Riot

2009-12-15T12:34:00.000-08:00

"Who are these guys? They're awesome!" a friend recently said during a Dragstrip Riot set. And he was totally right, they are indeed an awesome band. Dragstrip Riot have been around since 2001 blasting out a mix of punk, rockabilly and hard driven rock'n'roll with songs about drivin', drinkin', fightin' and fuckin'. You can almost smell the cigarettes, gasoline and cheap beer as these boys step on stage.

Dragstrip Riot will be playing the 5th Annual Punk Kristmas this Saturday night (December 19th) at The Funhouse in Seattle. Also on the bill are The Them, Sledgeback, The Load Levelers and Neutralboy.

O Pioneers, Damage Done & Requin 2night at Galway Arms

2009-12-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

This is easily the best show going on tonight in Seattle:

Brother James!

2009-12-08T19:24:00.000-08:00

James Burdyshaw was already an established band guy by the time I got into the music scene in Seattle. He fronted 64 Spiders, who had one 7" out on Daniel House's C/Z Records, as well as two cuts on the legendary late '80s Seattle underground rock compilation "Another Phyrric Victory." He also was in somewhat legendary (in the late '80s Seattle scene) Catt Butt, Yummy, awesome garage punk band The Sinister Six, and he most recently fronted The Bug Nasties. James also has done time on my side of the music community, writing music reviews for both my old mag Tablet and Dawn Anderson's Backfire. Most importantly, he's just one fucking nice guy, he always stops and says hi when he runs into you and often has a great story or two to tell.

These days James is getting together various friends and doing a project he's calling Brother James and The Deciples of Junk. And he's also DJing old rock'n'roll and soul in various venues around town. The shot above of DJ Brother James was when he was spinning at the one year anniversary party for Gainsbourg in Greenwood. Within minute of when James started spinnin', the floor was crowded with people dancin' to the old soul singles he was throwing down. He spins at Studio 66 at the Lo Fi and other nights around town too, check his action out!

The Damage Done at Funhouse last Friday!

2009-12-08T19:18:00.000-08:00

Chest tattoos, barefoot singers, fingers pointing in the air, and pure emotional driven melodic hardcore. Each and every time, The Damage Done bring it live. Remember the first time you heard, or better yet saw live, a band like Against Me? That kinda energy and emotion that the band has and the crowd feeds off? Yep, these guys have it, even at the smallest show they win their audience over and they have an every growing group of fans. Seriously one of Seattle's best punk bands these days, don't sleep on these guys!

I'm DJing a great show at Funhouse tonight!

2009-12-03T15:59:00.000-08:00

Sadly another great uber-fan and local music supporter died recently before Bob Kondrak. Ben Russell was a kid I was just getting to know, having just hung out talking and drinking with him at a few shows, house parties and Shorty's during this past year. I call Ben and uber-fan because he went out to shows and events almost every night of the week, his support for local music was practically unparalleled. His main haunt was Funhouse, if you've been to a show there in the past month you may have seen the memorial pictorial on one of the tables there. Besides Funhouse I'd see him at house shows, other clubs, at the Pencil Fighting Championships, he came to my photo show opening... the guy was just fantastic at supporting local music and arts events. He died at home pretty suddenly due to complications with his diabetes, taking everyone by surprise. Tonight's show at Funhouse isn't meant to be a sad event though, it's supposed to be a celebration of Ben's life. Most of the bands playing were either friends with him or he was big fans of, Bobcat and I will be DJing, and the money raised at the door will go to his parents to offset their funeral costs.

Not only is it a good cause, all these bands rock. Dragstrip Riot always put on a great show, they'll be doing it acoustically tomorrow night. Smokejumper is an up-and-coming pop punk band featuring many ex-members of the band Dateless. And The Damage Done is what I consider one of the best melodic punk bands in Seattle right now. They will also be collecting blanket and coat donations for the homeless at this show.

Some interesting info on my favorite Bob Kondrak photo

2009-12-03T14:29:00.000-08:00

A bunch of people have been coming out of the woodwork the past few days on garage rock forums and Facebook sharing their stories about Kondrak, which is excellent. One woman that knew Bob back in the '70s punk scene gave me some info on that punk kid photo I love:

"In your bottom & favorite BK photo is Nina who was only about 10 years old. I often helped her get home or to someone's house after shows at the Bird, etc. I really wonder what happened to her. I have photos of her dancing on stage with the Boomtown Rats looking so happy. Often she didn't look that happy."

Bob Kondrak's funeral service details

2009-12-02T10:41:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of The Buzzbombs that Bob took back in 1999:

I heard back from Bob's son Kuri, the funeral service is open to the public and I'd like to encourage anyone that had a connection with Bob through the music scene to attend. Here are the details:

Bob Kondrak's Memorial Service
2pm on December 12, 2009
At Evergreen Washelli, 11111 Aurora Ave. North

And who knew, in these fancy internet times you can watch a memorial service online. I know Bob had a lot of friends from the Goner, Terminal Boredom and Banana Truffle (old school Usenet) forums where he went by tet68, Bongo White or his real name. If you're not in Seattle, you may want to watch online, here are the details:

WHEN: Live Event Saturday, December 12 2009, 05:00 pm EST

IMPORTANT Please Note: This is Eastern Time (New York Time) please adjust your schedule to be available at the appropriate time.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE EVENT:
http://RobertJamesKondrak2343.washelli.ezwebcast.com/login/user/user610024/password/24772292fc8e28bb766bf0b0c90c704e

You can upload photos, videos and comments by accessing the event link.
For later viewing of the event, please access the link approximately
24 hours after the event.

The location ends up having a punk rock photo tie in, which is perfect for Kondrak. I'm pretty sure the Evergreen Washelli cemetery was featured in the photo on the cover of the early punk rock single by Solger:

Punk photographer Bob Kondrak passes away

2009-12-01T11:02:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of Bob Kondrak with Nobunny from Nobunny's MySpace page.

In the mid-'90s right when my old zine 10 Things was in it's hey day, I was contacted by a local guy named Bob Kondrak about running some of his photos in the zine. He loved garage rock and was taking pictures at a lot of the shows I was going to, although I had never met him. So we met up for beers and for Bob to give me some photos and I was surprised to find a big, gray haired, bearded dude that was probably already in his mid-fifties. As it turned out, Bob told me he had been working in a reggae store in the '70s when punk broke and he totally got into it (his reggae vinyl collection is supposed to be 7,000 records strong). He'd been shooting punk bands since around 1978 and had piles of photos beyond the garage punk stuff he was just handing me. At the time he was a bit of a loaner, working as a night janitor at the University of Washington, going to punk and garage shows, and shooting a lot of photos. He didn't seem to have any close friends, but told me about his son, Kuri, who was a DJ or something and was into electronic music, "Totally the opposite of the music his old man likes," he said. I had a feeling at the time he was first giving me photos to publish that he'd never really shared his band photography with anyone. He certainly wasn't published anywhere and hadn't yet made a name for himself even in punk circles. He was just finally in his 50s sharing what was already his life's work to the world for the first time.

Over the years Bob began writing for 10 Things too, covering mostly the garage punk scene in his column "Blow it out your ass!" He also began contributing to Horizontal Action and a few other zines, as well as posting to many of the online forums for fans of garage punk. Bob was never a classy guy, he rubbed a few people the wrong way with some creepy comments and a tendency to shoot a lot of girls in garage bands, he was definitely a fan of the boobs. And heck, the last time I saw him at a show at Funhouse a few months ago, he called my wife a MILF. But that was part of his character, it went along with a great sense of humor, excellent stories about old punk shows, and his great live band photography.

I didn't talk to Bob all that often in recent years. Maybe I ran into him at a show at Funhouse, The Monkey or The Sunset a couple times a year. More recently we had been exchanging some emails after I asked if I could scan and run some of his old photos here on the blog. And I was really trying to get him to sell me some larger prints of my few favorite photos of his too, my last email from him said, "I have been kinda lazy lately in the darkroom, but I'll make a note on my "do" list for the two you mention below. I'll let you know when those are ready and we can meet and discuss price." I never heard back from him.

I heard this morning that Bob Kondrak passed away on Friday after a long struggle with a rare blood disease. I didn't even know he was sick, he said nothing to me about it the last few times I saw him. So it's completely out of the blue that Kondrak has passed away and I'm feeling a little numb about it right now. I'm sure someone out there can write a better obituary, this is more just about my memories of Bob. While Bob Kondrak isn't a household name even in the local punk community, he was fairly legendary in the underground garage punk scene for years. Cheers old creepy man! You were a loyal contributor to 10 Things over the years, were damn funny, and took some wonderful photos that I really hope more of can surface and be published.

Here are a few of my favorite Bob Kondrak photos I ran in 10 Things:

This is a fantastic picture of The Clash in their heyday, Bob shot it at the Paramount Theater in Seattle. I tracked down the show date, October 15th, 1979, I would have loved to see The Clash back then!

This is a classic Kondrak garage girl shot. It's Margaret from the Demolition Doll Rods, from 1998.

This final photo below is my favorite Bob Kondrak photo, I love everything about it. It was shot probably in early 1979 ("Armed Forces" came out January 5th, 1979). I love everything from the DIY cut-up and drawn on punk shirt, the spiky hair, the curious but cynical look, the androgyny (is it a girl or a boy?)... to music posters on the wall, like the Elvis Costello poster with a Lewd poster slapped on top of it. It's almost like Bob captured a moment of calm, surrounded by punk chaos, probably back stage at some club or in the corner of the living room of an early punk house. He perfectly captured a moment in time, like all great photographers seem able to do.

This photo, more than any other, makes me wonder how many other cool photos that capture this era are out there lurking in people's photo albums that really ought to be scanned in and shared. Heck, it makes me wonder how many other great photos Bob Kondrak shot that have yet to be shared with the world. Hopefully his son or a friend has access to his negatives and prints and can make something happen with them. Bob's legacy needs to live on through his photography.

Buy my records!

2009-11-24T11:32:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-19T16:27:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-10T12:11:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-09T21:25:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-08T12:30:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-06T09:30:00.000-08:00

Not to discount the other bands on this bill or that it's a release party for the soundtrack to the rollerderby movie "Blood on the Flat Track," BUT... The Gloryholes are having a reunion show! The Gloryholes were one of my favorite garage-noise-punk-rock bands of the first half of this decade and I can't wait to see them live again.

The Gloryholes were formed by Doug White and Ward Reeder from the garage punk band the Sinister Six after that band broke up. Joining the them were two women, Shelly Corwin (now in The Heels) on guitar and Melanie Belanger (now in The Sweet Spots) on bass, and the band was rounded out with Chris Kenan on guitar as well (Chris is also in The Sweet Spots). They released full length albums on Empty and Dirtnap and had a slew of singles and compilation cuts, but what they are most remembered for is probably their live show. If you've seen Doug in any of his past bands (The Feltchtones, Sinister Six and currently Le Shat Noir) you know the score, if not, lets just say he's one of the most energetic live singers you'll ever see. He jumps all over the place, rolls on the ground, climbs across bars and tables and has even sung a song from the toilet at Funhouse. The guy is a maniac on stage, and backed by the rest of The Gloryholes, it was probably his most rockin' band. Seriously, they put on one hell of a show, don't miss their action Saturday night at Funhouse. Here's a photo of the band by Amy from a few years ago:

Fangtastic: Murder, Mayhem and Fang

2009-11-04T19:59:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-03T11:27:00.000-08:00

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.

GG Allin Bobblehead? Order yours today!

2009-10-30T12:55:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure just what to think about these punk rock bobbleheads... I think bobbleheads are ridiculous and have never been much of an adult toy collector like many of my friends. A company called Aggronautix has been doing limited runs of punk rock musicians, most of the controversial kind. The Dwarves, Tesco Vee, Milo from The Descendents and GG Allin. Weird. Find out more about it here.

Chuck Biscuits death report was a hoax!

2009-10-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

Interesting, and totally an indication of how easy it is to quickly spread false news as the truth in the Internet age. The story of Chuck Biscuits' death this weekend that spread throughout punk websites, forums and social networking communities was a hoax. Sounds like it was six months in the making fooling the blogger who made the announcement, but Chuck's friends and family have declared it to be totally false, he's actually living here in Seattle as somewhat of a recluse from the punk rock scene these days. Read more about it here. Lame that people joke about this stuff, but yay for Chuck Biscuits still being alive!

This seems like a great time to go back and listen to Chuck's contributions to the world of music. When I was in highschool, riding around in my friend Kathy's car, we totally jammed all the time to the Repo Man soundtrack (he plays on the Circle Jerk track). When I finally really dove into punk around 1986, DOA was a fucking staple, I played Hardcore '81 all the time and would go see the band all the time at places like the OK Hotel and The OffRamp. The first two Danzig albums ruled (he played on the first four), he also spent time The Weirdos who's first two 7"s and LP are insanely awesome if you like that '70s punk sound that bands like The Briefs obviously dug heavily. The Circle Jerks and Social Distortion? These are essential punk rock bands. Go crank some music Biscuits had a part in and watch those YouTube videos I posted earlier. See and hear what great contributions this man has made to not only punk rock, but the greater body of rock'n'roll.

Chuck Biscuits, Punk's Most Famous Drummer, Passes Away

2009-10-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: See my latest post, this was a hoax.

Probably the most famous drummer in the punk rock scene, Chuck Biscuits, died October 24th after a long struggle with cancer.

Biscuits began his lengthy drumming career here in the Northwest playing in BC's DOA in the band's early years up through the release of "Hardcore '81." When he left for California, his brother Ken "Dimwit" Montgomery took over duties on skins for DOA. In 1982, Biscuits joined Black Flag and toured with them for half a year, but the only recorded material he's on is bootlegged live shows. He played in The Circle Jerks (he played with them on the "Repo Man" soundtrack), The Weirdos and a few other bands for the following years before landing a permanent gig in Danzig in 1987. Biscuits played in Danzig until 1994, recording on the first four albums, numerous singles, and going on tons of tours. During that time he also laid down some drum track for Run DMC and played in Samhain. In the late '90s he joined and toured with Social Distortion on drums, until 1999 when he quit Social D and drumming in the punk rock scene altogether.

Just to recap, Chuck Biscuits drummed for DOA, Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, Danzig, The Weirdos, Samhain, Run DMC and Social Distortion. Put that resume up against any other punk rock drummer out there. During the past few years Biscuits has been fighting a battle with throat cancer, he passed away on Saturday at the young age of 44. Rest in piece Chuck, you provided a valuable part to the soundtrack of my life.

Here's Biscuits on stage with Danzig in his prime live in 1988:

And here he is playing in The Circle Jerks in late '83 or early '84 (the date on the video is wrong, he was no longer in the band by 1985). Watch and listen to how hard and fast he hits!

Jesus Lizard show review

2009-10-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

I started off Friday night meeting up with friends at hipster hole the Cha Cha. I make fun of the Cha Cha, but I actually like drinking there, it's dark and has a zillion things to look at (beyond people watching). It was actually a bit of an older less hipster crowd that night, probably because other folks were getting their drink on pre-Jesus Lizard there as well. When my friends I were primed and ready we headed over Neumos. We just missed Black Elk, who I think are good, but nothing special. I ran into Suze right off the bat that used to shoot photos for 10 Things (and Flipside) back in the day. She'd flown in from LA for the show because she thought the LA show was so awesome, plus they wouldn't let photographers bring in real cameras there, and you could at Neumos. The club was full, but not at capacity, which was actually really nice. I'm sure the $25 ticket price (really $32 if you bought them at Rudy's like I did or $36 online) was a deterrent for a lot of people, people on the NW Punk Board mentioned they just couldn't afford it.

Within the first 10 seconds of the first song, David Yow was stage diving into the crowd. Awesome. It was a sign of things to come, as the band cranked through material, Yow spend plenty of time out in the crowd, either bouncing off the people at the front of the stage as they propped him up or riding around crowd surfing above the audience. Hell, he crowd surfed all the way from the stage to the back of the venue, a good 300 feet, then back to the stage while somehow still singing into the mic.

There's this great dichotomy in the Jesus Lizard with a very wild, loose performance by Yow that borders on totally out of control and the rest of the band, who plays really tight precise notes and rhythms and seemingly never miss a beat. I think some people don't get that about the Jesus Lizard, because even at 49, Yow is a complete wildman on stage. And people get the impression the whole band is pretty loose--one of my friends that had never seen them before said he was surprised how loose they were after the show. But they aren't really, while Yow's larger-than-life performance is loose, the rest of the band is fucking tight. I read somewhere that Steve Albini said in recording them that they were one of the tightest bands he'd ever worked with.

Anyway, The Jesus Lizard were fucking on it Friday night. It's like they never signed with Capitol Records in 1995 and put out those mediocre records and had the turmoil that led to their break up on 1999. It was as if we were teleported back to The Jesus Lizard of the early 1990s, only the gray hair gave away the 15 years time that had passed. The crowd ate it up, there was a large pit of sweaty bodies pounding against each other the whole show, stopping to reach up their arms to carry and support Yow occasionally as he tumbled over their heads. Great show!

Jesus Lizard last night!

2009-10-24T10:59:00.002-07:00

It's all politics!

2009-10-23T14:42:00.001-07:00

For the most part I'm pretty disappointed by the candidates in Seattle's upcoming elections. Mike McGinn, the supposed progressive candidate for Mayor, has flip flopped on his tunnel stance and promises a lot he can't deliver to the music and arts communities, I'm pretty sure he'll say about anything to get elected at this point. Plus he's way more big government than I am, I think inviting a lot of government involvement in music and the arts always backfires with added bureaucracy and regulation. I'm still voting for him, but it's one of those lesser of two evils situations.

Same with the city council elections, I really wish we had better options. Nick Licata, who was once an advocate for term limits, has been in office way too long. Although his opposition, Jessie Israel, has the energy and enthusiasm Licata totally lacks, she's too green around the gills. I'm totally over Richard Conlin as well. And Dow Constantine totally wastes our money, but it's not like I can vote for Susan Hutchinson, she's anti a woman's right to choose. I'm still voting for all of the progressive/liberal people (well, I voted for Isreal as a protest vote since I know Licata will win), but only because there aren't worthy enough candidates to unseat them. Next time I guess, we definitely need some changes in Seattle's leadership, especially on the city council.

Really, the issues I care about that are on the ballot are the referendums and voting City Attorney Tom Carr out of office. Tom Carr has been a constant thorn in the side of music fans, clubs, bands and concert promoters and it's time to get rid of this guy. Please please please vote for Pete Holmes for City Attorney if you care at all about Seattle's music community. There will be a little protest against Carr tonight at most of the clubs around town. And when you have punk clubs, big clubs, neighborhood bars and big corporate clubs like the AEG-owned Showbox uniting on one issue, you know it's serious to the music community. Here's the press release about tonight's haps:

THE NIGHT THE MUSIC DIED: SEATTLE NIGHTLIFE TO OBSERVE A "MINUTE OF SILENCE" IN FEAR OF TOM CARR'S RE-ELECTION

Seattle nightlife establishments from throughout the City are scared of what will happen if Tom Carr is re-elected on November 3. How scared? In an effort to raise awareness of City Attorney Tom Carr's anti-nightlife policies — and to emphasize the importance of a safe and vibrant nightlife — bar, live music venue and nightclub owners will observe a "minute of silence" on Friday, October 23, 2009, at 11:30 PM.

For one minute, nightlife as we know it will cease to exist in Seattle. Participating establishments will use a portion of this minute to inform their patrons of Carr's anti-nightlife policies and the importance of electing his opponent Pete Holmes. Carr, a longstanding opponent of the nightlife industry and the mastermind behind Operation Sobering Thought — a botched "sting" operation that cost the taxpayers over $50,000 and resulted in zero convictions — has continued his efforts to hamper nightlife and the arts as the election approaches.

Many in the nightlife community believe it is the ultimate goal of Carr's office to shut down bars and nightclubs in the City of Seattle, thereby decimating an industry that employs thousands of people and generates nearly $100 million in annual tax revenue.

The Stranger and the Seattle Times over the past week have been giving extensive coverage to the issue of nightlife. The bar, venue and club owners have been particularly fearful in the wake of blistering attacks from Carr's office that occurred at a meeting on October 6 on Capitol Hill. At that meeting, a member of Carr's office threatened to stop pedestrians on the street to find out where they were drinking and then use the information collected to issue citations and possibly revoke the licenses of those nightlife establishments.

"A vote for Carr is a vote against nightlife," said Crocodile Café owner Marcus Charles. "If you want someone who is pro-consensus, pro-music, and pro-arts then Pete Holmes is the only choice." Charles has decided to join the event and to take it one step further: The Crocodile will close down for the entirety of Friday night.

Participating in the Minute of Silence will be the Crocodile Café, Neumos, Moe Bar, Havana, The Saint, Trinity, The Sunset Tavern, Tractor Tavern, Cha Cha Lounge, Bimbos, Baltic Room, Rendezvous, Del Rey, Shorty's, Spitfire Grill, Venom, Amber, Funhouse, Nectar, High Dive, The Red Door, ToST, Skylark Café and Club, Trinity, Cowgirls inc., Tractor Tavern, Sunset Tavern, Lock and Keel Inn, War Room, Century Ballroom, R Place, Seattle Eagle, Quinns Pub, and many others.

"Music and nightlife makes a city great, plain and simple," said Havana owner Quentin Ertel. "Nobody wants to live in a ghost town."

As a show of support, the marquee at Showbox Market will be dark all night.

Yowza! The Jesus Lizard return to Seattle tonight!

2009-10-23T09:02:00.000-07:00

I just couldn't bring myself to buy a ticket to the Capitol Hill Block Party to see The Jesus Lizard this Summer. I hate rock'n'roll outside, the sound is always bad, there is usually a higher stage and more distance between the band and the crowd, and outdoor live performances never have the same energy as that inside a dark, stuffy club packed with people and booze flowing. And let's face it, The Jesus Lizard are meant to be playing a packed club of fans, not some big festival that's equally represented with the bridge and tunnel crowd trying to get their rock on and hipster kids that don't know who the fuck David Yow is. Plus, by the time the Block Party was coming up, the rumor was already floating around the music scene that a full tour in clubs would come in October.

So the rumors were true and October has brought a nationwide Jesus Lizard tour. And tonight, Seattle, one of the most fun, heavy, fucked up bands of the '90s will once again play your town, in as close to a setting as they played the last time I saw them, maybe a dozen years ago--at Neumo's. Bring it Mr. Yow, I expect the show of the month from you, I know people flying in from LA just to see this show, you better not disappoint tonight!

ROCK for KARP!

2009-10-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

For the most part I wasn't a huge fan of the '90s Olympia music scene. Most of the Kill Rock Stars, K Records and Yo Yo bands were too pop or arty for my tastes. And I kinda think the Olympia scene wasn't a big fan of 10 Things either, because we focused our coverage on heavier and harder punk and rock. But, there are always exceptions, bands we liked and covered, and we always dropped a few hundred issues around town hoping to appeal to Olympia kids into heavier music. While the Oly bands I personally dug were few, there was Bikini Kill, The Fitz of Depression, The Rickets, Godheadsilo... and then there was KARP. KARP were an odd fish for Olympia, they were heavy, used feedback, screamed... to me they seemed to fall somewhere between The Melvins, TAD, Helmet, and a '70s rock band--all things I liked. Now, a good eleven years after the band's end, I'm not sure how great of a business move it is to release upon the world a documentary about KARP, but fuck it, I know I'm looking forward to it.

Apparently the movie, "Kill All Redneck Pricks, KARP Lives 1990 – 1998!" is close to being finished, but they need a little help in funding it's production. So tonight Akimbo, 1776 and the Marionettes of Satan will playing at Cafe Venus and Mars Bar as a benefit for the movie. Filmmaker Bill Badgely will all be present showing some scene from the documentary with commentary. You should check it out! And, just to grease your wheels, here's a teaser from the movie:

Photo show moves to BaBaLouise!

2009-10-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

The punk rock photo show Amy and I had up at Tigertail was so explosive that the man had to shut it down the day after it opened! Ha ha ha. But the taxman did lower the hammer on Tigertail, and while I wish them all the best in re-opening soon, the photo show is taking a little walk down the street today to Babalouise. Babalouise is Ballard's very hip and cool hair salon that tons of my friends go to and you should too! It's located at 616 NW 65th Street in Ballard, about halfway between The Dray and Tin Hat. Stop by to check out the place, the photography show, and maybe get the rock'n'roll haircut that will wow your friends. Here's a few of the photos that will be up...

The Bronx, from 2008 at King Cobra

The Gloryholes, from 2005 at Funhouse

The Whoremoans, from 2007 at The High Dive

The Freeze, from 2009 at Funhouse

The Amazombies, from 2004 at Funhouse

New Bomb Turks live at the Vegas Shakedown

2009-10-13T15:50:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite bands, doing one of my favorite songs, at one of my favorite shows. New Bomb Turks covering Wire's "Mr. Suit" at The Vegas Shakedown August 12th, 2000. What a great weekend! I need to dig up my photos from it. Until then, I leave you with this killer video Gene Mullet uploaded to YouTube:

Come on Republicans, don't ban bacon!

2009-10-09T16:47:00.001-07:00

More photos from that Avengers show!

2009-10-09T12:48:00.000-07:00

A few people have been bugging me to put up more photos from The Avenengers show last month at Funhouse, so here they are! As usual, click on the pictures for a larger version:

Pansy Division

2009-10-08T16:32:00.002-07:00

Pansy Division are a pop punk band that formed in San Francisco in the early '90s, and if you can't guess by their name, they are a mostly queer band that sings about gay themes. They are probably the most successful queercore band in part because of their fairly easy to swallow (ha ha) sound. They have piles of records out, having spent the first half of their career on Loookout! and now residing on Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles record label. Half of the current lineup is in the current line-up of The Avengers, hence why the bands toured together up the West Coast last month. These shots are from the show September 11th at Funhouse in Seattle.

Limited Edition signed Germs photo

2009-10-06T09:14:00.000-07:00

In the early punk scene, Ronn Spencer ran White Noise Records (VOM, the Avengers), designed the cover art for the Angry Samoans' "Back from Samoa" album, and shot photos of bands like The Controllers, The Germs and The Gears. Spencer recently agreed to print 50 signed and numbered prints of this fairly legendary Germs photo. The press release version of this 1979 photo that's been used over the years was cropped, this is the full version. Copies are $110 postage paid and you should consider buying me one for Christmas! :) More info is here.

Jenny Jimenez photo opening on Thursday!

2009-10-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

I met Jenny Jimenez back in the early days of my old publication Tablet, I think through my friend Amie. She and Justin Renney were shooting photos all the time at shows I was going to and soon started shooting for Tablet. They became the in-house photographers for the old Crocodile and shot for The Stranger, The Seattle Weekly, Rockrgrl, Paste, No Depression, Spin and more. Jenny has always had a great eye at capturing a moment perfectly, with all the emotion, energy, blood and sweat frozen for a moment in time. Her photos often have that wow factor for me and she's certainly one of the best Northwest live music photographers of the past decade.

Jenny Jimenez' new photo show is called "Show Me Your TIFFs: Ten years of music photography" and is hanging at the Skylark Cafe in West Seattle from now through December 14th. The opening party is this Thursday, October 8th, starting at 6pm. At 9:30pm there will be live performances by singer-songwriter Damien Jurado and ethereal songstress Amy Blaschke... and get this, an all male wet t-shirt contest. The opening party is 21 and over and free. The Skylark is located at 3803 Delridge Way SW in West Seattle.

Sleater Kinney by Jenny Jimenez:

Why you should go to Reverb today!

2009-10-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

Reverb is a local music festival (in Seattle, WA for you global readers) that the Seattle Weekly has been putting on for a few years, each year seems decidedly better than the last. Critics might point out it doesn't have all the big names as The Stranger's Capitol Hill Block Party and they'd be right, but Reverb isn't trying to be like the CHBP, it is it's own beast. And the things it has going for it:

Reverb takes place in Ballard, a great neighborhood with a bit of an older feel to it than Capitol Hill. The result is it draws less teenyboppers and hipsters, more real music fans (although really, there will be plenty of hipsters that are real music fans).
It's cheap! Where many music festivals are pushing $30-$50 ticket prices these days, Reverb is $5 advanced/$7 at door for under-21 folks, $8 advanced/$10 at the door for those 21 and older.
It has a great line up of all (or mostly?) local bands

This is my highly subjective guide to who you ought to consider checking out in Ballard on Saturday at Reverb, organized by time-

6pm
Trashy Trash DJ set at the Ballard Loft. So I never roll into festivals early, if I do I burn out early. I wait until they got it going on and ease my way in. A perfect way to ease your way into Reverb is at the Ballard Loft with the Trashy Trash DJs spinning a fun mix of trashy rock, soul and whatever grabs them.

8pm
Thee Emergency at the Salmon Bay Eagles club. Merging soul, punk and rock not unlike The BellRays and the Dirtbombs, foxy Dita Vox will wow you with her vocals as the band floors you with their heavy, dirty assault.

9pm
The Cute Lepers at the Salmon Bay Eagles club. Think the Ramones meet The Knack meet the Buzzcocks. Fast powerpop and catchy pop punk, skinny ties, spiky hair, female back up singers. They have a few records out and kill it live.

The Redwood Plan at the Bit Saloon. I loved Lesli Wood's punky previous band Ms. Led and am intrigued in the new direction she's pushing with fun danceable rock, synths, and a less angry sound.

9:30
The Girls at the Sunset. Mining somewhat the same territory as The Cute Lepers, but with a lot less clothes on, The Girls play great catchy punk with a little bit of sleaze thrown in. Always fun live!

10pm
The Shook Ones at the Salmon Bay Eagles club. Today's hardcore scene is mostly underground and takes place at somewhat out of the way all-ages clubs. A few of the new crop of bands have emerged out of that scene that even non-hardcore fans should take note of, and one of those is Bellingham's Shook Ones. They spent time on Revelation Records and have multiple albums under their belt, my fave being 2006's "Facetious Folly Feat."
The Keeper at the Bit Saloon. Total D&D wizard stoner rock, using the genre of metal to make fun of the genre of metal. Whereas 3 Inches of Blood claim they don't do this, The Keeper seem to proudly take things over the top.

DJ Taco Supreme at the Ballard Loft. If you need a break from the live music, take a trip South of the border because DJ Taco Supreme always brings the rock'n'roll dance party.

11:30pm
The Coconut Coolouts at the Sunset. Garage rock dance party! The Coconut Coolouts take everything fun from '60s frat rock, early Killed By Death punk, and garage rock and cook up one hell of a party on stage.

There is certainly a lot more going on at Reverb than this, I lean towards the punkier stuff and there is hip hop, rock, pop and more, check out all the details here.

World Extreme Pencil Fighting Championships

2009-10-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

It seems while those crazy cats of the Seattle Semi-Pro Wrestling League take a break from their main gig (the city is trying to stop their gig by calling it a sport and making them get an insanely expensive insurance policy, when they clearly do underground theater), they are branching out. The World Extreme Pencil Fighting Championships are a brainchild of Rat City Rollergirls announcer (and Bloodhag member) Jake Stratton and local stand-up comedian Owen Straw. Re-envisioning the pencil fighting game many of us played as kids, they've incorporated a number of SSP wrestling personalities and Rollerderby personnel, and have come with a pretty funny fairly improvisational comedy night centered around World Extreme Pencil Fighting. I attended the second one a few weeks ago at the Rendezvous' Jewel Box Theater and it was a riot. These pictures give a little taste, you should definitely look out for the next event!

About That Photo Show

2009-09-23T20:28:00.000-07:00

Great opening night and I sold a bunch of photos, yay! But if you missed it and thought you might stop by Tigertail to check it out while it's hanging, don't. The next day the IRS shut down the bar. Apparently they weren't paying their taxes, like many a politician these days. Word is the matter will be taken care of and it will reopen soon, stay tuned...

My photo show Wednesday!

2009-09-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

Amy and I are putting up a photo show of our punk and rock photography this month, the opening party is this Wednesday. This is an open invitation to anyone that reads this blog to come down to the opening!

Details:
IN THE PIT!
Featuring the Rock Photography of Amy and Dan Halligan
Opening Party Wednesday, September 16th, 8-11pm
Seattle, WA

Amy and Dan Halligan have been photographing and writing about punk and rock bands for twenty years. In the 1990s they published the Northwest's largest music zine, 10 Things, and in the 2000s their photos and writing were featured in almost every issue of the alternative publication Tablet. Their photography has also been featured in publications like The Stranger, Maximum Rock'n'Roll, Blood & Thunder and Vice Magazine. The Halligan's latest photo show, at Ballard's Tigertail, features explosive live band photography of punk and rock bands. Shining the spotlight on both national and local music, the show includes bands like The Spits, The Fluid, The
Bronx, Go Like Hell, The Hot Rollers, Zero Down and The Briefs.

The opening party is from 8-11pm, Wednesday, September 16th. It promises to be a fun party featuring rock'n'roll drink specials and recorded music from the bands featured in the show, please stop by! Tigertail is located at 704 NW 65th Street in Ballard and has a full bar and food.

The show should be up for about a month. Bands featured include:
The Amazombies, Green River, The Whore Moans, Zero Down, The Spits, The Hollowpoints, The Freeze, The Fluid, The Bronx, The Briefs, Peelander Z, The Hot Rollers, Go Like Hell and The Gloryholes!

The Avengers show photos and review

2009-09-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

The Avengers show turned out to be totally awesome. It can be pretty hit and miss going to see punk reunion shows or punk bands that are gettin' on in age, it's usually either great or a total let down. Thankfully, this was one of those great shows, probably the best show I've been to this year. I missed the Paul Collins Beat, but from what I heard, they were excellent. I did catch Pansy Division and they were totally on it. I actually thought they had broken up years ago, but I guess not, they blasted out fun, fast pop punk and had the whole audience dancing. I recognized a bunch of their songs from when they were popular about a decade ago.

By the time The Avengers were setting up, Funhouse was packed. I mean really packed, they even opened up the back parking lot and had it fenced in for crowd overflow. The old punks were out in full force! I spotted Kurt and Kim from the Fastbaks, Alan Milman who put out a pretty obscure early punk 7" with the band the Alan Milman Sect (but most people locally know him as a grouchy record store owner), and tons of gray hair and people from old bands. For the first time in a decade, I felt young at a punk show! Needless to say, it was sweaty and hot inside. The Avengers sounded great. Penelope Houston has had quite a solo career, so her voice was still super strong. With a 40 minute set and one encore, the band played about every song off their one studio LP and couple singles, even including their covers of Money and Pain It Black (the latter was excellent). My only complaint would be the two kids trying to look like Suicidal Psychos in the pit that were pushing and shoving so much that they hit me off guard and my beer bottle bammed into my nose gashing it and making me bleed. But talking with Penelope Houston after they played, she said, "Cool, you bled for our band!" Ha ha ha. Penelope was super nice, hanging out for 30 minutes after the set talking with people and posing for photos. What a great night! I definitely recommend catching The Avengers if you get a chance. I have a feeling it will be just a handful of shows and then that's it. It was a rare opportunity to see a band I loved growing up and they more than lived up to my expectations live. One final pic with me and Penelope Houston:

On sorta a side note, there were a couple local band guys pretty fucked up and acting like hipster jerks to other people, along with snorting coke in the bathroom like it was the fucking Cha Cha. During The Avenger's set when they broke into "Thin White Line" and I looked over to see one of them nodding along all fucked up and thought, oh the irony, I wonder if they even know the lyrics.

The Avengers tonight!

2009-09-11T15:39:00.001-07:00

Glenn Beck a murderer and rapist?

2009-09-04T12:29:00.000-07:00

I love debate, but often fear that in today's world, the skills of satire, sarcasm and wit are disappearing. Extremists on the left and right aren't subtle, don't lay out a well thought out and logical argument, they just shout back and forth with innaccurate insults, swearing, and other ridiculousness. Are Americans to stupid to understand and laugh at satire these days? It indeed does seem so. Take the internet rumors that popped up recently about conservative talking head Glenn Beck. I don't expect everyone to know who Beck is, I don't think I heard of him until the last few months, but these days he seems to be everywhere. The media seems to love covering their dullest knife, their darkest star. Beck's specialty, beyond lying and falsely labeling people as things they are not, seems to be putting forth a negative, and then asking people to disprove it. It's a familiar tactic of Right Wingers, remember when they singled out actors and writers as communist and asked them to defend themselves from the accusations? Beck does this shit all the time.

Anyone remember The Flying Spaghetti Monster? It was a great satirical campaign against the Kansas City School Board that decided the theory of Intelligent Design should be taught alongside Evolution in schools. Some parents of students in Kansas came up with a satirical campaign to mock the ridiculous ruling of the school board to support teaching a wacko religious belief in school, by similarly requesting their alternative belief in a Flying Spaghetti Monster be taught. It got a lot more press and debate going about the ridiculous school board decision catering towards religon than a regular protest ever would have. And it was a great example of how powerful satire can be.

Which brings us to glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com and a growing grass roots web movement across Twitter, Facebook, blogs and news websites to bring up rumors that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990. Using Beck's exact tactics against him, hundreds of people are mentioning how they've heard this awful rumor and Beck must stand up, address it, and disprove it. Sounds a little like The Birthers and the debate over Obama's birth certificate, doesn't it? You bet it does! Now, the rumors about Beck may seem a little over the top, but that's exactly what you need to do to execute good satire. If it was too subtle, the joke wouldn't be obvious enough (and it's apparently not obvious enough to a bunch of moronic Conservative bloggers who don't get that it's satire). Plus, Beck has a record of falsely accusing people of some pretty horrible things, including calling our President a racist. In this case, you reap what you sow. Beck's approach is being used against him, only more brilliantly in my opinion, satire of bad behavior is always better than the bad behavior it mocks. And it's working! The rumors are spreading, and sadly many slow-minded Conservatives just aren't getting that it's satire... which makes it all that more funny.

I can't wait to see if Glenn Beck addresses the allegations. All Beck has to do to put these blatant lies to rest is to show us his criminal record, but he continues to hide behind and army of lawyers, even 19 years later :)

The local twist? The city of Mount Vernon is giving Beck the key to the city. He's from there originally and sorta famous all of a sudden, so the Mayor of Mount Vernon wants to capitalize on that fame and get some media attention for Mount Vernon. It seems, however, the people of Mount Vernon aren't too happy with the Mayor's decision. There will be a counter-protest on September 26th when the ceremony is slated to take place. It would be heeeelarious if people showed up with signs mimicking the Birther's signs about Obama needing to prove he was born in the US saying Beck needs to prove he isn't a murderer. I would totally encourage that show of disrespect for Beck!

The Avengers LP re-issued and they're touring again!

2009-09-01T11:11:00.000-07:00

I wrote a full article on old San Francisco punk band The Avengers last year back here. Needless to say, I've always been a fan of the band, in part because of Penelope Houston's kick ass sneering female vocals and in part because of her great lyrics that were often quite smart satirically. The band had only had a brief career from 1977-1979, probably the highlight was opening for the Sex Pistols. Most of their recorded material, including their LP, was released after the band broke up. I remember scoring the LP back in the late-'80s for a few bucks at a used record shop in Seattle's U-District. By the time the '90s rolled around it was out of print and fairly sought after. CD Presents, who put it out, also did a small run of CDs, which I picked up too.

Thanks to Lookout Records releasing a CD of outtakes and live tracks in 1999 and another label putting out a live Avengers CD in 2004, the band gained a lot of new fans and sparked the interest of their old ones. So much so that Penelope Houston decided to get the band back together for a handful of shows before continuing with her solo career.

Flash forward five years. It appears that someone finally wrangled the rights for the Avengers first LP out of the hands of CD Presents. Amazon now has the CD listed for presale and says it's being re-issued on September 22nd with a second CD:

"Though not released until 1983 the Avengers' self-titled record (aka The Pink Album) features the band's recorded output from 1977-78, from the glorious first wave of punk rock. The Avengers were San Francisco's preeminent punk band, led by Penelope Houston's snarling vocals and Greg Igranham's distorted guitar riffs, and one of the first anywhere to feature a female lead singer. Featuring a second CD of previously unreleased live and studio material."

Sweet! If you've never heard the band, check out their MySpace page. And it gets better for those of us on the West Coast, they are also touring! The Avengers will be playing Funhouse September 11th, this is a show not to be missed!

Here are the full tour dates:
Sep 11 2009, The Funhouse, Seattle, Washington
Sep 12 2009, Dante’s, Portland, Oregon
Sep 13 2009, Musichead Medford, Oregon
Sep 16 2009, Blue Lagoon, Santa Cruz, California
Sep 17 2009, The Uptown, Oakland, California
Sep 18 2009, Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, California
Sep 19 2009, Galaxy Theatre, Santa Ana, California
Sep 20 2009, The Echo, Los Angeles, California

Urgh! A Music War finally released on DVD

2009-08-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in an earlier entry on "Ladies And Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains" that as a kid in the '80s, I'd stay up late at night watching a show called "Night Flight" on the USA Network. It often featured cult and underground films that provided my first exposure to numerous punk bands and subversive ideas. One of the films I saw a few times on "Night Flight" and later picked up on VHS tape finally was released this month on DVD... well sort of.

"Urgh! A Music War" was a British film originally released in 1981 featuring a wide variety of punk and new wave bands. It's all live footage, it comes off as one kick ass live concert featuring many up-and-coming acts of that era just when the major labels were grabbing onto the success of punk, but repackaging it as a nicer, gentler new wave. New wave actually included a wide variety of power pop, synth-driven pop, art rock, pop punk and post punk bands that all were kinda thrown into the same genre because they had a fashion or musical style that was a lot edgier than the current pop music, but not quite what most people would consider punk rock. Urgh! I thought kinda captured that transition featuring a few punk bands, a few pop and rock bands, and most bands that we might now call new wave, but who were mostly doing their own thing. What tied all the bands together was they were young, inventive and energetic. The live performances in this movie are great! I especially dug the Dead Kennedys, Devo, Go-Gos, X, The Cramps, Oingo Boingo, Joan Jett, 999 and The Police. For me in the early '80s when I first saw this film, it had a profound effect on me exposing me to so much new music I wasn't getting from commercial radio. It was one of those movies that helped open up the doors to punk and alternative music for me.

Warner Brothers has recently announced they are offering the movie on DVD-R, they are burning copies on a made-to-order basis. Odd that they don't think they can even sell a few thousand to do a full DVD run. They also haven't re-mastered it or done much work to the original movie at all for the DVD release. They added the trailer to the DVD and say they did it from the best available original print they had, but they didn't even add in chapter indexes for band tracks and apparently have omitted Splodgenessabounds' performance of "Two Little Boys." Kind of a lame way to re-release a cult classic music movie, but then again, at least they've rereleased it on DVD (unlike "Decline of the Western Civilization" and "Breaking Glass"). You can pick up your own copy of "Urgh! A Music War" for $20 over here.

Here's the full track listing of bands and the songs they perform:
The Police - Driven to Tears
Wall of Voodoo – Back in Flesh
Toyah Willcox – Danced
John Cooper Clarke – Health Fanatic
OMD – Enola Gay
Chelsea – I’m on Fire
Oingo Boingo – Ain’t This the Life
Echo & the Bunnymen – The Puppet
Jools Holland – Foolish I Know
XTC – Respectable Street
Klaus Nomi – Total Eclipse
Athletico Spizz 80 – Where’s Captain Kirk?
The Go-Go's – We Got the Beat
Dead Kennedys – Bleed for Me
Steel Pulse – Ku Klux Klan
Gary Numan – Down in the Park
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – Bad Reputation
Magazine – Model Worker
Surf Punks – My Beach
The Members – Offshore Banking Business
Au Pairs – Come Again
The Cramps – Tear It Up
Invisible Sex – Valium
Pere Ubu – Birdies
Devo – Uncontrollable Urge
The Alley Cats – Nothing Means Nothing Anymore
John Otway – Cheryl’s Going Home
Gang of Four – He’d Send in the Army
999 – Homicide
The Fleshtones – Shadowline
X – Beyond and Back
Skafish – Sign of the Cross
UB40 – Madame Medusa
The Police – Roxanne
The Police– So Lonely
Klaus Nomi – Aria

Don't think I'm gonna let Sub Pop off the hook for doing business with Nike!

2009-08-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

Nike has a long history of child and slave labor violations and currently uses sweatshops to manufacture its shoes. Why exactly would a record label like Sub Pop with a history of supporting fairly worthwhile organizations (The Vera Project, Northwest Film Forum, Hollow Earth Radio) want to do business with Nike? Nike under tremendous pressure from activists for decades finally gave in and stopped most of it's child labor practices--and crazy, when it got more ethical, sales went up! But the company still readily uses factories that abuse worker's rights and drastically underpays them, just one example: 20,000 Vietnamese workers in a Nike factory went on strike last year because they were only making $59 a month salaries. The sale of of pair of Nike's Sub Pop shoes can pay a factory worker's salary for 3 months!

What gives Sub Pop? Does the cool factor of having your own tennis shoes outweigh going into business with a corporation that seems to constantly violate worker's rights? Think again.

Sub Pop Nike sneaks!

2009-08-27T18:03:00.001-07:00

$150 and disappearing quickly at RMK, it's the hot new Sub Pop sneakers made by Nike:

I dunno, these look like something the '80s Christian metal band Stryper would wear, they are butt ugly. And vaguely reminiscent of those Revelation shoes that Adidas did:

I'm having a hard time seeing yellow as a rock'n'roll color. What about black and red? Black and white? And I'm having an even harder time seeing what the design has to do with Sub Pop, Seattle or grunge. My feeling: the Iron Maiden Vans are way cooler and so much cheaper, if you want rock shoes, buy those. Or the Dickies Vans!

More on the Crocodile Cafe's Music Archive

2009-08-27T12:05:00.001-07:00

These are photographs of the new listening stations for the Crocodile Cafe sound archives located at the University of Washington's Media Center. As you can see, the computers hosting the archives (as well as their monitors) are located beyond the glass in a secure area. There has been a lot of talk in music forums about why these files aren't made available online. The basic reason is the University of Washington may own the recordings, thanks to the donation by Jim Anderson, but they do not own the rights to the intellectual content captured on the recordings, which is still owned by the bands. Most of the bands are totally stoked to know they have a few live shows archived in the University's collection for future generations of people to listen to, but they don't want unauthorized reproductions of those live shows. As the Media Center's librarian John Vallier says, "We want to be sure that we are working on the side of the artists here by both preserving their legacy and protecting their intellectual content."

So yeah, if you want to listen to them, you actually have to visit a library. For Seattlelites this is no big deal, I read a recent statistic that 80% of all people in the Seattle metro area (which is somewhere around 3.3 Million people) own library cards. If you're out of state, this just gives you another reason to come visit our wonderful city!

Crocodile Café Sound Collection

2009-08-07T11:26:00.000-07:00

I last reported on the Crocodile Café sound recordings back in last October. I now have the mother of all updates...

First, the background. Audio engineer/sound man from Seattle's long running rock club the Crocodile Café recorded every show he did at the club and saved the recordings on a series of hard drives. After some negotiation, in October 2008 Anderson donated the original digital recordings to the University of Washington's Ethnomusicology Archives. For the past year the University of Washington Libraries' Media Center has been going through over 2,800 hours of live music recordings, copying them to put them in a streaming format, cataloging the shows, and letting bands that didn't want to be part of the archive opt out. Now before all you grunge fanatics go crazy about rare soundboard recordings of Nirvana, Soundgarden and Mudhoney, the donation only included recordings from shows that occurred between May 2002 and December 2007. So the early grunge era isn't really represented in the archive. But there are an insane amount of great bands and shows, you can see the preliminary list here. I'm gonna crack up if I here myself singing into the mic at the Bronx show when the singer jumped out into the audience.

Will you be able to access these recordings online? No.

Will you be able to burn copies of the recordings? No.

Will non-students be able to listen to them? Yes.

Shocking, I know, but you will actually have to set foot in a library to hear them. This is a historical archival collection that will be open to the public beginning Wednesday, August 12th. The collection will be made available via iTunes on two dedicated listening stations at the UW Libraries' Media Center. The Media Center is located on the mezzanine level of the UW's Undergraduate Library, it's hours and location can be found here.

Seattle, your punk rock weekend!

2009-07-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

This weekend the Capitol Hill Block Party is going on. I'm sure you know about it and who's playing, so I don't really need to cover it, all the details are over here. I'm not a big festival fan, especially in 80-90 degree weather and with lotsa Seattle music scene amateurs, so I think I'm skipping it, even though I'd love to see Book of Black Earth, The Jesus Lizard, The Gossip and Sonic Youth. I think I can hold out for a few months for a full Jesus Lizard reunion tour and see them properly in a dark and dirty club, their proper stomping grounds. Besides the CHBP, Seattle, there is tons more going on...

Like this dude tonight:

Chris Crusher is playing solo opening up for Premise Beach, Touch Me Satan and The Damage Done (who I wrote about a few entries ago) at The Barnhouse in the U-District (5034 15th NE, starts around 7ish).

Also tonight is my favorite surf band in the world... and luckily they just live in Portland. Satan's Pilgrims will be headlining at the Tractor in Ballard, it's the release party for their new CD. The Ghastly Ones and Sugarsmacks promise to get you dancin' and rockin' before the mighty Pilgrims take the stage.

For a louder non-Capitol Hill show Saturday night, let me suggest the metal meets punk extravaganza going down at The Bit in Ballard. It's Neon Nights CD release show with w/The Valkyries, Rat City Ruckus, Mike Moen, and Church for Sinners.

All weekend long, you're encouraged to "Get your Viking on" at the 35th Annual Ballard Seafood Festival. While the 18 year old hipsters will be rockin' the streets of Capitol Hill drunk in tight pants with flat-ironed hair, the aging hipsters of Ballard will be drinking and eatin' it up alongside their retired Scandinavian neighbors. There's also music, which is all free. Highlights include the always entertaining El Vez, the spazzy Rob Morgan fronted Squirrels, and the Dudley Manlove Quartet. There will be a lutefisk eating contest, for god sake's that's gross! For all the details, check here.

Talk about Hardcore Sundays, this Sunday at the King Cat Theater (has this place even hosted a punk show in the last decade?) will be the Seattle stop for the pretty insane 10 Bands for $10 Tour. Headliners include Bane, Terror, Death by Stereo and Poison the Well. I'm sure this will be off the walls, here is the lineup of bands and set times:

Open Fire 4:00-4:25pm
The Ghost Inside 4:40-5:05pm
Trapped Under Ice 5:20-5:45pm
Death Before Dishonor 6:00-6:25pm
This is Hell 6:40-7:05pm
War of Ages 7:20-7:50pm
Death by Stereo 8:05-8:35pm
Terror 8:50-9:20pm
Poison the Well 9:35-10:15pm
Bane 10:30-11:10pm

And in case you are more into the '70s side of punk than the hardcore side, but still looking for action on Sunday, there is a killer show at The Bit in Ballard with The Cute Lepers and The Girls!

The Dark Sounds of The Prids from Portland

2009-07-22T12:59:00.001-07:00

I flirted with goth culture back in the '80s, from the dyed black teased out hair and make-up, to dancing at Seattle's notorious club the Monastery, to going to Skinny Puppy and Siouxsie concerts. It was the first alternative subculture I dove into at 16 when I knew I didn't fit in with all the mainstream kids. It was fun to dress up, rock out, and be embraced in a community for being a weirdo. It worked quite well for me until I began to seek out more aggressive and political music and moved more towards the punk rock scene. I'm always slightly amazed that goth survived the '80s, as well as the grunge/alternative rock explosion of the '90s, but I guess I could say the same thing about punk rock. Subcultures never seem to die, they just go through phases of popularity and decline.

Portland band The Prids also flirt with goth... from the dark themes and musical style. And certainly when you see The Prids live, you can't help but notice their fans are dressed in a lot more higher end black clothes than at your average rock or punk show. But, the band also adds in elements of pop, art rock and post-punk, resulting in an alluring blend of dark indie rock. There is an intensity to their slow building tunes, songs layered within their songs, and melodies and bursts of energy lurking around the corner, seemingly ready to jump out. I can't say they blew me away live when I saw them last month in Portland, they did some back turning and looking down instead of at the audience, rather than fully embracing their role as our entertainment for the night. But I think that's part of their style--reluctant, holding something back, letting the energy build, but never quite releasing it and letting loose.

The band began as a two-piece back in the '90s and were performing live and releasing material as a duo until adding a drummer in 2005, then a keyboardist in 2007, when things really started to click. A year ago this month they were in a pretty awful van wreck on tour, you may remember me reporting about it here, but thankfully all survived and have recovered to continue to rock. The Prids have a pile of releases out and earlier this year, there was even a Prids tribute album. The band is currently playing out in the Northwest and working on material for a new album this fall. Check out their website for more info: theprids.com

Band members: Mistina Keith on vocals and bass, David Frederickson on guitar and vocals, Maile Tarries on keyboards and Joey Maas on drums

Discography:

2000, Duracraft CD
2002, Glide, Screamer CD/EP
2003, Love Zero CD/LP
2004, Shadow And Shadow 7"
2004, Let It Go 7"
2006, Until the World Is Beautiful CD
2007, Something Difficult CD

Wow

2009-07-21T12:04:00.001-07:00

I can't believe I spent so much time talking about Born Anchors in my Anchor Down intro. Obviously I had a built up rant in me ready to bust out, but I could have just called them a boring beard band and left it at that.

Anchor Down

2009-07-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

Seattle's Born Anchors seem to be getting a lot of hype these days. When you write about music you can tell what bands are getting THE PUSH by the amount of mail and email you get from labels and promotional companies about a band. From a music fan's perspective, most of you miss this entire aspect of behind the scenes promotion, from the phone calls and press packs, to the constant nagging from PR companies. I think the PR firm barrage often pays off and might be worth it for a band trying to break bigger when they release an album, but there is also something sorta false about it. Because the reason why a band is getting a lot of press attention isn't necessarily because of how good their music or live performance is.

With Born Anchors, it's gotten them on KNDD and KEXP and great press in local publications, including Megan Seling from The Stranger saying “Born Anchors are the most exciting rock band in Seattle right now…” That kind of promo blitz tends to actually work the opposite of how it's supposed to with people like me. When a band is getting too much hype, I ignore them, or at least I realize they sure don't need me to cover them, the mainstream local press is already doing that quite well. So if you want to see what the hype is about, you can check out Born Anchors at the Capitol Hill Block Party... and try not to fall asleep during their set.

My "job," and that of the underground press, is hopefully at least occasionally focusing your attention on the things not getting written about in the mainstream. It's about giving press to less touched-on subjects. In my case, that means pulling together histories and photos of Northwest bands, labels and places that are somewhat or fully forgotten. There is a lot of Northwest and punk rock history that isn't well documented on the Web that's still important, even if just to me. I also try to shine the spotlight on what I see as brilliant, but often press-neglected bands, currently rocking local stages and basements. So, instead of following the hype, I want to focus your attention on another Northwest "Anchor" band...

Anchor Down from Portland, Oregon:

Anchor Down have been labeled entirely too much with the "pop punk" tag, which I find even lazier than my music writing. Their sound is more melodic punk with balls. They kind of have a Monsula crossed with Bouncing Souls feel to them, with sometimes gruff vocals, layered melodic guitars, super catchy songs and occasional sing-a-long choruses. This is comfort food for people like me that grew up listening to '90s melodic punk. They have a new 6-song EP out entitled "Steel to Dust" I picked up when I saw them a few weeks ago. It's excellent, plus they sold me the CD and a t-shirt for $10, pretty much unheard of low prices in today's world. You can catch a few of their songs over here.

Anchor Down is currently on tour, they will be playing Seattle next August 26th at The Morgue with locals Success and Texas bands The Anchor and O Pioneers. Two Anchor bands for the price of one!

The Damage Done

2009-07-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

It happens too infrequently to me these days. Those times where you show up to the show early enough to catch one of the opening bands you've never heard of and they totally blow you away. Or you go to a house show to see a touring band and a local band you haven't seen before just ignites the crowd and has kids bouncing off the walls singing along. The rarer those moments are, the more magical they are. Especially when you're an old and jaded punk rocker that's seen thousands of bands over the years.

I had one of those moments the first time I caught The Damage Done. Within the first song, I was wondering why these guys weren't huge yet. And I think a lot of it has to do with the band's attitude. They don't really seem to give a shit about kissing up to the clubs and promoters to make things happen, they're moving at their own pace and genuinely seem to favor house shows over the punk bars and clubs I tend to frequent a lot of the time.

From The Damage Done website:
The house show, #1. An art perfected by hardcore heroes of the past. When combined with enough beer, the loudest PA possible, and a basement or living room packed with far too many sweaty, singing, dancing friends, the house show is guaranteed to provide the touring band with a great time and enough gas money to make it to the next town. In a time when the community is oversaturated with egotistical bands, all-ages venues that last six months at the most, and nation-wide conglomerate booking agencies specializing in pay-to-play shows, the house show is one of the last free and humble bastions of awesome ear-splitting rock.

I love that. I love bringing it back to where it all started -- DIY punk values and having fun.

Musically The Damage Done can have the intensity of hardcore one song and then a melodic group sing-a-long the next, the constant in the mix is an energy, positive and pumped up, that gives the band a little something extra that a lot of bands lack these days. They have one EP out, a few comp cuts, and have recorded an album that is yet to be released. You can hear a few songs over here, but this is really the kind of band you want to catch live. Upcoming Seattle shows include:

July 19th at The Bit Saloon w/ In The Red, Bastards of Young, & Poverty Bay Saints
Jul 24th at the Barnhouse w/ the Pillowfights & Chris Crusher solo
Aug 7 2009 at The Bit Saloon w/ Heroes Amongst Thieves & Random Orbits
Aug 16 2009 at Studio 7 w/ Cobra Skulls & the Copyrights

Seattle rocks!

2009-07-08T22:55:00.000-07:00

You know, sometimes living in a big city, you get just get stuck hanging out in the same neighborhoods, same insular scenes, same favorite bars and restaurants... and your start to forget that you live in a massive thriving metropolis. Last week I took a ferry over to Bremerton. When trying to find a decent place to eat in a town that mostly has chain stores and restaurants, I was totally disappointed. I started thinking about how fortunate I am to live where I do. And when heading back into Seattle gazing upon downtown, I was marveling at how awesome and beautiful our downtown really is. I do love Seattle, and with all my traveling this Summer--I've been out of town almost every weekend--it only cements the deal for me each time I come home how much Seattle rocks.

Bomb the Music Industry!

2009-07-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

It's pretty infrequent when I go to punk house shows these days. It's now to the point where I'm twice the age of many of the kids there, which weirds me out, so I'm more into seeing bands in bars or small clubs. But I've been to a couple shows at a house in the U-District that's been doing shows regularly this Spring/Summer and they've all been excellent. Fun crowd and great energy, something about a house show always brings it out of the band and fans. Last night I finally got to see Anchor Down from Portland, who I'd been meaning to see for a while. They were excellent. Headlining was Bomb the Music Industry! who I'd been listening this past week a bunch. Damn did they put on a show packed with energy that got everyone dancing and singing along!

Bomb the Music Industry! is all over the place musically--from ska and pop punk to hardcore. I love that on their MySpace page, they really only feature bad reviews from music websites and fans, they have a healthy sense of humor about what they are doing that permeates through their lyrics, music and live performances. In the end though, they wear their hearts on their sleeves. Last night lead singer Jeff Rosenstock asked over the mic for donations for the show, thanked the kids putting on the show for letting the band into the house at 5am and letting crash on the floor, and repeatedly asked the crowd to respect the house and help pick up garbage after the show. That positive attitude is a way of life for Bomb the Music Industry!, who only play all-ages shows and offer all of their albums humbly just asking for donations. Fugazi-eque? The new Against Me!? Not really, Bomb the Music Industry! is really their own unique deal and they've been around since 2004.

Towards the end of the night, Rosenstock asked the band members to all play their favorite Seattle band song at once. It was complete noise. But out of it he lifted Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta" and Nirvana's "Territorial Pissings," the band immediately launched into covers of both. I had to wonder if it was all planned out or completely impromptu, because both covers were pretty decent. Do they do that in other towns? Great show, you should definitely check these guys out if they play live in your town.

Cellophane Square, R.I.P.

2009-07-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

When I was in highschool in the mid-'80s and starting to delve into alternative culture, I kept hearing about this place called Cellophane Square in the University District. It was supposed to have punk and goth band t-shirts, records and tapes, all kinds of underground merchandise and was where you'd buy tickets to punk shows. Having grown up on the Eastside, hanging out at Bellevue Square as a kid, I pictured Cellophane Square as a punk rock mall. Imagine my surprise when I finally turned 16 and could drive to Seattle and found out Cellophane Square was a tiny, packed record store just off the Ave on 42nd (now the home of a Taco Del Mar).

Tiny though it may have been, Cellophane Square was thee place to go for vinyl back then. The store had actually been around since the early '70s and in the '80s was part of string of record stores around the U-District that I'd shop a couple times a week for the latest finds. When I moved to the U-District in 1986, Cellophane and the comic book store next to it became pretty much a daily ritual. Go to classes at the UW, then get stoned, go record and comic book shopping, then play video games at Space Port or Arnolds. Ah... those were the days.

When I heard Cellophane Square was abandoning it's spot on 42nd to move to a larger high profile spot further up The Ave in the mid '90s, I was pissed! Until I heard they were going to mostly ditch their vinyl and were going to sell it on Saturday for 50% off. I saved up $100, which for me was a lot back then, picked out the records I would buy off the wall, and was waiting to grab them when they opened the doors at 8am. Crazy too, a few years ago I sold most of those records on Ebay and got over $600 for them thanks to old punk vinyl being so sought after.

The bigger, newer location of Cellophane was never quite the same for me. They focused on CDs for a long time, only bringing back vinyl in a bigger way in the last 5 or 6 years. And the selection and prices weren't totally awesome. Still, I usually sold my used CDs there and got a great value in trade for new stuff. And I'd still hit it once or twice a month just to browse the vinyl and used CDs.

This past month Cellophane Square shut it's doors for good. And I kinda feel all Michael Jackson about it. I was sad when I heard Michael Jackson died because even though I haven't paid attention to him in almost twenty years, when I was a kid and Thriller came out, my brother and I probably listened to that record every day for six months. It was a big part of my life a long time ago, so hearing of Jackson's passing made me feel a little bit of my past die away. I have a similar feeling about Cellophane. In the past ten years it was a shell of it's former self, but for me in the late '80s, it was like home, it was my favorite record store I visited all the time. I knew and talked to most of the people that worked there, I knew which records in the bins were new that week, and I feel like much of what I learned in my formative years of being a punk rock music fan came from those record bins. So do I care that the store closed now? Not really, but I do feel like another piece of my past just slipped away. And that, my friends, gives me pause to stop, think, remember fondly, and feel just a bit of sadness.

Community World Theater

2009-07-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

While I went to punk shows on and off for a few years, it wasn't until 1987 or so when I regularly started going to punk shows all the time. At the time, in Seattle, the Teen Dance Ordinance made it hard to put on all-ages shows, so venues in nearby towns like Tacoma and Bremerton had success in drawing a lot of us from the city to shows. In Tacoma the primary all-ages punk venue was the Community World Theater, an old movie theater turned punk venue that hosted about three dozen shows in 1987 and 1988.

Mike Ziegler has put together a great history of the venue here that I implore you to check out. He's cataloged flyers, shows, and photos, a great little Washington punk rock history archive, totally the kind of thing I'm into. There's also a MySpace page that includes the music from some of the bands that used to play Community World here.

The shows I remember most seeing at Community World were Fugazi's first tour, the Circle Jerks and 7 Seconds, and The Vandals. This is also where bands like Nirvana and Melvins played some of their earliest shows before they got well known. Along with the big name touring bands, there were also tons of smaller local band shows. Here's a semi-complete list of the bands that played courtesy of the Ziegler's MySpace page:

7 Seconds • 64 Spiders • Abolishment • Accused • Act Of Sabotage • Action Buddy • Agent 86 • Alphabets Swill • Amorous • A.M.Q.A. • Angry Samoans • Animal Clinic • Applied Science • Armoros • Attitude • Attitude Adjustment • Beat Happening • Big Idea • Big Tube Squeezer • Bitter End • Blast • Bleeder • Blood Circus • Blood Sucking Freaks • Bomb • Bosch Society • Brain Dead • Brigade • Brotherhood • Bundle Of Hiss • Burial Benefits • Cactus Love • Camper Van Beethoven • Cannibal • Cat Butt • Catalyst • Chemistry Set • Child Support • Christ On Parade • Circle Jerks • Clown Alley • Coffin Break • Comatose • Cool Runnings • Coven • Crash Bang Crunch Pop • Crisis Party • Dag Nasty • Danger Bunny • Danger Mouse • Dayglo Abortions • Dead Silence • Death Midget • Death Squad • Dehumanizers • Dekay • Derelicts • Desperate Minds • Diddly Squat • Diseased • Disgusting Youth • Dissent • D.O.A. • Doll Squad • Doris • Doughboys • Dr. Know • Dr. Seuss • Duracell • Eastern Star • Edge • Eleven Phantoms • Errant Souls • False Prophets • Family Circus • Fang • fIREHOSE • Flipper • Fluid • Forced Entry • Fred’s Crash Shop • Frightwig • Fugazi • Gary Allen May • Gary Jam • GBH • Girl Trouble • Go Team • G.O.D. • Gods Of Junk • Green Eggs and Ham • Green Pajamas • Green River • Green Suit • H-Hour • Hair Farmers • Half Life • Hateful Youth • Heliotroupe • Hell's Kitchen • Herd Of Turtles • Hester Pryne • Hickoids • Hodads • Holy Sisters Of The Gaga Dada • Housecoat Project • Inner Strength • Inspector Luv And The Ride Me Babies • Jesters Of Chaos • Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid Kids • Kil D'Kor • Killdozer • Killer Bees • King Krab • Lansdat Blister • Lawndale • Lethal Dose • Little Stranger • Lush • Malfunkshun • Mecca Normal • Melvins • Mentors • Melting Fish • Millions Of Dead Leninz • Mind Over Four • M.I.A. • M.I.S. • Moral Crux • Morpheus • Muck • My Name • Neurosis • Nirvana • Nisqually Delta Podunk Nightmare • No Cash Value • No Problem • NOFX • Noise For Nothing • NoMeansNo • Non-Oxynel 9 • Obituaries • Outrage • Pale Ryder • Panic • Pen Cap Chew • Poison Idea • Pop Defect • Positive Outlook • Primitives • Prudence Dredge • Purdins • Pure Joy • Really Rottens • Really Soon • Ride Me Babies • Ringling Sisters • R.K.L. • Room Nine • Sabre • Sacrament • Sacrilege B.C. • Scream • Screamin' Sirens • Screaming Trees • Sea Hags • S.G.M. • Shiva Dancing • Short Dogs Grow • Silent Treatment • Skid Row • Skin Yard • Slack • Slaughter Haus 5 • Slovenly • Snakepit • SNFU • Some Velvet Sidewalk • S.O.S.A. • Soundgarden • Soylent Green • Special Force • s • Spot 1019 Squirrels • State Of Confusion • Steel Pole Bath Tub • Strypes • Subculture • SubVert • Sustained Agony • SX7 • Systems Collapse • Ted Ed Fred • Ten Foot Faces • Thrash Forward • Totally Fucking Lit • Toxic Slaughter • U-Men • Undead • Undercurrent • Underdog • Urinal Disaster • Vampire Lezbos • Vandals • Variant Cause • Verbal Assault • Vomit Launch • Wankster Flu • Wehrmacht • Whipping Boy • White Zombie • Wicked Babe • Witnesses • Yellow Snow • Youth Of Today • Zamo

The photos I included were shot by Darcy Rant. Many thanks to Darcy for letting me put them up! In talking about the shows it sounds like she and I were at many of the same ones, but it was a couple years before I started photographing at shows and writing about music. I absolutely love the one with the skinhead speaker diving and his arms spread out like a bird above the crowd... it's amazing she captured that moment, and I think that dude landed right on me if it was during the Circle Jerks.

The Greenwood Car Show June 27th

2009-06-25T16:20:00.001-07:00

As if there wasn't enough cool stuff going down this weekend in Seattle, there is also the Greenwood Car Show. I've hit this the past 2 or 3 years and it's always been great fun, lots of cool old cars and street rods. They close down Greenwood Ave on Saturday and pack it with cool cars, vendors and bands (Mamma Tried and the Greenwood All Stars will be performing). For more details check out: greenwoodcarshow.com

Georgetown Musicfest this weekend!

2009-06-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

While it's running against Seattle's Pride Festival this weekend, what the Georgetown Musicfest has going for it is it has a ton of bands, it's free, and it's running in conjunction with Georgetown's art festival Artopia. For the full list of bands and set times, go to: georgetownmusicfest.com

I Love Happy Drunks!

2009-06-24T15:09:00.001-07:00

I've never understood the dudes that like to drink and fight. They get drunk and fight with their girlfriend, their friends, or try to pick fights with strangers... it happens at punk shows fairly often. I, along with most of my friends and family, are the kinda people that get happier, more talkative, goofier, more outgoing and funnier when we drink. It's a party, we want to have fun. Take this guy in the picture for example. I was in Vegas two weeks ago. It's close to 2am and there is a full crowd watching some ridiculous cover band in a low-rent casino lounge. They are singing along to '80s rock songs and this dude, who's totally wasted, is balancing a beer can on his head and dancing. He notices me taking a picture and says, "Waaaaaaiiiit" and does this goofy pose. Awe. Some. I take the picture and not only do he and I start cracking up, so does everyone around us. The drunken goofy happiness is infectious and everyone joins in, because of you, beer can on the head guy. Good job for being a fun drunk!

Catholic Comb... reinventing '80s British rock

2009-06-24T14:56:00.000-07:00

In Portland Friday I saw a band called Catholic Comb. I had a full '80s flashback to highschool when watching them. The lead singer looked like a Dogs in Space era Michael Hutchence. And musically they were somewhere between Gene Loves Jezebel, The Dream Academy and The Chameleons. Kinda pretentious '80s UK alternative rock with a dark or goth edge to it. Totally not what I'm into, although I used to see bands like this all the time in the mid-'80s. But they were great at what they do.

Great poster art at Portland's East End

2009-06-23T12:26:00.001-07:00

I was down in Portland last weekend and for the second time went to the East End, a bock or two off East Burnside, not to far from the Doug Fir and Jupiter. I dig this place, it's like a normal bar up top and in the basement more of a rock'n'roll bar where they often host live shows. The show area is small, much smaller than Seattle's Funhouse, it probably only fits 50 music fans squished in watching a band, which makes it perfect for smaller more intimate shows. And damn if they don't have a great poster artist. This shot above is from the bathroom, that's covered with past posters from East End shows. I love, love, love the consistently interesting and cool looking artwork.

And I have no idea how they could do the Black Lips here, that show must have been crazy!

Steve Wiebe and 250 pinball and arcade games!

2009-06-11T11:07:00.000-07:00

Thousands of pinball and arcade game fans from across the U.S. will be attending the 2009 Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show this weekend at the Seattle Center. The show is the biggest of this type of event in the Northwest. The 2008 show featured over 100 games and drew 2,000 visitors. This weekend's show will have over 250 games all set on freeplay, including one of mine. Along with unlimited play on 250 games, there will also be tournaments, raffles, guest speakers and over a dozen top level players competing for new world record scores.

On hand during the show will be many special guests from the arcade and pinball world, including:

Steve Wiebe, star of the hit documentary “The King of Kong.” In the movie Wiebe waged an epic battle against Billy Mitchell for bragging rights to the world record high score on the game of Donkey Kong. Wiebe will be attempting to unthrone Mitchell and take back the Donkey Kong high score this weekend!
Bill Carlton, star of the award winning documentary “High Score,” which was released in March 2009. “High Score” follows Carlton’s attempt to beat the 20 year old world record on Missile Command.
Dennis Nordman, pinball designer of games including Elvira and the Party Monsters, White Water, Wheel of Fortune and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Walter Day, founder of Twin Galaxies and score keeper of the world’s gaming records, from ‘80s arcade games to modern Playstation 3 and XBOX games. Day is star of the documentary “Chasing Ghosts” and was the enthusiastic score keeper and classic game activist in the referee outfit in “The King of Kong.”
Greg Feres, pinball graphic artist and the man behind the artwork of Fathom, Medieval Madness, Revenge from Mars, Speakeasy, Scared Stiff, Strange Science, Dr. Dude, Star Trek: The Next Generation and many more.
Clay Harrell (AKA Shaggy), star of the hit pinball restoration series “This Old Pinball.”
Brian Schmidt, who has done the sounds and music for such pinball games as Apollo 13, Back to the Future, Batman Forever, The Simpsons, Frankenstein, Star Wars, The Who’s Tommy, The X Files, Black Knight 2000, Banzai Run, King Kong, Hook, Jurassic Park, Independence Day and Guns N’ Roses.
Todd MacCulloch, ex-pro basketball player (Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets) and local game collector who is now a nationally ranked pinball competitor. Ask MacCulloch what it was like playing against Shaq in the NBA playoffs while he kicks your butt in the pinball tournament!

There will be seminars and autograph sessions during the day on Saturday featuring many of the special guests. Saturday night, Walter Day of Twin Galaxies will publicly host the inaugural Video Game Hall of Fame awards ceremony. The ceremony will honor world record players from the past and present.

The show will be held in the Northwest Rooms of the Seattle Center, located at 305 Harrison Street in downtown Seattle. For information about hours and what games will be at the show, go to: nwpinballshow.com

Interview with Audrey Ewell, co-director of "Until The Light Takes Us"

2009-05-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

"Until The Light Takes Us" is a documentary movie about the Norwegian black metal scene directed by Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell. I've always had a bit of a fascination with that scene's over the top corpse paint make up and church burning and violent actions. This movie looks at its history and growth and peels back the imagery to look at what it's really about, told by the musicians themselves. The movie is currently touring the festival and special screening circuit and will be playing Seattle at the Northwest Film Forum theater (1515 12th Ave on Capitol Hill) on Thursday May 28th and Saturday May 30th. Both showing are at 11:30pm, to keep them late and creepy. The directors will be at both showings.

I was fortunate enough to talk with co-director Audrey Ewell for a little bit about the movie. Here is our conversation...

10: I saw an interview with you where you mentioned you weren't really a fan of black metal and more into indie rock. Since 10 Things is mainly a music blog, I was curious as to what are some of your favorite bands?

Ewell: Right now I'm actually listening to a lot of '70s folk/psych; Fairport Convention and pretty much anything with Sandy Denny is working for me. I also have a pretty big soft spot for a band called MV + EE out of Vermont. The MV part was a major part of Tower Recordings, and now he and his girlfriend (the EE part) tour around the U.S. with their van and their dog and play shows. They are somewhere between Royal Trux, the Grateful Dead, and Tower Recordings--really lovely and spacey and sometimes jammy, but not in a bad way.

The idea that we're not into black metal is false though. We were introduced to it many years ago and were actually fascinated by the way it had things in common with a lot of the really great low-fi music that we were already fans of, like the Dead C, Throbbing Gristle, Current 93, etc. And there was an immediate, raw rage and beauty and somehow it all sounded incredibly genuine and not at all crass. A really nice change of pace from so much of the self-conscious music that always reigns supreme. I'm talking about the stuff from the early '90s, early Darkthrone, Burzum, Mayhem, etc. It's great.

10: What in the black metal scene drew your interest enough to want to do a documentary about it?

Ewell: Well, a lot of had to with the seeming contradiction between the violence and the clear, almost postmodern sensibility of some of the music, particularly Darkthrone. We were also intrigued by the fact that we loved the music, because we had not previously been into any kind of metal. It challenged our preconceptions. That's a good thing.

10: What do you hope people that see your movie take away from it?

Ewell: I hope they leave talking about it. Whether they are fans who get to see such an intimate portrayal of these very masked figures, or whether this is someone's introduction to the people, events and story of the film, our goal was to make it operate on several levels. The film tells the story of black metal, but it's about more than that. If I just state it outright, that takes away from the experience of watching the film, so I'll let the audience have whatever reaction they have, and just be glad if it affects them in some way. It has so far. Some people are disturbed by it, but most people seem to get it, and there are things that we do want to communicate through it. So far, it seems to be working, and I'm really glad, because it was tremendously hard to make, it took a really long time and was kind of an awful experience in many ways! We're sticking to fiction films after this.

10: One last question... have you ever put on corpse paint make up like the bands in the movie?

Ewell: No, but our friend in Japan has some kind of app on his phone that lets him apply corpse-paint to pictures he takes, so he's done that to ours. Japan is just awesome like that.

For more information about the film, it's showing, tickets or to watch the trailer, go to:
http://www.nwfilmforum.org/live/page/calendar/892

The Kings live!

2009-05-22T09:42:00.001-07:00

Seattle's best (well, and only) punk rock Elvis tribute band live at the SeattlePunk.org Block Party a few weeks ago:

Rainfest 2009: June 22-24

2009-05-21T15:19:00.000-07:00

Ironically, it's going to be quite a sunny weekend in the Puget Sound when the annual hardcore, punk metal festival Rainfest takes place. This Memorial Day weekend Tacoma promises to be thee spot for fans of loud and abrasive music, you know, like the readers of 10 Things. Each day the all-ages club The Viadact will have band after band assaulting your ears with some of the most brutal music from the Northwest and beyond. Some of the highlights inclue The Warriors, Lewd Acts, Dangers, Trash Talk, Owen Hart, Comeback Kid, Pressure Point and Final Fight. Come for a day, or come for the full weekend. Either way, if you dig on the hardcore and loud punk, you won't want to miss the action. For more details check out: www.myspace.com/rainfest

Portland School of Rock kids cover Poison Idea!

2009-05-12T22:04:00.000-07:00

This is all kinds of awesome. Portland's School of Rock kids cover Poison Idea's "Plastic Bomb"...

2009 Northwest Pinball & Gameroom Show

2009-05-07T11:30:00.000-07:00

This is a month away, but I want to get it on everyone's radar because it will be a seriously kick ass event. 200 pinball and arcade games on free play, Steve Wiebe from the movie "King of Kong" and much more! June 12-14 at the Seattle Center. More details are at: nwpinballshow.com