Unwound

Olympia band Unwound was actually the first band to release an album on Kill Rock Stars, up until then it was a spoken word label. Crazy. Unwound also had the distinction of the being the first band released by San Diego's Gravity Records. The band had a powerful noisy sound often described at emo or post-punk. I personally really like their early singles and first two albums, I caught the band live a bunch around that era. They always had an intensity in their sound, singer Justin Trosper really carried the band by being so emotional live in his singing. This photo is by Amy Halligan, taken around 1994.

Band members: Justin Trosper on vocals and guitar, Vern Rumsey on bass and Sara Lund on drums.

Album & 12" Discography:

• Demo tape (1991, self-released)
• Fake Train (1993, Kill Rock Stars)
• New Plastic Ideas (1994, Kill Rock Stars)
• The Future of What (1995, Kill Rock Stars)
• Unwound - demo re-released (1995, Punk in My Vitamins
  
• Repetition (1996, Kill Rock Stars)
• A Light at the End of the Tunnel Is a Train (1997, Kill Rock Stars)
• Challenge for a Civilized Society (1998, Kill Rock Stars)
• A Single History 1991-1997 (1999, Kill Rock Stars)
• Live in London (1999, Love Letter)
  
• Leaves Turn Inside You double album (2001, Kill Rock Stars)

Steve Turner

Steve Turner was always kind of a hero of mine. He went to my highschool a few years before me, in a suburban snobby suburb of Seattle. Yet, like me, he got heavily involved in alternative and punk music and went in quite a different direction than most of his peers. Where I did it more as a fan, writer and publisher, he did it as a musician for some just awesome bands. First Mr. Epp and the Calculations, then Green River, and then the crown jewel, Mudhoney. The CD that compiles Mudhoney's Superfuzz Big Muff and their early singles is easily in my top 10 records of all time. In my group of friends at parties we have what we call a "Mudhoney Freakout" around midnight or 1am, where we put on old Mudhoney and scream along drunk at full volume. It happened at my Halloween party a few days ago, 20 rabid Mudhoney fans jumping up and down singing along to "Touch Me I'm Sick." It must have been a pretty scary sight. But we can't help it, even today, 19 years after those songs came out, they are packed with so much power and emotion they simply blow the fuck out of 95% of the music being produced. My admiration of Steve Turner was totally evident in my zine too. David and I interviewed him for our very first issue of 10 Things. This photo I shot on The Ave in front of the Big Time Brewery in 1990 after we drilled Steve with questions and wormed stories out of him for about two hours over beers. Cheers Steve!

Maurice's Little Bastards

Maurice's Little Bastards were a punk band from Bainbridge Island in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Fronted by Justin MoCheeks (he did a zine entitled MoCheeks), the band was known for their all out crazy live shows that usually ended with the band removing a lot of their clothes. Justin later went on to be in The Deadly Weapons (with Larry Rickets) and now is in Portland band The Clorox Girls. Justin's parents used to let him host shows in their house. I remember riding the ferry out there, drinking beers in the car, then talking to his folks outside before watching bands. Awesome.

Motorsports International Garage

The Motorsports International Garage was exactly as it sounds like, an old parking garage. It was a covered parking garage located in Seattle on the corner of Stewart and Yale, a block from where Rkcndy was. For a short time period in 1990-91 it hosted rock and punk shows before getting demolished. The venue had a cement floor, rectangle shape and fit 1500 people. While there were only a handful of shows at the Motorsports garage, most of them were fairly legendary.

On September 22, 1990, Nirvana, The Melvins, The Dwarves and The Derelicts played. It was the first time Nirvana played "In Bloom," and it's when the drummer from D.C. band Scream, Dave Grohl, was in the audience checking out Nirvana and his friends The Melvins. He would end up joining Nirvana a few months later. During The Dwarves set that night, lead singer Blag Dahlia threw an unopened can of Pepsi into the crowd. It hit a kid in the face right in front of me and he got a blood nose and seemed knocked out. As his friends dragged him to the back of the theater, he left a trail of bloody across my Doc Martens. We expected that kind of chaos from The Dwarves, I think the crowd actually cheered as it happened. I later saw some kid being carried out on a stretcher by paramedics, I doubt it was the Pepsi kid, more likely someone hit the pavement too hard stage diving or crowd surfing during Nirvana's 54 minute set (which is bootlegged and available on CDR for the diehard fans that want to seek it out, there is also a live video floating around).

Dead and Gone

The San Francisco bay area's Dead and Gone formed in 1993 and have been playing on and off ever since. For me they bring back the old hardcore sound of the '80s, before it degenerated into a macho mosh crew thing. Back in those days it was just freaky kids screaming and playing heavy fucking punk rock. Grrrrr. Dead and Gone are dark, loud, heavy, fast and kinda creepy, and yet totally powerful and catchy. I have to think that bands like Fucked Up and The Bronx took cues from Dead and Gone when reviving the hardcore sounds of '80s bands like Black Flag. This photo I think is from the late '90s, it's of vocalist Shane White when the band played at Rkcndy in Seattle.

Discography:

• T.V. Baby CD (1996, Prank Records)
• God Loves Everyone But You CD (1997, Alternative Tentacles)
• The Beautician CD (2002, Gold Standard Laboratories)

Side Projects:

• Creeps on Candy
• Talk is Poison

The Boss Martians

I love this old picture I took of Evan of The Boss Martians, he almost looks like a Norsk metal dude from the '70s. This was taken back around ten years ago when the band was just hinting of the evolution to come. For quite some time before this they were the darlings of the Dionysus Record's surf and hot rod scene, often playing '60s garage band instrumentals. As the band evolved over their albums to follow, the surf and garage tunes gave way to '70s rock'n'roll and power pop. At the same time their clean image began to change as they got a more '70s rock flair to the way they dressed. Comparing their last record to one of the first two, you might think they were an entirely different band. But the evolution happened slowly over the years as they've found their own unique sound and have become a really great band. The band is just embarking on a big tour of Europe and their next album, due out May 13, 2008, will feature Iggy Pop doing vocals on one track. For more info about the band or to hear them, check out their MySpace profile. And by all means, catch them live now while they are still occasionally playing smaller clubs, they are definitely a band that has the potential to get huge in the next year or two.

Band members: Evan Foster on guitar and vocals, Nick Contento on keyboards and vocals, Scott Myrene on bass, and Thomas Caviezel on drums.

Albums (they have a huge discography, I'm only listing the full-lenths):

• The Boss Martians LP/CD (1995, Dionysus Records)
  
• Jet-A-Way Sounds Of The Boss Martians LP/CD (1996, Hillsdale Records)
  
• 13 Evil Tales By The Boss Martians LP/CD (1997, Dionysus Records)
  
• Invasion Of The Boss Martians, Live In 95/96 CD (1997, Vagrant Records)
  
• Lockdown Party! LP/CD (1999, Rockin' Bones)
  
• Move! LP/CD (2000, Dionysus Records)
  
• Making The Rounds LP/CD (2002, Dionysus/MuSick)
  
• The Set-Up LP/CD (2003,Screaming Apple Records)

The Spits

When The Spits play live, there are a few things their fans have come to expect:

1. Costumes!
2. Erin and Sean arguing on stage
3. Some kind of crazy antics on stage. Before following that link, I should warn you it's not exactly what I'd call "work safe" and that's why I didn't put it right into the blog. It's really because of the argyle socks, you've been warned! And I bet you are thankful I didn't publish the more blatant ones.