Clikatat Ikatowi

Clikatat Ikatowi, along with Gravity Records labelmates Heroin, Mohinder, Angel Hair, and Antioch Arrow help define the Sand Diego sound of the mid-'90s. This was what some call the second wave of emo, a decade before guyliner pop punk bands getting dubbed with the label. Influenced in part by the more melodic DC sound a few years before it, but adding in more elements of hardcore, noise and jazz, bands like Clikatat Ikatowi could go from slow building indie rock to complete chaos and back again within a song, sometimes multiple times. This photo is by Amy Halligan from a 1992 show at Seattle's Velvet Elvis.

Drummer Mario Rubalcaba has played in a string of bands, including Rocket from the Crypt, Thingy, The Black Heart Procession, Hot Snakes, the Sultans and Pinback.

Help! Can you identify this band?

I don't know what band this is and would love help identifying them. If I had to guess, the show was probably at The Black Cat in Seattle's U-District around 1991-1992.

Lamefest and Ultra Lamefest

The first Sub Pop Lamefest show took place June 9, 1989 at Seattle's Moore Theater. The line-up was Mudhoney, TAD and Nirvana. From Mudhoney's tourbook "There were many problems with security at this show. Mudhoney stopped playing on three separate occasions, and at one point Mark tried to kick a security guard into the audience. This was the first all-ages show that Mudhoney played in Seattle." I'm pretty sure the security group were the Fallen Angels, who used to do security at a lot of bigger underground shows. Despite the security overreacting to an excited crowd, this was a great show. This was before Nirvana was very big, they opened the show and Mudhoney were the headliners. There is some decent footage online of this show here. This was essentially a really big Sub Pop showcase after the label had outgrown doing label showcases at art galleries and small clubs.

Three years later, on April 4, 1992, Sub Pop put on another big show, calling this one Ultra Lamefest. This time it was even larger and took place at the Paramount Theater. Again Mudhoney headlined, also on the bill were Seaweed, The Supersuckers, Pond and Earth. There was actually a three gig Lamefest tour Japan in 1993 as well, featuring The Supersuckers, Fastbacks, Seaweed and Supersnazz. The tour played two shows in Tokyo and one in Osaka.

I've heard mention of a Lamefest San Francisco in 1993... anyone know anything about that?

3 Women that Rocked the Underground like Motherfuckers in the '90s

Lynn Breedlove and her band Tribe 8:


Carol and her band Not My Son:



Bliss Blood and her band The Pain Teens:


All photos by Amy Halligan, taken at Seattle's premiere '90s rock and punk club, The Off Ramp

Mia Zapata / The Gits

I tear myself apart and I throw it on the ground in front of you
Can't hide that I'm a social wreck
And though I sit within the wounds that one day could destroy me
Sometimes it's hard to find my friends
As far us I can see it, I ain't got nothing else
And with all that you've taken from me, you can answer that yourself
This twisted world can sometimes seem like it's caving in around me
But I will not let it waste my mind
And though you're holding out on what lets me know where I stand
Sometimes it makes it worse to know I ever trusted you
As far as I can see it, I ain't got nothing else
And with all that you've taken from me, you can answer that yourself
Don't try it, don't tell me lies and call it some kind of truth
Go ahead and walk me, walk closer, escort me right to the edge
Push me, push me I don't care, 'cause I'll keep coming back
Slightly stronger, despite the worlds you've left and unbled and said
Well just keep your twisting, keep your twisting
But I'll keep breathing, I keep breathing.


We still miss you terribly.

Four Bands, Four Bucks

Back around 1989-1990 the University of Washington hosted a series of shows called "Four Bands, Four Bucks." Most of the bands came from the emerging new "grunge" scene before anyone called it grunge... back when they were just punk rock bands, some a little more rock than we were used to. Nirvana, Tad, The Fluid, Crunchbird, Skin Yard, Girl Trouble, The Gits and more would play shows that would run $1 a band. The turnout for these shows was huge, I think I went to most of them, they always had huge lines and sold out. Some of the best Charles Peterson photos from that ear are from these shows, including the mammoth crowd shot during Nirvana with a dude stage diving far above the crowd... it's funny how many of my friends you can see in that shot. This article ran the UW Daily about one of the shows at the time. Phil West, the writer, wrote a bunch about the emerging grunge scene for The Daily back then and probably got little credit for it.

Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio?

Do you remember Hullabaloo?
Upbeat, Shindig and Ed Sullivan too?
Do you remember Rocknroll radio?
Do you remember Rocknroll radio?

Do you remember Murray the K,
Alan Freed, and High Energy?
Its the end, the end of the '70s.
Its the end, the end of the century.

Do you remember lying in bed with your covers pulled up over your head?
Radio playin' so one can see.
We need change, we need it fast, before rock's just part of the past.
'cause lately it all sounds the same to me.

Oh-oh. will you remember Jerry Lee,
John Lennon, T. Rex and 'ol Moulty?
It's the end, the end of the '70s.
It's the end, the end of the century.

You know, it's funny to read the lyrics of The Ramones' "Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio?" and realize they were fondly remembering the rock radio of the '50s and '60s. But that's what punk was trying to recapture, the fast rockin' two minute songs of Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holley, but roughed up around the edges. Me... I'm an '80s kid. The radio stations I fondly remember from growing up are represented above. KJET I've mentioned before, in the early to mid '80s they played the best alternative and punk music in Seattle. From the 1972 through 2001 KCMU, the University of Washington's college station, also played it's fair share of alternative and local music. After a big donation from Paul Allen in 2001, the station moved off-campus down to Allen's Experience Music Project and adapted it's name, KEXP... from there it definitely stepped up it's programming to be much more commercial, yet still has managed to maintain it's local roots (and added punk programming!).