DOA (with Bob Cutler)

This is a shot from 1999 of DOA at the Off Ramp with their sound guy Bob Cutler playing "Slave to My Dick" with them. Bob I've known for about 15 years through the National Punk-List, he's toured through Seattle a few times doing sound for DOA, his brother's band Tenderloin, and more recently Patti Smith. Bob also plays in the Topeka, Kansas band The Klusterfux. In DOA news, the band is celebrating it's 30th anniversary this year! Formed in 1978, Joey Shithead and the gang have been going strong touring and releasing records ever since. In August they will release a new album, "Northern Avenger," a full US tour should follow.

The Whyos

The Whyos were a Seattle Irish folk band Zach Orgel from Bloodhag used to play in. Their name was taken from the mostly Irish street gang from New York from the 1860s-1890s. I actually don't have a lot of info about the band, I was friends with Zach and went and saw one of their last shows, which this photo is from. I think it was in early 2000, it was definitely at Conor Byrne's Pub in Ballard.

Bell

Bell was formed in 1994 by singer and guitar player Vanessa Veselka and drummer Andy Miller. They recruited Damon Romero (ex-Treehouse, Lush) to play guitar and went through two bassists named Chris before settling in with Susan Larsen on bass in mid-1997. Bell was once described as a defiant pop band, a description I'm reusing, because it seems to capture their rough around the edges approach to indie pop that pulled in elements of punk, blues and rock. At times they sounded almost like a more pop, less angry, more country and blues version of The Gits. The band broke up around 2000. This photo is from a show in 1999 at The Breakroom in Seattle.

Discography:

• 1996, "A Clear Sense of Beauty" LP (Y Reocrds)
• 1997, "Already There/Overwhelming" 7" (K Records)
• 1998, "Perfect Math" six song EP (Yeah, It's Rock)
• 1999, "A New Kind of Rome" LP (Yeah, It's Rock)

Vanessa later formed The Pinkos with Steve from The Gits, they put out a number of releases on Empty Records and played together for a couple of years. She now performs under her own name backed by a few musicians, check out a few song here (warning, it's super mellow).

The Loose Lips

This photo is of Shane White and his fairly short-lived band The Loose Lips from around 2000. Shane had previously been in a few bands like The Spoiled Brats, The Rip-Offs and The Infections and was writing a column for Maximum Rock'n'Roll around the time he started the band. The Loose Lips was a lot more rock'n'roll than his previous bands, which I think was a let down to a lot of his fans. They were very New York Dolls with a little Heartbreakers thrown in. I just put on their "Talkin' Trash" CD to listen to as I wrote this article and it still kinda fails to grab me, but I'm definitely one that like their garage rock to fall more onto the punk/garage side of things than the rock side. Still, live they put on a good show, White's a great frontman.

Discography:
1999, "Two Time Loser" 7" (TKO)
2000, "Talkin' Trash" LP (TKO)
2001, song on "Fistful of Rock'n'Roll Vol. 6" compilation (Tee Pee)
2002, "Addicted to You" 7" (Just Add Water)
2002, song on "California Ain't Fun No More" compilation (Just Add Water)

Rainfest 2008

Not enough hardcore shows in the Northwest for you? Bored of corporate rock festivals like Bumbershoot or all the indie rock and dance bands playing The Capitol Hill Block Party this year? Check out Rainfest in Tacoma in a few weeks:



Details can be found here: myspace.com/rainfest

The Loudmouths

One of the complaints I've heard from some people, usually guys, about female punk bands and female punk singers is they aren't tough enough in the way they sing and play. You'd have been hard-pressed to hear a comment like that about Dulcinea and Beth from The Loudmouths. The typical Loudmouths song was about 2 minutes long, loud, fast, and about sex, drinking or getting in trouble. They played fast fuckin’ balls to the wall raw punk, packed with speed, energy and attitude. Here's a review I wrote of them in 1996 in 10 Things #13:

"Oh yeah, oh fuckin' yeah, this is balls-out-fast-garagey-punk-rock with female vocals. Cross the vocals of the Creamers, a Betty Page look-alike, the sounds of the New Bomb Turks and you got the Loudmouths. This is what punk rock is supposed to be about: loud, raw, power-packed, and snotty, and they don't fuckin' let up."

The Loudmouths formed in 1995 and really burst onto the scene in 1996 with two great singles, "Gone Drinkin'" on New Red Archives and "Gotta Live Fast" on Wound Up Records. That same year New Red Archives released their scorching self-titled full length album, to rave reviews in punk zines around the nation. They later did a split 7" with Seattle's Valentine Killers on Empty Records, a follow-up LP on Reno's Slovenly Records, and had a whole slew of singles and compilation cuts. Grunnenrocks has their full discography here, so I won't bother to put one together. The band split up in 2001, actually right after a tour up to the Northwest. I'm pretty sure these photos are from that show, May of 2001 at the Breakroom. I implore you to track down a copy of their first album, it holds up today as just as fresh and raucous as it was when it came out 12 years ago. Oh, and rollerderby fans, there's a great song on it called "Rockin' at the Rollerderby."

The Northwest Punk List

The Northwest Punk List is an email list-serve that's been around since the mid-'90s. It began as an offshoot of the National Punk List started by Seattle punk fans to talk about upcoming shows and local bands. It once served as the primary online hub for networking and information about Seattle's punk and live rock community and boasted 500+ members, including the bookers and promoters of almost every club in town, tons of local band members, the heads of most local record labels and more. The discussions were sometimes quite heated and lively when on topics like the security at the Crocodile, Bumbershoot, the WTO or the Teen Dance Ordinance. The list predated Livejournal, MySpace, Google, the Stranger forums and other online resources by many years. As the Web took off, online forums started replacing email list-serves and many other local music resources were started. The Northwest Punk List began to fade from use. It's still around as a resource for questions and contacting local music fans, but today it gets only a couple emails a week. This is a photo of an early gathering for drinks of NW P-list members, including Kate Becker from the Old Firehouse, Ean from Sicko, Rebecca from the Cripples, and Scott from the Valentine Killers. For more information about the list-serve or to subscribe, go here.