Blog: A Northwest Music Blog

REVERB, the Seattle Weekly's music blog, has been one of the city's biggest advocates of local artists for years. At the beginning of this month they gathered samples from 42 local artist and label releases they reviewed and put them in one place for you to get serious earful for the latest sound here in the "City of Music". It will take the better part of your day to listen to them all but what do you really have better to do.. work? If you want to save time, here are a few that stuck with me. There's a link at [...]

Sunday, March 18, 2012 I was going to skip this last Critical Sun gig because I needed a day to get some writing done, both for this whole SXSW shindig and for some short stories and poems and new books and such. There's always writing to be done. It's a solitary endeavor, of course, this thing of writing, so after a week at SXSW I needed a break from the over-stimulation, I needed some quiet, time alone at the hotel out by the pool with a beer and the laptop and the word, but then I got some [...]

3:00 P.M. Saturday, St. Patrick's Day. Julia Massey is playing at Bar Louie's on 6th Street, and I'm waiting and waiting and waiting for a green beer that does not come. Julia finishes her second to last song, "One at a Time", and then pauses. There are some claps. She thanks everyone for listening, thanks The Jesus Rehab , whose song "Vertigo" is most excellent, for opening the show, and then says, "Also thanks to Dave of Seattle Subsonic for stopping by." That means nothing to anyone there, of course, but it's a nice gesture on her [...]

Friday, March 16 Wake up at 8:10, and I just know it. No laptop. My heart sinks. I look under the hotel bed, in the bathroom, under the bed again, out by the pool, in the van, in the lobby, under the bed one more time. Nothing. I remember having a brief conversation with a woman last night at Opal Divine's since she was reading some Bukowski, and I had just lost some Bukowski. I've been losing things down here, you see. First, there was the phone I left in the back of a taxi. The cab driver [...]

Thursday, March 16 The day begins, as many such band days do, with the wonder of how to fit all the people and all the gear into one van. There are musicians and girlfriends and friends and guitar techs and even a writer along for the trip, and there are all manner of instruments and rack cases full of cables and extension cords and extra sets of guitar strings and, of course, merchandise, CDs, stickers and tee shirts, some specific to a band, some to the whole Critical Sun 2012 event. We all stand around the van. It [...]

Thursday, March 16 The day begins, as many such band days do, with the wonder of how to fit all the people and all the gear into one van. There are musicians and girlfriends and friends and guitar techs and even a writer along for the trip, and there are all manner of instruments and rack cases full of cables and extension cords and extra sets of guitar strings and, of course, merchandise, CDs, stickers and tee shirts, some specific to a band, some to the whole Critical Sun 2012 event. We all stand around the van. It [...]

Wednesday, March 14 So this place is nuts. There is music seemingly every ten feet down the street, in bars, on corners, in the back of vans, in coffee shops, guitar stores, restsaurants, any place you can imagine. It's nothing short of awesome. So we were at the Jackalope last night for the Critical Sun showcase , and as there was free beer, things were going well. The music was sounding good for two reasons. One because it was good. I admit that I'm biased. I like these bands (if you hadn't already guessed) and [...]

Wednesday, March 14 So this place is nuts. There is music seemingly every ten feet down the street, in bars, on corners, in the back of vans, in coffee shops, guitar stores, restsaurants, any place you can imagine. It's nothing short of awesome. So we were at the Jackalope last night for the Critical Sun showcase , and as there was free beer, things were going well. The music was sounding good for two reasons. One because it was good. I admit that I'm biased. I like these bands (if you hadn't already guessed) and [...]

Tuesday, March 13. Travel Day Her is head on my chest, her left arm across my body, and the sound of her breathing is musical. It's the first time we've spent the night together. I look around her room at the dresser, the closet door half open, the previous night's glasses of Merlot, both still half-full, on the night stand next to the clock, the opened condom wrapper on the floor. "What time is it?" she asks. "5:30. I should leave soon since I have a plane to catch." "Damn. I forgot [...]

Tuesday, March 13. Travel Day Her is head on my chest, her left arm across my body, and the sound of her breathing is musical. It's the first time we've spent the night together. I look around her room at the dresser, the closet door half open, the previous night's glasses of Merlot, both still half-full, on the night stand next to the clock, the opened condom wrapper on the floor. "What time is it?" she asks. "5:30. I should leave soon since I have a plane to catch." "Damn. I forgot [...]

When I first saw Eighteen Individual Eyes , they were an all female band, and I'd just seen a few all female bands that simply were not very good so it stuck in my small brain, All Female Band . It was unfair to EIE, though. They weren't an all female band. They were just a good band that happened to be all female. It was, and is, all about the music. And the music is good. U2ish at times, even a little Radiohead like in the beat of Mares (my favorite EIE tune). They have [...]

Local independent label, Critical Sun , is sending a number of its bands to SXSW, and in the spirit of such, they have released a compilation of said artists who will be making the trek south to Austin. And I must say, I'm simply digging this Furniture Girls tune. Since this was recorded, they've added a second guitar player, Jason Lightfoot from Sightseer, and having seen them a number of times recently, their heavily danceable electronica is even beefier now, maybe danceably heavy, and apologies to the vegetarians out there, but more beef = good. Catch them [...]

One of my local favorites, Julia Massey and the 5 Finger Discount just released a video for "Aghadoe" from their CD Is There Room For Me? This song is one of those that seeps in under the skin and soon has one walking down the street with that keyboard intro repeating in the head, maybe singing along, “Please forget me,” maybe tapping out a few notes on the invisible air keyboard. And for me, this is a good thing. I like that intro. As for the video, it captures the fun element of the band. They [...]

I saw Christina Cramer of In Cahoots in front of the Hard Rock Cafe. She was smoking a cigarette and trying to chill before her show. She saw me, stamped out her smoke, "Dave! Hey, hold on. I haven't put you on the list yet." I stopped. We shook hands, walked into the building. "I'm glad you got another guitar player," I said. I'd seen them once before at the High Dive on a non-writing evening in the fall, and they had only one guitar back then, Christina's guitar. Given [...]

The next CD you need to get? Sightseer's What Tomorrow Brings . OK. Right off the bat, I'll give full disclosure. I have on occasion filled in on bass for this band so one might think I have a biased opinion, but that isn't entirely true. There's a reason, you see, why I filled in on bass when asked. Simply put, I dig the tunes. I'm not a musician for hire. I won't play a gig simply for the sake of playing a gig. There's has to be something magical [...]

I gave a reading for my book at the Skylark cafe in December, and afterward, I hung around to talk to those who came out and thank them for coming, perhaps buy a drink or two for a select few. As I was about to leave, I heard a voice, "Hi, Dave." It was Mia Bigliardi, the drummer for Death's Three Daughters. I'd seen them once before in February of 2011 , and though I liked some of the things they were attempting, I didn't feel they quite got there. To quote from myself, "Illumination would have to wait." [...]

Details. Stephen Tow's book, The Strangest Tribe: How a Group of Seattle Rock Bands Invented Grunge , has a lot of them, and though there's a mountain of information, it isn't overwhelming. It's scholarly but entertaining, interesting and funny; it's researched to no end but quite relatable for both musicians and music fans. The book covers Seattle's pre-grunge years, the late 702s through 1991, the time when something rose from nothing, when Seattle went from a few underground bands and clubs to all that would break upon the world with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, [...]

Like many musicians, P.A. Mathison of Sightseer has other artistic outlets. Sometimes, one form of expression just isn't enough, so when not playing music, she paints in the abstract. Actually, she painted first and wound up in music later in life when she heard a band rehearse "Man in the Box" one too many times, heard the singer fumble notes and melody one too many times, and she said to herself, "I can do way better than that." I've seen Sightseer a number of times , even filled in on bass for one gig, and I can [...]

The Tractor was filling up early. I'd figured it would sell out given the bill and so wanted to find myself a good spot early on to set down my beer and my notebook, plant myself somewhere so I could write without being jostled by a sellout crowd. At the Tractor, there is a row of seats to the left of the stage, and I noticed two were saved with signs that read "Reserved for Friel" so I camped there standing next to the seats and thinking I knew who would be sitting in them later. By 8:30, the place [...]

When I heard Mike McCready was playing a show at the Tractor on Tuesday, December 27 with his old band Shadow I knew I had to go. I mean, come on, it's Mike McCready at the Tractor. Not often can one see someone of his stature at such an intimate venue. So I contacted Shadow drummer, Chris Friel, who I had the pleasure of jamming with when backing up Kim Virant and asked about getting in to write about the show. He said, "Sounds good!" and thus, it's set. I'm going. I don't know much about Shadow's music [...]