Peace from Seattle!

May 30, 2012 at 11:56 pm

20120530-232416.jpgWent up to Seattle for Memorial Day Weekend.  Katrina was working a conference up there, so I tagged along and explored the city while she worked.  The first thing I noticed was the clean air.  No smog!  Pretty amazing.  Apparently, the warm, sunny weather I experienced this past weekend was NOT a normal thing in Seattle, so I appreciated it that much more.  Spent some time trying out local food joints, buying records, people watching, and walking around Downtown and Ballard, mostly.  Caught a folk festival, visited the EMP museum, and evaded a shooting at the space needle.  Quite the interesting experience.

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I flew in Friday night after work, and didn’t get to the hotel until almost 10pm, so I figured I’d grab a quick bite from room service, get some good sleep, and start Saturday off early.  I walked about 30 minutes to this breakfast spot called The Shanty Cafe in Lower Queen Anne.  Then I headed to Seattle Center to spend most of my day at the EMP (Experience Music Project) Museum.  Very similar to the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, but this seemed to have much more in volume, engagement, and overall presentation.  I spent over 3 hours going through the Jimi
Hendrix, Nirvana, and AC/DC exhibits.  They even have an area called Sound Lab, where you can play instruments, jam with others, and pretty much just rock out however you want.20120530-232513.jpg  The most extensive, and most interesting, was the Nirvana exhibit.  Artifacts, guitars, clothing, original artwork, contracts, and more were on display, accompanied by video and audio archives from various shows, tours, etc.  I felt like my experience with Nirvana in the early 90’s was so naive, and I didn’t quite understand (when I was 10) how important, and rare, it was for this band to crossover into mainstream America (or as the exhibit said “Mainstream American came to Nirvana”).  Not only did Nirvana make it, but numerous other bands from Seattle ended up blowing up as a result of the grunge scene going viral.  I left EMP feeling very humbled and full of information!  Always a good thing.  More about my digging adventures to come…

Little Shalimar – The Best Thing Since Chin Chin

January 6, 2012 at 8:00 am

I posted on Facebook today that I was waiting for a band to make me as excited as I was when Chin Chin’s “The Flashing, The Fancing” was released in 2009.  As I decided to write this post, I checked out Little Shalimar’s homepage and what did I discover? Torbitt Schwartz, the brains behind Little Shalimar, is also founder of Chin Chin.  I thought there were striking similarities in the vocals.  Chin Chin’s sound is much more dance oriented, with some other instruments involved.  I was instantly impressed with Torbitt’s new release, The New Pneumonia Blues, and couldn’t wait to share it with you.  Unfortunately, no upcoming shows in Los Angeles, but maybe we can convince to come out for no money.  This is just good, fun, rock n’ roll, and I can dig it.

You can download the new Little Shalimar EP for free on bandcamp.  Check him out on Facebook as well.  “Winds of Wackness” is definitely my favorite track.

White Denim “Cat City”

December 14, 2011 at 9:12 am

This is from a new project from White Denim that I could not for the life of me seem to find about a month ago. Now it’s all over the place.  Not connecting to the vocals, but the production here is really fresh.  Love the breakdowns, and the solo!

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