Shaun Is Trying To Start a Ska Scene, Bringing Bands Like Skandalism

I went down to Le Voyeur last night after getting a text from my friend Shaun. If you frequent Olympia punk shows, or have ever been to a Kill Shot show in Seattle or Tacoma, you probably know Shaun. He's the tall, lanky, kinda crusty guy who always has a big dopey smile on his face.

You see, Shaun randomly found Bay Area ska-punks, Skandalism, while listening to music online and saw that they were trying to fill a northwest date on their tour. Apparently, they worked out the kinks, and, with a little help from Olympia Pyrate Punx, Skandalism spent their Monday on the sunny beaches of Priest Point Park. From what I hear, it was all PBRs and PBJs until they headed back into town for the show. The guys in Skandalism were very impressed with Olympia's hospitality, the energetic crowd they were able to draw on a Monday night (which was, apparently, better than their Saturday show in Portland), and our record stores. They found a tape by their friends, "Tough Stuff" at Phantom City Records. It was nice to have them here on their first real tour. They said that they'd done San Diego before, but this was the first time they've been out longer than a weekend.

I got there a bit late and the band was covering Operation Ivy's "Knowledge" when I walked in. I had a hunch these guys were going to be young, annoying stereotypes. I was wrong. The musicianship was definitely there (although someone should have turned down the bass player's microphone). The songs were passionate. At times, surprisingly so. The style was blended with a lot of different flavors, including a token Leftover Crack break down. It was refreshing to find out that the Bay Area ska-punk sound of the late 80's and early 90's is still around, and doesn't seem to have become stale or stagnant. To top it all off, the guys were very nice and handed out copies of their album, "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Friends," along with really cool logo stickers.

On my way out, I caught up with Shaun, and he let me know that he plans to be booking a lot more ska shows here in Olympia. His one concern was getting locals. The conversation seemed to be centered on the fact that Oly-ska doesn't exist and Seattle ska is elusive at best. While Shaun has plenty of contacts in touring ska bands across the country, he's going to need a lot of help finding some locals to get on bills. That's going to have to get remedied quick, because Skandalism said they hope to back. Soon. Like, four months kind of soon. If no Washington ska bands step forward, they may be playing by themselves... again.

Hot Hoodoo Talk influences, direction, and plans for their new album.

I heard Olympia alternative band, Hot Hoodoo, for the first time while I was working the kitchen at the 4th Ave Tav. They reminded me of the Afghan Wigs, Mudhoney, Nirvana, and a lot more grungy nineties bands. When I saw them heading away for the night. I excitedly stopped them to ask if I could get an interview. I was super stoked when they agreed and I went home to think about what the hell I should ask these guys.

In preparation, I listened to the demos they have up on their Reverb Nation page. At first, I found myself wondering if I had found the right page. This band sounded a bit more ethereal, more trippy, and definitely more jazz-influenced. It was reminiscent of Pink Floyd and some stuff Josh Holme did for the desert sessions. Could it be the same guys? The track "Mother Liquor" brought to more familiar ground and I managed to assure myself these were the same guys I had seen days earlier.

So what now? All my interest was about that live show. This wasn't what I bargained for. I mean, I liked what I was hearing, but now I'm wondering what was more indicative of their sound. Who Hot Hoodoo really are. I decided to just ask the standard questions and see where we took it. I was glad to find out, those guys really didn't find the recordings to be a good representation of their sound either.

I met with Hot Hoodoo at the Gyro Spot, downtown. I've never interviewed anyone before this, despite being on the other side of the questions more than once. If I were to include the transcript, or the actual recording, you'd all get to see that I, as usual, got ahead of myself and talked a lot. Maybe too much. Probably more than the guys in the band. I was tired, kinda high, and really excited to finally sit down with some musicians and share some point of view. As such, I found it hard to stay focused and get what I came for. That being said, I feel like I got some good stuff out of these guys. Here's the interview without all the weird in-between bits, and Paulie stories:

Me: How long have you guys been playing together?

Grant: We've been a band for... What is this? The third year?

Tyson: I'd say like two years and three months, probably. So, a little over two years, yeah.

Me: How'd you guys end up working together?

Grant: Tyson and I went to high school together. We jammed. Just the two of us.

Tyson: We've been jamming since we were pretty young, and then we met Josh through another guitarist that used to be in our band. We used to be a four piece.

Me: What are your major influences? I was listening to the stuff you've got up on Reverb today, and... to me, I heard some Josh Holme stuff. Like, maybe a little Queens of the Stone Age, maybe?

(Confused looks from all three members of Hot Hoodoo.)

Me: I don't know... Maybe that's just me...

Grant: Yeah, it seems like everyone who listens to it has a different impression.

Me: ..but you seem to have a little bit of a late 90's Seattle vibe in there.

Grant: Yeah, that's kinda what holds it together, but...

Tyson: Our style has kinda changed a little since we did those recordings. We're a little funkier now.

Grant: Stuff's changed, and those recordings didn't exactly sound like us.

Tyson: I remember when we recorded them, we recorded them very slow. Not a lot of energy. We're actually going in tomorrow. Starting our new album.

Me: Yeah. You guys are recording at South Sound Sound, right?

Tyson: Yeah.

Me: I recorded with that guy... [long, unnecessary story about my recording experience, why Jason Suko is awesome, and how other people I know had good experiences there.] You made the right choice.

Grants: Seems like a lot of bands, locally, are going to him too.

Tyson: Yeah, it seems like the big choice.

Me: We found him by accident. Just searched online, "recording studios in the Olympia area."

Grant: (Points at Tyson) Isn't that what you did?

Tyson: Yeah. (laughs)

Me: So, what can you tell me about that new album? I read somewhere... Is it supposed to be a concept album?

All: Yeah

Tyson: It's a concept album. It's uh...

Grant: Hopefully adding little tid-bits that aren't in our live set.

Tyson: We're gonna do more percussion work in the album than we do live. Add shakers. A lot of shaker work. Probably some bongo stuff, and...

Drums: There's a whole thing that you're supposed to do the album as you are live. Then it's like... you can make it so much cooler if you add all this crazy stuff to it.

Tyson: We want this album to be really rhythm heavy.

Grant: A lot of my favorite albums definitely have added stuff in there.

Tyson: The old psychedelic albums with all sorts of crazy stuff going on in them.

Me: You guys into Pink Floyd at all?

Grant: Yeah.

Tyson: I like a lot of Pink Floyd.

Me: I heard a lot of Pink Floyd in the guitar.

Tyson: I am a pretty big fan of Pink Floyd. So...

Me: Is there any other psychedelic stuff that heavily influences you?

Grant: (Points at Tyson) Hendrix for you, for sure.

Tyson: I like Hendrix. All that odd ball stuff. Fuzzy Duck.

Grant: It seems like we're both pretty into the psychedelic rock. Hendrix, the Doors, Cream.

Me: Do you guys have a mission statement as a band? Any political statement?

Tyson: We don't have a political statement yet. We just want to play as often as we can. Get as many people to listen to it as possible, I guess.

Me: What are your goals? Are you trying to make this a career?

Tyson: Try...

Me: Get a couple tours under your belt?

Tyson: Yeah. We're actually working on a tour this summer. Washington, Oregon, and California tour.

Grant: We'll try that and see what happens.

Tyson: We're starting to branch out a little more. Up until now we've only really been playing Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle.

Me: Have you guys done anything to promote your music outside of Washington?

Tyson: Not really. At all.

Grant: We've only had that little demo that we weren't super impressed with.

Tyson: We're waiting for this new album to come out and then we're really going to start pushin'. Pushin' everywhere.

Me: So I guess the obvious question... If you could play with any artist or band, living or dead, who would it be?

Grant: The band I'm really into is Kingston Wall. They're from Finland. They were in the 90's. Like, psychedelic rock.

Tyson: They are pretty cool. I'm gonna say Blind Melon. Yeah... I'm going with that.

Grant: Blind Melon? Interesting choice.

Josh: Love and Rockets?

Tyson: Yeah... Don't say "the Love Rockets."

Josh: Well, I'm super into punk rock music. So... I don't know though. I just like bands that have tons of energy.

Me: So like, Bad Brains then?

Josh: Bad Brains is a good band!

Me: Back flips on stage.

Grant: That's what you need to do, Josh. Back flips on stage. It will improve our stage-presence exponentially.

Me: So what are everyone's names and what do you play? I should have started there, and I totally skipped it.

Tyson: I'm Tyson. I play the guitar.

Josh: I'm Josh, on bass.

Grant: Grant on drums.

Me: I think I have everything I need. Wait... do you guys have a time you hope the new album will come out?

Tyson: Shooting for early May.

Me: Do you guys already have your art work planned out? Order of Songs?

Grant: We have our order of songs. That's where we're really struggling. Our album art.

Tyson: We have ideas, but...

Me: Are you going to get an artist to do it? Are you guys artistically inclined? You gonna do it yourselves?

Grant: We're not terribly artistically inclined, and we don't really know anyone that's a good artist.

Me: I know some artists who have done album art. Maybe I could put the word out.

Grant: That would be cool. We were thinking that cool, psychedelic, Israeli Gears type of album cover would be awesome, but none of us has the aptitude at it.

Me: Maybe we can put that up in the interview and see if anyone wants to get back to you.

Tyson: Do it. Yeah.

Grant: Yes, because if we're in charge of the art it would turn out pretty questionable.

Me: How are you planning on releasing it?

Tyson: We're going to do CDs and digital.

Me: Have you ever thought about pressing any vinyl?

Tyson: Yeah. It's a little more expensive.

[I give a long spiel on why selling vinyl is better, and how record players are becoming common place again. (Post comments about what a hipster I am below)]

Me: Do you guys have any cool shows coming up?

Tyson: We're playing Jack Fest at the Midnight Sun on the 11th [of April].



That's where I stopped the tape. We bantered a bit more, Tyson dropped the adage, "Nothing kills the mood like a metronome" in reference to not using one on the new album, and we parted ways. I thought of several questions on the way back to my car.

All in all, I was nervous, but I had a great time and I feel like I got to know Hot Hoodoo a lot better. If you haven't seen them yet, be sure to find them on Facebook and Reverb Nation, to keep track of when they're playing and where. It's definitely worth your time. I, for one, can't wait for the new album.

Handwritings - Boring, Dumb, and Fine

Handwritings is a lo-fi, indie rock band from Olympia, WA. I happened upon their most recent album, "Boring, Dumb, and Fine;" because a friend of mine saw them open for Pat the Bunny. I was glad I did.

They've got the slacker thing down. Managing to portray the "trying really hard to seem like there's no trying being done at all," that was popular with 90's bands like Pavement and Marcy Playground, without coming off as emo. All of the disjointed slack-rock that comes out after about 2000 seems so whiny to me. It's refreshing to find a solid example of that kind of music, advanced 20 years, and not tainted by the overly-hip, acoustic whine-fest, that is bands like the Mountain Goats, or Rural Alberta Advantage.

Handwritings is your typical guitar, bass, drums three piece rock outfit. The guitars come off as slightly out of tune at times, and the vocal harmonies are a bit off key, but that's obviously what they were looking for. I can hear some really juicy riffs, and mind-destroyingly catchy hooks, that were cleverly hidden behind the "we're no good at this" image they seem to be going for.

For example, 'Other Guys' boasts the hook line, "Smoke rings and cough medicine. Tell me, tell me where to begin," which should get lodged in your brain until you beat it out, but it's delivered in such an uncaring way, that it fades in with the rest of the lyrics you probably won't listen to.

For the most part, these guys come off as bored, probably stoned, and definitely lazy. Which is super relatable to the Olympia community at large. Everyone I've ever met in this town, knows all about long days spent too stoned to get up and go to that class you've skipped twice already that week. I can see this band getting lots of play here in town, or fading into obscurity, simply because the indie-hipsters care less than Handwritings want you to think they do. The fact that none of the songs really come off as a hit probably won't do them any favors either. The album as a whole, however, belongs in the cars of underwhelmed, twenty-somethings everywhere.

I give it a 3.5 out of 5.

SuperNothing - "Life We Chose"

What can you find in Kent, aside from T-birds hockey? These five fucks! Hardcore punk band, SuperNothing has been tearing up the scene since the summer of 2009. After 5 years of amazing shows and sing-alongs recorded in small bursts, they finally gave us all what we really needed; 68 minutes and two seconds of pure hatred and contempt for societies institutions.

"Life We Chose" seems to be presented to an audience that isn't gioing to get it anyway. The cover photo is the Kentcore menace playing at the 2 Bit Saloon... to a room full of punks checking their phones and having side conversations. The only people in the room that seem to care are the ones on stage, and the photographer. As they say in the title track, "We play shows that no one goes to. At least it's the life we chose." Judging by the conviction with which the lyrics are spit forth, the power of the drum kicks, the break-neck riffs, and the juiciness of the bass pops, they chose the right life.

On the surface, this LP comes off as a typical punk tirade against all the usual suspects. Junkies (Sonic Junkie,) the media (Face Time,) and the church (Jesus Fucking Christ) are all targets. Each one decimated more than the last. There's something personal in the way the lyrics are written. The words "you" and "I" pop up a lot. You can feel the belief behind the lyrics. Like Dre has honestly been writing this shit to keep from ripping the throats out of random passers-by. That's what really makes this album stand out from your standard punk fare.

To be honest, "Life We Chose" isn't the most innovative thing, musically. Somehow it never comes off as cliche. Sure, you probably won't be blown away by some genre-bending, life-changing diddy (unless you count 21 Gun Solution,) but you will not be disappointed. It's reminiscent of some early new millennium street-punk, while having what seems like a solid Fat Wreck influence. You can hear the ska, thrash. black metal, and crust influences, as well. These guys know their roots, and they know which way their leaves are growing.

The last thing I'll say is that these guys re-did some old jams and I think "Face Time" was way better this time around. Giving a very desperate, paranoid vibe to whole thing. "Dope Sick" probably should have been left the way it was. It's the only song on the album that feels like an after thought.

So, if you're new to SuperNothing, or you're an old fan, you should give this album a try. I'll be spinning it at work tonight for sure. The delivery is solid, the choruses are chantable, the lyrics are relatable, and the conviction in the performance will suck you in and make you want to smash the state right along with them.

I give it a 4 out of 5.

Burn Burn Burn - This Machine

Burn Burn Burn is a beloved Seattle punk band that I have had the pleasure of seeing and, in my Kill Shot days, playing with on many raucous occasions. Their stage presence rivals some of the greatest bands I've ever seen. I remember the Adicts exploding on stage at Punk Rock Bowling a couple years ago, and the feeling I had in my gut was almost exactly the same as the feeling I had the first time I watched Burn tear up the back room of Olympia's Le Voyeur. These guys may be fucking drunks, but the self-proclaimed Seattle Alcoholics sure do know how to hit ever note in the face, with Bruce Lee like precision. At the end of the "Life is Tight" tour, they made another stop in Oly, and killed every song. Needless to say, I had high hopes for this album.

From the opening snare hits, this EP speaks to my youth, my attachment to the concept of youth, and my discomfort with all things serious and frivolous. I get overwhelmed with thoughts of beers in the back of my friend's car, on the way to see some Seattle show. The experience of stale farts, spilled beer and accidental cigarette burns was always followed by the most glorious of slam-dancing, and a bruised and boozed night in a hotel room. That's what 'This Machine' is to me.

Everything I loved about punk rock back in those days is on this album. I thought it had been lost. That the melodies would never be as passionate, or that the albums would always be too produced. I found it in this EP though. In 2013! Can you believe it?

The song, 'My Friends,' points out that your buddies are really what matters, even when your lady decides you're too immature. 'Aim For the Drain' glorifies the life style, and alludes to the life saving comradery and self-satisfaction that come with being in a band.  'Bastard Church' cuts down the Westboro Baptist Church and gives you your angst fix. It all gets tied up with 'Tall Tales/ Entrails' which is a hyper, passionate song against the existence of Hell, and the brainwashing done by Christianity (I think.)

The album flows amazingly. The songs are true to life, while not sounding like an amateur closet recording. The label that picked it up is the real deal. If you haven't already, get your hands on copy and never let go.

I give it a 5 out of 5

Welcome to the Western Washington Fringe Music Scene Blog

Hey there!

Glad to see someone stopping by.

This blog is a work in progress. I am, by no means, a professional. I am simply a guy, with a huge passion for music. My goal is to use this blog to spread the word about local bands, record releases, and live shows. To build an audience for many bands that may not know how to get themselves out there. To highlight shows and venues that music lovers may not even know exist. To bring bands, fans, labels, and venues closer together and strengthen the music community as a whole.

So... What kind of content can you expect?

Well, first and foremost, we'll have a concert calendar that we hope to have updated daily, detailing what shows are going on, when, and where. The aim is to have these events linked to band and venue profiles on BandCamp, ReverbNation, Facebook, YouTube, etc. We'll also be linking these events to anything I've ever written about the bands, venues, festivals........ You get the idea.

The next big thing is going to artist interviews. Our hope is to do at least one interview a week. This is a new venture, so be patient if things don't happen quite that regularly.

Beyond that, you can expect reviews of live shows, albums, venues, merchandise, and the like. We'll definitely be linking to new releases, music videos, and event pages. Hopefully, we'll even be hosting our own shows in the next few months.

So sit back, relax, and let your ears get pummeled by some of the best music in the northwest.

All my love and fury,

Paulie