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Filed under: Music | Tags: grunge, KEXP, proclamation, these streets, women, Women who rock month
At the beginning of this month, Mayor McGinn proclaimed February “Seattle Women Who Rock Month,” recognizing the work of the female musicians who were such a large part of the Seattle grunge music scene. The Mayor’s proclamation recognized that these women have been overshadowed by male-dominated bands and music retrospectives, in addition to their role in making Seattle’s music a part of a cultural phenomenon.
The proclamation came on the heels of the release of “These Streets,” a theatrical play and history project centered around women in the grunge era. These Streets runs at ACT Theatre through March 10, and tickets can be found here.
A blog post from KEXP takes a look at the Seattle women who contributed to Seattle’s music scene in the 1980’s and 1990’s including Goodness, The Gits, Fastbacks, 7 Year Bitch, and Bikini Kill.
KEXP also has posted a big collection of videos from women who rock, check them out!
Happy Women Who Rock Month, Seattle!
Sub Pop Records may have started small, but the label has always made a big impression. Sub Pop, which began as a fanzine and evolved into a record label in the late 1980s, is considered the epicenter of the Grunge Movement. At the end of 1989, Seattle’s music scene started to explode. Megan Jasper, vice president at Sub Pop, says being in the middle of everything felt absolutely surreal; they didn’t have perspective. “We just knew that people had given this thing a name and that it was affecting people’s lives in some interesting ways, in some great ways, and in some sad ways.”
Filed under: Music | Tags: grunge, Kelli Schaefer, larry mizell jr, Mark Pickerel, mash hall, Music, reverb festival, screaming trees, seattle, seattle weekly
Seattle Weekly
Leading up to the Reverb Festival taking place in Ballard this Saturday, Seattle Weekly has been publishing short Q&A’s with local artists about the influence of the Seattle music explosion of 1991 and how it relates to bands in the area today. A diverse selection of musicians have given their two cents, from The Screaming Trees’ Mark Pickerel to Mash Hall’s Larry Mizell Jr. to singer/songwriter Kelli Schaefer. The answers have largely been positive, but some of them may surprise you.
Filed under: Music | Tags: city of music, EMP, grunge, Krist Novoselic, live music, nevermind, Nirvana, ravenna woods, rock, Susie Tennant, The Fastbacks, the long winters, the presidents of the united states of america
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Last night, music fans gathered at EMP to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s seminal album, Nevermind. Former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic hosted the affair, which saw performances by local bands like The Presidents of the United States of America, The Fastbacks, Ravenna Woods, The Long Winters, and many more paying homage to the album that help put Seattle on the map as a City of Music. The event was also a fundraiser for local luminary Susie Tennant, who is battling ovarian cancer. Above is a video of last night’s concert, which was recorded via livestream.
Filed under: Film, Music | Tags: documentary, Doug Pray, EMP, Experience Music Project, Fastbacks, Film, grunge, Hype!, local, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, soundgarden, Tad
EMP
Hype! came out in 1996 soon after the, um, hype surrounding grunge music pushed the genre into the mainstream and simultaneously thrust Seattle into the national spotlight. Director Doug Pray masterfully captured the history and development of the movement and how the subsequent media exposure eventually led to public backlash. Documented are key interviews and performances by bands that put grunge on the map, including Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Tad, Fastbacks, and many more. An excellent companion piece to the EMP’s current exhibit, Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses, the museum will screen Hype! next week with Pray in attendance to participate in a post-screening Q & A.
KEXP Documentaries
KEXP is know for being an authority on local up-and-coming music. But the non-profit radio station’s DJs are also experts on the historical aspects of the music scene in Seattle and the Greater Northwest. Lately, the station has aired several KEXP documentary segments on the grunge movement. The most recent piece focused on the deeply talented but ill-fated band Tad. Led by frontman Tad Doyle, the group had a heavier sound than many others in the grunge scene, but that didn’t stop Tad from gaining the ardent support of a promising new label called Sub Pop Records. Although Tad was championed by fellow scene pioneers like Soundgarden and Nirvana, due to a number of factors they never broke big like their musical counterparts. Listen to the full story here, and click the link above to hear segments on Melvins, Screaming Trees, Alice In Chains, and more.
Seattle Subsonic
Seattle is famous as being the birthplace of grunge. A new book by local author Justin Henderson takes a combination of all known Seattle grunge musicians and explains how the music they made came to be. It is well known that Seattle is the Mecca of all things grunge, but was it ever apparent why this was the case? What is it about this area that influenced musicians to create a style of music that, at least at the time, went completely against the grain? Henderson doesn’t just take this at face value, he explains the history of the region and how its pre-Microsoft isolation from the rest of the world created an atmosphere that was much less expensive to live in. Join the author for the release party for the book at the Moe Bar this Wednesday, July 28. For more details, follow the link.
