AltWeeklies Wire
Why We Can't Leave the '90snew

Nostalgia is predictable, safe, and increasingly regressive. Soundgarden, thankfully, is not.
Seattle Weekly |
Maura Johnston |
02-06-2013 |
Music
London, Axl, and Continued "Patience"new

Mere hours after landing at Heathrow I found myself onstage with a friend that I have been to hell and back with, and lived to tell the tale. Axl Rose and I just happened to be in hotel rooms next to each other. Unexpected? Oh, fuck yes.
Seattle Weekly |
Duff McKagan |
11-04-2010 |
Music
Tags: Guns N' Roses, Axl Rose
How a Designer Found a Niche Packaging Music in Something You Can’t Downloadnew
Byron Kalet has been applying the basic conventions of popular song—rhythm and tone—to an audio magazine he calls the Journal of Popular Noise. Recently, he released Residential, a collection of tracks by Foscil that is limited to 300 copies.
Seattle Weekly |
Brian J. Barr |
12-07-2009 |
Music
Nirvana: Back in 'Bleach'new

The first Nirvana album was probably the last one you heard, but it marks a critical chapter in Seattle music history. It's worth going back to for a fresh -- or first -- listen, even two decades after the fact and long after grunge was laid to rest.
Seattle Weekly |
Chris Kornelis |
11-02-2009 |
Music
Sub Pop Offshoot Hardly Art is Hardly Starvingnew
Like the now-defunct Sub Pop offshoot label Die Young Stay Pretty, Hardly Art receives financial backing from Sub Pop. But unlike DYSP, Hardly Art is determined to live to see middle age on its own dime.
Seattle Weekly |
Sara Brickner |
09-21-2009 |
Music
Light in the Attic Releases the "Sgt. Pepper's of French Music"new
Seattle-based Light in the Attic Records has become the first label to release Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson in the United States. Knowing this, the question is: Why didn't anyone else ever think of doing it?
Seattle Weekly |
Brian J. Barr |
04-06-2009 |
Music
Is Hip-Hop in Seattle Being White-Washed?new

Just like electric blues, hip-hop reaches a vastly broader, and whiter, audience than ever before. The difference in Seattle is that some of the most recognizable figures are by and large non-black, a fact that makes rappers like Silas Blak concerned.
Seattle Weekly |
Jonathan Cunningham |
02-23-2009 |
Music
206 Zulu Keeps the Principles of Hip-Hop Alivenew
One of the Northwest's most respected hip-hop organizations, 206 Zulu is based in Beacon Hill and is the local chapter of the legendary Universal Zulu Nation, a grassroots hip-hop advocacy group first formed in the Bronx in 1974 by rap pioneer Afrika Bambaataa.
Seattle Weekly |
Jonathan Cunningham |
02-17-2009 |
Music
Used CDs: Indie Retail’s Secret Weaponnew
The compact disc is the new cassette tape, a highly disposable and inferior format for music. And all signs point to it being wiped out for a variety of reasons. But because of a spike in the number of people looking to sell off their CD collections, the used market has been a glimmer of sunshine.
Seattle Weekly |
Brian J Barr |
01-26-2009 |
Music
Tags: recording industry, compact discs
It's Hard to Assign Blame in Seattle Club Shootingsnew
Whether blame was being aimed at Chop Suey, Big Kountry Entertainment, the city's lack of attention to a purportedly growing gang-activity problem, or the music itself, grief quickly manifested itself as cries for culpability. Few viewed it as a failure of club security, but many theories abound when looking closer at the root of the tragedy.
Seattle Weekly |
Hannah Levin |
01-12-2009 |
Music
R&B Hasn't Only Gone Soft, It's Become Downright Bullshitnew

The watering-down of the genre is one reason R&B has been disparaged as "Rap & Bullshit" by everyone from RZA of Wu-Tang Clan to rap bloggers at Cocaine Blunts to the now-defunct music site Stylus. Another is because it's artistically moribund.
Seattle Weekly |
Ben Westhoff |
12-29-2008 |
Music
Who Is Jonathan Richman?new

Richman's wisdom is that he knows it can be very difficult to restore the original visceral reaction we had to a piece of music after we've unceremoniously critiqued and torn it apart. It's a philosophy that seems right for a man who's dedicated to living in the moment, to having experiences rather than discussing them.
Seattle Weekly |
Sara Brickner |
12-15-2008 |
Music
The Titles that Axl Rose Didn't Use for GnR's Long-Delayed Albumnew
It turns out that during Rose's 17-year effort to record the album, he weighed several other different potential titles. The first batch comprised more variations on the Oriental theme, but we're guessing China wouldn't have liked them any better.
Seattle Weekly |
Brian Miller |
12-08-2008 |
Music
Avoiding Wal-Mart for Your AC/DC Fixnew
Independent retailers have found ways to get around big-box exclusives.
Seattle Weekly |
Sara Brickner |
12-02-2008 |
Music
How the Drive-By Truckers Met The Hold Steadynew
While it's no surprise that bottle rockets and plenty of mischief-making have come into the mix, the meeting of DBT frontman Patterson Hood and Hold Steady guitarist Tad Kubler involves interests as brainy as they are bacchanalian.
Seattle Weekly |
Hannah Levin |
11-25-2008 |
Music