4 posts tagged “seattle”
plans for friday:
as soon as i get off of work, jeff and i are going to the midnight premier of that new indiana jones movie. i've got to admit, i'm not a big indiana jones buff in the least - but he is - so we are going. i've never actually given indiana jones a shot, so this will be his shot. i am excited to be in downtown seattle so late at night though because that's when it is the most beautiful. the premier is also being held at the cinerama and that is the same place we went to go see cloverfield - which was actually a really good movie that i enjoyed quite a lot. getting to spent a good portion of the night in downtown seattle definitely sounds like a perfect night to me.
plans for saturday:
thankfully, lydia cancelled this saturday's prose class so that we could get out and enjoy our three-day weekend. i'm very grateful for that. when i was talking to jeff, i happened to bring up that i hadn't been to vashon island in a really long time and that it was really gorgeous there. and we had talked about going bike riding for some time now, so we figured now was as good of a time as any! the plan for saturday is to take the ferry over to vashon island and to rent bikes from the vashon island bike shop! and then, i hope to be able to bike around the island; its only a few miles. i hope mother nature will be kind and give us good weather so our day is fun and enjoyable rather than wet and cold.
plans for sunday:
sunday is as sunday always was: clean up, laundry, take care of things, etc. it will hopefully be a nice day and it will hopefully be a calm and peaceful day. jeff is working and hopefully after biking around vashon, we won't be too sore because at 7 o'clock we have a schoolyard heroes to go to at el corazon! he isn't a big fan, but i am quite a devotee, so i am making a point of it to go. i am less than thrilled by all of the really crummy opening bands but thankfully they are headlining so that means their show will be the longest and the most spectacular. i am excited to see them, and also very glad that the next day is not a school day. i hate going to school with ringing ears and tired legs.
plans for monday:
monday is wind down day and study for test day. luckily, my last test of the quarter is this tuesday for philosophy and we're being tested on euthanasia. thankfully, he isn't making this one an in-class essay, instead it is a take-home and we only have to define the terms in class (which are usually really easy. i tend to miss points on the essay). i will still, of course, have final projects, but they aren't exams.
- ethics: final project on sexuality and self-image as it pertains to younger females.
- soc: analyzing socioeconomic status as it relates to learning and parental teaching styles. this study will be conducted in the form of interviews with 10 year olds and their legal guardians.
- prose: second hybrid that uses two or more different types of media.
the time has come, oh dear friends, for siff.
all of those neon bright signs that are popping up all over town in russian, japanses and english saying "new movies" - that's siff!
shameless advertising.
here's what i'm confirmed for so far:
huddersfield - 06/04/2008 - 7PM
choke (!!!) - 06/07/2008 - 4PM
it's hard to be nice - 06/09/2008 - 9:30PM
i'll see what else catches my eye. a lot of the movies from France are looking mighty delicious this year. also, no matter what the closing night movie is, i will go see it. and then - swanky party afterwards. i'll see if i can drag jeff with me this year because my usual pals - also known as nancy and ron! - are going to be in the rainforests of south america during this time, i believe.
p.s. if you didn't catch on - choke is the chuck palahniuk movie. based off of the book with the same name. i am thrilled! it is out! and i get to see it before it officially comes out (september or something, after the summer movie bum-rush). i can't wait. i can't wait. i simply cannot wait!
i don't usually like discussing politics in a place where it is open to the world but i sincerely do not care because this presidential candidate... is worth of all the potentially negative things i will hear because of this post.
OLYMPIA — Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire endorsed Barack Obama for president Friday, providing a last-minute lift to the Illinois senator on the eve of the state's hotly contested Democratic caucuses.
Gregoire, announcing her choice in an interview with The Associated Press, said that taking sides in the close contest for the Democratic nomination was tough, given her great admiration for Sen. Hillary Clinton.
But she said Obama is a charismatic and skilled leader who can bring the country together, help solve nagging problems, and restore the country's image abroad.
Gregoire planned to join Obama in a major campaign rally at Seattle's KeyArena on Friday.(courtesy of the Seattle Times)
the presidential caucuses are taking place this Saturday. I knew electing Gregoire had been one of the best things this state has done.
Also, way to go Bush on the economic stimulus plan. I'm not sure that it will work exactly as it is planned to work and that it will save America from the recession that is bound to happen - but it will at least make it less severe. Maybe it would have been better for the plan to have been passed before the situation was this bad, but better late than never.
Last but not least, thank you John McCain for changing your mind, although, ideally, you should have voted for this in the first place.
"Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the likely Republican presidential
nominee, who had not voted Wednesday, voted for the [economic stimulus] plan Thursday."
(courtesy of the Seattle Times)
Sub Pop's got some kind of record
Seattle Times staff reporter
SUBPOP RECORDS
They need a new poster — now it's 20 years of records.
Sub Pop Top 10 albums sold
1. Nirvana, "Bleach" (1989), 1.6 million
2. Postal Service, "Give Up" (2003), 902,885
3. The Shins, "Oh Inverted World" (2001), 547,274
4. The Shins, "Wincing The Night Away" (2007), 500,813
5. The Shins, "Chutes Too Narrow" (2003), 462,574
6. Hot Hot Heat, "Make Up The Breakdown" (2002), 282,141
7. Sunny Day Real Estate, "Diary" (1994), 226,388
8. Iron & Wine, "Our Endless Numbered Days" (2004), 220,157
9. Iron & Wine, "The Creek Drank The Cradle" (2002), 133,752
10. Iron & Wine, "The Shepherd's Dog" (2007), 133,490
Listen up
Hear songs from Sub Pop bands, including Band of Horses, Grand Archives and Helio Sequence; buy CDs; and download podcasts at Sub Pop online: www.subpop.com
At a Queen Anne cafe the other day, four 20-somethings were huddled around a laptop, working on a business plan ("I think we should write something up, in case we get an offer ... ").
Twenty years before them, a 28-year-old slacker sat at that very table in Uptown Espresso, writing a business plan — longhand. "It was before laptops," Jonathan Poneman recalled, with the self-deprecating smirk he often uses.
His brother and mother set him to the business-plan task, a prerequisite to tap into "about $15,000 in savings bonds"; older brother Fred had to first sign off on Poneman's idea for a record company.
Until then, this Toledo native who came to Seattle in his teens was just another amateur music buff and bar-crawler. The one-time musician had started working behind the scenes, putting on shows at the U District's modest Fabulous Rainbow Tavern, by now-legendary Seattle bands like Green River and Soundgarden. His take was meager, and Poneman made the rent at day jobs.
As part of the scene, he met Bruce Pavitt, who had moved here from Olympia, where he launched a fanzine called Subterranean Pop — soon after shortened to Sub Pop — and released tapes of Northwest bands under the same name.
"Bruce and I decided we would work together," Poneman recalled, as a latte started pumping energy into the sleepy-eyed, casually dressed entrepreneur. "We shared the same vision: to create a record label that would document our particular scene."
And what began as a hobby turned into a business.
"Bruce and I quit our day jobs in March. On April 1, 1988, we signed a lease and moved into an office."
While he acknowledges Pavitt started using the term "Sub Pop" years prior to that, Poneman is firm about 1988 as "our Year Zero." That's the year "Sub Pop became a full-time operation. We went from being a bedroom operation to having an office ... . It made us feel legitimate."
Major-label deals
The pair still had amateur aesthetics, but real money to play with now. Poneman and Pavitt spent some of it flying in British gonzo-journalist Everett True and plying him with drinks — it worked, as he went home and wrote Melody Maker articles on Sub Pop and the Seattle scene. ("They're speed demons with long hair flaying, whose revivalist, left-of-centre metal is flung in our faces with an enthusiasm and awareness of heritage that's hard to resist," True wrote in a 1989 article that praised Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, Tad and Soundgarden.)
It was also 20 years ago that Nirvana's recording career had its innocuous launch, with Sub Pop releasing its "Love Buzz" cover (with "Big Cheese" as the B-side) as a single. It didn't cause much of a stir, but Sub Pop released the full-length "Bleach" the following June.
Two years later, Nirvana had a multimillion-selling Geffen album, the ubiquitous "Nevermind." The almost ridiculous surge of Nirvana from an obscure Sub Pop band to a generation-defining entity led labels to sign all sorts of bands around Seattle, in the vain search for the next big thing.
As for the label, in 1995, Sub Pop signed a deal selling 49 percent ownership to Warner Bros. Records — imitating the "sign with a major label" success of many of its bands.
By 1996, Pavitt had had enough of the music business, and retired from Sub Pop. Poneman rode out some lean years in the late-'90s, a time that many around Seattle predicted the little label would die — just like grunge, which it helped birth.
They're not dead yet
"Going out of business since 1988" is one of its slogans, but the demise of Sub Pop is yet to happen. Indeed, sales have never been better, as in recent years records by the Postal Service, Iron & Wine, Hot Hot Heat and the Shins became big sellers for Sub Pop. Of course, "big sellers" is relative, as the label has had but one "platinum" seller, Nirvana's "Bleach." (See a list of Sup Pop's top sellers on Page J1.)
Those who still dismiss Sub Pop as "that little grunge thing from back in the day" are missing the boat. In an e-mail interview, Jonathan Cohen, a Billboard senior editor, wrote about Sub Pop's reputation, old and new.
"I don't think they've been known as a grunge label for a very long time. Sub Pop remains one of the most important American indie-rock labels, regardless of its history with that particular type of music. They're very in touch with the pulse of the underground scene (as evidenced by signings like Wolf Eyes and No Age) while simultaneously building bands that are selling as many records as some major-label acts (Shins, Postal Service)."
The Billboard editor looks for a banner year from Sub Pop: "The new Helio Sequence record is fantastic, and there's a huge buzz for some of their new signings, like Blitzen Trapper. The Gutter Twins will also be a big record for them in '08, as well the Flight of the Conchords disc."
Rod Moody, of first-generation Sub Pop band Swallow, takes it a step further. Even though Pavitt and Poneman both tried to replace the guitarist years ago ("and even suggested a specific replacement for me"), he calls the Sub Pop founders "marketing geniuses. They took many, many chances, and were able to dig themselves out of a severe financial crisis. ... They were responsible, along with Bill Gates and Howard Schultz, for putting Seattle on the map."
Oh, the irony!
Sub Pop, up there with Microsoft and Starbucks? The record label certainly has to rank as one of Seattle's most successful startups, standing the test of time. And while larger labels are struggling with diminished sales, Sub Pop had one of its best years ever in 2007.
But it maintains a college-newspaper attitude. From its early "Lamefest" festivals to its wacky sloganeering ("world domination") to its Web site news section ("Pandering to the Locals"), Sub Pop is addicted to irony, faux grandeur delivered with heavy winks.
After all, this is the place that pulled one of rock's great pranks: Megan Jasper, then a receptionist, made up terms like "swingin' on the flippity-flop" (supposedly meaning "hanging out") when a New York Times reporter called to find out what kind of slang grunge had. At another company, Jasper might have been fired for such a prank. At Sub Pop, she is now general manager. Such is the way Poneman treats his 25 employees.
Poneman, who is 48 and single, might not be out every night, as he once was, but you can still find him lurking in the crowd — often alone, always with a low profile — around Seattle rock clubs. The Crocodile was his favorite venue, and when it closed suddenly in December, he considered buying the club. While at least one other group apparently outbid him (Groupee has applied for the Crocodile's liquor license), it whet his appetite, and he says he and/or Sub Pop may look at opening a Seattle venue.
Whether or not he opens a new club, Poneman remains a huge player in the Seattle music scene.
Last year, Sub Pop launched Hardly Art, a label-within-a-label that has signed new Seattle bands Arthur & Yu and the Dutchess and the Duke. "It has a 'laboratory quality' to it," Poneman says, indicating the quote marks with his hands, again with that smirk. "It's a baby label, in the same way that Sub Pop started as a baby label."
The original baby is now 20, and Poneman has some celebration shows in the works, closer to the April Fools' Day anniversary. Poneman is holding back details, but it's a good bet that the Shins, Band of Horses, Mudhoney — singer Mark Arm also works in the Sub Pop warehouse, by the way — and several other bands from its current roster will play at anniversary shows. Don't be surprised if there's a reunion, perhaps even Green River.
Sub Pop's kind of town
Sub Pop long ago earned a national reputation, and in recent years has earned a second one. Yet it remains, in many ways, a Seattle thing.
"Sub Pop would not have been Sub Pop without Seattle," Poneman says. "Seattle is an essential component to the story. Sub Pop is less geographical [now] — it has less of a regional focus. But Seattle is still home — I can complain about the irresponsible development going on downtown, I can complain about the traffic and real-estate prices, but it's still my home. And I think I can speak for Sub Pop: The people living in Seattle have always been very supportive of Sub Pop."
While he cites independent radio station KEXP (and its predecessor, KCMU) and Seattle indie record stores as "amazing partners to Sub Pop through the years," it again comes down to the bands. While Sub Pop's signings extend around the country, the most successful have Northwest roots.
And, Poneman flatly states, "We are in the midst of a resurrection" of Seattle music. He cites Band of Horses, new signings Grand Archives (led by Mat Brooke, formerly of Carissa's Wierd and Band of Horses) and Fleet Floxes, and unsigned (for now) band the Moondoggies as "great, great bands that are coming up — very exciting."
But Poneman can't talk too long without that self-deprecating, ironic streak. And here comes that smirk again.
"I've signed bands to Sub Pop whose parents used to watch the original Sub Pop bands."
