Shades of Eric Matthews? Employees at Sub Pop may be cringing with déjà vu following the recent stink over Red House Painters frontman Mark Kozelek's offensive remarks about Asians. (Sub Pop will release the Red House Painters' album Old Ramon on April 10.) Matthews, known for his beautiful orchestral pop but infamous for his disparaging remarks to the press about women and gays, caused more than a few label workers--as well as his fans--to redden with embarrassment after he freely and frequently aired his fundamentalist views in print. But it seems Kozelek unwittingly sparked a minor flap in San Francisco last month when he played a February 25 show at the Great American Music Hall, where he related a story about his Asian landlady, mocking her broken English. He then introduced a song about his cat with an anecdote about a remark he made before singing the same song at a show in South Korea: "Oh, but you guys eat cats here." Kozelek then assumed a Mickey Rooney-esque accent before jovially concluding the story for his San Francisco audience with an imitation of the Korean indie rocker who answered back (according to Kozelek), "No, we eat dog, we no eat cat, we eat dog!" This prompted a disgruntled fan to send a letter to the San Francisco Bay Guardian, in which she asked, "When did it become acceptable to perform a debased characterization based on ugly ethnic stereotypes in order to bring a few cheap laughs? Would it have been 'funnier' if Kozelek had purposely slanted his eyes as well?" In the publication's weekly music column, Kozelek responded innocently, relating that the 400 Koreans who heard his cat joke laughed, and that he was making fun of his landlord's absurd actions, not her language skills. He then offered that no one is persecuted for doing an impression of George W. Bush with a Southern drawl. Oh, Mark! Honey, put a cork in it before you've dug yourself all the way to, well, China.

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More Sub Pop news: The label wisely unloaded the money pit that was the Yo-Yo's, the British band whom Sub Pop spent upward of $135,000 backing last year (and who sold upward of oh, 1,500 copies of its label debut, Uppers and Downers). Too bad the label did it right after the band had just finished making a new video to go with the newly released single.

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So who's the latest local band to bring the majors sniffing around these parts? Rumor has it that Blood Brothers will be signed to Virgin Records by the time this installment of It's My Party hits the streets. A young, immensely talented hardcore unit featuring two singers, Blood Brothers boasts a lineup that includes members of the Vogue and Waxwing. And since hardcore is poised to be the next breakthrough genre in the area (in addition to the fine musicianship of Botch, some established local bands are claiming to be headed in that direction on future projects), it looks like the black-and-red-wearing rock crowd may have to retire the red, or forever look so last century.

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I've got a pocket full of black eyes for the jackass whose big idea it was to throw a set of keys at Aveo drummer Jeff MacIsaac during the band's set in Olympia last weekend. The keys smacked into MacIsaac's face, leaving a bloody gash on his forehead. Shame on you.

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Finally, confidential to Joe: May Meice rest in peace.

kathleen@thestranger.com