I can hear the ranting at the Collier abode already: Experience Music Project's fancy schmancy website emplive.com has launched its Riot Grrrl Retrospective, which features streaming video as well as artifacts and performance footage to present the history of the riot grrrl movement as told by the grrrls themselves. I spent a full five minutes trying to get things happening on the site, and was rewarded with a bunch of go-here's and do-that's, but I've never been one to win any awards for patience. (That's why I drink drip, thank you very much.) But if you are blessed with the patience of Job, go to www.emplive.com/explore/riot_grrrl/index and relive the not-so-distant past. Also at Experience Music Project (the actual building) is Skate Media and Music, a three-day event (Thursday, August 17 to Saturday, August 19) in which skateboarding shills "spread the punk story." It should get interesting on Saturday when Mudhoney's Steve Turner moderates "When Skate Met Punk," a panel discussion featuring such pioneers of skate rock as Tony Alva, Brian Brannon, Steve Olson, Mike Roche, Ron Emory, Glen Friedman, and Tim Kerr. Music performances throughout the event include the Spits, the Vaccines, North American Bison, Himsa, U.S. Bombs, the Monkeywrench, JFA (first punk show I ever went to, by the way; JFA played exactly three songs in an abandoned house before the cops busted up the show--no bathroom, but nitrous balloons were available for $1 each), the 169ers, and TSOL.

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Speaking of old timers, Billboard.com announced last week that Sub Pop is set to release Badlands: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska on November 7. Nebraska was the Boss' 1982 solo effort, recorded on a home four-track as a set of demos and released "as is" at his insistence. Keeping it real, Sub Pop has requested that all contributions to the tribute be recorded in the same manner. So who's on it? There are some pretty impressive names: Chrissie Hynde ("Nebraska"), Billy Bragg ("Mansion on the Hill"), Ani DiFranco ("Used Cars"), Patti Smith ("Open All Night"), Ben Harper ("My Father's House"), Aimee Mann and Michael Penn ("Reason to Believe"), and Hank Williams III ("Atlantic City"), to name a few.

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Foo Fighter Nate Mendel told a funny story while doing publicity for Summersault 2000, a Canadian summer music festival. A man on his flight the prior day asked if he knew the name of "the guy that drummed for Nirvana." When Mendel replied in the negative, the apparent non-Foo fan breathlessly informed the bassist, "Well, he's on the plane!"

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Former U-Men vocalist John Bigley recently expanded his Capitol Hill lounge empire (the Capitol Club) with the swank new Barca. Conveniently located on 11th Avenue between Pike and Pine, Barca is strictly a watering hole, and should attract a fashionable clientele, given that it's right across the street from the snooty Monique Lofts.

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Back to Experience Music Project: Everyone be sure to take off the afternoon of Friday, August 11, so you can attend EMP's fascinating "Curatorial Talk," entitled "Grunge--Boon or Bust?" EMP Associate Curator Dave Rosencrans and legendary Northwest producer Jack Endino will wax both nostalgic and philosophical on the subject twice--once at noon and again at 2:00 p.m. JMJ.