Crowded behind a perilously perched amp stack at a Punkin House show last week, I realized how impressive Seattle's network of house shows has become. The variety of unusual touring acts setting up in basements and living rooms is pretty outstanding and it seems to be the same group of young enthusiasts putting the shows together. All of which greatly adds to the amount of new, adventurous music hitting Seattle--even though, in the warmer months, those "venues" can sometimes smell like 10-day-old hippie (and never was there a riper smell, I tell ya). The Punkin House hosts Mannequin (www.roboticempire.com/mannequin/news.html) on Saturday, August 2. E-mail me for the address if you're interested.
The ripple effects of the Exploding Hearts' recent tragic deaths continue to resound--all the way to Rolling Stone, which was rooting around for a photo of the band recently (nice that the magazine didn't deem the act worthy of press until after their accident). Although a memorial show was scheduled for the band in Portland on July 30, Chop Suey--the last venue the Hearts played in this city--is setting up a Seattle tribute on August 29 with a bunch of bands to be announced.
I interviewed awesome San Francisco punk band Bottles & Skulls for a story back when I lived in that city, and the singer, Brent Travis Jones, was so drunk he ended up smashing a bottle and walking out on the guitarist, Christian Erik, and I. One minute he was giving monosyllabic answers to questions about the band, and the next he was ready to fight. That breed of the volatile, quickly agitated rocker comes through in the band's music, which is a Black Flag-style look at the world. Their latest record, Born in a Black Light (produced by Jack Endino), has the bruise-colored heaviness of a Sabbath record, the breakneck tempo and aggressive delivery of early Southern California hardcore, and an intensity that goes worlds beyond your typical three-chord crap. B&S come to Seattle to play two shows: one at the Lobo with the Charming Snakes on August 2, and the other one at 4 p.m. with the Spits and the Triggers for the Sunset's new Sunday punk rock matinees.
