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ACRL National Conference

Amanda Hornby and Anna Bjartmarsdóttir Sveinbjörnsson Beyond Engage in ’s real

he 14th ACRL National Con- hood in the early 1900s.1 During Tference provides librarians the 1920s and 1930s, Seattle was with the opportunity to engage in also home to a politically radical Seattle’s vibrant culture. Grunge scene, and folk singer rock made Seattle’s music scene regularly stayed famous, but Seattle’s current local in town. music scene is as diverse as it is Seattle’s Jackson Street innovative. Seattle’s jazz and past scene flourished from the late 1930s to the (and present) is characterized by independent , and dozens of jazz clubs prospered thought, unique musical collaborations, and along Jackson Street, thanks to the talent a sense of place. We hope of like Ray that this article will help Charles and jazz singer Er- you understand the rich nestine Anderson. Seattle history behind Seattle’s experienced considerable scene and growth during the 1930s provide you with a guide and 1950s, and soldiers to going out and enjoying and workers, looking for it. Whether it’s rock, a good time, helped make jazz, classical or , Seattle a boomtown for Seattle’s music scene has bootleggers and live mu- a dizzying array of live sic. Seattle’s Chinatown music venues and genres also played host to a to choose from. We invite dynamic after-hours jazz you to engage in one scene, particularly the Jazz musicians playing at local club, of Seattle’s most thriving celebrated Black and Tan Seattle, 1961. Copyright: Seattle Post-Intel- enterprises: the live music ligencer Collection, Museum of History and Club. Seattle’s music scene scene. Industry began to receive more na- tional attention in the 1950s Seattle’s early music scene: Vaudeville, when local the Fleetwoods produced jazz, and the “Northwest sound” the first national pop hit from the Northwest As a remote Northwestern town, Seattle’s live musical entertainment in the early 1900s was largely imported from across the United Amanda Hornby is media and technology studies librarian at the University of Bothell/ States. Seattle soon became the center of Cascadia Community College Campus Library, e- rowdy vaudeville touring circuits and several mail: [email protected], and Anna Bjartmarsdóttir theater chains, including the . Sveinbjörnsson is Nordic studies librarian at the Libraries, e-mail: as23@u. An active jazz community began to develop washington.edu around Seattle’s Jackson Street neighbor- © 2008 Amanda Hornby and Anna Bjartmarsdóttir Sveinbjörnsson

C&RL News October 2008 530 white kids in the Northwest seized upon black R&B with a manic, almost awkward ferocious- ness, epitomized by ’s anthem, ‘.’”3 This influential scene also helped to inspire Seattle native ’s innovative electric rock sound, music producer Quincy Jones, and many others. As a major university town, Seattle expe- rienced its share of the activist move- ment, including folk music, underground newspapers, an active Black Panthers chapter, and the outdoor music festivals of the 1960s and 1970s.4 In addition to groovy acts The Kingsmen loading instruments into such as Ze Whiz Kidz, the most well-known trailer, Seattle, 1964. Copyright: Seattle Post- Seattle rock group to emerge in the 1970s Intelligencer Collection, Museum of History and was Heart, fronted by sisters Ann Industry and Nancy Wilson. and Seattleite Ron Holden’s soul ballad Seattle: and hip “Love You So” reached the national top-ten hop Billboard list.2 In the 1980s, grew out of During this time period, a “Northwest Seattle’s garage rock scene, and Seattle heavy sound,” heavily influenced by Seattle’s jazz metal band Queensrÿche gained national scene, began to emerge with the garage rock attention. In the ‘80s, Seattle’s First Avenue music of local bands the Wailers, the Kings- became home to many and hard- men, , and Paul Revere and the core music hangouts; major bands from this Raiders. Seattle jazz historian Paul De Barros scene included The , Green River, remarks that “in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Solger, TAD, , and more. The punk

Live music

What bands are playing while you’re Live and in Seattle at the ACRL National Confer- • KEXP Calendar, kexp.org ence? Consult these online resources for /events/clubcalendar.asp up-to-date information and live music • Music Listings, new. concert listings. Seattle’s exciting live thestranger.com/music music scene awaits, no matter what your musical tastes. Live jazz music • Ear Shot Jazz Calendar, www. Live music–all types earshot.org/Calendar/calendar.asp These sources include live hip hop, jazz, • KPLU Music Calendar, events. and opera, indie rock, and publicbroadcasting.net/kplu/events. . eventsmain • Seattle Post-Intelligencer Live Be sure to visit the ACRL Conference Wiki Music Calendar, seattlepi.nwsource.com for more live music information, ACRL confer- /wh/livemusic.asp ence details, and Seattle’s best music and res- • Seattle Weekly Music Calendar, taurant picks at wikis.ala.org/acrl/index.php www.seattleweekly.com/music/ /ACRL_14th_National_Conference_Wiki.

October 2008 531 C&RL News and hardcore music scene embraced a do- the band’s distorted, feedback-heavy sound. it-yourself, anti-corporate attitude infl uenced and other promoters of the “Seattle by local music and independent news- sound” publicized a very particular image of papers, like and Desperate Times, grunge music: “long hair, flailing heads, slam and local independent radio stations.5 dancing and , beer, cynicism, male The rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot emerged in the bonding, feedback, ear damage, smoke…no 1980s out of Seattle’s small but vibrant hip politics, no R&B, no women in sight.” This hop scene. Sir Mix-A-Lot cofounded a hip depiction was an “inaccurate portrayal of all hop in Seattle bands,” but the 1983 with DJ music press and the Nes, who also hosted media at large eagerly Seattle’s fi rst hip-hop accepted the image.9 radio show; Sir Mix- Following the suc- A-Lot promoted the cess of bands like Nir- Seattle hip hop sound, vana and , and produced his own the media and fashion tracks.6 Sir Mix-A-Lot world flocked to Se- gained national notice attle to cash in on the with his single “Posse music and style, and on Broadway,” which the flannel shirt (worn referred to Broadway by grunge bands for Street in Seattle. Sir marquee in Seattle. Copyright: Photo its cheapness and courtesy of Joe Quercia Mix-A-Lot later collab- durability) became orated with Seattle rock groups and symbolic of the high-fashion grunge look. Presidents of the United States of America. Pearl Jam frontman unwillingly typified the grunge Seattle sound and look in “Grunge” music: The new Seattle sound the mainstream media by being featured on Seattle had a thriving the cover of Time magazine under the headline rock scene in the 1980s and , and grunge “All the Rage.” emerged as a term for the music in 1991-1992; the grunge rock movement in Seattle (and be- Seattle’s other music scenes yond) represented authentic Even as the grunge scene took a more aggres- to “rent-a-culture,” yuppies, packaged bands sive, masculine tone, many female musicians promoted by major music record producers, were making waves in Seattle and beyond. and overblown excess.7,8 Many of the female bands were outspoken The record label Sub Pop is widely credited feminists and radicals, especially the bands with introducing Seattle grunge music to na- and zines associated with the “” scene tional and international audiences. In the late centered in nearby Olympia, Washington.10 1980s, Sub Pop record label founders Jonathan The band was among the most Poneman and (the author of a well-known of the “riot grrrl” music scene. music called Subterranean Pop) released ’s Olympia-based band, Hole, recordings of new Northwest bands like Nir- was re-formed upon her move to Seattle in vana, Mudhoney, Girl Trouble, and Sound- the early 1990s and straddled the labels of garden. The resulting widespread interest in “grunge” and “riot grrrl.” the grunge sound, which also included Pearl Enthusiasm for grunge music began to Jam and , soon made Seattle’s wane in the later mid-1990s, and many Seattle music scene famous. The most well-known music fans hoped for the death of grunge so of the grunge bands was Nirvana, recognized that a greater diversity of Seattle music could for its charismatic lead singer and be heard, including bands like Sky Cries Mary,

C&RL News October 2008 532 Live music venues

Jazz Neumos, 925 E. Pike St., Seattle, WA Downtown Seattle 98122, (206) 709-9467, www.neumos. Musiquarium Lounge (at the Triple com Door), 216 Union St., Seattle, WA 98101, Chop Suey, 1325 E. Madison, Seattle (206) 838-4333, www.thetripledoor.net WA, 98122, (206) 324-8000, www.chop- Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, 2033 6th Ave. suey.com # 255, Seattle, WA 98121, (206) 441-9729 Comet Tavern, 9822 E. Pike St., Seattle www.jazzalley.com WA, 98122, (206) 323-9853, www.myspace. Tula’s, 2214 2nd Ave., Seattle, WA com/thecomettavern 98121, (206) 443-4221. www.tulas.com Highdive, 513 N 36th, Seattle, WA 98103, (206) 632-0212, www.highdivese- Indie rock, alt-country, hip hop, and attle.com more The Triple Door: 216 Union St., Se- Ballard neighborhood attle, WA 98101, (206) 838-4333 www. Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave., thetripledoor.net Seattle WA, 98107, (206) 784-4880, www. sunsettavern.com Fremont neighborhood The Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave., Nectar Lounge: 412 N 36th St., Seattle, Seattle WA, 98107, (206) 789-3599, www. WA 98103, (206) 632-2020, www.nectar- tractortavern.com lounge.com

Downtown Seattle/Capitol Hill neighborhood Georgetown neighborhood The Showbox, 1426 7th Ave., Seattle Jules Maes Saloon, 5919 Airport Way WA, 98101, (206) 628-2297, www.show- S. Seattle, WA 98108, (206) 957-7766, www. boxonline.com myspace.com/julesmaessaloon

Hammerbox, and Seattle punk rock and hip international rock bands like Kulture Shock, hop groups. Sir Mix-A-Lot even used “No avant-garde jazz artists like Bill Frisell, and a Grunge” as the subtitle for a compilation of celebrated independent (or “indie”) rock scene Seattle rappers his record label released.11 The typified by bands like , death by of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain in Sleater-Kinney, Built to Spill, , 1994, in part, signaled the end of the grunge and many more. phenomenon, but did not dim Seattle’s reputa- Seattle’s hip hop scene has recently tion as a music town. gained national attention with local acts like Blue Scholars, Common Market, Abyssinian The end of grunge, the start of Creole, the Saturday Knights, and more. The something independent Northwest hip hop scene is known for an In the aftermath of the worldwide grunge independent hip hop sound, with music music fever, an innovative independent often focused on civil rights in the Northwest music scene began to flourish in Seattle and and other social equality issues. One of the the Northwest. The Seattle music scene was most well-known Seattle hip hop groups is regenerated in the late 1990s and with Blue Scholars, whose name is a play on “blue an active alternative-country scene, featuring collar.” Their music and lyrics focus on social bands like the Dusty 45s and , justice issues and youth empowerment. Blue

October 2008 533 C&RL News Scholars have even performed live several Pop’s 20th anniversary in 2008, The Seattle times at the Seattle Public Library. Times remarked that “Going out of business since 1988” is one of the label’s slogans, but Seattle’s today Sub Pop’s sales have never been better, Today, the Seattle music industry is thriving; evidenced by national bestsellers like Seattle in addition to countless local bands, there are band .12 In 2007, Sub Pop an abundance of recording studios, record- also launched the record label Hardly Art, ing labels, and music venues. One recording promoting new Seattle bands such as Arthur studio that seems firmly rooted in the grunge & Yu and and the Duke. era is , formerly known as Bad Ani- mals, founded by Steve and Debbie Lawson in Seattle’s live music venues 1979. This studio recorded some well-known Seattle has a varied live music scene. While musicians such as Alice in Chains, B.B. King, in Seattle, you may find that, whatever part , Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgar- of town you’re in, there are sure to be a few den, and R.E.M. Another studio with a lengthy clubs, bars, or cafes with a live music line-up. but more indie rock clientele list is Jupiter Visit favorite local venues Neumos or Chop Studios, founded in 1996 by Michael Feveyear Suey in the hipster-friendly Capitol Hill neigh- and Xian Folghum. The roster includes bands borhood, near downtown. Both have a packed such as Modest Mouse, , and calendar of music shows to choose from, with . both local and touring indie rock and hip hop In addition to recording studios, Seattle has bands. For those in search of a mellow, com- many record labels. Sub Pop, Epoch Records, fortable environment with relaxing live jazz Barsuk, Up Records, Mass Line Media, and music, head over to the Musiquarium Lounge Light in the Attic are just a few of the current at the Triple Door, in downtown Seattle. They local labels promoting indie rock and hip feature mostly local jazz musicians, and there is hop from Seattle and beyond. The record usually no cover charge. Nearby is Dimitriou’s label Mass Line Media is a co-op record label Jazz Alley, the premier venue for live jazz. run by hip hop acts Common Market, Blue Downtown Seattle is also home to major live Scholars, and Gabriel Teodros. Of all of the music venues The Showbox and the Moore local record labels, Sub Pop is still a tastemaker Theatre. The Showbox features both big name for music-savvy Seattleites. Reporting on Sub and indie local bands and recently opened

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C&RL News October 2008 534 The Showbox Sodo, south of downtown. in with us next month for an article on Seattle’s The Moore Theatre is a historical landmark many cultural offerings. that features big live music acts, comedians, and more. Notes Visit the Ballard neighborhood, known 1. Paul De Barros, Jackson Street After Hours: for its hip boutiques and farmer’s market, of Jazz in Seattle (Seattle: Sasquatch for several live music choices. A favorite Books, 1993). neighborhood live is the Sunset 2. Clark Humphrey, Loser: The Real Seattle Tavern. With a full lineup of live bands most Music Story (Seattle, WA: MiscMedia, 1999). weeks, the Sunset has a warm and intimate 3. De Barros, 1993, 204. atmosphere where you can really feel close 4. Humphrey, 1999. to the music. The Tractor Tavern is a roomier 5. Ibid, 1999. venue, just down the street from the Sunset on 6. “Sir Mix-A-Lot,” VH1.com, www.vh1. Ballard Avenue. They tend to focus on alter- com/artists/az/sir_mix_a_lot/bio.jhtml. native country, folk, or low-key indie music. 7. “Music: Grunge Rock,” American Decades, For a more raucous rock experience, head to ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Vol. 10: 1990-1999 the Jules Maes Saloon, situated in the heart of (: Gale, 2001). the industrial Georgetown neighborhood. The 8. Humphrey, 1999, 133. bar’s rustic ambience perfectly harmonizes 9. Ibid, 140. with the eclectic crowd. We have compiled 10. Ibid, 180. a selective list of recommended live music 11. Ibid, 186. venues to check out while you are in Seattle; 12. Tom Scanlon, “Sub Pop’s Got Some consult the ACRL 14th National Conference Kind of Record,” The Seattle Times, January 27, Wiki for many more recommendations. Check 2008.

October 2008 535 C&RL News