The Pulses were the most underrated band to come out of Seattle’s 2000 music scene, hands down. As far as comparisons go, they’re a little hard to peg; the first bands that come to my mind are Flying Nun bands like the Chills or the Clean and maybe ’80s college rock thrown in for influence. But the Pulses were a lot faster and punker, more like the garagey pop-punk bands that come just a few years before them, such as Empty Records’ Scared of Chaka. They just weren’t THAT fast.
Beer, pot, chicks and porno flicks
On the eastside of Washington, where the trees die off and the world turns flat and brown, lie the Tri-Cities: Richland, Kennewick and Pasco. Each city is fairly small — their populations never exceed 40,000 — and they lie in the middle of nowhere, an hour away from Yakima and two hours away from Spokane.
Richland is where America produced most of its nuclear bombs, at the Hanford Nuclear Facility, and now much of the economy depends on the cleaning up of the site’s hazardous waste.
Richland also has a vibrant music scene, which produced notable musicians Nate Mendell of the Foo Fighters and glam rock band Loudermilk, who once toured with Motley Crue. In recent years, residents started a permanent music venue, which serves as a tour stop for semi-famous bands like Vendetta Red and These Arms Are Snakes.