Taking me back a decade
Though I have plenty of reasons to feel “blessed,” being a music fan that lived in Seattle around the turn of the 21st century is right up there at the top.
I will be the first to admit that the music from Seattle in the early ’00s wasn’t earth-shattering — I can count the number of really great bands to come from that time on one hand. But those bands were the first steps to expanding my musical taste and teaching me that your favorite bands are typically not the flavor of the day.
Looking back, I bet I wasn’t alone. I swear within two years, the Seattle scene went from pretty much ALL New Bomb Turks and Heartbreakers rip-offs to every other type of band. Phrases like “Killed By Death” and “No Wave” seemed to have become common vernacular within a year.
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Of course I mean the Australian X
If you aren’t friends with Steve Lucas of X on Facebook, you probably don’t know the drama behind the band’s first tour of the U.S. in 33 years. Apparently Lucas has a herniated disk in his spine, causing him great pain when he sits for long periods of time, like when flying cross country or riding for hours in a van.
By touring, Lucas is ignoring doctor’s orders, which usually isn’t the best idea. On May 28, he wrote:
“I have been advised to end the tour. I was advised not to take it on. I am now being told I am in need of surgery as the real option. I would have to come home… defeated. The longer I stay seated (as in a bus for hours upon end) I increase the level of damage.”
But yet the tour continues.
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Slowly but surely, this empire will grow
Finally, all the free records I’ve been sending out to radio stations, publications and other label owners have paid off (sort-of): Lemon Session has made quite a media splash.
A quick Google search show the label name popping up in radio playlists all over the nation, including KDVS (Davis, CA), WUSB (Stony Brook, NY) and KEXP (Seattle, WA). One DJ named Jared who has a show called “What We Do Is Secret” (Tuesdays from 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. on KRCL in Salt Lake City, UT) even wrote a great article about the first four releases on the club.
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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.
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