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.

Though bands like the Spits, Blow Up and the Cripples helped bridge this gap by playing shows with generic rock ‘n roll bands, people like me had to specifically find an A-Frames show to attend. After hearing constant buzz from friends, I finally caught a set of theirs at the Sunset in Ballard. Couldn’t tell you who the other bands were, but I remember their set like it was yesterday.

I couldn’t fully appreciate their sound at the time, which my friend Cody would always imitate by going *BRap BRap BRap,* but in the middle of the set, singer/guitarist Erin asked the audience, “Do you want to hear a slow one?”

To this day, “Surveillance” is one of my favorite songs, and from that moment on I was a dedicated A-Frames fan. (And I’m not alone in my conversion by “Surveillance.”)

Seeing them at the Hemlock brought me back to those days when every song they played was a hit, especially the ones that appeared on a cassette they released back then: “Crutches,” “Complications” and “Membrane.” It was so good, I made sure to go to the Stork show 2 weeks later, where they not only played those songs again, they busted out “Surveillance” too. (Sadly, I didn’t record it, but the band probably got a recording of the set from the Stork’s board…)

All those early recordings, including a bunch of demo tracks, have been compiled on 3-Lp set called “3″ released on SS Records. Do yourself a favor and pick it up.

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.

I was lucky to catch the band and record it on a day that appeared to be kind to Lucas — they only had to drive from Sacramento to San Francisco, about a two-hour drive.

There were a few missed notes and a few forgotten changes, but for a majority of the set X brought the same energy captured on their early recordings. By the time they reached their 16th song, “Mother” (which they’ve taken off their set for the remaining shows), the band and the crowd was spent — you can hear it in the recording. But up until that point, they had the crowd dancing and singing along.

Sadly, a few friends talked to me the day after the show and when asking me about X’s set, they always added the caveat, “I heard they suck.” In this music scene, word-of-mouth is everything and bullshit-criticism like that spreads like a virus. Hopefully that crap hasn’t been affecting their shows.

Heed my advice: listen to the recordings below and then, if you live in the Bay Area, go to the shows on June 5 & 6, because you’ll probably never get a chance to see such an amazing, influential band again.

*First two songs don’t have the best guitar sound; make sure to listen to #3 and on as I fixed the mic by then.

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.

You can read the article here: http://krclblog.org/krcl/?p=562.

A personal highlight for me was listening to The Best Show On WFMU on May 4 and hearing Rib Cages’ “Lock Horns” in the beginning of the show. Being a huge fan of Tom Scharpling, the fact that I got some props from him on my show made this whole spending-thousands-of-dollars-to release-records-no-one-buys thing worth it. (Go to WFMU’s archives and click on the May 4 pop-up player to hear the entire show.)

But one radio show went above and beyond all others: The World Is A Drag, an online show on Rainy Dawg Radio, actually recorded a live set from Rib Cages. And because Jeremy is so rad, he even let me post the recording on this here website for you to download!

So, here is a live set from Rib Cages, who now feature the bass player from Octagon Control and who will be touring the Midwest this summer.

If you didn’t notice, the band has a bunch of new songs, which will appear on their upcoming album that they are currently recording. Keep coming to here to learn more details.

In other great news: this Monday I will be recording the X/A Frames/Hank IV show at the Hemlock, S.F. IN ITS ENTIRETY! The mp3s will show up on this here website for free download soon afterward, so keep checking the website for updates!

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.

The Pulses came to Seattle via New York in 1999. Originally they were a four-piece — Dave (drums), Jesse (guitar/vocals), Ian (bass) and ? (guitar)– but bassist Ian left the band to join the local garage/surf band, the Zombie 4, and as for the other guitarist, who knows? That same year the band lucked out and replaced Ian with former Fallouts’ bassist Shannon.

My band the Recordbreakers played one of the Pulses first shows, at a great dive in downtown Seattle called “Gibson’s.” (Sadly, Gibson’s is now a Pier 1 or a coffee shop or something) The band used its Fallouts connections to vie for the headline spot, which did not work in their favor. By the time they took the stage, the few people that stuck around continued to sit in their seats and converse their neighbors, me included. But every once in awhile I would catch a killer riff and remark to my bandmates, “Hey, this is kind of good, like early Dead Milkmen.” I think that was the extent of everyone’s interest.

The Pulses didn’t become a Seattle staple like the A-Frames, the Spits or the Briefs, but they played out and every show they got better. I remember talking up Dave frequently, especially after the Popular Shapes started playing out. We always talked about playing shows together and he kept handing me CDRs of their recordings, the first being the 30-song demo.

The demo was one of those cd’s I would pop in my stereo and stand right next to it so I could repeat certain songs over and over again (my repeat function didn’t work right). I included some of the standout tracks down below, but they were a ton, including pretty much all of the first half.

The Pulses later signed to Dirtnap Records, where they would release the remaining of the catalog. They actually turned down the split 7″ deal with the Intelligence that the Popular Shapes took up (lucky us!). Their two albums — 2002′s s/t and 2005′s “Gather Round and Destroy All Our Records”– as well as their 2003′s “Little Brothers” EP are all worth picking up. Each one features perfect verse-chorus-verse pop songs that belong on roadtrip mixtapes. It’s just that they started investing in recording after the demo, so the folllowing releases are a little pro.

To hear and learn more about the band, check out their Website at a www.thepulses.com.

Here are a few of my favs from the demo: