Sad news about The Fluid's guitarist Rick Kulwicki

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I’ve been quite busy. I’m coming back with some tragic news that many of you probably heard by now. Rick Kulwicki, the guitarist from The Fluid, died on the 15th of this month. He was 49 years old. Here’s an article from the Sub Pop’s website.

Rest in peace Rick Kulwicki!

I’ll be back in a couple of days with a post about the Treeclimbers (a mid 80’s band that feautured Gary Thorstensen from TAD and Jonathan Poneman). See you then.

Birthday Gift: More DC Beggars

NorthwestNoise turned 2 this November...shame on me for not knowing the exact date. Ok, if you look in the archive, the first post was written in December 2008. The truth is, the fist post ever was actually made in November 2008 and it was about Dale Crover Ep, but that post was erased a long time ago.

Never thought I'll be bloggin' this long...hmmm. I've been thinking about what would be the perfect gift for my readers and I’ve finally made up my mind ...I'll be sharing the DC Beggars - Love, Money and Power Ep. No introduction about the band because I've already written one here. I won't give away the music like I usually do. You'll have to mail me, my e-mail address is on the top of the right corner, and you'll also have to leave a comment on the post.

Also for the DC Beggars - You're so pretty 7'' check out this blog here. This fellow is doing a great job!!

Happy Birthday Northwest Noise!

Love and Respect: Why we love punk-rock for!

A year ago Volker Stewart wrote a piece for us about his record label, Penultimate, where he confessed that his favorite part of the Penultimate portfolio was none other than Love and Respect. Many of you grunge-fiends probably heard of the band before, but few of you know who they really were.

Love and Respect was one of the finest supergroups in town. And I say supergroup because the line-up featured of Ed Fotheringham from the barf-rockers The Thrown Ups, Whiting Tennis and Joe Culver from Big Tube Squeezer, along with Steven LaRose and occasionally Steve Turner from Mudhoney. Although the band had a short existence, it managed to put out a 6-song EP called Deep and Heatfelt and a LP, namely The Love & Respect Record.

The idea for a L&R post came after I accidentally found Steven LaRose on youtube, and he agreed to help me by financing my blog with L&R tunes and a great story about the band's short history. The story was put together by Steve himself in a day of facebook message exchanges with the rest of the crew (isn't facebook great?!). Lots of thanks to Steve, Ed, Joe and Whiting!!! Enjoy:

In 1985 I met Whiting at my first job out of undergraduate school painting sets for the Seattle Repertory Theatre. Whiting invited me to share some of his studio space which was located next to the Comet Tavern. Ed had the space across the hall, but he enters the story later. First, Whiting meets my friend from college Joe and they form the band Big Tube Squeezer. It must have been the summer of ’88 when Joe and Ed started joking about the idea of a band while at Mung Fest, a big pre-rave, low-impact, camp-out jam-session that Whiting and his family/friends had cultivated.

I distinctly remember our first “practice” because I was so freaked out. Ed took us to the “E” level of the University of Washington’s parking garage. He knew of this place because he and his ensemble The Thrown Ups had used this space for its unique location of electrical outlets. I just watched as the others attempted to jam.

We played at a couple parties and like Joe says, “it was a semi planned spontaneous appearance, like we didn't care and had never practiced before.” I was very uncomfortable most of the time and have no sense of music so I had to turn and look at Joe

for timing clues. However, one time at a party, I remember finally mustering the co

urage to turn around and the only two people who were there were Tad and Bob Whitaker. They were happy pogo monsters. I was so proud.

Somehow, we got on a bill at the Vogue. Cat Butt and The Fluid were the real acts and we were a novelty opener. I was still dependent on Joe so we put him up front and me in the back so I had to face forward. There was also a homemade bubble machine. Ed - “The Bubble Machine!!! Totally forgot about that. It was a floor fan blowing a home made circular turbine made from balsa (for the propellers) and coat hangers (for the circle thingys that make bubbles). The air from the fan would simultaneously blow the turbine around, dipping the circular coat hangers into the soapy liquid, blowing bubbles when the coat hangers emerged. Fucker worked!”

We also played a party at our friend Victoria Haven’s studio. There are some great pictures from that night. Joe- “I remember vic's studio show being a bit of a "Moment" where we thought, hey this doesn't suck that much.”

So maybe this is around the time we played the Squid Row. None of us remembers playing there, but Volker does and he is the one that eventually paid for the recording and the records and all that. “Oh yeah, it was definitely Squid Row - Turner was playing his lap steel and Pavitt was doing a crazy dance in front of him. Maybe you were the only one dressed well at Squid Row, which may have made me remember the v-neck! I remember Squid Row shows cos it was easy for me to get home - I lived around he corner - less misery.”

Oh yeah. . . Steve Turner. Ed – “Steve was an interested half-member...” It seems we were taking ourselves slightly more seriously at th

is point but still having loads of fun and drinking lots of Schmidt beer. Whiting - “I was definitely jealous of how easily Love and Respect wa

s getting shows, recording etc, cause I was putting much of what I had into Big Tube Squeezer and it wasn't really going anywhere. So I was frustrated in that way. But at the same time I loved the shows, and not having to write or sing or be in front- I totally loved that. Plus playing bass is easy as shit to play drunk.”

We played another show at the Vogue. Mudhoney and Swallow were on the bill. Mudhoney couldn’t make it that night. I think it was a rare

Seattle snow. Joe – “I also dimly remember a horrible jam on stage at the end of the evening.”

This all lasted a year. We played once more at Mung Fest in 1989. There was a recording session with Jack Endino, maybe twice. Joe – “One, just us, and one with Steve T

urner. Those were a solid good time. Low expectations, but it sounded decent. Jack gave me the "mudhoney" reverb/eq for the snare and I was happy”.

You can also catch up with L&R on facebook...here. And come on good people, leave comments, suggestions, don't just download :D !

Chlamydia

Stupid Pretty Girl

Wanda Fuca

Car

Couldnt Get High

Fishy Respect

Crunchbird: Shit Happens !

I was looking for Ash and I found Crunchbird. Yes! A few months ago I began a little investigation about the band Ash. I didn't know anything about the band except the fact that they were featured on this famous gig poster. Next thing I found out was that the band was, among many, the one that Jaime Robert Johnson joined around '85 - '86. Jaime relocated from Detroit to Seattle in the mid '80s. He joined an early version of the band Crisis Party called, On the Rocks. Then he formed the band Urbanilla which recorded 6 songs with maestro Jack Endino, but during these sessions the band also called it quit. For the next couple of years Jamie kept joining and quitting bands such as Ash, Naked Lunch, Public Domain, and a few more. In 1987 he started working with Jack Endino on what will later become an earlier version of Crunchbird, called Ghostflesh, featuring drummer Art Jiron and bassist Lynn Paulson. By 1989 the band became Crunchbird and finished recording the Shit Happens cassette (only), with the new line-up which now included Lonnie King and KCMU DJ Captain Skillit Weasle. Also Jack Endino mentioned that he played drums on a couple of Shit Happens tunes, and also recorded a few of 'em. Nice! He also played drums for Crypt Kicker 5!

In 1990 the band played the famous 4 Bands for 4 Bucks! show with Nirvana, TAD, and the Gits at the Hub Ballroom. Soon after that, Crunchbird broke up and Jamie formed Karma, that will later become Angelspit. They recorded with Jack Endino the Youth Apocalypse Fashion Crime release and the Speculation/Dogs of Class Warfare 7'' released by Vagrant Records in 1994.

During this time, Jamie along with Geo Lane on bass and Erik Dannevig on drums, recorded a hand of acoustic tunes that were released as Reject in 1995, under the ''landmark'' Crunchbird. Next Jamie began recording a new potential Crunchbird record, Tales of the Ultra-Renaissance also known as Grungaholica. Musicians involved in this project were: Greg "Sledge" Peterson, Geo Lane, John "Baker" Saunders (from Walkabouts), Ian Raskin taking of bass duties, and Jack Endino and Simon Grant on drums. Grungaholica remained unreleased, with the exception of the song History that made it on the 29 Live compilation. Jamie was booked for an acoustic act for the release party of the 29 Live compilation at the OK Hotel in Pioneer Square in Seattle. The songs performed there by the band (now featuring Simon Grant on drums and Tannar Brewer on bass) were recorded in the fall of 1997. Five of those songs were released by the band, same year, as Vagrant Sessions (a limited edition CD). Then the band broke up once more and Jamie formed Electric Orchid.

Shit Happens is the pure definition of grunge. It contains elements of Nirvana's Bleach, Cat Butt, and maybe The Fluid, with strong vocals and distorted guitar riffs. In my opinion, this is probably one of the best scene-defining records. So...tell me what you think!

Crunchbird - In Deep Shock

Crunchbird - Subway Circle

You can also check out my youtube channel, here. Not many uploads yet, but there will be.

Cheers!

"I'm gonna get me a ship, that can take me far away"

Well, the summer’s over and I’m trapped between dashes of nostalgia due to the occasionally rainy days. The only music that fit me in the past two weeks were either records from the 80’s post-punk/indie-pop glory days (such as The Church, The Cure, some Echo and the Bunnymen here and there), or Seattle’s finest indie/power-pop group Pure Joy.

I’m pretty sure most of you already know who Pure Joy was. Rusty Willoughby’s band before Flop rings any bell? Pure Joy was another damned Seattle band that never got much credit for the fantastic records they put out over the years. It was formed in 1986 by singer and guitarist Rusty, drummer Jim Hunnicutt, bassist Lisa King, and keyboardist Randy Willoughby.


Pure Joy at The Vogue cca 1989

My introduction to Pure Joy was also the band’s first release, a self titled Ep released in 1986. Didn’t really impressed me the first time I’ve given it a listen, but later I came to realize that The Attempt, Courage and not least Ocean, were actually pretty cool tunes.
My true love for Pure Joy actually began with the first minutes of their Unsung LP also known as Welcome to my New Psychotic Dream. The LP was recorded in 1987, with the intention of being released by No Big Business Records, which never happened. It would later be released on CD by Flydaddy Records in 1994. This LP is definitely the piece that defines Pure Joy. It is more poppy than the first EP and now the band starts to sound more like Rusty’s post-Pure Joy band, namely Flop. Also note that for this record the keyboardist Randy Willoughby was replaced by Craig Montgomery.
Craig didn’t stick for long as the band quit the keyboards for their next records: Now I Know single (Fat Bald Records , 1988), Carnivore LP(Popllama, 1989) and the live EP, Sore Throte, Dead Goat (No Three Records, 1990).

Pure Joy broke up in 1990, Rusty formed the fantastic power-pop group Flop, and…I don’t know what happened with the rest of the crew members, except that in 1997 Pure Joy reformed and put out two more full-lengths: Getz, The Worm (The Great Utopia/Flydaddy, 1997) which sounds great, like a psychedelic version of Flop, and Gelatin and Bright (Book Records, 2003).

from S/T EP (Dwindle, 1986)
Ocean---->was also included on the Lowlife Compilation LP (released by Ironwood Records), for which I’d kill to listen to...Any chance you have it digitized?

from Unsung LP (Flydaddy Records, 1994)
Standing on a Bridge ----> also included on the Secretions Compilation (C/Z Records, 1988)
Calvin and Hobbes
Deviant
Holocaust

from Carnivore LP (Popllama, 1989)
Whatever i can grow
This condition

from Getz, The Worm (The Great Utopia/Flydaddy, 1997)
What time it is
Tea

The decline of north-western civilization: Overlord and the metal years!

When we think about the pre-grunge era, most of us are tempted to remember the hardcore/noisy or post-punk acts of that time such as Accused, Ten Minute Warning, Silly Killers, Mr Epp or The Blackouts. But Seattle also had a healthy metal scene back in the early 80s. A good documenting piece of history from that era is the Northwest Metalfest compilation (released by Ground Zero Records in 1984) featuring bands such as: Overlord, Metal Church, SATO, Lipstick, Bondage Boys and a few more others. As a brief add-on for who needs a connection between this early metal scene and the stinky flannel-wearers generation: Steve Van Liew and Kurt Lofstrom from Overlord went to play in the mysterious band My Eye (about which I wrote a article almost a year ago here) and it seems that Mike Starr, the original bassist from Alice in Chains, played in SATO…ha, what about that !!!

Overlord formed in 1980 in Seattle, line-up including: Steve Van Liew (vocals), Kurtiss Lofstrom (guitar), Glen Logan (guitar), Kenny Kubsen (drums) and Doug Bane (bass). The band made its debut with its self-financed EP, Broken Toys, in 1982 released by Sad City records. In 1984 the band recorded a demo and contributed with the song On the Edge on the Nothwest Metalfest Compilation. Same year they called it quit.

I don’t know much about the 80s’ metal scene from the northwest, but regarding the up-mentioned compilation I think Overlord didn’t quite fit with the rest of the bands. The band was a little bit different both in sound and image. They weren’t anything of the speed, power-metal stuff, instead they played an Alice Cooper-Iggy and the Stooges-mix-with-Aerosmith sort of thing. And that actually made some people believe they were the first grunge band, or at least played a significant role in the future local scene.

________________

from Broken Toys Ep

Another Lonely Night

Blame It on the Kids

from Northwest Metalfest Compilation

On the Edge

from the '84 Demo

Pomises

Screaming At the Walls

Milton Garrison Interview. Part II: The Vexed Years

I posted in February a Milton Garrison interview, from which you’ve learned about his other musical project like In Vitro Pope, Altered, The Drills and Yeast. One of the things that you don’t know is that the interview has a second part about Vexed and the band’s demo, about which, apparently, not many people know.

You’ll also see in the interview bellow a mention of the Student Nurse band, about which I can’t help on saying a few words. Student Nurse was part of the Seattle Syndrome generation of bands, that ruled Seattle almost a decade before the whole grunge explosion. The band formed in the late 70s and disbanded at some point around 1983. They left behind, as far as I know, two 7’’s and a fabulous four song Ep, As seen on TV.

Now, back to Vexed…Sadly the demo won’t be posted now but Milton Garrison promised us he will be back with the songs and we’ll post a link with them in the comment section. So…do check in often!!!

1. We know about your projects before Vexed (from the previous posts), I know Alfred Butler played in Death of Marat along with Daniel House…What about the rest of the crew?
Vexed was always a work in progress until David Lapp recorded with us. I'm not aware of bands he played in before Vexed. But after Vexed he managed to play professionally in San Francisco with a reggae/dub band.

Billy Warner, who left Vexed in 1984, played in a band called Baba Yaga. Joe Newton played and recorded with us during 1985. He went on to play with Gas Huffer. Jason Fin played with us during 1988 and he went on to Love Battery and Presidents of the United States of America.

Eric Muhs played lead guitar with us during 1984. He was known at that time for Seattle band Student Nurse and he continues to put out recordings as well as doing public performances.

2. Tell me a little bit about the band’s contribution to the first Pyrrhic Victory Compilation? That was the band’s debut, right?
Daniel House was one of the main players in getting Pyrrhic Victory compilation happening. The sessions we did for the recordings including “Six Foot Hole,” were recorded at John's Place.

3. What did you think of the local scene when you first formed? Any band you can recall as a major influence from the Seattle area?
I loved the early 80s Seattle alternative music scene! It was so spread out with all the different sounds. The biggest influence on the band, from Seattle, was Blackouts. We loved the minimalist rhythms with mesmerizing atonal riffing. It's been one of the high points of the last decade to see K Records release a Blackouts retrospective. But it would be misleading to say Blackouts were the only Seattle band to have profound influence. Student Nurse and the Beakers were two others that I loved. I liked hardcore punk. Bands like Rally Go, Little Bears From Bankok and the Beakers were all bands I saw and was influenced by.

4. Here’s a question I always seem to find interesting: Who came up with the band’s name and why?
We had the usual problem with coming up a name. We all made suggestions. I remember looking in the dictionary for cool names. And the word vexed really resonated with me. The word suggested the state of mind I was going through. Life can be annoying as can art and politics. It nailed may reaction to the Reagan/Bush years. Annoyances can trigger anger. I suggested Vexed and it turned out to be the one we all hated the least.

5. What are your best and worst memories from that time?
My best memories involve when shows were amazing. When all the aspects worked and we pulled it off. My worst memories involve the only time we didn't finish a show. I should have canceled after our drummer was mugged trying to call us.

6. Lyrically, what did Vexed express?
Vexed rarely told stories like many song writers do. Most of our song lyrics dwelt in the area of frustration and anger. The emotion helped us deal with topics like government and religious sanctioned bigotry and the general social problems of the 80s. Rather than writing a lyric saying how bad capitalism was we wrote about the emotion.

7. In your opinion, what was your best show?
Our best show happened in 1992. We opened for Artis the Spoon Man and Sad Happy at the Backstage in the Ballard neighborhood in Seattle.

8. Why did you split up in 1990, and what determined the band to reunite two years later?
Vexed, to put it kindly, was by 1988 over and out. There was never a moment where we said, “We're not playing anymore”. It just happened. The same could be said of our next public stint 1992-1994. I say public because Alfred and I made contributions to projects while the band was on Hiatus.

9. Regarding this demo, when and where was it recorded?
The final demo was recorded in Jack Endino's basement in the late 1993. We managed to sound like a Seattle band without trying.

10. What was the reason that these songs remained unreleased?
Vexed was always Daniel House's love child. Without Daniel house we wouldn't have anything released and this interview wouldn’t be happening. Because Alfred and I haven’t really looked at remixing a multi track tape that seems to be missing. I have a copy somewhere of the rough mixes. Usually a band goes back to “mix” a final. This never happened with this demo.

11. Why did the band break up after Cathexis was released?
By the time Cathexis came out we were on auto pilot. Taking shows as they came; not really expending energy trying to get the band out there. In my opinion we became complacent. We'd always prided ourselves on sounding different. By that time one of our friends, Dawn Anderson, said in not so many words that our “advantage” was gone. It wasn't this revelation that did us in. It was a lack of interest on my part to do it anymore. I was burned out.

12. Any idea what are the other guys doing now?
I continue to perform publicly when I'm asked. I continue to write and record. And I often jam and record with friends.
David Lapp continues to play as far as I know in a dub reggae band in the CA bay area. I don't believe Alfred Buttler or Buzz Crocker play music.

...Meanwhile you can download Vexed releases from here.