Music of Seattle

The music of Seattle has long played a role in the development of the music of Washington State. The "Seattle Sound" was at one time a field of alternative rock that produced the sub-genre grunge and major bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam.^[1]Seattle is still home to some influential bands, labels and venues.

History

Founding: 1800s-1945

Seattle's music history begins in the mid-19th century, when the first European settlers arrived in the area and the city was founded. Lumber quickly became an important part of Seattle's economy, and the city grew rapidly, gaining brothels, saloons and other informal businesses that sometimes featured musical entertainment. Immigrants came from the East Coast, primarily, though the region also became home to a large Chinese immigrant community, who brought their own styles of Chinese music. The same period saw perhaps the first major musical innovation from the city, the invention of one of the first electric guitars by Paul Tutmarc.^[2]

In 1909, amidst the excited boosterism engendered by the city's first world's fair, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, the Seattle City Council adopted "Seattle, the Peerless City" (words by Arthur O. Dillon; music by Glenn W. Ashley) as Seattle's official song, an honor it still holds (lyrics on the City Archivist's website).

By the early 20th century, Seattle had an upper-class society that established an urban culture, which included music; the city's high culture was, however, shadowed by that of San Francisco, which was then the major cultural center of the West Coast. Seattle also became an important stop for vaudeville tours, put on by large chains like Pantages and Considine; the city also produced a major attraction in the exotic dancer Gypsy Rose Lee. By the 1920s, Seattle had also come to support a politically radical American folk scene, inspired in part by several lengthy stays in the region by folk singer Woody Guthrie; Seattle's folk performers included Ivar Haglund, who later founded a chain of successful seafood restaurants. The Seattle jazz scene included Jelly Roll Morton for several years in the early part of the century, as well as Vic Meyers, a local performer and nightclub owner who became Lieutenant Governor in 1932.^[3]

Early, respectable musical establishments included the art school founded by Nellie Cornish, which saw residencies from both John Cage and Martha Graham, and the Seattle Symphony, which became embroiled in a controversy in the early 1940s when British conductor Thomas Beecham either described Seattle as a "cultural dustbin" or warned that it could become one ^[4].

Postwar Era: 1945-1975

World War 2 brought many changes to Seattle, including a "flourishing" "vice scene downtown", where "booze, gambling and prostitution" were unchecked by "paid-off cops". The Showbox Ballroom was a major center for these activities, and was open twenty-four hours a day, geared towards active members of the military, featuring popular performers like the racy Gypsy Rose Lee. In addition to the Showbox, Washington Hall, Parker's, Odd Fellows Temple and Trianon were also major big band ballrooms, all of which eventually became major rock venues. Police officers also tolerated an after-hours jazz scene, based in Chinatown, Seattle and including most famously the Black and Tan Club. This period produced a few local performers of note, including Hollywood star Ray Charles, who recorded his first single and made his first TV and radio appearances in Seattle, and Bumps Blackwell. Blackwell was a bandleader whose band's members included the instrumentalist Quincy Jones, later to become a major record company executive, producer and composer. Harry Smith was a college student in the 1940s when he found a number of recordings of folk music about to be recycled at a Salvation Army depot. He rescued the recordings, which became hot commodities when released by Folkways on the landmark Anthology of American Folk Music.^[5]

Seattle's local regulations changed in 1949, facilitating a shift from "private clubs" to "restaurant-lounge combinations" which "didn't support much in the line of creative nightlife" and even helped to drive out the city's jazz nightclub scene. The manufacturer Boeing emerged in the 1940s and 50s as one of the city's largest employers, and, according to local music historian Clark Humphrey, helped give the city a reputation as "quiet, orderly (and) dull"; in the mid-1950s, the reporter Emmett Watson with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer was asked to begin a column on Seattle's happenings, but he responded that there was nothing worth writing about. Seattle did develop some local television of note, such as the children's performer J. P. Patches, later cited as one of the inspirations for Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons, and the duo Stan Boreson and Doug Setterberg, who performed a vaudeville act that include comic Swedish-accent songs by Yogi Yorgesson, a 1940s radio performer.^[6]

The early 1960s saw Seattle become home to a local dance scene built around venues like the Trianon and Parker's. The city also became the major center for recorded popular music in the Pacific Northwest, and had the first American pop hit from the region with The Fleetwoods "Come Softly to Me" in 1959. That same year, the DJ Pat O'Day began working for KJR, and then mounted a series of teen dances featuring bands like The Fabulous Wailers, later to become famous as The Wailers with hits like "Tall Cool One". The Wailers first album came out on Golden Crest Records; subsequent releases came out on Etiquette, the first record label owned by the band that recorded for it. The Wailers only had one more national hit, "Mau Mau", but released a long series of regionally popular recordings. Though The Wailers were very popular in the Seattle area, they were actually from Tacoma, Washington, as were several other regional bands, including The Swaggerz.^[7]

O'Day worked with a number of local bands, several of whom had regional hits like The Frantics' "Werewolf" and "Straight Flush". The Frantics, The Wailers, and most other local rock bands in the Pacific Northwest were basically instrumental combos, with either no or very limited vocals. The Ventures and The Viceroys were both largely instrumental, with the former gaining national acclaim as a surf band. Though most of the regionally important bands in the 1960s were dominated by white men, Seattle also produced a few female country rock performers, most notably Merrilee Rush and Bonnie Guitar. The city's black music scene include Ron Holden, a soul singer whose "Love You So" was a Top Ten hit, vocal group The Gallahads and R&B instrumentalist Dave Lewis, who had several hits like "Dave's Mood" and "Little Green Thing". Perhaps Seattle's most famous black musical export is Jimi Hendrix, who began performing in the city but didn't gain a major national or regional reputation until moving to England.^[8] Though Hendrix had to move to England to start his recording career, the reverse also became true for the musicologist Ian Whitcomb, who performed in the city in the 1960s. He recorded "This Sporting Life" with Gerry Rosalie of The Sonics, and the song became a major hit, and an early anthem for the gay community.

Sax/conga drum vocalist Gerald Brashear and Wanda Brown were fixtures in the Seattle jazz scene from the 1930s to the 80s. </DeBarros, Paul, Jackson Street After Hours: The Roots of Jazz in Seattle (1993)>

Counterculture: 1975-1985

Music author Steven Blush described the Seattle music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s as crucial in its "vibe and ethic" which inspired grunge music. The earliest local alternative music scene was based around a gay glam theater group called Ze Whiz Kids, one of whose members, Tomata du Plenty, became a fixture in New York before returning in 1976 as part of The Tupperwares with long-time boyfriend Gorilla Rose; Blush described this as the first punk rock in the area. Tomata and Gorilla left for Los Angeles in 1977, but a new wave of local bands emerged in their wake, congregating at a local venue called The Bird. These bands included The Enemy, The Lewd, The Mentors, Chinas Comidas, The Telepaths, The Beakers, Red Dress, X-15 and the New Wave of the Mice. Following The Bird, local punk centered around an old theatre called The Showbox, where touring bands from Los Angeles, New York, London and elsewhere played. Other, smaller venues included The Gorilla Room and Wrex, which later became Vogue. Hardcore punk, a loud, intense and angry form of punk, first came to Seattle in the band Solger, which formed in 1980. They were followed by The Fartz, who included Paul Solger of Solger, and became well-known in hardcore scenes across the West Coast, and touring with Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys. The Fartz dissolved in 1982, just as their EP World Full of Hate was released by Alternative Tentacles. Other local bands included The Fags, The Refuzors, The Rejectors, The DT's and RPA (Rebellious Peasant Americans); The Fastbacks were affiliated with the scene, but were not considered either hardcore or punk. Also of note from this time frame is the national emergence of progressive heavy metal artists Queensrÿche (technically from Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle). The Smoldering Remains, a traditional new wave/punk power art trio threesome of three, from Tacoma, riveted the faithful with their zippy Nisqually Valley Liberty Cap fueled takes on pop culture in both The Gorilla Room and Tacoma's Pogo-a-Gogo.

Grunge music: 1985-1995

Prior to the mid-1980s, the local hardcore and metal scenes were often violently confrontational with each other. The opening of the Gorilla Gardens venue changed that by offering two separate shows at the same time; as a result, both hardcore and metal were frequently played on the same nights. The softening of relations between the two groups helped inspire the look and sound of grunge, a term allegedly coined by Mark McLaughlin of the brief joke band Mr. Epp and the Calculations who gained some local notoriety. In 1985, two local bands began their careers, later become well-known icons of the era: The U-Men and Green River, the latter of which was the true beginning of grunge.^[9] Local music author Clark Humphrey has attributed the rise of grunge, in large part, to the scene's "supposed authenticity", to its status as a "folk phenomenon, a community of ideas and styles that came up from the street" rather than "something a couple of packagers in a penthouse office" dreamed of, as well as Seattle's isolation from the mainstream record industry.^[10][11] Rebee Garofalo attributes to the unlikely rise of Seattle's alternative rock to the legacy of local rock left behind by The Ventures and Jimi Hendrix.^[12] The grunge scene revolved around Sub Pop, a record label founded by Bruce Pavitt and Jon Poneman. Sub Pop was founded by Bruce Pavitt, who began with a local radio show and began releasing tapes of local bands.^[13] Radio stations like KJET and KCMU and local music press like Backlash and Seattle Rocket also played a vital role. Grunge's entrance into the mainstream is usually traced to the release of Nirvana's Nevermind in 1991, though others point to the signing of Soundgarden to A&M Records in 1988 and their Grammy-nominated Ultramega OK, and the release of a compilation album called Deep Six on C/Z Records in 1986. Though Soundgarden failed to bring in large national audiences at the time, record executives saw enough promise in the local sound to send scouts out to the major bands, many of whom signed to large labels. The release Nevermind catapulted the local scene into national fame. Nirvana, Pearl Jam and other grunge bands became best-selling groups; many of their earlier fans greeted this development with cries of selling out, and the bands themselves struggled with the irony of alternative rock bands entering mainstream pop culture. Seattle grunge as national fare ended abruptly in a few years, however, beginning with the suicide of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in 1994.^[14] During the Nineties other forms of music were also springing up in the land of grunge, almost as a counter musical movement, including industrial bands such as Kill Switch...Klick, Noise Box and Sounds of Mass Production and ethereal bands like Faith & Disease and Sky Cries Mary.

Expansion: 1995-present

Even though the grunge era faded in the mid-90s, Sub Pop records maintained a strong presence in the indie music scene, signing and promoting Seattle- and Northwest-regional bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate, Modest Mouse, The Postal Service, Death Cab for Cutie, Band of Horses, The Head and the Heart and Fleet Foxes. In 2001, KCMU changed their call sign to KEXP, and continues to be active in promoting independent and alternative Seattle music. Grunge-era venue The Crocodile Cafe, where Nirvana played some of their earliest live shows, closed in 2007, but reopened March 2009. Numerous local venues such as Neumos, The Showbox Theatre, The Vera Project, Chop Suey, The Comet Tavern and The Sunset Tavern also continue to showcase live performances of local bands.

In 1993, underground cult band Sun City Girls relocated to Seattle from Arizona, bringing with them influences of world music and psychedelic and experimental rock. Sun City Girls member Alan Bishop co-founded the record label Sublime Frequencies, which focuses exclusively on "acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers", especially from the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia; this brought a new awareness of world music traditions to the Seattle music scene^[15]. More local experimental groups formed, such as Climax Golden Twins and Kinski, and the scene attracted established groups such as Estradasphere. Local recording engineer and musician Randall Dunn has brought more psychedelic, drone, and world-music inspired groups to Seattle to record at Aleph Studios in West Seattle, such as Six Organs of Admittance, Sunn O))), Earth, and Secret Chiefs 3, members of which are based in Seattle. Dunn also performs in Seattle-based supergroup Master Musicians of Bukkake ^[16].

Seattle has recently been noted as the new face of (underground) Hip-Hop. From the beginnings with Sir Mix-A-Lot to now being known by Hip-Hop artist such as the Blue Scholars, Common Market, Oldominion, Jake One and Macklemore.

Experimental music has flourished with the improvisational groups We Paint With Sound, The Avant Garde Dogs, the St. Bees Group, and the Mike N Dave Channel. This art form, called Co-comprovisation, involves the spontaneous co-composition, performance, and recording of a completed work on the first take.

Venues

Below is a short list of notable venues:

Can Can Cha Cha Lounge Club Motor The Crocodile The Comet Chop Suey D4 Dimitriou's Jazz Alley El Corazon The Funhouse Havana Cocktail Club High Dive Neumos Jules Mae's Saloons King Cat Theater The Moore Theatre The Nectar Lounge The Paramount The Q Cafe Showbox at the Market Showbox Sodo Slims Last Chance Squid Row Studio Seven The Sunset Tavern ToST The Tractor Tavern The Triple Door The Vera Project The Viaduct The Gorge The Fart See also List of musicians from Seattle References Blush, Steven (2001). American Hardcore: A Tribal History. Feral House. ISBN 0-92291-571-7.  Garofalo, Reebee (1997). Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA. Allyn & Bacon. ISBN 0-205-13703-2.  Humphrey, Clark (December 17, 1999). Loser: The Real Seattle Music Story. Art Chantry (photographer) (Second edition ed.). Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 1929069243.  Notes ^ Humphrey, pg. vii ^ Humphrey, pgs. 1 - 2 ^ Humphrey, pgs. 2 - 3 ^ Humphrey, pgs. 1 - 2 Humphrey does not cite a specific source for the Beecham incident, but claims that his reported words vary depend "on whose account you read" ^ Humphrey, pg. 4 ^ Humphrey, pgs. 6 -7 ^ Humphrey, pgs. 9 - 10 ^ Humphrey, pgs. 11 - 12 ^ Blush, ph. 263-263 ^ Humphrey, pgs. vii - viii ^ Garofalo, pg. 447 Garofalo also notes Seattle's isolation as a cause of the rise of a distinctive and self-sustained alternative rock scene ^ Garofalo, pg. 47 ^ Blush, pg. 265 ^ Garofalo, pg. 447 ^ Marcus Boon (December 12, 2006). "Sublime Frequencies' Ethnopsychedelic Montages". Music, Sound, Noise. http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/musicsoundnoise/ethnopsyche. Retrieved 2009-07-12.  ^ Dave Segal (January 27, 2009). "East Infection". The Stranger. http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/east-infection/Content?oid=1032152. Retrieved 2009-07-12.