A 50th B-day Celebration
During Labor Day weekend, current Olympia residents and ex-pats alike celebrated Calvin Johnson’s 50th birthday at the South Bay Grange Hall. Tea was served and guests were encouraged to bring pie or other pastries for afternoon gnoshing. Dancing was to follow. It was a beautiful afternoon and time well spent with good friends and acquaintances. […]
PDX Pop NOW!
Back in the middle of July, I volunteered for PDX Pop Now, a three day long festival featuring some of the best new Portland-based musical acts spanning multiple genres from bluegrass to hip hop to indie to sludge metal. The festival is completely volunteer run and supported by various local and national sponsors. Each year, […]
Love Rock Revolution with The Maxines!
On July 10th, Sasquatch Books published Love Rock Revolution by music journalist and author Mark Baumgarten. In the book, Baumgarten tells the story of K Records and Calvin Johnson through extensive research and myriad interviews conducted with people Johnson has worked with or influenced over the past 30 years. If you want to read a […]
Quintron & Miss Pussycat @ Northern
On Tuesday, July 3rd, the enigmatic Quintron & Miss Pussycat headlined a show at Northern, with tourmate Dent May and K Recs big shot Calvin Johnson as opening acts. There were easily 90+ people there and Oh! The dancing! Dent May is a new fave – go check out his new album “Do Things” available […]
Hank Green & Harry and the Potters @ Northern
On Monday, July 30th, Northern hosted the 10 year “bandiversary” tour by Harry and The Potters, with long time friends The Potter Puppet Pals and Hank Green. Nerd rock at its finest, the show sold all 150 presale tickets to eager teenagers and their sometimes-less-than-eager parents. Regardless, it was Northern’s first bona fide sellout in […]
Welcome Back, Northern!
Northern is back! Finally. We had a soft opening just in time for Olympia’s annual spring ArtsWalk this past April. I’m talking by-the-skin-of-our-teeth kind of opening — the space still reeked of paint (I don’t think the restrooms were even dry yet) and the floor was covered in some weird red vegetable dust that supposedly […]
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy at Wolf Haven
Yesterday, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (AKA Wil Oldham) played Wolf Haven as part of a small, five date Puget Sound tour for no other reason than just to do it. Dig? Of course, as you can imagine, it was magical. At the end of the set, everyone in the audience howled to the wolves and, slowly, […]