I was able to look through the zines in my garage and found a decent pile of Bellingham music rags from the early-to-mid 90’s. The first zine I’m going to feature is Filter, a free music/entertainment newspaper that started spring 1998. The folks behind this paper were students at Western and also did a bit of writing for What’s Up Magazine when it first started around the same time. At the time I was doing a little writing for What’s Up, as well as the Every Other Weekly (now the …

Over at the Corner Pocket message board there was a discussion recently about Bellingham zines from the 90’s, specifically music zines. I was actually a pretty avid zinester back then and collected every local zine possible, and even produced one myself, called “Hmmm…”. Over the weekend I’m gonna dig through my boxes of zines and start scanning some of the more interesting articles and post them here. I’ll probably start with some of the more popular items, like early Death Cab show reviews, and kinda go from there.

This website delivers exactly what you think - an instant rimshot button. Practice your jokes, hit the button, and voila, instant comedy routine! Maybe you can land a gig at the Upfront Theater!

Brandi Carlile performs at the Mt. Baker Theater on February 6th at 8:00pm. Her latest album, The Story, is available on Columbia Records.

Bellingham desperately needs the Nightlight to re-open - we are simply lacking a decent venue for touring bands. Wild Buffalo is great for the kinds of shows that it’s been delivering for years, but when it gets really full (like at the last Devotchka show) it gets miserable. The Mt. Baker Theatre has a new space and are starting to book some decent shows, but it still doesn’t completely fill the void that the closure of the Nightlight has left. There have been random bits of info in the Cascadia …

Out with the old…
In with the new!!!
It was a big day today - Obama is now officially our 44th president! For me it wasn’t quite as emotional as election day - today just made the will of the people official, and I have to admit, his speech was kinda ‘meh’. It’s really what he does after the big ball tonight that really matters - I really think that all of the pieces are now in place to bring this country back to greatness. I’ll probably stay in tonight, but if …

I was just reminded that I forgot to mention the What’s Up All-Ages Awards Show on January 30th - here’s the scoop:
Friday, January 30th
WhAAM @ the Old Foundry
100 E. Maple, Bellingham
$5.00
Idiot Pilot
http://www.myspace.com/idiotpilot
The Russians
http://www.myspace.com/therussiansmuzik
The Tread Abraham
http://www.myspace.com/treadabrahamband
Connecticut Four
http://www.myspace.com/connecticutfour
DJ Postal
http://www.myspace.com/postal003

Starbucks is putting out a CD of your favorite indie artists covering their favorite love songs. I know, Starbucks is a lame place to buy music (these days they usually only have about 5 CD’s for sale), but this might be somewhat tempting the next time you buy one of their new Vanilla Rooibos Tazo® Tea Latte’s. I have to admit, I’m interested in hearing more than half of these songs, including the Death Cab, Devotchka, Richard Hawley and She & Him tunes.
1. Death Cab for Cutie - “Love Song”
2. …

It seems to me that grunge might be ready for a comeback. Bellingham’s Posies were hardly a grunge band, but they were from WA state at the time that grunge hit the big time. Lazy journalists labelled them a grunge band, although it didn’t help that, perhaps in an effort to win a larger group of fans, the band’s sound became more grungy. “Definite Door” is one of their better songs, and kinda bridges the gap between their trademark power-pop sound, and the fresh new sounds of grunge. I especially …

I had a couple of after-work pints with my wife down at Archer’s Ale House tonight, and before and afterwards, there was a group of three or four adults dressed up in bright, pastel colored animal costumes. Were these folks plushies, on the prowl for some other like-minded creatures, or just a group of people out to have a good time and bring a smile the the faces of passers-by? Or was it the couple of pints of Guinness I had talking?