Olympia Underground RSS

  Above: Mike and Anton preparing for the WULF recording session, Olympia, WA In Olympia the rock'n'roll keeps coming. The latest addition to the pile is a new cassette album by WULF, a super-combo comprised of assorted players you may recognize from other bands: Jonny Wulf (Christian Mistress, Quayde LaHüe, Cosmic Highness), Anton (Earthgasm), Mike Liebman (Vexx), Peter David Connelly (The Mona Reels, Quayde LaHüe, The Real Distractions). Veterans of heavy sounds, these folks gathered together in 2014 to create a power pop panoply influenced by the likes of Stories, Pilot, Dwight Twilley Band and other '70s ear wormers. Pure...

  Above: a still from The Mona Reels "Without Love" video directed by Jolie M-A of Ribbon Stage Without love all over again. Exploring a world without love while making a cup of tea at home is the subject of the new single by The Mona Reels, as exemplified by their new video "Without Love". It's not a bad life. The song doesn't say "poor me" or even "I'm lonely"; the perspective is "here I am, deep in the human condition, without love". Staying off the tilt-a-whirl is such relief, in fact. In comparison to the Carole King/Gerry Goffin Brill...

  A major fire occurred last Wednesday in downtown Olympia, Washington, one block north of the K office when a four story apartment building under construction mysteriously burst into flames. Fortunately no one was injured, but many folks with connections to K were affected as the fire quickly moved north damaging several other nearby buildings. This fire is going to change downtown Olympia, as many of the businesses affected may not relocate in the downtown area. Directly across the alley was Revival Motors and Coffee, a combination coffee and motorcycle repair shop run by Audrey Henley and her husband Jimmy....

  If you have seen the recent Beat Happening 45rpm "Crashing Through (Meyering Mix)" [IPU147] in your local phonograph record emporium, you may have noticed the assertive looking rabbit charging toward you on the front cover. This image is derived from a painting by Beat Happening's Heather Lewis, one of a set of mural sized paintings created in April 2020. It was Easter Sunday. There was a global pandemic. Not too many folks were out and about. A Washington State Department of Transportation (WADOT) bicycle underpass near Heather's Seattle residence had ample freshly white walls. Heather had ample paint, and...