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  Above: Beat Happening "Crashing Through (Meyering Mix)" cover art by Heather Lewis After the first Beat Happening album was released in 1985, we had the idea of recording some of our newer songs (this is a band that had existed for only two years at that point). We gathered together all our ideas and headed to Yo-Yo Studio, which at the time was located in a converted chicken coop on the rural far Westside of Olympia. It doubled as the residence of Patrick Maley, Yo-Yo Studio proprietor. Patrick had us record some songs there in the chicken coop, and...

Above: Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey of The Catenary Wires The new album by The Catenary Wires, Birling Gap (Skepwax/Shelflife), is graced with a photog of cliffs of white, one of England's many claims to fame. "It's a good emblem of England," says vocalist Rob Pursey, as Birling Gap "combines various versions of England and how England thinks of itself."  The cover photog was meant to be of the whole band (Rob plus Amelia Fletcher, Fay Hallem, Ian Button and Andy Lewis) standing at the cliffs overlooking the sea. Rob went there on a "recce mission" with his father (whose...

Visit K on Bandcamp! The new biography of a young Harry Smith (the painter, film maker, archivist and curator of the Anthology of American Folk Music), when he and his family resided in the Pacific Northwest is entitled Sounding for Harry Smith, Early Pacific Northwest Influences (Knw-Yr-Own). It is written by Bret Lunsford (Beat Happening, D+) who painstakingly researched Harry's early life in Anacortes and Bellingham, WA. The beautiful design work was completed by Phil Elverum and includes many photographs never published before. Sounding for Harry Smith, Early Pacific Northwest Influences is available now from The K Mail Order Dept. Retail...

  Dolly Mixture. Everything about this band was perfect, including their name. They played punk rock in the '70s and early '80s with a pop feel, pop music like from the era of rock'n'roll, the '50s and '60s. I know, right? Also they look like the punk rockers we know, similar haircuts and style of dress. Their names are Hester, Rachel and Debsey; again, perfect. A knowing air with a provincial feel, sincere hard and soft at the same time. It just keeps getting better and better. Dolly Mixture released four 7" 45rpm phonograph records in the course of their...

Above: Sam  Jayne, Diana Arens, Love as Laughter The Greks Bring Gifts [KLP051] recording session outside Dub Narcotic Studio, 17th Ave SE, Olympia, Washington, 1995 (all photogs by Pat Castaldo).Diana Arens began her recording life as a live engineer on Olympia's community radio station  KAOS-FM. "I saw recording as an extension of the work I did at KAOS, documenting the creative scene." She produced one of the first such broadcasts when Michelle Noel was hosting Lync on Color outside the Lines, April 12, 1993. Soon after she attended a Mecca Normal show in Seattle and was amazed by opening act Tattle...