K Records
Olympia, Washington's K records has been the home of the international pop underground since 1982. From twee pop to hip hop, if it's on K it's got to be good. Just ask owner and K artist Calvin (Johnson, that is).
Beat Happening
Beat Happening's bouncy, off-key, minimalist pop and underground approach to music-making was an understated but full-fledged attack on all previously established rock conventions about celebrity and success. Their unpretentiousness and sincerity made them of the most respected and revered indie bands of the past two decades.
Beat Happening
Built To Spill
Doug Martsch is the best pop songwriter of his generation. This heartbreaking, ear-bending epic is from The Normal Years, a collection of BTS singles from 1992-1995.
The Normal Years
C.O.C.O.
Olympia duo C.O.C.O. combines funk, soul, and dub nostalgia with indie rock minimalism to create aurally pleasing, often amusing, stripped-down dance rhythms.
C.O.C.O.
Cadallaca
As Cadallaca, Kissy, Dusty, and Junior (aka Corin Tucker, Sarah Dougher, and sts) immerse themselves in the big cars, bad girls, and beehive hairdos aesthetic of '60s girl groups. The result is soaring pop songs full of adventure, attitude, and lovelorn tragedy.
Introducing
Chicks on Speed
Noisy experimentalism meets synth-pop meets postmodern collage art meets Eurotrash feminism. International trio Chicks on Speed make a musical mess -- a riotous, infectious, incendiary sonic disaster full of fashion victims, skin-deep intellectuals, worshippers at the altar of couture, and all-around poseurs -- that's as fascinating as it is off-putting.
The Re-Releases of the Un-Releases
The Crabs
Pop fans better put on your dancing shoes! The Crabs are here to skitter into your heart with the most charming pop songs you'll ever hear.
Sand And Sea
Gene Defcon
This is a band that knows how to keep up the booty shakin' and hardcore ragin'. Featuring an all-star lineup and a great sense of humor, Gene Defcon is the perfect blend of fuzzy lo-fi indie rock and crazy party anthems.
Come Party With Me 2000
Enemymine
This is pummeling, tooth filling-rattling rock power from the heart of the heavy sound: Olympia, Washington. This sonic onslaught is the result of a collision between godheadsilo and Low. Bow down and download.
Enemymine ep
The Gossip
This bassless female-fronted trio mines the classic lo-fi sound of '60s Pacific Northwest garage rock and injects it with a healthy dose of '90s Pacific Northwest riot punk.
The Gossip
Undead in NYC
-
2003
The Halo Benders
What began as casual basement recording sessions with Calvin Johnson (K Records, Dub Narcotic, Beat Happening) and Doug Martsch (Built to Spill) has resulted in three albums of spontaneous, charming, funky, and silly music.
The Rebels Not In
God Don't Make No Junk
Heavenly
British and popalicious! Heavenly played a huge role in getting the word "twee" into the popular lexicon in the first half of the '90s by crafting delectable jangle-pop songs that float through the air like hot air balloons, with a dose of garage-punk roughness for ballast.
Operation Heavenly
Heavenly vs. Satan
Internal/External
Internal/External is a veritable indie
all-star team comprised of Olympia
artists who try their hands at sounds we
don't ordinarily associate with them.
The songs range from indie slow jams to
spoken word rants to electronic
dabblings. Prepare to be surprised and
more than a little perplexed.
Featuring...
Inside Out EP
IQU
The next sound in genre deconstruction comes from Olympia, Washington. IQU brilliantly fulfill the old artist?s dictum to ?make the familiar strange? by mixing up everything from live standup bass to programmed beats to theremin to espionage thriller keyboard loops, creating a sound that?s both like everything you?ve heard and unlike anything you?ve heard.
Chotto Matte A Moment
Teenage Dream
Karp
Dark, thick, devilish metal as strong and vicious as hatred itself. Karp will make the weak run home to mommy, and the strong pay homage to the band's extreme rock power.
Karp
Karp/Rye Coalition split 12
Lois
Lois Maffeo?s brilliant songwriting skills, spare acoustic lo-fi sound, and delicate no-frills voice have made her something of a legend in the indie pop underground over the past decade-plus. A listen to her intelligent, thoughtfully crafted songs makes it instantly apparent why.
Infinity Plus
Love as Laughter
Love as Laughter frontman Sam Jayne continues to solidify his contorted and distorted lo-fi pop creations. Get in his rocket ship for some light-speed space travel past the planet Exile on Main Street and on into parts unknown.
Destination 2000
1 USA
The Lowdown
This Santa Cruz trio of spastic punk savants makes primitive, writhing, purposefully childish, lo-fi experimental music that sounds at times like it's trying to eat itself alive. This truly has to be heard to be believed.
Revolver II
Make Up
The Make Up's smoldering, sexually-charged gospel-flavored garage punk is better, tighter, and more liberated than ever before. Their volcanic, lava-hot pelvis-rock will burn a path through your insides and leave you feeling hollow and all used up.
Save Yourself
Sound Verite
I Want Some
Songs For Cassavetes
Marine Research
Call it aquata-pop, why not? Marine Research plays clean, sparkling clear pop songs with the same infectious twee giddiness as its predecessor, Heavenly, but with just enough of a rock bite to keep these tunes from floating away to sea.
Sounds From the Gulf Stream
Old Time Relijun
Old Time Relijun sounds like Satan's house band. Imagine the Cramps and the Make Up gone psycho on angeldust performing in a subway station with their amps wrapped in cardboard, and you get somewhere close to the insanity and profound spiritual sickness of this band.
La Sirena De Pecera
Witchcraft Rebellion
Satisfact
Angular art-punk dissonance meets weird,
hypnotic New Wave synths and random sci-fi
noise in this unpredictable, often jarring musical
world. Satisfact provides a document of the
uneasy alliance between the people and the
machines.
The Third Meeting at the Third Counter
The Shinin'
Six tracks of back-to-basics hip hop that relies on fresh beats and tight rhymes instead of slick gimmicks and empty attitude. Showcasing a great West Coast lineup of hot underground hip hop acts, Director's Cut doesn't give up from the get go to the let go.
Director's Cut EP
Snuff
Bombastic old-school pop-punk out of England. Snuff is the missing link between the Buzzcocks and Green Day.
Reach
The Spells
Helium's Mary Timony and Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein join forces to bewitch you with their idiosyncratic, stripped-down pop. You'll hear some of both bands here, but the collaboration yields something new and unique.
The Age of Backwards EP
Sub Debs
Grrls in the garage! Named for the girls who were always the outcasts from the debutante's social world, Olympia, Washington's Sub Debs play sarcastic, toothy indie-punk guaranteed to wreck any coming-out ball.
She's So Control
Jason Traeger
On his solo album, Jason Traeger opens his heart and lets the sunshine pour forth through his voice and his guitar, singing songs that will put a smile on your face and a skip in your step.
My Religion Is Love
The Transfused
Sure, you may have heard Tommy, The Wall, even Jesus Christ Superstar, but have you ever heard a punk rock opera? No, because there's never been one before. Well, Nomy Lamm, The Need, and Team Dresch's Donna Dresch have changed all that with The Transfused. You'll never think of the rock opera -- or punk rock -- the same way again.
Original Rock Opera Score
Treepeople
Hailed as the best indie rock band to come out of Seattle in the early '90s, the Treepeople made rambunctious, ferocious, intricate rock songs. You may recognize the superlative guitar playing of future Built to Spill auteur Doug Martsch.
Guilt, Regret, Embarrassment
Wolf Colonel
Combines the earnest pop chops of Elvis
Costello and Bob Pollard with a keen rock
sensibility and an ear for brevity. One of the
most perfect pieces of pop you could ever
hope to hear.
Vikings of Mint
The Castle
Yume Bitsu
This Portland, Oregon space rock quartet will
narcotize your consciousness with iridescent
curtains of sound that gently envelop you.
Sweeping synths, swirling effects-heavy
guitars, and soft percussion accents are the
essential components of their blissful epic
sound.
Auspicious Winds
