During the filming of Tea Cozies’ video for “Muchos Dracula,” a creature was disturbed/unearthed. That creature subsequently became known as… The Beast. Here now is that story for you.

I’ve heard tell that you awoke a terrible thing during filming. What was awoken?

Tea Cozies: Less than a week before we made the video, which was filmed in our basement, we encountered a giant spider we called The Beast. It was literally tarantula-sized, and fast. We think the reverberations of our music roused it from its beastly slumber and it came out with guns a-blazin’. No one slept easy that night. The day before the shoot, our director and Brady were in the basement staging the lights. The Beast emerged and scurried across the floor (SERIOUSLY IT’S SO HUGE YOU CAN HEAR IT WHEN IT SCURRIES.) Brady jumped four feet in the air and the director, Rich, screamed like a child but proceeded to bring his shoe down on The Beast, mortally injuring it. We all feel bad now, but we are certain the spirit of The Beast haunts that music video.

What message does The Beast communicate from his afterlife realm?

That drinking beer is REALLY hard through a mask. And that he, or she is totally pissed.

Tea Cozies play Saturday, Oct. 27th at Columbia City Theater.

Dear perpetuators of the Recording Industry Association of America,

You represent a dying model. Technology has rendered you irrelevant. Musicians today can achieve worldwide exposure with little more time than it takes to order a cheeseburger and fries. Your A&R man has a real nasty hangover, but he really doesn't want to tell you why he's been getting so shit-faced for the last couple years. Here's the reason: With an internet connection and a hint of ambition, any artist, band, or circus sideshow can achieve the same results you'll charge them thousands, or if they're big enough, millions, for. There's no mystery anymore to what you do, and with little else than a Facebook, Soundcloud, Bandcamp—or, hell—even a (roll over Beethoven) relaunched Myspace account—your next big mover is soon to be your last missed-opportunity. What's more, smaller labels give their people real love, and that idea will give your accountant an ulcer.

Signed,

The Internet

Read the details on The Next Web about how Spotify and iTunes Match pay musicians something less than peanuts per play of a song—1/3 of a cent from the latter, a little bit more from the former. Then get properly outraged or blasé or satisfied according to your sense of entitlement re: the business of music. Then go outside and breathe deeply.

I possibly regret to inform you that if the sale of grunge items on Seattle's Craigslist doesn't pick up, this will be the last installment of the SCGW. Unfortunately the same items are posted each week, lately the only new items appear to be music instruments. The highlight of this week's SCGW is a person looking for a pair of used Doc Marten boots who lives on the east side ("which, by proxy at the very least, makes me lame"). Obviously, the SCGW pick of the week.

Although the listings are stale, the trend remains up again this week (surprise!) as noted in this week's GRUNGE GRAF:

Listings after the jump, as usual: links will break as listings expire. Click Quick!

Continue reading »

"This went from freshly amazing, to sort've old, to the thing that when done long enough becomes progressively more hilarious to the point that I shortle at work. You're doing the Lord's work." - Andrew Malcolm Dooley on Seattle Craigslist Grunge Watch

It's apparent that word of the SCGW is on the street, as the market for grunge items is currently flooded. It's like 1993 has reared it's ugly head once again, one seller is abusing the term to sell a wooden tool box. As you can tell from the below GRUNGE GRAPH, the trend is up once again, for the fourth consecutive week. As they say in the office, "Grunge talks, bullshit walks, grunge doesn't grow on trees, etc." Oh, and the wooden toolbox gets the coveted honor of being the SCGW pick of the week.

• DEREK ERDMAN
• GRUNGE GRAPH

Listings after the jump, as usual: links will break as listings expire. Click Quick!

Continue reading »

Ugh, Guitar Center has been an unfortunate force to reckon with ever since I started playing music, and sometimes it is the only option when you are on tour in some weird town and need to make an emergency purchase. But when I think of every lame comment I’ve heard from a sales rep there, from overt chauvinism (“this girl was a pretty good drummer, not just for a chick, but you know, actually good!”) to patronizing comments presuming you don’t know what you are doing, to aggressive masturbatory peacock-ing (I had a sales guy actually pick a guitar out of my hands and try to continue a sales conversation while he casually shredded out a solo) I get pretty bummed.

That said, last year I ran across a really interesting interview in the Denver Westword with Guitar Center Vice President of Operations Laura Taylor about how she was was fully aware of the way women get treated in the stores and was trying to improve it.

"Being a female, being a player, being in a male-dominated industry for so many years, I was the one who approached my boss [Gene Joly, Executive Vice President of Guitar Center stores]. I said, "Look: this is something that we really need to focus on." It has been off everyone's radar, and it is just how it has always been...One of the Girls Rock Camps didn't want to join into this alliance with Guitar Center. They didn't want to take any of the opportunities we were able to give because they had had such bad experiences in our stores. We are still working with them to change that. But when we hear stuff like that — and I've heard that pretty much verbatim from customers, that the experience is just awful — you wouldn't want anyone to treat anybody that way. Again, it is our industry. It is male-dominated. It always has been. In the 22 years I've been with Guitar Center — which, I mean I'm 42, so most of my life I have been in this industry — I've seen where it has evolved and where it hasn't, and where we need to go. I'm really excited, and I really do believe that we can make a difference and we are going to."

I thought that was pretty awesome that some steps were being made to fix this! Maybe now I wont have to mentally prepare myself for demeaning comments when I just wanna buy cables! Except I haven't really needed anything from there lately, and that interview took place last year. Has anyone noticed any difference in the way that you are getting treated in the stores?

Another week, another bunch of things on Craigslist. This week's Grunge Watch is heavy with musical equipment, probably due to people cleaning out basements for what the PNW calls spring. It's June 13th, I'm wearing a cardigan.

For the analysts, the trend is up again this week. We saw a 5% decrease in lamestain futures. Unfortunately, the cob nobblers of last week remained unsold, the autographed Bleach CD and Chris Cornell photo are still available. In addition, the Alice In Chains shirt also hasn't moved, though it would compliment a pair of wack slacks nicely.

First up, the SCGW pick of the week:

local seattle concert posters- over 100 - $50 (covington) Though the price may be a little steep, this looks like a collection of contemporary hand bills from the Seattle region. It appears that some of the fliers are in a bound plastic folder, which can assure you that this seller means business when it comes to condition.

Dod FX-60 - GRUNGE - $50 (Seattle) Look for the owner of this device at Comedy Underground soon, because this description is funny. Have a look at the whole listing for "many laffs," but ponder this bewildering wrap-up sentence right now: "PS - Citizen Dick plays a show like every other night so you are not going to miss anything if we meet up for a sale at the Off Ramp."

Tweed Deluxe 5E3 type Amp - $1260 (Phinney Ridge)
"This is the sound that made Rock and Roll and that gave Neil Young his title the Father of Grunge."

Line 6 Spider Amp - $50 (Queen Anne)
"It's also got a 6 mode emulation selector, anything from blues to grunge to reverb."

ZUNE Black 120 WiFi charger big screen DLO case +car pack (W Seattle)
(Jim Newberry pick of the week!) "Theres games and stuff on it, and it has WiFi, plus it's half full of tasteful rock, grunge type 90s music, and a ton of new metal, metal core stuff like that 61+ gb used nothing zune has rights to."

Digitech Grunge effects pedal - $40 (Tacoma)
"This is a digitech grunge effects pedal, just like in the picture."