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The phone rang a few times and a woman picked up. “Hello?” It was one of his daughters. I could recognize her tone and cadence from the now infamous documentary, Searching For Sugar Man. I didn’t have a chance to ask for her name before she passed the phone along to her father, Sixto Rodriguez, the famed songwriter and star of the film. With a sweet, patient voice, Rodriguez asked how I was doing, to tell him something about myself. In the moments before the call, nerves shook me, but now, I was having a conversation with the writer of the songs “I Wonder” and “Cold Fact.” Throughout the chat, I also got to ask him about how he learned to write music, what it was like playing those first big shows in South Africa, and what he thinks about first when he wakes up in the morning.

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With a new album, Digital Garbage, slated for release this September, the iconic Seattle rock band, Mudhoney, has achieved something many groups don’t: a career spanning four decades and 10 records in the books. With the throaty, charged singing of frontman, Mark Thomas McLaughlin (aka Mark Arm), Mudhoney has been a major part of the “grunge” pastiche in the Emerald City, helping to inspire the massive groups that followed. As the Sub Pop 30th anniversary approaches, we wanted to speak with Arm (a longtime Sub Pop veteran) to talk about the origins of his band, how his singing developed and what he learned from Green River, the early band he played in prior to forming Mudhoney.

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Jack Endino is a living musical legend. From the Soundhouse Studios where he works today, Endino offers his expert attention and lends his historic ears to songs from both up-and-coming bands and Grammy-winning ones. Often wearing a neat black cap over a nest of long hair, Endino also regularly graces the stage of many local venues, playing guitar for bands still close to his heart. Known perhaps most famously for his work recording Nirvana’s debut album, Bleach, Endino was integral in the early Sub Pop days, recording a seemingly never-ending list of songs for the burgeoning label – including ones from Soundgarden and Mudhoney. As the SPF30 celebration approaches, we wanted to catch up with the thoughtful engineer to ask him how he honed his craft and what he remembers from those early years.

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Thunderpussy guitarist, Whitney Petty, can go from knee-smacking laugh to face-melting solo in less than a second. The range of her creative and emotional output astounds and the joy she exudes in conversation — whether discussing the hunt for crop circles or text exchanges with Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready — is massive.

During the past few months, Thunderpussy released its self-titled LP to rave reviews and undertook a national tour. And soon the band will head out on a European excursion traveling from Hungary to Germany, Ireland, and Finland. But before Thunderpussy leaves the States, we wanted to catch up the band’s stellar guitarist to find out how the summer has treated the quartet, what’s coming up next, and how the band molded its aesthetic.

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Matt Sullivan founded his company, Light In The Attic Records, in 2002 in Seattle. Since then, he’s rereleased unknown, under-appreciated, and utterly fantastic music — like that of The Last Poets, Digable Planets, and countless others. Light in the Attic, which started in Fremont but now has offices in L.A., was also responsible for reissuing the music of famed rock ‘n’ roll artist, Sixto Rodriguez, the star in the now infamous film, Searching for Sugar Man. And this year, Light in the Attic has another great catalog of music they’re releasing into the world. As a result, we wanted to catch up with Sullivan to get a sense of what it takes to reissue an album, how his experiences have shaped his appreciation of music, and why he likes to bring sounds back to life. 

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The Philadelphia-based rock band Dr. Dog has a new album out. The record, Critical Equation, walks the line between herky-jerky rock ‘n’ roll and sweet, smooth harmonies. And, in some ways, the through line of the album seems to indicate a new chapter with the band, both musically and in the way the band members examine how they orient themselves in the new world. To celebrate the release of the album, we wanted to talk with one of the founding members of the group, Scott McMicken, about how Dr. Dog — which is set to play Saturday, June 9th in Seattle — got together, when Scott first started writing lyrics and how the group feels now that the album is out in the world.

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If you put on music by The Sonics, chances are you almost immediately wonder if your speakers are going to blow out. The famed northwest band, credited by many for starting – or at least dramatically popularizing – the garage rock sound in the 60s, rose to prominence after their hit song, “The Witch,” and hit record, Here Are The Sonics, hit stands in 1964. With it came the booming instrumentation and distorted vocals of soon-to-be icons. An influence for countless groups, including Nirvana, The Sonics have remained an important touchstone when considering the Seattle-area music scene ever since. And now, nearly 55 years since the album dropped, we thought we should catch up with one of the band’s original main members, bassist Andy Parypa, brother of guitarist Larry, who founded the group in the early 60s, to talk with him about those early years creating the music, who the band’s contemporaries were and what bonded the group as they cut their first single.

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Dave Simonett, lead singer and principle songwriter behind the raucous Duluth, Minnesota-based bluegrass band, Trampled by Turtles, has come full circle. After a year-plus hiatus away from the boot-stomping group to record and tour solo, Simonett has returned to the band and, together, they’ve created a joyous, thoughtful new album, Life is Good on the Open Road, which you can stream here. When listening to Trampled, you immediately pick up the richness and fullness of the music, born from the group’s thick-as-thieves comradery. From the bumping, “Blood in the Water” to the melancholy, “I’m Not There Anymore,” the group continues to be at its best. And we wanted to catch up with Simonett to talk about the album, reconnecting with the Trampled vibe and how living on the road has impacted his life.

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Washington-born singer, Allen Stone, has a voice touched by god — or is magic, or whatever other special metaphor you want to use. His singing voice leaps from his tonsils, serenading — as if sonically sunlit — whoever is around to hear him. It’s almost like the Grand Canyon — you can prepare yourself for the grandeur, but you can never imagine it quite the way it is when experienced in real life. And Stone has a new record, slated for release this fall. He dropped the first single, performed live, mid-April. Following the album release, Stone will hit the road for a lengthy U.S. tour. But before all that, we thought we’d catch up with the golden-voiced musician and ask him about the new project, how his life has changed over the years, and when he realized he could really sing.

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