When you start a new project—whether that’s a platform, publication or business—it’s important to create and maintain a balance between a set mission statement and an openness or malleability. It’s a hard thing to attain, and the reason why many ventures fail. But for the founders of the Seattle-based Women.Weed.Wifi collective, this balance comes naturally—even telepathically.
Read MoreIn 2011, there were some 2,016 craft breweries in the United States, according to the Brewers Association. Just five years later, there were 5,234—and many believe this number will continue to grow. But why, exactly? What is it about craft breweries that the country adores? I asked some of Seattle’s most renowned brewers for their insights.
Read MoreThe Can Can Kitchen & Cabaret is always changing. At the 60-seat theater nestled in what feels like the hull of Pike Place Market, everything is in flux, from the choreography to the music to the way its dancers use the room. And in the theater’s brand new summer show, Ice Cream, this mutability is evident from the moment its host, Johnny Boy (aka Jonathan Betchtel), hits the catwalk.
Read MoreFor Seattle songwriter Tomo Nakayama, meaning and connection—within what he calls a "broken world"—come both from what's there right in front of us as well as what's in absence. Displayed through Nakayama's signature dulcet vocals along with guitars that sound like chiming bells, the songwriter's new single, "Bright and Blue," offers a picture of what's important: a roaming natural world without anything other than that which bonds a dear, loving relationship.
Read MoreSeattle-based crooner Vince Mira’s new 12-song LP, “El Radio,” often feels more like an intersectional collage than a modern pop release.
Read MoreYoung, hopeful musicians often enter the music scene with lofty goals of stardom and success. Rarely, however, do these dreams pan out. Seldom does the shift occur when, one day, an artist is playing a small bar and the next she’s on the biggest stage. But for Seattle rapper Taylar Elizza Beth (aka Taylar White) — who will celebrate the release of her new record, “Fresh Cut Flowers,” on Tuesday, June 13, at the Timbre Room — that shift may indeed be happening.
Read MoreIf you’ve ever seen the Seattle-based singer-songwriter Celene Ramadan (aka Prom Queen) perform, you know the aesthetic pizzazz she showcases through the magic of color and cloth, in addition to her jangly retro rock ‘n roll. As Prom Queen, Ramadan dons a dark bouffant, dazzling dream-pop dresses and plays a pink guitar. She’s the mastermind behind Midnight Veil, an LP-length music video opus featuring genie lamps, doo-wop singers and milk shakes. Now Ramadan has a new creative persona: a big, white, joke-telling rabbit who she’s named Snax The Bunny.
Read MoreGalen Disston, lead singer for the soulful Seattle rock band Pickwick, trades in two creative escapes: his music, a lifelong ambition and an art form with infinite possibilities; and the intricate craft of watch building, an endeavor Disston–whose band’s new record, LoveJoys, is out June 10—began only recently.
Read MoreThe genesis of Naomi Wachira’s newest album, Song of Lament, was a spiritual one— perhaps even divine. For the soulful, Kenyan-born singer, the songs for the new 11-track record, out now, came to her during a stint in Germany while she was at one of the lowest emotional points in her life.
Read MoreIt’s been two years since AB InBev, aka Anheuser-Busch, bought Elysian Brewing. At the time, this news caused uproar. How could one of Seattle’s oldest and best-respected breweries SELL OUT? was the refrain among many craft-beer drinkers. The reverberations were felt far and wide. Many bars stopped carrying Elysian.
Read MoreThere’s no shortage of music festivals in the Pacific Northwest—least of all in the Seattle area. With a population of just over 650,000, the city supports an unusually large number of festivals, from Bumbershoot to Capitol Hill Block Party, Doe Bay, Timber, and many others. This week the city will experience perhaps the most ambitious effort yet: Upstream Music Fest, the Paul Allen brainchild featuring 300 acts and panels on everything under the sun.
Read MoreSince his debut album in 2004, Shadows On The Sun, Brother Ali has represented a powerful voice in hip-hop. He’s reflective and eloquent. You can hear his heartbeat pound through his music. He’s the sort of person you’d want to ask for advice – not, say, if you wanted to buy a new car, but if you needed guidance on how to deal with a sick family member.
Read MoreRe-bar occupies a strange and lovely place in Seattle – both spatially and historically. The bar, located in the nebulous Denny Triangle, has provided a safe space for queer nightlife in the city for decades. It’s also where Nirvana staged its record release show for Nevermind (and where the band was famously kicked out of that same night). For many, Re-bar is the last remaining semblance of a Seattle quickly slipping through our collective fingertips. But the club’s owners remain hopeful they can keep the culture alive as apartment buildings are built, flanking and practically engulfing the favorite nightspot.
Read MoreEverywhere you look, there’s a tap handle ready to pour you a nice tall pint of IPA. The rise in popularity of craft beer is astounding, but also, in some ways, predictable. Beer is one of the oldest beverages in human history. It dates back to roughly 5,000 B.C. One could say it’s essentially in our DNA.
Read MoreWith a composed, sweet, and measured voice, the woman behind the spastic, exaggerated femme persona known as Cherdonna Shinatra describes her upcoming projects. The tone of the conversation is markedly different compared to the character’s at-times cartoonish physicality, but the woman behind Cherdonna, Seattle’s Jody Kuehner, has no problem with the concept of dichotomy.
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