Kool Keith – Seattle Tacoma
The Smithereens – Sick of Seattle
Akimbo – Fuck Everett, Fuck Seattle
Seachange – Annie, Tacoma
Truckstop Honeymoon – Breakfast in Seattle
Sir Mix Alot – Seattle ain’t Bullshittin’
Marcy Playground – The Shadow of Seattle
The Business – Holiday in Seattle
Elizabeth Cotten – Washington Blues
Hugues Aufray – Le Port de Tacoma
Akron/Family – Seattle
Cold – The Day Seattle Died

Our slow train continues its crawl on across the 50 states. This week, Washington!

Washington, you gatekeeper of the green. Thank god we have you to protect us from hockey players and good weed. I visited you once and we got along well…. until I arrived in Seattle. It seemed like a good place but it was just too big, too confusing for my small brain. You beat me, Seattle. I lost and I quickly retreated back to Portland. I don’t hold it against you, though. In this case it really was me — not you.

Washington, you’ve been kind enough to give us such things as Bob Barker, the worlds first revolving restaurant, apples, an incredible amount of glaciers, Carol Channing, the worlds largest building (a boeing assembly factory), Kurt Cobain, Judy Collins, Microsoft, the oldest operating gas station in the world, soft-serve ice cream, Bing Crosby, Starbucks, the only rain forests in the united states (whoa…!), Bill Gates, Mt. St. Helens and it’s temper, Jimi Hendrix, Kenny Loggins, Amazon.com, Adam West, red rasberries, hops, pears, concord grapes, pictionary, pickleball, and cranium.

Washington, you proved to be one of the most difficult states to find songs for. There are plenty about Seattle, but most are negative, and the ones that are actually about you are very hard to find. I had lots of problems confusing you with Washington, DC which is ironic because you were trying to avoid that. Up until you were declared a state you were known as the Columbia Territory. You would have kept that name but you didn’t want to be confused with the district of Columbia — then those bastards went and called the city Washington, DC. Jerks.

Boom Bap – Welcome to Seattle
Dwarves – Goodnight Tacoma
Jelly Roll Morton – Seattle Hunch
Steve Vai – The Boy from Seattle
Knut – Seattle
PC Deathsquad – I Drove to Seattle and all I got was a 3 Second Handjob
Conflict – From St Paul to Seattle
Neko Case – South Tacoma Way
Anti Flag – Seattle Was a Riot
McClusky – Bi-Polar Bear Takes Seattle
Nirvana – Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle
Todd Snider – Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues

Stay tuned for two more posts of Washington tunes. Next up we’ve got Virginia so if you feel like contributing some songs, leave some love in the comments.

Hopefully you are the type of reader that I imagine you to be: patient, thoughtful, self reflective, elitical (fuck you. it’s now a word.), and highly concerned with the finer things in life. I treasure you and your appreciation for all the grande’ things. I do my best to cater to this and make sure that any of the posts that are born with missing fingers, moon faces, or plain old slooowwwwwness are weeded out before they ever make it here. Sure… your other favorite blog may post 6 new bands a day… but how many of those are you going to catch when they come to town the time after next? Yeah… I thought they were boring before you did. That’s why I get a kickass blog and you are stuck in the saltmines with everyone else.

I realize there are plenty of places where you can get quantity. I want to cater to your reflexive desire for quality. We may not come fast and furious with the posts, but we’ll bring the quality. We’ll do our best to only cover the stuff that’s worth covering — and if there isn’t anything worth covering, you can rest assured will be out by the lake enjoying a big ole’ bottle of Jim Beam. Hopefully that’s the reason you stick around.

On to the french band Prototypes. Joie De Vivre is french for “joy of life” (at least I think it is… I don’t speak french.) It’s really the reason that we all seek out the brilliance that we do. Food that tastes better, art that looks better, music that sounds better creates a certain chemical reaction in our bodies that our brain interprets as joy. This enriches our lives.

I spend most of my days wading through swamps filled with the “latest/greatest/shiniest” bands wearing the loudest track suits and playing jazzmasters — they can’t really impress me anymore. I’ve been desensitized to that trash. I keep my nose turned upwards to try and better detect freshness when it comes near. I keep my eyes pointed down to avoid you and your skinny tie and white belt.

Unless you are a girl, of course. I’ll give you far more of a chance to impress. I’ll go out of my way to lob one right into your strike zone. Sure…. i’ll still be disappointed when you strike out, but I won’t be as surprised. It’s ok. Hate away. I’m a misogynist. I don’t really have a problem with that. I rarely expect girls to impress me with their taste in music (the queen of online music blogs is an obvious exception to this). When a new acquaintance asked me a few months ago to track down a copy of Mutants Meditiques by Prototypes, I did so solely out of a desire to do something nice for her. I had every hope that it was something good, but every expectation that it was something terrible.

Imagine my surprise when it was more than good…. it was fresh, it was new, it was exciting, it was pure JOY. Upbeat, catchy, witty, inventive, FRENCH, good, and a fine female broke it to me?! Pitter patter goes my heart.

Give yourself the same joy. Listen to the songs below. Then feel free to check out other Prototypes tracks here, here, here, or here (in french, even).

From Mutants Mediatiques

Prototypes – Air Au Pigeons
Prototypes – Dis Moi

And Live from the Current at SXSW:

Prototypes – Je Ne Te Connais Pas
Prototypes – Medicalement
Prototypes – Who’s Gonna Sing?

I must have ordered one too many rounds, because I fell off the stool and ended up here. It’s time for rehab. It’s time to get fit. Aurally fit. Can you hear me? What? I need to see you DRINK that beer, not just look at it. Arnold wants to see you flex those record digging arms of yours. You need to dance, player hater. You need to shout it out. Move those feet to a semi-regular beat. Can the president recognize that we’ve got the skills to pay the bills?

Hayden – Trees Lounge