This past Saturday, Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Poneman joined Abe Beeson to host a special edition of Audioasis in celebration of the label’s 20th Anniversary. Not only has Sub Pop been a hugely influential force in the Seattle music scene during all of those years, but Poneman himself started Audioasis in 1987, and it’s now the Northwest’s longest running local show.

Early Sub Pop signees Swallow, now reformed with their original lineup, opened the evening with rocking set and a very humorous interview with Abe and Jonathan — yes, the subject of Sub Pop refusing to release the band’s third album did come up! (It’s now available on Flotation Records.)

Love Battery, nearing two decades as a band themselves (next year will be LP20?) with mostly the original lineup, performed in the final hour of the show, and yes, they too managed to make Jonathan feel embarrassed as the brought up an proto-Love Battery formation that included him on bass. Their brand of psychedelic rock doesn’t seem at all dated as they blazed through four classics, ending with “Between the Eyes.”

If you missed the performance or want to hear it again, you can go back and listen on our 14-day Streaming Archive.

Also, don’t forget to pick up your tickets for SP20, where you can see more classic Sub Pop bands like Mudhoney, The Vaselines, Green River, Les Thugs, and more!

• Radiohead quietly released ten live performance videos exclusively through iTunes last week. The collection was filmed in Nigel Godrich’s The Hospital studio with the team involved with From the Basement and features cuts from In Rainbows and its bonus disc.

  By the way, you can still vote for the best animated videos created by Radiohead fans. Go to the band’s page on Aniboom and choose your favorite of the 13 semi-finalists, like this one:

• Indie tastemaker, Pitchfork, has announced the set times for the 2008 edition of its Pitchfork Music Festival. Following the trend of larger festivals, Pitchfork has gone high-tech teaming with Boost Mobile to deliver the full festival schedule and set time alerts to your phone. For more info on the July 18-20 fest, head over to Pitchfork Music Fest Central.

  KEXP will be broadcasting from the Pitchfork Music Festival this year. Just before that, we’ll be at Engine Studios in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago. If you’re going to be in the area and would like to attend one of our exclusive live performances, sign up on our Events page.

• September 30th is the magical date for the Rhino release of The Jesus and Mary Chain box set. According to Billboard, The Power of Negative Thinking will house four discs of B-sides, rarities, and compilation tracks. The group is continuing work on their first studio album in a decade.

• Supergrass are readying Glange Fever, a DVD documenting Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey’s club gigs under the moniker Diamond Hoo Ha Men in December 2007. Check out the trailer here.

• Demoted bullgod Kid Rock has released a PSA encouraging us all to steal from the rich. [edit: he's since apologized.] Anything to move a few more units.

• The Baseball Project, the latest incarnation of Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck, do more than just put their love of baseball into music — they form a fantasy baseball league with other musicians (including Steve Wynn and Linda Pitmon) and blog about it. You can also go back and read our interview with Steve Wynn about the project and sample a rough mix of “Pasttime”.

By DJ El Toro

As literary protagonists go, aspiring guitarist and songwriter Laurie Lindeen is as charismatic as they come. Just read how she describes herself — and her partner-in-crime, bassist Coleen “Co” Elwood — on page 10 of Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story:

“Co looks like Natalie Wood if she had traveled to India with the Beatles, sort of a grooved-out late-1950s movie star. A former cheerleader gone off the arty deep end, Co is a mixture of the young Cher and Maureen O’Sullivan. I’m a poor man’s Connie Stevens on a good day, a punk rock Joey Heatherton on a bad day.”

In other words, the kind of guests I want at my cocktail party.

The cool thing is, Lindeen may be charismatic, but she isn’t always likeable. Far from it. Customers at her day job, serving breakfast orders at a fourteen-stool Minneapolis diner, call her Mean Waitress. On road trips, she makes a point of pouting in the car while everyone else piles out to look at Hoover Dam or whatever roadside attraction beckons; she blows off Niagara Falls to browse a Payless Shoes. Which is a bold tack to take with your main character, considering that Petal Pusher (out now in hardback, and due Sept. 16 in soft cover) is a memoir, not a novel.

Lindeen is unflinchingly honest — blunt yet funny — as she details the slow, determined rise, protracted plateau, and abrupt end of Zuzu’s Petals, her early ’90s trio with Elwood and drummer Linda Pitmon. Self-taught purveyors of poppy garage rock enriched by rousing harmonies and smart lyrics, the Petals garnered a lot of favorable notices for the 1992 debut, When No One’s Looking.

Petal Pusher hits all the dubious highs (opening for a very cordial Adam Ant on a failed comeback tour) and indignant lows (helpful advice from a record label to try sleeping with key club bookers). But the band’s misadventures is merely the focal point off of which Lindeen spins myriad stories, about her splintered family life, romances, and living with Multiple Sclerosis. An MFA in creative writing, the author intertwines all these components deftly, some broken down to bite-sized anecdotes, others extended and revisited throughout the 300+ pages.

^{photo by Steve Cohen}

Lindeen believes the rock and roll myth. But even more, she believes in the magic of classic Hollywood movies and Broadway musicals, particular the works of Rodgers & Hammerstein (”except South Pacific“). Which makes her rants and observations about trying to chisel out a spot in the early ’90s music business that much funnier. When she fixes her sights on riot grrls and the “kinderwhore” trend, she is bitingly hilarious. In a world here the bad behavior of Inger Lorre and Courtney Love is not only tolerated, but encouraged, what place is there for three ladies in vintage party dresses who pride themselves on their manners?

That last quality is part of what makes Petal Pusher such a fun read. Sometimes, Lindeen names names. She never plays coy about her courtship with future-husband Paul Westerberg. She details friendships with members of Soul Asylum and the Jayhawks. Yet at other junctures, she displays commendable tact and discretion. When a member of the Petals or their tiny entourage misbehaves on tour, she will often lapse into anonymity: “Two of us promptly crash on top of a cat piss-atomized bedspread… one of us stays up with the techie and ends up doing the wild thing… Within a week, one of us has a burning crotch and some awful infection.” Who? None of your business. It does a great job of ensuring that reader loyalties remain evenly distributed. (Although I’d love to know the identity of the “really drunk, really wasted grunge girl” who attempts to strangle Lindeen mid-song during their first Seattle gig, at the old Off Ramp.)

On the page, Laurie Lindeen is not the nicest person you’ll ever meet. But I guarantee that if you give Petal Pusher a few days of your time, you’ll be damn glad you made her acquaintance, and got to know her better.

In fact, if you want to know even her better, read Spike’s interview with Laurie on the KEXP Blog from earlier this year.

DJ El Toro is the host of the overnight show In Between Sleep & Reason, Wednesday mornings from 1 AM to 6 AM on KEXP 90.3 FM Seattle and kexp.org. His column, Weird At My School, appears every Monday on the KEXP Blog.

All photos by Jason Bergman for JellyNYC

Despite the foreboding thunder and a summer storm warning, a huge crowd descended upon McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg yesterday, but it wasn’t cool refreshment they sought — at least not the kind you’re thinking of — nor did they need their mommas to tell them to stay out of the water. This past weekend marked the first of JellyNYC’s weekly Pool Parties, and the empty pool played host to local bar rockers The Hold Steady, whose rapidly growing popularity will ensure that it’s only their hard-luck characters who lives will remain in seedy dives. Hard-rocking sets by Philly punks The Loved Ones and Baltimore rockers J Roddy Walston and the Business opened the all-ages event.

The next Pool Party is on July 6, with Ronnie Spector and the Rabbit Factory Soul Revue. Check the Pool Parties website for updates and for more information on their exciting lineup of artists this season, including The Breeders, The Ting Tings, Aesop Rock, The Liars, and many, many others.

The Loved Ones

J Roddy and the Business

The Hold Steady

^{photo by Juan Ayude}

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection, chosen by Morning Show host John Richards, is Two Minutes by The Blows from the 2008 album Upskirts on Pupilo Records.

On Upskirts, the debut album from Spain’s The Blows, all existential arguments are avoided in favor of sex and tomfoolery. With song titles like Damn 80s Hooker and Sin City Lies, and lines such as Don’t you know I love your penis. Find me, and satisfy me, the mood is always kept fun and feisty. The quartet relies on fast and shiny Brit-pop guitar lines and electronic-laced post-punk to fuel the fire, drawing comparisons to Glasgow’s commercial success of the same mold, Franz Ferdinand. The Blows will spend practically their entire summer touring their native country, but once they break down those national boundaries, commercial success will surely come their way as well. Spaniards and music-loving tourists should scope out their MySpace page for their complete summer itinerary, and everyone should witness this performance of Two Minutes from February’s Mardi Gras festivities:

^{photo by Gregory A. Perez}

The JellyNYC Pool Parties with the Hold Steady, Loved Ones and J Roddy and the Business - Sunday, June 29, 2008

Crackling blue paint officially marks the start of the summer concert pool season. KEXP is proud to sponsor the free JellyNYC Pool Party at McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg today, June 29th. It’s the first show of the year and it’s a good one: Brooklyn’s very own The Hold Steady. Decide for yourself if they’re the best “bar band’ in America — this time, however, they’ll be playing in an empty pool. Philly punks The Loved Ones and Baltimore rockers J Roddy Walston and the Business get things started. 2:00 PM | All Ages | Free

A big thank you to Zach Harjo and Android Hero for playing on last week’s show and to everyone who tuned in.

This week we have a very special show in honor of the upcoming Sub Pop 20th Anniversary Festival. DJ Abe Beeson hosts this week alongside Sub Pop co-owner and former Audioasis DJ Jonathan Poneman. Beyond highly anticipated sets from Swallow and Love Battery, who knows what these two musical encyclopedias will bring to this week’s show.

^{Vogue circa 1990}

Swallow (6PM), formed in 1987, was among the first bands signed to Sub Pop. Before the grunge era really got going, they showed an amazing ability to mix heavy distortion, scratchy howls and distinct pop sensibilities. Problems in and outside of the band, including the refusal of Sub Pop to release their third album, led to their breakup in ‘92. However, a few successful reunion shows in ‘06 got the attention of Seattle’s Flotation Records, who have since released the long-unreleased album, Teach Your Bird to Sing. I can’t think of a much better way to kick off the SP20 festivities than to hear these guys live in the studio followed by a full show at The Funhouse.

Love Battery (8PM), another pioneering act of the Sub Pop label, formed in 1989, naming themselves after a Buzzcocks’ song. After delivering consistent psych-soaked grunge for years on the Sub Pop label, including ’92s stellar Dayglo album, Love Battery went on to record strong efforts for Atlas and C/Z Records. With a few lulls here and there, the band has been pretty active since their formation, and while they’ve gone through many personnel changes over the years, the current lineup is the original aside from ex-Posies and Fastbacks drummer Mike Musburger. Let the guitar fury commence, and if you haven’t already done so, get your tickets now for SP20.

^{Lesli Wood at Three Imaginary Girls’ Exile in Guyville tribute night
photo by Nathan Howard}

It’s Pride Weekend here in Seattle. That means a lot of things to a lot of different people. If you’re a culture warrior on the right you might see it as the first signs towards the Rapture – and may even be bullish on the prospects. For others, it means that Seattle is a big party all weekend long. It could just be me, but I prefer the latter.

While the events I’m recommending below aren’t official Pride events, the weekend does force everyone else to up their game.

Lushy at the High Dive, Friday, June 27 at 6pm
After a long work week at work, I’m often really eager to go directly from the office to a rock club. With that mind, bless the people at the High Dive for their Friday night Happy Hour shows.

Tonight, they have the lounge-pop band Lushy, who are one of the most fun to watch. In their songs, people drink martinis and ride Vespas but at their shows, everyone dances to the fun, upbeat, catchy tunes. Lushy is the ideal band to kick off this summer weekend.

The Saturday Knights CD Release at Nectar, Friday, June 27
You’ve been listening to the audio stream of the Saturday Knights’ brand new album Mingle, half here and half at My Old Kentucky Blog, all week long and tonight you can see the perfect hip hop soundtrack to your summer at Nectar.

Here’s the video to their single “45″:

The Tea Cozies at the High Dive, Saturday, June 28
I know I am more than a little biased, but I’m still recovering from TIG’s freaking amazing 6th birthday party and celebration of Liz Phair’s masterpiece debut, Exile in Guyville. 9 bands played the album’s 18 tracks in order and all were fantastic but I knew that Rachel Flotard and Lesli Wood would be phenomenal – and they most certainly were. The biggest, most pleasant surprise for me, though, was the Tea Cozies absolutely perfect version of “Gunshy”. They increased the volume and tempo but lost nothing in the power of the lyrics. It was stunning to watch.

I have yet to see the Tea Cozies play a live set of their own, but needless to say I am anxious to do so very soon. As luck would have it, they are playing at the High Dive on Saturday night with the Ice Age Cobra and the Who The Hells.

Glass Candy at Chop Suey, Saturday, June 28
This night kicks off a new dance party night at Chop Suey called Cassette! They lined up an excellent band to headline the inaugural night, too. Portland’s Glass Candy released their album B/E/A/T/B/O/X last year and it, borrowing heavily from Italo Disco (ditching most of their no-wave tendencies in the process) and created a dance floor classic. “Beatific” would sound equally fresh and exciting in 1975 as it does in 2008.

Here’s some footage playing “Beatific” about 3 months ago in San Francisco:

See you out and about,
Chris Burlingame
*Three Imaginary Girls*

High iPod rotation:
Shane Tutmarc and the Traveling Mercies
Tea for Julie
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

(Three Imaginary Girls is a Seattle-based website that showcases the great music of the Northwest and beyond to music lovers worldwide. We post a Seattle live show calendar to help you fill your day-planner with loads of great shows, as well as record reviews, live show reviews, and an imagi-blog to entertain you throughout the day.)

^{photo by Scott Steinbright}

Having trouble finding a copy of Feral Children’s album Second to the Last Frontier? Never fear: The out-of-print debut full-length from the Seattle band proclaimed to be “the next Modest Mouse” (they’re not, and that’s a good thing) will be re-released by Sarathan Records on July 8. Listeners of KEXP already understand the allure of the songs that our own Music Director Don Yates calls “Dark, unsettling indie-rock that occasionally explodes in a murderous rage.” Right now, you can join the bloody fun by downloading a free EP of songs found on the new album, thanks to the good folks at Sarathan:

Not only that, you can also enjoy this new video from “Spy/Glass House,” also found on the free EP, and directed and produced by the Seattle comedy team Black Daisy:

After a brief stint in Brooklyn, FRICTION returns to the borough that gave the monthly series birth with its first show at the recently-turned-three, Cake Shop. Playing their unique brand of gloomy, yet catchy and upbeat surf-inspired tunes, Brooklyn’s Crystal Stilts headline this show, supported by fellow Brooklynites and Paw Tracks signees, Rings, along with PWRFL Power, who recently made the move to the popular borough from Seattle, where he swooned many a heart. Philadelphia’s mysterious Tickley Feather rounds out the lineup, bringing her lo-fi blend of psychy bedroom pop to the shop. Anicet is back spinning between sets.

Tickets are just 7 bucks and available at the doors, which open at 8pm the night of the show. Well thought out press blurbs, really skinny pictures, mp3’s, and the flyer (designed by Andy McEntee) are all available here.