Waxwing

I've been a fan of Rocky Votolato, the frontman of Waxwing, since 1995-ish when I saw him with the band Run Away Laughing. A year or so later he was fronting Lying On Loot. After Lying on Loot, and either after or during a stint drumming for the band Kentucky Pistol, came Waxwing... and there are not enough words in existence for me to be able to sufficiently express my love for Waxwing. Their shows, like their music, always contained an amazing blend of both beauty and chaos. Rocky's voice has this pained quality that made it so their mellow tunes came across with the same raw intensity as the harder tracks. Waxwing were beyond great and in my opinion they were one of the best bands of the whole late 90's/early 2000's Seattle music scene and I know many other people who feel the same way. Alright, I'm done gushing.
Here is one of their early releases:
Self-titled 7" (with front & back cover scans)

An early Waxwing demo can be found here at Pukekos.

The Powers of Darkness Shall Rain Blood Upon This City For 500 Years

The Powers of Darkness Shall Rain Blood Upon This City For 500 Years are probably best remembered for having an extremely long band name. But, if you actually had a chance to see them perform live, you most likely remember them for their keyboard driven crushing noise grind and their wild and varying stage costumes. The members of the band were Travis Nakamura (drums), Cindy (keyboards), TJ (vocals), Thomas Cowgill (guitar, vocals).

The Powers of Darkness 7" (includes a scan of the cover and lyric sheet)

If anyone out there has a copy of their song "Poised For Sculpting" from the KXLU 88.9 FM Los Angeles Live Vol. 7 compilation, or any other material by them, please upload it somewhere and send me a link.

Rat Cat Hogan - Part 1

"In the fall of 1997, I put an ad in The Rocket, a now defuct music publication in Seattle, Washington, looking for a drummer. Exactly one drummer answered that ad, the fugitive Iowan Robbie Skrocki. A few weeks later we were Rat Cat Hogan, and thus we've been ever since, more or less." - Herbert Bergel

Rat Cat Hogan was a two piece band composed of Herbert on guitar and vocals and Robbie on drums. The sound of their music is pretty lo fi and simple. The lyrics to their songs are mostly about mundane everyday things and read like short stories/diary entries, the vocal delivery is off, the guitar is angular but the drums sort of keep the whole thing together. This stuff definitely isn't for everyone. The two times I saw Rat Cat Hogan live they were heckled by assholes through their entire sets, but I've always found something charming in their quirky tunes.

The We're Bicoastal album features Chris Walla of Death Cab For Cutie playing piano on the fourth track and Sean Nelson formerly of The Long Winters & Harvey Danger singing background vocals on tracks five and seven.

We're Bicoastal

Our Apologies to Walla