According to an article in The Stranger the Crocodile Cafe’s main booker quit abruptly last week, due to personal conflicts with the venue’s owner Stephanie Dorgan. Peter Greenberg had been primary booker for the Crocodile since earlier this year, and had worked as an assistant booker at the venue for four years prior to quitting, according to the story.This is not surprising as many people involved in Seattle music have heard rumors swirling about the Crocodile’s business strategies  for years. A year or two ago there was buzz about a musician who worked at the venue being wrongfully fired. The story mentions Portland band Viva Voce receiving a bad check from the venue. The Crocodile Cafe is located in Belltown at 2nd and Bell. It offers a full bar as well as a restaurant, and hosts a variety of shows including touring and local bands of every shape and size. 

I’ve been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan lately, which is why this show really excites me.

Every year at Christmas time the Tractor Tavern in Ballard has an album cover show. This year’s is Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde as performed by North Twin, Sean Nelson, the Tripwires and others. This being one of Dylan’s most innovative records it should be interesting to hear interpretations of the songs from these local musicians. 

 Information from  The Seattle Weekly:

5th Annual Double Album Christmas Show featuring Blonde on Blonde as performed by North Twin

Tractor Tavern

$7. Sat., December 8, 9:00pm

Also this weekend is KEXP’s annual Yule Benefit featuring Yeasayer, Dead Confederate, Feral Children and the Valley.

From John Richards‘ playlist: 

“On Saturday, December 8th, KEXP presents The 5th Annual Yule Benefit at The Showbox (1426 1st Avenue).  KEXP’s Yule Benefit helps further the station’s mission of bringing music into people’s lives.  This event has become a holiday tradition and is fast becoming recognized as a significant event that focuses on presenting up and coming artists.” 

Doors at 8pm, show at 9pmTickets are available at all Ticketmaster outlets and Ticketmaster.com and at the Showbox .

21 and over. $20 advance and $25 at the door

All proceeds will benefit KEXP programming. 

I asked John Richards how he felt about the story in the Stranger that I blogged about earlier.

His response was that he has gotten used to being attacked by the Stranger, claiming that the newspaper has printed similar stories attacking his integrity for the past few years.

“They wrote this same kind of article seven years ago when I started my label,” he said.

Richards says that this latest article doesn’t have a real story.

“[They say] John does this, and this isn’t wrong but they wrote it such a way to imply [that it] was,” he said. “They never mention I’ve never been paid a penny from the band and don’t have a contract with them for any future money. I was helping them get through the music waters.”

I asked him how he felt about the Stranger writing about Kexp DJs having conflicts of interest when the magazine’s writers seem to have some clear conflicts of their own. His response:

“Megan who wrote it is on 107.7 The End pretty much every week.
How is THAT not a conflict with her writing about us [Kexp]?”

Last week Seattle band the Blood Brothers announced its decision to break up in this blog post on the band’s myspace page.
THANK YOU AND GOODBYE

Love,
The Blood Brothers

Over the past decade the Blood Brothers has been a front runner of the Seattle hardcore scene. The band has played such Seattle events as the Capital Hill Block party and has built a rather large following of fans across the country. The band has released eight records, as well as EPs and DVDs. The band’s latest release was 2006’s Young Machetes.

In other news the amazing M.I.A. is playing the Showbox SoDo tomorrow night. The Sri Lankan rapper has been banned from the United States in the past years. The past couple of times she was scheduled to play in Seattle the shows have been canceled, because she couldn’t get across the border.
Her new record, Kala, was released in August. This album was partially recorded in India and Africa and she blends her hip-hop style with native beats and rhythms.
Let’s hope she makes it across the border this time.

A couple of weeks ago this article was published in the News section of the Stranger.
The story brings up the possibility of John Richards, KEXP’s popular morning DJ, being biased to The Blakes, a Seattle band that he is co-managing. While stating that this is not illegal, the article seems to attempt to lead the reader to believe that this so-called conflict of interest could be unethical.
The story quotes members of the Seattle music community, many of whom think that it is unethical for Richards to have a financial interest in a band that he plays on his radio show.
Most people will probably find it odd that people in the Seattle music community would be so concerned about this, considering how many people involved in music in this city have interests in different aspects. Record store owners and night club employees playing in prominent local bands, record companies employing, and sometimes being owned by local musicians, members of bands owning recording studios.
I find it interesting that the Stranger is so concerned about Richards’ apparent conflict of interest, when many of its own music writers are strongly involved in the music community themselves, perhaps even a little too much. Not only is Eric Grandy a popular DJ (as mentioned in the article) but Megan Seling is known to have friendships with members of certain local bands, and has even been seen around town and at shows wearing t-shirts and sweatshirts promoting local bands.
I’m just saying. It could be argued that biased journalism is much more unethical than a guy who hosts a morning radio show having financial interest in a band or two. People expect DJs to be opinionated about their music, and to have different relationships with the bands that they play. This is especially true with a radio station like KEXP, which is loved so dearly by Seattle music fans because of its dedication to playing and promoting local music. They also expect journalists to be objective, and it could be a conflict of interest, whether real or apparent, if a music journalist is friends with members of the bands (s)he reports on.
John Richards has been the owner of Loveless Records for years, so it’s odd that this is just now becoming an issue.

It is often stated that Seattle has one of the richest and most diverse music scenes of any city in the US. Unlike Chicago which is known mostly for its hip-hop or Omaha which is known for its emo-rock, Seattle is responsible for popular music of all varieties. Seattle is most famous for Nirvana’s grunge rock that shook the nation in the early 90s, but before that there was Sir Mix-a-Lot who’s chart topping hip-hop made Capitol Hill’s Broadway street famous with the legendary song “My Posse’s on Broadway.”
Since then the city has brought forth popular music from a wide variety of genres. From Harvey Danger to Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie, from United State of Electronica to Blue Scholars, the city is unique in that it houses so much diverse music.
Not all of Seattle’s musicians are popular world wide, or even nation wide, but in a city that cultivates hundreds and thousands of bands who needs a national music scene? There’s something for everybody in Seattle. Fans of Kanye West should check out Gabriel Teadros, fans of Britney Spears and the Donnas should check out the Catch.
This blog was started to give fans a new look at musicians in Seattle. As a firm believer in the power of the local music scene, this writer is committed to giving Seattle musicians a voice.