Frank Gutch Jr: Music To Stuff Stockings By… And With; Plus No Notes… Consider It a Lump of Coal

It’s that time of year again, sports fans.  Santa has been on the radio for the past two months, robot disc jockeys and purveyors of everything muzak beating us senseless with varying renditions of Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree and Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, hoping to lighten our mood enough to loosen the old purse strings.  Hallmark Channel have kicked into full Christmas mode, plastering their channels with their cookie-cutter movies which vary mostly by the changing of leading ladies (this year’s favorite, by far, is Hilarie Burton, whom I saw in an old Castle episode and was floored by not only her beauty but the fact that the casting could not have been more right).  I wish they had more creativity over at Hallmark, their overuse of the five plots and rotating stars coming very close to consumer abuse.  But, hey, I’m a sap.

Frank Gutch Jr: Sonics Boom! Seattle’s Peter Blecha Writes (Not Rewrites) Pac NW Music History!, Pac NW Labels— In Fact, It’s the Great Pac NW Rundown, Part One! (plus Notes?)…..

You may not know or know of Peter Blecha, but I do.  Peter and I have been acquaintances if not friends for a number of years and I have watched his growth as a writer and music historian with great interest.  We share an intense interest in the Pacific Northwest music scene, past and present, and we both revered the music and the bands which inhabited the various periods in the Pac NW music saga.  We know that the rest of the world, if not for The Sonics and Paul Revere & The Raiders, would consider the music scene minor league at best, but have always considered the rest of the world ignorant of the music and artists who seemingly have and have had to struggle for respect beyond the borders of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

Frank Gutch Jr: Up-and-Comers for 2013, Why All the Covers, Mental Tracks, and Notes…..

Remember when I said 2012 was the best year ever in music?  2013 is even at this early date biting  2012 on the ass.  Artists are lining up with what I am sure is going to be a run and a half of outstanding and, in some cases, mindblowing offerings.  Rather than wait and write about them pretty much after the fact, let us dig in now in a sort of anticipatory way, shall we?