Don’t need a hand, there’s always arms attached

The next Brain of J headline gig is fast approaching – grab your ticket via this page to join our grunge buds for some Pearl Jam goodness on Saturday 12 November at the West Hampstead Arts Club. Support is courtesy of the RHCP Experience – the UK’s own Funky Monks (check their shoes for virtue).

Like they put the whole thing together in the dark

Radio Seattle are back in action!

We’ll be unplugged again at Slim Jim’s on Friday 9 September. Admission is free and the selection of whiskeys is bounteous; let us know you’re coming here and we’ll keep an eye out for you. Expect some old faves in the setlist.

An old winter coat

After the best part of eight years, 54 gigs (including 9 as Soundguardian) and 63 songs by 13 artists, Radio Seattle are wrapping things up with one last gig before the Space Needle stops transmitting. 55 must be a lucky number.

It’s raining icepicks on your steel shore

Grunge is NOT dead is back next week – new venue but same grungey music, old and new.

Sunspots have faded

Radio Seattle are back in action in a couple of weeks’ time. We’re at the Fiddler’s Elbow on Thursday 15 June for the next instalment in our “Grunge is NOT Dead” series, and we’ll be joined by Almagram and Sick Joy.

Chris Cornell 1964-2017

I never wanted to write these words down for you… Desperately sad and incomprehensible news today, to hear of Chris Cornell’s tragic passing, aged only 52. To his family, bandmates and friends, my deepest condolences.

Seems to be such a long time

My occasional series on Pearl Jam tour posters has proved pretty occasional, all things considered. So, to remedy this (somehow, but don’t ask for details), I’ve decided to start up a second occasional series. This second series has the working title of “Alt rock bands from the early 90s that weren’t strictly speaking grunge as such, but included similarities to the grunge bands, be that in sound or attitude”. ARBFTE90sTWSSGASBISTTGBBTISOA for short. Guaranteed winner.*

If I knew where it was…

‘Look what I picked up at Record Store Day,’ my friend Dave emailed me the other day, along with the picture below.

Ahh, yes, Record Store Day. Curses. I keep forgetting it each year. The above look like two fine additions to anyone’s record collection.

Come down, and waste away with me

Spring is here again – it keeps happening every year seemingly – so what better way to celebrate nature’s perennial revivification and those lengthening evenings than a grunge night. Radio Seattle is kicking the year off with an unplugged set courtesy of Jonny and Mark (and a couple of new songs, including one pushing the grunge envelope a touch but which you’d be foo-lish to gainsay…). Yes, Croyattle is back, at a new venue, The Scream Lounge, and the line up includes Superfecta, Trevor’s Head and Alice in Chains UK (you can catch them doing Sunshine at the last Croyattle here). Tickets £5 (door).

No matter how cold the winter

On 4 March 1861, just shy of 156 years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood before the Capitol to deliver his first inaugural address. Seven southern states had recently seceded from the union, and the country faced imminent conflict. In a febrile, fissiparous atmosphere, Lincoln presented a clear-headed account of his determination to preserve, protect and defend the United States Constitution following his recently sworn oath as the 16th president, and concluded with an eloquent plea that conflict be avoided. The language might seem florid to modern ears, but there is no doubting Lincoln’s ability to combine a lucid message with a poetic ear.

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.