Song of the Week: “A Little Less Each Day” by Anna Coogan

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It’s time for another “Song of the Week”. In these articles I talk about some of my favorite tunes inspired by Books. We can all agree that music inspired by books is awesome and I’m gonna tell you why.

“A Little Less Each Day” by Anna Coogan | inspired by Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity

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photo by Wade Trenbeath

Every time I hear this song I find myself closing my eyes in an attempt to listen to it harder than I did the previous time. I love a simple opening guitar line, especially when I know what is coming next.

Anna was out on tour during the time she had to read Nick Hornbys’ High Fidelity and write the song. I believe she was in somewhere in Europe with her band. I could really feel her inspiration coming from believing in love, and what long distance can do to being in love. This is something I can relate to from my life’s experience, even if my feelings weren’t exactly the same as the way the tune came out for her. Read more

How Music Works: Poster Design by Michael Wallenfels

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The next Bushwick show is right around the corner….

Saturday December 14th at Columbia City Theater
The Bushwick Book Club Seattle Presents original music inspired by
David Byrne’s How Music Works Read more

Song of the Week: “So it Goes” by Sam Ford

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So here’s the new weekly article that will be coming from me, Geoff Larson, the Program Director of The Bushwick Book Club Seattle. I have been part of and/or planned every single Seattle Bushwick show. It has been quite a journey over these past few years.

Now I want to present my “Song of the Week” where I will write about a song from one of our Bushwick artists and talk about what I think about the tune. Hopefully I can keep these pretty short, but you never know.

So here is this week’s song of the week:

“So it Goes” by Sam Ford | inspired by Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five

The first thing I’d like to say about this tune is, I love the name! “So it goes” is a phrase I frequently use in my life. For me, it means the same thing as “such is life” or “shit happens.” Mostly it means that it’s time to move on to the next thing, no matter what just happened. Vonnegut used it in a somewhat similar way, but who knows what that guy is thinking.

So it Goes… Now to the music. Read more

Bushwick is on the TV: original music inspired by the Bible

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Last April at Town Hall Seattle, Bushwick undertook our most ambitious show to date when we presented original music inspired by the most popular book of all time… The Bible. This show had everything… a full gospel choir, a live jazz band, amazing music inspired by the Old Testament, prayers, sing alongs, blasphemy, the ten commandments polka… and also special appearances by Jesus, God, and the Devil himself (Gasp!). Read more

Read And Destroy: The Scoop On Bushwick’s New Traveling Folk/Rock Band

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Our fearless leader Geoff Larson is driving along the beach in Ocean Park, WA on a tiny slip of a peninsula sandwiched between Willapa Bay, the Columbia River, and the Pacific Ocean. On the last day of our nine show Timberland Library tour, we’ll perform three shows back-to-back: Ilwaco @ 1pm, Raymond @ 4pm, and Olympia @ 7:30pm. A tight schedule to be sure, but we’re up for the challenge… that’s how we roll. Read more

Bookshelf Report: More Music Books Than You Can Shake A Drum Stick At

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The Bookshelf Report is an ongoing series where we ask 5 questions and share 5 pictures of a bookshelf  belonging to a Bushwick reader. Today’s bookshelf comes from long time Seattle music journalist Travis Hay. He has written for many notable publications such as MSN Music, the Seattle-Post Intelligencer, and Seattle Weekly, and is the creator of GuerillaCandy.com, an amazing website dedicated to documenting the Seattle music community.

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What’s your favorite book on the shelf?

Asking me to name my favorite book is like asking me to name my favorite record. It’s a very tough thing to do. As you can tell, most of my books have something to do with music and I consider the music books in my collection to be good reference material. If I had to name a single one as my favorite it would have to be “Everybody Loves Our Town” by Mark Yarm. It’s a massive oral history of the Seattle music scene from the late 1980s to mid/late 1990s, aka the grunge era. I own quite a few local rock history books (“Love Rock Revolution,” “The Strangest Tribe,” “Sonic Boom” too name a few) but Yarm’s book is the definitive book on grunge and everything comes from first-hand primary sources. There’s stories about Eddie Vedder drinking bile as part of Jim Rose’s Circus Sideshow, The U Men lighting a pond on fire outside of the mural Amphitheater at Bumbershoot and tons of other really great stuff. It’s a must read for any fan of the Seattle scene from back in the day. Read more

The Space is the Place: the Changing Seattle Scene

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544226_506230329435926_110670946_nThere are a few elements necessary to making a good music scene, and one of them is this: it needs the right kind of space.

The Comet Tavern, a Seattle underground venue that’s been around for over 40 years, just closed its doors within the past month. It’s a place that’s acted as a toehold for touring performers visiting Seattle for the first time as well as new local acts cutting their teeth on the scene. At first, the closure seemed temporary, but since it came out that the owner had removed the sound system without telling employees or the venue’s music booker, it seems to be a much more long-term change for the beloved dive. Whether it opens again remains to be seen. Read more

My First Books: Reminiscing with Debbie Miller

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Debbie MillerMost people remember at least a few stories from those early years of reading that stick out as something special.  The pool of childhood storytellers is wide and deep, from Maurice Sendak to Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl to Madeleine L’Engle, J.K. Rowling to Mark Twain, and more and more and more. What are the first three books that influenced your distinct perspective?

Today, Bushwick reader and performer, Debbie Miller, shares her memories of the first books on her shelf.  Debbie is a clever singer-songwriter originally from Long Island, and has written and performed 5-star hits at Bushwick Book Club shows inspired by books such as Alice in Wonderland, 1984, A People’s History of the United States, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Read more

Ten Inspirational Wally Lamb quotes from She’s Come Undone

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In honor of our upcoming partnership event this Thursday with Book-It Repertory Theatre where we will be presenting original music inspired by Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone, here are ten of our favorite inspirational quotes from the book.

wallyLambQuotes_bushwick_prayers Read more

The Crocodile: What They Are Reading Right Meow

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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz show is Friday, but until then we thought we’d check in with the cast of characters at The Crocodile. From the history of hip hop to the book that sold six times as many ebooks than print (can you guess which one and why?), take a look at what the Crocodile staff is reading!

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Brian, bartender

Nicole, server