Seattle's Josh Niehaus reflects on the 90s in Zanadu.

Another great and truly independent artist out of Seattle; perhaps the Olympia Brewing Company is right about the water up there. Josh Niehaus couples his gift of song writing with a polished production value uncharacteristically high for an unsigned artist. To top it off, Josh writes about his music in a way that we, at IndieAndie, couldn't have done better ourselves. So, without further ado, this week's spotlight is a repost of a spot Josh Niehaus wrote about his song Zanadu; a tribute to growing up in Seattle. 

-andie

Growing up in Seattle during the nineties was the best! Well, maybe it would’ve been cooler to be in Paris in 1789 or in Greenwhich Village in 1968. But, if you had to spend your teen years alive during the 1990's, you couldn't hope for a better place to do in it than Seattle. I can already feel the non-Seattle-ites rolling their eyes, and saying, "how can you possibly back that up?" Well, to understand what was so great about Seattle in the 90's, let's take a look at the popular culture that it emerged out of, my first decade, the 80's; a time when the counter cultural revolution was but a fading memory, and in its place stood an empowered GOP with Reagan at the helm. A time when the airwaves were saturated with synthesizers and drum machines. A time when Eddie Van Halen melted peoples faces with some of the most iconic guitar shredding ever played. In other words, it was a time when the spirit of rock and roll was being suffocated under a nation's desperate plea for order and conservatism. A time when the chaos of rock’s sound was quantized into new-wave dance fluff by primitive computers. And a time when the men and women who yielded rock’s most powerful weapon, the Axe, were all trying to be Van Halen. But luckily the cultural tides shifted as I entered into the 90's, and Seattle was at the center of this movement.

From the muddy banks of the Wishkaw to Puget Sound, the 90’s were ruled by flannel wearing, garage dwelling, skateboard riding junkies from Seattle, whose appearance left but one title; Grunge! Grunge was a genuine form of expression, free from consonant fluff, cheesy synthesizers and overly-reverberated drum kits. Free from ostentation, affectation and record label subordination. It was a tiny movement that housed a few creative geniuses who sounded nothing like the billboard bands of their times, yet astonishingly took over the charts. Of course the labels caught on, as they always do, and began mass-producing Nirvana knock-offs by the mid to late nineties. But there was a time, in my childhood, in my city, were there was a genuine artistic movement that the whole world wanted a piece of. A time when I could ride my skateboard down 'The Ave' to buy comic books at Zanadu, bump into Krist Novoselic at Cellophane Square, see Pearl Jam in concert for free, or, sadly, attend a community wide vigil for Kurt Cobain; the unofficial poet laureate of our city’s scene. 


My song Zanadu is a tribute to growing up in my city during this era. The song ends with a simple notion that 'all good things must come to an end'. Grunge is dead. And Although I am left with only memories, the music lives on as a reminder of how lucky I was to grow up within the pages of music history. 

Check out more music and videos by Josh Niehaus on Facebook or Reverbnation. 

Cathie Appel: A Voice From Above (or at least North of the US).

Toronto based singer
Cathie Appel 

Lots of questions, thoughts and emotions rush forward when I listen to the beautiful voice of Cathie Appel; the former lead singer of the now defunct alternative band from Toronto, Seagoe. For starters, I wonder why a band with such great music and heart-wrenching lyrics fell apart, and I am dumbfounded by the recording industry's failure to gobble them up. Whatever the reasons may be, I am very thankful that they did exist for a while and that a few of their late night jam sessions turned into productive recording sessions, which bore a slew of wonderful songs that feature the extraordinary talent of Cathie Appel.

Cathie's voice is simple and almost painfully beautiful. She conveys such a deep message through her vocals that her lyrics are simply 'icing on the cake'! Upon listening to Cathie sing 'Hold You Again' a quote from Baudelaire jumped to my mind, in which the poet said, "I can barely conceive of a type of beauty in which there is no meloncholy". Cathie's longing is palpable and it leaves me powerless to remain in whatever mood I was in before listening to her sing- unless of course I was already overcome with beauty. This is powerful stuff people, but don't hold back, you can't overdose on good music!

I hope you enjoy listening to Cathie Appel as much as I do, and I encourage you to friend, fan, follow, like, and send messages of encouragement and support as Cathie (hopefully soon) embarks on her next project!

Listen to 'Hold You Again'

For more on Cathie Appel visit her Reverbnation page or friend her on myspace.