Disclaimer: Memory is a funny thing, and an elusive one. Meaning; I might have some of this wrong, as 1. My memory is not always accurate, like anyone and 2. It is from my perspective only. Any friends who were there, feel free to correct me or add things I have missed. It helps! Also, no gossip on anyone here, it ain't about that. Personal details are on a surface level, and friends, girlfriends and others are re-named to respect their privacy. People in bands generally put their names out there on albums and in interviews anyway, and are not in the habit of staying anonymous, and therefore are named here. That said, anyone who is in the blog that wishes me not to use their name has only to ask.
Seattle Years Disclaimer: As I enter the Seattle years in this music blog, the above disclaimer goes double, because so much happened and there are so many details to cover in this 14 year period; so many shows, so many bands, so many friends and so much change in my life. As a result of this and the fact that the four of us who formed Treepeople found ourselves in the midst of a scene which blew up around us and attracted the eyes of the world just 2 years after our arrival, not to mention the 12 years I played music following that, I am bound to, hell, I will forget something.
This means two things: I will be coming back to entries and adding things to them over the months following publication, and, that the part of the above disclaimer where I ask for help from people in keeping me honest and in remembering things is crucial to them. I thank anyone ahead of time who was there, and, those who weren't there who have access to valid info, for helping me to correct errors in dates or chronology. Yes, I have the Internet, but many bands, scenes and things I will cover did not receive the attention I feel that they deserved and thus I will recall them mostly from memory, or rather, memories; mine and those of friends. Also, friends who were in bands which I do not happen to mention, please don't take it personally, just remind me. I have created a monster in undertaking this blog, one which I am determined to ride until the end!
Lastly, as mentioned, this scene gained national attention, and thus, needless to say and as we all know, many bands/people became famous, became rock stars, were/are admired by millions, etc and etc...This makes another part of my original disclaimer even more important. This memoir is intended to tell my story, from my perspective. I have no intention of creating a place where people can seek gossip about famous people, nor is it about 'name-dropping'. I write of my impressions of people, bands, and the Seattle scene from the '90s into the early 2000s. I protect those who are my friends fiercely because a symptom of being known is frequent intrusion into their lives beyond a level that I feel is acceptable. Thank you for indulging me this disclaimer.
A kind of disclaimer on Violent Green entries...In writing about the band Violent Green, at this time I am not in regular contact with Jenny O'lay, so I am not directly getting input from her, and, one member is no longer alive. In the case of the former, out of respect to O'lay, I am compelled to keep personal details at a high level, and in terms of Drew Quinlan (RIP, Brother), I am not in touch with any of his family to get approval of what I write about concerning him, as I did with my previously passed bandmate, Pat Schmaljohn (and thus felt better in writing about Pat) but I do not have the same access to family in Drew's case, so for that reason, out of respect for Drew and his family, I will also keep details at a high level. I won't make it cold and unpersonal, don't misunderstand me. Our dynamic as people was a huge part of the band. I guess what I am getting at is there are details that will remain private, to meet with high standards I strive to meet on this blog, even more so in light of this lack of input from the former band-mates of which I write. I hope I have achieved these standards. This also brings up the point I always make, but it is important to reiterate; this is all from my perspective only, and of anyone whom I get input from.
Our odd relationships in Violent Green and the tensions present were one with the music, and I think, actually I know, that was a good thing, a necessary ingredient of this band, a band that forever reshaped how I thought about music, both listening to it and making it. I owe that to Drew and Jenny's brilliance and imperfectness, which made me feel okay about my own imperfections, (only to a degree, as my inner, self-critical voice was still in full effect) and it helped me realize that even I held brilliance, in my own way, when I played with them, warts and all. One thing I can confidently say is; we gave a fuck about the music. And that was because this was a highly musical band (most of the people who got what we were doing were musicians themselves) and thus I will focus much of my energy in terms of the VG entries talking about that; the music, it's influences and forms, and how the three of us and what we brought to the band from previous projects and the music we each loved, created, eventually, a rich tapestry. It is worth digging into this world O'lay spun with this bizarre, dark, poppy, goth, folksy punk music from Mars ~*
A silly Steve Fisk disclaimer: Steve Fisk is everywhere in this blog because, as you can/will see, we worked together a lot during this time, and we work together still. Deal with it! (Or, make it into a drinking game).
Wayne R. Flower - Music Whore
I came to refer to myself as a 'music whore' after I began to play music with anyone I could (I had some discretion, of course; I didn't play with people whose music I didn't like or with people I just didn't like). I didn't exactly seek these temporary projects out. I was just 'there' when people needed a drummer or bass player, mostly to fill in for when they were searching for one or the other in their bands. Over the years I was always branching out beyond the bands I was in, even though I was already fortunate to be in a few great bands. It is somewhat analogous to an 'addiction,' though a pretty benevolent one. I just loved (and still love) playing music so much that I wanted to do it as much as I possibly could. I would also say that it only helped me as a musician to play different kinds of music and have these experiences, plus listening to as much different kinds of music as I could, informed my playing and my increasing songwriting exercises, which led me to the musician I am today and to (as I am now comfortable calling myself) the songwriter I am today.
When I refer to 'branching out,' I mean the actual deliberate choices to form other bands for fun (as opposed to the above substitute whoredom, which I will get to). These came in the forms of short lived projects: Wonder Twin Powers, which consisted of myself on bass and a couple amazing musicians from the excellent '90s Seattle hardcore punk band in Seattle called Last Gasp, with Chris Tretton on drums and Fred Speakman on guitar. I played bass and sang, or was going to sing, once I had some lyrics!
What we started was barely a band, we only rehearsed a few times and never played a show, which is a shame, as what was beginning to form was pretty awesome and both of these guys were/are stellar players. The good news is I would later go on to play in different projects with each of them separately at different times (one of which was a reunited group that had inspired me to play in bands in the first place in the early '80s, more on all that later.)
Another band that only lasted for few rehearsal sessions was a punk/metal band with Doug Pack from Whipped and Decrepit on guitar and someone else on drums who I can't remember (to whom I apologize, it was so short lived, and I smoked a lot of 'tea' at the time) called 6 Feet Underwear. It's regretful that neither of these bands went anywhere, I think they would have been well received. I will also point out that I came up with both band names, and I consider them among the best/funnest I have come up with.
A band/music project I was part of I already wrote about in a previous entry, Wayne Payne, a duo of myself and the husband at the time of my band-mate Kellie in Faintly Macabre.
It was a unique idea in that it was just drums and vocals; Me on drums and
Holden Payne on vocals. It was barely coming together when we pulled the
plug on it as we were both too busy (I had 3 jobs, and his job was as my boss at the Egyptian Theater that I worked at then, plus, I was already in 3 bands, and Holden had two other bands himself, both included Kellie: The Wedgewood Bombers and Holden Payne and the Agonies) but I think it would have been
rad.
The bands I substituted for until they found new members were: I played bass for a short time for the band 4 Hour Romona, so named after a long standing dry-cleaner in the neighborhood I lived in, Wallingford. 4 Hour Romona was fronted by the excellent musician and writer Vanessa Vaselka (also of Bell and The Pinkos - interestingly, her Wiki page doesn't mention 4 Hour Romona!) I have no memory of how I was asked to play in the band, but it was, as I have mentioned, intentionally short-lived, as I was just filling in until they found a permanent bass player.
On drums was a former member of a beloved Seattle folk rock band that I dug called the Walkabouts, one Terri Moeller, who I came to be friends with for a time (and I write 'for a time' only as we fell out of touch in that natural way that happens in life). In retrospect, my busy bass playing style may not have been the best fit for the band, even though I toned it down quite a bit to try and adapt. Terri is a stellar drummer and person and Vanessa a good songwriter and performer and an impressive person in general, so no matter what, it was fun, and an honor. I played maybe 2 or 3 shows with them.
And, in the late '90s (so jumping ahead a bit, as I do) I also played drums in an alternative country band that was impressive called Cyclone Killers, again filling in until they could find a new drummer after their previous drummer quit the band.
This band was made up of some great musicians and people (one of whom was the partner of a coworker of my girlfriend's at the Art Institute of Seattle, Matt Cowgill, a very talented guitar player in his own right, that was how I even came to know these folks) David Dressel, Keith Lovik (who sang, wrote and switched around on instruments). The singer of Cyclone Killers, Lisa Duncan, had/has an amazing, powerful voice, and all the members were also good singers on backups. It was really fun to challenge myself and play a style of music that was very different than what I normally played.
The 'Pine Street corridor' on Capitol Hill
The previously mentioned Egyptian Theater that I worked at was on Pine Street on Capitol Hill, a street my ex and I lived right off of not long before this period I am writing about. Between Boren Ave. and 12th Ave on Pine Street was a corridor that was coming alive after a hip burrito joint and bar called Bimbos Bitchin' Burritos and a hipster bar called Linda's were opened right near each other.
Just one block further South and a block East was the Pike Street corridor on which there were a number of cool bars and coffee houses that people hung out and and played music at (and was where Violent Green's rehearsal space, The Chophouse, was located) and a lesbian bar called The Easy (where Drew's then girlfriend worked for a short time) so that corridor also fed the Pine St. corridor with people spilling over to go hang out over there as well.
On the Pike corridor was the infamous bar The Comet Tavern (itself one door South of The Easy) and across the street was a bar and music venue called Moe's, now Nuemos (so clever, these hip kids!) which it still is at this writing (we played there on the 2018 Treepople reunion tour, see a song from that show here) and a bit further East was a two floor coffee house that sometimes had live music called Cafe Paradiso (it is still a coffee house at this writing called Cafe Vita) where I first saw the skinny, scrappy young up and coming band, Modest Mouse for the first time on the recommendation of Chris Takino, and I never doubted his recommendations, he never let me down, and he didn't this time, either).
Bimbo's Bitchin' Burritos became somewhat of a hangout for the folks who played in the same band 'cohort' I did and many of them ended up working there (including Kellie from one of the bands I was in, Faintly Macabre). It was a pretty cool setup, one side was the burrito restaurant and the other was a bar. Linda's was one good sized room divided in two by a half wall, with a pool table on one side. As mentioned in a recent entry, Kellie Payne and I shot pool here regularly. In fact, it was probably the bar I went to most during this time as The Egyptian Theater was right up the street, where she also worked with me.
The famous Squid Row tavern (not far from Linda's) where Treepeople and so many other bands cut their teeth in the Seattle music scene was also on the Pine Street corridor (really it can be said it all started here for Treepeople, or at least it was where we started playing in front of the 'right people' and thus got us in in the door for better shows and reviews in magazines, etc. for Treepeople at Squid Row) but around the late '90s [incorrectly I listed it as during the late '80s; Typo!) it became a gay bar called Kincora's that didn't have live music. Up Records was located right across the street from Squid Row/Kincora's as well.
Just down the street to the West a cool coffee house called Bauhaus (and is still there to this day). Right across the street from that place was a cool-short lived punk rock club that also opened in the late '90s called Uncle Rocky's.
As you can see, the Pine Street corridor became a bit of a hub for us all, in a way few other areas did, even though many of us no longer lived on Capitol Hill.
It wasn't long after this that a pretty happening annual block party that started in the Pike corridor just off Broadway near The Comet that has continued. So it goes without saying (but I guess it goes without writing ; ) that this little patch of Capitol Hill in the mid to late '90s was thriving in terms of the overall music scene.
The city of Seattle was filled with areas that were home to various music scenes or just pockets of venues and many more popped up in the mid '90s, post the Nirvana boom (and I think it is important to point this out, that while people outside the Seattle music scene think of/thought of it, understandably, as whole, it was in fact, like most city music scenes, made up of smaller, interlocking scenes); But Nirvana didn't define the Seattle music scene then; It never did in the minds of those of us bands who worked our asses of in that scene, and truth be told, Treepeople's defining album, Guilt, Regret, Embarassment, came out before Nirvana's defining album Nevermind, I feel compelled to point out. I had been playing in bands in the Northwest since 1983, over a decade before, and already I had been playing in bands in Seattle for 9 years, while all my band mates had their own histories stretching as far or near as far back in that city and the surrounding areas.
Wayne Goes to Film, art, Literature and Music School (of Life)
During this time, as I have mentioned, Jenny O'lay from Violent Green introduced me to great film makers, so I rented DVDs of the films of John Cassavettes, Andre Tarkovsky, and went back to the films of Orson Welles, including a restored version of the amazing film Touch of Evil on the big screen of one of the art house theaters that I worked at, which blew my mind, Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, among a number of others. I had always loved film, but now I was diving into films of the best of the best, and realizing how film itself incorporated all of the forms of art I not only enjoyed, but practiced myself often and frankly, well: music, writing and visual art. It was a renewed love affair that will last until I part this mortal coil.
Chris Takino remained an influence in all of these areas as well until just before his untimely death that loomed around the corner; In a few short years, he would be gone by the same cancer that took my mother (Yeah, spoiler alert) after we fell out of touch, which of course bummed me out; It seemed to be a theme in my life, as previously mentioned; Losing people to death only a few years after getting to know them.
As I well know, Death is an integral part of Life, but it seems to really have a thing for taking a lot of people from me in particular, including both my parents when I was a young man, and so many friends. It could also be said that ending up in the Seattle music scene in the '90s didn't help that, where even the people who became rock stars who died were close with my close friends. It was mentally and emotionally challenging, and often it was band mates who passed (all after I was in bands with them, by chance) another theme in my life. I miss them all terribly and learned so much from them all.
This is a good place to stop in this entry. If you got this far, I thank you.
Be well, be swell and give 'em hell.
Wayne Ray "Rhino" Flower II, 4/12/26 (Last updated 6/28/26)
