they say seattle is the centre of music on the west coast, and yes i guess so because this is where grunge started, cobain shot himself, and there’s a jimi hendrix statue on a street corner. but seriously music, especially indie rock is really popular here with the hipsters. take for example cd stores, the largest used cd store in toronto is sonic boom, but that’s only about the size of your average used store here in seattle. the selection is incredible, there is so much crap to look through that i get tired after going through one store. the density of stores is also much higher than in toronto, instead of having a few scattered on major streets you have clumps of used stores. for example in u district there are 4 small to average-sized stores and a tower records in one block. it looks like americans either buy their music used or go to walmart or target to get their music. the only music specialty stores i’ve seen are tower records and sam goody.

the other music related thing that has really impressed me here in seattle is that concert scene. i remember in the summer, we spent the WHOLE summer looking at concert listings in toronto trying to find something that one of us was marginally interested in seeing, well turns out there were absolutely no good bands that came to town in the summer. in contrast, i think will be 10 or so concerts with bands that i really i want to see in the 16 weeks that i will be here. that’s crazy. a lot of the hyped bands have come here twice since the summer: the libertines, franz ferdinand, keane. i think maybe aside from new york this must be the best place in the states to catch foreign bands.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: music, seattle