Crocodile Café Collection: Home

The Crocodile Café Collection contains over five years of unique live audio and video recordings. Recorded at Seattle's Crocodile Café between May 2002 and December 2007 by audio engineer Jim Anderson, the recordings document performances by over 2,000 bands and artists. From punk to indie rock, sludge metal to emo, hip pop to power pop, and beyond, the collection represents a sonic time capsule of early 2000s Seattle. 

Jim Anderson @ the Croc's board.

Q: Do I need to be affiliated with the UW in order to access the Collection? 

A: No! Everyone is encouraged to come and listen.

Q: How do I listen? 

A: The Collection is available on the Archival Jukebox in UW Libraries Special Collections. No appointment necessary, though be sure to check Special Collections hours before making the trip. 

Q: What's in the collection?

A: Click here to view a list of the collection's contents.

Q: Why aren't all the recordings online?

A: UW owns the recordings but not the rights to the intellectual content on the recordings. Therefore, in order to provide researchers access to the material while preventing unauthorized duplication and distribution of the recordings, we restrict access to in-library use only. We want to be sure that we are working on the side of the artists by both preserving their legacy and protecting their intellectual content. That said, a handful of artists have allowed us to provide access to a small selection of recordings. You can access them here: https://soundcloud.com/uwlibraries/sets/crocodile-cafe-collection

Q: Why is it at the University of Washington?

A: Jim Anderson donated the original recordings to the UW Ethnomusicology Archives in October 2008 (Collection number 2008.12). They are being preserved and made accessible by the Archives.