Research Guides
George Ueda
5/13/12
Honors 394
Final Project
The Revival of Punk Rock Bands in Seattle, Featuring the Fastbacks
Introduction
My interest in the punk rock scene of Seattle began with the knowledge of Colin MacDonnel’s (my uncle’s) local post-punk band during the ’80s, called Cinema 90. Being a mostly solo project, Cinema 90 hailed from Seattle. Colin had previously been the keyboardist for another local punk band called 3 Swimmers. Led by Mark H. Smith in the early ‘80s, the 3 Swimmers utilized many new technologies that gave their sound a unique techno/synth element to the traditional punk. After their disbandment, Colin took many of the kinds of sounds they had produced and carried them over to Cinema 90 with his new partner, Dave Schumate.
Colin and Dave met initially at Roosevelt High School, and furthered their relationship through the local Seattle music scene. Their style of sound had a unique edge at the time, as not much was going on in the way of electronic/synth rock at the time. The duo continued experimentation in technological effects that they could apply to their music. When settled on their kind of sound, they utilized programmed drums through the Linn LM-2 electronic drum and Sequential Circuits Pro One bass lines while Dave played various Casio keyboards with effects and Colin sang vocals. Their hit song “In Ultra-Violet” was featured on the “Seattle Syndrome Two” compilation in 1983. They had many live performances at several Seattle and Vancouver B.C. clubs. Many of the 3 Swimmers and Cinema 90’s song samples are still offered online.
Being such a large influence on the Seattle music scene, Colin and Dave naturally became friends with many other local music groups in the area. One of the most prominent groups was the Fastbacks. To this day, the musicians still remain in close contact. Exploiting this relationship, Colin was able to put me in touch with Kim Warnick from the Fastbacks/Visqueen/Calligraphers, and I was able to interview her online (given she is now located in Maine). This paper will be giving biographical and historical information about Kim and her prominent bands, as well as description of the recent punk rock band revival that has been occurring in the greater Seattle area, and finally the importance of archiving in this unique reemergence.
The Fastbacks
The Fastbacks were a Seattle punk rock band. Formed in 1979 by songwriter/guitarist Kurt Bloch, Kim Warnick, and Lulu Gargiulo, the trio’s sound mixed a traditional punk rock approach to vocals and sound with some poppy tunes and hard rock guitar solos mixed in. Their greatest inspirations were said to be bands such as The Muffs, Pearl Jam, and The Ramones. The vand’s music was truly born out of the early ‘70s rock music and, just as importantly, ‘60s/’70s AM radio. The group never completely fit in to Seattle’s conventional music scene because they were never punk enough, never hardcore enough, never ‘80s enough, and certainly not “bar band” enough. The lack of firm categorization resulted in the band being somewhat limited to the Pacific Northwest, never being able to make it big on an international scale.
Bloch and Warnick began playing guitar and bass at Nathan High School in Seattle, while Gargiulo took lessons in classical guitar starting at the age of seven, only starting to play punk rock after joining the band. The trio grew up listening to bands like The Archies and Led Zeppelin, as well as other bands on the radio. With Gargiulo teaching herself rock guitar, Bloch learning drums, and Warnick on bass, the three played with influence from a plethora of bands that they were exposed to at the time. Their first show in February of 1980. The band released their first single, “It’s Your Birthday”/”You Can’t Be Happy,” in April of 1981. By this time, the band had firmly found their basic sound. It was kind of a loose, scrappy punk rock with strong pop elements, as well as some hard rock with guitar solos and all.
Although the three core band members remained quite close and committed, they had to cycle through many drummers. Well-known musicians such as Duff McKagan, who later became lead bassist for Guns N' Roses, and John Moen, later part of The Decemberists, the Dharma Bums, and Steven Malkmus’ Jicks, both had their turn in the drummer seat for The Fastbacks. When asked how many drummers had been in the band, Kim answered that the true number lies anywhere between twelve and twenty. Furthermore, she began to list off musicians who took a turn, including Mike Musburger, Kurt Bloch himself, Richard Stuverud from Fifth Angel, War Babies, and Three Fish, Nate Johnson and Rusty Willoughby from Flop and Pure Joy, Jason Finn from the Presidents of the United States of America, Dan Peters from Mudhoney, and Tad Hutchison from the Young Fresh Fellows. Several of these musicians also served at times as drummers in The Squirrels, a contending and similarly long-lived band to the Fastbacks. The Squirrels were sometimes label-mates on Pop Llama Records, who brought a similar mix of punk attitude with even more of a pop element in their material.
Over the next ten years after their formation, the Fastbacks gained a large reputation and became a local phenomenon in Seattle. They had fairly frequent performances, often in and around Seattle, and got the occasional show opening for bigger bands. While the band was historically opened for the Ramones, Public Image, and John Cale, Warnick iterated that some of the most exciting and memorable opening performances were for Joan Jett, The Buzzcocks, Cheap Trick, Guided by Voices, and The Muffs (being their biggest show of 35,000 in San Jose). Like most Seattle bands of the day, their popularity failed to spread outside the Pacific Northwest. While they never broke up, the group's activities slowed down in the mid-'80s, and it wasn't until 1987 that they released their first full-length album title, “...And His Orchestra”.
Bloch joined the Young Fresh Fellows as a guitarist in 1989 and started producing other bands, Warnick began working at the offices of Sub Pop records, and Gargiulo pursued her career as a cinematographer. Nevertheless, Fastbacks had a small but loyal fan base throughout this interlude, and when Seattle became the epicenter of the rock world in 1992 as a result of Nirvana's commercial breakthrough, the group finally began receiving major national attention. Sub Pop released a collection of the band's many singles and compilation tracks that year, creating the album “The Question Is No”, known as their first widely distributed album. Sales were said to be modest, but the press was extremely enthusiastic. Three more albums for Sub Pop followed, with 1994's “Answer the Phone Dummy” offering the group the luxury of being able to record an entire album in one studio over a period of two weeks.
The Fastbacks began opening for bands such as Mudhoney and the Presidents of the United States of America. The big payoff was when Eddie Vedder invited the band to open three West Coast arena shows for Pearl Jam in 1995, and then twenty-eight more shows in America and Europe the following year. These high-profile shows didn't propel Fastbacks in rock stardom (which they certainly weren't expecting anyway), and the band continued to schedule themselves around Bloch, Warnick, and Gargiulo's other commitments until 2002.
To the surprise of her band mates, Warnick announced that she was quitting the band, telling a reporter, "As much as those songs mean to me, I've just grown tired of having to be a singer in a rock band." A collection of stray singles tracks and unreleased recordings, “Truth”, “Corrosion”, and “Sour Bisquits” was released in 2004. These singles captured the band in its typical energetic form, and proved that the Fastbacks called it quits while remaining every bit as fresh, enthusiastic, and powerful as when they began.
Fastback Politics
One of the most well-known singles by the Fastbacks was titled “In America.” This song brought up many political issues that resided within America, publicly revealing some of the political opinions of the band members. The song’s lyrics described how America was not fully fulfilling its potential in the world, as well as some further criticism. The song spurred on a significant amount of national controversy, with multiple articles specifically on the song. In January of 2011, an article entitled “A Non-Policy Interruption: Fastbacks’ ‘In America’” by Reihan Salam in the National Review was published, analyzing the song’s qualities and messages. The article describes and analyzes the song as being a bit petulant and punky, but supports the premise that America is a hard country to live in and that one ought to consider leaving. It expands on the notion of “achieving our country,” and that no country is “all that it could be,” yet America has a unique feature that prompts continuous dissatisfaction.
The Revival
Since 2009, Colin MacDonnel has been working on a band called Grand Hotel, featuring several of his old band mates such as Dave Schumate. This time around, the band went for more of a modern rock sound, with elements of both punk and rap (very progressive to say the least). If anything, the new band is the epitome of how different music genres have begun blending together; there’s not really as many distinct genres as there used to be as pointed out in class-discussions previously.
Similar to my uncle’s band, the Fastbacks have also gone through a recent revival. In 2011, the Fastbacks got back together and played a live performance in West Seattle at the Summer Music Festival. I was lucky enough to be invited and I got some recordings. It was obviously Kurt Bloch on lead guitar, Lulu Gargiulo on guitar and back-up vocals, and Kim Warnick on lead vocals and bass. They decided to use Mike Mussburger on drums for the occasion, as he had been one of their most prominent members in the old days of stardom. This show was their first official show together since their break-up over a decade ago.
The Fastback revival concert included many of their old hits, including “In the Summer,” and “In America,” but almost all of their songs had new and somewhat quirky elements to them. For example, Bloch would routinely perform wild guitar solos, diving and rolling around on the ground and all. The band had almost adopted a more hard-core rock mentality, but still seemed to carry lots of nostalgia for many of the die-hard fans. The band even seemed to attract lots of newer and younger audience members. Kim commented that “people that seem to like us are older…but also little kids seemed to love us at West Seattle Summer Fair. They were even singing along!” As of now, there are no concrete plans for the band to regroup, which makes archiving what new music they do put out even more of a pressing matter.
Kim Warnick
Kim Warnick (born April 7, 1959) was co-founder, bassist, and lead vocalist of the Seattle band Fastbacks between 1979 and 2002. Growing up in Seattle, she attended Nathan Hale High School while learning how to play the guitar. Her biggest inspirations were the Ramones for their “super catchy melodies,” the Buzzcocks for their “short pop songs,” and Joan Jett and Queen for their “cool, loud guitars.” Shortly after beginning her music career, she picked up a Fender bass and began playing with Bloch and Gargiulo; little did she know her band would later become a national hit. Anecdotally, she’s stuck with the same brand of instrument her whole life.
The main contributing factor to the Fastback’s breakup was Kim’s move to the band Visqueen in 2002 through 2004.
"It's weird to think I did that. "To actually do something as radical as quit something you've done half your life, it's a pretty big deal. But it wasn't scary. It would be scary if I wasn't sure I really wanted to do it. But I was sure."
-Kim Warnick
Visqueen had a bit more of a power-punk sound than the Fastbacks, although the main difference was that Kim was no longer singing vocals; she just rocked out on the bass. Kim decided to retire from performing in 2004, and unfortunately fell into a bit of a rut. She fell into minor drug addiction and acquired health problems that later led to surgery. In 2008, Kim began to feel better and started her own recovery process.
In March 2010 Kim returned from her retirement when Evan Dando (from The Lemonheads) suggested they start a new band with Mikey Davis (from Alien Crime Syndicate), and call it The Calligraphers. Evan, Kim and Mikey recorded one song, with Kim on bass, Evan on drums and Mikey on guitar in December of 2010. They were later joined by drummer Josh Freese, from A Perfect Circle, after hearing their early recordings. Producer/engineer Bubba Jones took on working with Kim and Mikey to get the project going. Their few signed songs were brand new, but definitely had remnants of her past Fastback and Visqueen sound; Kim was actually writing her own material for the first time in her life.
In 2011, Kim left the Calligraphers and moved from Seattle to Maine, where she is now trying her prospects with a new group called Metal Baby. The group is centered in Springfield, IL, and Kim is sending bass and vocal samples to them through the internet, at least until the band can have a formal meet-up in person.
Plans for Archiving
The history of Kim Warnick and the Fastbacks is one that should be admired. Although the core trio has been hard-pressed by other life commitments and roadblocks (and are definitely not what they used to be), they have been successful in sticking together for an incredible amount of time (over twenty years). As a result, they have left a historic mark in the Pacific Northwest music scene that people have seen from a national, perhaps even international range. They have given the Pacific Northwest a character; a name. Their original hits had such a unique sound that they deserved to be archived on their own, and they were. Luckily, their old hits are safe and readily available to the public to listen to.
As previously mentioned, there are no concrete plans for the band to reunite, which makes archiving what recent music we do have from them even more pressing of an issue. We don’t know how long this short-term revival will last, and how much of the “new stuff” we’ll be able to retain. The Fastback’s most recent show in West Seattle showed a new hard-rock side to their music; Colin MacDonnel’s new band, Grand Hotel, is now incorporating elements of rap in their techno punk rock. These groups are legends, and deserve to be treated so. The Fastbacks were such a fundamental band in the punk rock scene in the Pacific Northwest that we can’t pass up getting records of whatever music they produce in the future. They galvanized the music industry and created a musical generation that influenced listeners’ tastes today. Especially now that people are finally beginning to take interest in them and their old songs, it’s crucial that archivists are aware of any future opportunities to take recordings. As Kim put it,
“…the Seattle music community didn't really know where to put us or how to label us [at the time]. But in the end, that was almost like a secret weapon. I think it let us fly around under the radar for years....haha, until the rest of the world could catch up to our total genius!”
More likely than not, Bloch, Warnick, and Gargiulo will be playing more live performances. They may not be playing on the same stage or making any new official recordings, but should be documented nonetheless for academic/personal interest purposes. Whether it be by live performance or soundtrack, these recordings should be archived by some sort of digital medium, to maximize the protection and duration of the original copies. An archive such as the one at the University of Washington (or some archive affiliated with a University for funding and liability issues) would be a perfect place to store these recordings. Since these performances are/will be from remnants of past groups, they should be catalogued by individual performer to easily sort where recordings are placed; some overlap may occur. As for copyright and access issues, it seems that there is not much of a dilemma since there is very little or no money at all to be made off of any future performances made; the performers play because they enjoy it. In the example of the past West Seattle Summer performance, Kim said that “we did it because we loved it…and that alone.” Due to this general mentality with the revival punk scene, any recordings made should be reserved for the public to listen to freely, perhaps even online, while keeping the original copies at the archive on a hard drive(s). Everything put aside, revivals of these punk rock bands from twenty or more years ago in the Seattle area, now coming back with new aspects and styles in their music, need to be noted not only for personal interest, but for research purposes as well.
Song Samples/Extra Links
“American Technology” by 3 Swimmers:
http://www.mit.edu/~kenzie/3Swimmers/American%20Technology.mp3
“In Ultra Violet” by Cinema 90
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQizu_bthwE
“In the Summer” by Fastbacks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AON7GxnPF3s
“In America” Article
http://www.nationalreview.com/agenda/256904/non-policy-interruption-fastbacks-america-reihan-salam#
Interview with Kim Warnick
By George Ueda
I suppose I would say "punk" but punk in the true sense of the word. More like someone who did it their own way....not like someone who has a mohawk, you know? But obviously I like punk music....yeah, kind of hard to answer that.
I love rock n roll and punk! Sure....whatever that is nowadays.
I mean, is "indie rock" just Band Of Horses these days? Or is it The Black Keys? Who can tell anymore?
I've always liked the same kinds of music: super catchy melodies (Ramones), cool, loud guitars (arena rock), and shorter pop songs (Buzzcocks).
it's whatever I first think of, never a hard or fast rule. wow, this is the million dollar question for anyone in a band.
So, there are SO SO many but I will give you my top 3.
Queen, Ramones, Joan Jett. And not in that order all the time.
All three of those bands changed my life forever.
The Runaways.
For sure
They were all the same age as I was and they were touring Japan!!! I was in high school. I hated school.
They were doing what I wanted to be doing but I had no idea how to do that.
at that time. And that is when punk happened and blew the doors down for kids like me, kids who didn't know how to play long guitar solos and shit.
Anyone could do it! And some shouldn't have!! hahahah
YES. We have gotten to open for a lot of our heroes.
Joan Jett before she went mega! Right before I Love Rock N Roll went huge, we played at Wrex in Seattle to 100 people, opening for her. The Buzzcocks.
Visqueen opened for GBV AND Cheap Trick!!!
That was amazing!
Buzzcocks was with fastbacks, yes..year? Um....I am real bad at this stuff...timelines....
probably their first reunion tour....at RCKCNDY
1991?
Ugh, don't know
Cheap Trick/Visqueen? 2003
OH, and opened for Pearl Jam on their 1996 world tour, US/Europe.
We've played with one of my favorite bands in the world, The Muffs.
one show was 35,000.
That was in San Jose
An outdoor stadium. and yeah...it was one of the coolest moments in my life.
FUN!!! But yeah, a little scary walking out onstage at first.
Also amazing.
yeah, I've been so lucky in rock!
To open for all my heroes and actually know them.
Seattle had a great punk scene in 1978-9. We had a cool punk club called The Bird and I got to see the punk bands of the time there: Avengers, Weirdos, Telepaths, DOA, and so many more....Dead Kennedys
Then it got kinda bar band-ish in the 80's.
sucked for a while.
then Sub Pop happened!! People started remembering they could put out their own records and Sub Pop started cranking them out on all that colored vinyl.
and then "that" scene was born..the one people call "grunge", hahahah
then indie rock, alt rock started....punk got popular and could be sold at stores like Hot Topic and then all of a sudden Seattle got into folk rock and alt country.
beard were grown by former punkers, etc
Yes, Nirvana and Soundgarden.
And somehow, the Fastbacks ended up putting records out on Sub Pop even though we didn't sound like those bands
Everyone is Seattle knew everyone...especially in the music scene...it wasn't a stretch, they were our friends.
I don't really know! haha. Hard one to answer because i don't know what to base it on.
It's not like we got 'famous' but on the other hand, we sure did last for a long time. 1979-2001, that is when I quit finally. But that is a long time for a band that wasn't all that popular in the first place.
we did it because we loved it.....
But since we played that west Seattle Street fair thingy a couple years ago, people seem to really love us.
more so than when we were a 'real' band, it seems.
i will tell you this much; being in a band is confusing to try and figure out where you fit in and your part in it all.
I am back into it. I'm starting a new band here in Maine: Metal Baby.
Just starting to write songs for that now.
We'll see what happens but I can't stop hearing music in my head....it has to get out.
I don't really know because I've only been here 6 weeks.
Yeah, In America was actually political and Kurt never wrote those kinds of songs before....I still don't know why or where that came from from him. I do know that it sure is a good one, though!
Well nowadays the people that seem to like us are older (duh), rounder (haha), and love to collect vinyl!! Basically, music nerds, which is cool!
But also little kids seemed to love us at West Seattle Summerfair.
They were even singing along!
I have never really played the same bass for years. I am always getting diff ones. But they are usually Fenders. And yes, always bass and singer.
BUT...this new band, no. I will play guitar and be main singer.
I learned how to play guitar before bass.
I play a pretty good punk rock guitar style.
ha
Not yet. My bandmates live in Springfield, IL!
I don't even know them really! I did a podcast for their show and got to know them. They love the Fastbacks so we started talking and before I knew it...they wanted to play with me.
Should be interesting! Pretty random, actually, but in this day and age you no longer have to be in the same city or even country to be in a band.
well, I send them these tiny little demos I record.
then they are gonna practice them as a band, try and go record them in a real studio and email me back the files and I will put my guitars and vocs on them. ...still trying to figure it all out. I want to try new things, be a little unconventional.
Our music was born out of all that early 70's rock music and also, just as important, 60's/70's AM radio.
so we all ended up loving so many different kinds of bands/artists that nowadays kids would find odd.
I don't really know how to answer this....
We never really fit in in Seattle because we were never punk enough, never hardcore enough, never 80's enough, and certainly never bar band enough.
so, because of how many different kinds of music we listened to growing up we had so many favorite bands and a lot of them didnt' make sense to most people, to like, say The Archies AND Les Zeppelin.
But we did...cause they are both great! In their own way and because of when we grew up we were all exposed to all of that on the radio.
So, the Seattle music community didn't really know where to put us or how to label us.
but in the end, that was almost like a secret weapon. I think it let us fly around under the radar for years....
hahah, until the rest of the world could catch up to our total genius!!!
I can't imagine what the future holds for any and all music?
So glad i got to be there for punk rock though.
right place, right time