Hail!Hornet - Hail!Hornet (2007)

Consisting of members of more than half a dozen bands from south of the Mason-Dixon and in the foxholes of underground touring.

They call it 'grime metal' which explains why each song peels off humid corn whiskey, cold medicine spiked buttermilk, and bacon grease scraped from a copper pot with a sickle.

A southern style buffet of pan seared riffs varying in tempo but maintaining a breaded and stewed blues that boil at hellfire temperature.

Vocals retching up pecan shells, chilies, and okra. 

Tracks:

1. Believe in Black

2. Golden Whore

3. Drunk Tank

4. Foxy F*ck/No Solution

5. Devil's Hound

6. Nerves

7. He Who Walks Behind the Rose Bros.

8. Concussion Conspiracy

9. Life's Riddle
10. Swarm of Malice

Chock full of true grits.

Born in East L.A.

Pike Pale Heirloom Amber Ale - Pike Pub & Brewery

Pike Pub & Brewery is located right in the heart of Seattle's famous tourist destination Pike Place Market.  Home to fish throwing and public urination.

Pours rusty brown with copper tinting and bubbling crisp carbonation.  Aromas of roasted malts and peppered grassy hops.  Drinks easily with nutty sweetness and shadows of lemon zest. 5.3%.

Best job title ever: Fishmonger.

Dax Riggs: 2010

1. Dividing Down the Sunlight

2. I Hear Satan

3. Say goodnight to the World

4. You were born to be my Gallows

5. Let me be your Cigarette

6. My heart awakes Screaming

7. Like Moonlight

8. No one will be a Stranger

9. Gravedirt on my blue suede Shoes

10. Sleeping with the Witch

11. I'll see you all in Hell or New Orleans

Why he isn't a household name proves the end is nigh.
                                                                                                                             

Jubel 2010 - Deschutes Brewery

Pours a crimson tinted mahogany. Sparkling carbonation with a crystallized rim of caramel hued head.

Aromas of blackened cherry and coconut laced plums. Softened with vanilla and brown sugar.

Rich cedar ripened grapes and fiery tannic raisins. Subtle bitter cocoa finish. Smoked sassafras spice and toasted citrus. A bit hot but should become velvety with breathing age. 10%.

Aged in pinot noir barrels for 13 months. Bottle says best after 01/29/11.

Patience is no virtue.

The Gates of Slumber - Hymns of Blood and Thunder (2009)

Fourth full length from Indiana's The Gates of Slumber. 

Equal parts Iron Maiden, Cirith Ungol, and Conan the Barbarian. 

Triumphant tone and trampling riffs perfect for a driving a late 70's Trans Am off a cliff or vanquishing enemies into flames.  Victorious fuzz pours out and answers the riddle of steel.

Plodding retro doom with a slice of folk.  On the nine-toe tour with Weedeater this spring.

Tracks:
1. Chaos Calling
2. Death Dealer
3. Beneath the Eyes of Mars
4. Doom of Aceldama
5. Age of Sorrow
6. Bringer of War
7. Descent into Madness
8. Mist in the Mourning
9. Iron Hammer
10. Blood and Thunder

Perfect for deadlifts or drinking.

Fat Scotch Ale - Silver City Brewing Co.

Silver City Brewing Co. is located on the Kitsap Peninsula.

Pours cherry cola dark with maroon highlights when held up to the light.  Razor thin head with tight glassine bubbles.

Aromas are sugary caramel malts with a faint peat backdrop and a dash cocoa peach. 

Candy plum and butterscotch. Smoked brandy with a buttery finish. 9%.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

Claws

Supergoose DIPA - Hale's Ales Brewery

Hale's Ales Brewery is located at the nexus of the universe between the Fremont and Ballard neighborhoods of Seattle.

Pours cloudy copper with light cinnamon hues.  A veil of white membrane lace.  Plush liquid pine sap aromas.

Crushed evergreen and swirled grapefruit tang.  Barely noticeable toasted caramel malt spine tries to curb the razor sharp hops.  Keep the taste, increase the ABV, and this could be one of the best IIPA's around. 7.5%

Is the plural of mongoose, mongeese?

The Ventures - 10th Anniversary Album (1970) - 99¢ Record #7

The Ventures, from Tacoma, WA, are one of the smoothest instrumental rock bands of all time. 

While probably best known for the Hawaii Five-O theme song they have an extensive discography with over 100 million albums sold worldwide.
 

This double LP has them covering 60's pop classics with their own brand of funky pseudo psychedelic surf rock. 

Perfect easy listening for perfectly easy listeners.

Tracks:
1. Everybody's Talkin'
2. Sweet Caroline
3. Medley: Who'll Stop the Rain/Bad Moon Rising
4. Michelle
5. Good Morning Starshine
6. Bridge over Troubled Water
7. Eleanor Rigby
8. Sound of Silence
9. Strangers in the Night
10. Those Were the Days
11. MacArthur Park
12. Medley: Blowin' in the Wind/Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
13. Up, Up and Away
14. By the Time I Get to Phoenix
15. Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head
16. Let It Be
17. Sugar, Sugar
18. Never My Love
19. Delilah
20. Hey Jude
21. Spinning Wheel

Annette Funicello > All.

Avatar Jasmine IPA - Elysian Brewing Company

Pours chromatic orangish gold. Fresh floral aromas with vanilla malt and honey sweetness.

Lemon and lime coated in vibrant herbal freshness.

Jasmine flavors are the highlight with a balance between creamy sweet and citrus piquancy. 6.3%.

I'd bathe in this.

All Cats Go to Valhalla

Loser Pale Ale - Elysian Brewing Company

An homage to Sub-Pop Records with a picture of Mudhoney on the label.

Pours caramel with tangerine highlights. Despite a small rim of heading a healthy sheet of lacing coats around the glass.

Fire glazed sugar infused with tropical fruit aromas.  Taste is chewy sweet like syrupy toffee coated cherries.

Roasted pale malts and pineapple.  Lemon resin bitterness in the finish. 7%.

Only flannel is real.

Rufus & Chaka - Masterjam (1979) - 99¢ Record #6

Eighth studio album from Chicago's Rufus with Quincy Jones at the controls. 

The cover of this album sums up the foundation for the perfect party: hot pink, pin striped pants, inebriated jogging down a sunny CA street, crimson leisure suit, and a lone strawberry.



Funked out bass lines and catchy disco-lite arrangements that can make even the non-dancers sway.  Carefree and up tempo with some soulful vocals from Chaka Kahn.

Tracks:
1. Do You Love What You Feel
2. Any Love
3. Heaven Bound
4. Walk the Rockway
5. Live in Me
6. Body Heat
7. I'm Dancing for Your Love
8. What Am I Missing?
9. Masterjam

There was a time where the coolest people danced in synch.

Spring Fever Belgian Style Grand Cru Ale - Snoqualmie Falls Brewing Company

Snoqualmie Falls Brewing Company is located 30 miles east of Seattle. 

Aside from bottling beers that are readily available around WA, the Snoqualmie Falls brewery location is just down the street from the Great Northern Hotel (aka Salish Lodge & Spa) as seen in David Lynch's classic early 90's television show Twin Peaks.

Pours heavy copper tinted amber with a crowning rocky white head and strong carbonation.

Juiced aromas are flowery with hints of cranberry and pine.  Coriander also begins to come through full throttle.  Drinks tart and spicy with a strong hop profile.  As it warms the cloved breadiness rounds out against orange zest. 7%.

Never trust someone who doesn't like beer or Twin Peaks.

Black Sabbath, 02/13/1970

Side One
1. Black Sabbath
2. The Wizard
3. Behind the Wall of Sleep
4. N.I.B.

Side Two
1. Evil Woman
2. Sleeping Village
3. The Warning

Kings.

Universale Pale Ale - Fremont Brewing Company

Fremont Brewing Company is an organic family owned brewery located in the center of the universe (Fremont, WA).  Organic barley from the Okanogan Valley in B.C., hops from Yakima Valley, and delicious water from the Cedar River.  They plan to can beers before the end of the year but for now offer growlers.
 

Pours deep crisp copper tinted blond with golden hues.  Tight white head with a trim of subtle lacing. 

Delicate citrus and mellow malt aromas with floral and wheat undertones.  Drinks smoothly with peppery citrus hops and honey sweetness.  Perfectly clean, herbal, and fresh.  5.2%. 

In a just world this would be flowing from your kitchen tap.

How Long the Night Was

Diamond Knot IPA - Diamond Knot Brewery

Diamond Knot Brewery is located in Mukilteo,WA an upper crust suburb twenty-five miles north of Seattle on the Puget Sound coast.

Pours a fiery mandarin orange with brassy bronzed hues. Creamy off white head and curtain lace lasting to the bottom of the glass.

Floral, juniper, and citrus aromas. Toffee malt base with hints of grassy peach and oily grapefruit. Crisp sweetness balanced against tongue puncturing hops. Honey towards the end. 6.2%.

Brewing quality beers should get you rated the 10th Best Place to Live in 2009.

Witchcraft - Witchcraft (2004)

Debut full length from Witchcraft. 

How doesn’t a band from Sweden fronted by a singer named Magnus and started with the goal of paying tribute to Bobby Liebling and Roky Erickson sound awesome?

Deliriously fuzzy tunes that conjure up the long haired ghosts of the 70’s while rattling out analog soaked riffs that crush most modern music.

Hazed vocals blazed in retro-psychedelia and warming guitars that make you feel like you’re lying in a basement draped in shag carpeting. Blues saturated and stirred with the mellow macabre.

Flows with no hints of repetitiveness and deserves to be labeled one of the best albums of the decade.

Tracks:
1. Witchcraft
2. The Snake
3. Please Don't Forget Me 
4. Lady Winter
5. What I Am
6. Schyssta Logner
7. No Angel or Demon
8. I Want You to Know
9. It's So Easy
10. You Bury Your Head
11. Her Sisters They Were Weak

Born too late.

Ruud Awakening IPA - Old Schoolhouse Brewery

Pours more amber than orange while settling in on the darkened hazy side.

Strong aromas of candy sweetened citrus.

Grapefruit with peppered lemon twist.

Batters the with sugary sweetness and warms to a cotton mouth finish. 7.2%.

In a time where breweries are proliferating (I)IPA's, like nuclear arms during the Cold War, it is nice to taste a different approach to the style.

Cats love SLEEP

            

Black Albert - De Struise Brouwers (Belgian Royal Stout)

NO 14
Lot B-6-BB (I wish I knew what that meant).

Dark cola brown. Head is fluffy and bubbly brown marshmallow hue. 

Scorched dark cherries, raspberries, and plums with caramel coffee undertones.  Spiced barley and coated in vanilla.

Roasted figs, sweetened chocolate malts, candies, and rounded with peppered lemon bread.  Licorice and rum. As this warms closer to room temperature the flavors develop and with 100 IBU's the hops finally kick in. 13%.

I didn't listen to The Brabanconne while drinking.

Feline Trifecta

The Colonel.

Samson creepin'.

Bob Barker would be proud.

TOP 5 XMAS FLICKS

1. A Christmas Story (1983): Drink your Ovaltine.

2. Die Hard (1988): When gas was .74 cents a gallon.
3. Gremlins (1984): Never let them eat after midnight.
4. Black Christmas (1974): Billy?!?!
5. Christmas Evil (1980): Negative body hygiene.

Leo Kottke - Greenhouse (1972) - 99¢ Record #5

Fifth album from American guitarist Leo Kottke.

I had never heard any song by him before and what sold me on this record was the cover art and the quote on the back: "In the sense that my guitars were once plants, this record's a greenhouse."

Picking across the fretboard with a haunting balance between bittersweet pessimism and heartfelt inspiration.  Techincally rich and twistingly complex guitar playing.

Seven tracks are instrumentals and the others drenched in vocals from the savanna.

Tracks:
1. Bean Time
2. Tiny Island
3. Song of the Swamp
4. In Christ There Is No East or West
5. Last Steam Engine Train
6. From the Cradle to the Grave
7. Louise
8. Spanish Entomologist
9. Owls
10. You Don't Have to Need Me
11. Lost John

Everyday is all the same, going from the cradle to the grave.

Firestone 13 - Firestone Walker Brewing Co. (American Strong Ale 2009)

Dark caramel brown body with burgundy highlights. Head crimson spiked beige. Lacing melts around the glass.

Warming bourbon with wood smoked Belgian chocolate, banana, and black licorice.  Berries and vanilla soaked oak.

Coffee, raisins, caramelized toffee. Roasted figs and brandy. Bourbon is present and intertwines with ashy maple, molasses drenched coconut, and oat soaked port wine. 12%.

“Barley wines, imperial stouts, and an imperial brown are just a few of the beers making up the final blend. Many of the component beers have spent over 2 years aging in a combination of retired bourbon, rye, and wine barrels.”

Expensive beers are not metal.

Blanket Monster

Diamond Darrell (08/20/66 – 12/08/04)

R.I.P. to the four victims. Terribly sad.

"Vulgar display of f'n liquor."

Pantera were awesome.  Their home video releases are classic hilarity and pure badassery. I like the story about how the NHL won't permit teams to take the Stanley Cup home after Pantera and the '99 Dallas Stars dented it up in a post championship shindig.

People who don't like Pantera, lose at life.

Bigwood 2009 - Brouwer's Cafe (Seattle, WA)

Over 50 wood aged beers from sours to stouts served in 12oz snifters.

12/03/2009:
Elliot Bay Brandy Barrel Imperial Brown (4/5)
Hair of the Dog Bottleworks 10 Matt (5/5): Delicious and complex. Dark brown color with cherry candy, pine, vanilla, apple, and figs. Aged in 33 year old Bourbon barrels and Apple Eau de Vie barrels for about one year.
Flyers Bottleworks 8 140 Schilling Scotch Ale Laphroaig (5/5)
Cantillon Lou Pepe Kriek '04 : 6oz (4.5/5)
Port Brewing Brouwers Imagination #2 Strong Sour (4.5/5): Great balance with delicate bourbon and sour cherry undertones.
Stone Brewing 12th Anniversary Bourbon (4/5): Massive!
Allagash Interlude Merlot/Syrah Barrel Belgian (4/5)

12/05/2009:
Schooner Exact Hoppy the Woodsman (4/5): Nicely shaded. Woody vanilla rounds out the hops. This one came in second at this years Washington Winter Beer Festival for People's Choice.
Double Mountain Terrible Two Bourbon Brown Ale (5/5): Nose smells exactly like bourbon. Well balanced with vanilla and caramel. My favorite of the festival.
Elysian Jack Frost Jack Daniels Winter Ale (3.5/5)
Firestone Walker Velvet Merkin Wood Oatmeal Stout (4/5)
Fremont Bourbon Barrel Abominable Winter Ale (3.75/5)
Cantillon Framboise 2006 : 6oz (5/5): Fruit Lambic. A tad darker than the Lou Pepe Kriek. Fluffy cotton candy pink head. Raspberries, red wine, vinegar.

Check your liver at the door.