Before there was Soundgarden or Mudhoney or Alice in Chains, there was Skin Yard and Gruntruck, two late-80s-spawned bands that foretold and influenced Seattle's grunge phenomenon. Ben McMillan, who died here yesterday of complications stemming from diabetes, fronted both bands. He was 46. more ›

Next year’s publication of Itch, Love Stories About Heroin means that if you've been waiting for a full-length, in-depth book about Alice in Chains' Layne Staley—well, don’t get your hopes up. more ›

It’s been five years since soft-rock-but-hard-when-they-want-to-be Brad has released a proper album, and about three years since they’ve played live. Now the local quartet (Shawn Smith, Stone Gossard, Mike Berg and Regan Hagar), one of our favorite bands anywhere, is back in action—they’ve got an album in the works and they’re playing NYC and Seattle this month. more ›

When Seattlest received that fateful email from a friend, our immediate reaction was a roll of the eyes and an audible, drawn out, "Bull shit." No way would the one and only Beastie Boys play the legendary but very wee Crocodile Cafe. No way. Then came the Ticketmaster link all but confirming it. The Croc's website kept mum, not listing the show at all. Supposedly The End had been talking it up, but we wouldn't know since we haven't listened to that station since discovering KEXP years ago. A click of the mouse fractions of a second after tickets went on sale and we were in. Many of our friends and most of the Seattle area weren't as lucky. A quick check on Craig's List and Ebay showed that scalpers had done some of the immediate damage. Venting ensued. more ›