STRAIGHT CRUSHING

2010, Crushed

SeattleCannabisJournal — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:06:33 +0000

By Drew Scott Swenhaugen / 503

On “2010″
Fuck you, I fucking love Best Of Lists. I’m gonna sum it up for you. Here’s what crushed fucking hard this year.

On “books”
Flowers by Paul Killebrew (Canarium Books)
Do you hate poetry? I do too, mostly, unless it is something so amazing & confusing that I beg for more. Fucking read this.

On “music”
“Bombay” by El Guincho

Tyte, ryte?

On “cities”
Portland v. Seattle : Seattle wins this year. Because of this man.

On “drank”
Oma gosh.

On “art” or “philosophy”
Hennessey Youngman. Brilliant.

On “catastrophe”

FILE SIZE TOO BIG TO LOAD

See you next year!

-Champ

‘The Wind’ Releases 2x Album

SeattleCannabisJournal — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 03:56:42 +0000

For 5 years Southern California quartet ‘The Wind’ has churned out West coast surf rock that is both operatic in its scale while staying entrenched in a modern interpretation of vaudevillian creativity & story telling. During those 5 years we were only given Histor EP to tide us over. That time is behind us however & the boys have finally released the double album of sunshine dipped rock that I’ve been waiting for, Harum Scarum.. If you missed the train a while back, get caught up with disc 1, on the house.

Long have the members distilled their musical selves, and you can hear it. The bold concepts in the villainous monologue ‘I’m a Liar’, the playfully psychedelic ‘Astral Dance’, or fantastical opening track ‘Shellwhite’ both please & surprise (samples here). Beyond concepts, the songs swell effortlessly into matured harmonies and seamless arrangements that crash and subside with authority. Don’t pass up 23 tracks of these great tunes to help you float through winter staying warm & flying high.

-Stop_Foster

Protected: ‘& Unto Us a Strain is Born…’

SeattleCannabisJournal — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 19:20:40 +0000

This post is password protected. You must visit the website and enter the password to continue reading.

‘Keys Open Doors’ is almost here!

SeattleCannabisJournal — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 03:37:48 +0000

Half a year ago Portland’s R.S. Delucco & I talked during a visit about having a release here in Seattle. After some thought (as well as fortunate timing) we decided to move the inaugural release of his publication ‘Collected Works‘ to December 3rd, at The Catalyst Gallery in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Neighbourhood. (See bottom for printable flier)

The initial release will be titled ‘Keys Open Doors‘, featuring 20 original illustrations of fantastical skeleton keys. You will be able to pick up this professionally hand-bound 8.5″x5.5″ book with french flaps for only 10$. The books will be signed by Rick & numbered 1-100. For you folks on FB, get yourself RSVP’d here.

This will be the last show for Catalyst for up to a year as the 3 boys decide to hunker down and re-imagine mission statements and vision. Straight Crushing & the gallery space have maintained a great working relationship over the last year, it’d be great to see you all there for one last after-hours drink to send them off.

-Stop_Foster

“My Week W/ Mrs. A” + Archers E.P. Teaser!

SeattleCannabisJournal — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:15:47 +0000

So thus begins the end of my battle with this decade’s flesh-eating celebrity virus MRSA (or ‘Mrs. A‘ as the head of Group Health’s Infectious Disease ward called it).

Seriously, I got it. After two days visiting Urgent Care with a high fever and signs of infection they diagnosed me with the stuff. Once things got rolling I was sent up to Home Infusion Services for a peripherally inserted central catheter. A ‘Picc Line’ is essentially a small tube threaded through an artery (via my arm) all the way to the Superior Vena Cava (top, on the left), allowing IV medication that is unable to travel through small veins a passage way to my heart. Through my Sally Port we go, eh?

Straight to the heart.

After that I was trained to use a ‘Prefusor Basic‘ or a ‘syringe pump’ (pictured below) from home. This allows the massive syringes full of Antibiotics to be pumped through the Picc Line, dumping them directly into my heart for good measure.
But now things are on the up! Mrs. A, she retreats, and my spirits are high.

Especially when I came home to find that Chris Cantino, co-front man of the best damn band in Portland, OR e-mailed me a sneak preview of their upcoming tracks. As usual, shit hits like a live wire from start to finish. Archers ability to stir up the last sentiments of danger and fun in pop music never ceases to please, I’ve listened to it 5 times consecutively (and counting) since it hit my inbox. If you visited the previous link, you’ll see that Portland Mercury is finally catching on to what you faithful readers knew all along.

Love,
Stop_Foster

Excuses, etc. (racy photo of Russian spy to follow)

SeattleCannabisJournal — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 17:43:47 +0000

Woah. Its been a hit minute, right? SpaceCake & myself have to apologize…as much as I’d like to wax romantic about this or that exotic location we’ve been whisked away to for coverage of obscure bands and exciting news, it would all be lies. What have we truly been doing? Well, SpaceCake hasn’t let his lungs wander too far from that Purple Erkle that was in town for a minute. I have been dedicating myself to less hedonistic ventures…the constant pressures of day-to-day right? All the mending and fussing that goes on once the water starts to fall. Such is life.

But what you ask, dear reader, could jar me from my blogosphere sabbatical? Well first off, SpaceCake has been scribbling exciting strain reviews that I feel need to see the light of day, not to mention a decent start on a review for the incredible video game experience that is Limbo. But me? Took no more than the scent of a cold war era throwback to hot news. Remember the Russian “sleeper agents” that were deported earlier this October? Well the 1/10 of that group that is Anna Chapman came up overnight celebrity when she returned home. Due to a heady mix of provocative Facebook photos and creepy American fetishizing of Bond-era spy girls, she is now hella famous. This culminated in a hilarious is-this-reality photo shoot for the cover of Russian Maxim , the results:

Great right? Russian pseudo-spy is deported from our country, then shot to fame with the dual efforts of our two nation’s adolescent fascination with a half-naked enemy of the state. Stranger than fiction, truly.

* * *

Really, you may ask, this is what we get after a two-week absence? American tabloid fodder? Well, it is hilarious, but of course not. If you’re a total square and missed this Wiz Khalifa single, wanted to make sure you weren’t left in the dark. Enjoy.

-Stop_Foster

Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All

SeattleCannabisJournal — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 05:27:05 +0000

If you haven’t gotten wind, dark things brew in Southern California.

From the skate parks and streets of Los Angeles a group of crazy young bloods (think 18 & under) are making some noise. Noise, over hard gritty beats (think MF Doom) and chock full of old soul voices rapping like they’ve had a previous lifetime to practice (apparently a lifetime of getting a little too much Brotha Lynch, homies got the horrorcore priorities down: rape, ultra-violence & Indo).

‘Somebody tell Satan that I want my fucking swag back’

That aside, what really slaps you in the face (like a million middle fingers) is the wholly encompassing fuck it that this crew puts down on every track. Not your Lil’ Wayne fuck-the-world-I-got-this attitude neither, but the doing shitty-coke-doing arm-cutting-blood-puking sort of fuck it, like the get-blunted-every-day-everything-is-shit sort of fuck it, you know? You give a good listen to any of their mixtapes (available free here) and you hear it. Rap about being depressed, possessed (demon style), pissed off, & multiple variations of nothing being sacred, at all.

So trip out on it, if you’re like me maybe you’ll hear these tracks and your stomach will flip a little bit, and you’ll remember for a second those 10 tons of pure hatred and wanton destruction that seemed to soak up every waking moment between adolescence & adulthood. You know, that time in your life where you drank Robitussin, had malt liquor till you threw up, & alternatively laughed at and hated everything?

Maybe not.

In that case, hear the beat, enjoy some dope raps.

All Photos By Vyron Turner, Wolf Haley And Taco Bennett

Your Love Got Me So Crazy

SeattleCannabisJournal — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 05:43:18 +0000

KELLY O

The haunting video of Antony Hegarty covering Beyonce’s ‘Crazy In Love’ was jarred out of my ‘to blog’ folder this morning (a shame-I should have found an excuse to post it a long time ago). Now I must nod my head to The Stanger’s Jen Graves, who wrote this insightful and well written piece about new street art (Gretchen Bennett) adorning the Sound Transit construction area-you’ll have to read it (worth it) to catch the connection.

Anyhow, the whole thing worked beautifully as a segue to post this video (both versions are up for your comparison pleasure). Enjoy.

T-Level Makes Small, Manageable Area

SeattleCannabisJournal — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 03:17:05 +0000

When I was a young child bent with furrowed brow over a plastic tub full of my small figurines, building blocks, & miniature military vehicles I realized (in less complicated terms) that I had a penchant for small, manageable areas. Ones I could carefully and repeatedly organize. An afternoon spent shifting contents around to maximize proficiency and productivity brought me immeasurable joy and inner peace.

Things haven’t changed much. My ‘small manageable area’ is now a backpack. The toys are books, a notepad, pen sets, music, camera, phone, & other lifestyle items. & afternoons have still been spent dialing in full utilization of every area of my pack, taking the time to realize each of its potentials in the ways of efficiency & productivity. I love it, & maybe a little too much. Perhaps this means I suffer from semi-debilitating obsessive compulsive behaviors and shouldn’t be listened to. But for today I will point out that my affinity for efficient, productive organization has led to an enduring love affair with the urban back pack.

: The obnoxiously named cushioning design bids goodbye to the days where you sport a clammy sweat rectangle every time you pull off your pack.

Which brings me to this, from the Jansport leather bottom in highschool to the Mash SF x SAGLiFE collaboration I picked up back in March, it has been a long running process of honing in on what makes the perfect pack (for me). So it was a joy (& love at first sight) when I stumbled upon some review for Korean upstart T-Level ‘s Infinity roll-top (pictured). It has taken some of the best aspects of lifestyle cross over bags (à la SAGLiFE skate/bike/snow approach) & added the flexibility of a dedicated travel bag. I put one on order & look forward to making a full review.

Some News From (503)

SeattleCannabisJournal — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 06:27:31 +0000

fine lines

(I regret to inform you that of this week Big Mario’s has raised the price of 40oz OE to $8.00 from $5.00, which was not stated here. -SC)

Portland’s R.S. Delucco has new work over at his blog. I am particularly excited about the 3 additions to Clipse-inspired ‘Keys Open Doors’ series that I ordered prints from back in March. Ricky will be releasing the full series in collaboration with Straight Crushing over @ Catalyst Gallery in December, keep an ear out for details!

More from PDX, the Straight Crushing reviewed Archers was featured on Pitchfork’s Altered Zones this week. Apparently it was a good week, pRIMORDIAL sOUNDS also had this to say about their 7″:

‘The best parts of the 90s are back, and that couldn’t be more evident than on Archers debut 7″. “Brussels Truffles” sounds the way you wish every STP song sounded; torn up and relentless guitars paired with driving bass lines and pounding drums that might as well be punching you in the face. Throw in some time trickery for good measure and the result is some seriously catchy tunes that beg for repeat listens. But whats best about Archers is how fucking psyched they seem to be playing these tunes. This record is destined to have people pounding on their steering wheels and speeding on the highway for years to come.’

Big ups to Portland!