That’s right, you heard me right. David Scherer Water owes me money. For what? He owes me a bunch of nickels for Olympia bands that he left out of his latest post about Olympia, Washington, “NIRVANA Olympia’s Greatest Distortion”.
Before I go any further let me say that I am a fan and a subscriber to David’s Substack posts. When I put out my Olympia: A True Story album a few years ago, in my 80-page CD book, I cited David as being a substantial info source, a spreader of knowledge about Olympia with his book Olympia. For example, in Olympia he talked about the long-gone town of Bordeaux, Washington. I grew up here, but had never heard of it. What the hell? When I asked my mom about it, of course she knew what it was, but not me. I went looking and found the location, kind of sorta, and I wrote a snappy song about it. I like some of David’s writing better than others but that’s nothing surprising. He’s a sharp humorist and he definitely has a perspective.
So what’s my beef? Well it’s like this: David has just done his latest post in his series of all things Olympia. This time it’s about Olympia music, citing Nirvana as being the greatest distortion to Olympia’s music, and, hey, what’s the matter with that? Well nothing really. However, it is delevered from a total Greener perspective. Maybe you ain’t from around here and you’re asking: “what’s a Greener”? Definition: a Greener is someone that either attended or graduated from The Evergreen State College (Please note the requisite capital T on “The” – a Greener thing for sure). David came to Olympia specifically for that purpose many moons ago and like many Greeners, never left. It’s the classic town-and-gown conflict/perspective that goes back in the United States to Harvard, the first American university. Hell, I think it goes back to England and Europe. Lotsa party animals at Oxford!.
Here’s a classic example of what I’m talking about. In Olympia, on page 50, David lists a few places to eat. They’re mostly downtown, the kind joints enjoyed by TESC hippies and others. What is not listed is probably the most iconic eatery in Olympia, Big Tom’s Drive-In up on the East Side that’s been there since 1948 . Big Tom’s is totally a “townie” kind of place. It’s a place I used to make a point of stopping at when I came to Olympia to visit my mom or my grandparents. If you look at the back cover of my first True Olympians album, we shot a band picture up at Big Tom’s because I wanted people to see us as townies. Old school.
Now I’ve had a couple people ask me, “Are you a townie or are you a gownie?” Hmm. You could think I’m some damn hoity-toity intellectual. I’ve got a doctorate. Both my kids are graduates of Evergreen. Kat is an MD. Ben has a PhD in math. They’re both doing great.
Am I a total fan and supporter of The Evergreen State College? Damn skippy I am! I even do a radio show there, Freeform Northwest, on KAOS 89.3 FM, the anarchist college station (Weds 4-6pm).
So, I’m kind of on the fence with this question, but in my heart I think I’m a townie. I was here a long time before Evergreen. It opened the year I left town. I arrived in Olympia (my mom’s birthplace and the family hub) when I was seven years old and graduated from Olympia High School. I got out of town as fast as I could after I graduated but, you don’t forget.
Right now you may be wondering if I think David is a totally biased reporter regarding the Olympia series he is writing right now. I do not. But I definitely think he has a perspective that informs his work. We all do.
So, after all this nonsense, what’s my nit that I’m picking with David? It’s this: in his piece, David made an extensive list of Olympia bands that aren’t Nirvana to show the wealth of diversity in Olympia music, which is awesome. I support that fully. However, and this is a big however, it’s a Greener list. It leaves out anything (other than The Fleetwoods) that happened before Evergreen. It leaves out the extensive folk scene and acoustic music scene that Olympia has had since the 60’s (read the late Pat Holm’s The Null Set). It leaves out our extensive jazz scene, which is not quite as robust as it was 20 years ago, etc. And so on.
Here is my list of Olympia bands that David left off. David says he’ll pay a nickel for each one. Can’t wait.
The long running PNWbands web site lists 19 Oly/Tumwater/Lacy bands from the 60’s and 70’s. That’s $.95 cents!
https://pnwbands.com/search?tag=geography%3Ausa%2Fwashington%2Folympia
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Corvettes Olympia · Washington · 1961–1963
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CottonMouth Olympia · Washington · 1967–1972
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Ethics, Olympia Olympia · Washington · 1960–1966
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Faith aka: Eagle Peak Olympia · Washington · 1968–1969
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Jerrimen Olympia · Washington · 1968–1974
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Lightfoot Olympia · Washington · 1968–1972
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Muf Olympia/Tacoma · Washington · 1965–1972
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No Toy Boys Olympia · Washington · 1973–?
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Salvation Navy Olympia · Washington · 1967–1968
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Shalimars Olympia · Washington · 1960–1965
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Sound Within Olympia · Washington · 1960s
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Stingrays Olympia · Washington · 1962–1966
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The Bootmen Olympia/Tacoma · Washington · 1964–1966
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The Peers Olympia · Washington · 1966–?
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The Rooks Olympia · Washington · 1965–1966
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The Train Olympia · Washington · 1966–1967
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The Tritons Olympia · Washington · 1965–1965
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The Undertakers Lacey · Washington · 1965–1967
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Ascots Tumwater · Washington · 1966–1967
My next money maker is this great article The Olympia Phenomenon by noted author LLyn De Danaan https://olywadaysofchange.org/the-olympia-phenomenon/.
Besides Gretchen Christopher of The Fleetwoods, she discusses Thurston County Commissioner George Barner who was one of the people who pushed to make “Louie Louie” the state song – he did a rockin’ version! The great Burt Wilson, Barbara Donald, Joe Baque, Orbrador and piles of Oly jazzbo’s are covered in the article. Riot Grrrl stuff is in there. My count: 37 musicians/bands in this article that aren’t on David’s list. Cost to David – $1.85
On my own Green Monkey Records artist page, https://greenmonkeyrecords.com/gm-artists/, I count 11 Oly artists not on his list – that’s another $.55.
If you go on Bandcamp.com and just do a simple search for Olympia, oh my Gawd. There’s a bunch of them here that are on David’s list, but tons are not. I’m going to let David off cheap and unscientifically charge $1.25 for this.
Olympia Jazz Central has two pictures taken at the old state capitol with at least 78 musicians who ain’t on David’s list. Ding – $3.90! https://www.meetup.com/olympiajazzcentral/
David has no mention of Vaude Deville – whose Roadshow album is my greatest Rainy Day Records freebie box discovery of all time. Vaud de Ville gets played on my KAOS show all the time because he is the greatest. Period! Amen. You can read his obituary right here: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/gene-lewis-obituary?id=18013023
That’s another 5 cents. It’s so good David should be giving me a dollar for this one.
One more thing before I go. On David’s list there is a name a little ways down. Calvin Johnson. It’s just one more name in the list with a bunch of other names. I don’t think that properly reflects Calvin’s place in Olympia music. I’ve gotten to know Calvin a lot better since I moved back to Olympia ten years ago. I’ve listened to his entire catalog extensively since I started my radio show. Calvin is a force like none other, with a powerful Olympia-native memory. No, he didn’t do everything all on his own. But he is a (Wonderful) beast. If you’ve not read Love Rock Revolution: K Records and the Rise of Independent Music by Mark Baumgarten, I recommend it. Respect.
Total owed by David = $7.30.
Folks, I am just scratching the surface here, but I think you probably get the idea by now. Do you know some great Olympia band/musicians that neither David nor I thought of? List them in the comments below!
Originally posted on Green Monkey Noize, Tom’s Substack.