Alder Arts Walk

Saturday, April 28th, 2012!

If you're interested in featuring your work (visual, performance, other!) on the walk or sharing something with the blog please email us at alderartswalk@gmail.com


We would like to thank the following local businesses (as well as all our great volunteers) for making the art walk happen:

The Hippie House
Tahoma Tea & CO.
Tacoma Food Co-Op

Children of Kids

Children of Kids is a versatile band living in Seattle, melding folk styles with electronic sounds. We talked to band members Madeline Franks and Richie Nelson.

Madeline Franks, Calcum Plews, Richie Nelson, Madison Levine.

Kirsten: When did you guys get together?
Madeline: I met Madison [Levine] in college like three years ago, and we started playing music soon after. He had an apartment close to mine and then started dating one of my roommates, so he came over all the time, and then we just started jamming, messing around with different sounds. It wasn’t until two years later that Richie joined, that was probably last summer, officially.
Richie: This was in Chicago. I went to high school with Madison, and I would always come back and we would play music together, do a lot of recording. That went on for a little while, and then I came back last summer, and they were recording an album, and I decided to join in. It was really intense, we would record from ten until two in the morning every night, because our work schedules were so strange. We became really close musically, and then they decided to move to Seattle, and now they’re my neighbors.

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They Might Have Guns


Check out this interview with They Might Have Guns, a post-rock band comprised of five UPS students. 

Kayla: Give us a little background on your band.
Tommy: My name is Tommy Stone, and I’ve been playing guitar for this band probably since last September. I usually play rhythm guitar, but I write a lot of our music. We do a lot of collaborating.
Sean: I’m Sean, I play drums along with this guy, it’s like a dual percussion thing. Basically, the dynamic is Tommy or Dylan or Duncan will bring in a riff, and I’ll just try to put something to it. I’m really interested in drumming styles, and being as experimental as possible, and progressive. I like making the song evolve as it goes along, and trying as best I can to make drums melodic.
Duncan: I’m Duncan Bennett, I play lead slash rhythm slash bass. I played string bass for ten years. I’m really interested in different kinds of music, variety, playing jazz. I play in the jazz band at school.

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Jeff Nickels

Jeff Nickels is a philosophical funny man, and in the following interview he divulges the thought process behind what he does. We found it surprising and fascinating, and hope you agree.

Jeff: Hey, my name’s Jeff Nickels and I’m gonna try to do a bit of stand-up comedy. It’s going to be a little tricky because of the theme of the Alder Arts Walk this year, it’s gonna be a bit dark in tone, so it’s gonna be more of a prepared piece, less traditional stand-up comedy. I’ll be standing up and trying to get laughs so… stand-up comedy.

Nick: What made you decide to pick up a microphone and crack jokes?
Jeff: I‘ve known ever since, like, high school I wanted to. To be a stand-up comic you have to have an underlying egomania about you.
Nick: All performers do.
Jeff: Stand-up comedy especially, just because of how immediate the reaction is ideally supposed to be. I’m not waiting for a review in the paper or anything, I’m just trying to get people to laugh or groan or whatever, just evoke responses as fast as I can.

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Sun Eater

Here’s another interview for those of you eagerly awaiting the Arts Walk. It’s only two weeks away!

Left to right: Kirby Lochner (guitar), Ben Block (bass and vocals), Daniel Salas (drums). 

Nick: When did you guys form?
Daniel: October.
Kirby: I brought all my stuff up in August, and Ben and I started jamming, and we needed a third person. 
Ben: We needed a drummer.

Nick: What would you say you sound like, or what are some bands that have influenced your sound?
Kirby: Heavy psychedelic rock with some stoner-y influences here and there. 
Ben: The biggest ones would be Earthless, they’re from San Diego, and Colored Haze, Black Bomb Bane, Sleep.
Daniel: Black Sabbath, too.
Ben: Pretty much anything heavy.
Daniel: Not anything heavy. Anything that’s slow and heavy. I mean, are we really we influenced by Slayer?

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Lineup!

The lineup has been officially decided for Alder Arts Walk 2012! (subject to change..)

Friday night there will be a kick off gala featuring art and performance from wetlands magazine as well as some arts walk music. More information to come..

Brunch 11am-12pm:

1706 N Alder

11-11:20 Abe Landa

11:20-11:40 Fang Chia

11:40-12 Humidity and Static

Conquest 12-2pm:

1501 N Alder

12-12:15 Ben Wolters

12:15-12:30 Cheralynn Brantley

1-1:30 Walt the Fish

1:30-2 Haniwa Heron

War 2-4:30pm:

951 N Alder

Abe and Sascha 2-2:30

Austin Bosten 2:30-3

whack 3:30-4

Matte Bliss 4-4:30

Famine 4:30-8pm:

818 N Washington

Jeff Nickels 4:30-5

Young Ones 5-5:30

Children of Kids 5:45-6:15

Humble Cub 6:30-7

Orca Team 7:15-7:45

Death 8-10pm:

820 N Union

They Might Have Guns 8-8:30

Sun Eater 8:45-9:15

Cuneiform 9:30-10:00

stay tuned for more info!!

Humble Cub

From left to right: Allan (guitar and vocals), Jeff (percussion), Adam (bass guitar), Rick (auxiliary percussion)

The Arts Walk team got a very special opportunity last week, not just to sit down and talk with Humble Cub, but to tour their practice space and recording studio. Home to an array of percussion instruments, including a set of wine glasses filled to varying degrees for different pitches, it’s camouflaged among the many rundown industrial spaces in Tacoma. This is where Humble Cub has been preparing their second album and their evolved sound.

K&K: What do you think of Tacoma”s music scene?
Adam: I’m excited about it right now. There’s a bunch of stuff popping off, and watching a local act on Letterman, and then friend’s bands, playing with them. Just the whole scene. There are so many good bands. I’m really enthusiastic about the Makeup Monsters.
Rick: That’s the thing about Tacoma, everybody’s got their A game. There are just so many good bands. So many.

Click below to read the full interview!

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The fourth horse(wo)man is DEATH. Probably the most ominous omenly omen of all, death rides a pale horse and carries a giant scythe. Why the scythe? Why not ditch the horse-scythe combo for a tractor? Unfortunately DEATH is paid very little for her work. Most Americans are ungrateful for those two aspects of life that are most certain, namely, death and taxes, but are unaware that their taxes go straight to our culture of death: American conquest, wars on terror, drugs, and fun, and the perpetuation of third-world famine. What remains is given to DEATH as a paycheck, and as you can imagine that’s not very much. But DEATH makes do…

The fourth horse(wo)man is DEATH. Probably the most ominous omenly omen of all, death rides a pale horse and carries a giant scythe.

Why the scythe? Why not ditch the horse-scythe combo for a tractor? Unfortunately DEATH is paid very little for her work. Most Americans are ungrateful for those two aspects of life that are most certain, namely, death and taxes, but are unaware that their taxes go straight to our culture of death: American conquest, wars on terror, drugs, and fun, and the perpetuation of third-world famine. What remains is given to DEATH as a paycheck, and as you can imagine that’s not very much. But DEATH makes do…