Kill The Lights
A Column by Reef Valmont

The Final Kill The Lights

KTL is no more, and with a sweet, sweet whisper we are back one final time to bid you farewell, tuck you in for the night and let you know that everything is OK, everything is going to be alright.

SEATTLE-PORTLAND-HEAVEN-HELL-PRESS-PRESS-PRESS

Look around yourself, things are cool here. The music is winning. Have we ever had this many great bands and musicians playing in our cities? Have the once power-heavy scene idiots ever been so marginalised? Things are looking....good.

In local press, we lost The Rocket which is a blow to any band or music fan based here, but at the same time The Stranger has it's most able Music Editor in it's history with the placement of Jeff DeRoche. The Seattle Weekly is still a third-fiddle rag when it comes to music, but with writers like Laura Learmonth in place there will always be a lifeline there for the local musician, more power to her. New freebie on the block Tablet is already covering minor local acts and looks like it could, with our support and encouragement, become a player in the music scene. Then there's Ear Pollution, an excellent online zine under the guiding hand of Craig Young - check it out at earpollution.com. Ex-Rocket editor and huge Punk fan Joe Ehrbar is! now over at The Seattle PI and The Times still has Tom Scanlon who consistently dips into the local cauldron to pull up a deserving gem or two.

Down in The Beaver State, the Willamette Week is trying hard to hoist the local flag under Zach Dundas, and The Portland Mercury already seems to be going against the tradition of it's Seattle sister paper and actually waxes positive on the local noise - Julianne Shephard is the woman to watch there. Things are looking good...and they're going to get better.

MUSIC-MUSIQUE-MUSIC

Hey, kids, who is your favorite NW band? It's getting tougher to answer that question due to the sheer amount of great things going on here. Most people I know have to list off a whole bunch of acts to answer that question. Right now, I'm naming Juno, Kinski, Voyager One, Man Of The Year, Helio Sequence, Carissa's Wierd, The Drop, Piper Down, Radio Nationals, Sushi Robo, Harvey Danger, Dandy Warhols, Head Full Of Stars, Pedro Luz rght off the top of my head - I know there's more. And with new local labels like Pattern 25 and, of course, Loveless springing up, labels with a dedication to their hometown bases and an insight into what's happening at all levels of the performing spectrum, it's only going to keep getting better and bigger and your choices will increase weekly.

GOODBYE KTL, SEATTLE'S #1 ACRONYM

When this column first started it was to, primarily, bring attention to the great but unknown bands of the region because the 'major' press were ignoring them. KTL was the first place to tell you about Western State Hurricanes. The first to mention Voyager One. The most consistent coverage of bands like Juno and Veer and Severna Park. After a couple of years of rtying to be a champion of the underdog and, at the same time, keep things interesting and sometimes humorous, it doesn't seem like KTL has a role anymore. You know the people we talk about, and the new breed of underdog have places they WILL get coverage. We had (mainly) a ball doing this, but it's time to focus our energies on other things. Thus, in true KTL fashion, here comes a bunch of lists to see us out of here. Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who helped, you know who you are.

THE GREATEST THING KTL EVER SAW

All those Western State Hurricanes shows. The gap they left will never go away and anyone who loved them will always be wondering what could have happened if only they hadn't imploded....if anyone has any old tapes or CD's of any WSH material, pleae please please let me know!

THE SCARIEST THING KTL EVER SAW

Back in '98 Cole peterson of the Parc Boys and Sweetwater took something that KTL said personally and launched a campaign of terror against myself and co-conspirator John Richards. The highlight of Cole's attack was a double-pronged webpage he built in our names where a very, very fat and ugly man with a moustache-of-doom was given our names and described as a 'potential male model' looking for work. That was genius, Cole, but still scary as Hell. Thanks pal!

THE SPIN-OFF'S AND THE FEATURES

KTL was (mostly) proud to bring you the following entities in some way, shape or form. Some of them even still exist standing on their own 2 feet!

The Deathbag

Big Pete's Big Review Of The Big Show

Dr. Robert's Medication

The Endless Weekend

The People VS The World

The Cinematic's History Of Rock n' Roll

Insult Of The Week

Asshole Of The Week

Trawl

Winking Jon Auer's Tower Of Power

Introducing The Band

Teenage Fightback!

Bo Gilliland's Ridiculous Website Of The Week

Five Beers And An English Rockstar

Valmont VS Cole Peterson

Local Bands Of The Year Polls

How To Be Reef

Video Review Revue

Reef's Bulging Sack

Justin Renney's $200 Pizza

The Instant Press Kit

LAST THANK YOU'S

THE PLAYERS

Thank you to everyone that helped make KTL live and breathe so long. In some particular order, thank-you's go to Dave THE LIL Liljengren, John Richards, Justin Renney, Special Agent Cracky, Shane Berry, Stephanie Pure, Jed The Chubby Intern, Pete Nordstrom, Arlie Carstens, Clay Martini, Aaron Mannino,

Denise Mannino, Barbara Trentalange, Robert Holmes, Dr. Robert Benson, Adam McDaid, Bo Gilliland, Christopher McBride, Joe Ehrbar, Osei, Fred Northup Jr., Eric Richards, Tiffany Richards, Steve Anderson, Scott Barber, Dustin Miller, Mark Richards, Sean Nelson, Kat Ogden, Jack Dourakos, The Einmo's, Abe Beeson, Jeffrey Liles, Nicole Blackman, Barbara Mitchell, Hannah Levin, Jeramy Koepping, John Roderick, Michael Shilling, Pond Scum, Courtney Taylor-Taylor, Stephanie Wicker, Courtney Reimer, Wong Kar-Wai, Everett True, Kelly Simmons, Cheryl Waters, Matthew Parker, Mona Parker, Kurt B. Reighley, The Goddess Kring, Salma Hayek, and! Kathleen Wilson for the always-welcome bad publicity.

THE BANDS

Western State Hurricanes, Voyager One, Juno, Veer, Severna Park, Three Colours Red, The Dandy Warhols, The Drop, Lolly/Man Of The Year, Harvey Danger, Kinski, Bardo Pond, The Saddlesores, Duraluxe, Peter Parker, Tuffy, Tapeworm, Chemlab, 6FG, Melody Unit, Haywire/Radio Nationals, Tribute/Sophie Tucker, Manic Street Preachers, Suede, Mansun, My Bloody Valentine, Radiohead, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Jesus And Mary Chain, Mogwai, Spyglass, Sushi Robo, This Busy Monster, Piper Down, The Golden Palominos, Beatnik Filmstars, Bob Log III, A Man Called Sun, Nine Inch Nails, Stabbing Westward, Red Guitars, Nevada Bachelors, Little Ship, Helio Sequence, The Woodentops, Blow-Up, The Primitives, The Pale Saints, Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Northside, The Blue Aeroplanes, Acetylene, and anyone who gave that I forgot.

THE BARS

The Canterbury, The Elysian, Lindas, Eileens, Hattie's Hat, Hopscotch, Nite-Lite, Jade Pagoda, Dustin Miller's balcony, Charlies, Sit n' Spin, The Baranoff, Lock And Keel.

The Future Is Yours

RV, December 2000, Seattle

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Email Reef Valmont at pandomag@rocketmail.com

The Klll The Lights Archives

Loveless Records - Reef's Record Label