THE WINNERS:

Best Silver Platter: Rooftops A Forest of Polarity
Best Up Close and Personal: Dirty Bird Cabaret
Best Heavier Than Heaven: Dog Shredder
Best Booty Shakin’ Music: Yogoman Burning Band
Best Twilight Zone Soundtrack: Pan Pan
Best Highway Americana: The Librarians
Best Moniker: The Ghost and the Grace
Best Axes of Folk: Biagio Biondolillo
Best Spinner: Yogoman
Best Rhyme and Beats: The Productionists
Best Newby: Pan Pan
Best Rock ‘N’ Roll Explosion: Sugar Sugar Sugar
Best Pop Will Rock Itself: The Love Lights
Best Skin in What’s Up!: Femme Uke
What’s Up! Appreciation Award: Bucketz
What’s Up! Lifetime Achievement Award: Robert Sarazin Blake
What’s Up! Lifetime Achievement Award: Gunther Frank (RIP)

Poops was the host and he started the night off proper by singing a country song about drinking at the 3B, and accompanied by Sarah on the guitar. After a few awards were presented, we were introduced to the Dirty Bird Cabaret, who danced in between bands.

The first musical act of the night was Femme Uke. Promoting their new EP In the Key of G-spot, Laine and Ashley took the stage armed with two ukuleles and a ton of hilarious songs, these ladies were a pleasure to watch. In my opinion they saved the best song for last, “Big Fatty.” This was the only song they harmonized on and a clever bridge showed that this was the best structured song of their short performance.

Next up was Pan Pan. A large buzz has been circulating about this group, and I was excited to hear them. Layers of sound with fabulous structure and dynamics showed me that Sarah Jerns is much more than an artist; she’s a genius composer. Even though Sarah writes all the parts, don’t discount her band, they’re incredibly tight and professional.

To this point there had not been a rock band. The crowd was ready for something heavy. Dog Shredder had just won the “Heavier than Heaven” award and got on stage to prove it. Guitar player Josh Holland’s stage presence was like if Iggy Pop strapped on a guitar. The overall sound is mind numbing and hypnotic. They can go from beautiful stripped down melodies to brutal unabashed metal in the drop of a dime. The rest of the band is very talented as well drummer Noah Burns lost a stick in the middle of a song and never missed a beat.

We’ve had funny music, intelligent music, face melting rock, and with Acorn Project, the fourth group to play, we finally had some dance music. These guys have been around the scene for a long time and had a great 2009 promoting their new album We’ll be Fine. The first song they played was an epic new wave song. Showing their versatility they dropped into a straight ahead funk set. These guys are one of Bellingham’s best jam bands a strong tenor on vocals and great guitar tones might even turn out the most devout metal-heads.

With all the awards given out there was only one thing left to do, party hard to the sounds of The All Nighters. Introduced by Brent Cole as “One of Bellingham’s best bands,” they played and we loved it. Halfway through their set Andy Piper joined them onstage and sang a Charlie Feathers cover. Andy killed it and the crowd went nuts. The Wild Buffalo was a time bomb, Poops lit the fuse, excitement grew, and ‘The All Nighters’ provided the explosion.

December 2009 Cover by “Mighty” Mitch Vega

Download the What’s Up! December Compilation here

The Ghost and the Grace – The Mall

Rooftops – Raft Easily

Biagio Biondolillo – Dirty Blue

Librarians – Sunday

So Adult – Scarstruck

Candysound – Million

Connecticut Four – Once Electric

Eruptagain – Ins and Outs

Nick Duncan – Hollow Town

Samuel Warner Cornish – Lucky Man

Six Feet Deep – Can You See Me Now

Ghost and the Grace Holiday Spirit Vol. 1

Holiday Spirit Vol. 1 is a spiffy 3 song collection that will get your sleigh bells ringing.

The opening track, “The Mall,” is a big production number full of holiday sounds and rich arrangements. While incredibly well done, I almost found the song to be smug, charming, and annoying. Conversely, the second song, “The Tree is on Fire,” is a wonderful little ditty whose hook is “The tree is on fire, the window is broke, Christmas is here and I hope you choke.” Brilliant, with a simple acoustic thing going.

The EP closes out with the easy listening “Snow Keeps Falling Down,” a quaint tune with those dreamy elements we have come to expect from The Ghost & The Grace.

The band will be donating a portion of all of the money that they receive to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (www.bcrfcure.org). That is very cool. Check out The Ghost & The Grace on the web, get some chipper Christmas songs and help a good cause.

November 2009 Cover by Bradley Lockhart

First off, I’d like to thank those who came out to the benefit shows in October. While they weren’t as well attended as we had hoped and as well as we needed them to be there were good crowds at both and more than that, incredible music. It was another testament to the diverse and wonderful music this town produces. I’d like to thank all the bands that played The Ghost and the Grace, Rooftops, So Adult, Boris Budd, Femme Uke, Sugar Sugar Sugar, Snug Harbor, Vaughn Kreestoe, and Dog Shredder, DJ Postal – the Wild Buffalo, the Nightlight and everyone that came down. It was a big help!

We’ve booked our What’s Up! Awards Show dates! The pre-awards show will be held on campus this year at the Viking Union on Jan. 29 while the awards show will be at the Wild Buffalo on Jan. 30. We’re still sorting out the line-up and will have it all booked by the next issue.

Finally, if you grab the magazine on campus, make sure to look out for the AS Pop Golden Button! The folks up there have been cool enough to include us in their promotion – if you get the golden button, you get into AS Pop shows for free this year.

WELL WISHES

A couple of long-time Bellingham figures are moving out of town, which, ya know, sucks. Both are, in my mind, icon drummers and part of what makes this place so great. Both Julian MacDonough (ex-Megatron as well as countless other jazz bands) and Ryan “****” Soukkala (Ghost and the Grace, ex-Lands Farther East, Idiot Pilot) are moving onto new challenges and new scenery. Julian and his family are “wintering” in New Mexico while Ryan has opted to join the vast number of ex-hamsters in Portland. While it hurts a helluva lot, these two have put so much into the local music scene and should be applauded and sent off with a horde of well wishes. That being said, I hope both come back to town at some point both have said it was definitely a possibility in the future. Take care, guys, we’ll sure miss ya.

RECORDS & RELEASES

The Rooftops are, simply put, just incredible. They are one of those bands that as you are watching them, you stand there and smile, simultaneously absorbing the beautiful music and wondering how people can create something so expansive. I wasn’t sure if their live sound could translate as well onto CD, but with the help of Paul Turpin, they’ve taken their sound to a whole new level. Check out their CD shows on Nov. 20 at the Rogue and NOv. 22 at Everyday Music, and grab a CD while you are there.

Stuck are putting the finishing touches on their debut demo. I haven’t listened to the tape yet (yes, they’re putting it out on tape), but I love what I heard on the Breakfast for Dinner compilation (put together by Council of Lions’ own Jenn Hartman). Very early-L7-easque, which is badass in my book. If you see Stuck’s singer, Casey Nolan, wish her a big happy birthday, she became legal on Halloween!

Another band on the BfD comp is So Adult (who also played at one of the What’s Up! benefits) and they are the best Replacements-esque band this town has seen since the Mats hayday. I especially love Joe “Pleased to Meet Me” Olmstead’s vocals pretty dead on to Westerberg in a good way. They’ll also be releasing a new tape this month (yep, lots of tapes now), so get the goods when they hit the streets.

That’s two bands that were on the Breakfast for Dinner comp two of the 11. The whole disc is alarmingly amazing sneaky awesome if you will filled with new bands in town that’ll be getting your attention next year. Out of all the songs, my favorite is “Do You Remember” by Cumulus aka Alex Niedzialkowski. It’s a simple yet very beautiful song about being invinsible when you’re young. If you don’t get a chance to pick up the disc (and you should), check out Cumulus at http://www.myspace.com/cumulusalex. All the songs have were recorded by Alex on her laptop you’ll be glad you did.

And again, another band from the comp (did I mention I love the comp) is the mighty and delirously wonderful Femme Uke a duo we’ve written about recently. Well FU have released their first demo and I love it, just love it. Sexually charged songs by two wonderful singers on ukulele it’s what makes my job fun. Laine and Ashley are fantastic (they also played at the What’s Up! comp) and bring a great energy to the music scene.

As I right le Beat this time around, I’m realizing there’s a hell of a theme going on!

Caparaza is releasing their debut demo this month, they’ll hopefully have copies for purchase when they play Band Fight Night on Nov. 8. If you like the rock… and I mean RAWK, check ‘em out!

Pan Pan is yet another unbelievably good band that is releasing a new disc. I was watching a video this morning of a recent The Ghost and the Grace show at WhAAM. In introducing the band, Daniel said Sarah Jerns was the most talented member of the band I’d take that a step further, she’s one of the most talented people in Bellingham and this album just proves it. It is, simply gorgeous absolutely gorgeous. Don’t move, Sarah, ok?

Austin Jenkes has a new disc out and is playing show in support. The album is in the jam vibe, but with a singer/songwriter focus if that’s yer gig, you’ll dig it!

COMINGS & GOINGS

In case you’ve missed it, The Ghost and the Grace have a couple cool videos on YouTube, including my favorite song, “How Far You Go” which features some epic sock puppets as famous musicians. My description doesn’t do it justice, go check it out and give Genetics a click as well two excellent videos, both done by the wonderfully talented Haylee Nighbert. While the latest disc just out, Daniel is working on the new album already laying down tracks at Ross Robinson’s studio this past month. While down there, Daniel added some handclaps to the new Korn record. Wow.

As if that wasn’t enough, Daniel is finishing up a Christmas EP. And… if THAT isn’t enough, Idiot Pilot is getting geared up again with new music slated for released in 2010. Reports from Paul and Chip at Bayside is that the new stuff is beyond anything the band has done. That’s saying something.

Speaking of Michael from Idiot Pilot, he’s joined the Florida band, Cold, whose sold over a million records in their day. He’ll be joining on guitar, after touring with them over the summer. While Michael will be spending a bunch of time in Florida, Bellingham will still be his home. He’ll just now be “bi-coastal.” Sexy.

Trevor from Addition has a new band out called Skinny Whiskers which is starting to play shows. For those who didn’t get a chance to see Addition, they were an epically fun and cool pop band (featuring Laine from Femme Uke) that broke up just as they were starting to get some bar shows happening (while having a huge loyal all ages following). The drummer moved to Seattle to work for a recording studio, effectively breaking up the band. Out of it’s ashes, came two new and even better bands! That’s the way it’s supposed to work!

Make.shift, the incredible non-profit who just bought a van for bands to tour in, is having an art show fundrasiser at Casa Que Pasa through the months of November and December. Proceeds from all donated pieces will benefit the organization and help get the van on the road!

I’ve been asked several times what the status of live music at the Rogue Hero is. As of press time, there is no official word.

Well, that’s about it, take care and enjoy music this month!

-Brent Cole