Seattle’s Pill Wonder seem like the second coming of Elfpower to me. They’ve got the same fuzzed-out, ecstatic vibe, complete with jingle jangly sparkle and too-high-on-vibes-to-see-straight giddiness. Their orchestration and production is decidedly more lo-fi, but the overall anti-depressant effect is similar. Not sure how I’ll feel about these guys when the summer rays have replenished my vitamin D reserves, but for now, they provide some much needed sunshine.

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As autumn creeps in, the temperatures drop, and the days get shorter, I’m finding myself listening to more morose and introspective music. Tiny Vipers, a one-woman band from Seattle, has been doing it for me lately with her luminous, bittersweet folk.

Following on from Michael Lavine’s seminal portrait of Kurt and Courtney for the cover of Sassy! [pssst, he also took the photo for the Nevermind album cover], we got the inside word from British music journalist, and infamous Nirvana bedfellow (in the least literal sense of the word), Everett True on Kurt, Courtney, and those damn persistent rumors: ‘No, I don’t believe he was murdered. I don’t particularly go into this in my most recent Nirvana book — partly through lack of time, partly through lack of interest — but let’s view it this way. Examine any event that has happened in the past, however trivial, and discrepancies will appear. 9/11. John F Kennedy. The death of Princess Diana. The fact my cat had to be put down at the age of sixteen. Why I forgot to take my iPod to London this morning. All of these could be contested, violently and with real — and valid — opinion. That’s because history does not exist except in books. Suicide is particularly ripe for innuendo: after all, the only person who can tell you what really happened is — er — dead. Still. I have nothing against conspiracy theories, especially if they’re fun’.

‘That moment in the Nick Broomfield film Kurt And Courtney where Il Duce is talking about how Courtney offered him 20,000 bucks to knock off Kurt – genius! In a weird twist of fate, Krist Novoselic and Kurt Cobain actually fronted a mid-Eighties Aberdeen tribute band to Il Duce’s former sex-fuck group, The Mentors.

‘Still. What do I know? I have only information and hazy recollection and paranoia on my side, and they rarely are decent bed companions. You believe what you believe and I’ll believe my version — isn’t that what history is all about? Here’s another ironic slant: for a decade, I refused point blank to speak to people wanting to speak to me about Kurt Cobain, sometimes quite rudely. ‘How’s the bloody money going?’ I pointedly enquired of one professional biographer. Who’d want to be Johnny Rotten for thirty years, continually retracing the same three months of your life for an ever-dwindling circle of admirers?’

Seattle band Fleet Foxes create such delicate, seductive and soulful music that you kinda want to pick up a guitar again, dust off the rusty strings, and see if any of their heartfelt, introspective magic rubs off. Quick disclaimer: it doesn’t.

A couple weeks ago, some buddies of mine in the black metal band Krallice played a show organized by Matthew Barney (a notorious metalhead) at the Deitch space in Long Island City. Whole pigs were roasted, and the head of one became a stage prop for the Texas band Dagon. The highlight of the evening was the mighty Inquisition, a fantastic Seattle-based black metal duo from Colombia. I’ve never heard live black metal sound this good (who knew a huge art warehouse would be so perfect for blast beats and tremolo picking?), and the crowd — a strange mix of leather-clad biker-looking types, South American metal kids, and tote-bag-sporting hipsters — went nuts. Barney himself meandered through the crowd, looking like a dad that has allowed his kids to drink beer in the basement, and though Bjork was nowhere to be seen, my companion, who has more than a passing resemblance to the Icelandic pixie, received many a double take. Check out Jae Saam’s photostream for some more photos of the evening.

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These very sweet folks from Seattle supported Broken Social Scene on our last American dates of the Spirit IF tour. Although they haven’t quite hit their stride as a live outfit, the tunes from songwriter Grant Olsen have some very lovely moments that fall somewhere between Velvet Underground and The Everly Brothers. I think Arthur and Yu could take over from where Grandaddy left off, though with better songs. No offense to Grandaddy.