"OK, so either Soundgarden or Alice in Chains"

[March 8th, 2006] "OK, so either Soundgarden or Alice in Chains," says my passenger when he gets in. "Nope," I respond, "but you're in the ballpark—it's the former singer from the Screaming Trees." He gets excited. "Oh cool, is this the album he did with the girl from Belle and Sebastian?"

Now I'm excited—he's actually heard about this?! "No, that's not out yet. This is from 1993, it's called Whiskey for the Holy Ghost." Which I personally think is one of the all-time great album titles. "I heard something from that new one on the radio in Seattle the other day, so I wondered if this was it," he says. I tell him Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell's upcoming Ballad of the Broken Seas has been getting killer reviews, and compared to the Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra albums of old. "God, I miss the '90s," he says. "I was going to school in Eugene, seeing all these great bands."

"I sort of do, too, I had just moved to Portland, and couldn't believe how many great local bands there were." I left a vibrant East Coast music scene and expected to miss it terribly when I came here, only to find one that was totally different but just as involving. We talk about that, about being involved, about feeling like we were witness to something special, as all the aesthetics and values we cared about suddenly took over the world. Prior to them being watered down and used to sell deodorant, of course. So much for nostalgia.