Kill Rock Stars is an independent record label founded in 1991 by Slim Moon and Tinuviel Sampson, and based in both Olympia, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The label has released a variety of work in different genres, but was originally known for its commitment to underground punk rock bands and the Olympia area music scene.
Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and most populous city of Thurston County. It is 60 miles (100 km) southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region.
The U.S. state of Washington has been home to many popular musicians and several major hotbeds of musical innovation throughout its history. The largest city in the state, Seattle, is known for being the birthplace of grunge as well as a major contributor to the evolution of punk rock, indie music, folk, and hip hop. Nearby Tacoma and Olympia have also been centers of influence on popular music.
Tobi Celeste Vail is an American independent musician, music critic and feminist activist from Olympia, Washington. She was a central figure in the riot grrl scene—she coined the spelling of "grrl"—and she started the zine Jigsaw. A drummer, guitarist and singer, she was a founding member of the band Bikini Kill. Vail has collaborated in several other bands figuring in the Olympia music scene. Vail writes for eMusic.
Drone metal or drone doom is a style of heavy metal that melds the slow tempos and heaviness of doom metal with the long-duration tones of drone music. Drone metal is sometimes associated with post-metal or experimental metal.
Apple O' is the fifth studio album by the indie rock band Deerhoof. It was released in 2003 on Kill Rock Stars and 5 Rue Christine, an offshoot of Kill Rock Stars. The album is the group's first with guitarist Chris Cohen.
An independent music scene is a localized independent music-oriented community of bands and their audiences. Local scenes can play a key role in musical history and lead to the development of influential genres; for example, no wave from New York City, Madchester from Manchester, and grunge from Seattle.
Radio Sloan is a musician from Olympia, Washington.
Yellow Swans are an American experimental music band from Portland, Oregon. The duo were renowned for their improvisational approach to noise music, creating a unique experience for each live performance. They described their music as "a constantly evolving mass of psychedelic noise that is both physically arresting and psychically liberating". The band consisted of Pete Swanson and Gabriel Mindel Saloman. The band announced their split in April 2008. A live show by Yellow Swans at the festival Oblivion Access was announced in 2023.
Lackthereof is the solo project of Danny Seim, a founding member of the Portland, Oregon-based band Menomena.
The Olympia Experimental Music Festival, also known for a time as The Olympia Festival of Experimental Musics, has been produced annually in Olympia, Washington since 1995. Organizers have included festival founder L. Jim McAdams, Arrington de Dionyso, Aerick Duckhugger, and Domenica Clark. During de Dionyso's tenure as chief organizer the festival was primarily known by the alternate name The Olympia Festival of Experimental Musics.
Dr. Portia Sabin is President of the Music Business Association, a not-for-profit trade association that seeks to promote sustained financial growth and bolster inclusion & equity efforts in all areas of the global music business. Sabin previously served as president of the independent record label Kill Rock Stars, and has been involved in the leadership of music industry associations American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) and World Independent Network (WIN).
METZ is a Canadian punk rock band formed in 2007 in Ottawa, and currently based in Toronto. The band consists of guitarist and vocalist Alex Edkins, bassist Chris Slorach and drummer Hayden Menzies. In an interview with Austin, Texas zine The Cosmic Clash, Edkins has labeled METZ's style as punk rock, "at the core."
Clipping is an American experimental hip hop group from Los Angeles, California. The group consists of rapper Daveed Diggs and producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes.
Natalie Laura Mering, known professionally as Weyes Blood, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She was primarily raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She has been performing her own material under variations of the name Weyes Blood since 2003.
Patrick Driscoll, known professionally as Blank Banshee, is a Canadian artist, musician and producer from Saint John, New Brunswick. He rose to popularity in 2012 with his album Blank Banshee 0, which combined traditional elements of vaporwave with trap music, a style now known as vaportrap. Blank Banshee's music has been described as a "balance of abstract ambience and dance-able trap".
Katherine Paul is a Swinomish/Iñupiaq singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Portland, Oregon. Her music is influenced by post-rock, alternative rock, and Native American traditional music. She has released an EP and two albums under the moniker Black Belt Eagle Scout. Her self-titled EP as Black Belt Eagle Scout was released in June 2014. Her debut studio album, Mother of My Children, was first released by Portland tape label Good Cheer Records in 2017, then re-released in September 2018 by Saddle Creek Records. On April 26, 2019, Saddle Creek released a new Black Belt Eagle Scout single titled "Loss & Relax" on a seven-inch vinyl backed with b-side track titled "Half Colored Hair”.
Nicholas William Gross is an American entrepreneur, musician and founder of the Find Your Grind education platform. Gross founded the band girlfriends together with Travis Mills in 2020. He is also a member of Goldfinger.
