The Yakima Connection

(Photo: Divided Sky opening for Sweetwater Dec. 9, 1993 at Colours in Yakima.)

It began with a mangled three-song demo tape. A rat’s nest of unraveled tape, Yakima music promoter Scott Abrhams decided to put the cassette back together. Inexplicably, he succeeded and liked what he heard. Abrhams called the phone number on the tape and invited Divided Sky down to Yakima to headline a five-band bill in March 1993 at D.A.V. Hall. The show was dubbed “A Tribute to Sleaze.”

This was the sort of “break” we had been hoping for when we produced the demo, which was recorded in a sound engineer’s loft in Seattle. We saw the engineer a few months later when he was working the sound board at the fabled Off Ramp. There are three things I remember about that recording session in the winter of 1992. One, we had no idea what we were doing and the music we recorded was sketchy at best – except for the song “Nothing” which we still play today. Two, it was freezing cold inside this dude’s loft, probably because, Three, he had the biggest pot plant I’d ever seen and all the electricity in the place was focused on keeping that thing warm.

How the tape made its way to Yakima and in the hands of a music promoter is a mystery and we didn’t ask too many questions before loading up Jeff’s Jeep and made the 30-minute trip south. The one question we probably should have asked, however, was if everyone had packed their instruments. As we rolled into Yakima we realized Jeff had forgotten his guitar. We still had a couple hours before show time, so Jeff was able to drive back to Ellensburg to retrieve it. I don’t remember much about that show, but I do remember that we played well enough to impress the locals and ink an indie record deal for the newly formed Ritual Records that eventually dissolved before we could record a note. But the gig opened some doors and led to more shows in Yakima.

Eventually, we’d play as many or more shows in Yakima than in Ellensburg. A majority of them were at Colours, an over-21 club that catered to the burgeoning music scene in Yakima. Many of the Seattle-scene bands would make the trek over or make it a tour stop, but mainly you’d see Yakima bands like Phallacy or Brown or Thane Phelan who also managed a record store called Music Station. A lot of the CDs that were produced by these bands were recorded at Hearing Hole Studio, owned by Phallacy guitarist Willie Hoffee. And you could every so often catch songs by these bands on KATS 107 FM. Even mainstream media like The Yakima Herald promoted our little scene. The all-ages shows were best, though. There was a community of kids under 21, who really had an appetite for live music and probably had little else to do in Yakima. There had to be a thousand of them at the Love Battery show at the Selah Civic Center, where we were lucky enough to have opened. You can see some of the fliers from the bigger shows here.

It was big fish in a small pond syndrome for sure, but we never enjoyed the kind of success we had in Yakima and Ellensburg when we eventually relocated the operation to Seattle. In the early to mid-‘90s, there were too many bands and too many venues in the Seattle area and surrounding burgs. It seemed like every restaurant or bar in the area all of sudden catered to live music. The problem was there wasn’t an audience for it. I mean, how many people want to listen to blaring rock music while their trying to eat their dinner on a Tuesday night?

While Yakima was a far cry from what was happening west of the mountains, it was still a vibrant little scene with some real talented musicians and music lovers propping it up. Thank you Yakima and good night.

Cheers, Dan

(Photos: Second from top, Matt and Jeff at the first Yakima show at D.A.V. Hall March 13, 1993. Above, Teague and Matt May 16, 1993 opening for a gaggle of bands including My Name and The Melvins at the Yakima County Fairgrounds.)

Divided Leppard

I’m not ashamed to admit that when I was in 5th Grade my favorite band was Def Leppard. I wanted to be drummer Rick Allen in the worst way, Union Jack shorts and all. Well, right up until the point when he crashed his car and lost his left arm. That would have sucked. Some years ago the band also lost their guitar player to alcoholism.

To say they’ve been snake bitten over the years is a bit of an understatement. However, they’re still rockin’ the county fair circuit and showing up on VH1, which is where I caught them the other night. Nobody has lost limb or died yet, but the last few weeks for Divided Sky have been a little more Def Leppard-ish for my liking.

Our first rehearsal with all four members about a month ago was cut short when Jeff got food poisoning. Then Matt was bed-ridden with the flu and missed our first trip back to Ellensburg last weekend. Teague was in town a couple days ago and we were able to get through the set list, but Matt still looked like hammered shit. He performed admirably all things considered.

Setbacks and obstacles aside, it’s still coming together nicely and everyone is on the mend. We’ll be back in Ellensburg in a couple weeks to rehearse again, but here’s a little video (below) from a couple weeks ago when we were their last.

Cheers,
Dan

Great place, doesn’t smell like piss

(Photos: Divided Sky at Adeline's in Ellensburg, circa 1993)

In less than 60 days, we’ll be taking the stage. And a few days ago I met Matt at the venue where we’ll give this thing one more try.

The Jet in Mill Creek isn’t like many of the places where we’ve performed in the past. My first thought was, “Wow, great place … and it doesn’t smell like piss.” No, it was much, much nicer than most venues. Great stage, sound system, staff, bar, food – very impressive.

So, I sat there at the bar with Matt and thought about all the absolute dumps we used to gig at. I won’t name, names on the off chance one of the owners reads this and we some day need a favor, but there were some bars that broke nearly every health code on record. And I think we even played a barn once or twice.

However, back in the early ‘90s, it was sort of a badge of honor to land a gig at some of these places. The old Off Ramp comes to mind. You probably wouldn’t eat a bag of chips in that place, but you’d play the first set on a Tuesday night bill without thinking twice about it. And we did. All the legendary Seattle bands got their start there and it was featured in the movie “Singles.”

I think if you asked any of the guys, they’d tell you we had two favorite clubs. One was Colours in Yakima (spelled with a “U” so you know it’s classy). We got connected with Colours and Isaac, who managed the place, through Yakima promoter Scott Abrhams. It was the site of many blurry sessions, but some really great ones as well. We got to open for some pretty big acts, like Sweetwater, and it led to playing some bigger venues in the area and opening for bands like The Melvins and Love Battery.

And then there was Adeline’s in Ellensburg – which I believe is now a hair salon. We must have played Adeline’s 200 times and were about as close to a house band as you could get. When we first started gigging there, we didn’t even have enough songs. So we’d play a set, take a break, have a few cocktails in the Blue Room (a back room of the bar that wasn’t blue), and then go play the set again. Nobody seemed to care. The college kids who packed the place on the weekends either liked the songs enough to hear them again, or were so bombed on $1 Jager shots that anything with heavy guitars and a beat sounded good.

I’d like to think it was a little of both.

Cheers, Dan

Keep on keepin’ on

(Photos: Dan and Teague, pictured below, during a recent rehearsal in Everett)

“I think we’re the hardest working band in this place,” Matt said as we sat in lonely silence. Not a note could be heard from the neighboring rehearsal spaces in our little complex in Everett as we paused for a moment while practicing our set list for the January 30 gig.

So are we or does it really matter? It doesn’t matter, but for the past few weeks I can attest that it really feels like it. It’s a priority for the band that we plug in and not sound like we’ve been on hiatus for 15 years. So, to get there, we’ve embarked on a rather ambitious rehearsal schedule, which any one of our family members can unfortunately confirm.

Teague left Ellensburg and made his first trip over to this side of the mountains for an all-day music marathon a couple weeks ago. Jeff, Matt and I will return to Ellensburg on Dec. 12 to do an old-school session where it all began. The session was weird and great. We had talked about it for so long, I don’t think anyone really knew what to do when we set up our gear and got ready to play. To slice through the awkward nervous energy, someone said something to the effect of, “So, should we have a group hug or something.”

We’re farther along musically than we thought we’d be at this point and Jan. 30 seems simultaneously close and distant. We can’t wait to play, but at the same time take advantage of every week of preparation we can. It’s not something we’ve discussed much, but there sure is a lot of time, money and effort invested for one gig. Seems hard to imagine working this much for one night and walking away, but we’ll see how it goes.

Cheers, Dan

Oh yeah, I remember that ...

(Photos: Above: Matt, Jeff and Dan at Victor's in Seattle, 1993. Below: An all-ages show in Yakima the same year.

Jeff brought in a shoebox full of photos the other night for us to look through before rehearsal. It was basically a photo history of nearly every show and a number of our rehearsals and after hours parties of which we played.


It was completely jarring. We were kids and half of the band wasn’t old enough to hang out in the clubs where we performed. Teague and I spent many nights sitting in a van parked in some alley, just waiting for someone to come by and tell us it was time to play.

And there were a ton of images from the countless shows we played at Adeline’s, the SUB Ballroom or a friend’s house in Ellensburg. The Adeline’s pictures are great because they serve as photo evidence for most people since they don’t remember being there. The $1 pitchers of beer and Jager shots were the primary cause for most of the memory loss issues.

We’ll be posting them to our blog and our Facebook page throughout the weeks leading up to the great big show on Jan. 30. If you have any personal shots that you took during one of our gigs, we encourage you to post them to our Facebook page.

Cheers, Dan

Photos and flops

The reality of the reunion show has set in and the long grind toward becoming ready for a live show has taken its first whack at us. We’ve committed to rehearsing twice a week to get ready for the show on Jan. 30 at The Jet in Mill Creek and last night’s practice was, in a word, brutal.

Maybe the initial adrenaline of getting back together has dissipated or maybe it was just because there weren’t any of our friends sitting in to listen. Or maybe it was just one of those off nights that bands have from time to time. Whatever it was, it sucked.

On a happier note, Mike Hendricks came by and took some shots of us as we slogged through rehearsal Saturday. That’s one of them on the right and above. You can find other photos on our Facebook page. He’s got a good eye, so check him out.

Second notes

In typical attention-deficit-disorder, scatter-shot fashion for this band, we put aside rehearsing our older material for a little while Wednesday night to work on some new songs. I think we’re all excited about writing some new stuff even though we got into this for just the one show. Getting back into a room together, it’s hard not to just slip into old habits and writing is one of those. I imagine there’s years of material that we’ve all been developing. So, I guess now is the time to see if any of it works.

Wednesday was just the second time we’ve gotten together, and we still haven’t got Teague involved yet, but things seem to be snow balling a little bit. Teague will be rolling into town soon and his bass parts have been missed. It’s really the foundation and we're excited to bring him back into the fold. In any case, it’s been a blast and we’re encouraged by how quickly the songs are coming back to us.

It really helps that there are a number of friends and fans of the band who are all geeked about seeing one more show. The support, memories and stories from the glory days have been awesome to relive. The fact that our little outfit produced more than a few “remember when …” tales is really humbling. Even if they begin with "Remember when I puked on ..." So, thanks for sharing.

See you January 30, 2010.

First steps

Saturday was a bit of a milestone for us as Jeff, Matt and I set up our gear and began rehearsing for the first time in nearly 15 years. Notably absent was Teague, but he has a good excuse being a couple hours away. I think our expectations were low, but we were pretty surprised at how fast we were able to get back on the same page. It sounds like Teague will be able to join us next month, so it’ll really be interesting to see how far from performance ready we might be.

It’s funny how age and life kicking you in the teeth a few dozen times will mellow out some of the more volatile aspects of each person’s personality. Some of us have gone through some really dark times. There’s way more encouragement going on than there was 15 years ago. Most of us are parents now, so I think that has something to do with it, too. Before, we’d most likely just get drunk, hurl a couple of FU’s and stomp off into the ether. But mainly I think we’re just happy to be playing music again. Good stuff. Group hug.

Anyway, here are some the songs we ran through with varying degrees of success: So Ends Fire, Fleck of Gold, Brighter Side of Evil, Nothing, Jenny Muse and Swept Away. We plan on playing those tunes and some others, but you’ll have to come to the show Jan. 30, 2010 to find out for sure.

Cheers, Dan

Lots of blisters

The band has been hard at work trying to get their chops back. We've been practicing individually for the last couple weeks and will be getting together as a group, minus Teague, on Saturday to plug in. Of all the members, Teague is the only one who doesn't live in the Seattle area, so his local participation will be occasional.

When we decided to do this, I think we all thought November would give us enough time to get things together. We were wrong. After ripping through the songs we plan on playing, it's going to take us the full three months to get up to speed. Nobody, particularly those who plan on coming to the show Jan. 30 at The Jet in Mill Creek, want to see a bunch of dudes in their 30s who can't play together very well. Plus, it's going to take that long just for the blisters to heal.

Locally, I've noticed that there has been a renaissances of 90s rock with a number of bands of varying popularity getting back together to do reunion shows and tours. I ran across this article about local band Sunny Day Real Estate, which I found interesting. They were one of my favorites and their internal issues where similar to ours and probably any bands'. Of course, we didn't sell thousands of records and none of us went on to play with the Foo Fighters, but I suppose every band's last days follow a similar trajectory. Watch a couple VH1's "Behind the Music" shows and you'll quickly come to that conclussion.

Playing loud

It looks as if we've got many of the small details out of the way. You know, like making sure we have instruments that work and a place to rehearse. Within the next week we'll be getting together to plug in, turn it up to 11 and play some rock 'n roll music now that we have a full-fledged practice space. Matt's brother's band Vester, has been gracious enough to let us share a room with them. Thanks guys!

Since we decided to do this, we've really be relegated to practicing on the acoustic guitars or playing the drums just quiet enough not to piss off the neighbors. It's really not the same. James Taylor makes some nice music and everything, but sometimes you just want to let your freak flag fly. Wait, I think Crosby, Stills and Nash wrote that phrase. Nevermind. We just want to play loud.

Old stuff from the box-o-crap

One of the more interesting things about this exercise in band reunion is sifting through the box-o-crap filled with old band stuff that I’ve been moving around with me for the better part of two decades. Tapes, CDs and ticket stubs bring to light just how long it has been.

About 18 years have gone by since we first starting playing together and it’s documented through a lot of the flyers and junk I’ve kept throughout that time. I’ve posted a few of them here. And by the way, the flyers that are created these days make these look like cave drawing. Yikes.

The Melvins show was particularly funny/embarrassing/sad since there were maybe two dozen people who showed up to the show that would have seated at least 1,000 concert goers at the fairgrounds. I’m pretty sure the musicians outnumbered the festival crowd.


The Love Battery and Sweet Water gigs that we were fortunate to be a part of were some of the best. Lots of people turned out for both shows and the sets were pretty great. Getting to knock back a bunch of beers with Love Battery’s Jason Finn (who now plays for the Presidents) while being a total star-struck dork and asking him a million questions was a highlight for me. A very gracious guy by all accounts.

Anyway, we’ll share some more stuff from the box-o-crap as it gets dusted off. If you have photos or stories from back in the day, pass them along.

Cheers, Dan

Date is set: January 30th

That’s the date we’re working toward. It looks like we’ll be opening for Rane Stone, a really talented musician and friend of Matt’s at The Jet in Mill Creek. Mark your calendar, or BlackBerry or whatever you kids are into these days and come out to see a good show.

There’s a better than even chance that we’ll try to put together a small tune-up gig before then, so stay tuned.

Why?

It’s an inevitability that someone will be asking, “Why are you doing this.” Then again, maybe nobody will, but I’ll try to answer it anyway. In fact, I’ll answer it in the most annoying way that one could answer a question. With another question.

Why do people go to rock n’ roll shows? I’m positive there are music dicks out there who go to judge and scoff. They get off on it and that’s fine. But I think most people go to have fun. Have a couple a drinks, forget about the dog shit week they may have had at the office and listen to people who enjoy making music. Pretty simple.

So, there’s your answer – gonna have some fun with it. We were pretty much double dog dared by a longtime friend of the band Shane Cline who plays for a group named Vester. His band opened for Rane Stone Friday night and Jeff, Matt and myself went to go check them out. We also ran into a lot of people at the gig who seemed to know more than we did about our soon to be Divided Sky 2.0 show, which was very cool. It was overwhelming to see the support and offers of assistance to help us get off the mat and make this thing a reality. It’s nice to know that when the show actually happens there will be more people in attendance than just the wives and girlfriends.

Cheers, Dan
(Photo: Matt is running through chords and words with Jeff for "So Ends Fire" Friday night.)

Logistical nightmares

When you haven't played together in a long, long ... long time, there are a number of logistics that need to be figured out. There's the gear, rehearsal space, time to rehearse, etc. While all that is getting hammered out, life goes on and the bills have to be paid.

Case in point, I met up with Matt tonight to go over a few things while we was doing some engineering work for a death metal band at his home studio. So, between click tracks and bass drum arrangements, we got in a few words. Mostly, it was just me talking to the back of Matt's head (pictured). We haven't had much contact with one another in many years, but we're all slipping back into our old roles. Me talking and everyone nodding while they pretend to listen. The good news is we've got a line on some new gear, rehearsal space is pretty much locked up and now we just need to figure out if we can all come together as a band and produce.

We're still gathering some dates for when this show might take place and we'll keep you posted. In the meantime, buy a t-shirt or something.

Cheers, Dan

One more time...

This is the story of a rock band that formed in 1992 and gathered a small, but loyal following. The Ellensburg, Wash.-based group disbanded a few years later, after recording two albums of music and performing dozens of shows throughout the Northwest. After nearly 15 years apart, and a little prodding from fans, Divided Sky is reuniting for one last show this fall.

This blog will bring you along every step of the way as the guys struggle to make the show a reality after not even being in the same room together in more than a decade. Part “This is Spinal Tap” and part “This is Your Life,” you’ll learn what the members of Divided Sky have been up to and where this project is taking them.