This is the Wall America needs. This is a 50 ft wall of nothing but Snatchee Records show posters at the Wenatchee Museum.
AndyandJas Peart took a dive bar that had once been feared and written off by SOME folks in their community, and turned this carpeted 75 capacity wonder into Central Washington’s own CBGB’s. Soon legendary punk acts, the kind of real National punk acts that really mean it, began playing Wally’s House of Booze. They did so alongside a wonderful crop of local and regional acts that typify Snatchee’s We Can Do It Ourselves spirit.
This is also a Spirit of America (of small town America). At least it can be. This coming together and making art. It’s like a potluck.
“Hey I got a band”
“I got a bar.”
“I’ll bring my PA and run sound.”
“What if we pressed that song on vinyl and folded our own sleeves?”
That’s really Rock & Roll. Arenas and Stadiums are where Rock goes to die. At best gloriously, on top. But the only way is down. But here the music lives because the WAY is sheer will, a Saturday night, some speakers and some songs you can sing along with.
It’s friends united by songs, looking at the numbers, knowing it ain’t really about the money, and doing it anyway.
Because people need shows. The small ones are where American music was born anyway. Ask the ghost of Robert Johnson, who specialized in house parties. A Snatchee show at Wally’s is just a house party with a liquor license. A true house of booze.
Snatchee has certainly brought more people together in the last decade than Wally’s can contain, but what a vessel. What a vision. Like CBGB’s, what oddly good sounding room (the carpets!)
SNATCHEE’S brand of Punk Rock even included The Staxx Brothers for which I am eternally grateful. It was They who put out our 6 minutes opuses ‘Black & Mild’ and ‘Ice Cold’, our sex funk versions of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, with founding member of The Revolution, Matt Fink riding with us on the flip side. The product was a gorgeous big thick black 45 rpm 12 inch, with art by Zac Fawcett, depicting a music video directed by Ryan Cory, both sides sonically sculpted by producer and friend, Justin Armstrong.
That was our filthy little masterpiece. Send that one to space and let’s spike the extraterrestial birth rate.
Let’s populate the Galaxy.
Because Music. Music breaks down walls with bridges. But citizens of Earth, let this wall stand.
Black & Mild:
Davin’s new song has become a global earworm and Caribbean dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN. The video is now available on Youtube.
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com. In the spring of 2018 he spent weeks networking in and reporting from Kingston, Jamaica. He will return there soon for more recording. His single with British band Sherlock Soul is available here.
