Rust Never Sleeps

Lively Local Labels
Sub Pop remains king, but Barsuk and Suicide Squeeze are emergent while Light In the Attic has become one of the nation’s finest treasure troves of historical sounds.

Underground hip-hop
National attention has fallen on The Program, a hip-hop showcase hosted by Seattle backpackers Blue Scholars (and featuring their alter egos, Common Market) that sold out Neumo’s, a hot local venue, for five nights running.

Indie thrivers and survivors
New bands such as Grand Archives, The Blakes and Minus the Bear; clubland stalwarts Neumo’s, Chop Suey and High Dive; the indomitable Sonic Boom Records; influential KEXP morning-show host John Richards; the Vera Project (a youth music/arts center that recently raised $1.5 million for permanent digs and counts 17,000 kids as participants) and ThreeImaginaryGirls.com (the city’s self-proclaimed “sparkly indie-pop press”) are all reminders of Seattle’s time-honored ability to reinvent itself.