The Riffbrokers and Unsmashable Records Celebrate 10 Years on Saturday 11/7

Nick and Heather Millward formed the Unsmashable Riffbrokers in Boise, Idaho in the fall of 1999. A few years after relocating to Seattle, they dropped the first half of the name and used it to launch their own record label. The label became a DIY vehicle for a close circle of musician friends to release their own albums. Under the banner of Unsmashable Records, The Riffbrokers have self-released four of their own albums. In 2006 they contributed a song to a Buffalo Springfield tribute compilation on Not Lame Records. In the first half of the '00s, The Riffbrokers toured the western states regularly, and even pulled off one haphazard cross country trip.

Nick Millward's songwriting is heavily influenced by Bob Dylan, The Byrds, and John Prine. The band's sound remains a blend of Americana twang with powerpop guitar and growling vocals.
The Riffbrokers will celebrate their ten years as a band by inviting friends onstage to perform their favorite Riffbroker songs. Friends include Michael Dean Damron, 50 Grit, The Tripwires, Young Sportsmen, Crown Aruba, The I Love Myselfs, Paul Lynde Fan Club, Radio Nationals, North Twin.

I joined Julie and Jennifer and friends on The Menage on KKNW radio Wednesday to chat about the Saturday show and talk a bit about Skylark. We ramble aimlessly in true morning-radio-style about the hotness of the Skylark staff, the ladder in the basement that goes into the bowels of hell, microphone technique, orgasm-titled drink specials, and other miscellany. Take a listen. (I join them about a third of the way through the clip.)

~Jessie SK

Skylark's blog now lives here.

Our blog used to be on myspace, but that had its limitations. You had to have a myspace account to view it, and it didn't like Macs much. So from now on, I'll be posting here.

Within the next few months we'll be launching a new and improved skylarkcafe.com website that has a link to this blog or wraps it, I'm not yet sure which. I've started making the twitter-type updates via hellotxt.com--a nifty site that allows you to update all your social networks at once.

Here's how I'm thinking about all these social networks: The new website will have your run-of-the-mill written-in-third-person marketing copy, your hours of operation, your events calendar. Twitter, myspace and facebook updates will be informal up-to-the-minute info about show cancellations, drink specials, snowstorm closures, etc. Pretty much as you'd expect.

But this blog will be different than the myspace blog. If you've read the myspace blog, it's basically Skylark press releases, which are fascinating, but I think it can be--and should be--more. For example, I am lucky to have a music journalist on staff (Jessica Harbert, who writes for Seattle Sound magazine as well as slinging brunch here on weekends). I think I can convince her to write some posts. Maybe I can get Charlie and Matt to write some posts about doing sound. And I have plenty of thoughts about booking, running a rock club, Seattle nightlife, and life...which may or may not interest anyone. We shall see.

Jessie SK