Good year for bands, bad for clubs

It was a half-and-half year on the Seattle music scene — half sleek planes taking off, half train-wreck.

The good: Local musicians plunged forward into the national scene and other promising young bands emerged around town.

The bad and ugly: Shootings in and around clubs, the sale of the Showbox and sudden closure of the Crocodile made this perhaps the worst year ever for Seattle music venues.

The music

• Brandi Carlile, the willowy young woman from Maple Valley with the dazzling voice, continued her national climb. "The Story," her second major-label album, cracked the Billboard Top 100 and landed her on VH-1 and various TV shows.

• Jesse Sykes' "Life, Love, Lust & the Open Halls of the Soul" wasn't a big seller, but a creative gem. She and Phil Wandscher — her Sweet Hereafter bandleader — blasted out an album filled with diverse music (alt-country, even classic rock) and passion.

• Relatively unknown local rock bands Aiden and Amber Pacific used Internet savvy (read: MySpace pushing) and heavy touring to push into the Billboard Top 100.

• Minus the Bear also landed on the national sales charts, becoming a major indie-rock player with "Planet of Ice."

• Grayskul and Blue Scholars made potent bids to take Seattle hip-hop to the masses. The video to Grayskul's sizzling "Scarecrow" made it to MTV. The Scholars signed to Rawkus Records, which released the creatively juiced "Bayani." MC Geologic and DJ Sabzi capped an already extraordinary year with a five-night stand at Neumo's — showing the unity of this hip-hop scene by filling "The Program" with local acts like Dyme Def and Cancer Rising, and packing the club each night.

• The Shins and Modest Mouse, both Portland-based with tight Seattle connections, powered to the top of the charts. Modest Mouse's "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" made its debut at No. 1, though sales slowed dramatically thereafter (not matching the platinum of its predecessor, "Good News for People Who Love Bad News"). The Shins' low-key gem "Wincing the Night Away" came in at a stunning No. 2.

• Even the despair over the breakup of veterans Pretty Girls Make Graves and Blood Brothers turned to enthusiasm over bands they spawned. PGMG bass player Derek Fudesco and Hint Hint singer Pete Quirk joined forces for Cave Singers, which quickly was snatched up by Matador Records, which released its Americana debut. And Blood Brothers Johnny Whitney and Cody Votolato pushed ahead with the bluesy Jaguar Love.

• Brilliant singer-songwriter Robin Pecknold's Fleet Foxes was at the top of a class of young bands that charged ahead on the local scene in 2007. The quirky pop of Throw Me the Statue, riveting alt-country of Maldives, trip-hoppy Mono in VCF, Sgt. Pepperesque Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, art-garage rockers Das Llamas and Murder City Devils-inspired the Whore Moans showed the diversity and raging talent of this next generation.

• Band of Horses galloped out of town, relocating to South Carolina. Meanwhile, former BOH contributor Mat Brooke launched Grand Archives, a bold throwback to vocal pop that was quickly signed by Sub Pop.

• Blake Lewis went from unknown to "American Idol" runner-up, then tried to reinvent '80s pop with a rushed, lukewarm "Audio Day Dream" debut release.

The clubs

• The Crocodile Cafe, the go-to place for Seattle rock — smoothly making the transition from grunge to indie — and top-shelf touring bands, closed with shocking speed and little explanation. As of this writing, Crocodile founder Stephanie Dorgan was not returning calls to answer: 1) why she closed; and 2) if she will be selling to another owner (who would presumably reopen).

• The Showbox, a bigger, older, classier landmark, also caused panic attacks, with longtime owner Jeff Steichen selling to L.A.-based AEG Live. Steichen and his booking team were to continue running the ripe old Showbox at the Market and brand-new Showbox SoDo, and insisted there would be little change.

• The Fenix, a long-running Goth-metal-dance club, went bankrupt and closed after a short-lived residency at the former Premier. It was taken over by Steichen's Showbox SoDo.

• Bad year for the Goths: The Vogue started the year at the Capitol Hill Arts Center — after being unable to afford rent at its previous home — then closed.

• Hip-hop venues Tabella, Tommy's and Sugar all closed in infamy, after repeated incidents of violence (shootings, mass fights).

• The mayor and the Seattle Police Department seemed to declare unofficial war on nightclubs. The mayor's office pushed for months to require clubs to have special licenses (Seattle City Council put the proposal on hold for a year). In September, a "sting" operation by the SPD had undercover officers using expired licenses as ID and attempting to smuggle guns into targeted bars and clubs; it resulted in the arrest of 17 bouncers, bartenders and other bar employees, and sent a chill through the service industry.

• Bright spots: "Power dives" like the Funhouse, Jules Maes, West Seattle's Skylark Cafe and the Comet (in the process of being sold, as of this writing) became solid alternative spaces to their glitzier counterparts, and helped fuel the rising crop of young bands.

• Also on the up side, the all-ages, city-supported Vera Project successfully opened in its new Seattle Center space.

Tom Scanlon: 206-464-3891 or tscanlon@seattletimes.com