KEXP Suggests: SODA POP Super Sugar Big Buzz at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery

Heading down to Georgetown today for the FREE, all-ages Sub Pop Silver Jubilee? Yes, of course you are, we all are. But you might want to consider heading over earlier in the day to check out some of the literary and art events happening at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery.

Curated by local legend Larry Reid and Sub Pop co-founder Bruce Pavitt, the exhibit SODA POP: Super Sugar Big Buzz focuses on the formative years of Sub Pop as a hand-crafted zine, cassette label, and column in Seattle music monthly The Rocket. The exhibit will feature artifacts by artists Lynda Barry, Peter Bagge, Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, Owen Connell, Charles Peterson, Art Spiegelman, Jim Woodring, and more.

(If you lived in Seattle "back in the day," you might recognize the name "SODA POP Super Sugar Big Buzz" from a 1989 concert at the Center on Contemporary Art during Reid’s tenure as director of that organization. The line-up included seminal bands like Nirvana, Mudhoney, Dwarves, GWAR, Supersuckers, Tad, Cat Butt, and Dickless.)

But there's more than just the art exhibit: at 1:00 PM, Fantagraphics will host the panel discussion "Pop Goes Seattle," with Pavitt, cartoonist Peter Bagge, photographer Charles Peterson, and author Danny Bland (formerly of the aforementioned band, Cat Butt). Reid will moderate the chat as they talk about the formative period of the Sub Pop phenomenon.

Then at 2:00 PM, Danny Bland and Greg Dulli of Afghan Whigs will read from Bland's debut novel, In Case We Die, a "love" story, of sorts, set in grunge-era Seattle. (You can also catch Dulli performing later that day at 6:30 PM on the Pop Stage at S. Vale Street.)

And, after the talks, you can stop by All-City Coffee, next door to the Fantagraphics Bookstore, for the exhibit CP25/SP25: Charles Peterson Presents Twenty Five Photographs from the Vaults in Celebration of Sub Pop's Twenty Fifth. The show is a look at some of the key players of Sub Pop's early years, and, as the show title implies, many of the photographs have never been shown or published before!

(The Mudhoney photo above was taken during the infamous 1989 "SODA POP Super Sugar Big Buzz" concert at COCA. If you look closely, you can see a "SODA POP" sticker on someone's baseball cap. And, yes, that is sugar being thrown on the audience!)

So, if you need a break from the bands, stop by the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, located at 1201 S. Vale Street, at the intersection of Airport Way and Vale. Both exhibits will be on display through August 7th.