(ON TOP) This has been a cool week. HYPE! came to real life. I mixed 10 S>U>B>P<O<P artists in three locations, including Mudhoney, Sera Cahoone and Grant Olsen on the very top of the Space Needle. I also met the Godfather of Grunge, Jack Endino, up there.

Even the Sub Pop Mega Mart came back. When I spotted it in Georgetown on Friday, I had this memory from being in high school in Montana. I'm talking 1997. I used to send my friends who were visiting Seattle on a specific mission to the Mega Mart to pick me up CD's. One of my all-time favorites was Hype! The Motion Picture Soundtrack. They did proper multi-track live recordings of the shows featured in the movie and they sounded perfect.

Even though I've pledged my Seattle allegiance to B>A>R>S>U>K for many years, I gotta hand it to the Sub Pop folks for their "world domination" mentality -- and for being super great to work with in the process.