When it comes to Seattle, it would be difficult to choose an individual artist who has been consistently hovering over the epicenter of what has defined the music scene in Seattle over the (gulp) almost 40 years. While we had met once before in a social setting, and, obviously came up in the same town surrounded by some of the same musicians, Matt has been such a musical force of nature from the very moment of his arrival in Seattle, and his trajectory ( to match his talent) so awe inspiring, that I certainly took a few deep breaths before pressing “enter” and thus sending him an unsolicited, and what amounts to a cold call of an Instagram email, inviting him to come down to The Moore and have a chat with us. He got back to me the same day and two weeks later, on Monday May 17th, at noon, we started out chat. A few minutes into our talk, we realized we were in a “not” recording studio. Which is our way of conveying that we experienced some technical difficulties that we had, thus far, been fortunate to enough to avoid. But this guest, Matt, on this day, was a confluence that we feel warrants a small bit of leniency on our usual ridged standard of technical brilliance and excellence. We wanted to make sure you all had a chance to hear every word that was shared. So we present this episode, flaws and all, with the utmost respect for the process, but even more so, for the content. Lastly it would be dishonest to not, at the very least, call to light, the enormity of the day Matt agreed to meet with us. Soundgarden played their last show on May 17th 2017. Somehow, this fact escaped me up until a very obvious point, in the final moments of our talk. For the life of me, I can’t decide if my ignorance was a positive or not. I don’t know what or how I would have been different having that conversation with that knowledge in the forefront of my mind. I’m a guy who tends to go in. If someone wants to go deep, I’m your guy. I just hope my failure to recognize how much must have been going on with Matt isn’t too glaring, after the fact. In hindsight, I hope our little dog and pony show was able to provide a necessary for Matt on this day. At worst as a temporary, get out of the house distraction on a day you would just as not be reminded of. At best, spending part of the remembering and sharing, some of your singular experiences conjuring music’s magical forces with one of the most magical to ever stand at the front of a stage.

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Greg Gilmore is a Seattle musician. Greg's first Seattle band was called The Living, turns our they're about to finally be a big deal around here. There is a long lost recording being released on vinyl thanks to Loosegroove Records later this month. Greg would also go on to play in Ten Minute Warning and MotherLoverBone. He stopped by to the Moore Theatre talk to us about his recollections of what the music scene was like in Seattle at the end of the 70's, early 80's and into the 90's. Geoff and Steve have both known Greg for more than twenty years, but, rarely is it the time or place, out in bars or at clubs (or even on ferries) to speak about true experiences and perspectives. At two hours into our conversation, Greg said he was just getting warmed up... and we couldn't have been happier to oblige. Hope you enjoy!

On April 16th Regan Hagar and Stone Gossard, atop their newly rebooted Loosegroove records will offer, for your listening pleasure, the long lost recordings of The Living. A band that played around the NW for about a year in 1982 before it went the way of most bands. It morphed, into something else. Luckily, in that year, the boys would go up to American Music in Fremont WA and lay to tape, what they'd been up to. Had it come out then, that recording would have been the first time the "world" would hear Greg Gilmore on drums, and, at a salty 17 years old, Duff Mckagan, making his debut as an absolute monster of a creative driving force. Seattle Today was lucky enough to have, both Greg, and then Duff come to The Moore Theatre to talk with us about that period in their lives. We were also blessed with a visit from the Mighty Blaine Cook, who would be the singer in the band that both Greg and Duff would follow up The Living with, Ten Minute Warning.

Purchase the Living - 1982 at https://orcd.co/theliving1982