To say that WIDOWSPEAK is a Northwest band is to tell a halftruth. After all they formed in a Brooklyn apartment thousands of miles to the east, and their guitarist has never even seen the Pacific Ocean. There are aspects of the band's sound-abrasive guitar hooks, immediate drumming, and incessant codas-that speak to living in a big city. But there's also a dreary sparseness, a David Lynch-esque darkness, culled from the other members' native Washington. Singer/songwriter Molly Hamilton grew up in an old house in Tacoma, drummer Michael Stasiak in nearby Lakewood. While grunge put Seattle on the map and Riot Grrl and the DIY aesthetic are synonymous with Olympia, Tacoma remains grittier, darker even. Infamous for the acrid smell of its paper mills, ... read more