Boots and Brews News 4: Music to My Beers

We don’t only love beer and hiking here at Beers at the Bottom--we also love music. Some may already know about our illustrious past as live music reviewers. So our Brews News of the week will hopefully sing you a happy little tune. We’ve written briefly about music and beer for The Session, discussing how good taprooms are becoming a meeting place for communities, and often the perfect venue to feature local music.

Courtesy of Ninkasi Brewing Company

Ninkasi Brewing Company of Eugene, Oregon has taken that a step further: they’ve opened an in-house recording studio! James Book has been the force behind Ninkasi’s support of up-and-coming music acts, coming to the brewery with 20 years of experience in the music industry both touring and recording. The brewery has been helping out artists since 2009, offering not only a venue, but touring and album-pressing assistance. The studio has apparently been in use for awhile, but the press release put out on February 24, is heralding the release of the first compilation record from the brewery.

“Dawn of the Red Compilation EP” will be released in March via the Brewery’s website. The title is in recognition of Ninkasi’s Dawn of the Red India Red Ale becoming a year-round offering. Each artist featured on the compilation had to incorporate the lyric “Dawn of the Red” into an original piece. The representative bands span multiple genres, everything from Vokab Komapny + Kraddy’s “hip-hop recap of a zombie apocalypse” to Tyler Fortier’s Americana tale of “a city on fire.” Most notable for me, was the inclusion of Bellingham band Black Beast Revival. It’s great to see a familiar name attached to such an exciting project. Especially since we did in fact attend the Ninkasi sponsored "Last Band Standing," a few years ago in Bellingham, which Black Beast Revival won! I still have the Ninkasi button to prove it. Part of the prize package was recording time in Ninkasi's studio. 

Polecat in 2011, during our live music photojournalism heyday.

The timing seems to be right for Bellingham bands with brewery ties. Bellingham Darlings Polecat will be celebrating 5 years of boot stompin’ newgrass, with a show this Saturday, February 28th, at Bellingham’s Majestic Ballroom for an all ages show. For many, the first time they saw Polecat was in the beer garden of Boundary Bay during the brewery’s summer show series. Boundary Bay and Kulshan breweries in Bellingham have become low key venues, promoting an overall love of arts: music and beer alike. 

Further Reading:

• Ninkasi Press Release
  
• Polecat’s 5th Anniversary Show
• Black Beast Revival: Bowling with the Beast- What's Up! Magazine (which, we might have written for...)