The Blow is the most exciting and original band ever to emerge from Washington State. Courtesy of The Blow
Good morning. It's Monday, August 17, the first day of the Democratic National Convention, the first day there's a whiff of hope in the air after years of despair. We are celebrating with this three-minute message from the band The Blow.
The Blow is Melissa Dyne and Khaela Maricich. Their cat is named Lefty.
"Last time we were in Seattle, we were standing on the stage of the Vera Project, and we were saying that things were about to get really weird," Khaela says in today's video, to the sound of Melissa jamming.
"We didn't mean us being weird on the stage though it probably felt like that. What we meant was that the foundations felt like they were rotting beneath our feet... and they were cracking and bending, and it was ugly and it felt bad... and we didn't want to be right about that, but we knew that we were..."
A shape-shifting entity, The Blow has taken various forms over time and manifests in an array of media, employing popular music as a vehicle for broader explorations.
Operating between contexts and genres, the duo works with sound recording, performance, installation, writing, and physical media, aiming to address and expand the limitations encountered within each framework.
When The Stranger took over the downtown library for our Stranger Genius Awards party in 2007, The Blow was the headlining act.
The band's self-titled album The Blow, released in 2013, was listed among the top-ten songs of 2013 by New York Times, and was NPR music editor Bob Boilen’s #1 album of that year.
Khaela's published writing includes a brilliant essay she wrote for The Stranger in 2013 about making music in the age of Twitter, called "The Delicate Art of Not Giving a Fuck."
The Blow was first formed in Olympia, Washington. Now they are based in New York City. But Khaela's brother still lives in Seattle, and her mother and father still live on Queen Anne Hill.
Thank you, Khaela and Melissa, for the music and for the message. And thank you, Lefty, for helping.