For the Colorado Daily

Music fans of America, the musicians of Seattle implore you: please forget you ever heard the “G word.”

You know the one. We can’t escape it. It haunted us in the ‘90s, evolving from a state of mind, into a musical form, then eventually into a fashion statement. And it continues to lurk in the backs of people’s minds, even rearing it’s head in print occasionally whenever Mudhoney comes to town or Courtney Love decides to release another Nirvana song.

Despite the fact that it’s been almost a decade since Kurt Cobain gave up the ghost, the city of Seattle has remained inextricably linked to one very loosely-defined musical form. But seemingly unbeknownst to much of the entertainment press, the past ten years has seen a wave of disparate musical flowers bloom in the damp environs of the northwest. Besides, no one there is using the “G-word” anymore.

”There is an insanely great scene in Seattle right now,” says Erin Tate, Drummer of the hard-to-define Seattle indie-rock band Minus the Bear, “and it has absolutely nothing to do with grunge.”

Minus the Bear is just one of a veritable flock of interesting bands coming out of the town where A&R reps once lurked like hyennas waiting for their next nibble of platinum-coated carrion. It seems that the death of grunge was not the death of Seattle. No one there really even seemed to notice the stink.

”I think Seattle is one of the best scenes going on right now,” says Tate, rattling off a laundry list of new bands that are popping up all around Seattle like mushrooms out of cow pies after a summer storm. “You can probably find at least a pretty decent show to got to every night here, and everyone sounds completely different. It’s actually pretty insane.”

Not being part of a unified city-wide sound hasn’t hurt the modern wave of Seattle bands at all, according to Tate. The new Seattle sound, he says, is any sound someone chooses to make.

”If you go out to the bar on any given night you’ll see tons of different members from tons of different bands all hanging out together,” says Tate. “Everyone is really supportive and super into each other’s bands.”

If anything defines Minus the Bear, it is that same spirit of acceptance and adventure. The band features members of Seattle bands Botch, Kill Sadie and Sharks Keep Moving, groups that don’t really sound alike. None of the members’ previous bands sound anything at all like Minus the Bear either, a band that blends odd lyrical content with nearly robotic finger-tapped guitars and moody dance-based rhythms.

Tate says the difference in the members’ musical backgrounds is what makes Minus the Bear a successful project.

” It gives you an opportunity to be more diverse than if, say, we were all from the same background,” says Tate. “When we go into the practice room everyone kind of takes in something completely different.”

Working in a situation where differences of opinion are not only accepted but embraced as part of the writing process, says Tate, is actually very productive.

”It’s strange”” he says. “We all work super well together. To be honest there’s really not much as far as disadvantages.”

From a lyrical standpoint, Minus the Bear’s first full-length, “Highly Refined Pirates” (Suicide Squeeze Records) is an odd record to say the least. If the cryptic song titles (ie. “Absinthe party at the fly honey warehouse,” “Monkey!!! Knife!!! Fight!!!,” “I lost my money at the cock fights,” etc.) are meant to surreptitiously peak the interest of listeners, the actual words singer Jake Snider uses to convey his thoughts can only serve to create further confusion. Most of the songs come off sounding more like pages torn from a wealthy, 30-something playboy’s diary, than song lyrics. Tate can offer little in the way of explanation for these bizarre oblations.

”Some of it is about our lives and some of it is definitely not about our lives,” says Tate. “Jake just does his thing.”

Where Minus the Bear’s musical muses come from is anyone’s guess. Lead guitarist Dave Knudson is an ex-member of Botch, which played very aggressive, crunchy hardcore. With Minus the Bear, however, he is displaying a more technical and delicate approach to his instrument. The finger-tapping approach didn’t really fit in with Botch’s music, but after that band split up,

Knudson began honing the technique with Minus the Bear.

The sound Knudson achieved fits well with the band’s dance-inspired rhythm section, says Tate.

”Being the drummer, I try to go for that dancey sound,” says Tate, who names among his influences Daft Punk, Kylie Minogue, N.E.R.D., the Neptunes, Run DMC, A Tribe Called Quest, Biz Markie and De La Soul -- not an indie-rock group in the bunch.

”I don’t know if it comes across in our sound, but we’re really into dance music,” says Tate.

Each night before practicing or playing, Tate says, the group listens to a CD with all the member’s favorite dance songs to get pumped up.

”It inspires us a lot,” says Tate. “It makes it a lot more fun than doing straight rock songs.”