[Pinned post from November 2023]
In between my work as Production Manager at KEXP, the occasional recording project and being a dad, I’ve been working on a project chronicling recording studios of the Northwest called HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT.
You can hear my interview with Emily Fox on KEXP’s Sound & Vision podcast here:
The Hear Me Shimmer SODO era ended yesterday February 28, 2025. Until Volume 3 of “Hiding In Plain Sight” is published, enjoy this:
Despite its three stories, it’s easy to miss this battered building along First Avenue South in SODO. Standing just two blocks from the front gates to T-Mobile Park, its front sidewalk sees a stream of fans on game days and desolate nights in the winter. Like the neighborhood, there’s more than a few rough edges on the Jukebox City Building. And why shouldn’t there be, it’s lived 108 years and survived 2 earthquakes on the Seattle tide lands just east of the Port of Seattle.
The building’s connection to Seattle music didn’t start with Hear Me Shimmer – far from it. While the main floor has housed restaurants, clubs, pot shops and antique dealers - the rickety third floor has small artist studios. The largest space [2], in the northwest corner with windows facing the stadiums and First Avenue, was once a painter’s studio. It was here, on July 15, 1993, where NIRVANA gathered to rehearse with new band members, cellist Lori Goldstein and guitarist John Duncan, to flesh out new song arrangements. Just four months later, the band recorded their iconic MTV Unplugged Performance
King County’s Property Record photograph from 1937 features the building as Seattle Wrecking Co. [3] What is now the main entrance to the club space, was once a ramp for cars to pull in for service. The basement, with enormous timber beams and shiplap ceilings overhead, once housed a lunch room cafeteria, serving workers in the area once known as Machinary Row. Just two blocks away, in what is now Starbucks world headquarters, was once the West Coast Distribution Center for Sears. Orders from the Sears Catalog (the Amazon of its day) shipped from this location.
In 1992, the building was purchased by the Bennett family who opened Jukebox City [4], who repaired and sold jukeboxes, coin-op games, signage and all things vintage.
Between 2001 and 2007, the basement space was occupied by Duncan & Sons [5], an old-world saddlery which was founded in 1898 in Pioneer Square. Besides being a destination for handcrafted cowboy boots and hats, it’s leather-master, Larry Duncan was often utilized by his neighbors, the Seattle Mariners, for emergency baseball glove repairs. When I moved to the building in 2011, their hand-painted signage [6] was still on my entry door.
In 2011, I rented a 925 sq-foot space in the basement and a new Hear Me Shimmer was born. My good pal, Scott Freeman [7-8], was instrumental in helping me build out. The cedar cladding on the back wall was a demo’d fence that we cleaned up and ran through a planer. The day we installed power, I had my first session with Police Teeth.
Between touring work with Death Cab and before taking a full-time position at KEXP in 2016, I got to record a couple dozen records, including many with my closest friends. HMS has been the rehearsal spot for BOAT, Unlikely Friends, Tullycraft and many others. Mark Palm (Supercrush) and Phil Jones (Supercrush, Shook Ones) shared the space with me in recent years.
The challenges I faced here gave me a first-hand look at just how hard it is to be a studio owner in Seattle. Just a short time after signing a lease and investing into a build-out and power upgrades, my landlord backtracked on the hours the studio could operate. From that time on, I operated in various states of triage. Tennants above me (pot shops, night clubs, Smash Putt golf, etc) came and went – each time shifting usable time. The Covid and post-pandemic era has been hard on the building and SODO, in general. Three years ago, the building caught fire and the sprinkler system throughout the building was activated. Despite water pooling close to the studio door, HMS was unscathed. This past summer a man was killed behind the building after leaving a concert in the club space. On January 7th, we learned that the building had been sold to the City of Seattle to be used as a Sobering Space.
All that said, having a band clubhouse in the heart of the city, two blocks from the stadium, has been a dream come true. Collaborating with so many friends on records and providing a cool space for pals makes me feel proud.
For now,
Jackson