Mosh pit at EndFest.

About Northwest Passage

Northwest Passage is an exploration of the music scene of the Pacific Northwest region of the 80s and 90s, an era of music that became known as the “grunge” era.

But Seattle grunge is not the only focus of this site, as we'll also look into what was going on in Portland, Olympia or Bellingham, as well as bands that no one would ever consider grunge but were influential and talented in their own right. Although many aspects of the Seattle music scene were overblown or grossly mischaracterized, it is fair to say that there was no shortage of musical talent in the pacific northwest region during this era.

There are a number of great books and films on the northwest music scene, but an obvious lack of web resources dedicated to the scene as a whole. Too many focus only on the "big" bands of the era, while smaller bands were unfairly lumped in with them, or ignored entirely. Northwest Passage attempts to fill in the gaps. This site is dedicate to telling the story of bands like Seaweed and the U-Men as much as Pearl Jam or Nirvana.

This website is not a hagiography for grunge or its stars, nor does it exist propagate myths about the northwest music scene or sanitize what was, at times, an extremely sad and tragic story. But we find the story of the northwest music scene to be fascinating in its own right and a very important period of rock music.

Northwest Passage aims to be the ultimate web resource for the northwest music scene and the hope is for it to be an ad-free site forever. This site is meant as a labor of love and not a revenue stream. Your support is appreciated!

Interested in being a contributor to Northwest Passage? Contact us.

Northwest Passage was conceived, designed and written by Unobstructed Views. All material (other than photos) are the property of Northwest Passage, unless noted otherwise. Please don't steal.

This site is dedicated to the memory of Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley, Mark Lanegan, Chris Cornell, Andrew Wood, Shawn Smith, Mia Zapata, Ben McMillan, John Baker Saunders, Elliott Smith, Jesse Bernstein, Chris Takino, Stefanie Sargeant, Fred Cole, Andrew Loomis, Ron Heathman and James Atkins. RIP

Thank you to all our readers and fans for making this project feel so fulfilling! We're happy to share our love of this music with other fans.

Special thanks to our original supporters: Steve Farmandi, Jeremy Ptak, Killian Laher, and Bellow Music. Thank you also to Lisa Lizana and Christopher O'Malley for their support!