EVERETT — Today is Henry Yarsinske Jr.’s 30th birthday. Also known as Henry J, the on-air host of “The Stereo Wire” on the independent public radio station KSER (90.7 FM), Yarsinske is planning a party.
You are invited.
It’s not really about Yarsinske’s birthday; it’s more about Yarsinske’s passion, which is Everett’s burgeoning music scene. And the party is really a concert. It starts at about 7 p.m. Sept. 24 at the Anchor Pub.
Some of the best regional bands around — Fauna Shade, Greet the Sea, Crystal Desert and Midnight Lights — are scheduled to perform.
Yarsinske is a bass player, a Marysville Pilchuck High School graduate, a former clerk with The Herald sports department and a former chief editor of Everett Community College’s student newspaper. In the summer, he runs communications for the Northwest Collegiate Baseball League. Right now he’s a full-time student at Washington State University’s North Puget Sound (Everett) campus, where he studies integrated communications.
But what matters right now to Yarsinske is his Friday night show on KSER. “The Stereo Wire” (from the Archers of Loaf song “Strangled by the Stereo Wire”) can be heard from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. Fridays. Tune in for a mix of punk, indie and alternative music, hip hop, emo and hard rock. The show focuses on bands from Everett, Seattle, Bellingham, Tacoma and Olympia. A graduate of the KSER radio class, Yarsinske has hosted his show for about five years.
Yarsinske also promotes concerts under The Stereo Wire name. He’s worked with the Everett Music Initiative, hosting music at Tony V’s Garage as a part of the Fisherman’s Village Music Festival and some of the Sets in the West (summer concerts) at the Wetmore Theater Plaza.
“I’m a part of a growing number of younger DJs at the station, including Wade T, who runs the program ‘Last Exit,’” Yarsinske said. “This is coinciding with the rise in the arts and culture movement in downtown Everett.”
Wade T Oberlin, 28, hosts “Last Exit” at 10:30 p.m. Thursdays on KSER. Oberlin came to Everett from Ohio by way of the U.S. Navy. He got to know the city when he was stationed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Oberlin listened to KSER in his bunk.
“Now I approach my own show as a live DJ set, using sound files on my lap top. I rarely spin CDs or records and I try to focus on a genre that goes with the theme of the week,” said Oberlin, who also plans to perform at the Anchor tomorrow night under the name DJ Swade.
Oberlin’s friend, Hilary McGowan, 27, recently submitted a demo tape and applied to host a KSER radio show she wants to call “Goawaysun’s Soundapolis,” named for her one-woman electronica band Goawaysun.
“Wade and Henry hosts shows that are about the voices of Everett,” said McGowan. She grew up in King County, studied at Bryn Mawr College, Huxley College at Western Washington University and now is a student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia where she also performs with the band Velvet Grapes.
Yarsinske is on the air tonight and he welcomes requests at 425-303-9076.
“It’s time for us to promote our radio shows along with the local bands,” he said. “It’s good to see the Everett music emerge and become sustainable. We’re part of that scene. People are discovering what is going on.”
If you go
“The Stereo Wire” presents Fauna Shade, Greet the Sea, Crystal Desert and Midnight Lights with host Henry J at 7 p.m. Sept. 24 at the Anchor Pub, 1001 Hewitt Ave., Everett. The concert is for ages 21 and older. Admission is $5.
More at www.facebook.com/thestereowire. More about KSER at www.kser.org.
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