Beyond the Grunge movement buzz, Seattle’s music scene has gradually, but markedly, receded from the limelight.

Steve Manning, director of publicity for Sub Pop Records, said it is more likely now the music capital of the Northwest is, in fact, Portland. He attributes this partially to Seattle living costs in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s being cheap and musician-friendly as compared to today’s expensiveness and the unexpected nature of music trends.

However, a look into the seed of Seattle’s music — the youthful edge of the musician pool — brings hope.

In the cellars of U-District houses and venues scattered throughout Seattle, UW students and alumni are making sweet, sweet music.

These young musicians don’t care about the fact that the media’s eye has wandered from Seattle.

Bands like The Senate, An Apparition, The Royalty and Old Technology represent just a few of the many groups powered by UW students and alumni. They live in and out of the U-District, playing everything from hole-in-the-wall venues to bars and clubs.

The Senate, an odd yet powerful tripling of two acoustic guitars and an upright bass, is one such band.

Andrew Pulkrabek, a UW alumnus who majored in drama, effortlessly astounds crowds with his prowess on his upright bass. He believes that the feeling of a musical lull in Seattle has more to do with the amount of national media attention given to the area than an actual lack of musicians or creativity; he has no doubt or anxiety about Seattle’s music.

“Grunge is not the buzz word anymore like it was in the early ‘90s,” Pulkrabek said. “Today’s new thing is just not what Grunge was; it’s in a different place. But a lot of those musicians from that time are still around, and all those people that were growing up and influenced by that music are now old enough and possess the resources to make their own. We’re starting to see the fruits of all of that media interest and influence in the diversity and frequency of good music here.”

Having been formed in the U-District, the band has learned to be flexible and adaptable.

“One thing that has affected us being around the UW, and I think this is good for us, is that the University District doesn’t really have any proper dedicated music venues,” Pulkrabek said. “There are a few bars that have stages, but not a lot for all audiences. Playing in a neighborhood where most of our fan base is under 21 has forced us to be resourceful. It’s taught us to be self-sufficient and imaginative and artists. We’ve had to go out and give our music to people who want to hear it.”

This adaptability to different kinds of environment is very apparent in the variety of venues in which they play.

In a dank basement, already crowded with people sitting on ripped beanbag chairs, couches and floor mats, The Senate’s impact is solid.

The Senate also satisfies crowds numbering almost 1,000 in venues like the Showbox or crowds of about 250 in its monthly concert in the Solstice Café on the Ave.

The band’s chemistry — with the hard woody plunks of Pulkrabek’s riffs, the sweeping acoustics of Oliver Franklin and Nick Drummond’s beaming voice — provides a sound that is all its own.

According to The Senate’s Myspace page, the group draws from a plethora of influences including The Beatles, Bob Dylan, early Motown records, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Tom Waits, Dave Matthews Band, Radiohead, Black Sabbath, AC/DC and System of a Down.

These varied, seemingly sporadic influences bleed through in The Senate’s music, which is equally as varied from song to song.

Old Technology, a youthful group of UW students, is a Bluegrass band. Their lighthearted melodies can be heard on afternoons as they play on their front porch on 18th street. past 47th Avenuew northeast.

The band consists of UW Sophomore Johnny Fitzpatrick, a junior on banjo and vocals, Colin Sterling, a junior on guitar and vocals, Rex Thompson, on mandolin and vocals, and junior Rachel “Rocky” Bernstein, on fiddle and vocals.

The members of Old Technology can be spotted sitting and sometimes playing in the quad on sunny days, which is actually where the band was conceived.

“Some of us knew each other through friends, but we all eventually met up on the Quad last spring and had tea,” Bernstein said. ‘That’s when we decided to get together and form Old Technology.”

Although all but one of the group’s members had never played Bluegrass before, they all now embrace it and have begun to make it their own by not only mastering traditional songs but writing some of their own as well.

“Last year we played a lot of traditional tunes,” Bernstein said. “This year we’ve been writing songs of our own now that Thompson, the mandolin player, has come back from studying abroad. Things kind of went on pause for a while.”

One probably wouldn’t be able to tell that most of the band members had never played a lick of Bluegrass before last year by their sound.

Old Tech’s rolling melodies and turn-style soloing take one back to an older, slower time when people actually sat on their porches in the evening and talked about the days happenings without worrying about being mugged.

“Old technology reminds me of sitting on a porch in summertime with a glass of sour lemonade,” said listener sophomore Elizabeth Cattern.”It is refreshingly sweet and unrefined like some of the music you hear today.At times it gets a little backwoodsy for me, but for the most part I enjoy their material.”

The other, harder, more electric side of the musical coin also calls Seattle and more specifically, the U-District, home.

Although Joey Flynn, a UW sophomore and a member of An Apparition, a band he describes as being ambient-tech-metal and hardcore, does not think that Seattle is the premium spawning ground for hardcore music, he shows no doubt in the more general musical quality of the area.

“I think Seattle will always have a good music scene,” Flynn said. “The style of music I like, hardcore, is based mostly out of Cali, though. For my style, I’ve seen better in Cali than here, but Seattle is producing really good bands as well: The Blood Brothers, These Arms Are Snakes, Akimbo and Minus the Bear.”

The group consists of Flynn on keyboard, backup vocals and screams, Joseph Aldulami on guitar and lead vocals, Mat Chandler on drums and screams and Jake Randall on bass and vocals.

An Apparition is working on their EP, but has been playing together for nearly a year, Flynn said.

The group’s single song posted on their Myspace site, titled “The Museum Arsonist,” has a wailing, ethereal quality to it. The slumping drums seem to inadvertently anchor the music to a pace as the aching guitar riffs drive it ever forward and upward. Joe’s shrill voice is offset by Joey and Matt’s deeply throated screams, and it’s all set in front of an eerily ascending and descending keyboard line.

“We’re influenced by Botch, Isis, Misery Signals, Receiving End of Sirens and As Cities Burn,” Flynn said.

As a UW undergraduate in a band, Flynn experiences some stress from the time to time as he splits his energy between music and school.

“It’s actually pretty tough,” Flynn said. “We try to get in to practice twice a week, and those are in Bellevue so I’ve got to travel. Practices run about two to three hours at a time and since the other members of the band work, we usually practice from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. It’s late nights.”

“The scene is always changing, morphing into new things,” said Joan Hiller, the tour press and consumer ads representative from Sub Pop Records. “The whole Grunge thing was just such a crazy media blitz. It spawned all kind of phenomena everywhere. But every city that’s vital and vibrant has something going on in music. Seattle’s music scene is still healthy; there are tons of super great bands around the Pacific Northwest, especially in Seattle. There is a lot of exciting stuff going on.”

Reach reporter Camden Swita at features@thedaily.washington.edu.