On Wednesday, September 17, 2025, punks from around Seattle lined up at the door to Baba Yaga’s basement venue for the release show of Grenade Bunny Records’ first vinyl release, Sharp Edges of Neglect: a compilation featuring Seattle bands n3ster, Circa 40, My Better Half, Stoneyard, Swamp Wife and Karōshi. Sipping a gin and tonic in the Pioneer Square venue’s upstairs lounge, I observed the tops of colorful dyed heads as the line snaked from the downstairs entrance and out the front door, spilling into the sidewalk in anticipation for the show’s stacked bill of shoegazers, emos and noise makers.
Grenade Bunny Records was announced in March of 2025 as a new project bringing a vinyl-exclusive compilation album featuring beloved Seattle bands. The love child of Seattle scene regulars Luciano Ratto and Peren V., Grenade Bunny Records came to be after Luciano completed a 2022-2024 photo project documenting the Seattle music scene, resulting in the self-published photo book Taste the Floor. When the project was finished, Luciano wanted to start something new to continue giving back to the scene, and the idea to start a DIY record label came organically to Luciano and Peren after pitching ideas back and forth to each other. With Luciano’s connections through the photo project and Peren’s connections through his band, Karōshi, the duo was able to reach out to local bands personally, giving the project a level of intimate collaboration as the bands had the flexibility to voice their ideas and see them actually come into fruition.
Indie rock band n3ster opened the show with ethereal shoegaze sounds, their humming bass rumbling the ground under our feet and waking us up for the night to come. Shifting between catchy guitar riffs like the one on “Crawl,” one of their songs featured on the compilation, and vulnerable screams, n3ster swayed between ease and tension, keeping the already-packed basement on our toes. Their song “Novak,” also featured on the compilation, features fuzz cutting through otherwise dreamy, somewhat upbeat indie rock. N3ster easily plays with this ability to lure listeners in with captivating indie sounds and disrupt the comfort by incorporating an unsettling aspect–whether that be fuzz, a flying guitar or an occasional yell.
This tension between soft and hard that n3ster and the other featured bands toy with is inherent to Grenade Bunny Records and the making of the compilation album. The label name Grenade Bunny Records comes from a scene in the 1987 Nicolas Cage film Raising Arizona, where the motorcycle-riding antagonist absurdly throws a grenade into the desert and a bunny hops next to it–innocently unknowing of its coming demise. For Luciano and Peren, this not only serves as an interesting image and a memorable name that rolls easily off the tongue, but represents the juxtaposition of sweetness and violence within the music being represented. The bands explore levels of vulnerability in their writing, represented by the bunny, but, as Luciano says, “they can break the stage and really go feral–that’s the fucking grenade.”
This overlap between vulnerability and violence was perfectly embodied at the release show by the shift from n3ster to the next band, Karōshi. Featuring Grenade Bunny co-founder Peren on lead vocals/guitar and the unstoppable drumming force that is Billie from fellow local band Black Ends, Karōshi is an explosive punch to the face. With decaying pixelated graphics playing behind them, Karōshi brought serious intensity with fast and heavy energy, guitars flying and a dry, straight-faced sense of humor. Bodies were FLYING in the pit during this set. But don’t be fooled, Karōshi can embody GBR’s softer bunny side, as demonstrated in their Side B song Sidecar vicegrip, a slower and lamenting scream into the void.
The idea to begin this project with a compilation album came naturally to Luciano and Peren; the two being so intertwined with the many crevices of the Seattle music scene that they didn’t want to pinpoint just one band to feature. In conversations about curating a sound for the compilation, the two wanted to capture the post-hardcore, emo and emo violence scene that was beginning to gain popularity around the U.S. and specifically in Seattle in late 2024 with bands like My Better Half and Circa 40. Not wanting to back themselves into a corner in terms of genre, the two wanted to make sure the selected bands had “similar cornerstones,” according to Luciano, and selected emo bands that they thought paired well with post-punk and indie rock sounds.
The next band to play was Stoneyard, a lamenting 3-piece that splices soft vocals and romantic riffs with sharp moments of heavy guitar. The crowd was absolutely hypnotized by Stoneyard’s set, swaying in and out, up and down. Moments of breakdown were liminal and introspective, allowing you to wallow in the washes of sound before picking you up again and throwing you into the energy. Someone dropped a yo-yo in the pit, and after being returned to its rightful owner, the crowd opened up for them to show off their yo-yo skills to the tune of Stoneyard’s melancholia.
Luciano and Peren are firm on keeping their releases exclusively physical, as exclusive to vinyl as possible, and will not be releasing to streaming. Amidst streaming controversy and social media messiness, the demand for physical media grows within and beyond the Seattle arts and music scene. “You can hold something. You can break something. You can give it to someone,” Peren says, exploring the value of having and producing something that is exclusive and physical. Through publishing his photo book, Luciano realized how exciting having a physical artifact of the scene was to everyone involved. “If we’re making something,” he says, “I really want to make something [that] becomes an artifact to the people that are a part of this...” While GBR are contemplating releasing CD’s and tapes in the future, they prefer the durability and timelessness of vinyl over the flimsiness of CD’s.
Circa 40, whose songs open both sides of the vinyl, closed the show. To be honest, when they opened their set with immediate rapid screamo energy, I wrote “holy shit” in my notes, and then had so much fun during their set that I forgot to write down anything else. Luckily their performance and the energetic link between the band onstage and the people in the crowd is near impossible to forget. The musical connection between the four-piece is tight, the guitarist flying through intricate twinkly melodies as the group masterfully jumps from erupting chaos to short, satisfying moments of reprieve. From the first song, the crowd was screaming their lyrics along with them, and I felt like I had been missing out on a special secret everyone else had known about all along. We were in the palm of Circa 40’s hand, their drummer playfully adding a beat to the rhythms of the crowd’s chants for an encore and the band serving as maestro of the audience, directing and guiding us through the swells of their music as we faithfully followed.
Sharp Edges of Neglect, Grenade Bunny Records’s debut release, includes some new, unreleased music from the featured bands, along with songs that can only be found in vinyl format through this compilation. Songs that had already been released were re-recorded specially for this LP. According to Luciano and Peren, pressing records in the U.S. is incredibly difficult, with backorders extending to almost 8 months. Because of this, Grenade Bunny pressed the compilation using a company in Ontario. Thanks, Canada! Grenade Bunny Records does not exist, meaning they are not an official company and all copyright belongs to the bands. Money made by sales is used to recoup costs to produce the album, and then all leftover earnings will be split evenly among the featured bands as a way to repay them for trusting Luciano and Peren. “It’s very important that they get their flowers and feel happy about being represented by us,” Luciano says. Reception to the project has been exciting and surprising, and according to Luciano, it’s been “really refreshing that people are putting their money where their mouth is,” in terms of supporting local music and physical media. The reception to Grenade Bunny Records goes to show how genuine connection, respect for artists and love for the scene can lead to projects that intimately and intentionally do more for both the artists involved and their fanbase.
We, obviously, bought a copy (why wouldn’t we?) and...wow. The curation of sound and genre in this compilation is ranging while maintaining a consistent backbone; bands playing with the emo and post-hardcore genres like Circa 40 and My Better Half are paired with gloomy post-punk, indie rock and shoegaze sounds played by Swamp Wife, Stoneyard and N3ster and raw punk rock by Karōshi, all exploring the different sides and angles of delving into emotion and despair through music. While the album is independent and limited in availability with niche sounds represented, I believe this compilation will eventually go down with historic Seattle compilation record Deep Six as a representation of this specific era in the Emerald City’s music scene and the influential musicians shaping it. The compilation not only pays homage to the Seattle punk scene and the bands Luciano and Peren have grown connected to, but also embodies the melancholic introspection that seems to be a running thread for our city, whether intentional or not. From grunge to Twin Peaks, Western Washington embraces the fog, the macabre and the contemplative with a DIY sensibility and a sense of humor, and Sharp Edges of Neglect is an authentic example of Seattle’s ability to face life's grey areas head on and make something for ourselves.
Grenade Bunny Records is just getting started. They have multiple plans for the future, including Karōshi’s new album Spoils, Consequences + Charity, to be released September 21. According to Peren, the goal overall is to continue putting 206 (and a little 425) on the map. Grenade Bunny Records is focused on uplifting the Seattle scene and working with Seattle artists, not limiting themselves to a specific genre or sound. “You can be a rapper, you can do jazz…” Peren says, “If you’re from here, come play. You don’t have to be bummed out, but being bummed out helps in the selection.” Perhaps you’ll see another compilation from GBR, perhaps more releases from individual bands. All I can tell you is to keep an eye out for much, much more from this new source of collaboration and sound in Seattle. You can buy a copy of Sharp Edges of Neglect though at grenadebunnyrecords.com, while supplies last.
