Blog Archives

March 11, 2010

Another Daily Choice: The Mississippi Records Tape Series

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Got to give the good folk over at Aquarium Drunkard full credit for turning me on to this treasure chest of gems.  Mississippi Records is venue/record label in the mean streets of North Portland, Oregon, and unbeknown to me purveyors of absolutely brilliant mix-tapes stuffed to the scaly gills with unknown finds from across the great, starry expanse of musical history.   Even better, the newly-discovered, absolutely-brilliant website Rootstrata (a fabulous blog in its own right) is converting each and every one of these mini-goldmines (37 at last count) in to download-easy .zip files for your, and especially my, enjoyment.

I’ve downloaded two so far, the inaugural edition and an AD-recommended comp, and both have been playing almost non-stop on my tinny speakers for the last two days.  I can only believe, have faith even, that each uploaded tape will be a similarly delicious experience.

Mississippi Records Tape Series Vol. 1 – House of Broken Hearts

September 8, 2009

Starfucker Looking for a New Name, Embarks on Last Tour as Starfucker

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Starfucker FOREVER ::: photo by Josh Lovseth

Sigh. The cost of success and having your songs on commercials is that a band name with the word fuck featured prominently just doesn’t work. With that in mind, Portland’s electro-pop Starfucker are on the look out for a new name with the help of their fans.

Here’s what the band said today about their name change via a Myspace Blog:

Hey Friends– Everyone knows our name sucks…so here is your chance to give us a new one.  The best thing about this new-name game is that we want YOU to help us come up with it. 

There are two ways to vote for Starfucker’s new name. 

*Email your idea to: newnameideas@gmail.com

OR

*Vote in person at the merch table at any show on our upcoming tour

This will be our last tour as Starfucker!  Come out and help us usher in a whole new era of…..awesome-band-name-yet-..to-be-determined. One vote per fan please.  And of course there are fabulous prizes!  If your name is selected, you will get tons of cool shit!!! Deadline for ideas is October 1st.

We don’t quite know how we feel about this, because we love the tongue and cheek nature of the name and think it decidedly doesn’t suck.  What does suck, we’re sure, is your band’s name not being able to be said on the radio, all ages venues not booking you because of your name, loosing revenue and potential ads because of your name, and having parents not allow kids to attend your show or buy your album thanks to your name.

So put on your thinking caps Starfucker fans. This band deserves a great name, which conveys the same sense of fun and fuck you, without the fuck of course.

* To get a feel for the band, here’s a Sound on the Sound interview with Starfucker, which covers the origin of their name *

June 24, 2009

Music Fest Northwest is Stacked

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John Vanderslice ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Hot on the heels of the lineup announcement for PDX Pop Now! is Portland’s other multi-day extravaganza of rock and roll, with acts coming from all over the nation to get a little Northwest love. Willamette Week’s Music Fest Northwest is happening September 16, 17, 18 & 19 at venues around the Portland area, and these are the first round of acts who’ve been confirmed as taking the stage:

Sunny Day Real Estate Explosions In Sky Bad Brains Girl Talk The Get Up Kids Will Sheff (of Okkervil River) Dirty Three Monotonix Mudhoney Frightened Rabbit Twilight Sad Dillinger Four Swollen Members Grand Duchy Beach House John Vanderslice The Long Winters The Pains of Being Pure At Heart Pink Mountaintops OM Portugal The Man Viva Voce The Builders and The Butchers Langhorne Slim Bobby Bare Jr. Chairlift Loch Lomond Team Dresch Erase Errata J.D. Twitch (Optimo) Eluvium Youth Group Titus Andronicus The Zeros Mount Eerie Trash Talk Despise You Crom Japanther Mayer Hawthorne & The County Grouper Richard Swift Austin Lucas Amazing Baby Brother Reade Love Language Anders Parker The Morning Benders The Miniature Tigers Common Market Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey We Were Promised Jetpacks Say Hi Rocky Votolato Cymbals Eats Guitars Copy Red Fang Saviours Norfolk & Western Nurses Explode Into Colors Portland Cello Project Guidance Counselor Fences And much much more….

A wristband that is good for all four days is obtainable at TicketsWest as well as a few local Portland record stores.

I have a feeling this will be the September I finally make it Portland for a festival.

May 29, 2009

The Daily Choice: Eat Skull – Heaven’s Strangers

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It’s always a bit frightening to hear that a new record by a band has been given a “spit polish” or a “clean-up” or a “sound enema”.  Makes me think that they’ve hired a big name producer and all of sudden my scuzzy garage rock has been turned in to U2 for the noise-set.  Thus, I chalk my love of the new Eat Skull album (referred to by many as a “cleaned up” album) to two things:

1) I’ve never heard Eat Skull before, for a myriad of boneheaded reasons, and thus I cannot compare them to anything but this one point of musical context.  Fresh-faced and eager, yup, that’s me.

2) From what I’ve heard ’round the interwebs, these gents from P-Town, Oregon needed a bit of a scuzz reduction.  A lot of folk are claiming that with a cleaned up, slightly more melodic sound, that these fair fellows have really out done themselves.

I tend to agree.  But now here’s my quandry: if I dip back in to the discography am I going to be disappointed by their squelchy noise blasts, now that I’m attuned to their less squelchy noise blasts?  Please, somebody help me.

Eat Skull – Heaven’s Stranger

Eat Skull on Myspace

December 11, 2008

The Local Beat – Second Week of December

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long winters at the showbox

The Long Winters at the Showbox, April 2007 ::: Photo by Abbey

The Long Winters “Live at the Showbox” DVD ready for order. Taken from a set of performances in the spring of 2007, Barsuk Records is releasing the limited-edition DVD and offering three free mp3′s from the performance. We were at that Showbox stand can attest to it’s worthiness. |barsuk|

The Decemberists announce next LP release date . The Hazards of Love comes out March 24, and the band has embraced the spirit of collaboration in crafting a rock opera. We eagerly await the results. |pitchfork|

Pearl Jam to re-release Ten, in four different editions. Options includes a remastered records, remastered art, additional never before released live performances from MTV unplugged and live in Madison Park (!?!) with the super deluxe option including a replica of the band’s original three song cassette demo. I can see the ten clubbers wetting their pants as I write. Bassists Ament said he wanted to “assemble the ultimate fan piece” and I’d have to say he’s pretty much succeeded. |ten club|

Carles asks: Should I move 2 Portland? He presents two videos of Starfucker as evidence for the case. Oh geez. Here we go… |hipsterrunoff|

Monotonix added to the Paramount’s New Years Eve Bill! This blog considers Monotonix a top contender for international band of the year and this addition is making me seriously consider heading out to this massive local bill, headlined by the Presidents and supported by Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, The Saturday Knights, and Vince Mira & The Roy Kay Trio, with a little comedy on the side. It’s great bill to represent the best of Seattle’s music scene in 2008. |paramount|

July 23, 2008

PDX Pop Now! Also this Weekend

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guidance counselor

Guidance Counselor at the Greenhouse ::: Photo by Josh

MTV just discovered Portland, now you can too!

Our illustrious DIY neighbors a few hours to the south will be having the a summer celebration of the music in their city all weekend long. And it’s free. And it’s all-ages. I’ve got to admit that sometimes Portland just does have it better…

The 5th annual iteration of the all local lineup was culled from over 1000 entries down to 48, and will play for three straight days at the Rotture (formerly Hippodrome), with sets spanning each day from noon until after midnight (except Friday which starts at 6pm). Strangely, the two bands who we’d mention not to miss are both playing after midnight.

Check the schedule here or after the jump.

(more…)

June 30, 2008

Noah’s Daily Choice: Tu Fawning – Out Like Bats

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Call it a reaction to the sweltering heat currently laying the pasty white denizens of Seattle on their ass, but there is a refreshing taste of cave-like darkness present in the new EP, Secession (out on Polyvinyl), by Portland-based duo Tu Fawning.  On most occasions I’ll turn my head when music dips too deeply in to the sort of expansive gothically-tinged atmosphere Joe Haege and Corrina Repp dabble in.  A darker atmosphere usuallys equates to a sense of seriousness I don’t prefer in my music, but “Out Like Bats” manages to avoid it.

Using a combination of Corrina Repp’s monstrously large voice (even bigger in a live setting), a light-hearted trio of hand claps, and an almost rock-and-roll style guitar riff, “Out Like Bats” falls further on the side of moody rock, rather than the oft times boring drones of a band like, say, Black Heart Procession.  Let us not discount it’s atmospheric nature though, the song could’ve been recorded in a abandoned, possibly haunted circus tent in the pitch black darkness of  the witching hour and this critic would certainly not have been surprised.

Myspace: Tu Fawning

MP3: Tu Fawning – Out Like Bats

June 18, 2008

J-Rod Solo in Portland This Weekend

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God damnit Portland, first the Decemberists at an Obama rally  and now this?

John Roderick has been added to the bill for Live Wire this Saturday, June 21st. Live Wire is a variety show for Oregon Public Radio, and tickets are only $15.

John will be performing solo, and promises to debut some brand new, never-before-heard songs rehearsed for the forth coming Long Winters LP.The show is being held at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, OR. Doors are at 7pm, show to start promptly at 8.

 

 

Plus you have Powell’s, really decent public transportation, and Voodoo Doughnuts–it is just not fair! If a drive down to PDX didn’t cost me $120 in gas, I just might try to make a road-trip out of it. 

Hope one of our Portland reader’s gets a chance to go and report back on the night’s festivities.

June 11, 2008

The Local Beat – Second Week of June

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pwrfl power
PWRFL Power at the Vera Project ::: Photo by Josh

Kaz is moving to New York! Since graduating art school, it feels like PWRFL Power’s Kaz Nomura has been touring constantly. Sadly, this Saturday’s set at the Georgetown music fest will be Kaz’s last as a Seattlite, before he embarks to the Big Apple and hits it big. He’ll be back in the area for Bumbershoot. |seattlesound|

AEG tapped to moderinize Portland’s Rose Quarter, at behest of Paul Allen. Yes you heard that right. The owner of the Portland Trailblazers, who play in the Rose Garden stadium, has been tasked by Allen’s development company, Vulcan, to redevelop the neighborhood surrounding the stadium, a project with an estimated $2.5 billion price tag. AEG Live currently operates Showbox at the Market, Showbox SODO, WaMu Theatre in Seattle, but no venues in Portland. |cnn|

Summer Fest News. Georgetown Music Fest just released the set time schedule for this weekend. See it at their myspace page. BC’s Pemberton Festival, happening July 25-27 just released their day-by-day schedule. Tickets go on sale for that fest June 13. Anacortes’ “What the Heck Fest #7″ is happening July 18, 19, and 20 and features the Moondoggies, the Blow, Solvents and many more. And since I just bought some and know, there are still two day passes available for both the Capitol Hill Block Party and the SP20 festival.

Seattle still needs a Nightlife Regulatory Coordinator! Apparently nobody has been clamoring for the position since we posted about it last January, despite what appears to be pretty good compensation. Hmmm. I wonder why? |slog|

May 21, 2008

In Portland you don’t just get an education, you get a Shreducation

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Blue Scholars in PDX

In PDX instead of bake sales they have indie rock shows and bands like the Thermals play to make sure elementary kids have a music teacher or usable loaner instruments to practice with.

For this years 2nd Annual Portland Music in the Schools benefit show, a bevy of hot local acts are on the bill including the Blue Scholars headlining and PDX’s YACHT and The Shaky Hands in support.

Here are the important details of how Portland loves (and you can love) their public schools music program:

Music in the Schools Benefit Show at The Crystal Ballroom in Portland, OR Friday, May 30 Students $12/General Public $17 Doors at 6:30pm with the schedule going as follows: Typhoon The Shaky Hands YACHT [quick break] State of Mind Gray Matters *SPECIAL GUEST* Onlyone and Illaculate of Sandpeople Blue Scholars

Find tickets at the benefit’s official site.

It’s sad that public school music programs need benefit concerts to provide what the adequate funding, but it’s great to see a community taking it into their own hands to ensure a proper education for their children.