Pat Robertson is an insensitive asshole. I mean, really, who blames the devastating Haiti earthquake on voodoo or says they had it coming because they “sold their souls to the devil.” Because of Mr. Roberson’s batshit crazy response to the catastrophe, Mississippi Studios is hosting a Haiti Benefit appropriately entitled, “Hell to Pay – Fuck Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh.”
And what better way to donate money than a night full of incredible local music, including the fantastic avant-garde popsters Hosannas (formerly Church) and psychedelic folksters Blue Giant and The Minus 5. Add playing “Pin the Shit on Pat’s Face,” in the front half of the venue, and you’ve got yourself a real benefit!
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8. Tickets cost $15 in advance or $15-$50 at the door (sliding scale). All proceeds go to Mercy Corps
Classically trained five-strong group Echo Helstrom is rising into the spotlight of Portland’s eclectic center. This orchestral-driven ensemble is backed by a variety of stringed and melodic instruments, including upright bass, violin and various horns, creating an energy that builds an emotion deeply rooted in a place most musicians never quite reach. Each song seems to unveil a truth that is earnestly stated and summed up from its rising beginning to climactic end.
With lyrics thought to be Bob Dylan-esque, the band’s unusual name was actually taken from one of Dylan’s early girlfriends. While front man Ross Seligman holds an aura similar in sound and passion to that of Coldplay’s Chris Martin, he retains a uniqueness found easily relatable, yet peculiarly original. All the while, Seligman sings with spirit in a clear and resonating voice that transcends most pop or emotionally driven artists of similar vocal orientation.
Building off of the rising commercial and ever-spreading success of their full-length album The Veil, Echo Helstrom is gearing up to release the five-song EP Paper Airplane on Saturday, February 13th at the Aladdin Theatre.
Co-headlining the album release will be jazz-pop solo artist Jake Oken-Berg, who will be releasing his own new album Out the Door.
Doors are at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Get your tickets in advance for $10 and go support the emotional vibrato of Portland’s newest rising act, Echo Helstrom.
Havin’ a hard time making it through Wednesdays? Then the last bastion of bluegrass stompin’, country callin’, folky strummin’, and poppy shoutin’ is offering you a remedy.
Yes, ladies and gents, the LaurelThrist Public House is allowing the gal and guys of The Ascetic Junkies to set up shop every Wednesday evening in the month of February for a few rounds of happy drinks for happy hour and a happy time.
But these kids don’t play alone, they’ve brought friends! Each week they’re collaborating with a new artist displaying honeyed originals, twangy, traditional bluegrass, ramblin’ covers, and maybe even a testin’ the pluckiness of new some material.
These sessions guarantee two hours (6 to 8 p.m.) of dosey-do switching of partners, instruments and banter. And this’ll all come to you for free. (Note: The concert is free, not the booze.)
And if that’s not enough to get ya in the door, singer/glockenspieler Kali Giaritta is feeling generous and giving away the Junkies’ latest EP Don’t Wait for the Rescue Squad on Bandcamp. “These songs are like gifts to friends, so we felt silly charging for them. Enjoy!” says Kali.
Have happy music and happy friends at 6 p.m. every Wednesday in February with the Junkies at the LaurelThirst.
It took me a long time to warm up to indie music. I am traditionally more of a metal/psychobilly/rock chick than a grandpa’s sweater-wearing/obsessed-with-skinny-boys-in-flannels/indie chick. I like it rough and hard (that’s what she said), and indie music seems to have this reputation among my crowd of being, well, music for pussies.
So what made me come around? Two words: Vampire Weekend. I reviewed Vampire Weekend’s debut for the Eugene Weekly a couple years ago, way before they were signed to a record label, and not only was I into their geek-chic look, but I really dug the great twist they put on the traditional indie sound. That’s what makes a good band regardless of the genre, their ability to experiment and take a risk with their music.
Take the local band Wampire; they have taken the indie look and sound, thrown in some crazy Afro and Doo-wop beats, and then blended them all together to make one hell of a Wampire cocktail. I don’t really dig a guy that wears a kitten on his sweater and size 25 jeans, but I am down for some catchy beats and a great cover of Kraftwerk’s “Das Modell.”
Wampire is three guys that make sweet sweaty love to their music. These are the type of guys that turn any situation into a jam session and turn any utensil into an instrument. It is obvious that they make the kind of music that they and their friends would want to hear, not what they think is going to be “popular.”
I thank these guys for contributing to my growing belief that indie music isn’t just for whiny ass pussies.
Grouper is Portland musician Liz Harris. Starting from humble means and a self-release in 2005, Harris has continued to build steam toward lofty heights of creativity and popularity. She now has four full-length albums, as well as a collaboration project with NYC-based group, Xiu Xiu.
I appreciate that Grouper strays away from the stereotypical 10-minute length ambient-dream tracks, and instead bends toward the three-five minute standard that the majority of modern songs in the world tend to curtail themselves at. Even without utilizing lengthy tracks, the heart of Harris’ art wells from the pairing of haunting vocals gliding over the calm magic of her chord changes. What she does, she does well.
Grouper’s latest release, Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill, received superlative critical reviews, and ranked high on several 2008 blog "end of year" lists, including, Gorilla vs Bear’s 2nd best album pick of 2008. After giving the album a once-through-listen, I was impressed with how the mood and musical changes worked to keep the album interesting, while remaining very much the same with regard to style and rhythm tempo. You can stream the album on LaLa.
Harris is also involved, along with Honey Owens, with the vintage clothing shoppe Rad Summer located on Burnside (right in my hood, yo). Design firm Wieden and Kennedy have been releasing an awesome video series entitled, "Don’t Move Here," which features music artists from the already robust, yet always growing music scene in Portland. Check out both these musicians (and business women) in the third episode of "Don’t Move Here."
With keyboards, guitar and vocals, Grouper paints a string of songs that act as small landscapes for the listener to enjoy. Ambient dream-scapes and steady acoustic strumming steer the listener over an ocean of rolling swells and shrouding fog to arrive at something musically satisfying. Check it out, and then reach out and vote for the next Deli Band of the Month. Perhaps you will do so just a little more calmly than normal.
With a guitar and a keyboard, J.T. Lindsey and Andy Carlson make up yet another fantastic electro-pop duo hailing from the fine City of Roses. This one’s called Pegasus Dream, and the name is fitting for the psychedelic, spacey dance tunes produced by this twosome.
Lindsey’s high-pitched croons layered with poppy keyboard riffs and effect pedal-laden guitar chords create a sound much larger than two people, not to mention a sound that makes its listener involuntarily break out in dance.
Though the drum machine saturated, electro beat loving pair has yet to be signed, the boys have had the privilege to perform with such acts as Mew, Hockey, Boy Eats Drum Machine, Japanther, Pyramiddd, and my favorite local electro duo, The Helio Sequence. So they must be doing something right, right?
Pegasus Dream will be playing at The Parlour February 17th before embarking on a small Washington tour with our favorite little arsonists Housefire in March, so mark your calendar! The band’s music video for “Lady Luck,” will give you a good idea of the duo’s sound, but if this isn’t enough, you can download Pegasus Dream’s EP, Miles of Sound,here, and if you dig it, you can give them your vote on our Band of the Month poll.
Into the Woods TV has unleashed yet another awesome Portland-based insider anomaly with the first episode in their series "Don’t Quit Your Day Job." The series goes behind the scenes into the working week of PDX rockers and rollers in a candid, often hilarious overview of their careers offstage.
The first episode was uploaded today, and features Mike from ambient-poppers Reporter and his uber-popular Potato Champion french fry cart, located on SE 12th and Hawthorne – one of many fantastic late-night wheeled eateries on the corner.
Also be sure to check out the additional video series’ being produced by the guys from Into the Woods, including the site’s namesake, which documents bands playing intimate performances (where else?) in the woods; "Learning Curve," which are tech-y tutorials led by various Portland musicians; or "Feels Like Home," a series documenting bands playing in their own homes.
And if you haven’t been to Potato Champion yet, you’re doing it wrong.
It’s no secret that we at The Deli Portland are pretty big fans of electro-gloom pop progenitor Logan Lynn. And where Lynn’s mastery of making you feel dirty within synth-heavy, minor-melody blasts of no-wave electronic rock is arguably one of the more interesting deviations from the main plug of the Stumptown scene, Jaguar Love take a wet mop to the whole shebang.
Forged from the ashes of beloved Seattle dance/noise/punk group the Blood Brothers, Johnny Whitney and Cody Votolato have taken the short route from spastic, experimental trash-punk meanderings, and written a whole new chapter in their ascension simply by switching to electronic muses. There’s little to find, it seems, between the sassy toddler screech of Whitney, and the manic plunk of Votolato’s guitar work, as deviated from their output in the Blood Brothers.
This isn’t to say that the crew is any less enjoyable; it’s simply a thrash-pop-lite hybrid of the Seattle noise scene they helped cultivate. Whitney certainly doesn’t writhe quite so nasally as he once did. The singularness of those curdling yelps, interestingly enough, helped catapult his vocals to some of the most instantly recognizable in the country, and nearly jettisoned TBB’s music to second fiddle. It doesn’t do that with Jaguar Love. And where a pop bent does trickle in on tracks like "I Started a Fire" and "Highways of Gold," old habits die hard on pulsing jams like "Jaguar Warriors" and "Up All Night."
The band will be releasing their new album on March 2nd via Fat Possum Records, titled Hologram Jams. If you pre-order the album by going here, you will receive a handmade wristband (most likely handmade by Whitney, whose Crystal City Clothing company continues to grow).
Both Lynn and Jaguar Love will be playing a FREE show this Tuesday, February 2nd, at Holocene. The show is part of the monthly live touring show The Rumble, on which Jaguar Love will be playing every single West Coast date.,
Show at 8:00 p.m. 21 and over. DJ A Train opens.
For a look at the pop-y side of J-Lo (I’m gonna try to make that stick… I will fail), check out the below video for the aforementioned "I Started a Fire."
Just over three-and-a-half years ago in our wonderfully eclectic city of music, a band was birthed with just a little more to offer than empathetic words or methodical beats. Rising “post-core” group Prize Country has been throwing out more than simple head-banging distortion and fist-pumping vocals, to much more than just their West Coast or even East Coast brethren. At the start of this month, Prize County’s new album …With Love has gained not only the gaze of the local eye, but also widespread overseas attention, including two front-page magazine covers. “With Love is 30+ minutes of surging, beautifully rhythmic music, lead by tantalizing dual guitars, a sharp-toothed bass drum pedal, and the soft-spoken, but pointed vocals of Aaron Blanchard,” states Jordan of PastePunk.com.
Being unfamiliar with Prize County’s previous recordings, I am surprised to say that …With Love is actually a big step in what seems to be the right direction. “The album definitely picks up right where they left off on Lottery of Recognition, with maybe even more of an emphasis on their Bay Area post-hardcore influences of old this time around” (Built on a Weak Spot). Although a lot of albums like to cover the obvious aspects of love and loss and blah blah blah, Prize Country seems to have taken a different route, focusing on love with an “eh, who gives a shit?” attitude. “‘Lyrically, it’s supposed to be kinda sexy, dirty and nasty,’ explains vocalist/guitarist Aaron Blanchard. ‘Originally, the [album] title was From the Gutter With Love, and it was this dirty, sexy thing all about drinking, partying and having a good time. It just seemed right’ (Decibel Magazine).
Well the CD is out, the reviews are in, and now the group is on the move. Just finishing up 2009 with a lineup of over 30 stops spread across the U.S., 2010 holds expectations the band is sure to uphold. But for now, it’s time for Portland’s three-and-a-half-year-old kindred to play for their family. Come the 6th of February, when Prize Country will be crying out to the masses at Portland’s Ash Street Saloon. Show starts at 9:30 pm with three opening acts including Portland’s Microtia, Monterey, CA’s thrashers Razorhoof, and Willamette Valley-reps Norska. The $5 cover hardly seems like a charge. If you’re at all curious about what these guys will be offering up, I highly suggest making this your late-night Saturday rendezvous.
“We play music because we have to. It’s inside of us. We make music we want, and its pretty awesome” (Prize Country, 2009).
6:35… I’m at the Mission Theater, alone and wondering if this is the correct choice for a Saturday evening. I soon find my hand being stamped with black ink by a man in bright yellow-and-pink clothing that looks to have been dug out of a bin where beggars throw their rejects. Following his kind direction into the theater hall ahead, I perform my best scurry through the crowd, quickly settling in a secluded seat with cushions and a decent view.
6:42… It was an all-ages sort of thing, and each was there to give a proper representation for their group. There was a grandma to the front, dads scattered about, children speckled within, and a large number of teenagers to my right, bringing back memories of these sort of things in a time that seems so far past. We made up the majority of the crowd; our age group, those who like myself, were ready to discover whether this was indeed the correct choice for an early Saturday evening.
7:01… A band appears. Well…some people got on stage with instruments and started playing music anyhow. Although listening intently for a name between each retro-embraced B-52’s-esque number, all I could come up with was “The Sunny Sunshine.” These guys had a decent sound, but lacked enough confidence/charisma/any interest at all to pull it off very well. Mid-set, the bass pedal collapsed and the front man asked if there were any comedians amongst us. Living in the moment, grandma stands up immediately from her family table and waves both hands in the air. Not expecting to be called out, “we the crowd” watch in anguish as she reluctantly approaches the stage. In one of those unspoken, “united we stand in embarrassment for you” moments, breath was held, eyes slammed shut, fingers were broken to a cross…and grandma told a joke. Something about Nantucket and a nugget, either way, it wasn’t music and it wasn’t funny, unless of course bitter reality is your cup of tea. The band finished dillydallying shortly after grandma had left the building, and The Sunny Sunshine played out the rest of their very unfocused set.
8:00… the Fruit Bats arrive. Being someone who has only heard their music a couple of times, I really wasn’t sure what to expect, but was quite confident that if these guys merely came out and shouted their name with any stamina, it would stand as the top performance of the evening. Luckily, they did one better. Bringing the focus back to enjoyable, front man Eric Johnson called the crowd up to dance. Following the teenagers to my right, the fathers and children speckled about, all my peers, and yes, even the Nantucket Nugget herself, I leapt into the swarm.
8:35… When a band performs with so much personality and spunk, it often times rarely matters if what they are playing is any good. But the Fruit Bats were better than good, and wonderful performers at that, shouting to the crowd and genuinely showing pleasure in raising an audience. At one point Johnson apologized for not having the time to profess his witty banter upon us due to a curfew for the theater, but gave just as much in singing and leading our dance by the last second of the very last note.
Evelyn McHale leaped to her death from the Empire State building’s 86th floor observation deck in May of 1947. A limousine caught her fall. Minutes after her death photographer Robert Wiles captured McHale’s peculiarly serene post-jump repose.
And now, 63 years later, Parenthetical Girls have written a song equally as morose and beautiful as its namesake. “Evelyn McHale,” is one of four tracks comprising Privilege: Pt. 1 – On Death and Endorsements, the first of a series of five extremely limited-edition 12-inch EPs released by the band’s own Slender Means Society label. On Death and Endorsements will be released February 23, with a quarterly release of the following EPs spanning the next 15 months.
Parenthetical Girls plan to release the final 12-inch, concluding the box set and completing the record, May of 2011. Each installment of Privilege is limited to 500 physical copies and will not be distributed in stores.
