Like always, the 2011 PDX Pop Now! compilation is not just an album but a record (you know, like a historical document) of what’s happening in Portland featuring tracks from fresh up-and-comers (Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Purple & Green) and the PDX old guard (Cool Nutz, Viva Voce).
With 41 tracks, this year’s comp includes several already released, nevertheless amazing, jams from Portland favorites like Jared Mees & the Grown Children, Lovers, Blue Skies for Black Hearts, The Ascetic Junkies, and Grouper alongside hot performers at the 2010 PDX Pop Now! fest (Guantanamo Baywatch, O Bruxo–who were thought to be dormant… or not!) and the 2010 comp release show (The Angry Orts, Living Proof aka rappers Tope and Prem). There’s one indie jazz cut (Ben Darwish) and more quality metal than previous comps (Red Fang, Witch Mountain). And then there are bands with simply sweet names (Wizard Rifle) and a song about Sauvie Island (Alan Singley).
Get the complete track listing below and come to the all-ages compilation release show on Thursday, June 2nd at Holocene with headliners O Bruxo (who are obviously back in business), Blue Skies For Black Hearts, Swahili, and Lost Lander along with DJ papi chulo (of O Bruxo) and DJ GIGANTE. The $10 cover includes a copy of the 2011 PDX Pop Now! comp.
The below artists will not necessarily play this summer’s 2011 PDX Pop Now! festival (July 22-24 at Refuge PDX) but there’s a good chance there will be some overlap.
PDX Pop Now 2011 Compilation Track List:
Disc 1:
1) Forbidden Friends – Tiny Hands
2) the Shivas – Gun In My Pocket
3) Cool Nutz – Monster Up
4) O Bruxo – De Colores
5) Grouper – Alien Observer
6) Jared Mees & the Grown Children – Hungry Like a Tiger
7) Red Fang – Wires
Lovers – Boxer
9) Alan Singley – Sauvie Island
10) Reva DeVito – Baby What You Do to Me
11) Lost Lander – Cold Feet MP3
12) Guantanamo Baywatch – Clam Party
13) Bright Archer – Hidden Systems
14) Purple & Green – Right Here
15) Blue Skies for Black Hearts – Majoring in the Arts
16) Wizard Rifle – Tears Won’t Soften Steel
17) Jarad Miles – Lazy Old Sun
18) BOOM! – Onomatopoeia
19) the Ascetic Junkies – (Don’t) Panic
20) Death Songs – Wounds
Disc 2:
1) Viva Voce – Analog Woodland Song
2) the BellBoys – Somethin’ In My Mind
3) Headphone Party – Strictly Stuntin’
4) Witch Mountain – Veil of the Forgotten
5) Langhorne Slim & the Law – Past Lives (live)
6) Sex Life – I Want You
7) Swahili – Soma
Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Thought Ballune
9) Point Juncture, WA – When You Wake Up It’s Today
10) the Woodlands – In the Dark on Monday (Heavy Hands Remix)
11) the angry orts – the Trend
12) Quiet Countries – A Teeth Cutting
13) Living Proof – Caddy Music
14) Johnny Reno & the Vicemachine – Be Gorgeous & Be Gone
15) Mojave Bird – Roan Wolf
16) Blouse – Into Black
17) On the Stairs – Stand
18) 1939 Ensemble – Espérer
19) Ben Darwish – Under the Bright Red Sky
20) the Minders – Needle Doll MP3
21) Drew Grow – King On Your Throne
bob priest on Oregon Symphony’s Carin Miller Packwood discusses the crazy reed-making process for bassoons
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Behold the awesome power of nepotism!
Steve, from your comment, it sounds as though you don’t understand the process of the PDX Pop Now! comp.
All tracks are voted on by random volunteers (I believe this year there were nearly 100), all of whom give the names of bands in which they have friends or family in an attempt to avoid nepotism. The tracks are not labeled with titles or band names, instead being identified by a random code.
If you’re interested in helping to shape the Portland music scene, you should definitely join the volunteer committee next year and get your vote in there – I know PPN would love to have more volunteers! Check out how here: http://www.pdxpopnow.com/volunteer
Don’t get the process huh? Well let me break this down a little more. Pdxpop’s website boasts: “Music tracks are attained solely through artist submissions, and are then run through a rigorous listening panel comprised of our board members and 100 plus volunteers.” Okay, tracks are anonymously selected through listening committees. “After surviving the listening panel, final tracks are then selected with attention to diversity, representation and popularity”. So maybe it’s not a purely democratic process. This years compilation had “790 submissions”. So I would love an explanation of why…
5 of this years bands on the comp made Willamette Weeks best new band list.
At least 7 of the bands on the comp have been on previous compilations (some more than once)
One of the bands has been broken up for quite some time
One of the bands just put out a highly publicized video for the track that’s on the comp.
It’s pretty obvious that there’s a some amount of favoritism going on here. And why shouldn’t there be? Look, if pdxpop wants to run a festival that features established headliners and a smattering of rising scenesters then go nuts. It’s a well put together free show and I respect the fact that it is still going strong. I have attended regularly over the past five years. But please stop promoting yourselves as being some pure democratic organization that chooses the music it promotes based solely on merit and merit alone. There is a lot of bands in town, too many bands probably, and what’s represented at festivals like Pdxpop, or Willamette Week’s reviews for that matter is a very narrow spectrum of what’s out there. That’s all.
I agree with Steve. I would go further to say that nepotism actually made this years track listing pretty weak. In particular, Boom and Guantanamo Baywatch could have been easily replaced with something better.
Dan I’m gonna have to disagree with you there fella and call you a mook, cause those are two of the best bands in portland or my name ain’t Don Frontbutt.
i think don frontbutt is in boom.
Party on, Steve!
It truly doesn’t matter in the long run, though. Although it would be really appreciated and fantastic for some of the more talented and slightly less hip bands in town to be able to get press in the weekly rags, which is sadly the most far-reaching outlet of show awareness in PDX, you just can’t bury talent. There are a lot of amazing acts flying right under the Portland mainstream radar and being appreciated by people of higher tastes around the country and around the world. I’m not trying to be arrogant with this, but as an example only, I play in a band that sells more records in France than we do here in town, and although I think that is kind of a shame, at the end of the day I don’t really have a problem with it. Let the lame sleep with the lame, we don’t need em’. True, I ended up on this web page because I was spitefully checking to see what ended up on the comp this year, but the irritation I get from witnessing the hipster-back-patting-parade in Portland is perfect fuel to drive me to make music that will appeal to the people I’m actually trying to reach.
And ya know, the best way to get past the nepotism is to make your own weekly rag/festival/label/etc. Get on it, do a better job of it, and make the Portland music scene more about the music than how pretty and well dressed the person playing it is.