Oregon Music News

Santa obviously didn’t check his list twice if you didn’t get these in your stockings, clogs, or near your radiator.

There’s already too much out there written about these 5 albums and rightfully so.  Whether they be low-fi-electro-newcomer dreamboats, hardened indie popsters drenched in French flavors, or my favorite indie folker taking a symphonic approach in his artistic adoration of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, these 5 made my year.  In no particular order, I bless the following 5 :

Neon Indian — Psychic Chasms : Alan Palomo will be huge.  He visited Mississippi Studios this October and was nice enough to chat with OMN before the gig even though he’s busy dynamiting the indie blogosphere on a daily basis.

Phoenix — Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix : So poppy, so catchy, such warm indie love from the lush, palatial Parisian suburb Versailles.  Don’t miss them on January 24th at the Crystal.

Sufjan Stevens — The BQE : This man is my love.  He amazes and stuns every time–this time with a mixed-medium artistic exploration about a stretch of concrete that included an orchestral performance and film.  And rumors still roam that Oregon tops the list of the next great state he’ll document in song (although those rumors are almost 5 years old… but we can still wish, can’t we?).

Metric — Fantasies : Lovely Miss Emily Haines and company released another devastatingly poppy effort.  Nothing new, nothing groundbreaking from the Toronto crew, but damn it’s catchy and they showed PDX a few weeks ago at the Crystal.

Pretty Lights — Passing Behind Your Eyes : Amidst brash Biggie samples and calling out MJ, Derek Vincent Smith’s digital beats have moved from chilled out ambiance to banging club anthems.  Touring with a live drummer, there’s something natural about his electronic synthesis that he brought to the Crystal this fall.  Support this man, all his music is free right here!

And since I can’t resist adding a sixth… it goes to Rodrigo y Gabriela — 11:11.  Although not as stunning as their debut, 11:11 holds its own and if you’d seen them live at the Schnitz this fall, then you’d understand why lightning strikes every time speed metal touches classical Spanish guitars.

More importantly, what happened in Oregon this last year?

Hockey — Mind Chaos : Oh-so-hip dance rock from these awesome new wavers.  They’re finally getting some recognition and gaining steam worldwide nominated for a MTV Europe video award this year.  And they just opened for Passion Pit here in PDX.

Starfucker — Jupiter : Even though it was just an EP, none of us could just wait while the boys meddled around changing names and touring Amsterdam.

YACHT — See Mystery Lights : Jona Bechtolt picked up Claire Evans and released their glitch-pop, electro heart attack on disc for DFA Records, remixed Wolfmother, and then took Japan by storm.  Bam!  Not bad for a couple of triangles.

Stephanie Schneiderman — Dangerous Fruit : She hooked up with Keith Schreiner (Auditory Sculpture) and made some sexy, sultry, soothing trip-hop tinging with poised ambiance to make aural moods in my mind and body.  Relaxed and delectable, Stephanie is a long way from her female pop rock with Dirty Martini and she’s unclasping cocktail hours at Jimmy Mak’s starting in February.

Logan Lynn — From Pillar To Post : A Midwest to PDX transplant, this emotronic man got scooped up by the Dandys’ Beat The World Records and made some sweet electropop.  Sad lyrics married with happy beats, Logan will be around the Doug Fir on January 7th and told OMN his story before his November album release party.

May Ling at the Old Town Block Party with Lee's Association Lion Dance Team. Photo by Mallory Freed.

But who cares?  This is all old news.  Here’s what’s happening in 2010.

In ORE : May Ling are already blazing through their second recording and you can expect a spectacularly colorful music video for “New Year” featuring Portland Lee’s Association Lion Dance Team (and they’re on tap January 2nd for Rotture’s Superfresh) while teammates Explode Into Colors are working on a full length after releasing a trio of 7 inches this year and gearing up for SXSW.  Get the lowdown on both when OMN interviewed ‘em in November.

And there’s material to be expected from the recently christened PYRAMIDDD (ex-Starfucker) as well as something magnificently electro-dancey from Very International Love, also available in a live format on January 7th at Rotture.

In the rest-o-the-world : We have the debut from the electro-icy Parallels from Toronto, a new LCD Soundsystem, and after 7 years of hibernation, more Massive Attack!

Radiohead just announced they’re entering the studio and The Strokes already did that studio thing, so when’s the new album out?

Happy Holidays.  It’s just a shame Arctic Blast didn’t make an appearance this year.

– Chris Young : Associate Editor // DJ/Electro Editor