Oregon Music News

Portland Cello Project at Mississippi Studios

Unorthodox, revolutionary, bizarre rock’n'roll has always been a part of life on Mississippi Ave.  But until Jim Brunberg and Alicia Rose came along, North Portland’s indie rockers, folk strummers, roots whiskey guzzlers, electro-dance party-goers, and neo-bohemian, post-vaudvillian eccentrics didn’t have a proper home in the neighborhood–a suitable space for the cornucopia of talent that graces our city.

Alicia Rose

The guitarist, songwriter, record producer, entrepeneur Brunberg had an idea to create such a home, and he enlisted the talent booker, photographer, accordion-extraordinare Rose.  And on Saturday evening, this home–to artists and concert-goers alike–turns one year old… with a celebration of course!

Actually, a Swellebration… as the line up swells with some of Portland’s and Oregon’s best indie, folky, rocky, soulful talent.  “We wanted to thank PDX for supporting us and the local music scene through one hell of a recession year by offering a pileup of some of our favorite artists,” says Rose.

“We did the math and in this past year we were home to over 1,000 bands and performances over 365 days serving thousands of you the best local/national/international music, art and performance has to offer!”

Starting at 8 PM, the one-year-old renovated and reinvigorated Mississippi Studios hosts a full night of FREE anniversary entertainment on Saturday, March 6th featuring:

Jim Brunberg

Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside
Dirty Mittens
Yeltsin
Matt Sheehy & The Menders
Run On Sentence
Tahoe Jackson
Sean Flinn & The Royal We
Holcombe Waller
Adam Shearer (of Weinland)
Justin Power
Laura Gibson

“And many more special surprises and treats!”

Amongst the bloated mass of Oregon talent, OMN grabbed some time with Yeltsin, Dirty Mittens, and Holcombe Waller before they have their cake, and eat it too, on Saturday night.

On the phone from Eugene, Yeltsin’s Jake Pavlak gave OMN a listen to “I’m Afraid I’ve Lost My Way In This World” from their new album, Rhinestone Glow, as well as a few words.

Who are you?

I’m Jake Pavlak and the band is Dana Axon and Jivan Valpey.  And that’s it.

What instruments do you play?

We play guitar, bass and drums.

And what’s your sound?

It’s kinda indie rock, sorta poppy.  Sometimes it’s a little loud, but you know, it’s not metal.

Where have you been?

We’ve almost been together for 7 years.  We’ve put out an EP, two CDs and now we’re putting out our first record.  And we’ve mainly just played in the Northwest–Seattle, Portland… Oregon, you know.

Where are you going?

We’re hoping to do some serious California shows.  We’re trying to book a tour right now because we’ve never been down there.  We have friends in San Francisco and LA.  Basically we’re gonna try and book the tour around some pretty good shows in LA and flesh it out from there.  We’ve also been trying to work on getting some better shows in Seattle and Portland.

How many dates do you think you’ll play?

Hopefully like six shows.

Have you ever played Mississippi Studios before?

We’ve never played there.

Are you excited to play Mississippi Studios?

Yeah, I’m excited to play there… it seems like a pretty sweet venue from what I’ve heard.

I take it you’ve never been to Mississippi Studios then.

No, that wouldn’t be a good thing to ask [laughs].  I shouldn’t come in there totally clueless about the place.

Okay, finish this sentence then: Mississippi Studios is…

Like a second home to me.

What can we expect from this Saturday’s gig?

We’re bringing the record to Portland for the first time, but there are a lot of bands on the bill so we’re just gonna try and put out heads down and play as many tunes as we can in the time that we have.  You know, we kinda waste a lot of time in between songs [laughs] so we’re gonna try to avoid that and focus on just playing a solid set.

Anything else you’d like to add…

It’s kinda cool that we got to make a record because we’ve never made one before.  We wound up recording with this friend of ours, Justin Higgins, and without his help, we wouldn’t have been able to do this at all.  We wouldn’t have anything right now if it weren’t for him.  Also we got some help from Jerry Garcia’s daughter, but if you put that in there then people are gonna think that we’re hippies.  She’s not a hippie really at all.  Her favorite band is the Wipers. [Laughs]

Next, the saccharine lead singer of Dirty Mittens, Chelsea Morrisey, briefly wove their story for OMN.

Who are you?

Dirty Mittens is Chelsea, Ben, Patrick, Noah, Reed, and David.

What’s your sound?

I once overheard someone say that we sound like “a cute pop band getting mauled by the soul train.” That sort of stuck with me.

Where have you been?

We started as a trio playing mostly house shows around three years ago. We met a bunch of talented people during that time; artists, musicians, performers, etc., and just started building our “family” from there. The vision has always been somewhat old school, that is, to do as much with live instrumentation as possible. People have come and gone, but over this last winter we really seemed to settle into something great.

Where are you going?

Actually, we are currently finishing up our debut record with Jim Brunberg who owns Mississippi Studios.

What does Mississippi Studios mean to you?

This is a pretty loaded question. If you had asked me this a year ago I would of said that Mississippi Studios is an amazing sounding venue that puts on great shows and really supports local bands. All of this remains true, but at the start of this last winter Jim and the MS family have been more than just a venue to us. When Jim stepped in and took our album recording under his wing we had a number of songs (we’d been sitting on for quite some time) but no money to record them. He has donated his VALUABLE time to us like an angel. I’m not sure if there is any other way I can put it.

What can we expect from this Saturday’s gig?

You can expect to see us in top form with high spirits.

Anything else you’d like to add…

You can get the full list of our upcoming shows on our MySpace page.

And finally…

Who are you?

Holcombe Waller.

What’s your sound?  What instruments do you play?

I play folk music which incorporates a small classical ensemble and sometimes ecstatic percussion and drums.  On Saturday, I’ll play solo with guitar, or maybe my friend Ben Landsverk will play with me.

Where have you been?

I’m from San Francisco and moved to Portland five years ago.  I play mainly here, SF, New York, and LA a bit.  I collaborate with dance (Joe Goode Performance Group and Zoe | Juniper) and create and tour interdisciplinary work that combines music, theater and film (PICA presented it last March).  I love dolphins.

Where are you going?

I’m always working on new music and have a new album coming out this year.  I’m still touring the aforementioned PICA-presented work (Into the Dark Unknown: The Hope Chest), going to Europe in May with it.  I’m developing a new theatrical music performance that will heavily incorporate aspects of silent film.  I’m also working with a team of developers and a business partner to create a new service that helps musicians release threads of music one song at a time–”The album is dead, now it’s a thread.”  I am doing a lot of different things–my love of dolphins, therefore, comes in handy.

What does Mississippi Studios mean to you?

Mississippi Studios is simply the rad venue that my wonderful friends Alicia Rose and Jim Brunberg run–it means home-style, it means intimate-yet-expansive, it means Portland does it best when it does it itself.

What can we expect from this Saturday’s gig?

Mmmm…  my parents are in town, maybe they’ll come!

Anything else you’d like to add…

I’m currently fan-funding my new album with an online campaign.  Folks can pre-order the album and read more on my website–that’d be nice.

Mississippi Studios is…

A deluxe music snack basket.