Oregon Music News

Metric was just at the Crystal in December and Emily Haines and band were gushing and glorious, devilishly poppy and simply rockin’.

Today the Canucks (well two Ontarians and two New Yorkers) announced five West Coast dates including a March 22nd date at the Roseland Theater.  Get your presale tickets starting Monday, February 1 direct from Metric.

DoublePlusGood and Very International Love are two little guys doing something big.

The last time these two shared a bill, it was in a sweaty Green House basement where Hush Puppy stuffed animals hung from the rafters and jugs of Rossi were sloshed about as euphoric dancers jostled in the cramped space.

These boys can make you move.

Electric pulsations and poppy melodies define DoublePlusGood’s carefree style.  DPG shows signs of The Postal Service but with stronger vocals and their fast cohesion of layered synths and effects.  Circuit bent synths and glittering xylophones produce suspended love songs that need no lyrics to relay the message.

Very International Love hits you like an invisible wall with a barrage of BPM’s that’ll make you blink and flinch like staring into a strobe.  Rub your eyes or ears, regain your senses, and let their waves of electro-dance toss your body around the dance floor.  It’s an electronic romp punctuated by damnable beats, ravaging riffs, and knockabout synths.  If you’re not palpitating, you’re doing something wrong.

Megan Danielle’s affected voice has a magnetic quality that draws you to Mnemonic’s calm electro-indie.  As the drums chatter like stifled murmurs and the synths moan, Danielle’s vocals recall Emily Haines and fall like a drizzle rippling the unbroken surface of a placid lake.

Come to Rotture for pop-ecstasy, all-out-dance, and mellow sweetness on Thursday night.

—
Thursday, January 7, 2009
DoublePlusGood
Very International Love
Mnemonic
Rotture
9 PM
$5.00 at the door
21+

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 interviewd ‘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

Emily Haines led Toronto's Metric to "Gold Guns Girls" at the Crystal

Collected and dark and ambient, Metric meandered the Crystal Ballroom’s blue stage with cool charm and Emily Haines’ sexy, exhaling voice on “Twilight Galaxy” to open the night.

And in a flash, spotlights blinded the antsy audience as the bass-y, downtempo synths built and transformed into Haines rowdily headbanging over her keys.  The people were ready and the energy never dipped for the entire night.

You could feel Haines breathe as her vocal effects echoed in waves across the bouncing floor as bodies bounded to the claps of Haines’ tambourine on “Help I’m Alive.”  Metric rioted through a 90 minute set focusing mainly on tracks from their most recent album Fantasies (released in April).

All amazing musicians, the band played tight and flawlessly throughout, but I was absolutely fixated on  Haines.  The rest of the performers didn’t even matter in my mind as her fist pumping and incessant bouncing captivated–like an incandescent firefly whirring about in her chameleon-sequined dress that changed from plum to crimson to obsidian under the lights.

Synths rose and fell, sirens blared while Haines tossed her blonde locks dominating the stage with proper talent and poise.  She strapped on a guitar on “Gold Guns Girls” and the entire crew wailed real high on the frets burning through “Satellite Mind,” “Sick Muse,” and “Stadium Love.”

Veteran Metric fans were treated to “Poster of a Girl,” the tambourine wielding “Empty,” and a bouncy, dance-y “Dead Disco.”

Metric tossed around a few progressive lyrics on “Handshakes” and urged the audience to follow their own paths because: “It’s a scary fucking world out there.  We come back to places like Portland and we kiss the ground… and kiss the ground… and kiss the ground,” repeated Haines.

But they didn’t get too political as Haines chanted “Fight For Your Right to Party” and got coy with references to the Beatles and Stones on “Gimme Sympathy.”

Haines commanded the two-song encore like a rock ‘n’ roll go-go girl chanting “I fought the war, but the war won” on “Monster Hospital.”  She gushed praise and thanks to Portland as guitarist James Shaw picked up an acoustic and the rest of the band exited the stage.  The two closed with a placid “Combat Baby” before the grateful foursome bowed and applauded the exuberant audience.

Check out Fantasies and grab a free download of “Gold Guns Girls (Acoustic)” on ILoveMetric.com.

—
December to Remember
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Metric
Band of Skulls
Anya Marina
Crystal Ballroom

Tried and true Canadian indie rock darlings Metric play the Crystal Ballroom on Tuesday, December 8th.

Metric is headed by Emily Haines’ beautifully poppy, contralto voice, which soothes and emits energy. She lords over the stage, blonde locks flying as she alternates between synths and guitar.

The acclaimed quartet make new wave/indie pop with a dynamism and consistency, and their spectacular releases over the last 10 years have generated a worldwide following. The group also runs in the same circles as Broken Social Scene, whom Haines and guitarist James Shaw also perform with.

Their latest release Fantasies shows them continuing in their tradition of powerful love songs and catchy dance tracks that will have you instantly pressing repeat on your iTunes.

Opening for Metric are Band of Skulls with their London rock, washed-in, shared-sex vocals and bouncing harmonies.

Check out Fantasies and grab a free download of “Gold Guns Girls (Acoustic)” on ILoveMetric.com.

—
December to Remember
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Metric
Band of Skulls
Anya Marina
Crystal Ballroom
Doors at 7 PM, show at 8 PM
$17.50 advance, $20 day of show
All ages

Logan Lynn makes emotronic, electropop.  A gay man from America’s heartland, raised in a family of cult-like, born-again Christians, he’s found a way out of some dark, lost days.

Influenced by folk music growing up and DJs in Chicago, Logan’s demo was titled This Is Folk Techno.  Sentimental lyrics paired with capricious electro-beats, Logan’s sound ranges from dejected to dancey, creating moods that resemble The Postal Service.

Relishing in Portland’s creativity, Logan is signed to The Dandy Warhols’ label Beat The World and is becoming a people person.

He celebrates his new album From Pillar To Post with a listening party on Sunday, November 22nd at Jinx Bar with The Dandy’s Zia McCabe spinning records as DJ Rescue, but before the drinks, Logan chats about being emo, hiding under the sheets, and grandma’s adages.

Listen to “Feed Me To The Wolves” from the new album.

Well, that depends.  If “emo” is short for “emotional” and you are asking if I think my music is that, I would answer “yes.”  If you mean “emo” in the traditional sense of the word (aka 18-year-old high school kids wearing shit tons of eyeliner and whining about their girlfriends and parents), then the answer is “no.”  I’m fine with the word having been slowly attached to me over the years… I think that, as the definition changes with the addition of “emotronic” and other sub-categories within the genre, it makes more sense.  I have made peace with the fact that I am hard to categorize at times, both in music and in life.

Who is Logan Lynn personally?  Musically?

Well, I’ve spent years trying to make those two match up.  I think I am finally there these days, or at least on my way to being there.  My main goal for myself both musically and personally is to exist in a place of transparency and truth.  I believe that the only way we can ever really be free is to look at ourselves honestly and project that truth into the world, however ugly or beautiful it might be looking or sounding at any given moment.

Similarly, musically, I am an open book.  I want people to either connect to me and my tunes with the full story or decide that it’s not their bag, having heard me as I really am.  I’m pretty sure that the day I start candy-coating my lyrics will be the day I stop caring about music and having listeners.  Bottom line: I’m an imperfect work in progress and am fine just being that during my time here… so long as I am always learning, always growing, and doing my best to not repeat the same mistakes over and over, I’m into it.

I have always fallen into the electropop category, though I tend to move around within that genre quite a bit.  By 1996 I had DJ’d other people’s music in the Midwest party scene for years and always listened to folk music and sensitive female vocalists growing up, so when I started writing songs of my own there were elements of both worlds of inspiration brought into the mix.

I hooked up with a Portland producer named Pfog in 1998 who had gotten his hands on a demo I had self-released called This Is Folk Techno.  We spent a year or so working on GLEE, which was released in 2000, and I have since worked with a bunch of producers, each time changing the sound of the music a bit.

The instrumental side of my sound develops as I get the opportunity to work with other talented folks who know how to do and play things which don’t fall under my expertise.  My lyrics and vocal work tend to grow sonically as I push myself out of my comfort zone, let go of my deep-seeded fears about being exposed or rejected, and grow personally.

Yeah, I’m guessing that is partially about my dance music influences creeping in and partially a protective mechanism for myself.  I write about my feelings as they are (as opposed to how I wish they would be) and it’s scary to put that out there with people you know, much less the world at large.  With my songs, I tend to dive headfirst into my darker parts at times and let people just crawl into my head with me to check things out for themselves.  The idea that people can go there in an enjoyable way makes it easier for me to put my words onto paper or into the air in the first place.

I like that I can have more than one type of listener and that the songs themselves can be absorbed in different ways by the same listener, depending on the day.  If you feel like dancing or if you feel like going fetal in your bed under the blanket with headphones, it can work for both.

I make music to clear my head, to shrink my world to a manageable size, to not feel so fucking all alone all the time.  It’s nice to know that other people are finding a home with my songs and feeling these same sorts of feelings.  The connection that is made there goes both ways and has been really life-changing on this end.

It used to be that the only time I was able to be truthful about how I felt was through my songs and writing.  That’s not the case anymore, but I started making records for that reason alone, never really thinking anyone would ever hear them aside from my friends, family, and people who I could not otherwise communicate with.  It started as a safe way for me to get the shit that was literally killing me out of my skull so I could move past it, and has continued to be that sort of outlet for me.  Once I have turned my broken feelings into a story or a physical product of some sort, they tend to start to fix themselves.  It’s like therapy, only super public.

Tell me about Portland.  We all love it here.  Why do you?

Yeah!  I love it here too.  I moved here in ‘96 back when what is now The Pearl looked like an abandoned railway system and the air smelled like rotten Spaghetti-O’s from all the breweries.  I got here just as the current music scene was really starting to form and got to watch it grow into what it is today and be a part of it as it formed.  I’ve moved away a couple of times since for brief stints in bigger cities, but I always come back.  It’s clean, beautiful, quiet, inexpensive, you don’t have to pump your own gas, and there’s tons of stuff going on.  How could I ever move?

I moved here from Kansas City to go to school.  My parents lived out here and I had come out to visit.  It took one magical night at The City nightclub during that trip and I had decided that PNCA was the only school in the entire world.  I ended up moving here shortly after.

I was raised the son of a preacher in the Church of Christ, which was a very cult-like section of the born-again world… at least where I was in rural Nebraska.  Most of the fears and difficulties I have faced as I have tried to move into adulthood were adopted back then.  I grew up feeling alone, hidden in plain sight.  I could not be myself in that environment so I had to lie about who I was, which led me down a really dark path for many years.  That darkness and those feelings of isolation and regret all play into my writing now and always have.  I think, in general, it’s unsettling to turn your back on everything you’ve ever known and break out on your own.  It certainly was for me.

What’s the connection to the Dandys?  How’d that happen?

In 2007 I was working with a company in Portland that was designing and building stores for American Apparel.  I was in Los Angeles on business for a photo shoot with photographer Ray Gordon and gave him my CD.  He liked it and it just happened to turn out that he was good friends with Courtney (Taylor-Taylor) from The Dandy Warhols.  Ray ended up passing the CD along to him and, from there, they came to my show for MusicfestNW and we set up a meeting.  I came by The Odditorium later that week and Courtney told me about the record label they were starting and asked if I’d be interested in making my record there and releasing it on Beat The World.  I think I said “Hell Yes” or something and the rest is totally awesome history.

Yeah, it’s confusing.  I was about to release the record on my own in 2007 right when I got signed with Beat The World.  Courtney’s advice was that I “shut it down” and re-make the thing properly in their studio with their engineers, which I did.  It had the same title and a few of the same songs, but it ultimately turned out completely different than it was before.  Listening to Mr. Taylor-Taylor in 2007 was one of the best decisions I have ever made.  Anyway, it got pushed back and we ended up taking our time with it.  From there, the release has changed, bigger players have come on board for distribution and such, dates have changed, etc… but the end result is light years beyond what it would have been and I’m really glad it has worked out the way it did… confusing pushbacks and all.

Listen to “Write It On My Left Arm” from the new album.

What’s the significance of the album title?

My grandma used to say the term From Pillar To Post when describing her busy day, or someone whose life had run amuck at church or in the family or whatever.  It stuck with me through the years and it took on some personal meaning as I started to run amuck in my own life, burning bridges as I crossed them, hurting everyone in my path.  The record is about my journey through the ending of my relationship, my struggles with addiction, and my determination to find truth and light amidst lies and darkness, both internal and external.  The record is all one story broken up into segments with song beginnings and endings, but is a snapshot of my life from that time.

I fancy myself a singer/songwriter and I can play very basic keys and guitar, mostly from having lessons when I was a kid… just enough to build the framework.  I played most all the instruments on my records before 2007 rolled around and I started working with Carlos Cortes from Portland-to-Brooklyn DJ Collective Assemble The Empire.  Our connection was fast and he was on-point with what I was wanting to see happen with my music.

We worked well together and, through our network and The Dandys’ network, we were able to work with TONS of people on the record and even more people after the fact with the remix project.  I got loads of help this time around.  That’s why it sounds so much better than the old stuff.  I stopped being a control freak and let other people do what they are good at.  It worked out.

MySpace basically lit the fire for what is happening in my world now.  I was super behind the times until 2006 when my friend forced me to get a MySpace page going.  Within a few weeks I had started building up an online group of listeners and started booking shows… the first of which was at the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco.  There were over 400,000 people in attendance and it was wild but turned some key people onto my music.  Things snowballed from there.  I have, since then, been building relationships with fans and listeners and the sea of people has grown quite large at this point.  I owe a lot to that direct connection with the people and tend to put most of my non-musical energy into that side of things these days.

I’m influenced by all sorts of stuff.  I’m obviously influenced directly by the bands around me these days.  Aside from the other bands on my label (The Dandy Warhols, The Upsidedown, Spindrift, and 1776) I’m surrounded by other artists in town who are doing their thing authentically, getting noticed, and making it happen.  I’m lucky that I am in such close proximity to them.  I get to learn their music industry lessons vicariously.

At the root, much of my writing influence stems from years and years of listening to bands like The Innocence Mission, The Sundays, and whatever folksy stuff my parents had playing in the car while I was a kid.  Blend in the early years of singing a capella in the church and the wild partying techno days which followed and you get my sound.  I spent a lot of time listening to solo artists like Tori Amos, Elliott Smith, and Liz Phair as I was growing up, and I’m sure that being drawn into their heads during my formative years influenced what it means to me to be a songwriter in many ways.  I was like a sponge back then, and I still feel a deep connection with many of their songs.

Emily Haines…always.

Grateful, Hopeful, Irrepressibly Optimistic…. wait, that was 4.  Sorry.

Atmospheric, Moody, Electro-pop.  Whoopsies… that was kinda 4 too.

It’s similar to what you would see if you went to see a singer-songwriter, only instead of guitars and pianos accompanying my voice, I have someone running computers, drumpads, loopers, and gadgets.

I have PDX show with Cars & Trains and The Gentry at the Doug Fir on January 7th.

Any awkward moments on stage?

I exist in a place of supreme awkwardness in my life lately as I’ve been doing things on the sober tip and sorta re-learning how to be, but my shows have actually gotten less awkward as a result.  I think the strangest show we had was in New York City in 2007.  We played a Dlist.com party called Cornhole County and there was a drag queen running a petting zoo as the opening act.  It was bizarre, to say the least.  This baby goat kept chewing on our cords and we spent most of the night trying not to sneeze and picking tiny pieces of straw off our clothes.

—
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Logan Lynn : Listening Party From Pillar To Post
Featuring DJ Rescue (Zia McCabe from The Dandy Warhols)
Jinx Bar
8 PM
Free
21+