Oregon Music News

The Woods, one of Portland’s most interesting venues — and that’s meant on many levels, which we’ll explore in the following interview — is turning one year old this weekend. Hooray!

Owners Vivien Lyon, Yonatan Shpak (the two of whom were interviewed for this story) and Ritchie Young (who is on tour with his band, you may have heard of them, Loch Lomond) know that the success of The Woods has hinged on community.

Friends, family, local musicians and production companies, along with regular patrons have helped contribute to the venue’s success by believing in it, and pitching in when needed. Vivien’s husband built the first stage, their friend build a custom bar out of re-purposed wood, and many musicians who play The Woods also take shifts bar tending and working the door. For this collaborative effort, the owners, all close friends, are grateful, and that’s why the birthday bash they’re throwing this weekend at The Woods can be considered a celebration of community just as much as it’s a celebration of the venue itself.

Friday features Mike Coykendall with Pancake Breakfast and Ash Reiter. Saturday the celebration continues with Monarques, Black Whales, and The Pink Widower.

Both shows are just $7.00. Doors open the party at 8:00 PM and the music begins at 9:00. Come celebrate The Woods’ one year anniversary this weekend.

In order to get a better understanding of The Woods, I sat down with Vivien and Yonatan (Yoni) over coffee, and the life story of the venue was revealed. The story goes something like this:

How did The Woods begin?

VL: It was actually kind of an epiphany. There was a Starbucks in the neighborhood (SE) that went out of business in the Fall of 2007, and that was great because the neighborhood possessed a co-op, community oriented feel, and Starbucks didn’t fit in at all. I thought, people like me and my friends should take it over and put something in worth while.

I had been becoming friends with my roommate Ritchie of Loch Lomond, and we were always throwing out crazy business ideas, of things we could do together. I have a law degree and have produced theater events here and there, and he’s been in the music world for forever, and has also worked in catering and bars. I thought, we could open a performance venue.

One night I came home, and he was hanging out outside with his friend, and we were all smoking and I said, “Uh, we should open a music venue.” And, it was kind of a joke. I mean, since we became friends, we were always thinking about business ideas that would support our schedules, and offer us a change of pace. So, we’d been talking about going into business together, but most of the ideas we’d had for businesses were jokes.

When I said this, I kind of expected him to say, oh yeah right. But, he said yeah, I wanna do this. And after that it was kind of like a game of chicken, to see who was more serious about it. We kind of egged each other on, and the more we talked about it, the more it seemed like something we could take on.

The first place I looked into was the Starbucks space, because I thought it would be really cool to have a music venue in SE that wasn’t like the Aladdin. But the Starbucks space of course was quite small, and for being small it was very expensive. Soon, I started working with a realtor, who pretty quickly said he had a space in mind, an old funeral parlor in Sellwood. I was immediately interested. This was in December 2008, when we had that snowstorm, so when we went to go see it, it was really hard to get there. We walked in the back doors, and instantly for me, and I think Ritchie too, we could see the potential so clearly.

We got a proposal together, and talked with some friends and family who might be able to put some money up, and in April of 2009 we signed a lease. By that point, Yoni joined us as an investor, and partial owner. By June, we were frantic getting ready for our opening weekend, which was an invite-only charity event, sponsored by PDXSalon, and featuring a line up of amazing bands.

Do you get any weird vibes, being in a funeral parlor?

VL: I really don’t. I had never been to a funeral parlor for a funeral, I’d been a part of memorial services but they’d been in different, more intimate places. So I don’t even connect this place with death. Which is interesting, because the whole building was dedicated in dealing with that. It was a family owned business from 1929-1993 when it sold to Michael Ash, who owns the big funeral business, Portland Memorial, which is just a few blocks from The Woods.

We do have an area that used to be the embalming room, and we have a corpse elevator where we store band equipment while they’re on stage — it’s really handy.

I’m sure it is.

And we have what used to be the crematorium, which we just use for storage, and we’ve talked about having a haunted house, but to be honest, I don’t really feel like disrespecting the building like that. It’s not spooky, it performed a very valuable community service for a very long time, and I think American’s views on death can be pretty juvenile.

The point is, I’ve never been spooked out by the fact that it was a funeral parlor. Ritchie kinda was. He’s seen ghosts in his life, he’s had experiences, he’s had experiences there. I never have. All I know is I’ve never felt anything genuinely scary there, but I have felt a weight of sadness, in the beginning. It was more the psychic vibrations and echos of so many people having grappled with the loss of people they loved there. There’s inevitably going to be some kind of echo of that.

That’s why last year when we had our first event in June, we wanted to honor that, and we brought music into all the rooms. Whatever kind of echos or spirits that might still be lingering… we wanted to kind of express that we respected that. And, that night was really quite beautiful.

So, the community has been pretty supportive of you guys, right?

There were a few concerns in the beginning, like there are with any new music venue, especially because we’re in a semi-residential area. But, by in large, there was a lot of excitement and a lot of energy around it. Especially among people in our age, in their late 20s through their early 40s, who want to go out and enjoy music, but don’t want a smokey, deafening place. And we really haven’t had any complaints. It’s surprisingly sound proof.

Speaking of that, how are the acoustics?

We really lucked out. Under the pile carpet, there were original unfinished Doug fir floors, which we ended up restoring. It could have been echo-y, it could have been like a box, but it wasn’t. People comment frequently that the sound is good. It isn’t muddy or tinny, like some venues in town.

<Enter Yoni.>

Describe a typical day at The Woods.

YS: All three owners are co-managers, so we rotate shifts. We also all tend to be bar tenders. We’re not very good bar tenders. I’m not really good at cleaning up after, either.

VL: That’s why we have a bar manager. Yeah, we manage on any given night, so that’s getting there early, making sure the bands are set up, the sound person’s there, setting up the space, just overseeing it all.

What time do you normally show up for that?

5:00 or 6:00 PM, depending. But, the day starts early from home, answering e-mails, making orders, all of that behind the scenes stuff. And shows generally start at 8:00 or 9:00 PM. Then we help close it all down too.

What was one of the best shows you’ve had in the last year?

YS: I was really impressed with Musee Mecanique, that was a really beautiful show.

VL: Yeah, that was beautiful. That night was opened with Billygoat, a new Portland band, and they do a lot of stop-motion animation films that go along with their sonic landscapes, and we just fell in love with them.

YS: We’ve adopted them.

VL: Yes, we’ve adopted them, Nick works at the bar and David works the doors. So yeah, they were great, and Musee Mecanique played and — there are a lot of bands who have a very specific aesthetic vision — and Musee brought 3 or 4 projectors along with them, and projected all these beautiful images on the walls. It was really special and a lovely that evening.

What about dream bands?

VL: Pantera. (laughs). She & Him, but they’re too big…

YS: LCD Soundsystem, Daft Punk. I really think we should get them in there.

Hey, it doesn’t hurt to dream big.

In the beginning, The Woods hosted a selection of acoustic and indie rock groups, along with some chamber music. As they explore what’s available, they have begun to move in the direction of hosting more ambient electronic music that blends art, film, and sound, as well. Another new direction soon to be explored is world music. Both genres, electronic and world, need more support in Portland, so their expansion can only be a positive one.

In addition to regular shows,  The Woods hosts a soul dance party the first Wednesday of the month with DJ Cooky Jar, karaoke the last Wednesday of each month, as well as comedy nights and film screenings. The space is available to rent for private events, and has hosted several weddings, including Vivien’s in May.

For more information, including a list of upcoming shows, visit The Woods, and don’t forget to join in the anniversary celebration this weekend.

Sasquatch! Music Festival creator Adam Zacks has put together a show that rivals its natural surroundings.  For those artists that failed to mention the magnificence of the venue while they were on stage, they were damn well thinking about it as they rocked one of the four breezy stages.  But diversity is the draw as Sasquatch combined reunited acts with the blogosphere buzz, and those same artists were also awed by their contingent.

In its ninth year, the Memorial Day weekend festival at The Gorge Amphitheatre brought together indie rock and hip-hop, electro dance tents and down tempo trip-hop to a sold out sward of 20,000+ concertgoers.  And in its third year as a three-day event, Saturday was lovely, Sunday was dance-y, and Monday threatened to rain but instead shone with sunny giddiness.

Indulging in ridiculousness, Sunday’s middy pageantry was typified by They Might Be Giants’ geeky adult rock on the main stage.  Replete with a raunchy puppet show, their sparse comical rock was fun, even for “Your Racist Friend,” as TMBG showed the crowd some stompin’ and clappin’ jams from their back catalogue while making it obvious, through their stupid antics, just how easy the transition to kiddie tunes has been for the duo of John Flansburgh and John Linnell, who’ve been together for more than 25 years, and crew.

Looking to liven up the crowd, a giddy Kid Cudi put together an Autotune’d, karaoke set that got the pit jumping.  Sometimes rapping, he showed some skill but too often crooning in his tone-deaf moan, his tape jams were boring if you weren’t already a fan of his faddy music.  With a Gaga remix, the highlight of Cudi’s set was definitely not musical but rather when he brought the Vancouver fan who he decked in the face in December on stage for a hug–he was subsequently kicked off the Lady Gaga tour for this incident.

Calmly hidden amongst the bodies scattered across the lawn were hordes of dance punks that quickly united to bask in the glory of the main stage as LCD Soundsystem churned out dance party brilliance.  The pit bustled with twerky energy as feet stamped the steep hill above LCD’s raving grooves.  Playing an abridged version of their PDX set from the night before, James Murphy combined classics with new album tracks like “Pow Pow” and “Drunk Girls.”  But it wasn’t until “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House” that the glorious call of “Pants off, dance off!” summoned a dance party on the grass where swathes of dancers stripped to their skivvies for the rest of the set.  Stumbling through the blankets and piles of discarded shoes and garments, an audience wanting more than an hour of LCD searched for what was once necessary.

Keeping the energy extremely high was a gold-grilled, nasally hype man yelling, “Yo Chuck!  Look at these suckas!”  Second to last on Bigfoot stage, Public Enemy played classics from their late ’80s and early ’90s albums, showing how ill PE can still be with several decades of raw hip-hop under their belt.  Midway through their set it wanted to rain, but the riled up audience was packed in too tight to be bothered by a few large drops from above.  A serious, deep, and coherent Chuck D was contrasted by his bouncy, pesky sidekick, Flavor Flav, as the crowd called back chants and fanned extended arms to the critical, political beats.

Massive Attack with Martina Topley-Bird

Knocking the physical, hyphy energy down notch but keeping the intensity high, and the political analysis even higher, were Massive Attack back on the main stage.  With the infinite world expanding throughout the recesses of the Columbia River Gorge behind them, Massive Attack hung onto the finite facts and figures of today’s baffling world.  Flashing LED statistics like lottery numbers, the trip-hop duo and full band addressed education and oil spilling into the gulf, showed quotes about freedom from Mandela, Tutu and Hunter S. Thompson, and called out Arizona with a “Ya basta no mas deportacion.”

The headlines grew a bit more ludicrous (yet not entirely unrealistic) as the set wore on with “Britney At War;” “Bill Clinton Rear Ended;” “Sarah Palin ‘We’re All Arizonians’;” “Bret Michaels From Deathbed;” “Travolta Destroyed;” and of course, “Adrian Brody Upset By Gay Goats.”

Massive Attack with Horace Andy

Featuring long-time tour collaborator Deborah Miller’s soulful vocals on several tracks including the ever-present “Unfinished Symphony,” MA were also joined by the crimson gowned Martina Topley-Bird and the booming drone of Horace Andy, both of whom only added to the grandiose aura on stage.  Reverberating his chilled baritone through the scintillating strobes, Andy closed out the set with “Splitting the Atom” to a flickering menagerie of corporate logos splattered across the video screens culminating with BP and wishing that it stood for “Beyond Petroleum.”

Booka Shade on the Bigfoot

Drained in the darkness, a lethargic festival mass moved towards restful campgrounds only to be beckoned by the last bombastic beats emanating from the Bigfoot stage before reaching the exit.  German electro-producers Booka Shade set up a furious field dance party starting at 11:30 PM, and many concertgoers-turned-club remained to dance uninhibitedly as Booka Shade brought electro-house energy and atmosphere to an open field.  Excited to be closing Sasquatch’s Sunday night, their electronic potpourri warmed bodies to a sweaty steam until the crisp night air breezed back in on the return hike to the campground.

Photos Kevin Tomanka

by Annette Zuzio

There’s an old church in New York where when you walk near the grand, ringing bells, people can scream their lungs out but no one hears a sound. You can look right at someone screaming with every cell of their being, but no sound comes out–a strange silence buried in a sound explosion. And on Saturday night at a sold out Roseland, this same phenomena happened several times.

For nearly two hours, LCD Soundsystem fed well over a thousand Portlanders insane doses of sound. The crowd couldn’t get enough of those intensely crisp, wickedly precise beats and soul-pounding grooves all racing at varying tempo’s slamming one body into another. Together under one roof, rockers, punk kids and electronica hipsters shared one of those experiences that singes the mind for all time.

The synergy between the band and the audience was undeniable and started early on when the OMN family checked in on LCD’s family in the balcony where Nancy’s mom (Nancy Whang keyboardist and native Portlander) was in attendance.  Chit chat ceased as LCD Soundsystem launched into what lead singer James Murphy later described as their “hardest ever” rendition “Drunk Girls.” Fiercely tight, this was just fifteen minutes into the show.

The night was a constant force of new tracks and previous hits melded together and pulled from the LCD past with the likes of “Someone Great” and “All My Friends” and new favorites “Pow Pow,” “All I Want,” and “I Can Change”–check the set list below. The maestro himself James Murphy, who incidentally was still rich with mojo, managed to mesmerize with his vocals, tweak sound levels, and hit that cow bell in all the right places with the magic that only one rightfully crowned the coolest guy on the planet can so smoothly deliver. No loss of edge there.

The highlight, besides plenty of chunky cow bell, was the set ending “Movement” and “Yeah,” which seemed to push those in front of the stage right over the edge. Murphy laughed when he said he could feel a wind from our screams. The much-needed, chilled out encore was long enough to bring us back just in time to exit. Simply a stunning night… and it wasn’t over.

With ringing ears, the sweaty masses drifted out and I caught my breath before heading over to Rotture for the after party DJ set. Every member of LCD Soundsystem and openers Holy Ghost! are also DJs, so the group alternates who plays each city.

P-town drew both drummers (yes!) spinning an all-vinyl set with Gavin Russom, on synths, along for some hang time. The rest of the tour had already left for Washington to hit Sasquatch the next night, but these guys and their grooves spent the night with us. A few guys hit the decks on and off while waiting for Holy Ghost! drummer Nick Millhiser and LCD SS’s Pat Mahoney to show up. Mahoney was fully clothed where just a couple of hours earlier the front row of the Roseland was lucky enough to be just a couple of feet from his nearly naked legs–thus for now and forever, I can only recognize this man from his thighs alone. Most people know his concert attire reflects a more Prefontaine version of himself, (’70s short shorts, shaggy beard, etc.), and affections only grew stronger when his selection leaned more to house music while Nick Millhiser weighed in with a slightly higher tempo. The guys switched off every couple of records, tag teaming–a style hugely popular amongst Portland DJs.

While chatting with the kind and chill Gavin Russom–who even took his own spin on the dance floor–it occurred to me that they were so calm while I was still feeling the buzz from the front of the stage. Were these the same guys that nearly brought down Roseland just a couple of miles away? Clearly I, and all the others, was reluctant to let the night go. People were all over the place at Rotture and all were happily dancing the night away while some of us subtly recovered.

It went like this:

Us vs Them
Drunk Girls
Get Innocuous!
Yr City’s a Sucker
Pow Pow
Daft Punk is Playing at My House
All I Want
All My Friends
I Can Change
Tribulations
Movement
Yeah

Someone Great
Losing My Edge
New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down

Read Annette Zuzio’s review of LCD at both the Roseland and their Rotture after party.

Brooklyn-based boys Holy Ghost! grew up together on NYC’s Upper West Side as hip-hop heads and were soon picked up and groomed by electro, dance-punk DFA Records’ cohorts James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem) and Tim Goldsworthy.

Buzz began to grumble when DFA released their 2008 dance track “Hold On” as the duo of Alex Frankel and Nicholas Millhiser started to stockpile mad remixes, taking tracks from Cut Copy, Moby, MGMT, Phoenix, and more.  (Check out those mixes and more on Holy Ghost!’s Winter 2009-2010 Mix Tape here.)

With an affinity for longer, building dance tracks, HG! cuts often clock in around six minutes or more.  Their four-track, debut EP, Static on the Wire came out on May 18th on DFA, shows their ability to control energy and atmosphere rather than spewing breakneck radio pop jams that climax before they start.  In the vintage synths of “I Know I Hear,” you can hear Daft Punk crossed with Friendly Fires (whose track “On Board” they’ve also remixed).

And although we’ve been discussing the remixes, the Italo-disco synths on their single “Say My Name” (below) are Holy Ghost! originals (not Destiny’s Child):

Releasing their EP on the same day as LCD Soundsystem’s latest (and possibly last?), This Is Happening, the duo remixed LCD’s first single off the new album, “Drunk Girls” (get it here for the cost of an email address), and takes to the road for the first time ever.  Bringing along a four-piece band that includes Alex Frankel singing and playing Rhodes, Nick Millhiser on drums, Erik Tonnensen on keys, and Chris Maher on guitar, they’ll hit the Euro fests before opening for Chromeo on a month’s worth of dates from late July into August, including a (second) stop at the Roseland on August 13th with the suave synth-funk Canadians.

But right now they’re opening for LCD Soundsystem at the Roseland on Saturday, May 29th, and Holy Ghost!’s Alex Frankel spoke with OMN via email before the tour kicked off.

You two have played in bands together since childhood. What other styles of music have you played together that brought you to this point?

We starting really playing in a rap group together (Automato), through which we met James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy from DFA. Hip-hop is still a constant reference point, although it’s not what we’re making anymore.

Looking back, does any of it make you smile or laugh?

I mean we joke about being ’90s rap kids with North Faces and spray paint and cargo pants and saying shit like “lyrically, physically, mentally”…. all the time, but I still love that music. So.

When and how did you get hooked up with DFA?

In short: Our rap group Automato signs to Capitol in 2000, capitol hires DFA to produce a bunch of 18-year-old hip-hop kids, friendships build and last, James and Tim encourage us to keep making music after Automato breaks up, James offers to put out “Hold On” out in 2007.

Your debut EP Static on the Wire came out on May 18th on DFA. How long has this been in the works?

We started out album sessions about two and a half years ago. These songs are part of that batch.

Are you DJs/remixers at heart? Tell me more about your DJ careers. How have these passions helped you develop Holy Ghost!’s sound?

Records are extremely important to us/me. So is “digging.” See, there’s the hip-hop. Before I started mixing records I was buying vinyl from the dollar bins for samples. And I still do. I often start a song with a trip to the record store to find stuff to go off of. The DJing, i.e. the mixing of records–at least for me–came largely from not being able to perform Holy Ghost! live but wanting to get out and play. I had great mentors like Jacques Renault and got to watch great DJs like Eli Escobar and Tim Sweeney. So I do ok now.

You’ve put out a load of great remixes for artists like Cut Copy, Moby, MGMT, Phoenix and most recently Friendly Fires and LCD Soundsytem’s new single “Drunk Girls.” How does the remix game work for you? Do you reach out to the artists you want to remix or do they come to you?

They reach out to us. We do what we want, hopefully they say, “Damn, that’s hot!”

What’s your favorite remix you’ve put out?

Hmm, I like the Curses mix and the Panthers mix a lot. Also really proud of the cover we did for the British band Friendly Fires for the song “On Board.” But the two most recent ones, for LCD and this new one for Monarchy are up there.

What’s your favorite remix that you’ve heard recently?

Todd Terje mix of Shit Robot “Simple Things”–it’s the best mix of 2009.

Do you have anything in the remix pipeline?

This Monarchy remix. It’s hot. We re-did everything, it’s like a cover.

About a year ago there was talk of Michael McDonald doing the vocals on a Holy Ghost! track… what’s happening with this song and what’s it called?

It’s done. It’s awesome.

When can we expect a debut, full-length album?

Late 2010 or early 2011.

Have a title?

Nah.

Right now you’re hitting both sides of the Atlantic playing some huge shows and festivals and opening for LCD Soundsystem. What are you looking forward to most?

Getting going.

What’s the one thing Portland should know about Holy Ghost!?

We’re both single.

Your press release says you two “bonded over a mutual love of hot sauce.”  Have you tried Portland’s Aardvark Sauce? It’s the creation of the recently deceased singer/songwriter Scotland Barr… highly recommended.

Oooh, that sounds nice. Can you send us a bottle?

What’s the best sauce?

I actually am partial to Tabasco and also to Frank’s Red Hot. Boring, I know.

Why is there an exclamation at the end of Holy Ghost!?

It looks good?

With over 75 performers on three untamed stages–dubbed Sasquatch, Bigfoot and Yeti–and inside the Rumpus Room, the ninth annual Sasquatch! Music Festival takes place on Memorial Day weekend–Saturday, May 29th through Monday, May 31st–at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, WA.

2010 features headliners My Morning Jacket, Massive Attack, Pavement, and Ween alongside indie and electro combos, hip-hop, DJs and dance acts from around the world, and OMN is here to help navigate the offerings.

Sorry kids, this year’s festival is sold out (check C-list for last-minute buys), but we’ll also tell you who’s coming through town before or after the fest and where you can catch them.

And don’t forget the Ice Cream Man (aka Matt Allen) who will be handing out thousands of free frozen treats from his 1969 Chevrolet Step Van.  To date, he’s passed out around 400,000 ice creams, and he’s shooting for a million, so there should be no shortage in sight.  Hooray!

Saturday, May 29th — Picks by Katie Shaw

Mumford & Sons: This passionate four-man troupe from England have quickly been gaining ground in the states with the US release of their debut album, Sigh No More, in February. While frequently compared to Kings of Leon, their banjo-driven blend of country, bluegrass, folk, and rock also calls to mind the likes of The Avett Brothers and other folk-rock revivalists.

Marcus Mumford, Country Winston, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane are not just band members but good friends, and like their music, they all have spirited personality. The band’s website includes blogs like “Ben’s Food on the Road” and “Marcus’ Book Club,” and the posts reflect the same down-to-earth quality of their song lyrics. If the combination of their intimate, honest lyrics and rollicking instrumentation on tracks like “Roll Away Your Stone” and “Little Lion Man” is anywhere near as enthralling live as it is on their album, they’re sure to be a crowd favorite as Sasquatch 2010. And if you can’t catch them at Sasquatch, you’ll have another chance Monday night at the Aladdin.

Watch “Winter Winds”:

Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend is popping up everywhere these days–from a nod as the “whitest band” in Stuff White People Like to an appearance on Saturday Night Live to featured tracks in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and I Love You, Man.

The New York-based band, whose members met while attending Columbia University, released their second full-length album, Contra, in January. Like their self-titled debut from 2008, the songs on Contra feature quirky lyrics about pincer crabs and everyone’s favorite milky Mexican beverage (“Horchata”) and references to typefaces (twelve-point Futura, to be exact) and other academic nerdery (“Holiday”). And, like their debut, Contra is packed with catchy, poppy tunes perfect for a sunny day in George, Washington.

Watch “Giving Up The Sun”:

Nurses: Nurses are strange, but it’s the right kind of strange. If you’ve seen the Portland-based band live, like at their recent opening gig for The Tallest Man on Earth at the McMenamins Mission Theater, you’ve seen how many cords and power strips it takes to keep this three-man band going. Their combination of pianos, drums, shakers, and guitars looped and layered with reverb-heavy vocals is unusual, but it’s the kind of sound that grows on you, especially tracks like “Caterpillar Playground” and “Technicolor.” The band members, Aaron Chapman, John Bowers, and James Mitchell, have an understated stage presence, saying very little between songs but rather allowing their strange sound (and sometimes a few props, in the form of a psychedelic background video and some colorful, hand-knit charms) to speak for itself.

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros: A music festival just wouldn’t be complete without hippies, and this year’s Sasquatch will be featuring some of the most enjoyable hippies around: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. The ten-piece folk band from Los Angeles is led by Alex Ebert (former front-man of Ima Robot) and was a result of Ebert’s disillusionment with major labels. The independent group sings free-spirited songs about love and life that feel organic and free and straight out of the sixties. “Home,” from their debut album, Up From Below, which was released in July of last year, is a summer anthem that evokes the story-driven ballads of flower power days, and the combination of whistles, horns, claps, and an impossibly bouncy chorus will have Sasquatch-goers feeling the free love.

Watch the crew live on the stomping jam “40 Day Dream”:

Five-piece ambient noise-rockers Minus The Bear hit the main stage in the afternoon as well as the Roseland in Portland on Friday, May 29th.  Read more about the Seattleites here.

Plus, don’t forget Oregonian bluesy folk rockers Portugal. The Man (check out the recent OMN interview) and Glacial Pace/Isaac Brock (of Modest Mouse) produced, psych-rockers Morning Teleportation.

Sunday, May 30th — Picks by Chris Young

Massive Attack's Grant “Daddy G” Marshall and Robert “3D” Del Naja

Massive Attack: Back in the USA for the first time since 2006, the Bristol, UK, trip-hop pioneers just released their fifth studio album–their first in seven years.  (Read the OMN review of Heligoland.)

Headlining the second night, Massive Attack will be joined by long-time collaborators Martina Topley-Bird and Horace Andy (whose vocals have been featured on every MA studio album).  You oughta feel privileged to experience this one live as this is the last stop on their eight date North American tour (and five of those dates came in California).

As they say on their MySpace, “If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing slowly.”  Soak up the chilled out beats.

Watch the video for Heligoland’s first single “Splitting the Atom” featuring Horace Andy:

LCD Soundsystem: Hot off the release of what may be James Murphy’s last album, LCD Soundsystem brings legendary dance-punk verve to the main stage.  With so many sweaty dance jams to their name, expect “Drunk Girls” and pray for Daft Punk to play at your house.  LCD also hits Portland (twice in one night) on Saturday, May 30th–once at the Roseland with Holy Ghost! and later at the Supernature after party at Rotture.

Public Enemy: Yeah boy!  There’s not much that needs to be said here.  Hip-hop originators fronted by one of the most influential MCs in the game, Chuck D still leads his controversial crew after more than 20 years of thumping minds with loaded lyrics.  Colossal clocks and gold chains, Flavor Flav!

Booka Shade: Following Public Enemy on the Bigfoot stage, the Frankfurters crank the Sunday club night with an electronic house party starting at 11:30 PM.  Releasing their fourth album More! on May 4th, the duo of Arno Kammermeier and Walter Merziger may have begun as dancefloor producers and DJs but they become an immense live dance act.  Setting up synths and an electronic drum kit, they’ve rocked the big stages at Coachella and Glastonbury making fans of club music haters.  Body rock into Monday with the album’s first single “Bad Love”:

And seriously, if you can’t get enough dancing on Sunday, the Simian Mobile Disco DJ set is a must-see as well as A-Trak’s hip-hop mix tape, electronic mash-up.

Plus Portland electro ideologists YACHT hold down the Rumpus Room stage earlier on Sunday eve.  Read OMN’s pre-Sasquatch interview with the transcendental planet sailors and become a part of the band during the interactive YACHT experience.

If you’re over worshiping the dance gods, then stick to indie rock stuffs like Local Natives, Freelance Whales, Dirty Projectors, Langhorne Slim, and Pavement.

Monday, May 31st — Picks by Chris Young

MGMT: Telling the world that they’re gonna do exactly what they want, MGMT doesn’t care what you think.  Or hear.  Stepping away from the college party pop of their debut, the duo of Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden said Congratulations (to themselves) with their second effort–an electro-pop conundrum of twists and turns, accidentally cobbled together by the lighthearted Middletown tykes.  (Delve a bit deeper into the MGMT psyche with the OMN review of their latest.)  Second to last on the main stage, they’ve also sold out two shows at the Crystal Ballroom for the following Tuesday and Wednesday.

Mayer Hawthorne & The County: Add Motown soul plus white boy falsetto and you’ve got Mr. Hawthorne–an indemnity to the funky rhythms of a bygone Detroit; old school spirit with new school beats due to his hip-hop producer mentality.  Getting big love from the Big Snoop Dogg and exposing his 7-inch heart to the world, Mayer spoke with OMN before he visited Portland back in April.  Playing most of the instruments on his record, Mayer got wise when it came to touring and hired the best damn backing band, The County, to compliment his awkward charm.  In white hi-tops and a charcoal suit, he tore up the Roseland on that fine April evening (including a rollicking cover of “Mr. Blue Sky”) as ladies screamed and booties swang to his funky, bass-laden beats.

Neon Indian: The acid trip that never happened spawned a new musical alter-ego for Texas’ Alan Palomo (also the disco house act VEGA).  Lo-fi, glo-fi, it’s time to bust Neon Indian’s debut Psychic Chasms back out in hopes that our “Deadbeat Summer” will return.  Full layers of warm electro-pop, Neon Indian is appropriate for lounging in the sun donning your psychedelic shades.  Check out the OMN interview with Alan Palomo from November 2009–before the first time he performed in Oregon.

The Heavy: Wake up early for the soulful Noid rockers!  What rockers?  From Noid, UK, they’re playing at noon, so forget your coffee because they’re damn heavy enough to jolt you out of any Sunday night stupor.  Dirt and punk, rock ‘n roll, blues and soul, the gritty quartet takes a break from their tour with Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings to hit the Sasquatch main stage.

“How You Like Me Now?”  It flipped Letterman’s middle-aged ass.

(Something not so heavy: You’ve also heard them in this Toy Story Kia commercial.)

Seattle Rock Orchestra: What’s flippin’ cooler than a symphony rocking out?  Cypress Hill first stumbled onto to this concept while high at Hullabalooza and The Portland Cello Project has been doing it with strings in late 2007.  The all-volunteer SRO ensemble “collaborates with bands and artists to produce one-of-a-kind symphonic rock shows.”  The project began in 2008 as a 13-piece string ensemble lead by bassist and orchestrator Scott Teske and now it includes a full symphony orchestra with strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion and choir.  They’ve done Bowie at Seattle’s Moore Theatre, but Sasquatch 2010 will be SRO’s tribute to the Arcade Fire’s Funeral.

The Mountain Goats: Melt and weep to lead singer John Darnielle’s “excellently depressing lyrics,” as OMN’s Guia Nocon puts it.  They also hit the Dour Fir Lounge on Sunday, May 30th and you can win tickets to their Portland gig here.

Then there are indie pop sweeties M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel acting as She & Him who also stop through Oregon in Bend at the Les Schwab Amphitheater with Band of Horses the day before.  Check out those details here.

Once you’ve recovered from your festivities, check back here for interviews with artists, photos, and performance reviews on our Sasquatch Music Festival page.  Happy hunting.

Pre-LCD poster. Show up to see the post-LCD shock waves.

If your standard monthly Supernature fare was enough for your avant-garde, electronica dancing ass, this month’s gig will be MASSIVE!!!!  Dance steward, huge fan, and promoter Manny Reyes has just announced that he will “faint” at the “epic” proportions of this month’s gig on Saturday, May 29th.

Why?

Oh, because a little dance-punk group called LCD Soundsystem will be DJing.  That’s right, Rotture is the 21+ after party for their all-ages Roseland gig earlier in the evening.

Also appearing will be West Coast acts Dangerous Boys Club, Joey Casio, DJ E*Rock, DJ Copy, and DJ BJ.  Doors open at 9 PM; free before 10 PM, $5 after.

Come early, it’s gonna be packed.  Just follow the girlish squeals, which will be pouring from Manny’s being.

Till then, gush along with him on Facebook.

The day before his gig at Sasquatch, James Murphy rolls through the Roseland on Saturday, May 29th (yes, this is also the opening day of Sasquatch where LCD Soundsystem will headline on Sunday, May 30th).

Tickets go on sale Saturday, April 10th at 10 AM for $32.

In the last week or so, LCD Soundsystem also revealed the new album’s art/title (This Is Happening, due out May 18th) and the track “Drunk Girls” (along with this “Drunk Girls” video trailer with the tag, “here it comes. a drunk girls vid that doesn’t have pictures of vomiting college girls!”).

In the post-Sasquatch shockwaves that tumble through town, Portland is one of only four cities getting two nights of MGMT (the others being San Fran, London and Paris).

Taking into consideration that many PDX denizens will likely be at the Gorge until Tuesday (we like to think they care about us), MGMT crashes the Crystal Ballroom on Tuesday, June 1st AND Wednesday, June 2nd after headlining Sasquatch on Monday, May 31st.

Presale starts today, Wednesday, April 7th, at 12 PM.  Tickets are $30 advance, $33 day of show (yeah right, like there will be any left).

MGMT’s Congratulations is out on April 13th.  But stream it here.

Guitar section… whaaaaa!!!

UPDATE: A second MGMT presale starts Thursday, April 8th at 10 AM here for June 1st and over there for June 2nd.  Password is monqui.

And the LCD presale starts Friday at 10 AM.  Details here. Password is monqui.  Holy Ghost! will open.

YACHT played a farewell show in Portland to kick off their current tour with The Straight Gaze.  Finishing up at SXSW last weekend, the band has another date in CA before they come home for a power nap before rocketing off to Europe (only to open for frickin’ LCD Soundsystem) only coming back in time for Sasquatch on Sunday, May 30th.

“The Afterlife” is the second single off YACHT’s debut See Mystery Lights.  In prose that could only come from the methodical, ideological minds of YACHT…

Water baptism is a ritual act which gives people a profound sense of renewal and rebirth. Baptism initiates, purifies, and gives a name. Baptism need not be dogmatic. It can be, rather, a pure experience of the body: anticipation, cold, shock, brevity, commitment, and emergence, relief.

YACHT’s video for “The Afterlife,” directed by longtime collaborator Judah Switzer, is an exercise in this new tradition of non-denominational baptism. YACHT is baptized repeatedly in the bodies of water — river, fountain, waterfall, lake — of their home state of Oregon, a physical immersion in a place that has profoundly affected their lives. The raw shock, the pure feeling of cold water on skin, is unflinchingly documented by high-definition RED Cameras operating in slow-motion.

YACHT demonstrates their commitment to place, ideology, and their project with pure wet vulnerability and symbolic death. The song says, “It’s not a place you go, it’s a place that comes to you.”

And the press loved our homegrown talent at SXSW:

“If you want to talk about energy, I don’t think anything quite compares to YACHT. #1 Top performance at SXSW.”  –USA Today

“…the biggest dance party I experienced at SXSW.”  –Pitchfork

Love it!  Now come back to PDX and play hello show!  We’ve missed our big time, #1 dance party makers.

It’s official… well Twitter official.  James Murphy tweeted, “mixing last song right now to send to the amazing bob weston to master. meaning, record DONE. i hope people like it.”

Pitchfork has a few more details while Murphy gears up for legendary sets at Coachella, Sasquatch, and Bonnaroo as well as a European jaunt in April and May featuring YACHT as the openers.

Check out two minutes of behind the scenes making of footage replete with a massive American flag and play the waiting game.

The 2010 lineup for the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee is slowly trickling out on their MySpace but PDX rockers Blitzen Trapper are amped to be included alongside wicked collaborations from Daryl Hall & Chromeo, Damian Marley & Nas, and The Flaming Lips with Stardeath and White Dwarfs performing “Dark Side of the Moon.”

Other highlights of the diverse lineup include:

The Avett Brothers
John Fogerty
Jeff Beck
Phoenix
Regina Spektor
Mayer Hawthorne & the County
Neon Indian
Dave Matthews Band
Jay-Z
GWAR
Kings of Leon
The Black Keys
Kris Kristofferson
LCD Soundsystem
Medeski Martin and Wood
Cross Canadian Ragweed
Ingrid Michaelson
The xx
Wale
Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers
Norah Jones
Bassnectar
OK Go
Monte Montgomery
Punch Brothers
Thievery Corporation
She & Him
Jimmy Cliff
Tokyo Police Club
Kid Cudi
Japandroids
Dr. Dog
Baaba Maal
Zac Brown Band
The National
John Prine
Dave Rawlings Machine
Local Natives
Dropkick Murphys
Manchester Orchestra
Jay Electronica
The Postelles
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Rebelution
Needtobreathe
Tenacious D
Jamey Johnson
They Might Be Giants
The Entrance Band
Lotus
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Clutch
Tori Amos
The Melvins
The Dodos
The Dead Weather
Rise Against
Deadmau5
Martin Sexton
Gaslight Anthem
Mumford & Sons
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
Baroness
Julia Nunes
Here We Go Magic
Tinariwen
The Disco Biscuits
Diane Birch
Lucero
Isis
Miranda Lambert
Brandi Carlile
B.O.B.
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Blues Teveler
The Temper Trap
Michael Franti & Spearhead
Weezer

…with more to be announced!!!

87 days and counting until…

LCD Soundsystem, Muse, Phoenix, Sly & The Family Stone, Gorillaz, Them Crooked Vultures, Thom Yorke, Tiësto, Deadmau5, MGMT, Grizzly Bear, Echo and the Bunnymen, Fever Ray, La Roux, Yeasayer, Ra Ra Riot, Hockey, The Dead Weather, Hot Chip, Devo, Major Lazer, Gossip, Old Crow Medicine Show, Bassnectar, Pretty Lights, Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros, The Temper Trap, Portugal. The Man, Julian Casablancas, Gary Numan, Deerhunter, The Big Pink, King Khan and the Shrines, Florence and the Machine, Mayer Hawthorne, Local Natives, and Rusko.

That’s just a smattering of the great acts that will be at the 11th Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.

Tickets for COACHELLA go on sale Friday, January 22 at 10:00 AM at all Ticketmaster locations and www.coachella.com. Three-day weekend passes are $269.00, plus surcharges.  More details on layaway, camping options and up-to-the minute information, can be found at www.coachella.com.

Pitchfork drops their first quarter report of this winter’s best releases including new Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Laura Veirs, Editors, Goldfrapp, Sigur Rós’ Jónsi Birgisson, and a DVD/CD documentary of The White Stripes trekking across Canada.

More exciting albums that don’t have definitive release dates yet but are coming in 2010 from Gorillaz, Interpol, !!!, LCD Soundsystem, and MGMT’s Congratulations.

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

James Murphy drops a new one for all your house parties and dance nights in 2010.  Hear “Bye Bye Bayou” which was leaked last month and get the full details and interview on Drowned In Sound.