For the first time ever, downtown Portland’s Lotus offered a night of live music Saturday featuring three outstanding, up-and-coming native bands. Locals took advantage of the nice weather and showed up in swarms, making friends with strangers in order to find a place to sit amidst the masses.
Christie Bradley
Opening the evening, the Bradley Band offered an array of brand new music, their first show playing exclusively singer Will Bradley’s original songs. His sister Christie rocked out on the drums and lent her powerful voice both as back-up for Bradley as well as when she took center stage at the end of their set to belt out a few songs, showing off her amazing vocal range. In an instant, her intonation went off the charts, carrying across the room–a commanding voice rivaling that of Aretha Franklin, Christie could even go without using a microphone at all.
With both parents musicians, their genetic musical talents were inevitable and their abilities only developed further by starting at a young age. Will began with playing drums and has played every instrument in between, finally devoting himself completely to guitar at age 13. Christie picked up a pair of drumsticks in middle school and has never looked back. Their mentor Danny Ard jammed with them on bass guitar, but preferred to leave the spotlight on the Bradleys.
They won’t hesitate to remind audience members that they are “not a couple” and have gotten in the habit of announcing that fact when they play because it is such a common assumption due to the intimacy of the lyrics on many of the songs. Writing from real life experience, mostly about love or finding oneself, a few of Bradley’s songs were written about encounters with various people who don’t always have an open mind, including a former co-worker. So watch your actions or you may just have a song written about you!
Will and Christie Bradley of the Bradley Band
Positivity and happiness spilled over into Will Bradley’s music, creating an upbeat, Jason Mraz-style sound, although his range went well beyond the pop sound he often plays. Incorporating all his influences from reggae to blues, pop to heavier rock and everything in between, Bradley actually worries that he has not defined the band enough by focusing on just one particular genre, and that it may inhibit marketing. It doesn’t seem to be hurting too much as they received an invitation to audition for America’s Got Talent when they come to Portland on March 1st thanks to their many devoted fans posting videos on YouTube.
The Bradley Band performs every Tuesday night at Rock Bottom Brewery and are in the process of recording a CD they hope to be released soon.
The four members of Goodbye Harrison were all separately passionate about music before meeting and discovering their strong common bond while they all were attending the University of Oregon. Although singer/songwriter Jeff Mott and guitarist Tom Smith grew up together playing instruments, the band did not form officially until 2008. For several years, the group was a trio that included drummer Kevin McElroy until they met Garrett Kravitz last year, who has now become the quartet’s permanent bass player.
Smith and Kravitz of Goodbye Harrison
Playing a variety of covers from many genres as well as Mott and Smith’s original work, their style is what they call “Limestone rock”: a blend of rock, pop, soul, and R&B. During their rock pieces, the music develops hints of punk and heavy metal undertones, but they say that mainly just happens when they play live. After one these songs, Mott described the song as their “attempt at a dance song.” Attempt, he said, because most of Goodbye Harrison’s songs are tranquil and soulful.
Taking us back to when we were kids, they performed Genuine’s Pony, reminiscing right along with us about listening to the song on Z100 growing up. What started out as a fun joke covering Lil Wayne’s Lollipop has turned into one of their trademarks songs. What would be funny–four white guys singing a rap song–is not at all. The song is becoming quite beautiful with their version, other than the vulgarity of the lyrics.
Goodbye Harrison performing at the Lotus
During the set, Mott called for “all the f-book users out there” to check them out on Facebook. He added, “We’re on MySpace too, although it’s not quite as cool….” Though they are still unsigned, Goodbye Harrison is quickly getting their name around Portland, and it’s only a matter of time before they are playing alongside Lil Wayne himself… a year from now.
Though Jordan Harris has only been in the music scene seriously for about a year, you wouldn’t know it from the crowd that formed inside the Lotus scouring the room for an empty crevice.
Jordan Harris
Only recently deciding to begin playing with a band, Harris’ style is still rooted in the acoustic sound from his roots. His versatile voice lends well to covering every genre, adopting a unique tone for each song from Tom Petty to the Foo Fighters.
Without knowing the words to the popular song, one would never realize Harris was singing “Hey Ya”–transforming the song into an impassioned and meaningful piece, the audience grew very quiet to listen to his rendition of the normally upbeat and out-of-control-paced Outkast music.
In the middle of his set, a group gathered and made announced that they were starting a “dance party” at the base of the stage. Harris kept the pace lively as his fans danced at his feet until the end of the night, and they thanked him by throwing their hands up in enjoyment. As he finished his last song, the crowd was abuzz with excitement. Unable to believe the quality and range of his voice, everyone walked out praising his talents. When Harris finishes his first album, hopefully within the year, he will already have fans awaiting the release.
This will likely make you cringe or cheer: The Smashing Pumpkins are now streaming on MySpace “Widow Wake My Mind,” the second track (after last month’s “A Song For A Son”) from their upcoming 44-song project titled Teargarden by Kaleidyscope.
Make it snappy though. Like any good Cinderella tale, after 24 hours this chariot disappears at midnight… or this pumpkin just gets put back in the patch on the Pumpkins’ official website, even though you can also download the tracks for free here and here.
And People has the scoop that Billy and his southern sweetie Jessica Simpson are hooking up… in the studio too. Regardless, she’s been tweeting about it like crazy even if the twitpics have been removed.
It looks as though Jessica has repainted The Pumpkins in nice, ambiguous pastels. But how are we to know if it’s to be a boy or a girl with this color scheme?
Materials : Drums, projector, speakers, white sheet, dancers, Deelay Ceelay.
Procedure :
1 — Mix 2 drummers and elegant electronics with psychedelic photo animations projected on a white sheet.
2 — Never let the beat stop.
3 — Do the hustle.
Evaluation : This isn’t science, it’s art. No need to follow the above steps in any particular order, or at all.
Conclusion : In this experiment “kinetic abstractions” (visuals) were combined with drums (audio) and ambient electronics (music) from Chris Lael Larson and Delaney Kelly. The result was a psychedelic blend of natural and technological, artistic and scientific processes to create an uncontrollable reaction: the invincible urge to rock.
Deelay Ceelay are not an experiment. They are a sensory experience with two basic elements: Deelay and Ceelay, who command two drums kits and add two supplemental components (electronic ambiance and animated visuals) merging these chemicals into something tremendous–a live voyage through space and time in the darkness of Portland’s best clubs.
They don’t just mix these media, they shake them around and shattered them, just to slowly reassemble them before your eyes and ears with clambering, musical peaks and crashing valleys. Playing off intuition, the duo shares the stage and drums in a performance of sight and sound.
Deelay Ceelay promise to stop playing so many shows and finish their full-length LP, but they show no signs of slowing down in 2010.
Chris Lael Larson, drummer and video artist, talked with OMN about Deelay Ceelay’s complex creative process, love for touring, and… Larson even revealed the identity of the TBA surprise guest for next Friday’s (January 15th) free gig at Berbati’s.
Based on the phonetics of your names, I think I can guess where the name came from, but I’d rather hear it in your words.
You got it. It was the first thing we came up with and was the most honest. We also liked the symmetry of it (when said or read on a page) and how that referenced the symmetry that you actually see on stage.
Deelay Ceelay is a sensory performance. Music and video majestically combined with ambient flows and psychedelic properties. Describe your art form. What do you call it?
I’m not sure we’ve ever considered an official name for the experience of our live show. That said, we’ve always tried to make the live experience as immersive and unique as is possible–trying to take the audience members away from their traditional experience of experience live music. This can be easier said than done in your typical club environment when you have a quick 15 minutes to set up and get playing.
Earlier in 2009 we did a more involved installation/performance for the opening night of the PDX Film Festival, which involved us being enclosed within four oversized projection screen. The audience/viewers would, in that setting, then be surrounded by projected imagery. For the video components–which are not music videos in the traditional sense–we’ve taken to calling these “kinetic abstractions” or “photo animations” (since there’s technically no video involved–they are all composed of large still image sequences blended together by hand).
How many steps are there to creating Deelay Ceelay music? Do you create your soundscapes and then add the landscape? Or vice versa?
In short, there are many. The music always comes first and our writing is very process based. Sketches are recorded, refined, reworked, re-recorded, and then repeated until everything is how we want it. To that point, a song is never cut in stone, rather always changing, evolving as we play it live. Much of the soundscapes are from field recordings mixed with found sound fragments, samples from old films, open source scientific sound banks.
Is that astronaut crackle on “Speak Eagle”?
Yes, from Apollo 13 (the mission, not the movie).
Drums are the backbone, but there’s some electronics. What other instruments/equipment are used in your recorded material?
Coming from a history of more traditional rock instrumentation, most of our material is born from the guitar/bass/piano/drums and then re-sculpted into something with a unique sonic signature. Every song is different though and we are constantly experimenting with writing approaches/ideas and always on the search for other instruments/sound banks/techniques that fit what we’re imagining for a particular song.
Say I just downloaded your EP Thank You (for free) or heard Deelay Ceelay on MySpace, how would you describe just your sound?
The Thank You EP is a condensed, relatively toned down reflection of our sound. The EP was written and recorded before we had ever performed live and thus only somewhat reflects the energy/intensity of what we do on stage. Having done a good deal of performing over this last year, our new material (currently working on our forth-coming full length) will be much more reflective of us as a band and not as a recording project.
Now let’s say I’m going to see you live. How’s this gonna be different?
The live show is a much more bombastic remix of the album material plus an ever-rotating string of remixes–taking cues from more traditional DJ culture with an emphasis on never letting the beat stop. This, again, feedback into the whole concept of creating something immersive. Once the performance starts, it doesn’t relent.
How do you translate your recorded material (video and audio) to the live performance and experience?
The recorded material is in more of an album format while the live versions are extended and continually being reworked so that the live show remains and more organic and is always a growing entity. The video is created solely for the live environment, as a way to augment to the rhythms, melodies and soundscapes of the live performance. That said, the video component does also get reworked/remixed along the way.
Does your performance allow for any live experimentation and improvisation or is it a predetermined routine based on prerecorded tracks and videos?
It does allow for a good deal of improvisation or experimentation. In addition to reworking the audio (as mentioned above), we’re both constantly reinventing our parts, again with the idea of making the live show really have life. Occasionally, this will reflect setting. If we’re playing in a less formal party/warehouse scenario where nothing is being mic’d, I might choose to remove some of the nuance from some parts in favor of a more straight ahead, driving, alternative. Whereas, if we know that we are in a room with a top sound person and solid acoustics, then we know that all the detail of our playing will come through the system and will adjust our playing accordingly.
With each show, we’re constantly tuned into how the dynamic flows and sensitive to any parts that we feel could work better. Always experimenting with new ideas. I think the songs really come to life when you know your parts so well that you can forget them and free up the rhythmic exploration a bit more. There is also a great deal of attention paid to the fact that there are two of us on drum kits and the potential for cacophony is very high. We thus make sure that we’re never stepping on each other. If one of us is launching into a more involved pattern, the other will drop back a bit to make sure that there’s room. Along this same line, we are very conscientious to not fall into any of the easy stylistic traps (e.g. sounding too marching band-y or too tribal/jammy) that can accompany having multiple percussionists.
How’d the band form?
The band formed because we had two drum kits on the practice space of our old band. Being the most punctual members of said band, we’d often drum together before practice. Somewhere along the way, this pre-jamming became more enjoyable than the actual music we were making in said band and we decided to follow the fun.
Along with this was a love for dance music and a belief that dance music could be much more performative/engaging in the live setting. It always seemed that there was something lacking with watching someone on stage bobbing their head behind a laptop screen.
Who are you guys? What are your day jobs?
I work as a graphic designer. Been in an out of bands since high school but have only more recently began to take music making more seriously. Studied photography at school and then somewhere along the way got into making video stuff and animation.
What other projects are you involved in?
I also make experimental videos/animations on my own.
I love your online style. Tell me who designed your website and took your photos. Any collaborators besides you two?
I designed our website and we’ve taken all of our own photos. We collaborated with a few choreographer friends (most notably Noelle Stiles) for our video pieces as well as clothing designer Rachelle Waldie who has designed/created some of the apparel work in our videos and on-stage.
Your press sheet last listed the Sunset Drumsets LP as in production but that didn’t come out in 2009… or did I miss something?
Oops, need to update that. Our LP is still in the works. 2009 got a lot busier than expected and we ended up not having enough time to work on it. We’re planning on taking a break from so many live engagements to focus on getting our album done as soon as possible.
Will the album include a visual component/DVD?
That’s still TBD. Our EP included a DVD and we’re not sure if we’ll go down that road again.
Do you make dance music?
We’ve made it a point to not try to place a tag or category on what we do. We certainly have some danceable songs but, more than anything else, we want to have an emotional connection through our music.
Do people dance?
More often than not.
What’s your favorite place to play around town?
There are many great places. Holocene, The Artistery, Rotture, Doug Fir, Berbati’s.
Where does your sound come from?
It’s really hard to say where our sound comes from. I suppose, like anyone else, we’re somewhat defined by our limitations. I’m sure the fact that we perform/compose on two drum kits has a pretty big influence on our sound. We both listen to so much music and our sources of influence are constantly growing and changing so it would be really difficult to name any specific “whos”. Unconsciously, we both act as curators/producers of our own sound in that we both have to really love everything about a potential song for us to keep working on it for a recording and continue playing live. So, in that way, we’re both acting as creative filters that ultimately shape our sound.
What are you listening to right now?
There are so many–it changes from day-to-day. For myself, been listening to a lot of Beach House, Animal Collective, Washed Out, Wampire, Starfucker, Sharon Van Etten, Yeasayer to name a few. I think the Portland band Nice Nice are one of the most underrated bands in town. The two new tracks from their tour 7″ slay. Can’t wait to finally get to her their album. Really looking forward to the new Pyramiddd/Starfucker album.
This past fall you packed around the USA with Starfucker / PYRAMIDDD. How was it?
It was fantastic. If, a year ago when we started off, you had told me that we’d have the chance to tour around the US with one of my favorite Portland bands I would have never believed you. And then it happened! It was a really great experience for us and gave us some really good perspective on what it is we’re doing. We weren’t sure if touring was something that we wanted to do with this project (having toured in the past with previous bands) but, after this trip, we came back really wanting to do it more often.
Where can we see you? I know you’ve got a benefit coming up at Berbati’s with a super special guest… can you divulge any details?
We’re playing at Berbati’s which will be awesome because it’s a free show and then in February (the 15th) at the Doug Fir with Dat’r, who are fantastic. The secret guest for the Berbati’s show will be Weinland who I’ve never seen live but I’ve heard many good things.
What are your future plans?
As mentioned, we’re doing our best to taper off with playing out so much to focus on getting our album done as soon as we can. That’s really the big push. After that who knows… hopefully more opportunities to play great shows with great bands and, with any luck, head out on the road some more.
“Our band has made its living on the road from the beginning,” states Jeff Tweedy. It’s a road that has explored America’s interiors and exteriors shaping the explorers and inspiring the distinct sound we call Wilco.
In a time of mash-ups and MySpace superstars, unidentifiable noise and vicious barking, Wilco are not a breath of fresh air, they’re a gale–followed by the uncertain calm after the storm. Wilco masterfully combine timelessness with innovation, allowing us to reconnect with rock’n'roll in its simplest, purest form.
Directors Brendan Canty (the drummer from Fugazi) and Christoph Green take America inside America with Wilco steering the tour bus from Tulsa to New Orleans, Mobile to Nashville to Washington, D.C.
Ashes of American Flags, filmed in February and March of 2008, takes us through cow pastures, past semi-trucks, and into the band’s life on the road–from sound checks to banter to backstage. Tweedy’s white suit embroidered with roses and rhinestones sparkles in the subdued blue and red hues of the stage while his gravely, straightforward voice runs lyrical circles.
Touring takes tolls on their bodies as Tweedy shoots steroids, Glenn Kotche grinds his hands raw on his kit, and guitarist Nels Cline self induces whiplash but displays solos and whammy-work that flutter faster than a humming-bird–hands a blur as HD film can’t capture his sheer velocity.
The only compliant is that Canty and Green leave me salivating for more spectacular concert footage. With Tweedy in his cowboy hat, Mikael Jorgensen adds organ-ic yet electrifying keys to Wilco’s unrefined tones. Horns blast from the balcony as the band nods beneath New Orleans’ fleurs-de-lys while showing us America reflected in their eyes.
It’s easy to forget that old formulas still solve problems. Beautifully merging country, rock, indie, folk, alt, pop, and blues, Ashes shows us something natural, classic. Tweedy exhales life onto the screen, telling stories with his lyrics, creating landscapes in our minds, while the band flourishes on the road entering our cities and homes.
VENUE :
Whitsell Auditorium
1219 SW Park Avenue
Portland, OR 97205
ADMISSION PRICES : Buy tickets online $8 General $7 PAM Members, Students, Seniors $5 Friends of the Film Center
Double features are an additional $2 per ticket.
[cash or checks only]
…starting a second account just for remixes!!! Check out May Ling ReMIX with:
“Remixes by and for us. Featuring new ones from UK Planet Mu artist Ceephax and one we did of Wampire’s “Orchards.” If you still have an ancient account request us!”
“What else does the pair have in store for us?” Portland asks.
Uh, just a cover of Mariah Carey’s single “Obsessed”…
“And the wonderful YACHT asked us to cover “The Afterlife.” Out sometime on DFA this spring!!!!”
The folks got down with the funk as local band Reeble Jar took to the stage Friday, December 4th at Luckey’s, Lane County’s oldest bar.
The group featured the bold, warm sounds of tenor sax player James Green along with funky keyboard riffs provided by Josh Coffey. Joey Hepner laid down original bass lines as John Raden filled in for the band on the drum kit.
When Reeble Jar left the stage and the crowd got the impression that the high-energy show had come to an end, the band returned to the stage, this time accompanied by Solomon Albert, an alto sax player who moved to the states from Nigeria. It didn’t take long for the band to bring the jam to a climax while the majority of the bar had taken to dancing in front of the stage.
Reeble Jar provided their audience with an entertaining show that brought on the sounds of funk, jazz and blues over danceable breakbeats. This talented group of musicians are definitely worth checking out when they come to town. The Eugene-based jam band frequents venues in both Eugene and Portland. Listeners can keep themselves updated on upcoming events and new sounds by visiting Reeble Jar’s MySpace.
Bringing back The Scene and Soul Train to PDX, this is a retro-video dance party, using only the most futuristic technology to travel back in time along the undulating frequencies of turntables, synthesizers, hand claps, and green screens.
Holocene’s monthly dance party Monorail is all about mixing. Mixing music, mixing live and canned video, mixing feminine libido with masculine mojo, and mixing drinks.
Not just live DJs mixing disco, boogie funk, classic hip-hop, early house, and new wave of a bygone era but live green screen mixing.
Jive to Jasten King’s projected film collages. Enter the green screen room where cult classics, obscure animations, futuristic neon geometric shapes, roller disco, and unwieldy B movies are remixed, inverted or mashed-up by Controlled Remote unbeknownst to your convulsing booty and transmitted live to Monorail’s dancing army.
This is late 70’s and early 80’s bliss at it’s best. Roller-skates and Flashdance, skinny ties and electric boogalo. The thronging party mass is filmed, edited and posted to YouTube along with photos on the Monoblog.
Bring your spandex, leotards and sequins to get down to the space disco while Alex and his Droogs are not kicking out the jams, but kicking down geriatrics on the screen behind your twitching ass.
But don’t leave yet! OMN got a hold of Michael Davis-Yates from Starlight & Magic before their debut performance on Friday, December 4th at Holocene’s Monorail 7.
Starlight & Magic is clever, sexy dance music with Italo-disco beats and high-pitched Prince-like squeals from the Korg Karma, all wrapped up in a choreographed-dancing bundle of joy: This is S&M, singer Stacy Peltier and producer Michael Davis-Yeats.
Listen to “Please You” while Magic enchants after the jump.
Who is Starlight & Magic?
We are the baddest couple from the future of your past, sent to Portland to shock your body with a funky beat straight from Gravilox-47f.
How did the collaboration begin?
With a message from the stars. I, Magic, wished for a partner in music and more. Then Starlight materialized in my life.
How long have you been playing together?
Graviloxian time does not translate well within your concept of the fourth dimension. We catalog our life periods in moments of passion. But since time flies when you’re having fun, we approximate the equivalent to be about three Earth months.
What’s your sound?
Our sound is pure Graviloxian Fucking Awesome! Which sounds like ’80’s synth driven R&B with a touch of Latin Freestyle. We found influence inside a luxury galactic coupe Toyota Camry 9000 filled with Stevie B. records.
What instruments do you play?
We have the capability to transmit MIDI messages solely from the whims of our passion, which in turn makes the equipment matter not. But if you really care to know, the tangible elements include an MC-808, Korg Karma, Yamaha CS1x and the Lamar LM4.
Have you recorded anything? When can we expect a release (digital or physical)… or at least a MySpace page?!
Our material right now is limited to what’s been successfully translated into your form of audio processing, enough for an EP. As for release, MySpace is much too primitive… I believe it was phased out back in 2008? We’re in the process of developing a personal interstellar page where our aural fireworks can be accessed, including a physical version complete with a cosmic bonus.
What’s great about Portland?
Our encounters in Portland are but few, therefore we don’t feel that significant data has been collected to establish favorites. However, we do find MONORAIL to satisfy our need for pleasure.
Are you nervous for your live debut? Or rearing to go?
There are of course a few pre-show concerns that we have to weigh. But we only plan to do what we normally do for fun, so there is no need for us to fret.
Starlight & Magic aims to make people get up and dance, right?
That’s the goal, but all we can do is emit wishes at full capacity. Luckily for us, back in Gravilox-47f what you call dance music is the sound of life–it’s just there.
In the dim light of the Ash Street Saloon, Uta, the lead vocalist of Aranya, lit a wand of sage and stalked through the mostly seated crowd, dancing and stamping a six-foot staff adorned with bells and feathers to the time of the heavy drums. She chanted in calling tones as the guitar and bass cascaded in a wave of sound. It felt like an invitation to some secret ritual, and the crowd heard the call, getting up to fill the room.
Their second song opened with thrash riffs and the vocals switched into a gutteral growl. The drummer and percussionist carried heavy poly rhythms woven between their separate kits. Uta donned a guitar to carry the rhythm as lead Tyler Kellogg ran through frenetic scales, often in sync with the rapid bassline.
Uta picked up a viola and led some gypsy-metal that loosened peoples feet. This is where I really started to connect, as the emotive sound of the strings guided my way through the thick rhythm. Her voice returned to high notes and tribal wails, and as they changed time patterns, the audience moved with them.
Their set continued through various moods and spaces, finding choral harmony, dissonance, even dark sludge, always with driving power. Uta offered an invocation “to the spirit that will bring all things to life again,” an insight to the intention of this heavy mix.
Strangeletter’s stage included lights, drums, laptop and synth modules, electric piano, bass, and guitar. Steve Bayless, the frontman and head composer, was set apart from the rest of the group, on the far left corner of the stage, with a strand of red lights cascading from his mic stand. They opened with loud drums, droning synth and a technical, hard funk bassline mixed with smoke and shifting lights.
They dropped a sample that sounded like wind blowing through radio static and looped into a glitched out beat, soon matched by drums and bass into a heavy stomp. The keys lifted the song up and Bayless’ vocals sang through emotive personal reflections. This mix continued to morph and traverse styles.
Strangeletter reminds me of everything I liked about heavy rock in the early nineties but rebuilt with a dose of glitch and industrial tech. They layer sounds, building up and breaking down arrangements to find every place they can take a song. It’s all tightly woven and keeps the audience engaged with the storied lyrics.
Aranya’s six song CD is beautifully packaged with a hand-cut stamp design and is now available at their shows, and you can probably get one if you message them on MySpace. I had to leave by the time Strangeletter had finished, so I missed out on the industrial mash-up dance party that is Metaphisc.
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.
Are you emo? What’s wrong with that word? Or is it just right?
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.
What kinda music do you make? How did you develop your sound?
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.
There’s a bit of a dichotomy to your music. Uppy beats paired with sad lyrics.
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.
How does your music help you release and express yourself?
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?
How did you end up in Portland?
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.
How did your upbringing influence your music?
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.
I’m confused. Why have I read things about From Pillar To Post being slated for release in 2007? In any case, tell us about the new record and how it came to be.
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.
What instruments do you play? How did other artists help you on your new album?
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.
What about online collaboration? What role has MySpace and the internet played in your career?
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.
Who are your influences? Where does your sound come from?
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.
What are you listening to right now?
Emily Haines…always.
Describe Logan Lynn in three words.
Grateful, Hopeful, Irrepressibly Optimistic…. wait, that was 4. Sorry.
Now Logan Lynn’s music in three.
Atmospheric, Moody, Electro-pop. Whoopsies… that was kinda 4 too.
What’s your live performance like?
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.
Where can we see you?
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.
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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+
This will likely make you cringe or cheer: The Smashing Pumpkins are now streaming on MySpace 
At least according to lead singer Keil Corcoran.
I love your 
Touring takes tolls on their bodies as Tweedy shoots steroids, Glenn Kotche grinds his hands raw on his kit, and guitarist Nels Cline self induces whiplash but displays solos and whammy-work that flutter faster than a humming-bird–hands a blur as HD film can’t capture his sheer velocity.
…starting a second account just for remixes!!! Check out 
The boys have a new track streaming just for the season on their MySpace : 
Bringing back 
What’s the connection to the Dandys? How’d that happen?
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