Celebrating 40 years, Seattle’s annual Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival takes place at the Seattle Center over Labor Day Weekend–September 4th through 6th. As Seattle’s longest-running music and arts festival, the festival provides a forum for hundreds of artists to gather under a creative bumbershoot, meaning umbrella, in front of more than 150,000 visitors who will come to see and hear the confluence of music, film, theater, comedy, dance, spoken word, visual arts, and kids activities.
With 35+ musical performers each day, Bumbershoot’s 2010 lineup features artists spanning more than four decades of music with headliners like Bob Dylan, Weezer, Hole, Billy Bragg, and Mary J. Blige playing alongside indie rock talent like Surfer Blood and Atlas Sound and the up-and-coming MTV-class of Drake, J. Cole, and LMFAO. International flavors are provided by niche-industry mainstays like Balkan Beat Box, The Budos Band and Ozomatli, while Oregon talent will be represented by The Decemberists, The Dandy Warhols, Loch Lomond, The Thermals, Laura Veirs, and Horse Feathers.
OMN’s Chris Young and Brandon Ellison will be providing live coverage from Seattle but until then, check out their 2010 Bumbershoot picks.
Saturday, September 4
LA’s abrasive, electro-noise rockers HEALTH starting grabbing attention in 2007 when they put out their shared debut single with Toronto’s Crystal Castles. The track, “Crimewave,” flew up the UK indie singles chart and exposed their punky DIY spirit and idiosyncratic nature to the world–just about everyone in the band plays a zoothorn (a permutation of microphone and guitar pedal) or some other weirdo noisemaker. Plus they’ve got hands down the creepiest music video of the past year for “We Are Water,” produced by Eric Wareheim. Freak your ears out on the Center Square Stage from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM.
For their 2009 release, The Hazards of Love, Portland favorites The Decemberists got heavy. The album is a 17-song suite of melodramatic, bookish rock that draws equally from British folk and prog (with occasional forays into sludgey, stoney metal). According to their website, the band is well underway in recording “what will no doubt be our SIXTH record at a barn in an undisclosed location near Portland.” Bumbershoot and MFNW are (so far) the only NW dates scheduled for the Decemberists through the end of the year, so from 5:30 pm to 6:45 pm on the Bumbershoot Mainstage is the place to catch them.
Come to Jamie Lidell’s set expecting to shake your ass off to some electronica infused neo-soul. On the title track of his newest release, Compass, Lidell blends classic Motown elements with programmed beats and acoustic indie-folk textures. “I Wanna Be Your Telephone” sounds like an ode to Prince–quirky, glitchy electronics pulsing with an infectious dance-y groove. He can get as funky and experimental as Stevie Wonder, but as much as he may reflect these influences, Lidell is the real deal. Not content to simply imitate the greats, Lidell is making his own unique contribution to the great canon of soul. He plays 5:45 pm to 6:45 pm on the Broad Street Stage.
Neko Case is a busy woman. Her 2009 release Middle Cyclone debuted at number three on Billboard’s Top 200 and earned the smokey songstress her first two Grammy nominations. This year Case is back with Canadian indie-pop supergroup the New Pornographers. The band released the critically acclaimed Together in May, and has been touring steadily since. Case comes solo to Bumbershoot this year, and you can catch her earthy, complex, Americana-inflected pop from 7:15 pm to 8:30 pm on the Bumbershoot Mainstage.
Like a hippie, indie folk savior Edward Sharpe leads his Magnetic Zeros into pastures greener and venues bigger. He’s been continually leading them, all ten members including himself, across the country in their revamped school bus since the 2009 release of their debut, Up From Below. The messianic figure of Sharpe, played by lead singer Alex Ebert, is a bit of an act, but when combined with sultry, subdued vocals of Jade Castrinos, the stomping, janglin’ tunes are captivating with their free-spirited whistles, claps, horns, and bouncy choruses. Watch the crew rollick through a “40 Day Dream” on the Broad Street Stage from 7:30 PM to 8:45 PM.
The self-proclaimed Legendary King of Rock & Soul, Solomon Burke has been preaching soulful, gospel blues for more than 55 years. Never as universally popular in the mainstream as some of his contemporaries, Solomon Burke has had several rebirths over the years, specifically from movie soundtracks–his biggest hit “Cry To Me” was revived in 1987 by Dirty Dancing and both The Stones and The Blues Brothers took on “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”–not to mention a Grammy in ‘03 for Don’t Give Up On Me. Surrounding himself with love, the man has 21 children and at least another 90 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. Celebrating 70 back in March, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer took his act to Japan for the first time ever this year as well as returning to Europe. But mind you, the only scheduled North American date is on the Starbucks Stage from 8:45 PM to 10:15 PM.
The great American troubadour may get more gravely with time but like a fine wine, his tales are just as potent as ever. Bob Dylan plays the Bumbershoot Mainstage from 9:00 PM to 10:30 PM and also shares Portland’s Edgefield stage with John Cougar Mellencamp on Saturday and Sunday this weekend.
The cacophony of sound that is Ozomatli impressed the Northwest World Reggae Festival in Marcola, Oregon two weekends ago with “boundless energy and passion” for a socially consciousness society, and they’ll again bring their big band, Latin, hip-hop, world fusion full of horns to the Fisher Green Stage from 9:30 PM to 10:45 PM.
Sunday, September 5
Have you ever wondered what Nirvana’s “Drain You” would sound like re-imagined by an indie-folk act? Horse Feathers apparently did, and a version of it will be released this November as the b-side to a 7-inch with the new song “Bonnet of Briars.” The band gives “Drain You” a chamber-folk makeover–soft acoustic guitar, sweeping strings and sensitive vocals. Horse Feathers plays 1:15 pm to 2:15 pm on the Starbucks Stage.
Seattle natives Hey Marseilles play the kind of symphonic pop that draws easy comparisons to bands like Devotchka, Matt Pond, PA and the Decemberists. The septet brings a host of influences and instruments to bear on their just re-released debut To Trunks and Travels. On “Rio” strummed, classical-sounding guitars blend with strings, percussion, handclaps, and trumpet. Hey Marseilles plays 2:15 pm to 3:15 pm on the Broad Street Stage.
Seattle-staple David Bazan has been bumping around the Northwest since 1995 with his tales of conflict and spirituality. Going at it solo since the dissolution of Pedro the Lion in ‘06, Bazan released a solo album under his own name in 2009, Curse Your Branches, but Bumbershoot will feature Bazan + Band, the first time he’s had a full band in almost five years, on the Broad Street Stage from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM.
From upstate New York, indie rocker, chamber poppers Ra Ra Riot just released their second, string-filled album The Orchard, which the band said is “so poppy you will want to throw up on yourself,” this week with nine of the ten tracks mixed by Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla. The six-piece includes a violinist and a cellist to create playfully poppy yet romantically impassioned tunes. You’ll be sure to hear their latest single “Boy” (and download it in exchange for your email here) on the Broad Street Stage from 5:45 PM to 6:45 PM.
After thirty years as a musician and activist, Billy Bragg is still kicking. Like Bob Dylan and Woodie Guthrie, Bragg is a songwriter with immense staying power. He’s a folk singer-songwriter with a punk sneer, a protest musician still dedicated to changing the world after all these years. Bragg is playing 8:30 pm to 9:45 pm on the Starbucks Stage.
Weathering the turbulent ’90s and now the first decade of the 2000s, Portland’s The Dandy Warhols may have been mentioned less frequently in the pop-cultural lexicon of recent years but one listen to their new “greatest hits” release, The Capitol Years: 1995-2007, will remind you that The Dandys’ garage rock has been consistent over the years. The album, out last Tuesday, features 14 past singles and one new track (“This Is The Tide”). Recently returned from Europe, Bumbershoot is their only announced West Coast date (so far). Catch them on the Broad Street Stage from 9:15 PM to 10:30 PM and leave a comment below for a chance to win a copy of The Capitol Years.
For we children of the ’90s, Weezer’sBlue Album was one of the most important rock records of their decade. But their legacy has lived on far beyond “Undone” and “Buddy Holly” (even if some of us choose to forget that there are any Weezer records post-Pinkerton). Weezer remains a radio staple and a modern rock tour-de-force. The new single “Memories,” off the forthcoming album Hurley, may not cover any new ground, but Rivers Cuomo keeps churning out pop that is as guitar heavy and catchy as ever. They play 9:15 pm to 10:30 pm on the Bumbershoot Mainstage.
Monday, September 6
Loch Lomond’s lead singer/multi-instrumentalist Ritchie Young is a tremendous presence. His delicately thunderous songwriting and distinct, powerful voice are perfectly fleshed out in the chamber pop sextet in Loch Lomond. Folk and classical instruments, from mandolin to clarinets to ukuleles, bring depth and passion to their music. Live they’re stunning, and they’ll be playing 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm on the Northwest Court Stage.
Canadian heavy metal that’s been kicking ass since ‘81 regardless of who has been paying attention, Anvil toured the world with some of the biggest bands of their day but has spent the last two decades in relative obscurity… until the 2008 documentary, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, by Sacha Gervasi brought them back into the public’s consciousness as one of hard rock’s original hard-working bands who has stuck it out over the years–against all odds. Now they’re back touring the US and taking the Center Square Stage from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM.
We recently interviewed Seattle’s Kirk Huffman when his gorgeous pop outfit Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground last came through Portland. Wild Orchid Children is the Mr. Hyde to that placid project. Gone are the lilting, old-timey pop textures and in their place is a hard-hitting shout fest in the vein of The Mars Volta with hints at classic rock, hip-hop and dub. Their new album, The Wild Orchid Children are Alexander Supertramp, is due soon and the jammy 18-minute epic “Black Shiny FBI Shoes” is streaming online. The Wild Orchid Children play 7:45 pm to 8:45 pm at the EMP Sky Church.
She’s back on the road after giving birth to her “bouncing baby boy” Tennessee in late April, sharing her lovely folk pop with the world again. And Laura Veirs’ long-time collaborator, and her baby’s daddy Tucker Martine who has also produced her last six albums including January’s July Flame, has been enjoying their time in Europe as well. Returning to the NW for the first half of September, Portland’s Laura Veirs arrives at Bumbershoot with her band The Hall of Flames performing on the Northwest Court Stage from 8:00 PM to 9:15 PM.
Portland’s favorite jangly pop-punk outfit The Thermals have had a busy couple years. They signed with Kill Rocks Stars in 2009, pumping out the full-length Now We Can See, as well as three singles and two splits with The Cribs and Thao and the Get Down Stay Down. Their fifth studio album, Personal Life, is out September 7 and their new video for “I Don’t Believe You” is streaming below. The Thermals play 9:15 pm to 10:30 pm on the Broad Street Stage.
Grinding out soul, blues and rock for himself and others since the ’60s, Booker T. has created his own musical movements and musical moments for many other musicians. A recipient of the Grammy Award for lifetime achievement, Booker T. released his first solo record in 20 years, Potato Hole, in April 2009 with the Drive-By Truckers playing as his backing band on the recording and featuring guitar accompaniment from Neil Young. The album features a cover of Andre 3000’s (Outkast) “Hey Ya!” and went on to win a Grammy for the Best Pop Instrumental Album. The man plays many an instrument but listen up for his distinctive Hammond B3 organ on the Starbucks Stage from 8:30 PM to 9:45 PM.
Known to us Yanks as The English Beat, the 2 Tone ska revival band picked up their instruments again in the mid-2000s… but as two separate groups. Songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Dave Wakeling’s US version of band will be stopping at Bumbershoot while the UK version, The Beat, retains two original members but keeps their distance. As long as you’re no purist, the music is definitely still ripe for skanking in front of the Fisher Green Stage from 9:30 PM to 10:45 PM.
The title of this post is copied and pasted directly from the subject of an email OMN just received from Logan Lynn.
After reflecting on his life and musical journey thus far, Lynn says:
Just FYI: I’ve changed my mind about what I want from my life.
One thing that is painfully clear to me and everyone who knows me in real life is that I AM MISERABLE. I have been for some time. I’m sick of being broke, mismanaged, overworked, screwed over by the folks who are supposed to be looking out for me… I’m homesick for a home that does not exist because I have been too busy to create it for myself, no other reason. I need something real in my life… because fame and money and attention is not what I want anymore. It’s time that I take control of my own happiness, something I have been dreading and avoiding for years now because of the terrible consequences and pressures attached to doing so. I am finally brave enough and there is just no stopping me. My humanity is in need of repair. These are someone else’s dreams I’m killing myself to fulfill. It is time for me to chase the light to happiness, not acceptance by the masses.
My show at Mississippi Studios on Friday Aug 20th is going to be my last one. I hate to say EVER, but…as of now, that’s how it’s feeling. Big, giant farewell show!!!!!!!!
Lynn has fulfilled his contract with The Dandy Warhols’ Beat The World Records and has recently finished a new record with Bryan Cecil and has “been leaking the demos all week, freeing myself of the rules and regulations that come with being a brand.”
“To listen to audio from my unreleased record I Killed Tomorrow Yesterday click HERE and go to the NEW UNRELEASED DEMOS playlist on the right!”
Get the full, introspective details from Logan Lynn himself in a long post on his official website.
Logan Lynn will be playing two more shows with The Gentry. One on August 6th in Salem at FlipSide Nightclub and in Portland at Mississippi Studios on August 20th.
Read the OMN interview with Lynn and The Gentry guitarist/vocalist Gino Mari.
It’s been a rocky journey for BJM. In those twenty years they’ve released dozens of albums, singles and EP’s. They’ve cycled through 40+ members, some of whom are still keeping garage rock alive in bands like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
But the heart of BJM has always been the oft troubled Anton Alfred Newcombe. BJM put out a string of lo-fi psyche records in the mid-90’s, including possibly their best work Their Satanic Majesties Second Request. But label troubles, on-stage meltdowns and personal problems kept the prolific, but self-destructive, Newcombe well out of the mainstream.
In 2004 the band came to prominence again with the high-profile, award-winning documentary Dig!, chronicling Newcombe’s “rivalry” with Portland’s Courtney Taylor-Taylor and The Dandy Warhols.
Since then, the band’s been busy, touring steadily. They released the We are the Radio EP in 2005, and the full-length My Bloody Underground in 2008. They’re back again, touring in support of Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?, released at the beginning of 2010. The album, recorded in Iceland and Berlin in 2009, sees the return of one of the band’s original members, Matt Hollywood (guitars/vocals), along with collaborations from Will Carruthers (ex Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized), and musicians from France, Germany and Iceland.
It’s what you’d expect from BJM; a trippy mess of shoegaze, noise and Eastern sounding drones, continuing the bands twenty years of exploring the 60’s.
Watch “Tempo 116.7 ‘v3′ (Reaching for Dangerous Levels of Sobriety)” from Brian Jonestown Massacre’s new release Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?
Tickets are still available for the show This Thursday, June 17th at the Crystal Ballroom. 8 p.m doors, 9 p.m. show. $18 advance, $20 day of show. All ages welcome.
Portlanders of all ages filled the Kennedy School’s theater auditorium Sunday afternoon for the finale of season one You Who, a family rock variety show.The Dandy Warhols headlined and featured a handful of local acts, performing for a crowd that included three generations of concertgoers.
The kids came for the giant owl mascots and the bubble and confetti canons that were being fired on stage from time to time. The parents and grandparents came to watch the kids and watch The Dandy’s. There really was something for the entire family to enjoy.
A booth had been set up for making “Ojos De Dios,” or “God’s Eyes,” a simple craft that kids love that involves winding colored yarn around Popsicle sticks. Those children that opted out of the craft spent most of the time running around in circles or dancing to the tracks being spun by DJ Anjali.
DJ Anjali
Anjali, who can be seen locally at Rotture and at Holocene and can be heard on KBOO every week, provided a unique blend of dance music and South Asian, bhangra, and Bollywood inflected beats. Those parents not dancing with their children or helping with the making of “Ojos De Dios,” sat around the perimeter of the auditorium.
Like any good rock show, You Who got under way a little late, great practice for the little kids when the get a bit older and start attending shows on their own. The afternoon’s exuberant Master of Ceremonies, Charlie McAlister, came to the stage following a short introductory cartoon by Cartoon Exprez, to introduce both the show and the show’s first act, Ivy Ross.
Ross, a local songstress, played a couple of songs on a ukulele, one about the alphabet with the help of some members of the audience, and You Who was officially under way.
The Cardboard Songsters, a You Who regular, followed Ross. The Songsters, with the help of some large, movable cardboard cutouts, played a song explaining the proper way to speak to a baby goat. Felix Hatfield on the acoustic guitar and Nate Lumbard on the baritone sax, can be see playing farmer’s markets around town.
Between The Cardboard Songsters and Y La Bamba, the next band on the bill, Charlie returned to the stage, and led the audience through an impromptu Spanish lesson. It was no surprise that a few of the kids, not to mention most of the parents, had a better handle on the language than the MC, offering up a few words that he didn’t know.
Y La Bamba
The language lesson came in handy when Y La Bamba took the stage. Luzelena Mendoza, Y La Bamba’s lead singer, sang the band’s second and final song, “Michoacán,” entirely in Spanish.
Following Y La Bamba, Vursatyl, a Portland rapper and one third of the local rap group Lifesavas, performed with his three young daughters singing backing vocals. Vursatyl’s tune called for a better world, and he didn’t shy away from the conscious, political lyrics that he and his co-MC Jumbo The Garbage Man do so well. Although rapping about the dangers of drug addiction may strike some as too heavy for a children’s variety show, Vursatyl’s infections rhythmic style had everyone up on their feet at putting their hands together.
Taking the stage before the headliner was Becky Stark, the only performer not from the Rose City. The lead singer of Lavender Diamond, did a nice little sing-a-long, managing to overcome the distraction of the small children crowding the front of the stage and messing with her microphone stand.
When The Dandy Warhols hit the stage, it was clear that this was the band the older members of the audience had come to see. The kiddies went up onto shoulders, and the parents that had mostly remained seated got up and filled the middle of the ballroom. Like most of the acts on the afternoon, The Dandy’s didn’t tailor their set list to fit the crowd, instead relying on old standards like “Bohemian Like You,” “We Used To Be Friends” (above), and finishing big with “Boys Better” amidst streams of confetti.
You Who, whose first season included local heavy hitters The Decemberists and Blitzen Trapper and up-and-comers The Builders And The Butchers, will take a hiatus until September. If Sunday’s sold-out crowd was any indication, when You Who returns, so will the parents, the kids, and likely the grandparents.
Colin Meloy announced via Twitter yesterday that the Decemberists will be playing Seattle’s Bumbershoot, which runs September 4th-6th, and Willamette Week’s MusicfestNW, which runs September 9th-12th:
Tickets for Bumbershoot are on sale now and the festival announced the lineup yesterday on their blog.
The headliners include The Decemberists, Bob Dylan, Weezer, Neko Case, Mary J. Blige, Hole and J. Cole, along with “one more very special guest to be announced soon!” Oregon acts include The Dandy Warhols, The Thermals, Horse Feathers, Delorean and more.
The full list from their blog:
LMFAO / Billy Bragg / Ozomatli / Angelique Kidjo / Solomon Burke / The Dandy Warhols / Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros / Jenny and Johnny (featuring Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice) / Jamie Lidell / The Raveonettes / Balkan Beat Box / Motion City Soundtrack / The Thermals / Ra Ra Riot / The English Beat / Justin Townes Earle / Booker T. / Surfer Blood / The Bouncing Souls / Japandroids / Bob Schneider / Anvil / Bomba Estereo / Jay Electronica / Aterciopelados / Baroness / James Cotton “Superharp” Blues Band / David Bazan / Meat Puppets / Crash Kings / This Providence / Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express / The Moondoggies / The Whigs / Greg Laswell / Civil Twilight / Trampled By Turtles / The Clientele / Atlas Sound / Laura Veirs & The Hall of Flames / The Budos Band / Bobby Bare Jr. / Horse Feathers / Vienna Teng Trio / HEALTH / Plants and Animals / Georgia Anne Muldrow & Declaime / Wheedle’s Groove / Hey Marseilles / Kings Go Forth / Sweet Water / Delorean / JEFF the Brotherhood / Chris Pureka / Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra / Garotas Suecas / The Maldives / The Constellations / Coryell, Auger, Sample Trio / Grynch / Visqueen / Victor Shade / Star Anna & The Laughing Dogs / Fresh Espresso / Pete Molinari / Sista Monica’s “Singin in the Spirit” / Lay Low / Unnatural Helpers / Idiot Pilot / The Round / Wild Orchid Children / The Cute Lepers / Feral Children / Fences / Caspar Babypants / The Tripwires / Fatal Lucciauno / Loch Lomond / The Physics / THEESatisfaction / School of Rock All Stars / See Me River / Zoe Muth and The Lost High Rollers / People Eating People / Eldridge Gravy & The Court Supreme / Brent Amaker & The Rodeo / Born Anchors / Slender Means / BOAT / McTuff Trio / Parlour Steps / The Redwood Plan / Helladope / Lisa Dank / Greta Matassa Quartet / The Lonely H / Matt Jorgensen Quintet / Becki Sue & Her Big Rockin’ Daddies! / Great Waves / Brian Vogan / Johnny Bregar with more to come, including comedy, performing arts, film, literary and visual arts!
Before watching The Dandy Warhols take a seat and jam on four Fun Machines on the final morning before the foreclosure of the 28 Days in May house, OMN chatted with guitarist Peter Holmström about their up-coming jaunt across the pond where The Dandys will be tramping through the festival circuit in France and Spain among other solo stops.
The Dandys hit Europe in July and August after they release their greatest hits, Best Of The Capitol Years: 1995-07, album on June 21st internationally. The USA will have to wait until August 24th for the compilation.
The quartet will be taking some fresh PDX synthesized electro-aggro along with them in the form of Fake Drugs, which features Keil Corcoran and Shawn Glassford both of Starfucker.
Fake Drugs are “pumppppped” that they’ll “be over there for two weeks playing four shows with the Dandys and hopefully setting up a few dates in between!”
And now the ubiquitous, ridiculous quote from Keil Corcoran: “The three of us have tremendous boners over this tour!”
It is 9pm and Logan Lynn and The Gentry are scrambling to sound-check in a cavernous warehouse space in Portland’s NW industrial district. “We’re in the Dandy’s kingdom,” Lynn says of The Odditorium, the sprawling studio of the Dandy Warhols.
The main room has giant murals leaning on almost every surface, a small fleet of motorcycles in the rear. There’s a kitchen outfitted better than most restaurants. The oddly placed nooks, crannies, windows and doors suggest a building cobbled together from several smaller ones.
The band is setting up for an early morning video shoot at The Odditorium with local CBS affiliate Koin 6. They’re shooting promo videos too, for a tour they’re kicking off this Thursday, May 27th, at the Doug Fir Lounge with DoublePlusGood and Fleshtone.
Logan Lynn is known for his emotronic, electro-pop, and OMN has profiled him before. In the past he’s mostly performed alone, sometimes bringing along a producer like Cars & Trains, while he stood out front crooning into a mic over layers of soft electronics. But for this Thursday’s show, and this summer’s upcoming tour, he’s brought along a full band: slamming dance-electro rockers The Gentry.
He calls himself a “bad hostess” as the band hurries to set up. He seems anxious, but affable. Will an act that’s gained popularity for soft, emotive electronics sit well with an accustomed fan base after adding a full, raucous band?
“I was scared about what people were gonna do,” Lynn says. But after their first performance at Blow Pony in February, “We had every single ear and eye on us. They were into it. I checked the video just to make sure. It’s real.”
The transition began in December “and we just went full force, we started practicing 30 hours a week.” OMN caught up with Logan Lynn, and Gino Mari (vocals, guitar), Steve Taylor (synthesizers, bass), and Andrew Carrion [A.C.] (drums) of The Gentry between rehearsals to talk about the change. Plus, there’s a new live track of their collaboration below.
Logan Lynn and The Gentry rocking out on “Bottom Your Way to the Top” (LIVE at the Dandy Warhol’s Odditorium on 5/25/2010):
Looking at some old stuff, I noticed that Gino had done a remix for you. Is that where the relationship began?
Logan:Well kinda. The remix relationship had happened because they had played a show with us when we played with Dhalia [at East End]. I was impressed with how they were. It was the first I had sort of seen of electronic rock or something that made me want to dance, but with live instruments. Back then… there were a lot of people trying to do that and [The Gentry] were wild enough to entertain me. When it was time to do the remix record I hollered at them cuz I knew that they would be able to do something good… A couple weeks into doing the remixes I got a weird licensing deal from my label, and it was for some new Cedric the Entertainer show [laughs]. It was for this scene where, they’re like in the car “rollin’ up” and it was supposed to be some sort of hip-hop in the car, and then when they open the door it needed to get really “gay” [everyone laughs]. It was from Dreamworks or something.
Gino: Yeah, I think it was like a cop or something.
Logan: It’s like a cop rolls up there, and then they roll down the window, and it sounds really gay. So I was like if anyone can do something weird… out of the 28 guys I had doing remixes, these guys could do it. None of them are gay, but I knew that they had dirty minds. So I just picked the people that I thought were most perverted on the list.
Gino qualifies.
Gino: I’m perverted? You think I’m perverted? I’m just a sweet guy, what are you talking about? I am a gentle giant.
Logan: I disagree
[Laughter]
I’m wondering, where was the approach?
Logan: You came to my listening party.
Gino: Yeah that’s right.
Logan: I had a hell of a time figuring out my live show, from the first time I started playing until now. It has taken a while.
With your live show before, it was pretty much pre-programmed with you singing?
Logan: Yeah. The idea initially was a “singing DJ” and then somewhere along the line it turned more into like…
Being the performer versus being the DJ.
Logan: Right, I took the headphones off and stepped up. It just took me a while. I have crippling stage-fright, historically. That was my problem I think. So I was gradually getting more recognition, and feeling less comfortable as more people were looking and having opinions about what I was doing on stage. And it became clear that I needed a band, and I wanted to work with somebody who I respected. And these guys came to my…
Gino: Aww. [laughs]
Logan: Listening party and something clicked, and I was like “What are you guys doing? Are you guys really busy right now?”
How long was that transition in your career?
Logan: From 2000 when my first record came out.
So really that long, almost ten years before you decided: “I need to get a band.”
Logan: Yes. But there was like 6 years where I was like in party town, living in an alternate universe. I lost some time to the party wagon. I think I got serious about all this in 2007. Since [then] it’s been one thing after another. It started with my producer from Pillar to Post. I kind of dragged him on stage an said “You HAVE to do this, we’re gonna go and play shows!” And he ended up moving. Then, I worked with Cars & Trains. He’s an indie, electro-pop, one-man show and it was great, I did that for a year. And then it was just time to make it louder and wilder. I needed something to pull me out of my shell, I think, and the loudness has done that. And with Gino, these guys on stage, it’s way less scary, it’s fun instead of being terrifying.
From seeing past Gentry shows, Gino is a hell of a frontman.
Logan: Totally.
Gino: Aww, guys.
Logan: I’m shy and he’s not.
But for this project at least, Logan, you’re the actual frontman, so you have to sort of step up, beyond somebody who is used to having that role.
Gino: But what’s good is that I kind of force him to. Because it’s not like I sit back. I’m still me.
Logan: He’s still Gino out there.
Gino: I’m still all about that rock ‘n’ roll, escapist raaaa, crazy.
So what are your roles now. I mean A.C., he’s quiet in person, but he’s a monster on drums. For Gino, are you playing mostly backup stuff?
Gino: I play guitar, and I sing backup stuff, and I’m gonna do keyboards. But mostly just harmonies and guitar.
Steve, what’s your role.
Steve: I play mostly synth and electric bass. I don’t really play leads or anything like that now, it’s all bass.
For The Gentry, as a band, do you have a dedicated bassist right now?
Gino: It’s a machine.
Logan: We like computers.
Steve: After seven of them we replaced them with a machine.
[Laughter]
Logan: The way that the show goes, just to give you an idea, we’ve merged the units. We’re going on tour together as kind of one band, but it’s two bands. The Gentry sort of starts off the set, and plays their set… and they kind of bring me on stage. [Then] we play a whole other set where they don’t really change their position, except that Gino sort of slides over, and I pop out… Once I pop on, they’re still The Gentry, but it’s my songs. But they’ve been totally reworked by these guys.
And are you gonna do anything by yourself, or is everything formatted for a band?
Logan: No, it’s all brand new.
Steve: There was talk…
Logan: There are some times where its calm, and it’s just me singing. But there’s not really time where I go and clutch the mic in anticipation of something happening.
Going back and listening to your stuff, Logan, it seems really sensitive. The emo thing gets tagged to you a lot.
Logan: Sure.
But I think of The Gentry as being really macho. Even though it is dance music and ’80s, there’s a certain machismo to it.
Logan: Its chick bangin-rock.
Yeah so now its chick-bangin’ rock mixed with dude-bangin’ rock.
[Laughter]
Gino: It’s just an appreciation of sex.
Logan: Just bangin’ all around. I’ve been called the “Ambassador of Bisexuality” before, and I’m not bisexual. But my imagery that I put out in my videos… I had the first gay kiss on MTV, well man-to-man.
Are you worried about alienating people who came to like your through your softer sound?
Logan: I don’t know, I’m kind of in the business of alienating people. In the beginning, I was making records that I didn’t think anybody was going to listen to. And then when they started listening I changed it up again and then made some weird electro-clash record. I think the common element in all my work is me, and my words, and my songs, and my melodies. That stays the same no matter what the energy behind it is. This is just like a brand new energy that’s been worked into the same songs. People are going to recognize the songs. They just hit heavier and have grown large and epic instead of soft and sweet.
But do you think it still is dance-y?
Logan: Oh, it’s so dance-y.
Gino: It kind of like [an] electronic Buzzcocks, Stooges. Really primal simple parts.
Steve: We really tapped into ’70s punk for a lot of these songs.
Logan: It’s like dance-punk.
’70s punk is the last thing I would ever think when I heard your stuff.
Logan: I am not punk though. That’s the thing, that’s what I’m saying. I haven’t changed the way I’m singing necessarily. It’s them, they’ve brought their Gentry. That’s the thing. I’m still soft. They’re hard, I’m soft and it comes together in this new way. But it’s familiar. I think we’ll hold on to my fans, and [The Gentry] are gonna get some new ones.
And you’re comfortable now, or even excited.
Logan: I’m so excited, everything rules. And even A.C.’s energy back there… That alone versus some programmed beat it changes the whole fucking scope.
Steve: It changes the whole dynamic entirely.
Gino: Well the three of us have been playing [as The Gentry] for so long we have a natural…
It’s been like six years.
Gino: Even longer. What’s cool is that we get to try out a lot of things that we’re interested in the moment. And it’s nice to not be the frontman, cuz I’ve always been the frontman. I’ve always had to be the singer. To just be a guitar player… it’s fun, the simplicity of being able to leave [the mic]. I’m not attached to a microphone, though I do sing vocals I can leave, and the song isn’t done [just] because I’m not singing.
Logan: You can jump off the stage.
Gino: Exactly, I can do my crazy thing and it lets me take that exhibition further because I’m not trapped to the center of the stage and singing into my mic [where] if I miss my cue everything is fucked.
Logan: That’s my job.
Gino: It’s cool too, because we’ve been really into dynamics lately and we get to do some experiments with some really soft parts of songs and then big, loud. Just experimenting with playing as a band rather than being an electronic unit. I mean we still use computers and we still…
So there’s still a lot of programming there, but some of the songs are free form.
Logan: Some have [no programming].
Gino: And they’re totally different from The Gentry.
Logan: Its working, but its been an adjustment.
Especially as a DJ where you have a record, a program, something else in front of you the whole time.
Logan: Definitely. It’s a new world. It’s a more enjoyable world from what I’ve experienced so far… There’s not one sound within our band or within our set that makes it pinpointable, but it’s all one thing. It’s all hard, fast, rock, dance, wildness.
Are you working on any new material that you’ve only just started with the band, or is this all old material?
Logan: No, no. Yea, I finished making a new record, which we’re mixing now. So I’d say half the set is stuff from this new record that nobody has ever heard before. They’re gonna hear it the first time as The Gentry’s version of it.
Is there anything from that you’d be willing to share with OMN?
Logan: Sure, yeah definitely, but I have to check with some people on that [laughs]. I’m not in charge of me anymore.
Logan Lynn seems anxious but confident about the new sound. “I’m in contact with the people who are listening to my music. That’s how this whole thing started, that’s how its built up to this point. That’s how I know somebody’s gonna be there tomorrow.”
It’s those relationships that fuel Lynn’s music. “It’s great that I get good reviews or whatever, but the people who I actually care about are the people I’m talking to online, that are coming up to me after shows, that are interested in what they just heard. You gotta feed the tree.”
Logan Lynn and The Gentry will be playing this Thursday, May 27th at the Doug Fir Lounge, 9pm with DoublePlusGood and Fleshtone.
On Saturday night, there wasn’t a better five bucks spent for music fans than at the Ella Street Social Club. It was a showcase of new and up-and-coming bands from Portland in an intimate, cozy setting that placed all the attention where it belonged: on the musicians.
The Hugs
The Hugs showed they deserve a record deal, 1776 played up to expectations, and Otis Heat… well, they just came out of nowhere.
It is frankly amazing that The Hugs have yet to land a record deal with a label of any kind. The Brit-pop-rock band from Portland instantly draws comparisons to bands such The Kinks and The Kooks and they’re still in their teens.
They played considerably beyond their years and already have a direction and style to fuel them through the coming years. Lead singer Danny Delegato added bite to the bands’ sound, his drawling, scratchy adolescent voice infusing a little punk into their music.
The band has grown exponentially since arriving in early 2007, and their second self-released LP Again and Again (October 2009) has possibly put them on the brink of something big.
The Hugs probably surprised a lot of people Saturday night, given that they were the opening band to a five dollar gig. It won’t be long before they’re headlining. The best part is that they still have so much room to grow as a band.
Otis Heat
As the performances rolled on, lead singer Sean O’Neill of Otis Heat was by far the most entertaining figure on the stage Saturday night. Otis Heat’s opening song, “Seven,” from their 2009 debut album, Oh Yeah Oh Yeah Uh Huh, was the epitome of the band: all over the place and completely mad. The song, despite being called “Seven,” featured O’Neill counting from 1 to 10, 10 to 1, and then yelling out numbers in between in no particular order.
He sang in such a disjointed manner that you never knew what was coming next or if it would make any sense at all. Which was a good thing. It fit his on stage persona perfectly. The band’s music was just as hard to follow. Any particular song could span five genres in a few minutes. It was funk (sometimes almost Primus-like), rock, metal, blues, pop, and even a little folky in some instances. (“The Goose” from his CD features him playing a banjo.) It was the definition of ADD, completely unpredictable.
Combined with O’Neill’s on stage theatrics (rocking back and forth hugging his guitar, shaking his hand as if he couldn’t stop it, throwing burned CDs into the crowd, and continuing to head-bang when the music had already stopped), the show infused energy into the small, intimate crowd at Ella Street and had many roaring by the end. Heat’s show got the biggest response on Saturday night, and it was well-deserved.
1776, a four-piece rock band, was a fitting end to the night. 1776 has been playing together for a while, but was just signed by indie label Beat the World Records (The Dandy Warhols, The Upsidedown) within the last year. They are also only teenagers.
1776
The band pays very close to their 60’s influences with electric-guitar driven, nonstop rock that has clearly researched The Yardbirds-style. They add psychedelic bits to their songs, but they don’t bog down their music with it. They are rock first and foremost and their influence is so easily heard that you would think they grew up in the 60’s, especially with their aesthetic–long, curly hair draping over their eyes. On Saturday night, they were unrelenting, wailing on their guitars until two in the morning.
If any of the bands playing Saturday night make it big in the coming years–which is a strong possibility–those who attended this show can look back and remember when they saw all three for five dollars in quaint Portland lounge, knowing they were there when it all began.
Although it was introduced into the greater vernacular in the late ’90s, the past decade saw the word “indie” become the go-to watchword amid the mass of music chatter served up on the blogs, webzines and print media of the world.
Dozens of indie bands from around the world became household names, some even cracking the Billboard Top 10. It wasn’t necessarily a shock wave considering the fractured state of the music industry and the ease with which people have access to music. Rather, it was simply an aesthetic shift towards something that felt somehow more authentic and more accessible and engaging.
I would argue that no state in America represented this aesthetic better than Oregon, and no city did it better than the metropolitan hub of Portland. We have seen a great number of bands – far more than the group listed here – that have made a permanent mark on the international music scene. And we’ve seen many others from outside our borders pick up stakes and move to Portland to take part in this wellspring of activity and excitement.
This list represents the best general consensus I could come up with of the best indie music to come out of Oregon since 2000. It was gathered by taking nominations and suggestions (via Twitter and Facebook, naturally) from musicians, colleagues and other music writers, and then winnowing it down to the list that’s before you. Also, to keep things fair for all parties involved, and to emphasize the communal feel of the music scene in Oregon, these are listed in alphabetical order by artist, rather than ranking them by a number system.
I wouldn’t dare say that this was a definitive list. There are plenty of genres represented here that I and my nominating committee consider to be “indie music” but many more genres are left out. As well, there will likely be some that would argue on behalf of other bands or other albums by the bands listed here.
But I’m quite sure that you won’t argue the point that the past 10 years have been great for the Oregon music scene and community at large, and that from the looks of things, it’s only going to get better from here.
The title of Au’s second album is as much about the music on it, as it is about the effect that the band wants it to have on the listener. They want you to act on behalf of the album: to sing, dance, sway, bounce, curl up, sleep, or cry along with it. For the band, this meant tuning everything towards maximum momentum, recording all the basic tracks in a whirlwind three-day session that involved a chorus of voices ebulliently singing, “Animals we are!” and Steve Reich-like swathes of piano and percussion. It’s music that moves you as you move with it.
If you were to map out the principal musical ideas of the last decade, one that would come up again and again is the attempt by many a young band to weld together the warm expanse of folk and country with the cold insularity of modern electronica. Some succeeded admirably enough, but none did it better than this sextet. Throughout their fourth full-length, Eric Earley, Marty Marquis, and co. allow glossy blasts and bleats of synths and rhythm machines to shine out through their dusty odes to animalistic love (the rambling title track), outlaws (“Black River Killer”) and heartbreak (“Not Your Lover”).
The fifth full-length by this duo is the sound of a group finally hitting their stride. After almost a decade of well-meaning, but ultimately raggedy sounding efforts, Khaela Maricich and Jona Bechtolt either got completely comfortable with modern technology or simply began to feel fully settled working with each other, but they were able to crank out 10 brilliant songs of shimmering lovelorn pop. Giddy numbers like “Parentheses” and “Eat Your Heart Up” are artful, yet accessible blends of new wave gloss and hip-hop grit. Though the two have parted ways (amicably, as Bechtolt is now expending all his energy with his own group YACHT) and The Blow has turned into something of a one-woman cabaret act, The Blow can rest comfortably on the legacy of this perfect collaborative effort.
All you need to be able to parse out Marius Libman’s solo electronica can be found under the influences he lists on his MySpace page. On his debut album, you can pick out the low end skitter of producers like Dr. Dre and Timbaland, the charming analog pretension of Human League and Yaz, and the joyous repetition of an NES game soundtrack. When it was released two years ago, it felt like the music of the future finally found a home in Portland, Oregon. These days, it feels like the future of music is being driven under the influence of albums like this one.
Hard, heavy rock tends to get short shrift in our fair city, especially these days when folk-driven earnestness is all the rage. But if there were ever a band to help tip the scales back to piledriving riffs and early Sabbath-style vocalizing, it would be Danava. Led by the sci-fi visions cooked up by front man Dusty Sparkles, this progressive trio hit their creative apex with this, their second album, which retrofitted acid rock drenched guitar playing with a truncheon-like rhythm section. It’s a record that leave you dizzy, giddy and utterly convinced that the title of the album totally makes sense, man.
The tastemakers of the city dismissed the band for their unrepentant aims for stardom, but in doing so they have missed out on album after album of pure glam and psychedelic bliss. The long-running quartet got the new millennium off to a fantastic start with this richly produced and ultra catchy collection of pop anthems. They borrow liberally from the playbooks of influences like T. Rex and Bowie but adds their own modern twists with rumbling electronic touches and Courtney Taylor-Taylor’s turned on, tuned in lyrics. This band is well overdue for a retro-style resurrection and re-appraisal. Let it start right here.
In a decade that saw this band’s musical output grow in both conceptual and sonic strength, my rough polling of Portland music fans turned up a rather interesting wrinkle: when it comes down to it, people prefer The Decemberists’ humble beginnings. It’s hard to fault the choice, though, as their first full-length kicked the door open for Colin Meloy’s particular brand of hyper literate folk pop, sending a generation of fans into the richly hewn world of ghostly children, crooked French-Canadians, and lovelorn Spanish puppeteers.
Over the course of one album, this former Nevada City resident managed to capture the spirit of wandering Nashville-style country, folk music from Ireland and modern indie all through the ache of her crackling fire of a singing voice. Anchored by acoustic guitar and tasteful orchestration that never overplays, Diane’s songs befit any season – the dusky warmth of late summer, the chill of winter, and the giddy expectation of spring.
The last few years has seen an upswing in bands that proudly fly an analog flag, recording their work on any dusty beat to hell tape deck that will have them. The group that represented Oregon best in this beautiful racket was this roughshod quartet of noisemakers. Their debut full-length gives away the group’s pedigree: a steady diet of vintage Flying Nun 7″s, early Pavement singles and a lot of garage rock compilations. It’s nearly punk, nearly pop, and all Eat Skull.
The captain of the good ship Oregon Music News likens the upswing of young, hyper aware and brilliant jazz players in the city (Andrew Oliver, Ben Darwish, etc.) as “indie jazz”. For this writer, the moniker should be applied first to this freewheeling group. They play shows well below the radar of the regular jazz market, perform a glorious mix of Afrobeat, Sun Ra style space excursions and smoky cabaret weepers, and released their finest work in a very limited edition on a staunchly DIY label (vinyl only naturally).
2003 was a tough year for Portland music with the suicide of Elliott Smith and the tragic death of 3/4 of the members of this snarling power pop/punk outfit in a van accident. Just as their star was on the ascendant, too, as heard on their one and only LP. The 10 skinny tie and leather jacket-ed tracks echo the best of groups like The Undertones and Sweet, but with their own homegrown energy fueled cheap beer and strong coffee. And as Adam Cox’s lovelorn lyrics proved, the album’s title wasn’t just a catchy turn of phrase. It’s a shame they didn’t get more of a chance to burn even brighter.
They had already made a name for themselves as a blues-garage-punk dynamo hybrid to be reckoned with. But with the release of their third studio album and the introduction of drummer Hannah Billie to the proceedings, the band turned toward a raw disco-new wave-soul sound that coaxed some of the most diva-like sounds from vocalist Beth Ditto. It is an album that made the trio superstars in the UK and an indie success here in the States, urged on by the engaging and hard to ignore lead single “Standing In The Way of Control” and their always-electrifying stage shows. The gear switch for Gossip did them and their listeners a world of sexy, sweaty good.
The ghostly sound of Liz Harris’s lost in the ether vocals combined with heavily processed guitar sounds and ambient noise provided one the most haunting and dreamlike listening experiences of the past decade. It’s an album that is just as fulfilling when hiding in the background of your daily activities or turned up loud on headphones as you pay attention to every last nuance and reverb-ed vocal. All signs point to Harris moving above and beyond what is heard on this record, as we really should expect from an artist as forward thinking as she is. But we will likely hold on most tightly to this intoxicating document.
We’ve been inured to experimental music to the point that we expect a song like “Extension” to, at any minute, take a turn into the world of frightening, squalling noise. But Tom Greenwood’s long running music concern knows better than that. Over the course of nearly 16 minutes, he and the band revel in small turns of guitar phrasing, washed out cymbals, pinging synth runs and the rumble of drums. It’s one of the most heavenly exercises in pure restraint ever committed to tape and caps off one of the most exciting avant psych releases of the past decade.
There were dozens of bands working the same spiraling guitars with unusual tunings and on the verge of tumbling over the hillside rhythm section sound by the time The Joggers released their debut album. But something about their arch approach to what we might now call “classic indie rock” stood head and shoulders above the fray. It could have been the keen use of four-part harmonies. Or it could simply be the fact that, on first lesson, you were never quite sure where the band would go next (do you know any other group that pulled off an non ironic a cappella breakdown in the pre-Glee universe?). No matter what it was, we followed them every step of the way.
For the past decade, the former Pavement front man has called Portland his home, and quickly made a firm name for himself by pulling together a new band featuring some of the best musicians from his adopted hometown (Jonna Bolme, John Moen and Mike Clark). His second post-Pavement effort carries over that band’s meandering, shaggy dog aesthetic, but with the influence of ’60s psychedelia creeping more evidently in the mix. It has the confident and comfortable sound of someone who has finally settled down. We should still be proud that he has chosen our fair city to do his settling in.
Perhaps the most modern of albums to be created in our modern era, the trio’s third album was constructed in fits and starts with the individual members writing and recording separately. These parts were then re-recorded or re-written by the other members of the group as they went along. That the finished product was an avant-pop masterpiece, filled with angular rhythms, surging choruses and plenty of random noise, instead of a mess of disjointed, confused sound is a testament to the collective mindset of the group. They are in this together and to create something brilliant, and on Friend & Foe, they did just that.
It’s a testament to the abilities of Mirah’s songwriting that she can place a deeply political pop tune about the state of Israel (“Jerusalem”) close to a heartfelt, horn-drenched break up elegy (“We’re Both So Sorry”) and have these disparate ideas feel joined at the hip. The first of many artistic peaks by this now-former Oregonian brought with it the homegrown feel of the Olympia music scene she was bred in, but added to it her sharp ear for minimalist composition and production. Every song sounds full, but never overstuffed.
The album that introduced Isaac Brock and his beautifully agonized, staccato pop/rock to suburb dwellers, Good News has the air of a defining statement. The kind of work that its creators put their spines, hearts and sweat deep into, figuring it’s their last best shot at something bigger than indie success. It certainly paid off thanks to “Float On”, the rousing single that, in 2004, seemed absolutely inescapable. The rest is Platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated history, and a story that Brock and co. have built upon in the years since its release.
Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss had already made a lasting mark on the Portland music scene by this point. They had five albums under their belt – each one better than the one before – and were getting plenty of attention for their work outside of the group. But their sixth helped cut that mark a little deeper, bringing Coomes’ love of Delta blues (“Master & Dog”) and a touch of straining ’70s pop into their already well-established mix of dour lyrics and jaunty indie rock. Hot shit, indeed.
Hearing a band mature and truly come into their own is a thrill for any music fan. And for fans of The Shins, the thrill came from this fantastic collection. Wincing captured some of James Mercer’s most engaging and indelible melodies and found the band stretching themselves comfortably past the lightly hued sound that got them name checked in a Hollywood film. All signs are pointing to a different look and feel for the band from here on out. Will they expand on the ideas formulated here? Undoubtedly. Will they improve upon what they did here? Hard to improve on perfection.
On their final salvo together, this powerful trio locked in tight like never before, writing feedback dripping jams that demanded your attention and your appreciation. Carrie Brownstein submitted fully to her new found status as a guitar goddess, ripping through these proceedings like a buzz saw. She and Corin Tucker responded to our fracturing modern age with some of the most bitter, bilious lyrics of their long career (check out the call-to-arms that is “Entertain” and the vicious “Modern Girl”). There is light at the end of this tunnel, however, as heard in their closing one-two punch – a pair of noisy and hope-filled odes to both family and love.
The only album that Smith saw released this decade is as heartbreaking and fragile and brilliant as the man who created it. His second to be bankrolled by a major label, Smith was able to fulfill his pop dreams, making a record that sounds removed from the era in which it was released. It has the lush heart of mid-’60s British pop and with occasional blasts of ’70s-style groove and rumble. The beauty of the music is countered by Smith’s arch lyrical visions that took a Bukowski-like mixture of cynicism and romance to dizzying heights.
This tightly-controlled masterpiece will be likely be analyzed for years to come. Not only by those fledgling songwriters hoping to parse out just how Britt Daniel (another Portland transplant) constructs his loose, angular jams, but by engineers looking to match drummer Jim Eno’s jaw dropping production work. Each song plays out like an Escher illusion, with each note and noise locked into those surrounding it to create a beautiful seamless whole. It’s a master’s class in modern rock and pop that wraps up in a tidy 36 minutes. You can expect to hear more bands and more albums like it after they’ve had some time to absorb all the subtle details found within.
The past decade saw an amazing number of bands arriving fully formed, creating full-length classics right out of the gate. Portland’s entry into that parade was Starfucker, a quartet that specialized in glossy, ’80s inspired, dance floor filling jams. It has the goofy wit to wend in some Alan Watts samples, but is also smart enough not to rest on any one groove or melodic idea for too long. It has the effortless spirit of a perfect summer’s day, the kind where you awarded all the time in the world to simply float downstream and enjoy yourself.
Their debut, Mutiny Sunshine, saw this duo feeling out the idea of playing instrumental music that was driven by live and programmed beats, but also carried on its back a heft of melodics via viola, piano and other acoustic instruments. It felt good there, but feels positively great on this, their follow up release. Each song has a full, rounded quality with the wood and wire elements folding into click and drag elements with deceptive ease. Also states a hell of a case for Kevin O’Connor as Portland’s best male drummer (check out the track “Human Born” for the best evidence of this). In a city teeming with them, that is saying something.
The rest of the country can keep the empty rhetoric of Green Day’s so-called rock operas. When we want to take a punk-fueled journey into the heart of “real America”, we want The Thermals to be our guides. It’s the story of a boy and a girl fleeing a religion-crazed police state set to the sound of sinewy power chords, steamrolling drums and Hutch Harris’s window shaking vocals. A perfect encapsulation of the frustration and anger so many of us felt during the Bush administration, The Thermals gave us an outlet to dance and shout and shake and focus our energy on getting the bastards in our sights and taking them down.
Some records are titled perfectly. Like this one. The warm, worn sound that Matt Ward created here would sound perfect spilling out of the monophonic speaker of a small handheld radio. And the songs on it are all about the escape granted to lovers of music when their favorite tunes are in the air. That means everything from sleepy, jazzy love poems to the Beach Boys and Bach instrumentals that bookend the collection.
The doyen of the psychedelic and experimental music scenes in Portland, Adam Forkner has done time with such far-out outfits as Surface of Eceyon and Dirty Projectors. On his own, the various strains of influence that he has exhibited in his work with these groups (Krautrock, Japanese psychedelia, IDM) are all focused and sharpened. They came together most convincingly on this stretched out, acid trailing epic of drum loops, fractured guitar and deep, pure drone. It’s the kind of work that coaxes you into it gently but then holds you firm and strong until the last notes fade away. The visions and ecstasy you receive as a result is just added incentive to give yourself over to it.
Dapper dresser Courtney Taylor-Taylor and his world touring band mates will host a Fellini-twisted Italian Christmas party for two shows at the Wonder Ballroom. Bring the nose-pickers for their all ages show on Sunday December 13. Saturday December 12 is for adult beverage drinkers only.
Maybe at this show the Dandy’s will tell us what the heck is going on with that cool Portland indie label Beat The World Records.
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+
For twenty years 
Before watching 
Logan: Yes. But there was like 6 years where I was like in party town, living in an alternate universe. I lost some time to the party wagon. I think I got serious about all this in 2007. Since [then] it’s been one thing after another. It started with my producer from 
What’s the connection to the Dandys? How’d that happen?
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