The Woodlands, “Summerland,” The Woodlands (Self-Released)
Hearing about your favorite band getting signed to local labels or being written up in the local press never ceases to thrill. There’s something even more pride-inducing about seeing treasured Portland groups start to receive national and international attention, whether it’s Starfucker’s IBM ads and Spin magazine write-ups or the Shivas being reviewed by (Sound). Another of Portland’s more endearing outfits, the Woodlands, are sure to gain a slew of new fans from around the world over the coming months as various upcoming endeavors take the act’s music from Greenland to Australia and even into the friendly skies.
Greenland’s first international feature film, Nuummioq, currently in post production, will feature music by the Woodlands, who are also presently finalists in both the We Are Listening and the Australian Songwriters Association songwriting contest. If you’re flying during the month of October, you might even hear the Woodlands on your plane: Virgin and American Airlines will highlight the duo via a recorded interview and song play featured on their in-flight radio that month.
If all that isn’t enough, standout track “Summerland” will soon be championed by music magazines Filter and Paste. Filter has selected “Summerland” to appear on the magazine’s quarterly compilation, of which 30,000 discs are pressed and distributed and Paste will feature the track on their website as a Dale’s Pale Ale summer download.
“Summerland” demonstrates that all the upcoming attention for the group is well deserved. Gently lilting but also deceptively triumphant, the song’s joyful noise invokes the mysterious magic of summer. It’s the perfect quiet anthem for a region where it’s easy to feel dominated by less than sunny fall and spring conditions that can sometimes seem to last all year round. Despite the clouds this week, there’s still plenty of time to tune up your fixies and get out there and ride bikes, and this is the perfect track to accompany two wheeled sojourns on Sauvie’s Island. “And we will dance/To the songs that plague our heads/In the Summerland, ” sings Hannah Robertson. Add one more song to that list. Hey! You’ve got a little berry on your face!
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Links:
The WoodlandSpace
Photo courtesy of the Woodlands
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Kari
says:These two look like they’re in pain — just tortured. Guess i’ll have to listen to their music. No one happy could ever make good music, even if you’re in a pair of skinny jeans.
Posted @ August 14th, 2009 at 9:41 am (August 13th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkBen Moral
says:Get the album at CD Baby!
Posted @ August 14th, 2009 at 11:19 am (August 13th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:Hey guys, there’s still time to tune up your fixies and take bike rides while listening to “Summerland!” Yippeeee! What a great way to blacken the spirit of this kickass group’s music, by invoking the stereotype of the Portland music fan cliche. Ugh, get a grip you moron ARY IMG — still learning the basics of journalism in your internship? This band is stellar, and here you are rightfully promoting them but with horsepucky like that. They should pay you to shut your hole. Since they didn’t i will. Where do i send the money? kisses
Posted @ August 14th, 2009 at 12:18 pm (August 13th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkNick
says:and we’ll have fun fun fun
Posted @ August 14th, 2009 at 12:49 pm (August 13th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinktil kari takes the fixies away
(fun fun fun til kair takes the fixies away)
Kari
says:Oh it’s Nick. Startled because on your zzzzzz blog you said you’ve “checked out for a while. Mostly because of the nice weather this summer and a lot of great things happening around town.” Yes, such great things, like summer rides on your fixie. What “great things” have YOU seen (scene) happen around town lately, Mr. Nick? Or are you too busy lounging in the south Park Blocks sunshine reading Borges while your mommy pays your rent and PSU tuition, because i’ve just filed worthless invoices for three straight hours at this so-called “lawyers” office here in SW for chumpchange and my eyes are bleeding like my paper cut finger tips. Please provide some artistic balm for my chapped spirit.
Posted @ August 14th, 2009 at 1:40 pm (August 13th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkNick
says:i dont believe in chapstick.
Posted @ August 14th, 2009 at 1:45 pm (August 13th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkJon Ragel
says:SCENE ONE:
“will you go out with me?”
“no.”
“why not?”
“I have chapped lips. I need to get some chapstick and heal my chapped lips. Ask me again on Monday and I’ll say yes.”
“oh. ok.”
SCENE TWO:
“will you go out with me?”
“no.”
THE END
Posted @ August 14th, 2009 at 2:32 pm (August 13th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkNick
says:ha!
Posted @ August 14th, 2009 at 2:35 pm (August 13th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkJen
says:Ouchie, I thought there was loads of good info in this piece, lovely song. Bike mentioning is just a good way to get comments to be fair.
Posted @ August 14th, 2009 at 2:40 pm (August 13th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkMusic Millennium Hosts Its 17th Annual Costumer Appreciation BBQ (With Free Music and Food)-- Local Cut
says:[...] The Woodlands, “Summerland,” The Woodlands (Self-Released) [...]
Posted @ August 14th, 2009 at 4:01 pm (August 13th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:Jen, there was indeed loads of good info in this piece, but the fixie part was the pitiful exception. You are clearly an idealistic, 22-year-old rube if you actually say things like “Bike mentioning is just a good way to get comments to be fair.” This is Earth. Human society. Darwin’s ecology. Nothing is FAIR. What does that even mean? Pull your head out of your young ass for a minute and talk turkey with me Jen!
Posted @ August 15th, 2009 at 12:18 am (August 13th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkCasey Jarman
says:I’m actually really enjoying Kari’s comments. Kari, please let us know if you start a blog of your own.
Posted @ August 16th, 2009 at 11:16 pm (August 13th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkKari
says:Thanks Casey Jarman, i would like to start one right here, under your pretty nose. Are you a girl or boy? i’ve always wondered — just a question, not a mean comment.
Also, it would be hard to keep a blog without using your music coverage as catalyst for my brilliance. i’m a springboard, no longer a journalist churning out my own articles. Guess that makes me like an editor: you writers create the gold, and the editor works it, shapes it, ruins it, throws it out. Thats me! kisses Casey. I’d dyke out with you in a heartbeat.
Posted @ August 17th, 2009 at 11:08 am (August 13th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkokay
says:Hi there,
Posted @ August 17th, 2009 at 12:05 pm (August 13th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalinkFriend of a friend of “Kari.” Sorry guys, “Kari” isn’t actually a girl. He’s a guy (who used to write music stuff for the Mercury) writing in character as a girl. Which is kind of creepy when you think about it…
Kari
says:i wouldn’t write for the Mercury if you paid me in gold blocks “okay,” okay? i have standards, which clearly you do not: where’d you get your facts? You have no sources! (and you like the Blazers, euwh.) kisses.
Posted @ August 17th, 2009 at 7:30 pm (August 13th, 2009) | Flag this Comment | permalink