Hello, Portland, how are you? I’ve got news. Tons of things to tell you. Here we go.

1. I noticed something neat on the Artistery site. A “label launch” in January for an imprint called Infinite Front. I’d never heard the label name (though there’s a nice ring to it), but the bands listed were very familiar: Castanets, Ohioan, Ghost to Falco, Dragging an Ox Through Water. The label’s website (which has not been fleshed out yet) also mentions Ah Holly Fam’ly, Aan and CexFux. I’m not going to run down a genre description for all those artists, mostly because just about everyone on that list is very difficult to musically define. But the roster is very impressive.

“Infinite front is the brainchild of Ryne from Ohioan and Eric from Ghost to Falco,” a label representative tells LC. “They’ve both been putting out stuff under various labels and decided it would be better to just make their own, bringing friends on board as well (the project is very fresh so the process of setting things up has only just begun).”

No word yet on specific releases just yet, but seeing a half-dozen or so great experimental pop groups and such on one imprint is getting us really stoked.

2. Speaking of the aforementioned Ah Holly Fam’ly, the band heads out on the road for an exhausting tour at the moment (dates below). As Michael Mannheimer reported in his profile of the band in last week’s issue of WW, the group’s founders plan to hang out in New Mexico at the end of tour. There is some concern, we hear, that they’ll stay there forever…or at least for longer than a few months. Here’s the tour dates:

10/24 Moscow, ID @ Mikey’s Gyros
10/25 Spokane,WA @ Caterina Winery
10/26 Missoula, MO @ The Basement (235 North 1st St.)
10/27 Anaconda, MT @ house show
10/29 Pocatello, ID @ Flipside Lounge
11/2 Denver,CO@ Rhinoceroplis
11/4 Denver, CO @ Meadowlark Bar
11/5 Lincoln, NE @ Clawfoot House (1042 F Street)
11/10 Athens, OH @ TBD
11/12 Ann Arbor, MI @ TBD
11/13 Hamtramck, MI @ The Painted Lady
11/14 Akron,OH @ Annabella’s
11/16 Buffalo,NY @ Sugar City
11/17 New York, NY @ Bruar Falls
11/19 Montpielier, VT @ Langdon St. Cafe
11/23 Lancaster, PA@ The Lizard Lounge
11/24 Charlottesville,VA@ Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar
11/25 Chapel Hill NC @ Night Light
11/30 Houston TX @ Super Happy Fun Land
12/5 Prescott AZ @ The Raven

3. A very nice write-up in SF weekly about Portland’s own Blind Pilot. My favorite part is at the end:

By the way: There was definitely some Portland love on the dance floor last night. It’s totally cool to share your love for various landmarks (like, for instance, shouting out “Powell’s Books! Powell’s Books!” between songs, as a few of last night’s crowd members decided to do). But it’s definitely time to put a sock in it when the band starts calling you the Portland Yellow Pages.

Blind Pilot’s national headlining tour just kicked off. Best of luck to them!

10/23/09 – Troubadour – Los Angeles, CA *
10/24/09 – Casbah – San Diego, CA *
10/25/09 – Plush – Tucson, AZ *
10/27/09 – Bronze Peacock at House of Blues – Houston, TX *
10/28/09 – Granada Theater – Dallas, TX *
10/29/09 – The Parish – Austin, TX *
10/30/09 – Spanish Moon – Baton Rouge, LA *
11/2/09 – Club Downunder – Tallahassee, FL *
11/3/09 – The Social – Orlando, FL *
11/4/09 – The Earl – Atlanta, GA *
11/5/09 – Mercy Lounge – Nashville, TN *
11/6/09 – University of North Carolina – Asheville, NC *
11/7/09 – Attucks Theater – Norfolk, VA *
11/9/09 – Cats Cradle – Carrboro, NC *
11/11/09 – The Black Cat – Washington, D.C. *
11/12/09 – Paradise – Boston, MA *
11/13/09 – Higher Ground – Burlington, VT +
11/14/09 – Iron Horse – Northampton, MA +
11/17/09 – Maxwell’s – Hoboken, NJ +
11/18/09 – World Cafe Live – Philadelphia, PA +
11/19/09 – Bowery Ballroom – New York, NY +
11/20/09 – Bell House – Brooklyn, NY +
11/21/09 – Club Cafe – Pittsburgh, PA +
11/23/09 – The Ark – Ann Arbor, MI +
11/24/09 – Radio Radio – Indianapolis, IN +
11/25/09 – Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL +
11/27/09 – Jackpot – Lawrence, KS +
11/28/09 – Bluebird Theater – Denver, CO +
11/29/09 – Urban Lounge – Salt Lake City, UT +
11/30/09 – The Linen Building – Boise, ID +
12/2/09 – Neumos – Seattle, WA +
12/3/09 – Media Club – Vancouver, BC +

4. As previously mentioned in WW, Mic Crenshaw has a live band, and I hadn’t actually heard it until today. His group, the Glue (see above photo, taken by the great Arian Stevens), is currently out in NYC wrapping up some valuable CMJ time (having seen Crenshaw at last year’s CMJ, I can say he was certainly well-received). The levels are a little bit weird (never thought I’d complain about too much low-end in hip-hop, but there’s a bit too much low-end on Mic’s vocals), but Crenshaw has posted the band’s CMJ set over at his MySpace site. I’m always excited to see Porltand hip-hop stretching its legs out over some new ideas.

5. If you haven’t yet heard IOA, the Amanda Spring (Point Juncture, WA) side-project that will open the PDX Pop Now! fundraiser with Britt Daniel on Thursday, you really should. And in fact, I just noticed this great little Vimeo clip on the IOA MySpace, and I thought of you.

Boxcar Children by ioa from Weird Tapes on Vimeo.

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