A few months ago I spoke to Gibson about Bridge Carols (at the time she couldn’t reveal the title), and she mentioned that the basis of the project was to make each other uncomfortable. Rose’s music, until this point, has mostly been wordless, while Gibson has often fought to escape her tag as a folky singer-songwriter. Gibson said that many of the compositions were created almost on the spot, as she improved and sang over Rose’s clanging, elliptical backdrops. And judging from the first thing we’ve heard from the pair—the floating, almost weightless “Sun”—it’s also going to be a record of understated beauty. I wrote about “Sun” when it was included on the 2009 PDX Pop Now! compilation, but here’s another peak.

Download audio file (Sun.mp3)

From the duo’s MySpace page:

It began as a conversation of mutual appreciation and curiosity – a shared desire to challenge old ways of working. Ethan had mostly distanced his music from words, while Laura had often felt bound by them.

They began experimenting with different methods of collaboration. Inspired by Laura’s voice, Ethan began building soundscapes, while Laura looked through piles of notebooks, coming across old phrases that never found home in verses or rhymes. They began recording Laura singing these unused writings.

As the project developed, Laura began improvising lyrics and wordless vocalizations, stream of consciousness singing that tumbled out of her in long trailing waves. They recorded in the basement, the forest, and the field – each session having its own unique mood as Laura reflected from subject to subject.

Ethan then took the recorded words and vocalizations from these sessions – cutting them into bits and pieces – rearranging and juxtaposing them against each other to stretch them into new musical poems. These reconstructed lyrical fragments maintained the tone of Laura’s original improvisations while allowing new themes and meanings to emerge. With these vocal collages in place, Ethan would reshape tones and sounds around Laura’s words. The resulting pieces developed into songs. The songs developed into a record.

Links:
Laura Gibson & Ethan RoseSpace
Holocene Music

Photo courtesy of LG & ER

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See the flier below for tomorrow’s show info. But if you’re under 21, or just have some free time this evening, howzabout checking out Prince Po, Tash, Black Silver, Main Flow, Kiew Nycon and Sleep at 7 pm tonight at Someone Clothing (2718 SW Kelli).

It’s quite a lineup. I even made a mixtape of ‘em, but it doesn’t seem to be working right now. So here’s a link to the new single from Prince Po and Black Silver. Good stuff.

And as a bonus (because I love you), here’s a new track from My-G. It’s called “We Need Change,” and it was inspired by the 2003 police shooting of Kendra James, a dark chapter in Portland history that gets rightfully mentioned a lot by local MCs and activists.

Download audio file (weneedchange.mp3)

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Rauelsson recorded the core of his new record—everything but the vocals, really—at Type Foundry studios in the fall/winter last year with the help of friends and producers Adam Selzer and Dave Depper (Norfolk & Western), and you can hear the seasonal touch. La Siembra, la Espera y la Cosecha is a mostly acoustic album, and “Debutantes” even forgoes percussion (except for a little sleigh bells in the background) for atmosphere. The light touch, then, is supplied by Rauelsson’s expansive voice, one that’s so pretty that you don’t really care that he’s singing in a foreign language.

And how’s this for lore: Rauelsson retreated back to Spain to concentrate on his lyrics and record his vocals in an ancient stone-walled house in the Mediterranean countryside. Supposedly the the natural reverb seeped its way into the recordings, but maybe he just needed some solitary confinement to hit on something so wonderful. It’s his bold and fluttering voice that propels “Debutantes,” and, at least on this track, it reminds me of Sigur Ros singer Jónsi Birgisson. Not bad for someone who just movedt to town.

Download audio file (Debutantes.mp3)

Download “Debutantes”

Links:
RauelssonSpace
Hush Records

Photo courtesy of Rauelsson

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Formed: 2007 in San Francisco

Members: Christopher Owens and Chet “JR” White.

Latest release: Girls’ debut, Album, came out this fall on True Panther records.

Why you care: Girls’ back story is almost too good to be true: Frontman and songwriter Christopher Owens grew up as a member of the Children of God cult in Florida (no, really) and spent much of his childhood as a vagabond, living for stints in Europe and Puerto Rico. It’s rumored his mother was among women followers used by the Children of God to bait potential converts with sex, a method of evangelism called “flirty fishing.” Around the age of 16, he escaped to the states and eventually settled in San Francisco, first joining the band Holy Shit with Ariel Pink and Matt Fishbeck before forming Girls. On Album, Owens spins heartbreaking tales of drugs, girls, and on the incredibly catchy breakthrough “Lust for Life,” a wish list of life’s simple pleasures: “I wish I had a suntan/ I wish I had a pizza and a bottle of wine.” Album is also just a pure joy to listen to, 12 songs of buoyant pop filtered through a hazy lens of old 45s and hungover afternoons.

Sounds like: Brian Wilson and Roy Orbison going on a crazy weekend bender—popping pills, writing love songs, and jamming with Big Star.

For fans of: Jonathan Richman; California pop; anyone who just wants to shake a leg or two.

SEE IT: Girls play Wednesday, Nov. 18, at Doug Fir, with Dominant Legs. 9 pm. $10. 21+.

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MarchFourth Marching Band Rise Up

(Self- Released)

[BRASS ’N’ BALLS] Some great live bands just can’t seem to capture their in-person energy on disc. “You have to see ’em live,” we tell friends, apologetically, when the CD doesn’t bring it. I was afraid that would happen with MarchFourth, whose joyous performances owe so much to the visual—and visceral—impact of so many big-horn toters and percussionists having so much fun, marching into the audience and throwing down. That ambience is notoriously hard to capture on a recording, as even masters like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band have discovered.

Of course, no CD could quite encode all of March’s costumed energy—much less its flag-twirlers, stilt-walkers, unicycles, fire eaters, puppets and other accomplices—in little digital bytes.

But Rise Up comes a lot closer than any of us had any right to expect. Sounding tighter than ever, the two- or three-dozen member collective has miraculously managed to channel its raucous sweat, swing and swagger for home and headphone. Newbies can enjoy this party-ready record for its own sake instead of just as a pale souvenir of a full color concert.

The disk presents almost the full range of M4’s diverse sounds—Mexican brass band (“Contada Ridiculata”), odd-meter Balkan party gypsies (“Simplon Cocek”), throwback Latin big-band jazz (“Dynomite”), classic funk (“Freestyle for Miles,” which owes as much to James Brown as to its namesake), New Orleans second line (“Ninth Ward Calling”), gospel rave up (“Gospel”) and unclassifiable hybrids. If Herb Alpert were still running the Tijuana Brass, “Happiness” would be the perfect cover.

Some proceeds from Rise Up go to Sweet Home New Orleans, a nonprofit organization that helps the damaged Crescent City’s music and cultural institutions recover from Katrina’s helluva Bush-whacking job. Fresh as Rise Up sounds, there’s no substitute for the full MarchFourth live experience—lucky for us, the band plays this week. BRETT CAMPBELL.

Curious Hands Bangin’ Like A Fox

(Self-Released)

[SHORT STORY] Brevity can go a long way in rock music. Of the 19 tracks on local spiky-punk quartet Curious Hands’ second full-length, Bangin’ Like a Fox, only one is longer than three minutes. Actually, hell, the whole thing breezes by in just over half an hour. I have three songs in my iTunes library longer than that.

The fun in listening to Bangin’ comes from its short run time. Instead of tacking on needless bridges or an extra chorus, Curious Hands’ two songwriters—guitarist Jack Tuftee and bassist Tyler Riggs—distill a serious dose of punk rock sneer into sharp pop nuggets that, if anything, almost resemble a garage-rock haiku. It’s tempting (and easy) to compare the band’s songs to Guided by Voices mid-’90s material, where Bob Pollard seemed terrified of letting anything get past the first verse. Those confines led to some incredible pop moments, though; 14 years on, and “Game of Pricks” is still the most perfect 93 seconds ever put to a crappy-sounding four-track.

In my mind, a more accurate comparison is to prolific Vermont project the Capstan Shafts, if leader Dean Wells were into video games instead of lengthy song titles. “Tuck Away Boys” and “Bleeding Heart” both bop along on jangly arrangements and choogly guitar playing, and “I Told You So,” with its stop-and-start beat and infectious hook, would fit well on any mixtape. Though it’s filled with a bit of clutter and silly moments (do they really need to sing about starfish?), Bangin’ proves that sometimes it kills to keep it simple. MICHAEL MANNHEIMER.

SEE IT: MarchFourth plays Wonder Ballroom on Thursday, Nov. 19. 6:30 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. All ages. Curious Hands play Langano Lounge on Saturday, Nov. 21. 9 pm. Free. 21+.

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by Michael Mannheimer and Casey Jarman

This week, as if by some strange cosmic alignment, two large-looming ghosts from Oregon music history return to Portland for encore performances. And it turns out, Everclear and the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies have more in common than their disparate music would suggest: Both flew impossibly high, both bands’ frontmen are mythicized and reviled and, as they plummeted back down to earth, both acts were unceremoniously butchered­ (or outright ignored) by ex-fans and critics. Here’s a bittersweet look back on two groups that ruled Oregon (and the world) in the late ’90s.

EVERCLEAR

Formed: 1992 in Portland.
Genre: Alternative rock or “melodic grunge.”
Fans would say: Portland would never be the mecca of indie rock if not for Everclear, which wasn’t just the biggest band in town for a six-year stretch from 1995 to 2001—it was one of the biggest alt-rock bands in the country. Singer Art Alexakis helped put Portland on the map at a time when our neighbors up north dominated the rock charts.
Haters would say: Alexakis is a smarmy prick, a guy who knew how to play three chords and was lucky enough to jump on the bandwagon when major labels were looking high and low for the next Nirvana. If he still lived in that “big house in the West Hills,” we would egg the shit out of that place.
Highest-selling record: 1997’s So Much For the Afterglow, with over 2 million copies sold.
Career high: Though the trio’s best-selling single is the maudlin 2000 ballad “Wonderful,” nothing comes close to 1995’s Sparkle and Fade. Drugs, sex and teenage catharsis.
Career low: “Volvo-Driving Soccer Mom” in 2003. Or the October-released In a Different Light, a covers record featuring Alexakis’ new hired-guns version of Everclear covering…Everclear.
Crowning artistic achievement: Those simple opening chords to “Santa Monica” are what every teenage boy in Oregon first learned to play on guitar in the ’90s.
Jumped the shark when… With the terrible Everclear cover of “Brown Eyed Girl”? Or maybe when former Godsmack and Fuel drummer Tommy Stewart joined the band’s third-generation lineup in 2008?
Best comeback attempt: At least 2008’s one-off single “Jesus Was a Democrat” had some backbone behind it. (MM)

CHERRY POPPIN’ DADDIES

Formed: 1988 in Eugene.
Genre: Funk, ska, swing, rock…everything but the kitchen sink.
Fans would say: The Daddies are a Northwest institution that broke the boundaries of genre and built a faithful fan base through relentless regional touring. Frontman Steve Perry is a dynamic performer and underrated songwriter. And most of Perry’s innuendo-driven wordplay is subtle enough that you can bring your kids to the show!
Haters would say: The Daddies began as an annoying white-boy funk-rock band and, upon seeing the opportunity, milked the swing revival for all it was worth. Now that the ska and swing fads have run their courses, the Daddies have returned to their rightful obscurity. And Steve Perry takes himself far too seriously.
Highest selling record: Zoot Suit Riot (1997), which went platinum in 1998 and double platinum in 2000.
Career high: Playing Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve party (alongside the Backstreet Boys and Chicago) to ring in 1999.
Career low: “Swingin’ With Tiger Woods (The Big Swing),” a halfhearted, failed cash grab from the Daddies’ 2000 release, Soul Caddy. When you go topical with the lyrics (see Everclear’s career low at left), things almost inevitably take a turn for the worse.
Crowning artistic achievement: The victorious and emotionally resonant “Hi and Lo,” a longtime Daddies live favorite finally committed to tape for last year’s Susquehanna and also featured on new collection Skaboy JFK.
Jumped the shark when… The first time they played the Playboy Mansion.
Failed comeback attempt: Last year’s Susquehanna, a balanced, moody release that incorporates Latin flourishes into the Daddies’ already eclectic sound. (CJ)

SEE IT: Everclear plays a benefit at the Crystal Ballroom to support St. Francis Dining Hall on Thursday, Nov. 19. 8 pm. $20 advance, $25 day of show. All ages. The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies play Wonder Ballroom on Friday, Nov. 20. 8 pm. $16.50 advance, $20 day of show. All ages.

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IMAGE: OK PONY

[RAINY DAY] If the tone of Portland noise-folk trio Meth Teeth’s debut full-length, Everything Went Wrong, seems a tad pessimistic, there are good reasons for that. For starters, the album’s recording process nearly destroyed the band. It took three full tries to get it done, after the first two were interrupted by everything from members quitting to malfunctioning equipment. If the third attempt had failed, the group was ready to just scrap the whole thing.

“We were so fucking mad at these songs,” says 26-year-old singer-guitarist Mattey Hubele, his round, bearded face framed by a black hoodie.

Clearly, a lot of shit indeed went wrong for the band. But life wasn’t always this difficult. In fact, in its two years together, Meth Teeth has gone pretty smoothly. It wrote and recorded what would become its first 7-inch two days after forming in 2007. A month later, the band piled into a Dodge Stratus and left on tour (the band claims to have logged a jaw-dropping 10,000 miles), miraculously playing nearly every scheduled show. And that’s not to mention that Hubele and drummer Kyle Raquipiso both managed to make clean breaks from their hometown in Tri-Cities, Wash., an area known for nuclear waste and—as the band name suggests—tweakers.

But then, last winter came. “I was living in a concrete basement with no heat,” says Hubele. “So that helped piss me off really bad.” Everything Went Wrong is a product of that period. The frustration shows: Although there are underpinnings of melody and ramshackle Americana, it’s almost completely swallowed by analog fuzz; Hubele’s languid, disconnected vocals are buried by heaps of distortion; songs have titles like “World is Going to End Soon” and “Failures Selected by God.” Hubele says it’s an album about “being bummed in the winter here and hanging out with crazy alcoholic girls who ruin your life.” Considering when it was written, that’s understandable. It also didn’t help that at the time, Hubele was hanging out with a bunch of goths who “would talk about how being bummed is a way of life while taking huge bong rips and watching Tupac videos.”

He laughs at the image, and it becomes apparent that maybe he isn’t the giant buzzkill he appears to be. Hubele shrugs. “I think things are better now.”

SEE IT: Meth Teeth plays Doug Fir on Sunday, Nov. 22, with the Dutchess and the Duke and Greg Ashley. 9 pm. $10. 21+.

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There’s really no use in describing this, other than saying “New Year” is over three minutes of singer Alberta Poon (you might know her from Wet Confetti and Reporter) dancing with a lion dance master from the Portland Lee’s Association Lion Dance Team. It’s colorful, it’s bright, and it’s got soul. The video premiered (I think) at the LABELMATES night at Holocene at the end of October, and now it’s available online:

NEW YEAR: May Ling from TheWhitemanBrothers on Vimeo.

Links:
May LingSpace
Portland Lee’s Association

Thanks to the Penny Jam for the tip

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Tender Forever: My Love (Justin Timberlake) + Boyz II Men outro. from shoottheplayer.com on Vimeo.

Here’s what Tovey says about the project:

I was in Portland for 48 hours. On our first night there Tender Forever happened to be playing a gig in a square downtown along with Nurses & some other bands. Her passionate Wii drumming & offstage unplugged ukulele playing had us hooked. We arranged to meet up the next day & shoot a couple of tracks – when we arrived at her place she suggested we drive to a pretty location she knew, and 20 minutes later deep in the suburbs of Portland, we found ourselves in the aptly romantic setting of an enormous rose garden.

Southeast Portland’s not quite the suburbs, but still. This footage is great, and I can’t wait to see what see did with Lovers and Nurses. Here are two more videos from Ladd’s Addition.

Tender Forever: Every Monday & Boy Life In America from shoottheplayer.com on Vimeo.

Tender Forever: Take It Off from shoottheplayer.com on Vimeo.

Links:
Tender ForeverSpace
Shoot the Player

Screen cap taken from the video

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(And I’ll admit it when I’m wrong. Juggalos are awesome people and they mean us no harm, right?)

Writing this blog has been like a journey of humbling, personal awakening.

Because now I’ve learned that I was also unfairly predisposed to think that our four shows in Texas would be a little…rough. One was, after all, in a saloon and another one in a sports pub.

But I cannot express how pleasantly, happily, wonderfully surprised we all were!

Don’t get me wrong—these shows were, mostly, completely weird. But in the best, most fun, inspiring way. We’ve met the coolest people in Texas. And it totally inspired us to play pretty much the craziest sets of the tour.

Texas is home to so much rich musical history to draw upon, after all…

Buddy Holly…Pantera…

The Best Ever Death Metal Band out of Denton…

Anyway, picture, in Lubbock, a packed room with the audience exactly on cue, no hesitation, just like in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

I say:
“The Stars at night are big and bright—”

In spontaneous chorus:
CLAP – CLAP – CLAP
“Deep in the heart of Texas!”

That was at the last of four straight shows in Texas, which culminated in this Supersized Sports Bar in a strip mall in Lubbock called Jake’s. On its website, this bar boasts 60 television sets. There were three in the men’s bathroom alone.

In spite of all outward appearances and the context through my admittedly, and now ashamedly, prejudiced eyes, this was easily one of the coolest shows of the tour. It was definitely the most energetic.

Don’t get me wrong: the four weeks so far of this marathon national tour have been superb (excepting Detroit, which was—in any event—fascinating sociologically.) I know I’m skipping over the NE in this blog—all the NE shows were great. Sold out Bowery Ballroom, sold out Black Cat, packed Middle East, all wonderful audiences…Philadelphia, Atlanta, etc. It was all a marathon in the NE: 12 straight shows with no break.

And yes, the back room of this Lubbock sports bar compared with all of those shows… as did the show outdoors at the Mohawk in Austin…as did the show at Warehouse Live in Houston…

Two weeks ago NYC easily took first place in our “Hey Ya!” competition. It was New York on the last night of the World Series and the venue was nonetheless completely packed, and we played what will probably end up being my favorite performance of the tour (the sound was pristine, the audience was dead silent while we played and beyond exuberant between songs and when they were singing along).

We didn’t think anyone would outdo NYC in terms of exuberance in the “Hey Ya!” competition (partly because the judge of the competition, Adam Thompson, is from Brooklyn).

But even Adam couldn’t really deny that the crowd on this balmy Texas night at a packed (I think sold out) Mohawk in Austin—a cool outdoor venue with outdoor balconies overlooking the stage from two sides. This crowd beat NYC hands down with their singing abilities…

Or at least with their singing volume…

Adam hesitated before delivering his judgment—you could feel his hesitation and internal questioning of “will I give Austin a better score than NYC?”

And then two days later, Lubbock beat Austin hands down, with probably the loudest and most energetic crowd I’ve ever played in front of with any band.

So Texas was great.

In fact, I think you couldn’t pick a better place to spend week four of a national tour than in Texas. You’re tired, and all the shows are running together, and then, boom. Texas. Totally different.

The people are wonderful and hospitable in Texas, especially those who support live indie rock music. (And I want to say that it’s not just Austin, though Austin is as wonderful as it’s cracked up to be, and we couldn’t have asked for a better premier in that city).

Texas is just different. I want to say Texas is weird, but I don’t want to be diminutive. The people communicate in an open and honest way and call you funny names like “sugar” and “honey bunch.” People in Texas seem to say things like “Git yer guns up” when they’re talking about their muscles, and “I’m fixin’ to [verb]” instead of “I’m about to go…”

(For example: “I’m fixin’ to drink my 10982039218123th weird mixture of tequila and beer”.)

Everything is bigger in Texas.

It’s not unusual for people to raise an eyebrow at whatever I say, Texas or not. (I guess I need a better filter.) And in Texas, they definitely raise their eyebrows. But in Texas it never feels like they’re judging; it just feels like they think you’re as adorable in your weirdness as you think they are in their weirdness.

(Whereas in Detroit it felt more like they were as scared of me as I was of them.)

In Texas we’re bonded by weirdness, even though it’s totally different weirdness. We can’t really relate in any way shape or form, but we can relate in the fact that we can’t relate in any way shape or form.

Like polar opposite weirdness.

Or something.

I don’t really know what I’m talking about.

But Texas kicked ass. And was 70 degrees.

And Santa Fe is like 20 degrees and there’s snow on the ground. So the stage is set for Santa Fe.

We’ll bring it. We’re charged up from Texas. So let’s see if Santa Fe and the SW can bring it. Texas raised the bar.

Links:
Portland Cello ProjectSpace

YouTube clip courtesy of “The obviously HD camera on Jessica Taylor’s cell phone.” Photos courtesy of PCP

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