Essential Mixes

Part of me – the one who trying the Slow Listening thing – is really upset that I found out that this site exists. The rest of me is filled with endorphins and ready to fill my hard drive with mix after mix after mix. We’ll see which side wins out.

WW Previews (2.3.10 issue)

The Entrance Band, Lights, Purple Rhinestone Eagle, DJ HWY 7
[SHOEGAZER BOOGIE] For a psych-influenced rock group, the Entrance Band doesn’t simply go for it as much as I might like, preferring to lock into a nice, steady groove over which guitarist and vocalist Guy Blakeslee swings his long curls. But, oh what a groove it is. It hints at a love of ’70s boogie rockers like ZZ Top, but with a pop sensibility that would befit a floppy-haired British outfit from the mid-’90s. The band plays it a little too safe on its self-titled debut record, but will hopefully let the devil move it into feats of fancy onstage. ROBERT HAM. 9 pm. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. $10. 21+

Nick Oliveri, Kleveland
[ACOUSTIC POWER] Nick Oliveri has never been one to sit idly by, even after being unceremoniously chucked aside from his former gig as bassist/screamer for celebrated rockers Queens of the Stone Age. In the years since, the bald rock wizard reconvened a lineup of his long-running doom-groove band Mondo Generator and, on a pair of fascinating albums (including last year’s Death Acoustic) tapped into a bluesier, darker side featuring just himself and an unplugged guitar. This current tour highlights the latter, giving over a night to a raw, naked sound that will likely cut right to your core. ROBERT HAM. 9 pm. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. $10. 21+.

Hangout w/ Henta Ellis

I recently had the chance to sit down with the electronic musician Henta Ellis and interview her for a small piece in City Arts Magazine. She was recently nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best New Age album for her recent release Laserium For The Soul. The new issue of City Arts is out on the streets of Seattle and the surrounding area. But if you don’t leave around those parts and would like to read the piece, here is a PDF of the article.

Something(s) I Learned Today

With a huge tip of the hat to Fluxblog, I ran across some interesting things today re: The Loud Family/Game Theory:

1) Someone interviewed Loud Family/Game Theory leader Scott Miller very recently. Not a terribly GREAT interview, but Miller does the best he can with some pretty dodgy questions.

2) The Loud Family, et. al. made an Ernie Kovacs-inspired video for “Don’t Respond, She Can Tell”.

3) LF/GT drummer Gil Ray has apparently been dealing with prostate cancer. Not unusual news, but still sad to hear. And amazing to hear him facing such a scary prognosis with such good humor and a fair amount of mordant wit (“Stacey says the first thing that I said after waking up from the surgery was ‘Alright! I didn’t die on the table!’ I then told my nurses that I loved them.”). We wish him a full recovery and future good health.

Videosyncrasy

One of the features that I tried to do regularly on this blog during my attempts to turn it into more of a webzine was called Videosyncrasy, wherein I would interview a musician about videos featuring them or their music or both. Was anything from a fan shot live video to a professionally made conceptual promotion piece to footage of someone dancing to the tune of one of their songs. It was a lot of fun to put them together and to hear/read the reactions to the stuff that I dredged up.

Now that I’ve ceased my role as Indie editor for Oregon Music News (a decision made for a myriad of reasons that I won’t get into here), I decided to resurrect this idea and give it a home of its own. You can find all the past Videosyncrasy entries there and will soon find new editions/interviews to read. I hope you’ll add this site to RSS reader or bookmark it or stop by every once in a while and check it out.

Oh, and to whomever has control of http://videosyncrasy.wordpress.com but hasn’t posted anything in two years or so……come on now.

Slow Listening Notes

Strange Boys – Be Brave: Tempos are slowed down. More blues is coming into the mix. Both of these are good things. A worthy follow up to their brilliant first album. I will need to sit with this one to really dig into the nooks and crannies but my first impression has left me impressed.

Raheem DeVaughn – Mr. February mixtape: A fantastic mixtape of remixes, originals and some perfectly reconfigured cover songs. His takes on “Bonita Applebum” and “I Would Die 4 U” do what any good cover version should: paying homage to the original while throwing an original spin on it. Especially in the case of the Prince remake, as he takes the urgent new wave-y spin out of it in place of some raw down-home funk.

Patrick & Eugene – Altogether Now (Birds Bees Flowers Trees): Tunng with the electronics stripped out, or Hot Chip as done by a small old-timey jazz combo. It’s a cute little diversion but doesn’t do much. Not even a rendition of the otherwise untouchable “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” does anything for this album.

Shining – Blackjazz: Spine straightening prog/jazz/metal. NOTHING on this album comes as expected. Would love to see how they pull off some of these radical shifts and the album’s feverish intensity in concert.

Entrance Band – S/T: Decent enough record of high-minded psych rock. Sounds like a neutered Wolfmother in some places and a half-awake Melvins in others. Lacking the spark or the right amount of narcotic influence to really tear these songs apart.

Shuttle358 – Chessa: Oh where has this dreamy outfit been my whole life? When I scanned through the bunch of stuff that I downloaded last night, when I checked in on this album, I quite literally felt my entire spirit settle and lighten up from within. Such is the music’s physiological effects on my person. If you’ve heard the work of groups like Oval and Tape, this warbling, static-y approach to ambient music will be nothing new to you, but that doesn’t make it any less beautiful and moving.

WW Previews (1.27.10 issue)

Sudden Infant, R. Jencks, Daniel Menche, Pete Swanson

[AURAL GUERRILLAS] The Swiss experimentalist Sudden Infant (known to friends by his given name, Joke Lanz) has been spending the past few weeks in Los Angeles, soaking in the sun and our native culture. Considering the dark, desperate underpinnings of so much of Lanz’s musical creations, it will be interesting to see if the spirit of the Western U.S. will start to creep into his grumbling, scratchy industrial noise poetry. He shares the stage tonight with native Californian Ryan Jencks, who creates unrelenting walls of tectonic-plate-shifting sound under the name Sixes. ROBERT HAM. 8:30 pm. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 239-7639. $6.

Korpiklaani, TYR, Swashbuckle, White Wizzard, Sabateur, Curien

[FOLK METAL] The picture on Korpiklaani’s MySpace page makes its members out to be extras from some pub scene in Lord of the Rings, a look that befits the band’s music rather nicely. These Finnish Hobbits fill out the edges of their chugging hardcore metal with traditional folk instruments like the hurdy-gurdy, accordion and violin. It would be absolutely ridiculous if it didn’t work so damn well. It’s a sound custom fit for clanking steins of frothy beer together, or at least providing the perfect backing track for your next round of World of Warcraft. ROBERT HAM. 7 pm. Satyricon, 125 NW 6th Ave., 227-0999. $15 advance, $18 day of show. All ages.

Slow Listening Notes

Been a while since I’ve done this. I haven’t stopped listening to stuff – just stopped taking so many notes on them while I was sick and while I was indisposed on trips to visit my family, etc. But yesterday and this morning I put down some thoughts on things that I was listening to. Leave your thoughts, complaints, etc., in the comments.

The Bundles – S/T: Eh…you know….sounds like Kimya Dawson playing music with Jeffrey Lewis: insufferably twee with moments of melodic decency. I still cannot fathom the fuss about Dawson’s cloying/unnecessarily child-like lyrics and rather obvious use of the same vocal rhythms, pitch, and cadence on almost every song she sings. Lewis reins that in and adds his shambolic punk-ish vibe to the proceedings but it keeps getting dragged back down by Dawson. I thought K Records had outgrown this childish nonsense. The worst kind of scattered imagery and lyrical silliness. Nice to hear Karl Blau’s voice enter into the mix. The first album I had to stop listening to because it got to be too too much.

Federale – Devil In a Boot: I have to hand it to them for not trying to write lonesome gunslinger/sub-Deadwood ripoff lyrics to accompany their spaghetti Western tributes. They are a little TOO Morricone-d out for my taste. Wish they would, instead of simply trying replicate the sound of the Italian master but with more volume, take it in some kind of unusual direction. They do pull of the vibe of a movie soundtrack really well. But without the actual movie to accompany it, there’s really no point to this album other than a loving homage to Morricone and his ilk.

Jacques Dutronc – Et Moi Et Moi Et Moi: Really wish I spoke or understood French to follow what he’s on about here, especially in later more psychedelic numbers like “L’augmentation” and “Hippie Hippie Hoorah”. I like hearing how he progressed from a male ye-ye singer par excellence, but then moved into the more spacious, psychedelic material as the ’60s wore on. Lots of raging guitar solos, fuzzy feedback and go-go beats – in other words, pure ’60s perfection. Would love to hear where he went from there. Going to have to do some Internet searching to see how far he either soared or collapsed post 1969.

Jake Oken-Berg – Out The Door EP: Would not be surprised to learn that Oken-Berg was a God-fearing musician as his music has the same emotional yank of most contemporary Christian pop. By and large, I’m all for earnestness in popular music, but when it is this free of irony and swing and soul, his sentiments feel empty and trite. The last song though with just piano and male/female vocals is especially affecting though. A weepy break up song? A death knell? Whichever…it is as heartfelt as a song can get. Just wish the rest of this EP had the same amount of heart.

Love & Rockets – Earth Sun Moon: A reminder that Daniel Ash is one of the most underrated guitar players around. The tones and noise he wrenches out of his guitar are as deadly and reaching as those of Andy Gill and Keith Levene.

Spoon – Transference: My first listen feels like this was a huge step back for the band. Consider the run that they had from Girls Can Tell to Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Each album was as strong or stronger than the one before, and each one felt like layers were being peeled further and further back. Maybe that’s my issue with it – I had the expectation that this was going to be the disc that revealed their true core or at least got us closer to it. Instead, it feels like the band is resting on their laurels a little too heavily and not pushing even further into their melodic center. I’m not done with this record, though. Considering their track record and my appreciation for what they’ve accomplished, I feel like I owe it to them and myself to sit with it a little longer.

WW Previews (1.20.10 Issue)

The Yummy Fur, Pie Ghosts, Asss, DJ Nightschool

[YOUNG POP THINGS] Active from about 1992 to 1999, the Yummy Fur took the jagged guitars and funk-influenced rhythms of the U.K. post-punk scene and fused them seamlessly with its homegrown jangly pop. It proved to be a fruitful union, as the band churned out a dozen singles and three albums before disbanding. Since then, leader John McKeown went on to form 1990s, and the band’s last rhythm section—Alex Kapranos and Paul Thomson—started Franz Ferdinand. This rare reunion gig also marks the end of the band’s first ever U.S. tour. If you fancy yourself a scholar of the indie scene, you need to be in attendance tonight. ROBERT HAM. 9 pm. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. $5. All ages

Johan the Angel, Justin Power, Cannons and Clouds

[TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY] The band describes itself as “epic folk,” but Johan the Angel’s sound doesn’t bear any of the markers of anything quite that grandiose. Anchored by the heart-stoppingly gorgeous vocals of Brett Pedersen and Britt White, Johan the Angel’s music feels intimate and lovingly constructed, as if a bunch of close friends decided to spend a day cooking, chatting and hanging out, waiting until the sun went down before they picked up their instruments. Prepare yourselves in advance to be charmed into willful submission by the band’s lush, vibraphone-heavy sound. ROBERT HAM. 9 pm. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. $6. 21+.

WW Previews (01.13 Issue)

Fin de Cinema: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, with Nurses, Gulls, The Slaves

[LOOK & LISTEN] The surrealist 1970 Czech film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders has provided a world of inspiration for musicians. Broadcast borrowed themes from its gorgeous and creepy soundtrack (written by Luboš Fišer), as did members of Espers, who have recorded their own accompanying music for the film under the name the Valerie Project. The latest groups to fall under the film’s spell are these three Portland bands that will try their hand at soundtrack work, playing along to dreamlike scenes of vampire seduction and soul robbery. ROBERT HAM. 8:30 pm. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 239-7639. Free ($2 donation encouraged). 21+

Fire in My Bones: A Celebration of Gospel Music with DJ Yeti, Beyonda, Hwy 7, Warren Hill.

[WHAT GOD CAN DO] One of the most exciting releases last year was the three-CD collection Fire in My Bones. Put together by Portland’s own Mike McGonigal (erstwhile publisher of the peerless quarterly magazine Yeti), this boxed set is four hours of soul stirring gospel, pulled from singles and albums put out on small regional labels throughout the U.S.; it spans a generation’s worth of performers. McGonigal is finally getting a chance to celebrate his achievement by taking over the turntables at Valentine’s and spinning from his collection of gospel sides. ROBERT HAM. 9 pm. 232 SW Ankeny St., 248-1600. Free. 21+.