Events

Children's rock variety show is a half hour-ish of variety entertainment featuring DJs and interactive dance parties with giant barn owls, musical guests, stories, skits, sing a longs, cartoons, artists, puppets, parades and performers.

Their variety show features performances by YOU WHO's house band Sneakin' Out, The Cardboard Songsters, and surprise guests. Ballroom-wide fun includes a Bhangra dance party with DJ ANJALI, blanket forts, hair dos, art activities, a giant parachute and much more fun stuff!

YOU WHO is a benefit for MyMusicRx- the flagship program of Children's Cancer Association who believes that joy matters and music heals. MyMusicRx provides music medicine to seriously ill kids and teens at 19 pediatric hospitals across the nation including locally at Doernbecher Children's Hospital and Randall Children's Hospital at Legacy Emmanuel

About MyMusicRx
The Children's Cancer Association (CCA) believes joy matters and music heals. Nearly two decades ago, we pioneered a one-of-a-kind pediatric "music medicine" program called MyMusicRx that lets kids choose the music experience that feels right to them. The in-hospital MyMusicRx program includes bedside sing-alongs led by trained music specialists, instrument lending from mobile music carts, tablet checkouts and live concerts from national recording artists. MyMusicRx.org extends our bedside music experience online and invites kids facing cancer and other serious illnesses to feel the music and feel better, by exploring exclusive artists greetings, concerts, music lessons, digital instruments, and games anytime, anywhere. See MyMusicRx programs in action here or visit us at www.mymusicrx.org.

Visit You Who On Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/You-Who-110862412336175/

Bloco Alegria is Portland's newest Rio style samba band. Playing the heart-pumping rhythms of Rio's carnaval parades is what gives this band its unique sound and vibrancy. Composed of people who love samba, Bloco Alegria celebrates the music, dance, and culture of Brasil.

Samba is the most popular dance from Rio de Janeiro. It has deep African ancestral roots with respect to the drums used, the rhythms, and the structure of the music itself. Many of the members of Bloco Alegria have studied and played samba in the US or have gone to Brazil to learn more. Several speak Portuguese.

The word "Alegria" means "Happiness" in Portuguese. The word "Bloco" refers to a "City Block". Historically, people in different neighborhoods of Rio would get together and play samba in the streets, drawing their neighbors out to celebrate. Different neighborhood blocks would form different samba groups with creative and fun names. As time passed, these groups became more formalized and well-known throughout the city and the word "Bloco" took on the meaning of "group" or "band". Currently in Rio, samba groups that play in the streets include groups like "Bloco Suvaco do Cristo", "Bloco Simpatia e Quase Amor", and larger more internationally known groups like "Monobloco".

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/BlocoAlegria

"Soy libre! libre como el mar, como el viento, como las hojas que le nacen a los arboles. No soy hombre, ni mujer, soy un ser de luz conectado a ti y a los demas!"

Edna Vazquez was born in the Mexican state of Colima but lived the first 16 years of her life in the state of Jalisco, a state that is world-renowned as the soul of Mexican mariachi music. At age 17 she left her native Mexico and traveled to the U.S.A. to start a career in the music business, and met with more success than she ever could have imagined. She found herself singing and playing music across the country in many different styles.

Enda sings with a passion to bring a traditional touch and feeling of Mexico's traditional Folklorico to her audience, and mixes in her own compositions which are sprinkled with a variety of all Latin American genres. She sings with a velvety voice and sometimes whistles the melodies to compliment her guitar. She alternates her traditional music with her rock band project NO PASSENGERS, bringing the audience Original Latin rock songs in English and Spanish. Her talents, however, are not limited to music

Join Edna (and all the talented musicians that collaborate with her) on a musical journey that will take you from traditional Méxican music to contemporary Latin alternative rock  on a wave of magic and charisma!

Website:

http://ednavazquez.com/

"... a collection of hazy, whispering ballads steeped in polarizing art-folk and sacred Mexican lore." -- Filter

"...doing Portland proud" -- Billboard

"Elena's voice floats like some kind of cirrus cloud over the oceanic psych-folk tones" -- The Tripwire

"...definitely one of the records you'll want to look out for this fall." -- Pop Tarts Suck Toasted

"Portland, Ore., quintet Y La Bamba makes fractured folk that sounds as if it comes from dog-eared diaries. The author is statuesque Luz Elena, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, whose vintage vocals seem to come from the 78-rpm era." --Buzzbands.LA

"The Portland, Oregon, band mixes Devendra Banhart-influenced art-folk with hazy femme vocals and traditional Mexican sounds to weirdly entrancing effect" -- LA Weekly

"The songs were like mature lullabies, brooding and rich, playful but never lingering on the surface...It was difficult not to be seduced." -- The Stranger

"Lupon is a wide-ranging garden of styles, with gossamer folk and jangling indie-rock steeped in the influences of Mendoza's Mexican heritage. Her unearthly vocals-at times soft and frangible, at others hardily operatic-sound completely lost in time, like they're emerging from a dusty recording on an abandoned Victrola." -- Portland Mercury

"When you read about Y La Bamba, it's often a visual description--like an indie-pop Lady Gaga, tall-'n'-tattooed frontwoman Luz Elena has a steez that often overshadows her band's actual music. Which is a shame, because the group's sound has come a long way as of late. On the long-awaited debut full-length,Lupon, that point is underlined like 12 times, highlighted and circled with little hearts....it's physical proof that Y La Bamba is a lot more than a pretty face." -- Willamette Week

With Y LA BAMBA, Luzelena Mendoza draws from both her strict Catholic upbringing as an only daughter of a Mexican immigrant and a debilitating illness that led her to fall away from her faith, to create what LA Weekly calls "Devendra Banhart-influenced art-folk with hazy femme vocals and traditional Mexican sounds."

Mendoza's father immigrated to the Bay Area from the Michoacan region of Mexico after meeting her mother who had received her US citizenship as a teenager.  Her father got a job at a southern Oregon sawmill and Luzelena would spend her childhood summers on a farm in California's San Joaquin Valley among peach, almond, and fig orchards.  It was in these strong Mexican communities that she would soak up the melodies and the stories that were being told while, as she remembers it, "the men with tassel hats" strummed their guitars and sang their traditional folk songs in three part harmonies.  "I remember singing along, mimicking my father's voice and dancing like a little wild child," she recalls.  For Mendoza, this music was the only way she could relate to her father, and was a bright spot in a rough childhood.

In 2003, Mendoza traveled to New Zealand and India, in a quest for a deeper understanding of her spiritual growth as an active Christian, hungry for the tools to create a shift on this planet.  During her trip to India, she contracted amoebic dysentery and giardia, causing her to suffer from insomnia, lose 60 pounds and fear her loss of sanity. "It shook me in ways I was not expecting, leading me to struggle with my prayer life and search for a healthy relationship with God, the universe, and with myself," says Mendoza of her condition (which was only complicated with a misdiagnosis).  "I gave up on Christianity and what religion was starting to mean to me due to a natural awareness that was knocking on my door."

Upon her return to the US, she took in a white six-toed cat to keep her company as she fought to regain her physical, emotional and spiritual health.  She christened her new feline companion La Bamba, a name that she incorporated into a moniker for her home recordings and performances at open mic nights in her new home, Portland.  Bassist and vocalist Ben Meyercord caught some of Mendoza's open mic performances and the two quickly found a musical connection.  In a whirlwind week that she said happened magically, Mendoza recruited Mike Kitson on drums and David Kyle on guitar.  Luzelena played in an Ashland band with Kitson when she wanted a more quiet alternative to her early punk roots and Kyle was a musician she met online that shared her spiritual and eccentric philosophies.  Intuition told her that she was going to meet the final piece in her musical puzzle and, sure enough, she stumbled upon accordion player Eric Schrepel playing the squeezebox at a puppet show.

With a raw songbook of home recordings under her belt and a new group of musicians to help Mendoza with her musical vision, Y LA BAMBA began to captivate audiences in Portland and tour stops around the US.  Eventually, the quintet would attract the attention of The Decemberists guitarist Chris Funk, who offered his production skills for the band's first studio recording.  Funk worked tirelessly to capture Y LA BAMBA's rustic tones, songs inspired by the traditional tunes of Mendoza's childhood, and her signature vocals that resemble the sounds spilling out of a 1930's Victrola.  Dubbing the confidently stunning body of songs Lupon (after a nickname that Mendoza's father despised), Y LA BAMBA has emerged from the studio, ready to wow listeners everywhere.  Lupon will be available during the fall of 2010 on Tender Loving Empire.

Myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/ylabamba

What separates The Domestics from the escapism of so many other indie pop acts is the fearlessness with which Michael Finn and Leo London confront their own pain. London's birth parents both battled with drug addiction in his early childhood before he was adopted by his grandparents at the age of two. Finn's trials came later on, struggling with health issues, depression and dependency in his early adult years. Writing in the aftermath of infidelity, mental illness, substance abuse and child abuse, Finn and London have wrought songs as moving as they are catchy and as honest as they are loud. What The Domestics provide that so many other bands do not is something which all listeners can relate to: vulnerability.

Long before they decided to join forces as The Domestics, Finn and London each spent years honing their craft as individual songwriters. After moving to Portland in the summer of 2013 after over a decade of writing and performing under his own name in Eugene, London found himself tracking piano for Finn at Flora Recording and Playback, studio of Grammy-Nominated producer Tucker Martine where Finn works as an assistant engineer alongside artists like My Morning Jacket, The Decemberists, Modest Mouse, Neko Case, and Sufjan Stevens. This first studio collaboration began a relationship which would eventually lead to the combination of Finn and London's respective solo projects and to the recording of their first record over 15 days in the spring of 2014.

Less than a year after assembling a live band, The Domestics have triumphantly emerged as one of Portland's most promising new acts. Their energetic live shows, as well as the strength of their forthcoming debut record have garnered them a dedicated fan base and maelstrom of critical attention.

The Domestics are: Michael Finn, Leo London, Kyle Moderhak, Matt Moore, and Brad Norton

Website:

https://tenderlovingempire.com/the-domestics/

Divers is a band from Portland, OR. They are Harrison Rapp (guitar and vocals), Seth Rapp (guitar), James Deegan (bass), and Colby Hulsey (drums). The band describes themselves like so: "We play dynamic, sweaty music. The indie rockers say we are a punk band. The punk rockers are suspicious that we might be an indie band. The bands that have inspired us fall on both sides of the fence, but they all share the same kind of energy. If we have any clear idea about what we are doing, it has something to do with that energy."

Hello Hello is about a couple of bank robbers driving across North America, doing what they do. The album was recorded at Toadhouse Studios in Portland with Adam Pike and Mike Moore, and will be released on February 17th in cahoots with Olympia's great Rumbletowne Records. Divers' live show has been winning over fans and critics alike, and you can expect the legions to grow as the band heads out on the road in March and April (tour dates coming soon)!

Press:
"Divers operate on attitudes that signal a burning commitment to their own autonomy, and an emotive realness that abounds among the indie spirited denizens of Oregon, and Washington, respectively." - Impose

"...a truly powerful live band." - Razorcake 

"Divers have quickly vaulted to the top of the Portland music food chain, devouring everything in sight with passionate, sweaty, hoarse-throated tunesthat positively rock. They're already one of the best bands in Portland, and while it feels a little music-critic-bullshitty to say stuff like this, I bet it's only a matter of time before they're one of the biggest. Join Team Divers tonight; I swear you won't regret it." - Portland Mercury

"So let's talk about Portland's very own Divers. Better to do so now, before fame finds them and we're eating dust. This quartet plays heartfelt, heartbreaking, heartwarming, heart-everything punk that glances off the canons of RVIVR, Ted Leo and Arcade Fire on its way to sweaty transcendence. If you have not seen Divers live by now, you are missing out on one of Portland's most essential musical treasures. Get blessed by this band immediately. " - Willamette Week

"Divers play big punk rock 'n' roll-suitable for dancing to, sweating to, losing your voice to, and fist-pumping in your white T-shirt like it's the '80s and the Boss is your actual boss and you just got a bonus." - the Stranger

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/DIVERS/106213376120283

Lewi Longmire has built a reputation as Portland's multi-instrumentalist "go to guy." In the years since relocating to Portland from Albuquerque, New Mexico, he's been included on shows and recordings by many of the Northwest's finest bands and songwriters. He's played with national acts Michael Hurley, Victoria Williams, Dolorean, AgesandAges, Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside, Blue Giant/Viva Voce/The Robinsons, Dolorean, the Minus 5, Breathe Owl Breathe and Tara Jane O'Neill as well as local luminaries Denver, The Portland Country Underground, Midlo/Pancake Breakfast, Quiet Life, Fernando, James Low, Perhapst, Electric Ill, Little Sue, Casey Neill, Michael Jodell, the Freak Mountain Ramblers, and is an anchor member of Portland's all-star tribute to the Allman Brothers, Brothers and Sister. 

Recently, though, Lewi has taken all the things he learned from working with these fine performers and has been spending his time leading a roots rock/americana band of his own, singing his own compositions. This group owes much to the American tradition of good songs played with high energy, deep roots, and an unpretentious sense of fun. Their sound finds the connection between the basement feel of The Band, the raspy blue-eyed soul of Joe Cocker, the desert space of Giant Sand, the "without a net" deep space improvisations of the San Francisco ballrooms, the punk abandon of The Stooges and the quiet contemplation of Neil Young playing solo.

Website:

http://www.lewilongmire.com/

The Oklahoma born songwriter with Choctaw heritage, Samantha Crain, presents her newest collection of songs, "Under Branch & Thorn & Tree". Teaming up again with producer, John Vanderslice (the Mountain Goats, Spoon), they've used synthesizers and string arrangements to embellish the heartfelt stories of the working class. Crain's songs are full of expansive melodies that veer off in unpredictable directions, with lyrics that explore conflicting emotions with uncommon insight and compassion. She has a jazz singer's phrasing, often breaking words into rhythmic fragments that land before and after the beat, stretching syllables or adding grace notes to uncover hidden nuances in her lyrics.

Website:

http://www.samanthacrain.com

The Reverb Brothers offer a unique take on Americana, with original songs and obscure gems, that blend Blues, Country, Soul, New Orleans R&B, Country Blues and Rock & Roll with a distinctive 1930's sensibility. We feature three lead and harmony vocalists, acoustic and electric guitars, harmonica, keyboards, cornet, bass and drums. We always deliver a high energy show that brings people out on the dance floor.

Feature:

http://cascadebluesassociation.org/reverb-brothers-celebrate-10-years-blues-boundaries/