The Microphones project was nourished by and located within the community of artists around K Records in Olympia in the late 90s/early 2000s, and Phil Elverum's musical ideas were clearly the product of the flood of independent music in the NW during those years.
After five albums the project was renamed Mount Eerie just as the Microphones were getting some unexpected attention from the widespread acclaim of "the Glow pt. 2" (2001). The Mount Eerie recordings got weirder and broader, and Elverum left K Records and began releasing everything himself, ultimately building a self-contained small town operation in Anacortes called P.W. Elverum & Sun. Radical self-sufficiency has been a theme and obsession; all all ages shows and never though a manager or booking agent, always self-recorded, hands on in all details.
Mount Eerie's albums have always aimed to push into new territory, both in sound and idea, but the thread of Elverum's voice has remained constant throughout, soft and human amid the wide range of textures and worlds. Often the lyrics have attempted to grapple with big questions, the briefness and the smallness of human life being a running theme. On occasion the music has been called "black metal" ("Wind's Poem," 2009), "dream landscape" ("Clear Moon," 2012), and "raw and direct" ("Lost Wisdom," 2008).
The new album, "A Crow Looked At Me", sounds closer to the latter; minimal instrumentation, no production, clear and heavy words right up front. The difference here is the subject matter. In 2015 Elverum's wife, the French Canadian cartoonist and musician Geneviève Castrée, was diagnosed with a bad cancer just after giving birth to their first child. She died a year later. Elverum wrote and recored the album throughout the fall of 2016 in the same room where Geneviève died, using mostly her instruments; her guitar, her bass, her pick, her amp, her old family accordion, writing the words on her paper.
The songs are about the brutal details of that experience, from the hospitalizations to the grieving, the specific domestic banalities that become existential in the context of such huge and abrupt loss. These songs are not fun. They are pretty and they are deep, and they find a love that prevails beneath the overwhelming and real sorrow. It is unlike anything else in the Mount Eerie catalog in its unvarnished expressions of personal grief, metaphor-free.
The writing draws inspiration from Karl Ove Knausgaard, Julie Doiron, Gary Snyder, Sun Kil Moon, and Joanne Kyger (whose poem "Night Palace" is on the album's cover). The sound was influenced by the spare production of the 1996 Will Oldham album "Arise Therefore".
Current and former collaborators and/or bosses include Earth, Nirvana, Mirah, Jessika Kenney, Ilan Volkov, Eyvind Kang, Stuart Dempster, David Byrne, Terry Riley, Jherek Bischoff, Malcom Goldstein, Matana Roberts, Dana Reason, Lonnie Holley, Cat Power, Ellen Fullman, Mike Gamble, Mik Quantius, Embryo, Secret Chiefs 3, Marisa Anderson, Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto, Ô Paon, Tara Jane O'Neil, Natacha Atlas, Broken Water, Ed Pias, Byron Au Young, Christian Rizzo, Threnody Ensemble, Cynthia Hopkins, 33 Fainting Spells, Vanessa Renwick, Mark Mitchell and Lynn Shelton.
Her work has been commissioned by and/or performed at the Kennedy Center, Frye Art Museum, Portland's Time Based Art Festival (TBA), WNYC, The New Foundation, Northwest Film Forum, On the Boards, Seattle International Film Festival, Seattle Jewish Film Festival, Bumbershoot, Crossing Border Festival, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, Joe's Pub, the Stone, Wayward Music Series, Oregon State University, Northwest Folklife, University of Chicago Film Studies Center, One Reel Film Festival and throughout the U.S. and Europe. She has received awards from Meet the Composer, Artist Trust, 4 Culture and Seattle Arts Commission, and has taught at the University of Washington, EMP, Idyllwild Arts Academy, the Vera Project and the Bush School.
Brooklyn-hailing singer/guitarist Jillian Medford and her psychedelic rock and alt-pop project hit the Mississippi Studios stage in support of their aptly-named 2016 full-length, Shapeshifter.
About the new album's first single, NPR declares, "Hold on tight: it's another relentlessly exuberant, propulsive jam from The New Pornographers. The latest in the band's deep catalog of clever and addictive power pop is "High Ticket Attractions,"
Of the new record, founder and frontman A.C. Newman notes that, “At the beginning of this record, there was some thinking that we wanted it to be like a Krautrock Fifth Dimension. Of course, our mutated idea of what Krautrock is probably doesn’t sound like Krautrock at all. But wewere thinking: Let’s try and rock in a different way.”
Since their debut in 2000, The New Pornographers have released six studio albums including their most recent, Brill Bruisers, hailed as an “exuberant, synthpop-infused set” by Rolling Stone, “infectious” by Harper’s Bazaar and “the grand and purposeful hookfest that you would hope these guys would come back with” by Stereogum. Pitchfork went on to note that “with the futurist sound of Brill Bruisers, the whole band embraces a more electric version of itself—bulked-up in chrome-plated armor, firing on all cylinders, and ready to steamroll anything in its path.” The band celebrated the release with a special NPR Music “First Listen Live” concert at the legendary Brill Building, and performed songs from the album on both “Conan” and the “Late Show with David Letterman.”
Waxhatchee's latest record, Ivy Tripp, drifts confidently from these previous albums and brings forth a more informed and powerful recognition of where Crutchfield has currently found herself. The lament and grieving for her youth seem to have been replaced with control and sheer self-honesty. "My life has changed a lot in the last two years, and it's been hard for me to process my feelings other than by writing songs," says Crutchfield. "I think a running theme [of Ivy Tripp] is steadying yourself on shaky ground and reminding yourself that you have control in situations that seem overwhelming, or just being cognizant in moments of deep confusion or sadness, and learning to really feel emotions and to grow from that."
Recorded and engineered by Kyle Gilbride of Wherever Audio at Crutchfield's home on New York's Long Island—with drums recorded in the gym of a local elementary school—Ivy Tripp presents a more developed and aged version of Waxahatchee. "The title Ivy Tripp is really just a term I made up for directionless-ness, specifically of the 20-something, 30-something, 40-something of today, lacking regard for the complaisant life path of our parents and grandparents. I have thought of it like this: Cerulean Salt is a solid and Ivy Tripp is a gas."
Crutchfield is accompanied by both Gilbride and Keith Spencer on Ivy Tripp, and the record was produced by all three of them. With the addition of more guitar work, piano, drum machines, and Crutchfield's vocals in full bloom, we are given a record that feels more emphatic and pronounced. Ivy Tripp opens with "Breathless," filled with only a distorted keyboard and layers of vocals, showcasing Waxahatchee's pension for quiet, personal reflection. The record then opens up into "Under a Rock," a quicker guitar-driven song that lays the foundation for the rest of the album, which as a whole resonates with strong, self-aware lyrics, energetic ballads, and powerfully hushed moments of solitude. Crutchfield's voice is certainly the guiding force behind Ivy Tripp—commanding and voluminous in the rock song "Poison," candied and pure in the frolicking "La Loose"—gripping you tightly and then softly releasing you into the wilds of emotion.
As far as her goals with Ivy Tripp, Crutchfield says, "I heard someone say that you have to be the change you want to see. I just want to be the kind of musician I want to see in the world. I want to present myself in a way that reflects that."
RAYS (Oakland) / youtube.com/watch?v=5nsuA40pjto
GEN POP (Olympia) / youtube.com/watch?v=sT2WtOhguWk
DR. IDENTITY / dridentity.bandcamp.com
THE BEDROOMS / thebedroomsxoxo.bandcamp.com
Starts at 8pm, ends by 11pm / no punk time (really)
$5 or more suggested donation for the touring bands
All ages / don't be a jerk
♥
Gibson escaped from her apartment unharmed, but lost everything: all identification, eyeglasses, musical instruments, years of notebooks and every word she had written in response to her move. She spent the next few months rebuilding her life, bouncing between friends’ couches and guest rooms, finishing her second semester, and all the while rewriting the lyrics she’d lost. A financial recovery was made possible with help and support from hundreds of friends, fans and strangers. It’s no surprise that Empire Builder stands as her most personal record to date.
But while the making of the album was cathartic, it’s not just an auto-biographical mirror-gazing exercise. Through her fiction studies in grad school, Gibson has found her legs as a storyteller and these songs hit hard, separate from their backstory: it’s a huge leap forward for Gibson as a songwriter, composer and producer. Equally raw and focused, Empire Builder captures a life blown open, an individual mid-transformation. Gibson gathered a stellar band of old friends to complement her songs: guitarist/bassist Dave Depper (Death Cab for Cutie, Menomena), drummer/percussionist Dan Hunt (Neko Case) and composer/violinist Peter Broderick. Other contributors include Nate Query of the Decemberists and vocalist Alela Diane. Gibson co-produced the record with John Askew (The Dodos, Neko Case), spending her school breaks in his home studio and in Broderick’s studio on the Oregon Coast.
Empire Builder grapples with independence, womanhood, solitude, connection and aloneness. Amidst trauma, loss and recovery, she rediscovered songwriting as a means of understanding her own life and choices. If Gibson has a thesis, it’s perhaps within the final words of the title track: “Hurry up and lose me / Hurry up and find me again.” With clear-eyed honesty, urgency and warmth, Empire Builder succeeds in capturing the moment between loss and rediscovery.
Doors: 8:00 PM
Show: 9:00 PM
All Ages
Like it or not, the Little Star story is a classic rock one. Born out of a dissolving relationship, baptized in manic bedroom recording sessions, and confirmed under the winking lights of Portland basement venues, Little Star embodies the rock dream of transfiguring sadness into pop gold.
We first heard of Little Star through the Romantic World of Little Star cassette self-release, a map for Daniel Byers’ inner tumult disguised as scrappy dreampop. Big Star’s exuberant melancholy, the Kinks’ crackerjack guitar work and the Cure’s winking macabre all lit the path through Daniel Byers’ little world. Now we have Being Close, an album that finds Byers enlisting the help of bassist, singer and songwriter Julian Morris and drummer John Value, transposing the coy synthesized instrumentation of Romantic World into a true power trio. “It has very aggressive moments, and it has more tender and sweet moments,” than the debut cassette, proclaims Morris. Byers takes care to note the influence of friends and fellow Portlanders Sioux Falls on the album’s brash sound.
Being Close is the sound Little Star “bringing the [Romantic World] out of the bedroom and into the live space,” says Value. The ten-song collection finds Byers and Morris, penning songs about transformation and transcendence—Dan’s songs about processing his breakup, Julian’s songs about his process of gender transition. The album might be about dissolution and finding oneself anew, but Byers carefully notes that the songs are really about “moving apart from people.” Is it a breakup album? “Well maybe it is, on accident.”
Songs like “Cheeseman” and “For Goth Easter” demonstrate the emotional breadth of Little Star. All of the songs are “about moving apart from people,” Byers explains. The rollicking “Cheeseman” details the painful drift between two friends, set over Bolan-esque chugging guitar chords. An honest-to-god guitar solo caps off the song, showcasing Byers’ sage-like (and Sage-like) fret heroics. And then there’s “For Goth Easter.” The Morris-Value-Byers trio have turned Romantic World’s emotional centerpiece into a Being Close’s first act showstopper, a breathless three-minute meditation on the power of rock music. Portland Mercury contributor Cameron Crowell has described seeing entire basements teary-eyed, singing along to every word of the song, and I’ve seen it happen, too, I swear to god.
Little Star recorded the bulk of Being Close live in a single eighteen-hour session at Portland’s Type Foundry Studios and mixed the rest of the album in the same house used to make Romantic World. Portland label Good Cheer Records is proud to release the album on TK FORMATS, available online and in stores on January 8.
Doors Open: 8:00 PM
All sales final. No refunds or exchanges.
Print at Home method of delivery is suggested to avoid long Will Call lines night of show at the Box Office. Print at Home tickets may be used as mobile tickets and scanned from smart device.
VIP package upgrade available after GA ticket is in cart. VIP package info below
*Platinum Fan Club Package DOES NOT include a ticket to see the concert. Tickets must be purchased seperately.*
The Damned Platinum Fan Club Package includes:
- Access to soundcheck
- Meet & Greet
- Early access to merch stand
- New Rose 7” picture sleeve and fold out poster
- Special Limited Edition Fanzine
- Tour T-shirt
- Tour poster
- Souvenir laminate
*Platinum Fan Club Package DOES NOT include a ticket to see the concert. Tickets must be purchased seperately.
The sounds of Portland duo Golden Retriever can be hushed and delicate or rumbling and dramatic—the sonic possibilities posed by modular synth player Matt Carlson and bass clarinetist Jonathan Sielaff are endless. Tonight’s the perfect chance to crawl inside their thrilling world of avant-garde sound.
PC WORSHIP (NYC):
https://pcworship.bandcamp.com/
WOOLEN MEN:
https://woolenmen.bandcamp.com/
SEDIMENT CLUB (NYC):
https://sedimentclub.bandcamp.com/
THE DREEBS (NYC):
https://thedreebs.bandcamp.com/
WAVE ACTION:
https://waveaction.bandcamp.com/
$8 // 21+
TWIN PEAKS
HINDS
WHITE MYSTERY
WHITE EAGLE
*
McMenamins Music
836 N. Russell St., Portland, OR 97227
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Gaelynn Lea
Matthew Frantz
BUY TICKETS: https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/6233395/mcmenamins-presentsgaelynn-leematthew-frantz21-portland-mcmenamins-white-eagle-saloon
8 p.m.
$10 in advance, $12 day of show
21 and over
Classically trained violinist and songwriter Gaelynn Lea has been bewitching scores of fans with her experimental andambient takes on fiddle music, an approach that incorporates her love of traditional tunes, songwriting, poetry and sonic exploration. Her work most recently won NPR Music's 2016 Tiny Desk Contest, a competition drawing submissions of original songs from more than 6,000 musicians across the country. Gaelynn Lea has been playing violin for over twenty years, developing an improvisational style all her own. She has performed alongside many notable Minnesota musicians over the years, including Alan Sparhawk, Charlie Parr, and Billy McLaughlin.
On March 3, 2016, Gaelynn Lea was named the winner of NPR Music's second-ever Tiny Desk Contest. The video entry of her original song "Someday We'll Linger in the Sun" rose to the top of over 6,100 submissions from around the nation, chosen as the unanimous favorite among the contest's six judges. The very next week, Gaelynn performed a moving Tiny Desk Concert, at which the show's host Bob Boilen said "there was hardly a dry eye."
Gaelynn Lea's musical reach has expanded significantly because of the Tiny Desk Contest. She began a touring nationally in September 2016, and in December 2016 she performed in Europe for the first time as support for Low's Christmas tour. Gaelynn Lea will continue this musical journey well into 2017, touring throughout the US and UK.
Artists: Kadhja Bonet, mal devisa, Mitski
Date: Sunday, April 9th, 2017
Address: (map)
128 Northeast Russell Street
Portland, OR 97212
United States
Phone: +1 503-284-8686
Genres: Indie Pop
Location: Portland, OR
RONTOMS SUNDAY SESSIONS
SUN APRIL 9 / 830 PM / 21+ / FREE
1030p The WILD BODY
945p Fauna Shade
9p FIRE NUNS
Check out the bands here:
https://thewildbody.bandcamp.com/releases
https://faunashadeband.bandcamp.com/
https://firenuns.bandcamp.com/
Radiohead is coming to Portland.
The band, whose often-ethereal sound has spanned more than three decades, announced their most recent tour, which will see dates in the U.S. and Europe, on Twitter early Tuesday morning.
Radiohead will be playing some headline shows and festival dates in the USA in March and April. Details: http://www.wasteheadquarters.com/schedule
The British group is only stopping in eight U.S. cities including Atlanta, Seattle, New Orleans and Portland's own Moda Center, where they'll play a Sunday show on April 9.
That show comes ahead of a pair of stops at the Coachella music festival outside of Palm Springs, where they'll headline alongside Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar.
The rest of the lineup is pretty impressive too.
Both of the Coachella shows have long been sold out though, so if you want to see Radiohead, the Moda Center is your best bet.
Marco Benevento
For more than a decade pianist Marco Benevento has been amassing an extensive body of work. His studio albums and live performances set forth a vision that connects the dots in the vast space between LCD Soundsystem and Leon Russell, pulsating with dance rock energy, but with smart, earthy songwriting to match. It has led to numerous high profile appearances, ranging from Carnegie Hall to Pickathon, Mountain Jam to Bonnaroo, while headlining shows coast to coast.
Marco Benevento’s latest LP, The Story of Fred Short, is some of his finest and most adventurous work to date—a maestro making “bold indie rock” says Brooklyn Vegan. The collection is the follow-up to 2014’s Swift, which found Benevento singing for the first time and honing his psych rock and late night dance party sensibilities. The Story Of Fred Short is a continuation of this exploration with Benevento citing everything from Harry Nilsson, Manu Chau and Gorillaz as inspiration.
Divided into two sides, The Story Of Fred Short oozes with Benevento’s relentless creative spirit in songwriting, performance and production. Side A is stuffed with mesmerizing dance rock gold. Marco doubles down on the groove using a rare Casio drum machine that’s become a recurring muse, in addition to a live drummer. The B Side tells the story of Fred Short in seven chapters of wild, heavy rock n’ roll. Fred Short was a Native American man known for throwing musical bacchanals on the property Marco now lives on in the Catskills.
As anybody who’s seen Marco Benevento perform can attest, with eyes closed, smile wide across his face and fingers free-flowing across the keys, he’s a satellite to the muse. With a devout and growing fan-base, Benevento is an artist whose story is only beginning to unfold.
Wyndham
Wyndham is a multi-instrumentalist musician, singer, songwriter & producer based in Los Angeles. Wyndham began his sonic crusade as a boy with a trombone in New York City, and honed his artistic voice while touring and exploring the natural sound & rhythms of New Zealand, the wild Americas and Europe. Wyndham is a founding member of critically acclaimed 'Elvis Perkins in Dearland,' and of Brooklyn based "Diamond Doves", where he performed on guitar, harmonium, keyboards, and trombone. He is also a former touring member of 'Clap Your Hands Say Yeah'. He has shared the stage to perform with: My Morning Jacket, Bon Iver, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, The Cold War Kids, Levon Helm, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Taj Majal, Dr. Dog, The Felice Brothers, Marco Benevento as well as played along with street musicians, howling coyotes, choirs & marching bands. In 2016, Wyndham produced and performed on artist, musician & actress Lola Kirke's self titled debut EP. Prior, Wyndham's first solo album "Made in Voyage" was self released. His latest solo release, 'Double You' was produced and engineered by Gus Seyffert (Beck, Black Keys) and features performances by Gus Seyffert, Macey Taylor (Jenny Lewis, Mystic Valley Band), Jerry Borger (Jonathan Wilson), Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes), and Andrew Borger (Tom Waits, Norah Jones)." Double You" declares a potent fusion of grunge & folk themes fused in a lyrical soulful style of a road trip into the unknown. "Double You" is available 12/16/16.
Lilah Larson
Lilah Larson is reluctantly stepping out of the self-imposed shadows. Having toured with the band Sons of an Illustrious Father since she was 17, she’s accustomed to deflecting direct limelight towards the larger group. With ‘Pentimento,' her debut solo album, that’s changing. Recorded at Montreal’s Hotel2Tango with Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Vic Chestnutt), the album features intimate meditations on conflicted love and relationships long since failed, written and performed—from vocals, to drums, to 19th-century pump organ—solely by Larson.
For more than a decade pianist Marco Benevento has been amassing an extensive body of work. His studio albums and live performances set forth a vision that connects the dots in the vast space between LCD Soundsystem and Leon Russell, pulsating with dance rock energy, but with smart, earthy songwriting to match. It has led to numerous high profile appearances, ranging from Carnegie Hall to Pickathon, Mountain Jam to Bonnaroo, while headlining shows coast to coast.
Marco Benevento’s latest LP, The Story of Fred Short, is some of his finest and most adventurous work to date—a maestro making “bold indie rock” says Brooklyn Vegan. The collection is the follow-up to 2014’s Swift, which found Benevento singing for the first time and honing his psych rock and late night dance party sensibilities. The Story Of Fred Short is a continuation of this exploration with Benevento citing everything from Harry Nilsson, Manu Chau and Gorillaz as inspiration.
Divided into two sides, The Story Of Fred Short oozes with Benevento’s relentless creative spirit in songwriting, performance and production. Side A is stuffed with mesmerizing dance rock gold. Marco doubles down on the groove using a rare Casio drum machine that’s become a recurring muse, in addition to a live drummer. The B Side tells the story of Fred Short in seven chapters of wild, heavy rock n’ roll. Fred Short was a Native American man known for throwing musical bacchanals on the property Marco now lives on in the Catskills.
As anybody who’s seen Marco Benevento perform can attest, with eyes closed, smile wide across his face and fingers free-flowing across the keys, he’s a satellite to the muse. With a devout and growing fan-base, Benevento is an artist whose story is only beginning to unfold.
Wyndham is a multi-instrumentalist musician, singer, songwriter & producer based in Los Angeles. Wyndham began his sonic crusade as a boy with a trombone in New York City, and honed his artistic voice while touring and exploring the natural sound & rhythms of New Zealand, the wild Americas and Europe. Wyndham is a founding member of critically acclaimed 'Elvis Perkins in Dearland,' and of Brooklyn based "Diamond Doves", where he performed on guitar, harmonium, keyboards, and trombone. He is also a former touring member of 'Clap Your Hands Say Yeah'. He has shared the stage to perform with: My Morning Jacket, Bon Iver, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, The Cold War Kids, Levon Helm, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Taj Majal, Dr. Dog, The Felice Brothers, Marco Benevento as well as played along with street musicians, howling coyotes, choirs & marching bands. In 2016, Wyndham produced and performed on artist, musician & actress Lola Kirke's self titled debut EP. Prior, Wyndham's first solo album "Made in Voyage" was self released. His latest solo release, 'Double You' was produced and engineered by Gus Seyffert (Beck, Black Keys) and features performances by Gus Seyffert, Macey Taylor (Jenny Lewis, Mystic Valley Band), Jerry Borger (Jonathan Wilson), Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes), and Andrew Borger (Tom Waits, Norah Jones)." Double You" declares a potent fusion of grunge & folk themes fused in a lyrical soulful style of a road trip into the unknown. "Double You" is available 12/16/16.
Lilah Larson is reluctantly stepping out of the self-imposed shadows. Having toured with the band Sons of an Illustrious Father since she was 17, she’s accustomed to deflecting direct limelight towards the larger group. With ‘Pentimento,' her debut solo album, that’s changing. Recorded at Montreal’s Hotel2Tango with Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Vic Chestnutt), the album features intimate meditations on conflicted love and relationships long since failed, written and performed—from vocals, to drums, to 19th-century pump organ—solely by Larson.
Plugged-in guitars, potent melodies, and punky energy. What’s better than that, rock ’n’ rollers? Not much, and tonight Portland welcomes two of the best young bands doing it these days. Dude York is from Seattle, and their new album Sincerely finds the trio stepping up its game significantly. After unsuccessfully trying the home-recorded route, they worked in a real studio with a real producer and injected their Weezer-flavored bash ’n’ pop with some serious hi-fi muscle. And last year, PAWS (from Glasgow, Scotland) released No Grace, their third straight LP of fuzzy, thoughtful pop-punk, this time produced by Mark Hoppus of Blink-182. Two of the most reliable DIY faves have jumped in with both feet and made a big splash without sacrificing what made them so lovable in the first place. Tonight, they play arena-ready anthems in the cozy confines of the Analog Cafe.