THE FIRKIN MUSIC FEST 2015 offers up a diverse selection of FREE SHOWS for three consecutive nights featuring some of Portland's most stellar up and coming bands including Talkative, Fog Father, Nature Thief, LiquidLight, The Hill Dogs, SamDensmoreDamSensmore, Pretty Gritty, Tango Alpha Tango, Tribe Mars, & Walking Stalking Robots. Beer will flow from genuine Firkin barrels while supplies last!
All shows are 21+
Thursday March 5, 6pm - 10pm
Talkative + Fog Father + Nature Thief + LiquidLight
Friday March 6, 7pm - 10pm
The Hill Dogs + Sam DensmoreDamSensmore + Pretty Gritty
Saturday March 7, 7pm - 10pm
Tango Alpha Tango + Tribe Mars + Walking Stalking Robots
LINKS:
Thursday March 5
Talkative - talkative.bandcamp.com/
Fog Father - fogfather.bandcamp.com/
Nature Thief - naturethief.bandcamp.com/
LiquidLight - liquidlight.bandcamp.com/
Friday March 6
The Hill Dogs - http://hilldogs.bandcamp.com/
SamDensmoreDamSensmore - www.samdensmore.com
Pretty Gritty - www.prettygrittymusic.com
Saturday March 7
Tango Alpha Tango - www.tangoalphatango.com/
Tribe Mars - https://www.facebook.com/tribemarsportland
Walking Stalking Robots - www.walkingstalkingrobots.com
Doors 8PM | Show 9PM
3939 N. Mississippi, Portland OR 97227
21+
About Psychomagic:
"PDX garage pop band signed with Lolipop Records."
About Bed:
"In late 2013, Alex and Sierra Haager quit their jobs, escaped their lives in California and headed north to start Breakup Records. Although they spend most of their time working with some of their favorite bands, they still found time to create a new music project for themselves.
bed. spent the last year releasing a steady stream of singles and videos, slowly creeping into brains, near and far. This year marks their first foray into the festival scene, with an appearance at Treefort Music Fest scheduled for March 27th.
With their fourth single - Fremm - the band returns to the sonic land of their forefathers. Joined now by Andrew Meininger (ex-Wampire) on drums and recorded in Portland with Jared Brannan, this pop-heavy track trudges along at a gentle 86 BPM. The accompanying video was created by Jess N Pierson."
Doors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:00 pm
$20.00 ADV/DOS
21 + | minors with parent or legal guardian
About Stars:"Stars have announced their fall North American tour in support of their sixth full-length album, The North, which will be released on September 4th via ATO Records. Fans who purchase tickets for any of the US headlining shows will receive a digital copy of the album on release day and an instant download of "The Theory of Relativity". Tickets go on sale Friday July 13 and can be purchased on www.youarestars.com.
The North was recorded in Montreal's historic RCA Victor Studios and was produced by Stars, Graham Lessard and Marcus Paquin (Arcade Fire). Stars shared the first album track "The Theory of Relativity" last month, and is still available as a free download via www.youarestars.com and can be streamed at http://soundcloud.com/youarestars/the-theory-of-relativity."
About Leisure Cruise:
"Leisure Cruise is Dave Hodge and Leah Siegel. Hodge—the Canada-born musician (Broken Social Scene & Bran Van 3000..who has also performed with Macy Gray, Feist, Brazilian Girls, and Basement Jaxx), arranger (Janet Jackson/Neptunes, Carly Simon), and composer; and singer and songwriter Leah Siegel (a fixture on the New York scene known for her solo project Firehorse and for performing with The Citizens Band) were brought together to do a tv spot in '09. Four years later, they ran into each other on the street. Dave was working on a record, his own, "finally" he said, after years of making them for other people. He invited Leah to participate. His vision was to have his friends each co-write a track and end up with a beautiful monster of a record. Leah was happy to take part. It was a wonder that they even recognized each other at the time.
It took all of one studio day in April 2013 for them to know they should just keep writing. Two months later they had written half an album. Siegel says, "Dave was really modest regarding the 'friends' he had slated to write and perform on the record. They were all busy on tour doing the major festival circuit. I was embarrassingly available at the time. We worked so well together in the studio, it just made sense to keep going back every day, keep writing, even though we had no real reason to, no deadline." Hodge realized that his plans for his record were changing and over the course of the next several months, the two created their band Leisure Cruise—and their self titled debut album of darkly hypnotic, danceable synth-based anthems.
The band name: During the early days of their writing together, astronomers had discovered three new planets in the Lyra constellation that appeared capable of supporting human life. What if we had to leave earth and colonize a new planet? They imagined "a final leisure cruise for the human race,"—and the fledgling musical project as a sort of soundtrack for it. "We're sort of living our lives in a state of leisure," Dave says, "with regards to using up resources and knowing what's happening and not really doing much about it." Not that Leisure Cruise is all doom and gloom (or that it could be, with a name like that). "It's not this apocalyptic thing," says Siegel, of the concept. "We'd elect to make a purposeful and exciting exit. Try something new. In my head, I see it as a natural progression in the hopefully delayed inevitable."
So what would play on this spaceship's sound system? Something sounding like the future as imagined in the past—yet rooted in the now. Imagine the music of a John Hughes film if it had been written by Bowie, remixed by Johnny Jewel, and fronted by a female Prince, and you'll start to get the idea. Rounding out the sound is an impressive roster of guests (Metric's Jimmy Shaw, Blondie's Tommy Kessler, Liam O'Neil from the Stills, Justin Peroff of Broken Social Scene, and Drake's Adrian Eccleston). It's at once dark and light, serious and fun, melancholic and euphoric. Ask Hodge and Siegel about their sound and process, and the answer sounds a lot like what happiness researchers call flow. "We weren't trying to emulate anything," Hodge says. "We were just making music."
In fact, Hodge and Siegel see Leisure Cruise as the product of two musical soul mates meeting at just the right moment in their careers to truly savor it. "I've worked with some great singers, but it's really very effortless with Leah," says Hodge. Chimes in Siegel: "This is just the truest collaboration I've ever experienced—it's a rare pairing."
DOORS: 8:00 PM / SHOW: 9:00 PM
21+About Viet Cong:
"It takes less than sixty seconds of album opener "Newspaper Spoons" for you to decide that Viet Cong is a winter record. The album has barely begun, and the guitar doesn't snarl until the end of that opening minute, but it still presents a palpable iciness in just a few short moments. It's bitter. It stings. But once you're in it, and you're bracing yourself and charging ahead, "Newspaper Spoons" moves from a punishing, almost militarized drumbeat to a melody that's still menacing but also delicate, almost celestial.
That instinct for humanizing a stone-cold song is Viet Cong's greatest gift and sharpest weapon. It's harsh, but exhilarating. Themes of deconstruction and disintegration, of hardening and crumbling seem to come from every direction. But time and again, they are rescued by something—a little bit of humor, a cathartic moment, even a basic human goof. In fact, as the members of Viet Cong worked through the songs that make up this record, they erred on the side of keeping those moments that save Viet Cong from being overly mechanized. "There have to be strange little goofups and stuff that's sometimes intentional, sometimes not," bassist and lead singer Matt Flegel explains. "I have a bleak sense of humor, too, so some lyrics might seem funny to me even though anyone else might think they're desperately hopeless."
Recorded in a barn-turned-studio in rural Ontario, the seven songs that make up Viet Cong were born largely on the road, when the four-piece embarked on a 50-date tour that stretched virtually every limit imaginable. Close quarters hastened their exhaustion but also honed them as a group. With all four members traveling in one car, the mood conflated with the soundtrack, the soundtrack with the cities around them, and so forth. There was repetition, but it was all different. This combined with the grey, chilly emptiness of Calgary rendered a record with a viscerally rugged vibe, one that Flegel even describes as "shit earth."
As Viet Cong pushes forward, the six-minute "March of Progress" is when it begins to really take flight. A lengthy, almost industrial march chugs along for a full three minutes before the floor gives out underneath it and gives way to a spare little riff and the album's first real melody. "That's the one where I thought 'that's what I want us to be doing. Finally,'" explains Flegel. "That was the sound that I had heard in my mind before we even got started." Later still, that negative space gives way to a richer melody, and it's here that Flegel sings "we build the buildings and they're built to break," a declaration that is in many ways this album's thesis.
The repetition throughout Viet Cong hypnotizes but it also softens, leaving a space that is deceptively personal. "Continental Shelf" orbits a thousand-watt hook with a thick crackle and a battering-ram drum line. It's so arresting that you barely notice it doesn't have a chorus, and then in comes a line like "if we're lucky we'll get old and die" and you can't believe Leonard Cohen (or Trent Reznor, or Nick Cave, or Sinatra) didn't get to it first. "Silhouettes" is a tripwire of a song, opening with an almost Joy Division-esque exposition and moving at breakneck speed - frantic and pitch-black at a thousand miles an hour - until before you know it they are howling. Actually howling, and maybe you are too.
You can designate records as seasonal, and you can feel Viet Cong's bleakness and declare it wintry. But the only way you get a frost is when there's something warmer to freeze up. So yes, Viet Cong is a winter album, but only until it is a spring record, then a summer scorcher, then an autumn burner, then it ices over again. They build these buildings, and they're built to break."
SOLD OUT
$18.00 - $20.00
DOORS: 8:00 PMTHIS EVENT IS ALL AGES
About Caribou:
"About a year ago, Caribou mastermind Dan Snaith couldn't swim. On a good day, he might get a decent doggy paddle going but, really, he could barely stay afloat. All that changed when his wife got him swimming lessons for Christmas. "Then I became completely obsessed with it and now I swim constantly," he says. "The only times I really left the house in the past year were either to go out to a club late at night or, in the middle of making music during the day, I'd go to swim every day. It was important to get some distance, and ideas would percolate around in my head as I was swimming away. So it seemed like a theme that was appropriate."
With its absorption of club culture sounds weaved within subtle pop frameworks, Swim is Caribou's masterpiece-the record he's wanted to bring to fruition for as long as he's been making music. A Canadian from small-town Ontario now based in England, Snaith has been a leading figure in electronic music over the past decade. A mathematics scholar and an ingenious multi-instrumentalist/composer, he surprised critics and fans with 2007's Andorra, a brilliant, electro-tinged pop breakthrough with a timeless grace that made most year-end "Best of" lists and won Canada's prestigious Polaris Music Prize. After the startling infectiousness of Andorra, Swim is a more complex, multi-layered affair-ripe with fascinating rhythms, instrumentation, and vocals (including those of Born Ruffians' Luke Lalonde, who appears on "Jamelia")-that becomes more alluring with each listen. And it's got Caribou floating."
About Koreless:
"Glasgow-based Koreless is part of the new generation of young producers rising fast through the net-fed bass community. Despite his age his music exudes maturity, nesting in the ever-expanding dubstep lexicon somewhere between softened 2-step and soulful electronica."
XRAY.FM is proud to sponsor the showing of the music documentary Salad Days, showing February 27th thru March 3rd at King Street Theater in Vancouver.
More information at Kiggin's Street Theatre's website
It's Salad Days: 1980-1990: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC.
These days, Lacy is focusing his gaze further outward, exploring what he calls "the infinite and the infinitesimal," while also keeping lyrical watch on the crossroads where our digital future and our pastoral past bump up against each other.
Few are the artists who are able to bring such thorny and thoughtful issues to bear in their music, but that is just one of the many reasons that Eons, the new album from Mimicking Birds, is so very special.
How this comes out through Lacy is in toothsome lyrics that are filled to bursting with imagery, philosophical questions, and deep personal concerns. That he finds ways to tie these concepts together without losing his way or our fascination with them is a testament to his songwriting prowess.
The rest of the band, Aaron Hanson and Adam Trachsel, works to remain connected to the Birds' of yore, emphasizing fingerpicked acoustic guitars, the sturdy tones of a stand-up bass, and restrained drums, while pushing into the future as well.
Too, Eons feels as expansive as its title thanks to the help of producer Jeremy Sherrer (The Gossip, 1776). He helped weave some gorgeous electronic textures into the songs – listen for the skittering programmed beat that helps carry "Owl Hoots" forward, or the swells of keyboards that pull closing track "Movin' On" towards an '80s pop sunrise.
It's quite a lot for one album or one band to carry on its shoulders, but Mimicking Birds and Eons prove capable of bearing the weight of this expansive view of the physical world and the world that we can only reach through an amazing piece of music. Eons has 10 such tracks that will transport, delight, and surprise you, even through multiple listens".
"Eons is out May 13th, 2014 on Glacial Pace".
Doors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:00 pm
$25.00
21+
About Daniel Lanois:
"The cover art to Flesh And Machine – the new album by gifted musician, renowned producer and ambient pioneer Daniel Lanois – contains a curious image: a baby with cybernetic antennae. The child represents Lanois himself. He explains: "The cover shows a boy who is looking for something that's never been heard before. He's my little seeker, he represents the bit of me that's always in the laboratory experimenting, looking for new sounds and sensations."
But the image is apt in another way. Flesh And Machine, his third album for ANTI–, represents nothing short of a total artistic rebirth. Lanois has been involved in playing, recording and producing music for four decades now. In that time he helped push the ambient genre forward into celestial new territory as Brian Eno's foremost protégé; he has recorded landmark albums for U2 and Peter Gabriel and has helped to revitalize the sonic dimensions of Bob Dylan and Neil Young. But this marks the first time he has truly deployed every sonic weapon in his arsenal and attempted to break virgin ground in support of his own music.
Lanois has a refreshingly optimistic attitude toward his craft and the creative potential it still holds: "I'm always heading for the future and I'm always hoping I'm going to find the next dimension of sound. It's my job to raise the spirit of sound. I've been able to do it a number of times in the past on other people's records. Well, it's still my job today to raise that spirit of sound and I'd like to think that I've done it on this record."
Flesh And Machine was initially conceived as an ambient album, and tracks such as 'Forest City' take the classic Brian Eno albums that he worked on ("Ambient 4: On Land" (1982) and "Apollo: Atmospheres And Soundtracks"(1983) as a wonderful bedrock to stand on to see the sonic future. His guitar is processed to the point where it is no longer possible to tell what the source instrument is. The album bristles with new ideas. The softly spoken Canadian spent countless hours processing an array of source sounds – steel and electric guitars, piano and human voice – to create the sound palette that is Flesh And Machine.
Talking about the track 'Sioux Lookout' he says: "It is meant to be a native chant or a cry for all living things. I wanted to mix the sound of humans with the sound of animals. But they're not animal sounds really – I've created all of these sounds myself but that's kind of my aim, you can't actually tell where these sounds came from. I got to this place of mysterious sounds and invented a new sonic language."
He continues: "The track 'Two Bushas' is very symphonic and it almost sounds like someone is conducting it but the tones and textures can't be pinpointed. You wouldn't say, 'Oh, yeah, that's a flute and that's a cello.' The result is a symphonic one and it appeals to that part of us that responds to orchestral music but with sounds we're not used to hearing. On a good day, if I'm feeling big–headed, I like to think that I'm taking symphonics to the future."
One of the many standout tracks on the record is called simply 'The End' and is supposed to represent "a final protest song, the closing of a chapter or the burning down of an edifice and the rising of a phoenix. It's hellfire, avalanche, collapse and tsunami: The End essentially!" He continues: "If you're expecting nothing but ambient music you'll be surprised... 'The End' is not meant to be peaceful and textural by any means. I think it has a lot of rebellion in it. I'm on guitar and Brian Blade is on drums and then everything else is processing. Brian and I have played together for a long time. Years ago I was taking a walk in New Orleans with Iggy Pop and we heard this amazing drumming coming out of this cafe. So we went inside and there he was... young Brian Blade ripping it up on the drums. And I've been working with him ever since; he's one of the greatest human beings I know."
The stunning polyphony and cascades of ultra–pointilistic sound on this track all come from two humble sources: guitar and drums which are then sampled, sliver by tiny sliver, processed and placed carefully back into the track. All of these countless samples, no matter how radically they are changed, have to be placed back into their surroundings in a harmonically correct manner, so his process is not only highly technical but compositionally very astute as well. His method is so dazzling in places that sometimes sounds as if Burial, Amon Tobin, Prefuse 73 or Four Tet were producing a modern fusion LP. However, these effects were achieved by a personal evolution which was perhaps in some ways parallel but far, far removed as Lanois is blissfully unaware of who any of these producers are...
He playfully doffs his cap to both his mentor Brian Eno and the intensely productive period they worked together in the 1980s on the track 'My First Love'. Keen–eared listeners might recognize the beautiful celestial tone on the track: "I used the same Suzuki Omnichord on 'My First Love' as we used on 'Deep Blue Day' – the track from "Apollo..."which was used in "Trainspotting" during the infamous toilet bowl scene..." Talking about what he learned from Eno he says: "Above any particular technique, I learned to be devoted to a direction. And I made a pact to myself after working with him that I would never do anything musically that I didn't want to do again – which was a real turning point for me."
This spirit of artistic restlessness is something that he still feels fully today, some thirty years later. He has already prepared songs from Flesh And Machine to be performed live by a trio including himself, where both the playing of instruments and the sampling, dubbing and processing will happen in real time on stage: Our crescendos and our risings very much belong to the night, never to be played the same way again."
About Rocco Deluca:
"Rocco DeLuca is Rocco’s second album for 429 Records and his fourth overall LP. Produced by seven time Grammy winner Daniel Lanois, Rocco DeLuca builds upon the brooding and haunting mood of his last solo album, 2011’s Drugs ‘N’ Hymns.
Currently residing in East Hollywood, CA, Rocco hosted a number of recording sessions in his bedroom with a number of notable local musicians, “local folks and family,” including drummer Oliver Charles (Ben Harper), guitarist and vocalist Christian Letts (Edward Sharpe), bassist Seth-Ford Young (Edward Sharpe), violinist Odessa Jorgensen, bassist Gus Siefert (The Black Keys, Beck), vocalist Soko and drummers Josh Collazo (Edward Sharpe) and Jonathan Wright.
Additional production, mixing, and performing was provided by Simon Katz (Youngblood Hawke) and Chris Karn.
Whereas Drugs ‘n’ Hymns was notable for its spare, quiet intensity and attention to the darker side of things, Rocco DeLuca revels in a spirited spontaneity no doubt achieved through many an inspired (and oftentimes unacknowledged) home recording session among friends, yet maintains the intimacy that made Drugs so special.
Says DeLuca:
“I went through school as an unfavored, untalented, quiet student who was allowed to find his own course.
At about nine years I realized that of all the curious forces, the one I was compelled to be most completely controlled by was music.
From that moment I had a place of my own. For me music is a place where everything and everyone is invited. It is the intersection of every walk of life. Even economics and prejudice yield to music.
Lately I have been writing letters and not sending them out. Every piece of music on this new record is a token of those letters addressed to both animal, plant, human, and the moon.
Friends and I would meet up to play and listen to Big Bill Broonzy and Washboard Sam. My friend Pier from Austin played the Chess release real loud for me one night and it had power.
Many friends made this project possible including Daniel Lanois who is always going 'further out' creating new sounds and blowing my mind. When Daniel hears music he believes in, he simply calls it ‘soul music.’”
February 3-March 1, 2015
Wednesday – Sunday @ 7:30 p.m. / Sundays & February 28 2 p.m.
More info: artistsrep.org
Artists Repertory Theatre
1515 SW Morrison St., Portland. OR 97205
"A scintillating contemporary drama centered around Billy, the only deaf member of his family, whose search for family acceptance as he delves into the Deaf Community sparks often funny but fierce tensions at home. Grappling with the significance of language and the urge to belong, this Portland debut follows triumphant productions Off-Broadway, at London’s Royal Court and Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre. 2012 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play."
RECOMMENDATIONS: For adults and older teens. Profanity.
February 5 - 28, 2015.
Milagro presents the USA premiere of
Opción Múltiple
(Multiple Choice)
Written by Luis Mario Moncada Gil
Directed by Nelda Reyes
Presented in Spanish with easy-to-follow supertitles in English
When: February 5 - 28, 2015. Thursday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m, Sunday at 2:00 p.m
Thursday Feb. 5, 7:30 p.m Preview
Friday Feb. 6, 7:30 p.m Opening night with post-reception event catered by Pambiche and A to Z Wine
Where: El Centro Milagro (525 SE Stark St.)
Tickets: Starting at $24. Available at www.milagro.org or 503-236-7253. Discounts for students, seniors, veterans and groups 15+, and with the SNAP card through the Arts for All program. Purchase tickets from at 503-236-7253 or www.milagro.org
Info & Updates: www.milagro.org
Photos: High-resolution digital photos available from julieth@milagro.org or online
Artist Interviews: To arrange interviews with artists, contact Julieth Buri, Marketing Director, at julieth@milagro.org or 503-236-7253 ext. 118
Media Contacts: Julieth Maya Buri, Marketing Director, 503-236-7253, ext. 118, julieth@milagro.org
Olga Sanchez, Artistic Director, 503-236-7253, ext. 117, olga@milagro.org
Sponsored in part by El consulado de Mexico en Portland, El Hispanic News, Bustos Media and Pamplin Media.
In 1993, Milagro offered its first programming in Spanish when it presented a single evening of Botánica, by Dolores Prida, produced by New York City’s Repertorio Español. Over 300 patrons and students attended the performance, demonstrating a strong local interest in Spanish language theatre. This momentous event was inspiring but, at the time, Milagro realized that it was not ready to produce it on a professional scale, and there was little assurance that this type of programming would have sufficient audience to sustain it. A lot has changed, and more than twenty years later, Milagro brings Opción Múltiple, a play that has delighted critics and theatre-goers throughout Latin America and Spain.
Milagro’s production, directed by long-time Milagro collaborator Nelda Reyes, is a creative portrayal of a person living with dissociative identity disorder (aka, multiple personalities). Through the playwright’s creative portrayal of Diana’s alter egos as distinct characters, the struggle of those living with this mental illness is brought out into the open, on the stage for us to see. The play brings light and awareness of this condition through laughter. In addition, this production provides great roles for talented local Latino actors, including veterans of Milagro’s many Spanish language programs, Nurys Herrera, Veronika Nuñez and Vicente Guzmán-Orozco".
ABOUT THE PLAY
Opción Múltiple is a 21st century comedy set in contemporary Mexico City. Diana, our heroine, is a modern single woman negotiating the nuances of starting a new relationship. As if this weren’t difficult enough, she must cope with the complexities created by her Dissociative Identity Disorder. A trauma in her young life fragmented her psyche into several distinct personalities, each battling the other to protect her. This turns a light romantic play into something deeper, a “very Mexican”, dark comedy with the capacity to make us laugh while deepening our understanding of the challenges of mental illness faced by many in silence.
DOORS: 8:00 PM / SHOW: 9:00 PM
21+About Lost Lander:
“It’s a tightrope act with Lost Lander, a tension created by catchy loops, and layered
lyrics, either of which are all too easy to get lost in. What started out as a project founded by singer/songwriter Matt Sheehy and producer Brent Knopf of Menomena, has evolved into a strong four piece band, with a rich, rounded sound.” - KEXP
Portland, OR’s own Lost Lander is very happy to announce that Medallion, their second full length record, will be released on February 24th. A short run of Pacific Northwest dates in celebration of the announcement begins on Friday in Enterprise, OR. Seattle bastion of independent radio KEXP was gracious enough to premiere a cut from the record to coincide with the announcement. “Walking on a Wire” can now be heard via http://blog.kexp.org/2014/12/03/song-premiere-lost-lander-walking-on-a-wire/
If DRRT, Lost Lander’s first independently released album, was about the confluence of nature and technology, Medallion, its latest, concerns dualities - experiences of love and loss, impermanence and longevity, death and rebirth.The confrontation of these dualities resulted in a set of songs that explore “more human territory,” according to Matt Sheehy, a professional forester who spends his days in Oregon’s immense wooded expanse. The coming-apart of Sheehy’s marriage engagement and nearly concurrent loss of his mother, followed closely by the blooming of a relationship with longtime friend and bandmate Sarah Fennell, heavily influenced the lyrics on Medallion. “Nothing lasts forever,” Matt observes. “And the seeds are already planted for the change that’s inevitable.”
Sheehy took the seeds of the songs into “the idea factory/workshop that is (producer) Brent Knopf’s (Menomena) brain,” he relates, “where he spits out all the bells and whistles you can hang on those structures.”
Medallion is all about wrenching joy from despair, of finding the permanent within the temporary. “This record is an exclamation of love and loss,” Fennell declares. “It’s emotional, dealing with life in an exuberant way, even if it’s sad, hard, wonderful, and crazy. We’re all just lucky to be here to experience it.”
About Radiation City Duo:
"RADIATION CITY DUO is lovebirds Cameron and Lizzy from Portland indie pop favorite Radiation City. This intimate performance is something of a rarity, so don’t miss out on this evening of romantic pop music."
About Sama Dams:
"Comfort in Doubt, the second full-length from Portland avant-garde three-piece Sama Dams, sings with the keen cry of innocence lost. With the first track “My Ears Are Ringing,” an impossibly catchy and sparse masterpiece of glitch R&B, the listener embarks on a journey through darkness akin to the trip audiences took with Radiohead’s OK, Computer. Striking the fine balance between edgy experimentation and caramel sweet pop, this uncompromising trio drives into the desert with only an unerring musical compass to guide them.
The band is straightforward about the challenges surrounding their sophomore effort. “We were very busy between constant touring schedules and juggling personal lives, which resulted in a lull for writing new material,” says drummer Chris Hermsen. And yet, the time scarcity that is a stumbling block for many bands on their second album may have opened the door to creativity from an unforeseen source—Lisa Adams, organist, vocalist, and partner to frontman Sam Adams.
While Lisa had been collaborating musically with Adams since they moved to Portland, Oregon in 2010, the new album marks her first foray into songwriting. After recording and touring the album No Vengeance, she stepped away from a full-time career teaching music to devote more energy to the band. The shift was undoubtedly fruitful for the band—the cutting cynicism of her ingeniously hooky “Dirty Work” belies her inexperience, and the sweetly soaring melody of songs like “Maggie” provide a counterpoint to Sam’s angular style.
Whether introducing a song or selling tee shirts after the show, the band shows a good natured and Mid-western charm that rarely accompanies the kind of moody, boundary-pushing rock that Sama Dams makes. Hailing from Indiana, Ohio, and Iowa, the band has been at the forefront of a movement in Portland’s music scene away from twee chamber pop and toward something more expressive. What is striking in their music and in their performance is that nothing is added for effect; there is the sense of an exploratory process that is occurring before our eyes and around our ears. And nothing is more exciting than discovery."
“Comfort in Doubt” is available now in many formats - vinyl, CD, and digital download on Bandcamp."
It's another wild dance party at the Spare Room brought to life by the fine folks at THE GET DOWN.
THE GET DOWN is a fun, monthly dance party that is always a night to remember. Come party Friday, February 27th with XRAY DJs and the fine folks of THE GET DOWN.
DJ KM Fizzy
DJ Jen O
DJ Montel SpinozzaDJ Nathan Detroit
It's another wild dance party at the Spare Room brought to life by the fine folks at THE GET DOWN.
THE GET DOWN is a fun, monthly dance party that is always a night to remember. Come party Friday, February 27th with XRAY DJs and the fine folks of THE GET DOWN.
DJ KM Fizzy
DJ Jen O
DJ Montel SpinozzaDJ Nathan Detroit
DOORS: 8:00 PM / SHOW: 9:00 PM
21+
"TOPS are a four-piece band from Montreal, equal parts girls and guys, delivering a raw punk take on AM studio pop. Their new record, Picture You Staring, is a lush array of timelessly crafted songs.
Picture You Staring gathers strength through intimacy. Self-written, recorded, produced, and the result of 12 months holed up in Arbutus Records’ Montreal warehouse. This album contains 12 impeccable examples of pop craftsmanship that will reward repeat listeners.
Singer Jane Penny gives a voice to the silent girl at the edge of the circle, disillusioned but honest and unpretentious, a tone complemented by David Carriere’s seamless guitar playing and the measured drumming of Riley Fleck. TOPS’ songs are delivered with a cool restraint that blend with the individuality and self-assured desire of their female lead.
David and Jane met in middle school, but didn’t stay in touch until they reunited in Montreal where they’ve been collaborating since 2009. Unintentionally initiating a pop music scene in Montreal, their strange homemade recordings have gained an international following. In 2011 they joined Riley Fleck and started jamming at the loft space La Brique where they wrote and recorded their first record, Tender Opposites. TOPS continue to engineer and produce their own records and make their own videos in collaboration with fellow artists and filmmakers. In opposition to commercially driven pop music, TOPS pursuit lies in creating moving songs that succeed earnestly, disregarding trends and myth-making."
About Tender Age:
"Portland-based dreamy shoegaze band Tender Age has been around since 2012. The five-piece released a self-titled EP in late 2013, which is a hazy, three-song journey through dreamy riffs and light vocals. Tender Age is influenced by such bands as Echo and the Bunnymen, Slowdive and Cocteau Twins. They most recently released a single in August 2014, 'Get High', from their upcoming album."
About Satsuma:
"A melted haze of jangly-melodic pop from Portland, OR."
XRAY.fm Presents a winter's evening of gorgeous and haunting tunes from buzz-building songwriters
KEVIN MORBY
JESSICA PRATT
February, 22nd, 2015
Doors: 8:00 pm / Show: 9:00 pm
$12.00
Harlem River features eight interweaving tales of tragedy and misfortune; a series of desperate characters playing out their dramas with the city as backdrop. A departure from some of the signature sounds of his better known projects, Morby’s songs glisten with a haunting intimacy and while he maintains that the songs are stories about other people, it’s hard not to feel a piece of him in each one; a half-imagined, half-painfully personal world of lost love, addiction, violence and prayers for the departed.
The album was recorded in Los Angeles in February and March of ’13 with producer Rob Barbato who recorded The Babies’ second album, Our House On The Hill, and whose guitar and bass work figure prominently on Harlem River. The album also features drummer Justin Sullivan (The Babies) as well as contributions from Will Canzoneri, Tim Presley (White Fence), Dan Lead, and Cate Le Bon.
We want scribes and songbirds to tell us so—and sometimes they do and then it is. They point their pens and focus their lens where they will and surprise us to our soul. On Your Own Love Again is a record that does it to us, with songs from a spine-thrilling new place and a gifted young singer with her own musical logic.
Jessica Pratt’s self-titled 2012 debut has been much-murmured about in the time between yesterday and today. People respond to the austere, pristine clarity of the performances, the gentle strength, marveling at how much comes from so little: just a voice and a guitar or two! They remark on the timeless nature of the songs and the voice, scrupulously informed by the folk-rock of ages past, but sung without bags (none in hand, nor beneath eyes). They speculate on just who is the personality behind this Jessica Pratt? It is hard not to respond to the sound of her music, not to want more right away.
Two years on, and Jessica’s very new On Your Own Love Again is here for us, playing her further adventures in different pastures. If they feel removed from the first songs, it may help to know that the recordings of the first album were made some years back with no expectation of making an album. They sat quiet on the shelf for a long time, appearing on the internet eventually. It all seemed harmless, but when Birth Records honcho Tim Presley rolled up in his long white limousine
and began to spin tales of folk rock glory, who was she to say no? Sure, Mr. Presley, fence me a record!
The nice part about learning that people dig your sound is that it gives you the chance to think of what else you’d do. After deep consideration, Jessica found new songs within her and an urgency to make another record, marked with a strong sense for rendering it exactly the way she heard it in her head, spending time with her tunes and crafting the smallest details. In this way, she truly was able to inhabit her own skin as a singer of her songs — and make On Your Own Love Again the first Jessica Pratt album constructed to be an album.
What makes On Your Own Love Again new? Everything, and yet everything woven so subtly into the presentation leaves you unaware that you have been modulated upon. The album was recorded entirely by Jessica in the fashion of “Night Faces” and “Dreams,” from her first album, and mixed in collaboration with Will Canzoneri. Touched lightly with additional instrumental and vocal parts, the songs ripple beneath the surface with lyrical details that morph almost subliminally from the personal
into fantasy. When Jessica’s playful nature bubbles up, she sends her voice traveling into strange places to see what it finds there. The music too is deceptively accomplished, providing subtle hallucinatory
nuances to the tunes. The orchestral organ stop working in the shadows of “Wrong Hand,” the reverberant percussion floating through “Game That I Play,” the clavinet panned out on the side in “Moon Dude,” Jessica’s sudden vocal dip into her lower register on “Greycedes”— all pull at the ears, highlighting her unique pop sensibilities with craft and humor, giving the album’s inherent romance a greater heft. Perhaps most significantly, On Your Own Love Again was recorded at home — at places in Los Angeles and San Francisco, over the past two years. This process sands the surface of her more active multi-tracking approach, allowing a sound as delicate and singular as her former recordings. On Your Own Love Again Jessica is fully alive in a space all her own; with isolation in the breeze, the sound resonant in the natural light and a gauze of clouds in the sky, under which she can relax, unwind and let herself be.
That’s everything we want from Jessica Pratt — On Your Own Love Again.
General $12 | Student/Senior $11 | Child $9
Multi-film passes available
More info:festivals.nwfilm.org
"Welcome to the 38th Portland International Film Festival, the Northwest Film Center’s annual showcase of new world cinema. With this year’s 97 features and 60 shorts, we celebrate the world’s filmmakers—and those who love their work—no matter the language spoken. As with November’s annual Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival, which surveys the perspectives of our region’s makers, we hope you set aside some time for a bit of armchair travel, discovery, and inspiration.
The programmatic centerpiece of this year’s Festival is a showcase of Hispanic language films from ten countries, and the accompanying Cine-Lit Conference on Hispanic Film and Literature co-produced by the foreign language departments at Oregon State University, Portland State University and the University of Oregon. This is the eighth such Festival and Conference collaboration, a sharing of films, visiting directors, scholars, and students that enriches one another and the community. Our warm welcome extends to the many guests traveling from throughout the world to Portland for both events.
The Festival continues to flourish for countless reasons—enthusiastic audiences, Silver Screen Club members, generous sponsors, volunteers and staff, film industry and media supporters, and of course, filmmakers who continue to surprise, delight, inform, and energize with their vision of our world. They bring the Festival to life, and we thank them all.
For the Film Center, the Festival is not an end, but a means. We want this annual sampling of the vitality of international cinema to be more than a special event, but rather to be the impetus for a deeper dive into the art of film—whether it is on the big screen or in the palm of your hand. Between Opening and Closing night the choices are many, and we hope you find among them the gems that will keep you searching for more."
PLAY SCULPTURE
Playwriting Class with Matthew B. Zrebski
Saturdays: February 21, 28 and March 7
10AM - 1PM - $125
"Taught by multi-award winning playwright and PCS Resident Teaching Artist Matthew B. Zrebski,
this class is for writers who have an idea they wish to fully develop.
Utilizing both instructor and peer-driven critique, this class is for writers who have an idea they wish to fully develop and solidify for drafting. These ideas will pass through various filters: how should the story be told; what aspects of the story must be seen (or hidden); when does the story climax. Outlines will be formed, reformed, turned upside down and sideways. Drafts will be written, trashed, and written again. By the course’s conclusion, your first draft will be well on its way and the shape of the play will be coming into focus.
Matthew B. Zrebski has had numerous original plays produced in Portland and Dallas, TX. As Portland Center Stage’s Resident Teaching Artist , Matt serves as lead instructor for the Visions & Voices high school residency program and frequently leads adult playwriting workshops. He is a two-time recipient of the Rosenfield Playwriting award and has been a guest instructor for Portland Actors Conservatory and Literary Arts' Writers in the Schools program. He holds a BFA in Acting, Directing, and Playwriting from Southern Methodist University".
XRAY fm and HipHopDX are proud to sponsor The Rapture World Tour featuring Zion I with guests Los Rakas and LockSmith, on February 20th at the Doug Fir Lounge, The California indie hip-hop duo is touring in support of upcoming live album, The Rapture. Ticket info and more information at zionicrew dot com or xray dot fm slash events.
TIcket info can be found right here.
The Instigators Presents
An Evening of Roots Music
8635 N. Lombard Street · Free Admission
Meredith Axelrod
pre-1930s American pop music. She
plays guitar, ukulele, cello, and
other instruments. She’s performed
with Dan Hicks, Maria Muldaur,
Jim Kweskin, Ramblin’ Jack Eliot,
Cindy Cashdollar, David Grisman,
Robert Crumb, the Cheap Suit
Serenaders, and Craig Ventresco."
Frank Fairfield
"A player of down-home, old time
folk music on fiddle, guitar, banjo,
he supported Fleet Foxes on their
2008 tour, and moved on to play
with such acts as Charlie Louvin,
Pokey Lafarge, Charlie Parr and
Blind Boy Paxton. He has also
become a popular act at the annual
Pickathon festival and appeared on
NPR's Morning Edition."