In 2011, Nicholas Murphy recorded a cover of No Diggity late one night just for his friends. Shared by a handful of people, the song spread like wildfire until reaching #1 on the indie blog charts Hype Machine, and so the Chet Faker identity was born – an ode to Chet Baker’s singing style but incorporating the influence of a youth spent producing house and disco.
Before Chet Faker, Murphy spent his time in suburban Melbourne, Australia. Splitting his musical output between a penchant for soft and soulful singer-songwriter work and an appetite for electronic music production. But it was when he coupled his love of the analogue sounds of early dance music – only this time slowing the tempo – with his natural ability for RnB soaked vocals, that something truly exciting happened.
A handful of Chet Faker originals on soundcloud saw A&Rs from around the world knocking at his door, and he soon began recording his debut EP and creating the Chet Faker live show with 4-piece band backed by samples and an electronic soundscape.
An invite to SXSW quickly followed and by March 2012, he had played a stand-out performance at the festival’s Filter Magazine Party and was touted as a ‘must see’ act by The Austin Chronicle.
Soon after, his debut EP Thinking In Textures was released on Opulent / Remote Control in Australia, Chess Club Records in the UK and Downtown Records in the USA, to widespread acclaim.
Chet went on to sell out two tours across Australia, before taking off to the UK to perform at The Great Escape Festival with sold out shows in London. Meanwhile, his debut EP picked up spins from Gilles Petersen, Mary Anne Hobbs, Huw Stephens, Rob da Bank and was featured in Zane Lowe’s ‘Next Hype’ section.
Chet has since played at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Vivid Live Festival, played at the Laneway Festival, and been featured at LA’s tastemaker School’s Night.
Chet Faker was nominated for five Jagermeister Independent Music Awards, winning for Best Independent Single/EP and Breakthrough Independent Artist. He was also nominated for two Rolling Stone Awards for Best New Talent and Best Independent Release, winning Best Independent Release.
Recently, Chet Faker collaborated with fellow Australian up-and-comer Flume on the track Left Alone, which has been playlisted on BBC6, receiving support from Annie Mac and Gilles Petersen, and featured on DummyMag, Complex and Prefix Magazine.
Chet is currently recording his debut album when he isn’t lending his voice to the outback disco project Coober Pedy University Band on Soft Rock’s label Kinfolk, producing for Rainy Milo and working on an EP with Flume.
Little was said about Parquet Courts' debut effort, American Specialties. Released exclusively on cassette tape, the quasi-album was an odd collection of 4 track recordings that left those who were paying attention wanting more. A year of woodshedding live sets passed before the Courts committed another song to tape. The band's first proper LP, Light Up Gold, is a dynamic and diverse foray into the back alleys of the American DIY underground. Bright guitars swirl serpentine over looping, groovy post-punk bass lines and drums that border on robotic precision. While the initial rawness of the band's early output remains, the songwriting has gracefully evolved. Primary wordsmiths A. Savage and Austin Brown combine for a dynamic lyrical experience, one part an erudite overflow of ideas, the other an exercise in laid-back observation. Lyrically dense, the poetry is in how it flows along with the melody, often times as locked-in as the rhythm section.
"This record is for the over-socialized victims of the 1990's 'you can be anything you want', Nickelodeon-induced lethargy that ran away from home not out of any wide-eyed big city daydream, but just out of a subconscious return to America's scandalous origin," writes Savage in the album's scratched-out liner notes. Recorded over a few days in an ice-box practice space, Light Up Gold is equally indebted to Krautrock, The Fall, and a slew of contemporaries like Tyvek and Eddy Current Suppression Ring.
Though made up of Texan transplants, Parquet Courts are a New York band. Throw out the countless shallow Brooklyn bands of the blasé 2000's: Light Up Gold is a conscious effort to draw from the rich culture of the city - the bands like Sonic Youth, Bob Dylan, and the Velvet Underground that are not from New York, but of it. A panoramic landscape of dilapidated corner-stores and crowded apartments is superimposed over bare-bones Americana, leaving little room for romance or sentiment. It's punk, it's American, it's New York… it's the color of something you were looking for.
W/ OLD LIGHT, and AU DUNES
DOORS 9:00
SHOW 10:00
with Sama Dams and Wishyunu
There is a stillness between kissing lips that belies the beating hearts connected to them, a calm in the simple gesture that holds tumultuous emotions close, keeping their caprice from pulling you apart. For the past three years, Radiation City has scored the soundtrack to relationships such as these. Moments where Quiet/Bombast, Future/Past, Man/Woman, Hope/Fear are conjoined; from their use of modern electronic sounds and the restraint of classic bossa records, to the urgency and harmony of northern soul, the band has codified seemingly disparate ideas into a sound and ethos that is at once refreshing and classic. Their second LP Animals In The Median will be released May 7th.
Founded in 2009 amid the glow of one budding love affair, Radiation City quickly blossomed into a family, finding itself with a second couple and another multi instrumentalist besides. If the quintet's early live shows and debut LP The Hands That Take You quickly earned them a reputation as one of Portland, Oregon's most promising young acts, the subsequent national tours and 2011's EP Cool Nightmare made good on that promise. The band's expanding soundscape of new romanticism has drawn accolades from NPR, Time, and KEXP to name a few.
The new full length features 12 songs recorded over the span of a year in both rural Washington and urban Portland. You can hear a focused songwriting, lush arrangements, and gorgeous harmonies. You can hear the celebration and lament of a sea change year which saw the passing of matriarchs, the betrayals and betrothals of loved ones, the baring and bruising of hopeful hearts in an increasingly dangerous world. Moreover, you can hear a band edified, coming into their own in rich and simple gesture.
8:30pm | $12.00 advance $14.00 day of show
Jessy Lanza's debut album, 'Pull My Hair Back', co-written and co-produced with Jeremy Greenspan from Junior Boys is a 2013 flagship for what electronic pop could sound like, stripped of bloated, behaviourist impulses that treat listeners like lab rats. It's graceful and erotic without the gratuitous close ups, icey and sensual, sweet without rotting your teeth, emotional but with enough blue glow to pull your heart strings. Jessy's voice flutters through the synths seductively, insistent without the over-singing and grating choruses that plague so much contemporary pop. Jessy has a background as a singer and skilled piano scholar, and the duo share a mutual love of collecting the old hardware synths and drum machines that grace this collection of songs. Transecting R&B, house, disco and 80s studio rock, the production is immaculate, reminiscent of early Junior Boys, treading that fine line between cold futurism and the R&B the duo are infatuated with.
The album opens with the bouncy, acidic bassline, plaintive piano and shimmering, delay effected vocals of 'Giddy'. The ominous pitched down opening of '5785021', gives way swiftly to a juddering pulse, insistent lyrics, bustling hi-hats and citric, crystalline synths. 'Kathy Lee' is a minimal, smouldering slow jam illuminated by smudged water colour keys, that switches into double time syncopation in the closing stretch. The song begs as many questions as it answers. Jessy's vocals sound just at home over the fluttering-pitched synths of 'Fuck Diamond' and the album's pop pinnacle, 'Keep Moving', where the tempo rises into classic disco, house and techno. 'Against the Wall' marches in with crunchy, metallic drums and a bumbling baseline. Jessy's sweet, delayed voice rides a line through the gurgling, strobing synths creating a powerful contrast. The album's title track stutters in with carefree, implied S&M directives and sour splashes under an ultraviolet glow. 'As If' throws a curve ball as its rolling, martial snares and walking bassline climax in a sour, acidic crescendo. And the album rounds off gracefully with the flood of endorphins of 'Strange Emotion'.
W/ Focus Troup, Half Shadow, and Bed.
$7 DOS
DOORS: 8:30
SHOW: 9:00
RONTOMS SUNDAY SESSIONS
10:30p TRAILS AND WAYS (Oakland)
9:30p Us Lights (EP Release)
presented by Smoke Signals + Rontoms
SUN MAY 18TH
9PM / 21+ / FREE
The two female and two male members of Trails and Ways all sing, braiding their voices down landscapes of tight percussion, reverbed guitar hooks and tidal synthesizers. The lyrics are political graffiti and lovers’ unsaid conversations, crossing at the borders between Spanish, Portuguese and English.
The band makes its home in Oakland’s tight-knit scene of jazz pop experimenters and R&B producers. They play visceral shows powered by the force of their four matching crystals: amethyst, agate, larimar, turquoise. Through 2012, they rode a swell of singles and covers, and are currently working on their debut album.
PMOMA proudly presents: EFFIGY MOUNDS
Art and performance by Grant Corum
"Inspired by recent travels to Guatemala and to Leonard Crow Dog's Sundance ceremony, artist Grant Corum has created a mixed-media installation in unison with his latest album, Effigy Mounds: Ceremonial Music for Spore Alter. Musically, he describes the work as “an imagined field recording in a hallucinatory cave, where collaged snippets of tape reveal the gradual opening of a deep portal, the ingestion of strange and luminous compounds, and the rhythmic pulsation of spores entering Earth's atmosphere by way of shooting stars.”
For the accompanying art show, Corum presents an array of screen prints and drawings, accompanied by an entry altar comprised of offerings and artifacts collected from his travels."
PMOMA http://portlandmuseumofmodernart.com/
MOS GENERATOR
SONS OF HUNS
2013/14 Season
Joshua Bell Plays Sibelius
"Few people on earth can evoke as sweet a sound from a string instrument as Joshua Bell." – The Kansas City Star. Need we say more?
Carlos Kalmar, conductor
• Joshua Bell, violin
Dzubay: Snake Alley
• Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor
Stravinsky: The Firebird (complete)
Joshua Bell Plays Sibelius also performed in Salem on Friday, May 16, 2014 at 8 pm.
More information at orsymphonysalem.org
Sat 5/17/14 7:30PM Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Sun 5/18/14 7:30PM Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Mon 5/19/14 8:00PM Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Norway’s most important national holiday – May 17 (Constitution Day) – is celebrated here in Portland in an annual community-wide event which has been sponsored by Grieg Lodge Sons of Norway for generations at Portland’s Historic Norse Hall on May 17.
Doors open at 1pm, parade is at 3pm
All are welcome for authentic Norwegian food, a parade, music and Dancing!
National Dress Encouraged – Vi sees i Bunader og 17.Mai stas
FREE
The Mt. Tabor Art Walk showcases the many artists who live in this neighborhood. This annual event is sponsored by a community of artists supporting each other. It is designed to promote high-quality visual art in a variety of media within the unique setting of the Mt. Tabor neighborhood.
http://www.mttaborartwalk.com/
After opening for Modest Mouse earlier this month, Survival Knife plays with Hungry Ghost at Bunk Bar. Show at 9.
$8 advance, $10 at the door.
More info at http://www.bunksandwiches.com/shows/
After two demo releases in the late 90s the band released three full-length albums: “Pale Folklore” (1999), “The Mantle” (2002), and “Ashes Against the Grain” (2006). “The Mantle” has since been heralded as a classic for having been one of the first albums to combine elements from black metal, neo-folk, progressive rock, post-rock, and ambient music. The influence of this record can be seen in many so-called “post-black metal” bands today.
In 2008 Agalloch began re-releasing their demos, B-sides, and EPs under their own Dammerung Arthouse label. In 2010 their fourth album “Marrow of the Spirit” made number one on numerous critic’s top ten lists. In between each of these full-lengths the band pushed on the flexible boundaries they had developed around themselves through a series of EPs that found the band experimenting with post-rock/instrumental rock (“The Grey,” 2004), neo-folk/psychedelic folk (“The White,” 2008) and most recently a mammoth twenty-minute epic work entitled “Faustian Echoes” (2012) released through Dammerung Arts.
Agalloch has earned a reputation for explosive and emotional live performances. They have sold out tours across Europe and the US and have played a variety of major festivals including: Roadburn, Inferno, and Scion among others. The band takes special care constructing the environment of each and every show with wood, incense, and imagery taken directly from their home in the Northwest. Such care makes an Agalloch show more than just a typical heavy metal concert.
LOOP was formed in Croydon, London, 1986 by Robert Hampson (vocals/
guitar) and partner Beki Stewart (Bex) on drums. After finding Glen Ray
on bass, through an advert in Melody Maker, they began to perform live
and were quickly signed to HEAD Records run by Jeff Barrett (Heavenly)
who released their feedback-drenched debut 12” 16 Dreams.
Following line-up changes – the arrival of new drummer John Wills, new
bassist Neil MacKay and James Endeacott on second guitar the band were
to take a more primal rhythmic foundation captured on their impressive
debut full-length Heavens End (1987).
The band managed to hypnotise all with their discordant trance-like
spell which served as an antidote to the prevailing trend in British pop
at the time – they resurrected the concept of loud out there-rock for a
new era, creating droning soundscapes of bleak beauty and harsh
dissonance, loosely influenced by bands such as The Velvet Underground,
The Stooges, The MC5, but retaining an avant-garde and experimental edge
from Can, Faust, Neu!, Rhys Chatham, Glenn Branca and minimalist
systems music, to name but a few. Live shows were revelatory, Loop,
allowing LOUD as a constant descriptive term, they pushed PAs to the
very edge of their existence, creating a sonic pummel not really
experienced since.
A collection of singles and B-sides, The World in Your Eyes, appeared on
HEAD in 1987 and after the departure of Endeacott the band signed to
the Chapter 22 label, releasing the Collision 12” as well their more
sparse and discordant second full-length, Fade Out.
GARDENS & VILLA
Gardens & Villa is the project of five college friends from Santa Barbara, formed following the collapse of a noisier post-punk band and a hitch-hiking journey up the west coast. Members Chris Lynch, Adam Rasmussen, Levi Hayden, Shane McKillop began playing in earnest as Gardens & Villa in 2008. The name is pulled from the location of their house on Villa Street, and the property’s lovely garden to which they tend. The music they make is very much connected to coastal city they call home — the stoney bike rides, dance parties, a scene free of judgment. The band refers to this Santa Barbara feeling as “coco vibes.” For two weeks in the summer of 2010, the band camped behind visionary and now-labelmate Richard Swift’s Oregon studio. No shower, no kitchen, but all the magic you could ask for. After taking a band oath to always play all parts live — a la Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense — the band added member Dusty Ineman to supremely execute the live incarnation of the band.
PURE BATHING CULTURE
It's a rare and beautiful thing when a band emerges fully formed, but it makes perfect sense in the case of guitarist Daniel Hindman and keyboardist Sarah Versprille's Pure Bathing Culture. Having backed folk rock revisionist Andy Cabic in Vetiver, the New Yorkers partnered up and moved West in 2011, settling in Portland, Oregon. Building off their past experiences as musical collaborators, in a short time the duo have created a sound that is undeniably their own: soaring synths, chiming keyboards, and shimmering electric guitars move in lockstep with bouncing drum machines. Sarah's crystalline voice floats on top of it all with divine purpose. It's a sound that looks back momentarily for inspiration — Talk Talk, Prefab Sprout, Cocteau Twins — but then fixes its gaze firmly on the present.
Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival: Now offering free tickets to youth!
Since 2007 QDoc has shown award-winning films fresh from Sundance, Berlin, Hot Docs, Tribeca, Amsterdam and other top-tier festivals. We have shown historical films, personal stories, artist biographies, experimental work and topical films dealing with current controversies. Visiting artists have included prominent film makers from all over the U.S. and from as far as Italy and Australia, who have participated in lively discussions after the screenings. We have hosted emerging filmmakers as well as 3 Academy Award winning directors, enabling dynamic audience interaction with artists.
Join us for an open house design engagement featuring the public reveal of our final site design. Connect with vendors, architects, and the Mercado team at Hacienda CDC to learn more about the project and how you can become involved with building Portland's first Latino-themed public market.
A Bi-monthly Mingling of Artists of all sorts to meet, discuss, blather, applaud & plot the growth of the Arts in Portland.Thursday May 15, 5-7pm: at the Double Dragon with the Portland Area Theatre Alliance, and the Museum of Contemporary Craft with XRAY DJ Keegan Meyer
Ever been curious about becoming a 501(c)3 or are on the verge of taking that leap? This panel discussion will give you a little more information on the pros and cons, things to contemplate and the 'how to's' of becoming an incorporated 501(c)3. We will hear from the local "Art Cop", locally based nationally acclaimed Arts Consultant, two small sized organizations at differing stages of being a 501(c)3 and one that decided it wasn't the right choice, at this time. The content of this panel discussion are directed toward individuals and groups who are considering, or are in the process of, incorporating as a not-for-profit 501(c)3.
We will discuss:
• Benefits of Incorporation
• Legal Definitions
• Process for Incorporating
• Organizational Structures
• Relationship of Professional Leadership and the Board
• Overview of the Role, Responsibilities and Function of a Board
• Contributed Income, Grants
• Case Examples
• Questions and Concerns.
George Thorn is the Co-Director of Arts Action Research, a national arts-consulting group. As a consultant, he works in all aspects of organizational development as well as making presentations to conferences and workshops. In parallel with his consulting activities, for eighteen years he directed the graduate program in Arts Administration at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. He was the Associate Director of FEDAPT. Prior to these activities, he was the Executive Vice-President of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. George spent sixteen years in New York where he had a general management firm that managed Broadway, Off-Broadway, and touring companies. He began his career as a stage manager of Broadway productions.
In 1996, he relocated to Portland, Oregon, to open the West Coast office of Arts Action Research. In Portland, he has consulted with approximately one hundred arts and cultural organizations. Other activities include the Regional Arts and Cultural Council's Cultural Leadership Program, the NWBCA's The Art of Leadership Program, and two Convenings for the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation in Seattle and Portland.
With Nello McDaniel, he has co-authored the following publications:
An Elegant Process: The Artistic Process/The Planning Process
Leading Arts Boards
Growing Audiences
Arts Planning: A Dynamic Balance
Towards a New Arts Order: Process, Power, and Change
Workpapers II: Arts Boards--Myths, Perspectives, and New Approaches
A Special Report/The Quiet Crisis in the Arts
Workpapers I: Rethinking and Restructuring the Arts Organization
To be or not to be a 501(c)3 and how -- A panel discussion
Date: Wed., May 14, 2014
Time: 4 p.m. -- 7 p.m.
Location: Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Ave. Portland, OR 97214
www.VisitAHC.org
Cost: $25
Panel: Kohel Haver, George Thorn, plus three representatives from small to mid-sized organizations at different stages in their careers that have experience with this process.
To register, please visit http://racc.org/resources/514-racc-workshop-be-or-not-be-501c3-and-how-%E2%80%93-panel-discussion