Events

Emerging fully-formed from the desolate heart of Central Florida, Roadkill Ghost Choir make unsettling, powerful American rock, Tom Petty by way of Radiohead and Cormac McCarthy. Set against Kiffy Meyer’s ghostly steel pedal, singer and main songwriter Andrew Shepard triumphantly conjures an allegorical American landscape of drifters, specters and violent saints. Andrew’s brothers Maxx (drums) and Zach (bass) Shepard round out the rhythm section, and Stephen Garza handles lead guitar.

The band released their debut EP ‘Quiet Light’ in 2013 in the midst of a touring run that saw them opening for Band of Horses and 2013 festival slots at New York’s Governor’s Ball, Austin City Limits and Shaky Knees in Atlanta, GA. In January 2014 the band was invited to perform on the David Letterman Show, where they performed standout track “Beggar’s Guild.” Their debut full-length, recorded in Athens, Georgia and in their home studio in Deland, Florida with producer Doug Boehm, will be out later this year.

Listen for an interview with the band on XRAY's own Hooray For Tuesday on December 9th, including a chance to win a copy of their debut album In Tongues.

PALS is a semi-secret house show venue in SE Portland that sporadically hosts word-of-mouth concerts featuring some of this city's best talent as well as touring acts. PALS Fest is their annual festival of musical camaraderie featuring concerts at venues throughout the city.

Tonight's bill features Grandparents (psych pop), Aan (experimental pop), and Máscaras (surf kraut featuring XRAY's own Theo Craig)

Ray LaMontagne has one of the remarkable stories in music’s past decade. Since leaving his job in a Maine shoe factory to pursue his calling as a musician, he has released four studio albums and two live EPs, won awards and topped critics’ polls internationally, and established himself as one of the most distinctive talents of his generation. His songs have been featured in numerous films and television shows, including multiple performances of his compositions on American Idol.

Ray’s most recent critically acclaimed, Grammy award winning album God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise debuted at #3 on the Billboard Top 200 and #1 on the Digital Album chart. This marked a personal sales best for Ray and tied his debut chart position at #3 with Gossip in the Grain.  God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise garnered 3 Grammy Award nominations including the coveted Song of The Year category for “Beg Steal or Borrow” and won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

LaMontagne released his new single, “Supernova” in February 2014, the first single off his 5th studio album of the same name via RCA Records. The album was produced by Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys) and recorded in Nashville, TN. His touring lineup includes Portland and XRAY's own Dave Depper (Dive Deeper).

Three classic Portland experimental pop acts (featuring XRAY's own Charlie and Marius from Heavy Breather) are back and on one fantastic bill! If you love Portland music and you don't know these groups, you need to be at this show ... it's for your own good.

$8 advance or day of show // Get tickets
9pm doors // 9:30 show

Wimps are a 3-piece rock band from Seattle, WA. 

Listen to Wimps' track "Distraction" over on Soundcloud. 

Download the record via Bandcamp. 

$7 advance or day of show // Get tickets
9pm doors // 9:30 show

8:30pm | $8.00 advance $8.00 day of show
Tickets: Stranger Tickets

As the producing-team behind Grails, Alex Hall and Emil Amos have hybridized and warped various culture's versions of psych music over the past decade. With their project Lilacs and Champagne, they've created another umbrella under which to tweak hip-hop, tape-collage and the darkest creases of 70's film-soundtracks with their lysergic and perverse style of head-music. The project's name and imagery evoke a strange thrift-store mystery LP you might come across, unsure if you've discovered an exotic dub record, a flowery Bacharach AM radio classic or something by an obscure duo of Swedish avant-techno producers.

The record began under the influence of Madlib's production style....which had suggested that writing songs using an Akai MPC sampler would force the two to stretch their legs and explode any expectations created by records they've made in the past. But rather than sampling the funk and soul canon of traditional hip hop, they pulled from disparate sources such as Polish private press hippie records, indistinguishable radio noise or the chopped and reversed sounds of Jayne Mansfield's head being decapitated. Layers of instruments and found sound were then painted over the original samples until entirely new directions were created and taken to their logical conclusion... creating something simultaneously alien and familiar... something like the sound of Nurse with Wound collaborating with J-Dilla.

Friday <> AUG 1st <> at Crush Bar
Queer music showcase
headlined by GAYTHIEST!
w/ Night Cadet (SEA)
7hirdwav3
Noddy
John Coons
& more TBA...
6pm / $8

As Tycho, Scott Hansen blends swirling melodies into vaguely triumphant arcs that crisscross between stuttering beats and vocal samples, creating rolling sonic landscapes that extend into the horizon. Known in the design world as ISO50, the San Francisco-based artist is famed for his warm, textured design style, which serves as a backdrop and mirror for his musical output.

Hansen began releasing music over 10 years ago with The Science of Patterns EP. His first full-length, Sunrise Projector, came out in 2004, and as the critical acclaim continued in 2006 with the release of Past Is Prologue. He eventually met Ghostly and, like everybody else, they simply had to work with him.

It was around 2008 that URBmagazine noted Tycho as one of the Next 100 artists to watch, and Hansen continued to release singles and experiment with more live instrumentation. In 2011, his meticulous process saw the release of Dive, his debut full-length for Ghostly International. Tranquil, nostalgic and melodic, the record established him beyond the realm of IDM and ambient.

Now with Awake, Tychos second Ghostly LP, the project returns as a true three-piece band comprised of Zac Brown (guitar, bass) and Rory O'Connor (live drums). Lengthy touring for Dive brought Tycho to its full potential, and in efforts to capture the energy on the road Hansen invited Brown and O'Connor in to the creative process. Both the sound and artwork of Awake capture Hansens stylistic shift, conjuring a more kintetic and percussive sensory experience.

Jack Daniels Presents Mississippin with local four-piece, Eidolons, that creates sprawling, melodic experimental pop music releasing their brand new album. This all-local bill is a winner.

Eleven Magazine, Pickathon and Mississippi Studios Present San Diego, CA band that crafts melodic rock songs inspired by the laid back pace of Southern California playing with Seattle-based indie rockers signed with Hardly Art.

$10 advance, $12 day of show // Get tickets
9:30 doors // 10:30 show

New Zealand-based haunting indie folk artist with new release Brightly Painted One.

Nashville-based garage/punk/pop band playing with self-described satanic outlaw country band.

On their third LP Angel it is clear that Pure X have, and always have had, an uncompromising musical vision. Over the course of each full-length the band has tirelessly reinvented themselves, opting to stay true to their own sensibilities rather than placate expectations or regurgitate a "successful" sound. After wooing both critics and audiences alike with their seductive, submerged-in-reverberation debut Pleasure the band pulled an about-face on their sophomore album Crawling Up the Stairs, crafting a follow up that emphasized textural clarity and raw emotionality over its predecessor's intoxicating soundscapes. Now on their third LP, and first as a quartet, the internal upheaval of C.U.T.S. has fully dissipated and given way to a new found serenity, a calm which finds the band in its most potent, refined, and elemental form yet.

Angel was recorded to tape in a concentrated burst over five days at Wied Hall- a massive, rustic, 100 year-old dance hall in rural central Texas. The band isolated themselves to living in the cavernous space during the Fall of 2013 after a year full of touring and writing on the road, seeking a secluded setting to construct what would become their most focused work to date. The results show the group of Jesse Jenkins, Nate Grace, Austin Youngblood, and newly acquired full-time member Matty Tommy Davidson leaving themselves totally unguarded. During their residency the band had time to absorb the pastoral romanticism of the countryside as well as Wied's rich history of having hosted many of country music's finest in the last century. Subsequently, a deliberate patience exudes from the album both in the band's freshly honed songwriting and spacious compositional structure. Lush, layered vocal treatments, dialogues of gently plucked electric and strummed 12-string guitar, reserved percussion, and precariously sensual bass are all allowed ample room to breathe and delicately bathe in the great hall's natural reverb. More than ever Pure X's influences are allowed to show through in full, unveiling affinities which were present in their past recordings but never totally expressed until now. Harmonies such as those on the achingly gorgeous opener Starlight, lead by Jesse Jenkins' silky falsetto, interweave with a complexity and precision that is reminiscent of 70's soul, steadily propelled forward by a stoic groove of bass, guitar, and tightly tracked drum kit. On the 2-step ballad Heaven the spirit of classic country's golden-era is seamlessly assimilated into the band's sound while Nate Grace's lyrics conversely explore the reality of an inner, readily accessible utopia. Elsewhere on Every Tomorrow a sober raga of 12-string acoustic hangs serenely over measured doses of hand percussion and minimal string arrangements punctuated by ascending ladders of buzzing synth. Singers Jenkins and Grace, sharing vocal duties evenly across the recording, boldly explore a full range of motion to share a collection of strikingly honest songs about love, aspiration, and the deep yearning for the authentic unity with oneself.

Pure X's third long-player, written collectively between all four members and recorded mostly live with minimal overdubs, sees the band further refining themselves after a year of being strenuously tempered on the road. These pieces, comprised of ideas stolen away during moments in the tour van and hammered out on various stages across the United States, were brought back home with a distinct purpose, with one concerted intention: to make the album they had always wanted to make. And thus, Pure X have crafted a beautifully genuine pop record whose influences span across genres and generations without reserve while simultaneously coming into their own in the process.

Talkative was born in a noise dream. First existing in Eugene they were originally a performance-art noise duo. Focusing their time on loops, effects, and delay bent vocals, the shows were mentally and aurally intensive. As time shifted forward new forms of performance were explored and they have found a comfortable setup with effects soaked guitars, drums, and keyboards. The sound of Talkative starts in a flurry of digital noise that eventually finds itself ripping through guitar riffs before shapeshifting into rolling drums and sequencers. They've released two full length albums "Strange Luxuries" and "Light Years" which both illustrate a dynamic quality unique to Talkative. "Light Years" shows Talkative's ability to bath in reverb and rebirth itself in melody with the help of guitar, bass, and drums. Their current live set up includes live visuals, booming drums and bass, wild vocals and ripping guitars.

This is a barn burner of an all ages show featuring three of Portland's finest. The Thermals, featuring XRAY's own Kathy Foster (Strange Babes, Mondays 4-6p), headline with best new band runner up Summer Cannibals and The Ghost Ease.

Portland has a new venue for all ages music called S1 and they're hosting this bill of Portland music favs for only $5. The venue is at 4148 NE Sandy Blvd.

The Woolen Men are three -- two Oregon natives and a Washingtonian. They play punk influenced DIY music in the Pac-NW tradition of Dead Moon and the Wipers. More than a sound or style, that means a kind of work ethic -- do-it-yourself and do it a lot. The band is happiest touring up and down the I-5 or bunkered in their practice space with the cassette 4-track rolling. And it shows. Live, the band is thunderous and energetic and the magnetic chemistry of the three of them playing together shines through in the recordings. 

This self-titled album released by Woodsist Records is their debut LP, following a handful of largely self-released EPs. Instead of changing their technique of recording fast and loose to capture the live energy of their sound, they recorded and recorded and recorded until they had enough songs to make up an album only of material with that elusive spark of a great recording. The ten tracks here represent five different sessions, and as many songs made the cut as were left behind. The LP was made to endure, with little attention payed to current trends or "in" sounds -- what matters to the band is that the songs are well written and executed with integrity. The whole thing was recorded to analog tape. 

The Woolen Men are Alex Geddes, Lawton Browning and Raf Spielman. They live and work in Portland, OR. Raf previously released an album of solo material under his Polyps moniker for the Woodsist sister label Hello Sunshine.

Imagine Roky Erickson backed by the Sun Ra Arkestra or Wilson Pickett and The Velvet Underground, or picture the love child of Anubis and Kali. King Khan & The Shrines is more than a psychedelic soul band with a spectacle of a stage show. They are a cult musical phenomenon with more than 10 years of international touring, multiple studio records and a fan base of fervent punk, soul, free jazz and garage rock heads.

King Khan, the spiritual guru and front man, cobbled together a fierce line-up of musicians while in Berlin in between reading Tarot cards and raising a family. What he ended up with in 1999 is one of the most entertaining groups the world has seen and heard since the days of Ike & Tina. The line-up includes Chicago-born, Ron Streeter (veteran percussionist for Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder), a horn section consisting of trumpeter Simon Wojan (member of Kranky Records recording artists Cloudland Canyon), tenor sax man Torben Wesche (Germany’s John Coltrane), and famous French rockabilly baritone saxophonist Frederic Brissaud. The rhythm section of the Sensational Shrines has been called a German/French version of the Freak Brothers – Till Timm on guitar, organist Frederic Bourdil, Jens Redemann on bass and drummer Mirko Wenzl.

Their first album Three Hairs & You’re Mine was produced by Liam Watson, recorded in the legendary Toe Rag Studios in London and released in 2002. A second full-length, Mr. Supernatural, followed in 2004. King Khan & The Shrines soon became an all-star international movement. Numerous gigs followed all across Europe with The Black Lips, Enon, Demolition Doll Rods, Mr. Quintron and Ms. Pussycat, an after-party for 50 Cent in Norway. They headlined Toronto’s NXNE festival 2006 playing three nights in a row and even had a member of the Sun Ra Arkestra join their brass section.

In 2007, King Khan made the soundtrack and film score for Schwarze Schafe, a major motion picture in Germany. The soundtrack included music from The Black Lips, The Spits, Gris Gris, Quintron and other greats. They also had a song placed in the movie Chiko, produced by Academy Award Winner Fatih Akin.

King Khan then released What Is?!, receiving critical acclaim from all over the world. It landed at #33 on Pitchfork’s Top Albums of 2007, while their track “Welfare Bread” landed at #66 on Pitchfork’s Top 100 Songs of 2007.

Their greatest hits, aptly titled The Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines, came out in 2008 and for the first time their music was widely available in the U.S. The entire psychedelic-soul big band then graced stages for the first time in North America, leaving behind them a colorful spell of amazement and wonder.

In the years since, King Khan & The Shrines have added several notable festivals to their resume, including Coachella, Sasquatch, Pitchfork, South By Southwest and Sudoste. Their music has also been heard in popular TV programs (NBC’s Chuck, HBO’s Entourage, HBO’s Eastbound & Down), TV commercials (V8 juice, Mother Energy Drink), and video games (Saints Row).

They kicked off 2012 on a high note as they headlined the Bruise Cruise Festival and have just released “Bite My Tongue,” a sweat-drenched, ass shaking, groovy psyched out number, complete with rip roaring horn lines, southern fried guitar riffs and lysergic melodies.

East Bay surf darlings Shannon and the Clams are back and they're sharing an all ages bill at Slabtown with Portland favs Marriage + Cancer.

What awaits you when the needle drops on Dereconstructed, the new album by Lee Bains lll & the Glory Fires? Nothing less than pure fucking heaven, that’s what.

Consider the record’s opener, “The Company Man.” It revs up with a riff sleazy enough to clog Rod Stewart’s stomach pump as an incantation that only a Yellowhammer can truly understand is bellowed and then screamed. Before you know it, the joint is hotter than a Birmingham soaking pit while you, the listener, are reminded, lest you forget, don’t ever trust the company man.

No shit.

Dereconstructed is a careening, road raging, all night party of a record. Informed by a distinctly southern hoodoo, it is a master class in authentic Gulf Coast choogle. Having cut his teeth in the Dexateens, Lee Bains lll has been properly schooled in how to throw down, so much so that even his hyper literate musings are no match for the blown out distortion that gives this record its blistering urgency.

Songs like “The Kudzu and the Concrete,” “Dirt Track” and the roaring, blissfully shambolic title track could be anthems looking for a stadium, but they’re also reminders as to why Lee Bains lll & the Glory Fires are such a formidable party machine. If your hometown is graced with a scuzzy dive and a few warm bodies to populate it, you’d best believe that the Glory Fires have been there, or are on their way back.

Dereconstructed is Lee Bains lll & the Glory Fires’ debut for Sub Pop Records. It is preceded by the band’s actual debut, There Is a Bomb in Gilead, on Alive Natural-Sound Records (2012).

Dereconstructed was produced by Tim Kerr, and engineered by Jeremy Ferguson at Battle Tapes, Nashville, TN.

Lee Bains lll & the Glory Fires will be featured performers at the 14th annual NONCOMMvention, hosted by WXPN in Philadelphia, PA, May 14 - 16, 2014. This performance will be followed by extensive touring, radio sessions, and in-stores throughout North America. A late-summer European tour will be announced shortly.

Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires are:

Lee Bains lll: Guitar and Vox
Eric Wallace: Guitar
Adam Williamson: Bass