Featuring:
The Last Artful, Dodgr
Pleasure Curses
Wine + Coffee (Ripley Snell + Grape God)
Sponsored by Henry's Hard Soda and Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy.
PULSE is a free quarterly music event curated by Willamette Week, showcasing the diverse and talented musicians and producers under the radar and on the rise within the Portland music scene.
Hosted by Holocene, PULSE shines a spotlight on an eclectic mix of hip-hop, R&B, soul and their extended genres. Expect up and coming MC's and DJ's, as well as rock bands with rhythm and creative individuals marching to the beat of their own drum machine.
Free
21+
//
KEVIN MORBY
In the Autumn of 2014, Kevin Morby moved to the small Los Angeles neighborhood of Mount Washington. The move would shape Singing Saw, Morby's first album for new label Dead Oceans. Previous tenants at Morby's new home happened to leave an upright piano behind, with a few mysterious pieces of sheet music and an introductory book of common chords stacked on top. Thankful to finally be in one place for an extended spell, Morby, a beginner at the piano, immediately sat at the new instrument and began composing the songs that would form Singing Saw.
Alongside, he began taking long walks through the winding hills and side streets of the neighborhood each night, glimpsing views of both the skyline's sweeping lights and the dark, dried out underbrush of the LA flora. The duality of the city itself began to shape a set of lyrical ideas that he would refine with the sparse accompaniment of piano and acoustic guitar.
What is a singing saw? It is an instrument that creates ethereal sounds, but it is also a tool: basic and practical while also being fearsome, even destructive. Morby watches the singing saw in its eponymous song; that instrument of eerie soft beauty cuts down the flowers in its path and chases after him, while his surroundings mock and dwarf him, Alice in Wonderland style. And in a singing saw, we can understand music as something more powerful than its inviting, delicate sound. No wonder Morby talks about a "songbook" in his head as something he needs to take up the hills so he can "get rid of it." Heavy themes are nothing new for Morby, whose previous records (2013's Harlem River and 2014's Still Life, both released on the Woodsist label) dealt with their own eerie visions and damning prophecies.
Morby opens Singing Saw with "Cut Me Down", a song of tears, debts and a prescient vision of being reduced to nothing. "I Have Been to the Mountain", "Destroyer" and "Black Flowers" continue to explore beauty and freedom, seizing upon the rot that seeps into even the supposedly safest of realms; peace, family and romantic love. By the end of the record on "Water", Morby is literally begging to be put out once and for all, like a fire that might burn all the visions away.
Travels beyond his mountain walks inform songs like "Dorothy", which recounts a trip to Portugal, witnessing a fishing ritual and luxuriating in the aura of a bar light-tinged reunion with old friends The touching innocence of "Ferris Wheel" stands alone in stark simplicity amidst the lush sonic textures of the album. Here, the album is balanced by Morby's signature sweetness and joie de vivre.
The arrangements of Singing Saw trace back to Morby's experience playing in The Complete Last Waltz, a live recreation of The Band's legendary last performance. There, Morby developed a fast friendship with producer/bandleader Sam Cohen (Apollo Sunshine, Yellow Birds), which led Morby to forgo recording in Los Angeles and take the nascent songs of Singing Saw to Isokon Studios in Woodstock, New York. There, in a converted A-frame house, they set about creating a record that would bring a sonic balance, intricacy and depth to match these songs and all that inspired them.
Sam Cohen added a multitude of instrumentation to the record (guitar, bass, drums and keyboard), and were joined by fellow Complete Last Waltz alum Marco Benevento on piano and keyboard, fleshing out Morby's original compositions and upholding the vision for a cohesive piano sound that serves as a touchstone for the entire album. Backup vocalists Hannah Cohen, Lauren Balthrop and Alecia Chakor contribute soaring harmonies; Nick Kinsey (Elvis Perkins) adds drums and percussion; Justin Sullivan, a longtime Morby collaborator and staple of his live band, contributes drums; Oliver Hill and Eliza Bag lift numerous songs with string accompaniments, and Alec Spiegelman on saxophone and flute and Cole Kamen-Green on trumpet bring dramatic swells. Finally, John Andrews (Quilt) adds the eerie lilt of the album's promise, providing saw on the "Cut Me Down" and "Singing Saw".
In the end, Morby fulfills the promise many heard on his first two albums, bringing his most realized effort of songwriting and lyricism to fruition. The songs of Singing Saw reflect the clarity that comes from welcoming change and embracing duality, and the distillation of those elements into an entirely new vision.
JAYE BARTELL
After moving to Buffalo, NY, in 2006, he found the company of the writers and musicians of House Press, a publishing collective made up of friends from Buffalo and Chicago that produced small-edition handmade books and home-recorded albums. He released his first album, Feeling Better, Pilgrim, in 2008, after musician/writer Damian Weber taught him how to record. The album incorporated live incidental sounds (wind, chimes, traffic, birds), some of which were manipulated and processed as loops, but emphasized vocal melody and lyrics above all. A typical performance from this time included guitar and voice accompanied by a portable turntable that played field recordings of bird song, ocean waves, wind and other incidental sounds.
He moved back to Asheville in 2009 and recorded The Dog’s Dinner, which departed from the solo, self-production of his earlier work, and initiated the collaboration among Bartell and other area musicians, especially guitarist and composer Shane Parish of Ahleuchatistas. He collaborated with a number of visual artists in Asheville as well, including Ursula Gullow and Nathanael Roney, who have illustrated a number of Bartell’s albums and continue to influence his songwriting. Bartell continued to write, record, and perform intensively in Asheville for the next few years with Parish and other musician, although most of the recorded output came from live performances.
He recorded the EP Elation with Asheville musician J Seger in 2012, as well as the full-length, full-band album Loyalty in 2013 with Parish, Seger, and Emily Easterly. These two recordings display a more settled, resolved vocal delivery.
Bartell moved to Greenpoint, Brooklyn in the fall of 2013, where he began working on the new set of material that will furnish his next release — a set of songs that examine and resist transcendence, dissociation, and departure to “find a home on earth” as Robert Creeley wrote, and take images and inspiration from hot air balloons, Spalding Gray, and the neighborhood around McGolrick Park.
Maher Shalal Hash Baz is a band with the shape of a congregation or theater troupe. For three decades, members have come and go: friends, passersby, devotees, neighborhood children… Tori Kudo, the group director, welcomes absolute beginners, accomplished and nonmusicians alike and directs everyone like actors. He embraces error and imperfection. The work is made out of inadequacy. “Out of laziness, poverty, and ideal.” While this smacks of the social, Kudo speaks otherwise, “I am not a socialist designer for amateurs or shamateurs but just an egoist who is trying to realize my own inspiration.”
At Yale Union, MSHB will play surrounded by Susan Cianciolo’s memory kits, altered sleeping bags, and unanimated soft people—an alchemical trial of some sort. Kudo is coming from Japan for the occasion, long-time collaborators will join him, as well as last-minute newcomers.
A Performance as part of CIANCIOLO
$12—Tickets at the door
June is Pride month.
To say thank you for being so rad and give you a special treat.
// GUEST DJs //
Yolo Biafra (!!!)
Miss Pop
// BRIDGE CLUB DJs //
Troubled Youth
Pocket Rock-It
Casual Aztec
Hold My Hand
Orographic
// Yolo Biafra //
Allan Wilson came up in the musical hotbed of the mid-90s Sacramento, CA punk scene. Enthralled as much by disco, pop and hip-hop as by punk's visceral noise attack, he and his close friends formed seminal dance-punk machine !!! (chk chk chk) in 1996. For 18 years, Allan toured the world with !!!, moving on stage between sax, drums, piano, organ, synth, and all manner of percussion, taking breaks only for rehearsals and recording sessions. During the last several years of his tenure with the band, Allan stepped into the role of official !!! afterparty DJ. Since then, he’s played parties in Australia, France, Germany, UK, Ireland, Norway, Belgium, Macedonia, Croatia, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Chile, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines, as well as in cities and festivals all over the US. His mixes have been featured on Vice China, self-titledmag's Needle Exchange, and BBC Radio 1.
// Miss Pop //
Hailing from San Francisco, Miss Pop, aka Ajai Nicole, is part of the lengendary party, Club Something. We are thrilled for her Bridge Club debut. Expect a set heavy on hip hop and all things club.
// About Bridge Club //
Portland’s gay/lez/queer/all-loving daytime dance party. Started in 2012, this is Portland's favorite Sunday T-Dance bringing the finest cuts of: House, Disco, Techno, Club, DIVA, and more...
FIRST SUNDAYS // APRIL - OCTOBER
WHITE OWL SOCIAL CLUB
1PM // $5 // 21+
SAT JUNE 4, 2016
Back Fence PDX: MAINSTAGE | Flirting With Disaster
DOORS 7:00PM | SHOW 8:00PM |21+
ALBERTA ROSE THEATRE | 3000 NE Alberta St
FEATURING returning crowd favorites Actress/Writer MOON ZAPPA(LA) and Financial Advisor, Upcoming United Solo Theatre Festival Performer ROBERT KATSUNO (VANCOUVER), along with soon-to-be-favorites: Award Winning Poet, NuYoRican Poet’s Café Grand Slam Champion XAVIER CAVAZOS (Ellensburg), Technnologist, Completed 4-Year Philosophy Degree in 15 Years, KARL MIDDLEBROOKS (PDX), and Veterinary Technician, Animal Rescuer & Caregiver KAHLIE TOWLE(PDX)!
For a special price we offer a limited number of VIP tickets, reserved until 7:50pm, on the front rows of the main floor.
*Storytellers subject to change without notice. Stories may contain explicit language and/or subject matter.
An exhibition by Will Elder and Eli Coplan
Will Elder (b. 1989) is a visual artist and a curator at hq Objective in Portland, OR. He writes and initiates poetic scripts and sculpture from a place of longing and of curiosity toward architectural phenomena, urban identity and flows. He graduated with a BFA in Studio Practices from Portland State University in 2015.
Eli Coplan (b. 1992) is an artist and curator with Conduit in Happy Valley, OR. His practice is formed across physical and virtual spaces, considering digital modes of production with an eye toward history and materiality. He received a B.A. from Reed College in 2015. In the daytime he teaches art to second graders. elicoplan.com
We Out Here Magazine and XRAY.FM present
THE THESIS | June 2nd, 2016
celebrating our photographer Renée Lopez's birthday
our line-up this month features...
Mic Capes Music
Maze Koroma
STRAY
SamuelThe1st
with guest DJ TROX Diesel
+ a special guest
$5 at Kelly's Olympian in Portland, OR for First Thursday. 21+. Make sure to get out there early, as The Thesis tends to sell out quickly!
Full schedule at www.creativemusicguild.org/isp
June 2-4, 2016
Presenting:
Ava Mendoza (solo and with Halfbird)
Vinny Golia (solo)
Tahni Holt and Luke Wyland (Performance)
Vinny Golia/Ava Mendoza/Thollem McDonas Trio
Rich Halley 4 w. Vinny Golia - CD release!
John Gross Trio
Catherine Egan and Doug Theriault (Performance)
Pebble Trio
Stephanie Trotter (Performance)
PJCE with Holland Andrews
Jesse Mejia and Taka Yamamoto (Performance)
Battle Hymns & Gamble
Pure Surface: A Tonal Service (large ensemble of movement and voice curated by Pure Surface)
Juniana Lanning
Thick in the Throat Honey
Danielle Ross (Performance)
Golden Retriever
I’d Rather Not Talk About it
Consumer
CHOIR
With workshops by Vinny Golia and Thollem McDonas!
Panel Discussion with Reed Wallsmith, Matt Hannafin, Ava Mendoza, Claudia Savage, Ben Kates, more.
Performers and Shows Announced!
"We’re proud to present the preliminary lineup for the ninth installment of the Bridgetown Comedy Festival, taking place June 1-5, 2016. With performances from recent Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award-winner Rachel Bloom of CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Oscar nominee Aimee Mann, rock legend Ted Leo, long-form improv from alums of SNL, Best in Show and The Office, and standup from greats including Eddie Pepitone, Martha Kelly, Matt Braunger, Baron Vaughn and Karen Kilgariff, this year’s fest is not to be missed. Tickets go on sale soon, with festival passes and select individual show tickets available for purchase.
Stay tuned for more lineup announcements over the coming weeks, and in the meantime browse our list of performers and shows to see what’s in store for this year’s Bridgetown, and we’ll see you in June!" -Bridgetown
The sound of summer is coming to Midtown Ballroom on June 1st in the form of eight-time Grammy winning Reggae producer, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Stephen Marley. Marley is hitting the road for his 30-city tour which begins next weekend (May 26-July 24) in support of his fourth studio album, Revelation Part II: The Fruit of Life, releasing July 22.
Stephen "Ragga" Marley is the second eldest son of reggae legend Bob Marley and Rita Marley. He was raised in Kingston, Jamaica and started singing professionally at seven-years old with his elder siblings Ziggy, Sharon and Cedella as The Melody Makers. The singer, songwriter, musician and producer has consecutively landed #1 on the U.S. Billboard Reggae Album Chart for all of his solo albums and has earned a total of eight Grammys for Best Reggae Album. He won this accolade as a solo artist for Mind Control, Mind Control Acoustic and Revelation Part I: The Root of Life, as producer for Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley’s Half Way Tree and Welcome To Jamrock and as a member of Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers for Conscious Party, One Bright Day and Fallen Is Babylon. The multi-talented artist has been steadily releasing music since his last album Revelation Part I: The Root of Life (2011) and is gearing up for his Spring 2016 album Revelation Part II: The Fruit of Life. Off the album, he has two new songs available on iTunes, including "Rock Stone" ft. Capleton & Sizzla and "Ghetto Boy " ft. Bounty Killer & Cobra (which captures the perpetuating cycle of violence and crime that can start from an early age). Marley shines as a live performer, beaming with the color and spirit of modern Reggae.
"Ghetto Boy" by Stephen "Ragga" Marley ft. Bounty Killer & COBRA; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyP3cojSe1w
“Rock Stone” ft. Sizzla and Capleton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laMMLQfnySw
It's the 1st Annual Portland Horror Film Festival, featuring the very best independent horror from all genres of cinematic terror, from the folks behind the Portland H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Zompire: The Undead Film Festival. From supernatural horror to dark fantasy and everything in between. You might see some Cosmic Horror, you might see some Zombies and Vampires, but you’ll also probably see monsters from outer space, demons, devils, cabins in the woods, possession, cannibals, parallel dimensions, and anything else that might go bump in the aisles.
More importantly, you’ll get a look at terror you won’t likely ever see elsewhere, made by the new faces of horror from across the planet. How would you like to be there to see the newest horrors from not only Europe, but from Asia and the Middle East? This is stuff you’re not going to see at the multiplex.
Having been the subject and willing conspirator of many intentional lies planted in Sonic Youth bios over the years, I know first hand the way album lore can bend reality to its truth. After the infamous Byron Coley originated the SY "Trilogy" myth in the Murray Street bio, we had no choice but to fulfill those expectations with Sonic Nurse. "Why did you decide to make a trilogy?" was always the first question asked in interviews around that time.
b'lieve i'm goin down.
Tim Heidecker was born and raised in Allentown, PA. As a freshman film student at Temple University he met Eric Wareheim. After graduation they continued to work together on short films and strange bits of comedic nonsense. One of their first pieces was Tom Goes to The Mayor, which made its way into various film festivals. Fueled by Tom’s success Tim and Eric began sending their tapes to their comedic heroes in Hollywood. One of those recipient’s being Bob Odenkirk who loved what he saw and helped to develop their ideas into a TV show. Through a chance meeting they were able to get their tapes to the senior vice president of Adult Swim, Mike Lazzo. He loved the stuff and they were immediately given the funds for development. Tim and Eric used some of the money to move to Hollywood where they worked on the show for a two season, 30 episode run. Tim later went on to again collaborate with Eric Wareheim on their next show, the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Which aired five seasons on Cartoon Network. Tim and Eric also created a spin off show starring John C. Reilly called Check It Out! With Dr. Steve Brule, which has run for two seasons. Tim has also collaborated with Eric on big budget commercials for brands like Old Spice, Red Stripe, and Boost Mobile. In 2012 Tim co-wrote, directed, and starred in his first feature film, Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, which was produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. Tim’s most recent collaboration with Eric was for an anthology series, Tim and Eric’s Bedtime Stories. Season two premiered in November of 2015 with two new half hour specials for Adult Swim. The series included guest stars such as John C. Reilly, Jason Schwartzman, and Zach Galifianakis in a dark stylistic departure from their usual comedy shows. Tim also has a musical side project Heidecker & Wood with Davin Wood, the composer of all things Tim and Eric. Heidecker & Wood's second album "Some Things Never Stay The Same" was released in November of 2013 and they continue to play live shows and work on new music together.
Galaxy My Dear & Beacon Sound present Finnish Songstress/Composer Lau Nau. with support from (Visible) Cloaks and DJ Galaxy My Dear.
Laura Naukkarinen, aka Lau Nau is one of the more interesting names in the Finnish music scene - a singer-songwriter, producer and film music composer. Her songs are imbued with a cinematic breadth of vision and her idiosyncratic, finely honed soundworld builds on fragile, spectral otherness. Her fourth album ”HEM. Någonstans” (Fonal records 2015) takes us to the fleeting borderline between contemporary classical and experimental music.
Lau Nau’s first solo albums were released in the US (Locust music 2005 & 2008). She has been touring around world ever since both solo and withher band that includes such Finnish musicians as Pekko Käppi, Jaakko & Antti Tolvi and Niko Karlsson. Lau Nau has opened for Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Lee Ranaldo in Helsinki on the bands' request, and played dates in New York and San Francisco, Super Deluxe in Tokyo, and Shanghai Expo in China to name a few.
The debut album, ‘Kuutarha’, won acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork and Dusted, with The Wire naming the LP in their top 50 albums of 2005, and citing her Philadelphia show of that year amongst “60 concerts that shook the world”. Lau Nau’s third album ‘Valohiukkanen’ (Fonal records 2012), was nominated for a series of prestigious music prizes in Finland like the Teosto prize.
During the past years, Naukkarinen has been composing music for films, theatre, dance and sound installations. She accompanies silent films live and composes music for feature films. Her original music score for Jan Forsström’s feature film ”Princess of Egypt” was nominated for the Jussi movie prize in Finland 2014.
A.E.P. Presents:
TORO Y MOI (dj)
B2B
NOSAJ THING (dj)
+ Nathan Detroit
9pm / 21+ / $15
Tickets
http://abstractearthproject.com/
Pulsar and The Hollywood Theatre present Jesse Sugarmann as part of our free public artist talk series at the theatre, FutureForum.
Jesse Sugarmann is an interdisciplinary artist working in video, photography, performance, and sculpture. His work engages the automotive industry as a manufacturer of human identity, accessing automotive history as an index of both cultural progress and social development. Sugarmann has exhibited work both nationally and internationally in venues such as the Getty Institute, Los Angeles; el Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Oregon; the Banff Center, Canada; Filmbase, Ireland; Human Resources, Los Angeles; Michael Strogoff, Marfa; el Museo de Arte Moderno de Santander, Spain; Drift Station, Omaha; Spirit Abuse, Albuquerque; Fugitive Projects, Nashville; the Bakersfield Museum of Art, California; the 21c Museum, Louisville; the Knockdown Center, New York; High Desert Test Sites, Joshua Tree; Space 538, Maine; Southern Exposure, San Francisco; the True/False Festival, Missouri; and both the Paris and Berlin exhibitions of Les Recontres Internationales. Sugarmann’s work has been written about in publications including ArtForum, Art Papers, the Atlantic, Hyperallergic, Art Fag City, Frieze Magazine, the Huffington Post and The New York Times. He lives and works in Bakersfield, CA and is represented in Portland by Fourteen30 Contemporary.
Red Cube & AEP present Kaytranada.
Born in Haiti and raised in the city of Montreal, Canadian artist Kaytranada has experienced an explosive rise in the past couple of years with his irresistible production and live sets. Before touring the globe and amassing millions of hits online with his series of beloved tracks and mixes, the young man came up as a true disciple, absorbing hip hop and RnB culture since his childhood and finding ways to make the music his own.
Doors Open @ 10pm
21+ w/ Valid I.D.
À reading is a reading.
Let's all hang out at Valentine's on the last Sunday of May to enjoy performances by Amy Lam, Jamondria Marnice Harris, A.M. O'Malley, Elizabeth Hall, and Robert Torres.
a standard uptown toodeloo
Post Moves is releasing new tunage to unsuspecting groovers - join 4 fun times; either in a basement setting or backyard BBQ jamboree...confirmed locale will be confirmed closer to date
joined by homies providing success to eardrums, Philip Grass --->> https://droppinggems.bandcamp.com/album/find
Mystery World Science Show, said album, will be available in following legitimate, commercial formats :
TAPE CASSETTE
12" VINYL RECORD
For more information + updates: https://www.facebook.com/events/567492913414138/