Assembling a dynamic combination of never-before-seen home video footage, candid interviews and raucous performances; director Sarah Price explores the rise and fall of the seminal grunge punk band L7 . Chronicling the early days of the band's formation in 1985, to the height of their fame in the 90's; the film takes a roller coaster ride through L7’s triumphs and failures, and provides insight into the band's eventual dissolution in 2001.
The Portland Mercury and XRAY.FM Present an end of summer celebration with Wild Ones on 9/1, Blitzen Trapper on 9/2 and Orquestra Pacifico Tropical on 9/3!
- Like A Villain -
With her voice, a clarinet, a glockenspiel, and a loop pedal, Holland Andrews of Like a Villain weaves haunting faerie tales of songs, capable of ethereal beauty and deafening, cathartic discord. Over the past few years, Andrews has established herself as one of the Northwest's most daring and captivating performers. "Great, big sonic constructs that crash through your expectations of what music is supposed to be" - Willamette Week
- Golden Retriever -
Golden Retriever is the duo of Matt Carlson (modular synthesizer) and Jonathan Sielaff (bass clarinet), two musicians who blur the line between sounds created electronically and acoustically. The pair formed Golden Retriever in 2008 and began to develop a project in the tradition of American experimental electronic composers like Alvin Curran & David Behrman. Golden Retriever creates music that is structurally complex while remaining inviting and emotionally dynamic.
- Sporting -
Sporting is a duo from Portland that plays ecstatic polyrhythmic songs for keys, voice, and drums.
Together, Luke Wyland and John Niekrasz have been testing the limits of rhythm and melody in various formations for over ten years. Their other established duos, AU and Why I Must Be Careful, have been lauded as groundbreaking and breathtaking.
Sporting delivers compelling new compositions based in non-traditional tunings and the cadences of language. Borders between strict structure and improvisation blur as the players attune to each other with an almost telepathic zeal. Deep uncanny grooves, subliminal melodies, synapse-quick changes, and involuted polyrhythms make for a powerful and thrilling live performance
Springtime Carnivore with Balto
About Springtime Carnivore
In 2004 while still in high school, Greta Morgan was a founding member of The Hush Sound and found herself on tour at sixteen opening for artists such as One Republic, Fall Out Boy, OK GO, and The All American Rejects.
In 2009 she formed Gold Motel and opened for Butch Walker, Hello Goodbye, and Cold War Kids. Greta now has her own solo project called Springtime Carnivore and her new album has been produced in part by Richard Swift (of The Shins) and will be released on Autumn Tone (via ANTI/Epitaph).
Website:
http://www.springtimecarnivore.com/
About Balto
Balto’s return to the LP after a 5 year absence lands with a swell of feedback, a heavy downbeat, and a punch to the gut. “I’ve known love asa fleeting beauty lost upon the young.” It’s a coming of age album in the fullest sense, a 10-cut meditation on the realization that time is pushing us all closer to the void and away from one another, and that the doe-eyed romanticism of Balto’s early writing has long since sobered. Yet underneath that disillusionment is a sense of confident celebration in not only knowing a craft, but loving it. It's an album of unbridled american rock’n’roll – steeped in the mythology of the legendary songwriters and Motown's almighty groove. Biting cynicism, instant classics, tear-your-heart-out live energy, a willingness to swagger, rip hard, and live behind the beat.
Los Angeles-hailing post-punk trio Adult Books head north to play a free show in support of their 2016 full-length, Running from the Blows. Portland's own punk and pop stalwarts the Woolen Men lend their support to the bill.
Portland's Adam Pasi starts the night.
Iggy Pop, Beck, Nas, Spoon, and Father John Misty will lead this summer's MusicfestNW presents Project Pabst festival.
In 2016, MusicfestNW and Project Pabst joined forces for one summertime Waterfront Park festival in Portland, and the partnership will continue this year on August 26 and 27.
The lineup, a mix of rock, indie and hip-hop, speaks to Project Pabst's Generation X sensibilities and MusicfestNW's focus on upcoming artists--with a few slots on the bill saved for Portland artists.
The fest has booked three of them this year: rising hip-hop star the Last Artful, Dodgr; Corin Tucker/Peter Buck supergroup Filthy Friends; and artful punks Lithics.
Beyond the local acts and the bigger names, the fest will include Die Antwoord, Fidlar, Lizzo, Pup, White Reaper, Whitney, Noname, San Fermin, Frankie Cosmos and Rvivr.
Chicago MC Noname, is fresh off a life-giving NPR Tiny Desk performance: we would be remiss not to tell you to see her on any stage possible this summer.
Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. via projectpabst.com. Early-bird rates will run $85 for the weekend and $55 a day, with prices rising to $99 and $65 after.
RICH MAN IS ACCLAIMED SINGER-SONGWRITER-GUITARIST DOYLE BRAMHALL II’S FIRST RELEASE SINCE 2001
Concord Records released singer-songwriter-guitarist Doyle Bramhall II’s latest album Rich Man on September 30, 2016. The album, long awaited by fans who have followed Bramhall’s collaborations with artists as far-ranging as Tedeschi Trucks Band to Roger Waters, is his first in over a decade. The album reflects both his extensive experience in the interim with such artists as Eric Clapton, whom he’s worked closely with for more than ten years (and who hails him as one of the most gifted guitarists he’s ever heard) and Sheryl Crow, for whom he produced and composed songs for on the 2011 album 100 Miles from Memphis, as well as an intensive spiritual and musical journey that took him to India and Africa in search of new sounds and an inner peace sought following the death of his legendary father Doyle Bramhall.
“I’d been writing pretty consistently for other artists and projects since my last album and had stored a lot of songs, sort of documenting my life story,” says Bramhall, whose long list of collaboration credits further includes the likes of Roger Waters, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, B.B. King, T-Bone Burnett, Elton John, Gary Clark Jr., Gregg Allman, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Billy Preston, Erykah Badu, Questlove and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Most recently Bramhall has teamed with ace guitarist Derek Trucks (both proclaimed as “The New Guitar Gods” by Guitar World when they served in Clapton’s band in the late 2000) in the Tedeschi Trucks Band, also starring Trucks’ wife Susan Tedeschi. Bramhall’s collaborations with Tedeschi Trucks have included production and standout tracks on each of their three acclaimed albums.
“I’d been busy touring and producing for other artists, and so I took a hiatus from recording and performing as a solo artist. All those experiences actually helped me develop new skills and I learned how to facilitate my own sound. I feel like the stars finally aligned to allow me to be completely myself as an artist for the first time—singer, guitar player, songwriter, producer- and take things that were happening in my life and put them into music.”
But Bramhall correctly notes that his desired sound is “not one thing stylistically, but an amalgam of lot of influences that come out of my life experiences and travels—and what I’m affected and inspired by.” To be sure, there’s blues on Rich Man, but there’s also influences of R&B, Indian music and Arabic music, as well as Bramhall’s distinctive guitar work.
“There’s a lot to each song, and at the end, when I was sequencing them, I realized they tell a story,” continues Bramhall. “It’s hard to summarize 70 minutes of music in a couple sentences, because all the songs have dual meanings and themes that apply to a collective experience that parallels my personal experience . Basically, all the songs are steps on a personal journey back to my truth, which comes around full circle from beginning to end on this album . It's a very personal record for me.”
Rich Man opens with the pointed “Mama Can’t Help You,” a “call for a reckoning,” says Bramhall, about “entitlement, accountability and taking responsibility for yourself, your circumstances, actions and resulting consequences.” It begins with the voicing of R&B drumming great James Gadson (Bill Withers), and Bramhall, in fact, wrote the tune expressly “for his groove—because no one has that groove!” Guitar World has the track premiere for “Mama Can’t Help You” here.
The second track “November,” being “a love song to my late father,” has the essence of their favorite R&B records the two listened to as Bramhall grew up.
The contemporary groove easily recalls the horn arrangements they loved, but with a decidedly personal statement.
“His words and who he was resonates with me now, and through his passing I was inspired to take a journey to find my voice and my truth and begin fully living.”
Doyle Bramhall, who composed for and played drums with Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan, died in November 2011.
“I loved him dearly, but there were things in our relationship that we hadn’t voiced or reconciled,” says Bramhall. “Before he passed, I experienced an awakening where the burden of all that stuff was lifted and I went through a spiritual metamorphosis. I just didn’t get the chance to tell him, because he died unexpectedly.”
“The Veil” comes out of “the breakthrough” of discovering “a person’s dark, ugly, true nature, hidden by a veil of contrived charm,” Bramhall continues. “It’s a warning to look beyond the veil and a call to do better.”
“My People” is distinguished by instrumentation including baritone 12-string guitars, harmonium, and sarangi—the North Indian classical bowed string instrument performed here by one of its top players, Ustad Surjeet Singh.
“It’s a statement about human connectivity between cultures and the hope of continuing to evolve with mutual respect and understanding,” says Bramhall. “Mystics say that the sarangi is the greatest of all instruments because it comes closest to the human voice. I practice meditation daily, and meditate to it. The music portrays the meaning of the lyric and merges elements of traditional blues with Indian classic music, drawn from my travels and experiences in India and Northern Africa over the last four years.
He adds, “People focus on our differences, but we’re really all the same.” “New Faith” likewise expresses his hope that “we can start looking at things differently. We fixate on what divides us as human beings and it isn’t working. We need new inspiration and different thinking to find a peaceful way forward.”
“New Faith” features Norah Jones: “We were cutting the song in Brooklyn, and I’d been playing live with her on a concert series we do every six months or so. I felt like the song needed somebody to duet, and she was perfect for it. She came over and we cut it live in two hours.”
“Hands Up,” is titled with the phrase associated with last year’s racial unrest in Ferguson, Mo, and elsewhere: “It has a connection with ‘New Faith’ and ‘My People’ and is a reaction to Ferguson and at the same time a personal resignation: We need a more empathetic way to overcome adversity—a spiritual awakening.”
“Rich Man,” the album’s title track, says Bramhall, “is about living for the day, recognizing it’s all we have and finding strength and personal spirituality. It's about gratitude for spiritual and personal peace.” It also plays on the word “lowly”: "It has a dual meaning. It expresses the difficulty in achieving spiritual peace and gratitude, and represents getting close to the earth and the truth of who you are as a human being- in that state, you have everything you need.”
“Harmony,” like the preceding “Rich Man” and other album tracks, is marked by a string arrangement from multi-instrumentalist Adam Minkoff, a Bramhall band member.
“He came up with an interlude intro that set the tone for the song and completely blew me away. Lyrically, it’s a love song about the things I can’t talk about, directed at someone whom I couldn’t really tell how I felt because of circumstances.”
“Cries of Ages” is “inspired by great leaders in our history and the hope that the goodness fostered by their teaching will help us overcome this moment of crisis,” says Bramhall, again citing Ferguson “and the racism in this country.” “Saharan Crossing” then jumps the Atlantic to North Africa, employing the melon-shaped Arabic oud (lute) played by his own oud teacher Yuval Ron, the renowned Israeli composer/player/arranger.
“I’ve been traveling to India and spending a lot of time in Morocco and have been influenced by a lot of different styles of music that comes from there—traditional Berber music, Andalusian, Moroccan flute music and Sufi trance music of Jajouka introduced to the West by the Rolling Stones. I first became acquainted with Gnawa music and went there to spend time with musicians and masters who heavily influenced me. I then connected all the dots from the Delta and Texas blues that I grew up playing to the Sufi chants and African rhythms from Mali and Morocco and saw that all music everywhere was connected.”
The melody for “Saharan Crossing,” adds Bramhall, “has elements of Arabic music, and felt to me like a mixture of musical styles from the regions surrounding the Sahara. I remembered it the last day or two of mixing, and wanted to do one last ‘interlude’ connecting the influence of Arabic music to my own sound. In 2008, I spent a month in Mali and Morocco and it changed my life and was the beginning of a personal spiritual breakthrough.
“Saharan Crossing” naturally segues into “The Samanas,” which addresses Bramhall’s “journey into the world to find who I was.”
“It comes out of Hermann Hesse’s main character in Siddhartha, who becomes a Samana, or seeker. But it’s a musical odyssey of three movements representing a personal journey through different musical influences and a spiritual journey back to the truth. Through that, it’s about finding peace.”
Rich Man concludes with an evocative reading of Jimi Hendrix’s “Hear My Train a Comin’.”
“When I played the album in sequence I realized that it ties everything together and brings the journey full circle: I start and end with American blues influences, which are the fundamental foundation of my music, and then also incorporate other influences of Eastern, African, Arabic and classical music which have always deeply affected me.
Rich Man, then, manifests Bramhall’s “life journey to find my voice and grow as a creative person and as a man to get to this place, which feels like a new beginning for me.”
“I read a quote from Charles Mingus,” he concludes. “He felt that he was not just playing a style of music so much as expressing the sounds of his life and experiences through the medium of music. I very much relate to that.”
Iggy Pop, Beck, Nas, Spoon, and Father John Misty will lead this summer's MusicfestNW presents Project Pabst festival.
In 2016, MusicfestNW and Project Pabst joined forces for one summertime Waterfront Park festival in Portland, and the partnership will continue this year on August 26 and 27.
The lineup, a mix of rock, indie and hip-hop, speaks to Project Pabst's Generation X sensibilities and MusicfestNW's focus on upcoming artists--with a few slots on the bill saved for Portland artists.
The fest has booked three of them this year: rising hip-hop star the Last Artful, Dodgr; Corin Tucker/Peter Buck supergroup Filthy Friends; and artful punks Lithics.
Beyond the local acts and the bigger names, the fest will include Die Antwoord, Fidlar, Lizzo, Pup, White Reaper, Whitney, Noname, San Fermin, Frankie Cosmos and Rvivr.
Chicago MC Noname, is fresh off a life-giving NPR Tiny Desk performance.
Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. via projectpabst.com. Early-bird rates will run $85 for the weekend and $55 a day, with prices rising to $99 and $65 after.
$10
WIMPS:
thesewimps.com/
MASCARAS:
mascaras.bandcamp.com
BLESST CHEST:
blesstchest.bandcamp.com/releases
The Ape presents CAT PATROL, an hour of character-driven sketch comedy that explores bad spoken word, the creepy lives of twins, one-woman shows and the musical stylings of Darth Vader. Directed by Chris Caniglia, CAT PATROL marks the first major debut of a sketch comedy production at The Ape theater. It is also the first full length production produced, written, directed and starring the founders of The Ape - Brooke Totman (MADtv, The Benefits of Gusbandry), Alissa Jessup (The Mindy Project, True Blood) and Chris Caniglia (30 Rock, The People’s Improv Theater of N.Y.).
After years of performing and writing sketch shows in Portland, Brooke Totman was hired to cast and direct a new sketch company at a comedy club in town. Alissa Jessup came in to audition (Alissa and Chris Caniglia had just moved to Portland from Los Angeles) and immediately caught Brooke’s attention. “Alissa got on stage and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Her comedic timing was spot-on and she was the only person on stage creating characters!” says Brooke. “I scanned her resume and saw that like me, she trained at The Groundlings. - I knew I had found a comedy soulmate.” (The Groundlings is known as the foremost sketch comedy training ground in Los Angeles and has been the launch pad for countless careers including: Melissa McCarthy, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Phil Hartman, Lisa Kudrow, Paul Reubens, Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, and Kathy Griffin.)
The two women became fast friends and collaborators, creating sketches for the show Identity Crisis at Portland Center Stage. “After Identity Crisis, we knew we had something special and we had to make our own show,” says Alissa. “We sat down with Chris (a veteran of New York and Los Angeles comedy) and the three of us started to dream up all the things we could do if we joined forces on CAT PATROL and beyond. What if we started our own comedy-based theater? A theater where as artists, we can create the kind of acting based, character-driven comedy that we love? And while we’re at it, why don’t we kick off our debut season with CAT PATROL?” “The collaboration chemistry was immediate.” says Brooke. “Alissa and I both grew up watching funny women like, Carol Burnett, Laverne & Shirley, Gilda Radner, Lily Tomlin, and Lucille Ball.” “And then you add our Groundlings sensibilities to the mix, it’s magic.” adds Alissa, “When we write it’s so easeful. It’s like we share the same twisted comedy brain, it just works.” Chris adds, “We all offer something very different and distinct to the process. Brooke is a master of both subtle and bold, physical comedy. She can transform into a character so completely, that you literally forget she’s on stage. Alissa is an amazing actor with the comedy chops to match. Nothing is too big, too broad or off-limits. If a seemingly impossible idea is pitched, Alissa is the one to figure out how to make it work on stage” “Chris brings a very calm, intentional focus to the process.” says Alissa. “He has this knack for listening, processing and with one or two suggestions, making the entire piece stronger. He’s the CAT PATROL whisperer.”
THE APE FOUNDERS
About Brooke Totman
Brooke is an actor, writer and sketch comedy performer. After receiving a degree in Theater performance, Totman headed to the bright lights and smoggy hills of L.A. to train at acclaimed sketch and improv company, The Groundlings.
Brooke became a member of The Groundlings Sunday company, performing alongside Melissa McCarthy, Mitch Silpa and Michael McDonald. It is here that her skills for writing sketches and creating unique comedy characters were developed. Auditioning with characters created at The Groundlings, Totman was cast on MADtv as a featured cast member during its 5th season. Other selected TV credits include: The King of Queens (CBS), Less Than Perfect (ABC),Judging Amy (CBS) and Life After First Failure (The CW). She is currently starring in the critically acclaimed series, The Benefits of Gusbandry, available on Amazon Prime. Brooke is co-founder of The Ape Theater, a comedy based theater and training ground committed to creating new work that ignites, engages and entertains. She also heads The Ape’s Sketch Comedy division, teaching, coaching, producing and directing.
About Alissa Jessup
Alissa is a writer, director, and actor with over 20 years’ experience creating and working in theater, film, and television. She likes that clowns are kind of creepy. As an actor, she has performed and developed new plays with Sundance Theatre Lab, The Flea Theater, ACT Theatre, 13P, Soho Rep, P.S. 122, and Playwrights Horizons. Selected T.V. credits include The Mindy Project (Hulu), True Blood (HBO), Grimm (NBC), and The Mentalist (CBS). She has written and performed comedy at The Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade NYC and U.C.B. Los Angeles. In 2015, Alissa founded Growly Pictures to produce content that is made by women for women. Alissa wrote, directed, and stars in the comedic short film, ‘chickadee’, which she produced with an all-female cast and crew. Alissa is co-founder of The Ape and serves as the Artistic Director, where she also directs, teaches acting, directing, writing and collaboration classes.
About Chris Caniglia
Chris Caniglia started his improv career in 1986 with a group called Mental Floss in Miami. He performed over a crappy little garage that worked on foreign cars. After a little more seasoning and a move to the Big Apple he founded Big Black Car, New York City’s longest running long form improv team, and winner of Emerging Comics of New York’s award for best improv group. That group was Tom Ridgeley, Justin Akin, Ellie Kemper, Chris Caniglia, Megan Martin, Kristin Schaal, Scott Eckert and Matt Oberg. This was at the Peoples Improv Theater, where he was also a member of the teaching faculty. Chris has performed at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, The Magnet Theater in New York, where he was a member of House team Sweet Crude, directed by Armando Diaz, U.C.B. L.A., I/O West, the Chicago Improv Festival, and the D.C. Improv Festival. Chris is co-founder of The Ape and also serves as the head of its Improv division, where he coaches, teaches, produces and directs.
About The Ape Theater
With a mission of making serious sketch comedy (for people who aren’t that serious), The Ape is a comedy-based theater & training ground committed to creating new improv, sketch and theater work that ignites, engages, and entertains. Classes and workshops are offered in long-form improv, sketch comedy, writing, performance, and collaboration. The Ape’s training is deeply rooted in the belief that solid acting is the key to great comedic performances.
The Ape is an underground theater. Literally. It is located in the basement of The Alberta Abbey. The Ape is founded by working professionals with over 20 years experience working in New York City and Los Angeles in TV, Film,Theater and Comedy.
Alumni: Upright Citizens Brigade NYC & LA, The Magnet, The P.I.T., The Groundlings. www.theapetheater.com
"I have never seen a performer so in love with the act of singing. That's the gospel truth, and from what I've subsequently learned I'm not the only one to believe or state that. Onstage Elkin was simply a force of nature..." -Maverick Magazine
Carrie Elkin is one of those rare artists with a tidal wave singing voice, and a stage whisper writing voice that brings you to the edge of your seat, emotionally. Like Patty Griffin or Brandi Carlile, she straddles the Americana, Folk, and Indie Rock worlds, where meaningful songs meet the fierce-yet- fragile voices of powerful women. Like these other seminal artists, Elkin has the gift of projecting very personal intimate moments into transcendent universal experiences that move us all.
SUNBATHE
thisissunbathe.com/
&
SAD HORSE
sadhorse.bandcamp.com/
$7 (Kids 12 & under FREE with adult)
Mark Lanegan Band
Heavenly Recordings are thrilled to announce the release of Gargoyle , the new album from Mark Lanegan Band on April 28 th . The 10-track LP features guest appearances from long-time collaborators Josh Homme, Greg Dulli and Duke Garwood. Le ad track ‘ Nocturne ’ is currently premiering on Stereogum and can be heard HERE . Early in 2016, Mark was at home in LA, working on some ideas for what m ight turn into his next album when he got an email from a friend, an English musician named Rob Marshall, thanking Mark for contributing to a new project he was putting together, Humanist. The pair first met in 2008, when Marshall ’ s former band Exit Calm supported Soulsavers, who Mark was singing with at the time. Now Rob was offering to wr ite Mark some music to return the favor: “ I was like, Hey man, I ’ m getting ready to make a record, if y ou ’ ve got anything? ’” Mark recalls. “ Three days later he sent me *10 things ... ! ” In the meantime, Mark had written ‘ Blue Blue Sea ’ , a rippling mood piece that he thought might be a more fruitful direction for his new record. “ It ’ s almost always how my records start, ” he explains. “ I let the first couple of songs tell me what the next couple should sound like, and it ’ s really the same process when I ’ m writing words. Whatever my first couple of lines are tell me what the next couple should be. I ’ ve always built things like that, sort of like making a sculpture I guess. ” Within an hour, Mark had written words and vocal lines for two of the pie ces Rob had cooked up at Mount Sion Studios in Kent and pinged through the vi rtual clouds to California. Rob's music fitted perfectly with the direction Mark had been ponder ing: in essence, a more expansive progression from the moody Krautrock-infl uenced electronica textures of his two previous albums, ‘ Blues Funeral ’ and ‘ Phantom Radio ’ . Eventually, Rob Marshall would co-write six of the songs on the new Mark L anegan Band album. “ I was very thankful to become reacquainted with him, ” Mark deadpans. The remainder of the album was written, recorded and produced b y Lanegan's longtime musical amanuensis Alain Johannes at his 11 AD base in West Hollywood. Ever ything was done and dusted within a month, unusually fast by Lanegan ’ s recent standards. “ I definitely feel like I ’ m a better songwriting than I was 15 years ago, ” he says. “ I don ’ t know if I ’ m just kidding myself or what, but it ’ s definitely easier now to make something that is satisfying to me. Maybe I ’ m just easier on myself these days, but it ’ s definitely not as painful a process, and therefore I feel I ’ m better at it now. But part of the way that I stay interested in making music is by collaborating with other people. When I see things through somebody else ’ s perspective it ’ s more exciting than if I ’ m left to my own devices. ” While sharing roots with its two predecessors, on Gargoyle there ’ s a significant up-shift in the swaggering powerlode of such keynote songs as Nocturne and Beehi ve, while the lyrics ’ tonal palette is more varied. The album title comes from a lyric in Blue Blue Sea – “ Gargoyle perched on gothic spire ” – and was chosen for its hint of self-deprecation. “ I ’ m most proud of the songs that are atypical to stuff that I ’ ve done in the past ” says Mark. “ So I really like Old Swan, because it ’ s an expression of positivity, which is completely anti-anything I ’ ve done before! ” He laughs. “ Y ’ know, I haven ’ t p layed this record for too many people yet. I played it for Greg Dulli, who played on some of it, and he was like, ‘ Wow, I had to listen to it twice – it sounds like he ’ s having a good time ...’ It's been a long journey travelled, not always easy, but in 2017, at th e age of 52, Lanegan's got the look of permanence about him. Like that gargo yle on the gothic spire ..
Holy Grove takes all the evil things from classic metal, doom, and blues and transforms them into a hulking beast—and that's just the rhythm section. Vocalist Andrea Vidal sings with power and precision, and guitarist Trent Jacobs unleashes riffs that are sludgy yet dexterous.
8:30 pm / 21+ / $10
adv tix: www.soundcontrolpdx.com
HOLY GROVE: https://www.facebook.com/holygroveband/
HAZZARD'S CURE: https://www.facebook.com/hazzardscure/
WILD HUNT: https://www.facebook.com/WILDHUNTBAND/
VOID REALM: New band first show! Ex and current members of: Judas H Priest, Atriarch, Palo Verde, Tsepesch
The Ape presents CAT PATROL, an hour of character-driven sketch comedy that explores bad spoken word, the creepy lives of twins, one-woman shows and the musical stylings of Darth Vader. Directed by Chris Caniglia, CAT PATROL marks the first major debut of a sketch comedy production at The Ape theater. It is also the first full length production produced, written, directed and starring the founders of The Ape - Brooke Totman (MADtv, The Benefits of Gusbandry), Alissa Jessup (The Mindy Project, True Blood) and Chris Caniglia (30 Rock, The People’s Improv Theater of N.Y.).
After years of performing and writing sketch shows in Portland, Brooke Totman was hired to cast and direct a new sketch company at a comedy club in town. Alissa Jessup came in to audition (Alissa and Chris Caniglia had just moved to Portland from Los Angeles) and immediately caught Brooke’s attention. “Alissa got on stage and I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Her comedic timing was spot-on and she was the only person on stage creating characters!” says Brooke. “I scanned her resume and saw that like me, she trained at The Groundlings. - I knew I had found a comedy soulmate.” (The Groundlings is known as the foremost sketch comedy training ground in Los Angeles and has been the launch pad for countless careers including: Melissa McCarthy, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Phil Hartman, Lisa Kudrow, Paul Reubens, Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, and Kathy Griffin.)
The two women became fast friends and collaborators, creating sketches for the show Identity Crisis at Portland Center Stage. “After Identity Crisis, we knew we had something special and we had to make our own show,” says Alissa. “We sat down with Chris (a veteran of New York and Los Angeles comedy) and the three of us started to dream up all the things we could do if we joined forces on CAT PATROL and beyond. What if we started our own comedy-based theater? A theater where as artists, we can create the kind of acting based, character-driven comedy that we love? And while we’re at it, why don’t we kick off our debut season with CAT PATROL?” “The collaboration chemistry was immediate.” says Brooke. “Alissa and I both grew up watching funny women like, Carol Burnett, Laverne & Shirley, Gilda Radner, Lily Tomlin, and Lucille Ball.” “And then you add our Groundlings sensibilities to the mix, it’s magic.” adds Alissa, “When we write it’s so easeful. It’s like we share the same twisted comedy brain, it just works.” Chris adds, “We all offer something very different and distinct to the process. Brooke is a master of both subtle and bold, physical comedy. She can transform into a character so completely, that you literally forget she’s on stage. Alissa is an amazing actor with the comedy chops to match. Nothing is too big, too broad or off-limits. If a seemingly impossible idea is pitched, Alissa is the one to figure out how to make it work on stage” “Chris brings a very calm, intentional focus to the process.” says Alissa. “He has this knack for listening, processing and with one or two suggestions, making the entire piece stronger. He’s the CAT PATROL whisperer.”
THE APE FOUNDERS
About Brooke Totman
Brooke is an actor, writer and sketch comedy performer. After receiving a degree in Theater performance, Totman headed to the bright lights and smoggy hills of L.A. to train at acclaimed sketch and improv company, The Groundlings.
Brooke became a member of The Groundlings Sunday company, performing alongside Melissa McCarthy, Mitch Silpa and Michael McDonald. It is here that her skills for writing sketches and creating unique comedy characters were developed. Auditioning with characters created at The Groundlings, Totman was cast on MADtv as a featured cast member during its 5th season. Other selected TV credits include: The King of Queens (CBS), Less Than Perfect (ABC),Judging Amy (CBS) and Life After First Failure (The CW). She is currently starring in the critically acclaimed series, The Benefits of Gusbandry, available on Amazon Prime. Brooke is co-founder of The Ape Theater, a comedy based theater and training ground committed to creating new work that ignites, engages and entertains. She also heads The Ape’s Sketch Comedy division, teaching, coaching, producing and directing.
About Alissa Jessup
Alissa is a writer, director, and actor with over 20 years’ experience creating and working in theater, film, and television. She likes that clowns are kind of creepy. As an actor, she has performed and developed new plays with Sundance Theatre Lab, The Flea Theater, ACT Theatre, 13P, Soho Rep, P.S. 122, and Playwrights Horizons. Selected T.V. credits include The Mindy Project (Hulu), True Blood (HBO), Grimm (NBC), and The Mentalist (CBS). She has written and performed comedy at The Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade NYC and U.C.B. Los Angeles. In 2015, Alissa founded Growly Pictures to produce content that is made by women for women. Alissa wrote, directed, and stars in the comedic short film, ‘chickadee’, which she produced with an all-female cast and crew. Alissa is co-founder of The Ape and serves as the Artistic Director, where she also directs, teaches acting, directing, writing and collaboration classes.
About Chris Caniglia
Chris Caniglia started his improv career in 1986 with a group called Mental Floss in Miami. He performed over a crappy little garage that worked on foreign cars. After a little more seasoning and a move to the Big Apple he founded Big Black Car, New York City’s longest running long form improv team, and winner of Emerging Comics of New York’s award for best improv group. That group was Tom Ridgeley, Justin Akin, Ellie Kemper, Chris Caniglia, Megan Martin, Kristin Schaal, Scott Eckert and Matt Oberg. This was at the Peoples Improv Theater, where he was also a member of the teaching faculty. Chris has performed at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, The Magnet Theater in New York, where he was a member of House team Sweet Crude, directed by Armando Diaz, U.C.B. L.A., I/O West, the Chicago Improv Festival, and the D.C. Improv Festival. Chris is co-founder of The Ape and also serves as the head of its Improv division, where he coaches, teaches, produces and directs.
About The Ape Theater
With a mission of making serious sketch comedy (for people who aren’t that serious), The Ape is a comedy-based theater & training ground committed to creating new improv, sketch and theater work that ignites, engages, and entertains. Classes and workshops are offered in long-form improv, sketch comedy, writing, performance, and collaboration. The Ape’s training is deeply rooted in the belief that solid acting is the key to great comedic performances.
The Ape is an underground theater. Literally. It is located in the basement of The Alberta Abbey. The Ape is founded by working professionals with over 20 years experience working in New York City and Los Angeles in TV, Film,Theater and Comedy.
Alumni: Upright Citizens Brigade NYC & LA, The Magnet, The P.I.T., The Groundlings. www.theapetheater.com
Dent May
Dent May writes, performs, and produces homemade pop music from his home base in Mississippi. A stylistic chameleon, Dent’s recordings echo folk, disco, R&B, psychedelia, country-western, soul, and funk sounds of the past, present, and future. Increasingly, his songwriting has taken a turn toward existential classicism, channeling the tuneful longings of Harry Nilsson and Brian Wilson at their dreamiest.
Dent grew up performing in school plays and church choirs in Jackson, Mississippi, where he began writing songs and putting bands together by age 13. After dropping out of NYU film school, he moved back to Oxford, Mississippi. There he met Animal Collective while they were recording Merriweather Post Pavilion, and he’s been releasing music on their Paw Tracks imprint since 2009.
Dent recorded his third and latest album Warm Blanket alone in a rented Victorian home in St. Augustine, Florida during February of 2013. In contrast to the relentless optimism and upbeat thump of his previous LP Do Things, the new record is Dent’s most emotionally and musically diverse collection yet. Warm Blanket presents melancholy balladry alongside funky psych-pop with adventurous arrangements showcasing horns, strings, and bubbling analog synths.
Alongside the release of Warm Blanket in late summer of 2013, Dent will be touring the world with the latest incarnation of his live band, a revolving cast of musicians recruited from the ranks of Cats Purring, the self-proclaimed “North Mississippi Infotainment Cult.” He currently lives at their headquarters, the sprawling Cats Purring Dude Ranch, where infamous DIY shows take place and where Dent is already hard at work writing his next album.
Dr. Martens presents the Project Pabst opening party with Guided By Voices and Bitch'n on Aug. 25!
Pick up tickets for the FREE SHOW while supplies last at Dr. Martens (2 NW 10th Ave, Portland, OR 97209).
Complimentary refreshments from Pabst Blue Ribbon, Brew Dr. Kombucha, Thomas & Sons Distillery and Not Your Father's will be provided!
BATTLEME (WITH FRIENDS)
Battleme really began in 2009 on accident when Matt Drenik, the frontman of the Austin-based band Lions, was diagnosed with uvetis, an auto immune disease that affects the eyes of which there is no known cause or cure. At the time of his diagnosis, Matt was coming off of four years recording and touring with Lions who exploded noise and energy – touring nationally and internationally with the likes of the Toadies, Local H, and Monster Magnet. Fans gravitated towards their raucous live shows as spectacles of Drenik’s heavy state of mind.
After he got sick, things began to change. He fell in love all over again with the songs on the Rolling Stone’s Sticky Fingers, Beck’s Mellow Gold, and Flaming Lips’ Clouds Taste Metallic. With his head full of ideas and a refreshed outlook toward songwriting, Drenik set out to create something different. The music is a clear departure from what he was doing in previous projects. He decided to call this new project Battleme.
Soon after, his songs began to show up in FX’s Sons of Anarchy. He was asked to open for Joe Ely at the famed Cactus Cafe. His version of Neil Young’s “Hey Hey, My My” saw over a million hits on YouTube.
Wanting a change, Drenik moved to Portland, OR in the summer of 2010. He spent the next several months recording over 40 songs in his girlfriend’s basement, bending from one genre to the next. He eventually narrowed them down to an 11 song record. After burning a few CDs for friends, Thomas Turner from Ghostland Observatory got a copy and responded. Drenik thought Turner might offer him a show with Ghostland. Instead, Turner gave him a record deal.
With Turner signed on to produce, the two lived and breathed the songs for the next six months. They sent mixes back and forth, collaborating on the sound. Drenik’s songs took on new forms – powerful hooks, bottom heavy grooves, and ethereal textures blended effortlessly with drifting, falsetto vocals to create an adventurous mix of post-modern rock and soul that would come to define the record. Synthesizers generate “Touch.” A solitary guitar builds into a wall on “Trouble.” The cosmic call to kill the quiet in “Wire” gives way to the sweet satisfaction of a “Killer High.” Genres coalesce, dividing lines disappear, and Battleme allows the sounds to create their own field of vision. A view from the other side. Songs with no boundaries.
Battleme’s eponymous debut on Trashy Moped Records is set for release April 24, 2012.
HOWARD IVANS
Ivan Howard has encountered this character before. Surely he was an uncredited guest when the Rosebuds recorded a song-by-song cover of Sade’s Love Deluxe. And when Prince showed up at a Gayngs show and ripped a solo offstage on his unplugged purple Strat, Ivan Howard and Howard Ivans watched him in disbelief, flickering back and forth in that sublime, surreal moment. But the first proper appearance was on a 45 for Spacebomb Records, “Red Face Boy b/w Pillows”; then the man could really breathe, stretch out and hear his own voice, see his hands in the light. There is a strange duality between the unassuming country boy who grew up barefoot on a tobacco farm in North Carolina and the neo-soul entertainer crooning over staccato Billie Jean guitar lines, but it’s not a reflection, more a yin and yang situation, interlocking bodies of shadow, imagination, and abstracted history. The tension is fascinating. No past or future, only a presence.
Beautiful Tired Bodies is Howard Ivans’ opus – is it the magnum or a sweet 750 ml? Only time will tell. Either way, it’s pure magic, a soft funk tone poem to lost identity, the grip of love, and trying to live in the present as time rushes under the bridge. Feelings at the edge of feeling, a sound that Ivan Howard dreams about. What a sound to dream about, lush, muscular, brooding, rising and falling with the lungs of live musicians, crystalline guitars, enchanting string arrangements—a real show. Alongside the team of Spacebomb co-producers Cameron Ralston and Trey Pollard, and a first call cast of Richmond, Virginia’s finest musicians, Howard Ivans has signed his name to a smooth statement of purpose. And whoever he is, he’s playing an idiosyncratic R&B game with passionate skill.
DANA BUOY
Description
Dana Janssen left Brooklyn in 2010 for the allure of an unknown life on the West Coast. Also a key member of the experimental art rock band Akron/Family, he moved to Portland, OR and shortly thereafter began his new indie-pop project, Dana Buoy. Inspired by his new surroundings and a new romantic interest, it wasn’t long before he wrote and released his full-length debut 'Summer Bodies' in 2012. Conceptually based around the excitement and mystique of finding someone to fall for, 'Summer Bodies' is upbeat and care-free, as has become so characteristic of Dana Buoy’s music. Now with 2014s’ 'Preacher,' a five-song EP, Dana’s youth and attitude are still front and center but with a new depth as a result of growing up and moving on. Written and performed entirely by Dana Buoy himself, and co-produced by Dana and Abe Seiferth, this EP's cathartic pop is more polished than ever. From the head-bob inducing “It’s Alright,” to the warm and fuzzy synths that weave together the title track, 'Preacher' is infectious and real, and ready for every moment to feel good.
NATRON
Current line-up
Diego Fanelli - Vocals
Domenico Mele - Guitars
Lorenzo "Fünj" Signorile - Bass
Max Marzocca - Drums
Former/past member(s)
Vocals:
Mike Tarantino (Penis Leech)
Raffaele Fanelli (Motherly Sin)
Guitars:
Marco Aromatario (Exhumer (Ita), Requiem K626, Mutala, Ad Noctem Funeriis (as Nihil), Corpsefucking Art, Stench of Dismemberment)
Bass:
Michael Maggi
Vito Laterza