Mess is the follow up to 2012’s WIXIW, the sound of a band in an ambiguous, fragile
in-between state. Mess, on the other hand, is Liars with their balls out – an angry, ecstatic, primal burst of ritualistic electronics that sacrifices self persecution for potent, purposeful abandon.
Explains Angus Andrew, “We are a reactionary, or maybe a better word is schizophrenic band. We go from one extreme to the other. Working on the last record was really doubtful and paranoid, and that’s fine, but it just meant that when work started on this one, it was the exact opposite. It was way more instinctual, fun and confident.”
Produced by Angus Andrew and mixed by Timothy “Q” Wiles (whose previous production credits include label-mates VCMG), the new album is less concerned with place as on previous albums, but sees the band back in their own studio in LA.
Mess will be released on CD, double vinyl and download. Details of the limited edition vinyl will be announced soon here: http://liars.sandbaghq.com/
Liars’ career has seen the band rattle through pigeonholes in an attempt to avoid them all together: brittle yet taught punk funk; liminal no-wave; ecstatic noise-pop;
21st-century garage rock; post-millennial post-rock; delicate electronics; reaching here, where Angus Andrew, Aaron Hemphill and Julian Gross now find themselves – maybe not quite at ease with the world, but staring it straight in the eye while showing their teeth.
Last year saw Liars premiere some of the new tracks at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Primavera & Sonar festivals, this year the band have announced two US festivals – Desert Daze in April and Austin Psych Fest in May – with more US dates as well as a European tour to be announced shortly.
The GOASTT is two people, Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl. It is, in itself, a chimera; a fabulous creature made with parts of two distinctly different creatures. It is also an acronym, as you might guess from its being capitalized like that. By virtue of being a friend to, and fan of, both the zygotes in this organism, I know what its letters stand for, but it's not mine to reveal. I expect they will do so at some future point.
Having driven my Ducati to Sean and Kemp's house through the darkened October streets of 4 am New York to type these words, I realize the absurdity of my task. If I wrote a novel and gave its protagonists stories of origin like the ones from which the two parts of GOASTT arose, people would say I was a fabulist in need of a hyperboectomy. Or an artless sophomore. But life is allowed a liberty with plotlines that novelists are not. Take these two:
Sean Lennon is a man of many hats. Like an alien who fell to earth and had to quickly assimilate humanity, he is a vast rolodex of accents, facts, farce, a myriad of motor skills (from archery to sketching) and can play any musical instrument (as if all undertakings are merely transposable keys to a song he knows by heart). Hyper-aware, there's almost nothing he isn't good at... This may be the result of his legendary genetic endowment, or simply the enormous pressure of his parentage; his father was perhaps the most accessible and experimental songwriter of his century. But, just as he reached the age of 5 when his father might have reared him with the milk and honey of nurture rather than the iron fist of nature, Sean's father was assassinated. As a consequence of this huge event and other shadows, Sean's life has been strangely both circumscribed and exaggerated. To the insouciant improvisational "Art is a Verb!" nature of his parents was added a welter of natural anxieties that would have made Woody Allen feel at home.
When I briefly encountered Sean's mother as an avant garde artist at Wesleyan University in January of 1966, I thought she had the most original mind I'd ever met. Later as she was dragged across the yawning screen of American hypercelebrity, I didn't know what to think, save that she, and all around her, seemed improbable.
And improbable was the first word that came to mind when I met Kemp Muhl almost exactly 40 years later.
Though her background was as unlikely as Sean's, hers was as private in its peculiarities as his was public. And her origins as the Georgian daughter of a military lieutenant colonel who had been nipped off to be a supermodel in New York, at about the tender age improbably beautiful girls are usually abducted - which is, chronologically at least, almost criminally young - did not in any way explain the fact that she has the other most original mind I had ever encountered.
After meeting Kemp, I followed her around- to the extent that I could move quickly enough- not, like most others, for the scenery, but because I found her casual triple-entendres, her "Kempisms," to be so improbably delicious in my mind...
She is such a free-running spring of cool creativity, that it didn't surprise me much when, shortly after she paired off with Sean and began to experience the musical ecosystem that is his unique mind, she revealed herself to have an utterly original sense of melody and lyrical realization as well. Her lines are like Borges short stories. I might have known.
As a symbol of her transformation for Sean, she now goes by Charlotte (her first name), much like a Native American who gets a new name upon having killed their first buffalo. Erstwhile Sean, (since his past chapters of turmoil and Shakespearean tragedy,) has shed the dark scales of his brooding artist skin for that of a newfound composer and puckish poet of an invincible fiber.
My great fortune lies in being an audience very close at hand to the gestation, birth, and early being of The GOASST. It is beautiful and strange and new. Let us watch it grow together.
-John Perry Barlow
See all the many and varied attractions the "Rose City" has to offer on board the Big Pink Sightseeing Hop-On Hop-Off Trolley Tour. This expertly-narrated 1 hour and 20 minute tour is an excellent way to experience the city at your own pace with 12 carefully chosen stops where you can hop off to spend time and reboard later. With service at every stop every 60 minutes you can spend the day exploring all the highlights of Portland.
From Pioneer Square to Portland's World Famous Rose Gardens and from Shopping Districts to the arts and museums, it's all available for you with the all-day pass. Or choose the optional two-day ticket if you are spending more time in Portland. This is best way to see the downtown attractions of Portland. See www.graylineofportland.com for more details.
& constructed a heavy timeless musical onslaught that stood on its own and has been proven with time .They released three LP`S on SST Records. 1985-1989
Following announcements over recent months proclaiming the release of Blood! — Released by Southern Lord Records & mixed by Dave Grohl has shown the true heavy sounds & intensity of BLAST! to appreciate it as it should be an amazing release.
the newly-released but vintage recordings from iconic ‘80s Santa Cruz
surf/skate/hardcore act, BL’AST! – the band now confirms their current lineup
which will take over stages and studios in the coming year and onward for the
first time in over a decade and a half!
XRAY FM Presents: JEX THOTH with WITCH MOUNTAIN & USNEA
Star Theater, 13 NW Sixth Avenue
March 22nd, 9pm
$10 advance, $12 at the door
21+
EDDIE C and Sammy D & Maxx Baxx! SO excited to
have Eddie C to come play High Water Mark! Same deal 5 bucks at the
door. Easy Breezy!
Eddie C's Bio from RA
Raised in
Southern Ontario somewhere between Detroit and Montreal, Eddie C began
his experiments in music some time in the late 80s. Inspired first by
Hip Hop and the burgeoning Acid House
scene, he began making tape edits of late night radio and shortly
thereafter began visiting record shops and warehouse parties to discover
the music first hand. Record digging, DJing and production has since
been a way of life for the man, followed closely by an opposing passion
for skiing which lead him to his 10 year sabbatical in the Rocky
Mountains of Canada. With plenty of time over the past decade for
reflection and research in his log cabin studio, C has recently
re-located and reconnected with the electronic music community in
Berlin. His raw yet sophisticated approach to production has yield..
Raised in Southern Ontario somewhere between Detroit and Montreal,
Eddie C began his experiments in music some time in the late 80s.
Inspired first by Hip Hop and the burgeoning Acid House scene, he began
making tape edits of late night radio and shortly thereafter began
visiting record shops and warehouse parties to discover the music first
hand. Record collecting has since been a way of life for the man,
followed closely by an opposing passion for skiing which lead him to his
10 year sabbatical in the Rocky Mountains of Canada. With plenty of
time over the past decade for reflection and research in his log cabin
studio, C has recently re-located and reconnected with the electronic
music community in Berlin. His raw yet sophisticated approach to
production has yielded countless releases and remixes since just 2009
and his now renowned eclectic and passion-fueled DJ sets have garnered a
cult following world wide.
Eddie C could well be described as
one of the Slo Mo/ Edits/ Disco scene's heaviest hitters. In just over
three years he's featured on or been the main attraction with over 25
original EPs and singles and countless remixes. Having graced labels
like Jiscomusic, Endless Flight, Crue-L, Sleazy Beats, Wolf Music, 7
Inches of Love & Home Taping, amongst others, with his deep, lush
and beautiful grooves, C is constantly name checked by every major playa
this end of the underground. In 2011 he released his first full length
album "Parts Unknown" on Endless Flight and later that year began
releasing new projects on his own Red Motorbike imprint. The fact is,
the guy hardly needs an introduction.
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/