Alvvays are two women, three men, a crate of C-86 tapes and a love of jingle-jangle. Convening in Toronto, the group have been making music since since dusk or maybe dawn, when stars were appearing or fading off. As a result, their debut self-titled album is both sun-splashed and twilit—nine songs concealing drunkenness, defeat and death in tungsten-tinted pop that glitters like sea glass. The resultant album is loud and clear and sure. Flood your ears.
Release Date: August 25th in Europe & August 26th
in North America via Sub Pop.
It makes perfect sense that I was asked to write abio for J Mascis. Let's face it, he and I have a long history. It all started the first time I saw him live. It was in New York City. I don't remember when or where, but I think he was walking around. I was probably walking around, too. The second time was also in New York, at a Mexican restaurant in the East Village (the one that takes credit cards now,but didn't used to). Years later I actually met him at the SXSW festival though a friend who works at Sub Pop. I guess that meeting went well, because when that friend from Sub Pop got married, she sat me at the same table as J. Sounds unbelievable? I suggest you look at the picture below. Nowkeep staring at that picture until August 26th. That's when J'snew acoustic album Tied to a Star comes out on Sub Pop Records. It features appearances by Ken Maiuri, Pall Jenkins , Mark Mulcahy, and Chan Marshall. Had I been in the area, I'm sure I would've been asked to play on
it, too. - Todd Barry more >>>
XRAY.fm Presents Modern Kin at Mississippi Studios
"Following a busy festival summer, and fresh off of a US tour this September and October, Modern Kin is closing out the year with a few headlining shows in the NW. This promises to be a special weekend of music - we hope you'll join us as we stretch out a little and weave some new songs in between the album tracks you already know.
Shows are best with friends...
Joining the bill is Portland band The Ghost Ease, and Seattle's Kithkin will open the show."
Where the rubber meets the dance floor!
A bicycle-themed fundraiser that highlights 20 years of work of the Community Cycling Center in Portland while celebrating in true style. Inspire our supporters to deepen their connections with us through storytelling and personal testimonials.
This event is 21 and over
The Bicycle Ball is a fundraiser for the Community Cycling Center celebrating 20 years of broadening access to bicycles in Portland. Join for vintage-style live music from the Swingtown Vipers, prohibition-era cocktails, dancing, a vintage photobooth, silent auction for one-of-a-kind balance bikes and more! Bring your dancing shoes for where the rubber meets the dance floor.
Fundraising goal: $15,000 More information can be found here.
Food & Beverage: 1 drink ticket for a custom cocktail with local Dystopia Vodka included with $15 entry. Secret Society’s food & addditonal drinks is available for purchase.
Music sponsor/partner: roaring 20's music by XRAY.FM DJs (will be live music- the “Stumptown Vipers” to start off, DJ at end)
Nov 8Th - K Records, Runaway Productions, and Dante's Present - "ALL YOUR FRIEND'S FRIENDS" NW HipHop Compilation Album Release Party with
The Chicharones (Sleep & Josh Martinez), IAME (of Sandpeople/Oldominion) & Goldini Bagwell
Xperience (XP) - Poeina - Karl Blau (K Records) @
Dantes - 350 W Burnside St. Portland Or
ADVANCE TICKET LINK
http://clients.ticketbiscuit.com/DantesLive/EventPage.aspx?EID=218564
ALL YOUR FRIEND'S FRIENDS is a seminal Northwest Hip-Hop Compilation album produced entirely off of samples pulled from the K Catalogue. Featuring over 30 of the most unique MCs from the region including members of mega-crews OLDOMINION and the SANDPEOPLE,
the album also introduces a host of hidden talent from OLYMPIA, WA. K’s sonic stomping ground.
This decades spanning compilation is a creative celebration of the Northwest sound and scene in some of its most striking masks and manifestations. The energy of the album moves fluidly between dark, angsty, and self-reflective to upbeat, nostalgic, and carefree, taking the listener on an underground rap odyssey through the overcast streets, anarchist basements, cramped performance spaces, and stoned-out suburbs of this moody and musical part of the world.
Through kaleidoscopic counter-cultural mashups and topsecret sampling styles, producer Smoke M2D6 has mercilessly deconstructed the classic lo-fi garage soul sound of the iconic indy label, artfully rearranging it all over a thick foundation of classic breaks, 808’s, and of course some heavy bass, allowing old heads to hear this music in a totally different way, while introducing a new generation of fans to a classic treasure trove of northwest creative history.
ALL YOUR FRIEND’S FRIENDS is sample-based Hip-Hop culture at its best, taking something dope from the past and making something fresh for the future.
Xray.fm presents Back Fence PDX: Gone But Not: All Souls/Day of the Dead stories (and other events). A fundraiser for The Dougy Center.
Live stories to commemorate those who we remember from past Back Fence PDX favorites, Actor and Artist, VIN SHAMBRY (PDX) and Emmy-Nominated Writer from the Ellen Degeneres Show/Moth Radio Hour performer, BRIAN FINKELSTEIN (LA); along with Oregon Book Award Winner MATTHEW DICKMAN (PDX), whose poems have appeared in the New Yorker and The London Review of Books; and KAREN FINNEYFROCK (SEA) who has traveled to Nepal as a Cultural Envoy, and of her book, The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door, Sherman Alexie said, “It is a hilarious, exciting and painful as anybody’s teenage years. Read it, please.”
HOSTED by B. Frayn Masters + Mindy Nettifee
DJ Blind Bartimaeus will be spinning Gospel and Soul, snacks to feast on from ALMA chocolate, Saint Cupcake, and Porque No, a flower altar provided by Spellbound Flowers, a raffle, plus XRAY.fm will be on hand to record your 1-3 minute story about a loved one.
The Portland Mercury and XRAY FM Present: Late Night Action
Now in it's 5th season, Late Night Action is a live-on-stage talk show focused on the people who make Portland awesome. The next show is October 27th at 8pm at Mississippi Studios. More information about upcoming guests and tickets are available at LateNightAction.com
With guests:
Author of The Kingkiller Chronicles: Patrick Rothfuss
KGW News Anchor Reggie Aqui
Stand-up comedian Kirsten Kuppenbender
with music from The DoubleClicks
Join XRAY as we sponsor a screening of the British documentary Beautiful Noise, a film that explores shoegaze artists My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Slowdive, Ride, Chapterhouse, Lush, Curve, Swervedriver, and others.
You can watch the trailer here.
DIRECTOR: ERIC GREEN
Beautiful Noise features interviews with many interesting characters including Billy Corgan, Wayne Coyne, Robert Smith, Trent Reznor, and several others.
“An in-depth exploration of the dense, sensuous, and extremely loud movement
in ‘80s/’90s U.K. rock tagged “shoegaze” by the British press. Tracing its influences back to the Cocteau Twins’ ethereal ambiance and the Jesus and Mary Chain’s brash guitar sound, the film explores how bands like My Bloody Valentine, Ride and Lush fused these two disparate sounds together to create a distinctive, new musical style that furthered the genre’s ideals of sonic experimentation without the grandiose stage personas of traditional pop stars. First-time director Eric Green scores a coup by getting this notoriously press-shy bunch to open up about the class politics behind the genre’s poor treatment in the British press, MBV’s infamous falling-out with Creation Records, and how that band became sonic innovators whose music is only now truly receiving its due respect.”—Seattle International Film Festival. (90 mins.)
More on the Reel Music Festival can be found here: NW FIlm Center
Welcome to our 32nd edition of Reel Music. We’ve been on the lookout all year for new works—and timely classics— for this annual celebration of sound and image, music and culture, and the origins of sounds infused in our experience. Whether your passion is jazz, blues, rock, soul, folk, funk, or punk, we hope you find this mixture of old and new, familiar and strange, to be full of inspiration and discovery. As always, our special thanks go to Music Millennium, Willamette Week, Walker, Day & Koch LLP, Oregon Music News, KINK.fm, MusicFestNW, All Classical Portland, KIND Healthy Snacks, XRAY.FM, KMHD, PDX Pipeline, Yelp!, Vortex Magazine and Portland Radio Project.
Unless otherwise noted, all movies are shown at the Whitsell Auditorium, in the Portland Art Museum.
XRAY.FM PRESENTS SUDANESE ARTIST SINKANE, WHOSE MUSIC IS A MIX OF SUDANESE POP, KRAUTROCK AND EARLY '70S FUNK SINKANE
You can listen to my new album “Mean Love” on NPR right now.
DOORS: 8:00 PM / SHOW: 9:00 PM
"You know I love you, but you're mean."
Here's one of those eternal refrains. Nobody owns it; it's been in the air since forever. Maybe it was initially uttered by a songwriter toiling deep in the Brill Building, or first sung by a girl group.
Because it carries the essential DNA of the done-me-wrong song, such a familiar sentiment can be a test: Whomever is singing has to sell the slight, and the hurt, and the story behind it. Ahmed Gallab, Sinkane's singer and leader, understands this mission. In the title track of his suave and eclectic third record (his second under the Sinkane name), Gallab brings a slight quiver to the verses — and then, gathering all the resolve his thin and perfectly rounded voice can muster, he delivers the tagline as a straightforward declaration. It's like he's resigned to his plight and no longer cares about editorializing it by appearing too vulnerable. He sings about it plainly, with little in the way of garish ornamentation. His voice offset by weepy steel guitar, he repeats the line, sometimes adding the words "mean to me" as punctuation, and by this point any hint of contrivance is erased: To the Sudan-born, Ohio-raised, Brooklyn-based Gallab, this is less about singing a pop song than telling a truth.
It's an art, being believable in this way, and Gallab has it nailed: Whether riding the waves of a brisk African dance ("New Name") or working through a tightly woundCurtis Mayfield-conjuring funk vamp ("Hold Tight"), he infuses the vocals with unusual intimacy, the desire to be felt first and understood later. Even if, as happens throughout Mean Love, the refrains start out simple and veer toward the blunt. At first, this seems like lowballing, but there's wisdom in the approach: As on Sinkane's previous album Mars, the backdrops are a thick stew, with elements of both East and West African music, James Brown, free jazz and shoegaze. Gallab recognizes that Sinkane's broad range of influences can come across as busy — or, worse, muddled. So he places the focus on terse, easily repeated catchphrases, many written by his lyricist collaborator Greg Lofaro. These cut to the core message of the (often love-minded) narratives, and their simplicity contrasts with the oscillating, ever-changing mix-and-match accompaniment schemes in the background. The result is a formidable type of persuasion: Clear, earnest voice meets memorable hook over wickedly inventive groove.
This streamlined approach to songwriting is one of the ways Sinkane has grown since Mars first broke through. There are moments when Sinkane lunges in the direction of recent exotica-spiced hits by Bruno Mars, and moments when the glances are all in the rearview, toward the volcanic soul of the '60s and '70s. There are also more overt and confident evocations of African music — Gallab served as the musical director for a star-filled celebration of Nigerian iconoclast William Onyeabor earlier this year. The most gripping of these include the last song, "Omdurman," named for Gallab's hometown in Sudan. Unfolding with a calm, hymn-like grace, it expresses the universal frustration of the young and rootless with likes like, "Where, if I should settle down, will I finally settle?" But the refrain that's likely to get the most attention appears in "Son." It's a vow, sung with extraordinary resolve: "I will not forget where I came from." Gallab again doesn't do too much with it, and he doesn't have to: As happens frequently on Mean Love, the music around him echoes and affirms those words in quietly breathtaking ways.
Backfence and XRAY are excited to be a part of Design Week Portland! This show will feature all kinds of designers and others telling stories based off of an array of prompt, largely focused on design.
Storytellers include: The winner from our August show from 105.1 The Buzz, DARIA ELIUK (PDX), along with returning storytellers Write Bloody Publisher, DERRICK BROWN (AUS), New York Times Bestselling Author, BETH LISICK (NY), Owner and Chef at Noble Rot plus two time past Russian Roulette winner, LEATHER STORRS (PDX) Nationally Acclaimed Fashion Designer, ADAM ARNOLD (PDX) along with newcomers — the Designer Behind Much Adored betsy + iya Jewelery, BETSY CROSS (PDX), Graphic Designer + Songwriter, EMILY OVERSTREET (PDX), and Co-Founder of Buy Olympia + Curator of Land Gallery, PAT CASTALDO (PDX)!
Hosted by B. FRAYN MASTERS & MINDY NETTIFEE
Music by BOBBY from Sex Life DJs
SAINT CUPCAKES are back and will be served at intermission!
$15 ADVANCE | $18 DOOR
More about RUSSIAN ROULETTE…
How it works: each show begins with a full wheel of juicy story prompts. One of the 8 storytellers will be randomly drawn. They spin the wheel to decide the prompt for their story. They can play or pass. If they pass another teller can steal their prompt. Then the risky part…each storyteller has only 5 minutes to come up with a true 5-minute story based on that prompt! It’s like we invented a new game called truth AND dare.
At the end of the night, the audience will select a winner who will receive 50 bucks and some other cool prizes, like bragging rights for life. The winner will be invited to come back to the next show! And one lucky audience member will also win some prizes!
*Storytellers subject to change without notice. Stories may contain explicit language and/or subject matter.
Sat OCTOBER 11, 2014
DOORS 7:00PM | SHOW 8:00PM 21+
Back Fence PDX: RUSSIAN ROULETTE
DISJECTA
8371 N INTERSTATE AVE
XRAY is loving the amazing S (Jenn Ghetto) brand new album, Cool Choices.
S plays Valentine's with Raymond Byron (Castanets/White Freighter) x Satsuma. Come early to ensure entry!
Jenn Ghetto decided to name her band S long before Internet searching had become the dominant means of information-gathering. By the time she realized the simple name she’d chosen could be troublesome, it was too late. She’d unintentionally selected an un-Googleable band name. “You can’t even put S into iTunes,” she says with a laugh.
But a lot has changed since the late ’90s, and not just with the Internet. S, which started as a bedroom side project while Ghetto was fronting Seattle sadcore stalwarts Carissa’s Wierd, has become her main musical focus now that that group’s breakup is more than 10 years in the rearview. Cool Choices, out this week, is the first S record to feature a full band and the first to be produced outside her bedroom.
Though the songwriting for the album began after a breakup, Ghetto decided she wanted to make a big record. She started playing with a drummer and began e-mailing her old friend Chris Walla (of Death Cab for Cutie) to produce it. “I think I was in a manic state for a while,” she explains, which sparked her enthusiasm to collaborate, especially with Walla, whom she deemed the ideal candidate to keep things intimate while increasing the scope. She was right.
Crisp, clear guitar tones provide the perfect foundation for Ghetto’s vocals on Choices, with the rest of the band given plenty of room to breathe. Despite its overall somberness, the album is beautiful. “Pacific”—just Ghetto and a piano—is the kind of delicate heartbreaker Cat Power does so well, while “Vampires” is a jangly rocker that makes her melancholy downright danceable. Ghetto, it seems, relishes such dichotomies, like with the title Cool Choices. “You can say it in any circumstance,” she offers, “Good or bad. ‘You’re making a lot of cool choices there, I see.’ Or it could be like, ‘Oh, cool choices!’ ” Out now via Hardly Art Records, hardlyart.com.
It's DESIGN WEEK! Join XRAY.fm DJ Bobby D (Nightschool) and an evening of talks about Portland's architectural landscape.
What do the buildings we choose to construct, demolish, restore, and inhabit tell the world about us? How does Portland's character find voice in our buildings and the relationships between them?
What's our story? Where's it headed?
Words music pictures.
with
Joe Zehnder (chief planner, City of Portland)
Tyler Robinson (art director, Portlandia)
David Staczek (principal, ZGF Architects)
Reiko Hillyer (historian, Lewis & Clark College)
Peggy Moretti (executive director, Restore Oregon)
Courtenay Hameister (head writer, Live Wire Radio)
Dave Weich (founder, Sheepscot Creative)
With XRAY's DJ Bobby D. spinning songs about buildings and cities
http://www.designweekportland.com/events/portland-past-present-future-our-architectural-narrative
XRAY is proud to sponsor the Sonics show on Saturday October 4th at the Hawthorne Theater.
Mike Thrasher Presents THE SONICS with the Suicide Notes, The Pynnacles and Thee Headliners
Listen to XRAY.fm to win tickets to see one of the best garage bands of all time!
Young Audiences’ road race returns with a new name and a brand new location! Volcano Race PDX will gather runners of all ages to Mt. Tabor Park—the heart of SE Portland—for a family-friendly event that celebrates and supports the arts in our community. Featuring beautiful 10K and 5K courses, a kids dash, beer garden, and family Art Zone, Volcano Race PDX is sure to be your new favorite event.
Race Details:
When: Sunday, September 28, 2014
Where: Mt. Tabor Park, Portland, Oregon
Race Day Schedule
10K: 9:40am
5K: 10am
Kids Dash: 11:00am
Registration and day-of packet pick-up opens at 8:00am
Free pre-run yoga at 9:00 & 9:30am
Complimentary Beer Garden for finishers, Family Art Zone, and Live Music kick off at 10:30am!
Cost & T-Shirts
Early Bird Discount (Before July 15)
10K – $30
5K – $25
Kids Dash – $8
Standard (July 16 – September 25)
10K – $35
5K – $30
Kids Dash – $10
Weekend Of (September 26-28)
10K – $45
5K – $40
Kids Dash – $10
All registrations include a Greenlayer technical t-shirt (cotton for the kids) and goody bag! Please note: women’s t-shirts tend to run small. Please consult the below chart before selecting your shirt size.
Parking & Transportation
Park gates will be closed to ensure runner safety. As public parking will be limited, we encourage participants to take public transportation, carpool, or arrive by bicycle. When planning your trip via TriMet, use SE 69th & Belmont as your destination address.
Bag Check
Complimentary bag check will be available from 9:00am – 11:15am.
Want to talk to a person? Contact Julie: 503-225-5900 x230.
We welcome racers of all paces. Strollers are welcome (please line up at the back), but please, no dogs. The course will stay open to accommodate a pace of 12 to 15 minutes per mile. Parents are welcome to join their kids for the Dash.
In the spirit of neighboring and storytelling; SE Uplift invites you to join us at Knock, Knock! It’s Your Neighbor: Mistakes of Neighborly Proportions for a night of honest, uproarious and unifying stories.
September 24th, 2014
At Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave. / 21+
Doors, Drinks & Silent Auction at 6:00p.m. / Show at 7p.m.
Tickets – $12 Advance ($13.65 w/fees), $16 at Door
This year’s event will feature tales of misadventure, mishap and misconception from genuine neighbors (Maybe even your own neighbors…). Local all-star improv groups Administration and Black by Popular Demand will take these stories and up the ante, bringing to life alternate, and parallel neighborhood realities. And if that’s not enough we’ve got a kick-ass silent auction to boot. So come prepared to laugh, cry and get your bid on! We say; “treat yourself”, for your neighborhood*.
Duck Club and XRAY Presents: MAGIC SWORD
The official Comic Con After-Party
SuperThank events bring together members of our community to share their stories about the people and organizations who are making us a better and stronger community.
Some speakers prepare in advance, and there is an open mic session, too, so please bring your own stories if you'd like to share. The SuperThank series takes place in front of a live audience. All stories are captured by audio recording and some are adapted for use on SuperThank Radio on XRAY.FM.
It’s radical community gratitude … for stuff that matters.
The details: This event will take place on the lower level of EastBurn restaurant, in the Tap Room.
Tickets are available for a sliding scale donation ($7 is suggested), which can be made now or at the door.
Confirmed storyteller lineup so far:
Dee Williams
Charles McGee
Shane Torres
Thacher Schmid
Kashea Kilson-Anderson
Gwenn Seemel
Jefferson Smith
Food and drinks will be available in the main restaurant upstairs starting at 5 p.m.
The event will take place downstairs in the Tap Room. Doors open at 6 p.m.
The show begins at 7 p.m.
PLEASE NOTE: This event is 21+
TICKETS: $7 suggested donation
Available at: http://superthankstorytelling.eventbrite.com/?aff=efbevent
The Dreamy, Krautrock-inspired slabs of 70's rock from Brooklyn Mississippi Studios will be playing.
General Admission: $12.00 Advance \ $14.00 Day of show