Swallows: Between the Sea and Sky Release

Hi folks,

As fate would have it, I'll be playing a bit part in a really cool show tonight, but let me tell you about the MAIN EVENT.

Powerhouse duo Swallows are having a CD Release show at Langano Lounge for their latest disc Between the Sea and Sky.

Their new work demonstrate a mastery of controlled intensity, with compositions meditating on a modality and building in force and intricacy into bold poetic landscapes.

The 8 track album, recorded by the late Kip Crawford, feels like a beautifully understated synthesis of the group's proggy, riot grrrl and queercore infuences. There's plenty of rock intensity, but it's balanced by poignant negative space. Em Brownlowe's vocals come across clear amid the intricate drum and guitar filigree, communicating heady lyrical concepts with skillful brevity .


The show will begin promptly at 9 PM with a Spanish class conceived ensemble Los Postmodernos, which also features Brownlowe. Also playing will be prog/minimalist group Form & Fracture (I'll be subbing on clarinet with them -fun!), and DJ Gaycondo will be providing some fine sounds to dance to. Langano Lounge is located
at 1435 SE Hawthorne.

"When They Come to Us" performed live at the Egyptian Club, 2-11-10. This song is featured on the new album Between the Sea and the Sky

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Album Review (and show Tonight) Chores : The Subtle Politics of the Public Hammock

A press release in my e-mail inbox announcing an April 2^nd CD Release at Rotture was the first I’d heard of Portland locals Chores. Before taking a listen to the album, The Subtle Politics of the Public Hammock, I took a peek at the record cover – it has a 60’s or early 1970’s look, a hammock in the foreground with some people, facing away, walking down the street in the background. I popped the CD into my car stereo fully prepared for some British-Invasion flavoured indie-pop a-la Blue Skies For Black Hearts. I was dead wrong, but not disappointed.

Chores have been referred to as “pop”, but I would put them more in the category of rock \ post-punk. Repeating, guitar-driven melodies are topped by powerful female vocals, backed by men, sometimes sung and sometimes chanted, altogether reminiscent of X, Yo La Tengo, and a slight flavor of Siouxsie Sioux and the B-52’s. The first track, Welcome To The Public Hammock, has a woman speaking in French over some dreamy music – my French is not quite good enough to determine what she’s actually saying, but something regarding a hammock. The tracks after that are more straightforward, but with lots of variety. Track 2, “My Own Private Esperanto”, wins automatically just because of the title. It also happens to be a good song, with chanted vocals and several changes throughout the song, including a revisiting of the recorded French voice. Track 3, Make the world Go Away, has more powerful, belted vocals, and some references to the Internet. Track 4, Super Car, is referred to on the press kit as a song of “social import”. Maybe I’m not catching all the lyrics, but what I do know is it’s a super fun, metal-influenced (but in a good way) song about driving around in a super car. New New Deal, on the other hand, definitely is social commentary, with lyrics about working at Wal-Mart and in a Hong Kong factory. This song reminds me of a somehow successful blend of 70’s protest soft-rock and riot grrl. Track 6, Familiar Order, is the gentlest song on the album. Tracks 7 and 9, Rose and Noinsuranceland, are unique in that they have male lead vocals. This turned me off of them at first, though the fellow who sings isn’t bad, but the female singer is just SO DAMN GOOD. Her voice blows my mind. It’s hard to compete with that. Regardless, after a couple listenings, I’m kind of fond of “Rose”, a seemingly simple pop song that spans the entirety of a relationship from excitement to loss to bitterness while remaining amiably catchy. I didn’t really get into Noinsuranceland at all, though I definitely appreciate the sentiment – in fact, I’ve spent my whole life there and have been fortunate enough, knock on wood, to avoid any life threatening illnesses.. but the song comes off as a little too obvious and kind of pop-punk for me – not a bad song in itself, it comes off as weak when the rest of the album is so excellent.

Chores are playing tonight (Thursday, April 2) at Rotture to celebrate the release of The Subtle Politics of the Public Hammock. Doors open at 8, Church plays first, Chores second, and Lesser Lewis third. The cost is $5, and if you go, you can buy their album for an additional 5. That’s a good deal.

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What makes it 'indie'? Hell, what makes it 'good'?

Saturday I attended the CD release party for Robert Bassett's "Shades of Love." Now, I must spit out right now that for a first post I feel this may go beyond the pale for douche-y self promotion, as in fact I did play bass on most of this album. Bear with me, though. I had just signed on here at TCIMB, and at the release party, I dismissed the idea of reviewing the event. "It's not indie," I told myself. Then I had to jump back.

Why not?

By most measures, Bob Bassett is indie all the way. Local artist, recording his own original songs on a shoestring budget at a funky cool indie studio with help of friends and family, chasing the dream... sound familiar? Then why my kneejerk reaction? Is it because he's old enough to be my dad, and is in fact my friend's dad? Or is it the style of music, which I have characterized as 'hippie doo-wop,' though an unironic version of same?

I think we've hit the crux of the biscuit here. As much as I'd love to indict the shallow musical tastes of the hipster scene, I think what's up for dissection will be my own irrational prejudice as microcosm, and the unfortunate shortcomings of my own musical eclecticism. If you read yourself into it, well... caveat lector.

The most classical example is the rap/country disclaimer. You know, "I like all kinds of music except for rap and country." I'm pretty sure those exact words came out of my mouth when I was nine years old, but at that point 'all kinds of music' were Weird Al and Metallica. Those genres have come a long way, and luckily the genre lines have even blurred, so that it's easier to like all sorts of different music. Unfortunately, suck is a thread that runs through everything. My country bias remains, towards the new popular variety, which to my ears is indistinguishable from twangy pop or neutered hard rock, the only difference being a regional flavor to the subject matter. Somewhere along the line we realized that the Cash/Jennings/Nelson staying power is due to one thing: good-ass music, and thus alt-country was born. While a number of artists may have made alt-country into a legitimate and fruitful genre, it raises a question. Does an alt-country band hold greater claim to being indie than say, an independent Nashville country band, despite being just as, if not more derivative? And where exactly is the 'alt' divide?

I certainly tend to let qualifiers influence what I think of a band, but often it's a second or even third listen, sometimes years down the road that gives me a truer peek at what's going on. Listening to a world music station on internet radio the other day, I found myself grooving to a song. Once I was able to apply some appropriate mindfulness to it, I realized the song just plain sucked, but because it was under the aegis of being... international, I had given it a higher level of coolness. This is, I suppose, a musical version of the Orientalism of years past, but instead of filling your house with horrid fantods and unsittable lacquered chairs, you find yourself listening uncritically to mediocre afrobeat.

Obviously someone likes it, though, and you can say that about anything. You can say it about Death Cab, bite your tongue. So what makes music good, or appear to be good? Why are some bands good enough, or cool enough to fall into our sphere of indie, yet others that are still technically 'independent music' do not?

To return to my original example, Robert Bassett's stuff is certainly good music, earnest and competent, well-produced. During my stint of recording it was spare and slim, just voices, guitars, bass, some piano and percussion. By the end of it though, enough 'studio artifacts' such as flutes and backup singers had glommed on as to make it... well, not cool. The record was showing its age, and seemed more suited to the coffee shop scene. But why? Why? Is it solely lack of an edge? There are plenty of indie bands that don't go past 'twee' or 'precious' or whatever the trendy adjectives are, so that can't just be it. Is it age? There are plenty of young musicians who evoke ancient soul, and old ones who don't. Is it style? We're in a brave new world of cross-genre experimentation, so that shouldn't matter.

This isn't just shoddy blogging, folks. I had intended to negate all my own points, and dump them in your lap. Comments, please. What makes 'indie'... indie?

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Hey Kids, I'm on Internet TV!

Yeah, I know it's been forever since I posted - extra hours at work, playing in two bands, and preparing for my birthday have kept me busy. But I wanted to stop by and belatedly let you know about an excellent website - portlandnoise.com. This site, inspired by and in league with the sanfrancisco-based pacificnoise.com and worked on by the super-awesome Jim Mulhearn of the musiquarium, a great performance\recording space on NE Weidler, features 15-minute "webisodes" (I have a distate for that sort of internet-speak, bu there you have it). This is partly a self-serving post, as my band, New Century Schoolbook, is on one of the most recent episodes. The episodes involve a short interview as well as three or so songs by the featured band, and I think there have been 8 to date (although by now the 9th has probably come out.) Jim is a friendly, busy jack-of-all trades who reminds me of my dad (in a good way, my dad's awesome) bearded, casual and good at what he does. As well as producing the portland noise episodes, he does audio recording and plays in a band called bongloard.

Through Portlandnoise.com, I also discovered Dr. Something and The Poppin Fresh Love Engines. Although I'm generally kind of wary of folk-with-a-twist, Dr. Something is evil, yet unabashedly nerdy, and you really can't go wrong with a song called "cheatin' on u with ur robot double". Here's to a rad lady &co doing something different in Portland music.

And while I'm here, I'd like to tell you all (well, portland ones anyway) to go see Chrome Wings at rererato tonight, and check out New Century Schoolbook's CD Release show (all ages! free!) at Chaos Cafe tomorrow (saturday the 12th) I'm not on the CD (it was all recorded before I joined the band) but I stand behind it fully, and I did help stamp and fold and glue the CD cases.

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