How are you? Did you get a new hair cut? Or are you just looking good today? Whatevs. It has been a while but I am back. kinda. For a few days at least. I am out of town this weekend. I have been taking a break from show going. And everything in general. I just got back from a vacation. It was awesome. I didn't practice. I didn't play shows. I didn't work. I got to hang out with a girl that I am kinda crazy about. Good times. Then I got back late Sunday night. Yesterday, I went up to Seattle and played Folk Life a musical festival dedicated to all things folk. I thought the name seemed somewhat cynical, but the people their all seemed very happy. Or very high. Many seemed to fall into both of those camps. I briefly saw Grey Anne but did not recognize any other Portland Musicians at the festival. Anyway there are a couple of really good touring shows that look good tonight from The Buzzcocks, to MGMT, to Seattle's own brilliant Sera Cahoone. There are not many good local shows tonight, though. As you know I write about the Portland area bands. This is the show I could find:
The Knife shop is having a show with On The Stairs, AristeiA, and My Dads. Yes, yes. I play in AristeiA which I think is one of the better bands in Portland. But I would have listed this show anyway. It is a bit of an odd pairing. At least with On The Stairs. Nate Clark of On The Stairs makes Americana music. AristeiA and My Dads play instrumental rock music. That being said I like all bands on the bill. I even sang on a song for On The Stairs album that was released earlier this year. If you go to his myspace page and listen to his song "When the dust comes down", incidentally my favorite song on the album, you can hear me bust out a long series of "oh's". But if you do not want to hear me sing, then I suggest you check out AristeiA. I play bass in this band but do not sing a note. We let our instruments do the the singing. If you are a fan or rock music, you will probably dig on our band. If you are a fan of interesting music, than you will probably dig on this band. If you are into loudish music, then this is a band you might dig on. My Dad's also make the instrumental rock music. Though they seem to be more post-rock than rock. If you think you understand that sentence, then you probably do. If didn't understand the sentence then I would not worry about it. They are pretty cool and you should check them out.
If you see me at The Knife Shop please say "Hi". It would be a nice welcome back to Portland.
-Ben
I could not find footage of the other bands, but this is what AristeiA was like a while ago. We are kinda different now. Better.
I went to the 28 Days of May Mansion last night. Y La Bamba played. I was pretty fun. Then I left and dropped off people including my roommate. Then I got home and remembered that I do not have a key to my place because I lent it out to my other roommate. This meant driving all the way to the Tube and watching part of a band's set that I did not catch the name of. It was 'aight. But I just wanted to go home. Which I eventually did. I want to say this to you guys as well. I am going on a vacation. An actual vacation. Not a tour. Not a family thing. But rather something for me. Which is something that I realize I have not don in about eight or nine years. So I am stoked. While I am gone I always recommend Pc-PDX. But for tonight this I will list these shows. I have been super distracted today so I cannot think to write much about all of the bands, but I am 90% sure that all of these shows will be good:
The 28 Days of May is having Oh Captain My Captain is playing and being filmed this evening at 6 PM. Many people are skeptical about the intentions of this thing. I am just a fan of Oh Captain My Captain. It will be a good time.
East End is having a show with Jacuzzi boys (Miami, FL), Total Bros, NucularAminals, and Orca Team. More house show bands invading the local music venues. Awesome. Especially Orca Team and Total Bros. The show is at 8 PM.
Valentine's is having a show with Key Losers (Katy Davidson of Dear Nora, The Finches (SF/LA), and Nervous & The Kid. i am a fan of Katy Davidson. Dear Nora was one of the Portland acts or semi-Portland at the time that I really loved when I lived in Texas. I saw her play in Denton, TX Once. Last November I got to open up for Key Losers first show as part of the Y La Bamba crew. I have heard very nice things about The Finches. The show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.
The Artistery is having a show with Stephen Steinbrink aka French Quarter (Arizona), Married in Berdichev (Denver), and Davis Hooker. I am feel like I have heard about French Quarter many times. He tours a lot. Like a lot a lot. Ask any house show touring band and I bet you they know this guy. Plus I have heard from a very trusted music fan that Davis Hooker is not to be missed. The ALL AGES show is $6 and starts at 8 PM.
If you see me at any of these shows please say, "Hi". It would do my heart good.
-Ben
Davis Hooker will do something like this tonight at The Artistery
Did I mention my laptop got stolen? It did and has made blogging almost impossible to do unless I am at work. I tried to blog on my roommate's laptop on Thursday and it just didn't work. No offense roommate, who I shall not mention by name (drummer of AristeiA), but your laptop does not work so hot. Or maybe our Internet didn't work so hot. Perhaps we do not live in a "hot spot". Had it worked I would have mentioned the AristeiA show that we played that night with the truly incredible Like a Villain (Holland from my other band Meyercord). I would have also mentioned that I was going out of town for the weekend and would not be blogging. You may have noticed on your own that I did not blog. But here I am back in Portland. Back at work. Back with a working computer, so here are some shows that look interesting to me tonight:
Wonder Ballroom is having a show with Broken Bells and The Morning Benders (SF/NYC). So The Shins have been going through some weird times lately. What with line up replacements and not doing anything and all. It kinda seems like Broken Bells maybe James Mercer's replacement band for The Shins. Which is fine by me. I heard a little bit of Broken Bells and it didn't really do much for me. So let Shins pretty well and Broken Bells try to catch up. Then again most Shins records were growers for me. Which is why I am still listing this show. The openers are a pop band. I like the way they sound. It kinda has a less weird Grizzly Bear feel to it. I found a FREE Covers album that they out. You can download it here. The ALL AGES show is a steep $30 to $34. And starts at 8 PM. The only way I am going to this is if one you guys pays for my ticket. Any takers?
Valentine's is having a show with Magic Johnson, Psychic Feline, and Best Supporting Actress. These band I believe are, but correct me if I'm wrong, house show bands. It seems like house show bands are moving out of the houses and into the music venues around town. I guess that is always happening, but it really seems like it is happening now more that ever. Did you see how big Explode into Colors got last year. They also just broke up. I hope that this is not the trend, we have some good bands that I have yet to see. Magic Johnson is one of them. From what I can tell, they are a punk band that sings in Spanish? High energy. Psychich Feline is a band that I cannot tell if they will be good or not from the one song they have posted. I used to write about Best Supporting actress all the time. I still have not seen them. As a refresher, they are a duo that play noisy rock music that is best listened to on a tape deck cranked at full volume. The show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.
If you see me at any of these shows please say "Hi". I want to talk to you about music and stuff.
-Ben
Look Danger Mouse learned an instrument. You can see him in Broken Bells at Wonder Ballroom for lots of money
Can a person be both competent and incompetent, arrogant and humble? Within their lifetime, certainly. Within a career, definitely. Within a single work? How about in a single blog post? Well, watch me go, as I "swallow the dilemma" and attempt to be everything that I love and hate about both myself and my haters.
In this interview I catch up with Matt Finney of Finneyerkes, from Alabama. This delightfully understated band has brought the 'ambient' label into a whole new sense. Matt supplies intense spoken word poetry over Randy Yerkes' instrumentation- but take note. In my head I had their names mixed up, and because I am an idiot, I thought I was going to be talking to the person behind all the music. It was definitely for the best, as Matt is a great guy with a lot of interesting things to say. Plus it seems that Randy is the secretive one, and an interview with him might have read like me interrogating Golgo 13. On with the interview!!!
Word up yo. No diggity, no doubt. Okay, well think of this as more Tape Op than Pitchfork. Hope I can be informative. Not too technical but I'm down. Love Tape Op though, had a subscription for about a year Well just in approach. Don't worry, I'm not a gearhead myself, I'm always breaking shit. I can't play anything… I dabble around with a xylophone sometimes. I played it on "Cobain" and I did the opening keys on "Honeymoon"...that's it for me. Wait, is this right interview.... ;) Haha… I played some acoustic on "Keely" but I'm the tragic poet or whatever. :p Seriously? I feel like a retard. Who didn't research. What's the dealio? I don't give a fuck. The interview is on! Haha. Nice. So I don't know if you have picked up on this, but I am kind of the dick of the blog. Nah man....you seem pretty cool. I'm an asshole most of the time as well....get the "you're a dick" thing a lot. Well, I have a sort of 'critical persona' that is just a rarefied version of who I actually am. Feel you on that as well. I'm actually trying to be very transparent about what it means to be a critic. And what it means to be me. As you should be. You have to be honest even if that honesty hurts. It's nice to see a critic that doesn't pull any punches. Right. Unfortunately what the readers- well, the vocal comment leavers- don't get through their thick skulls is that at least for me, trying to do so isn't just painful for the target, but also for the critic. If he is even remotely introspective. Yeah. It's hard. You don't want to be an asshole. Who does? You're just stating your opinion and what you think. It's only an opinion but unfortunately people put a lot into the words. If you like it, that's cool but it doesn't mean I have to like it...ya know. Sigh. So what I am going to do- and specifically to this interview is expound upon the fact that I completely was distracted over the past few days and did not keep track of who was who in the Finneyerkes. I totally thought you were the music dude. I actually was like "He does all this music and has a book coming out and does a column? Fuck!" Haha. Envy has always been a sore point for me. That's all me man....I write the lyrics, I have a book out, and I write a column/do reviews at Sonic Frontiers. Randy (the music guy) kinda shys away from interviews and stuff. He's the coolest guy I've ever met but he just likes to make music and that's it. He leaves this kinda stuff up to me. Haha… It isn't that bad, man. I won't be able to talk guitar with you but we're both in on the songwriting and we talk about how we want things to sound so maybe I can help or provide some insight....either way, I'm enjoying talking to you so far Me too. So before I bleed out from terminal embarassment... Let me start with the obvious (to me at least) question. Why spoken word on top of ambient? Because I can't sing. My voice is really horrible, singing wise. I only do it in private and that's rare. We also thought it would be cool to make this "soundtrack" music. I write these poems that are about me and people I know and Randy puts music to it. Makes the journey complete. A movie for head, I guess. So you guys decided to be a unit before the music was official. Yeah. We joked around about it on AIM and whatnot. Randy didn't start reading anything I wrote until he moved away and he told me that he really liked the lyrics a lot. He told me to record some of them and he would put them on his first solo record Glada. those songs from that album ended up on our first album Gather and Sing. We put together a bunch of stuff and came up with FY (because we couldn't think of a better name hah). Well, it's better than a 'The Xs' or 'Incredibly Long Band Name For One Dude Who Bleeps And Yodels Interminably.' Exactly! We wanted something that we wouldn't think was stupid in 5 years, ya know. Like Dance Gavin Dance. God, that would have been stupid in like 5 minutes. Seriously. And what the fuck does it have to do with anything? "Who's Gavin? " That's what I'm saying! At least Jimmy Eat World has a Jimmy And any attempt at humor based around Gavin would be fatally pretentious. Yeah. It's a douchebag name. I dunno. I tend to stay away from bands that have names like that. I can usually tell from a band name if I'm gonna like it or not The human brain is funny like that. True that. You have to be convinced otherwise. Makes you wonder what deep-seated evolutionary selection pressure is behind shitty band-name avoidance? It's like people aren't even trying anymore. And it shows in the music. So, enough kvetching. A lot of music is made under a certain rubric, whether the creators know it or not- you know, no synths dammit! or 'autotune on all vocals', that sort of thing. Do you kids have a guiding way of doing things? You know, all analog, all 'in the box'? We've always ruled out autotune. Haha. But not really. After we make a record we like to sit down and talk about what we've done. How the music sounded, the lyrics, the vocals, the themes and then we like to talk about where we're gonna go from there. what we can expand on. I'm not ruling out a remix where I autotune your poetry a la "Glorious Dawn." Haha....I'd love to hear that! Our main thing is trying to push ourselves as musicians. That's the only real rule we have: to change things up, to do something different. We both get bored easily so with every album you're gonna hear something different. I love the fact that you categorize yourself as a musician. A lot of people would like to see beatmakers, djs, rappers, musique concrete artistes, lyrical poets, etc. as not being part of the musical family. It's all included. I hate calling myself a poet because it's just so lame. It's so whiney. I feel kinda cool calling myself a musician. Eh, I don't know. Two words: James Douglas Morrison. Man....I hate Jim Morrison. But seriously though, fuck you. Haha. He's lame, dude. In what way? In that sleazy "I'm gonna write vague lyrics and try to sleep with a lot of women because I'm so brooding" kinda way. I might take that back....it's what I'm doing, for the most part. Hey, I take issue with your assessment. It's more like "Write vague lyrics and SUCCEED at boning at hell of a lot of women because I'm so brooding" Haha. Just not my thing. Never been a fan. I like Robert Bly too, so what the fuck do I know. What are some poetic influences you DO have? I don't read a whole lot of poetry. My two favorite authors are Raymond Carver and Cormac McCarthy. I take a lot from those two. The brevity, getting to the bone as quick as you can. Raymond Carver is why I didn't go to college. Okay, sort of. That's awesome, man. I took one term, I majored in 'Fire science.' But I really wanted to be some sort of, I don't know, fireman poet. Anyhoo, I badgered my way into an advance writing course with this douche professor who was OBSESSED with Carver. At the end of the course he told me I wasn't a very good writer and basically shouldn't keep at it. What a dick. Glad you kept at it. You seem like you know your way around a pen. My response was "Wait, who's the community college writing teacher in this exchange?" NICE! Or something like that. I took a creative writing class in high school. That was it. Fuck yeah! I loved it. Sitting in front of a computer wikipedia-ing stuff while working on the assignment… the good old days. Oh jeez, you just dated me. How old are you? I'm 21 BARF. Haha. Anyway. At that pathetic age? 32. Haha. I meant me at that pathetic age. Nothing wrong with the thirties. At least you've had to learn something over the years. Let's see, where the hell was I... Oh, I was going to come back to influences, music this time. My first thought when I listened to you guys was Basinski. Familiar? I've heard of him. I've listened to one song and I enjoyed it. He's just one of those artists that I always forgot to check out thoroughly. Heard a lot of great things though. “The Disintegration Loops” have this amazing otherwordly… wabi sabi ??!!!??! And that is what reminded me of him. That's the album I've heard a billion great things about. I'll definitely have to download it. It's worth it. Oh so worth it Are you privy to Randy's reverb secrets? How he buries the sound? It's going on the list. He's a fuzz man… loves his fuzz pedal. It really came into the picture a lot more on our new album. I definitely heard that on the bass. And it seemed like there was a lot of volume pedal swells, really expressive stuff. Thanks! I suppose the point of my question, even if I can't steal the actual secret, is to highlight the fact that all the sounds live in this different world. Which since you mentioned you went for a soundtrack thing before, I assume is an intentional direction. I think for an ambient band to not bore, to include real instruments and poetry that doesn't stumble over itself or the music, and to pull at the senses differently than other music, that's a major coup. Thanks. We definitely don't want to bore anyone. I like long songs but the reason why we cut them down so short to 3-5 minute time ranges is to keep everyone's attention. We don't want to put you to sleep before the album is finished but we don't want to be overly abrasive either and just blare it all at you. Barry Adamson is one of my favorite artists, and early in his career he had a very similar approach, making 'soundtracks to imaginary films.' Never heard of him before. Sounds like it would be interesting He was in Magazine, and was Nick Cave's bass player for a while. I think it's an effective framing device. Is there an overarching mythology or any leitmotif (non musical, ha) that runs through the work? There's a lot of space in our songs. Randy has always given the listener a lot of room to float around in and that carries over into almost all of our songs. There's a really lonely feel to it as well. Something about the guitar riffs he plays puts me in a very lonely place. Which is perfect. And there is nothing wrong with that. That's why people go to Joy Division concerts. To be lonely together. Haha, you ass. Okay, I gotta wrap this up because I could bullshit with you all day. Shoot, brother!
The "Elsie" video. That's something I have wanted to do with my music for a while but haven't managed to. But great job. What went into that? Our buddy Nick Wine (one of the owners of our label T$S) did all of that. He came up with the idea and just went for it. Didn't even ask. He said he felt something in the song and he wanted to bring it to life for everyone. I was blown away the first time I saw it. I don't know a whole lot of details about it but I know he used construction paper for the background and characters....he took his time and made it perfect and it shows when you watch it. It's a very druglike video. It pulls you in and keeps you there, which isn't an easy task considering the song is 7 minutes. Wow. Yeah, it's fucking amazing. Thanks a lot brother. We're both extremely proud of it. Wine's a great guy. He's helped us out a lot from putting out our albums to mixing them and whatnot. My daughter Amelia is 18 months old, she saw me watching and joined in. She was fascinated and was pointing at the little astronomer ghost and shit. She's an ambient musician too. Haha, send her demo to T$S. Glad she enjoyed it. You know you're onto something when you can hold a kid's attention. So, to cap this thing off, what do you have coming up next? Matt: Our 4th album, “Approaching”. We're hoping to wrap it up by next month. 3 songs are left and it will be out for free download like the rest. Awesome. Well my man- this has been great. Take it easy dude!
How you guys doing? I am feeling fine, thanks. Last night I played at Poises an introduced saw to the Meyercord mix. I think it went pretty well. I also wanted to thank Audrye for coming out to the show. She totally said "Hi" to me. She also went freshman Literature with me. In Denton, TX. Where I started doing Meyercord as a musical project. Nuts. Also I was super busy at work. So I thought it would be fun to show what it would be like if I didn't write much about these bands. Basically today I ran out of time. So today we are like all the boring lists of shows. Except we still have links. Anyway here are some shows that look good to me tonight:
Last night I did not see a show. I had a Meyercord practice that got out at like 11 pm. I knew that I missed most of all the shows so I just headed home. Not to mention I currently do not have any ID to let me get into clubs anyway. Tonight there are some things going on around this fair city of ours. Check them out:
Poises Cafe is having a show with Meyercord. Yes, yes this is my band. Yes we appear to be the only one on the bill, but I still think it will be good show. If you are not familiar with the music, this is your chance to get familiar with it. The music may be played on an acoustic guitar, but I am pretty sure this it is not boring folk music (please let me know if I am wrong). Over the past year Perry Pfister, Holland Andrews and myself have been working on these songs and I feel are sounding pretty good. There is stand up bass that is sometimes bowed. There is clarinet. There are male/female harmonies. There is glockenspiel. And tonight we will be playing with our new friend Adam playing musical saw on a few numbers. I realize that the stand up bass and musical saw combo might conjure up some not so cool music, but I swear it sounds cool. In addition to a new member, we will be debuting a new song (something we don't do too often). I feel 2010 to be a good year for us. The ALL AGES show is FREE and starts at 8 PM.
Burgerville (SE 12th and Hawthorne) is having a show with Mattress, Leather Tom And The Dirty Dudes, and Prescription Pills. Mattress is Rex. Rex is a Crooner. I thought Leather tom was over and that is was called KleenKut now? Who knew? Lively will be made before your eyes. Prescription Pills makes dirty dance music. Hey this could be any show and I would want to go. It's a freaking Burgerville. The ALL AGES show is FREE and starts at 5 PM.
Ella Street is having a show with IssmiNytyly, Cole Moldy, and Timmy The Terror & The Wintercoats. IssmiNytyly apparently features members of Housefire and members from the locales of Beirut and Lebanon. "Front girl Natalie Abulhosn has come a long way from her native home in Lebanon to sit in a similar looking room in Portland, Oregon to share her genetically mutated style of music making with locals, within the Art community and beyond." Basically I read this description and was sold. Plus I have written about Cole Moldy before. I am down with what he creates. The show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.
Ash Street is having a show with Cat Stalks Bird, Hotel St. George (San Diego), and Apes of Wrath (San Diego). Cat Stalks Bird has a dude that plays guitar, drums and sings at the same time. And it sounds good. Crazy. The two piece's said that their goal is to make as much noise with out looping as possible. It is cool stuff. The show is FREE and starts at 9:15 PM.
Laughing Horse Books is having a show with Carrion Spring, Duck Little Brother Duck, Antilles (Ohio),and Mountain Asleep (Louisville, KY). I am generally opposed to any show that has four or more bands (unless it's a festival). I could not in good conscious not list a Duck Little Brother Duck show. They are amazing. They combine the best elements of math and pop music. In a technically impressive and over all pleasurable experience. The ALL AGES show is by donation? and starts at 8 PM.
If you see me at Poises please say "Hi". I will easily spotted as the dude sing the songs.
In my pretentious little black notebook, the note about the opening act from that show reads "SHIT NIGHTMARE." I have to say in all honesty I don't really like this band. However, that being said, a lot of people in the P-town do. Including some of our very own Crappy Indie Music bloggers whose taste I respect.
So what then? Why spend time writing about something you don't go for? Well, I will give Dragging An Ox Through Water this- he is out there on the stage by himself doing something. He is doing it hard, and he is giving it his all. Sincerity counts a lot in my book. This is not some exercise in fashion and irony... at least as far as I can tell from the man himself.
I tried to get Mr. Dragging (or should it be Mr. Ox? Or Mr. Water?) to do an interview with me. As a point of fact, I said some very nasty and honest things to him, and any of you who have read what I have to say before know that I can get downright rude when I want to address the hypokeimenon. Alas, he has declined the prospect of an 'adversarial' interview, so we won't see something like that for now. We can always hope for the future.
