Posts from — April 2010

Pickathon has just announced the final group of artists being added to the 2010 lineup to complete this years 12th annual festival which will take place August 6-8 at Pendarvis Farm.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtsq7wqeMR0]

The Band of Skulls is one of the hottest trio’s coming out of Europe right now! Some of UK’s finest sound like the White Stripes with a little more heavy metal mixed (if that is possible). We are lucky to get a PDX stop @ the Doug Fir this week. Come check them out.

BIO: The three members of Band of Skulls, Russell Marsden (guitar & vocals), Emma Richardson (bass & vocals) & Matt Hayward (drums), first met at college and quickly discovered that having two lead singers and three songwriters in a band was always going to present unlimited possibilities. With their creative process and sonic path fully intact the band quickly established themselves in the music and art community with a series of culturally inspired club nights in Southampton, London and further afield in Moscow and Tokyo.

The band, previously known as Fleeing New York, were working on new demo’s in late November 2008 at Courtyard Studios in Oxfordshire when their paths crossed with an international collective based in London, Montreal and LA who are now, in a very modern way, partners with the band.

Soon followed more studio time, which formed the basis of their debut album, “Baby Darling Doll Face Honey”. With a working relationship sealed with a handshake the album was recorded, mixed and mastered from January through to March 09 before contracts had time to be signed.

From that point onFrom that point on, the progression of events from Southampton to global iTunes happened at lightning speed for Band of Skulls. Their music came to the attention of iTunes staff and made such an impact they were selected for the coveted iTunes Single of the Week campaign in April with the debut single ‘I Know What I Am’. Within weeks of completing the album the band will be introduced globally to a digital audience in the USA, UK, France, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the Netherlands via this free download. The album has also been speedily brought forward to be released digitally at the same time.

URL: http://bandofskulls.com/

PRESS: Spinner / Daytrotter / Spin Magazine

MP3/Downloads: Band of Skulls – Fires
MP3/Downloads: Band of Skulls – Blood

Doug Fir
Tuesday April 20, 2010
Band of Skulls
22-20s
Saint Motel
Doors at 8pm, Show at 9pm / $12 advance, $12 day of show

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnKfGTTzLXs]

In yet another story of gear theft (there have been way too many of these over the past few years), we are sad to report that Mother Hips bassist Paul Hoaglin had his 12 string Hamer bass guitar stolen on the evening of April 15th in Portland.

If you have any information please contact info@motherhips.com

Photos can be seen HERE

Paste Magazine: Blitzen Trapper Talks New Album

MP3/Download: Blitzen Trapper – Heaven And Earth

Eric Earley seems unimpressed. The songwriting brains behind Portland, Ore.’s Blitzen Trapper has just finished recording the follow up to the band’s most successful record to date, 2008’s Furr. It will be released on Sub Pop in June, most likely to the widest audience Blitzen Trapper’s had to date. But Earley doesn’t seem caught up in the moment. Instead, he sounds like a guy who goes about his business creating critically-lauded music, quietly enjoying the payoff from a distance.

Paste caught up with Earley about the as-yet-untitled new album, writing conceptual songs and the value of hard work.

Paste: Let’s talk about the new album. How far along in the process is it?
Eric Earley: It’s done. It just got mastered.

Paste: How is this one different from your last album, Furr?
Earley: The recording process was different. I was in a studio with a friend of ours. Normally, I record myself. I produced this myself.

Paste: Prior to this, you recorded at home, right?
Earley: Yeah, I usually record in my house.

Paste: Did going into someone else’s studio change the songs or the way you write?
Earley: I think touring had more of an effect. I couldn’t get any big blocks of time to just work on it, you know? So I’ve been recording songs between tours, and I just got a chance to finish it all in the beginning of this year.

Paste: Are there any themes that run through the work, lyrically or sonically?
Earley: There are a lot of stories on this record—narratives and stuff.

Past
e: Are they stories taken from your life or ones that are just made up?
Earley: I never really write anything that’s completely literal. It’s all drawn from things that I’ve either realized, or learned or experienced.

Paste: You guys seem to be at a really interesting point in your career where you’re kind of on the cusp. You’ve put out some albums that have been reviewed well, and now you seem poised to break. Does that mean anything to you?
Earley: Not really. I really don’t know. I don’t even know what it means to be really big anymore. A band like Wilco can play for 3,000 people, and a band like Snow Patrol will play for 10,000 or 20,000. There are all these different levels now and genres, and everything’s really split up. I don’t even think of myself as being famous. I feel like the scales of judging popularity and fame in entertainment have completely been destroyed.

Paste: Do you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing?
Earley: I don’t think it’s good or bad. It just is. It’s just the world as it is right now.

Paste: It seems to be a very interesting time to be making music, because the old rules don’t really apply anymore, and no one knows what the new ones are yet.
Earley: There might not be any new ones. Bands just don’t last anymore. To be successful, you have to work really hard. It seems like bands used to be able to just get by doing as many drugs and drinking as much as they can, and they’d make millions. That doesn’t happen. You’ve got to work hard now.

Paste: Does the new album have a name yet?
Earley: No. We’ll see. Not really.

Paste: How many tracks?
Earley: Twelve.

Paste: Do you write with an album in mind, or do you just write songs and then pick the ones that seem to fit together best?
Earley: I just write and record songs and everybody else decides which ones will be the records, basically. I didn’t really decide on this record.

Paste: Really? You didn’t decide?
Earley: Yeah, not really. [laughs] There were about 25 songs and it got narrowed down.

Paste: What will happen to the rest of those songs?
Earley: I don’t know. They’ll join the rest of the extra songs.

Paste: When you do a record like Furr that is well received, do you feel pressure to live up to that with the next one?
Earley: I think at points you do. But, I’m kind of the type of person who shies away from what everybody likes. A lot of the stuff I was getting into with this new record, writing and recording, was stuff that was 180 degrees from Furr or Black River Killer. But I think what ended up on the record is probably a little more compromised. I have no expectations for this record. I like a lot of the songs. I think there is a certain bravado or something to it, which I think is missing in a lot of music nowadays. I mean, the first track is like seven minutes long. It’s like three or four different songs melded together into this bizarre, almost concept, thing. It’s definitely different from Furr. I’ll say that.

Paste: Is the whole album conceptual like that?
Earley: It’s kind of everywhere. There’s a lot of really tight songs, there’s a lot of folk music, there’s a lot of expansive, almost concept-record type stuff.

Paste: What comes next? I’d imagine a tour and the press gauntlet.
Earley: Yeah, the tour starts in May. The record comes out in June. Something like that.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TSOi7O_0J0]

MOTHER HIPS
Saturday, 4/17 – 1 PM
The Mother Hips – led by co-founders Tim Bluhm (vocals/guitar) and Greg Loiacono (guitar/vocals) – have been playing music for nearly 18 years, and in the process, have had the luxury of exploring and refining their craft. For the band’s seventh full-length studio album, Pacific Dust, The Mother Hips have never been more primed to share their well-traveled tales – the long days and nights on the road, the gritty politics, the smart inward reflections and man, the music! – all delivered with a most appealing balance of Americana storytelling and their California-burnished rock.

BLACK PRAIRIE
Saturday, 4/17 – 6 PM

Black Prairie features three-fifths of The Decemberists and two of the city’s finest folk stylists. Their heavily acoustic debut, Feast of the Hunters’ Moon, was produced by Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie) and embodies the rich sonic landscape of the Portland music scene while integrating the diverse backgrounds of its members. Black Prairie’s songs consist mostly of instrumentals; their arrangements draw from bluegrass and old-time string band traditions, with songs containing multiple movements that ebb and flow in a way that differs greatly from traditional pop or bluegrass structure.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smmDsfPKKPM]

Portland local heroes ~ Horse Feathers ~ have a new album coming out this April & will celebrate @ the Doug Fir & then kick off a long national tour. Come down & support some of PDX finest musicians kicking off a HUGE 2+ months coast to coast tour!

BIO: After fronting several rock bands in his native Idaho, singer/songwriter Justin Ringle moved to Portland, OR in 2004 and began focusing on acoustic music, playing open mics regularly under the moniker Horse Feathers. In 2005, multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick heard a couple of Justin’s demos and offered to help flesh them out. In February 2006 the duo went into Skyler Norwood’s Miracle Lake studios and recorded their debut album, ‘Words are Dead,’ which was released that September on Portland label, Lucky Madison. Later that year, Peter’s sister Heather Broderick joined the group on cello and by 2007, Horse Feathers began featuring a rotating cast of instrumentalists backing Justin’s guitar and vocals.

Justin and the Brodericks returned to Miracle Lake studios in the fall and winter of 2007 and recorded ‘House With No Home,’ which was released on Kill Rock Stars in the spring of 2008. Around that time, Peter left the country to pursue music in Europe, and Nathan Crockett was enlisted to cover violin duties. Several months later, Heather also left the group to pursue other musical projects and cellist Catherine Odell came on board. The current lineup was rounded out at the beginning of 2009 when Sam Cooper joined as a multi-instrumentalist. As a four piece, the group has been touring extensively and will release a new album entitled ‘Thisled Spring’ on Kill Rock Stars, April 20th, 2010.

URL: http://killrockstars.com/artists/viewartist.php?aname=feathers

PRESS: Spinner / NPR

MP3/Downloads: Horse Feathers – Curs in the Weeds

Doug Fir
Tuesday April 13, 2010
Horse Feathers
w/ Justin Power
Dan Mangan
Doors at 8pm, Show at 9pm / $10 advance, $12 day of show
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBPO9Kun_9A]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwSZvHqf9qM]