Posts from — October 2011

The Black Keys “Lonely Boy” is the first single off the forthcoming album El Camino – in stores Dec. 6th. Preorder the album today to get an instant download of Lonely Boy!

Black Keys – Jan/Feb 2012 Tour Dates:

Jan 23 - Antwerp, Belgium – Lotto
Jan 24 – Lille, France – Zenith
Jan 25 - Paris, France – Zenith
Jan 27 – Hamburg, Germany – Sporthalle
Jan 28 – Berlin, Germany – Arena
Jan 30 – Milan, Italy – Alcatraz
Jan 31 – Zurich, Switzerland – Maag Hall
Feb 1 – Eindhoven, Holland – Klokgebouw
Feb 3 - Nottingham, UK – Capital FM Arena
Feb 4 – Edinburgh, UK – Corn Exchange
Feb 6 – Manchester, UK – Apollo
Feb 10 – London, UK – Alexandra Palace

The Gourds return to the Doug Fir in support of a new album – Old Mad Joy – mixed by in the frosty confines of Woodstock, N.Y., in former Band drummer Levon Helm’s studio with musician and producer Larry Campbell, who made his mark with Bob Dylan during his “Love and Theft” period.

MP3/Download: Gourds – Shake The Chandelier
MP3/Download: The Gourds – I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight (Richard and Linda Thompson cover)
MP3/Download: The Gourds: “Old Man from the Mountain (Merle Haggard cover)”

Recording engineer: Steven Kray, with technical assistance from Bill Ward and Jonathan Newsome

Video production: Jarratt Taylor
Video shooters: Jarratt Taylor / Anthony Del Calzo / Nate Sjol

Photos: Inger Klekacz– see the full photo set

Interview: Jeremy Petersen

Wild Flag‘s self-titled debut is no ordinary kind of first release. From the moment they announced their formation, there were expectations of the kind few new bands experience—when your band is made up of Carrie Brownstein, Rebecca Cole, Mary Timony and Janet Weiss, that tends to happen. The quartet boasts a musical pedigree that, together and apart, includes names like Sleater-Kinney, Helium, The Minders, Quasi, The Jicks, The Spells and The Shadow Mortons, among others, but it wasn’t about cashing in on an established past. From Wild Flag’s beginnings creating a documentary film score to the vibrant and exuberant songs found on their debut, the mission has been to craft something both entirely new and that the members themselves would like, outside of expectations. As Brownstein told us, “We just wanted to like it and have faith in it… the chatter about any piece of art or…public exercise is so loud, you just have to tune it out.”

Wild Flag plays six new songs for us in front of an in-studio audience, in the process showing off a live persona that manages to be both polished and rambunctious—the same qualities that have already made their performances much talked about events. They remain on tour through mid-November, including Portland dates at the Doug Fir November 9th and 10th.

Michael Dean Damron – http://mikedamron.com/

Doing a quick trip down the West Coast w/ My buddy Matt Woods and Tiny Al Hunter….

10/18 Seattle -Slims Last Chance- 5606 1st Ave S  9pm

10/19 Troutdale OR- McMinemens- 2126 SW Halsey St 7pm

10/20 San Francisco CA- Hotel Utah-500 4th St 9pm

10/21 Los Angeles CA-1716 Sunset Blvd  4pm Early, Stories Bookstore

10/21 Los Angeles CA- Blue Tiramichu Art Works, House Concert, N Ave 64 Los Angeles CA 8pm

10/22 Las Vegas NV- The Double Down 4640 Pradise Rd 10pm

upcoming in-store performances & events:

All in-store performances are at Music Millennium 32nd & E Burnside, 503-231-8926 .

WHISPERING PINES
Friday, 10/21 – 6 PM
Whispering Pines is a five piece rock n roll outfit from Los Angeles that sounds as though it was lifted straight out of the Laurel Canyon music scene that overtook the City of Angels in the late 1960s… with a little Allman-style southern soul tossed in for good measure. If the musical homage to the sounds of the past isn’t clue enough to where this band is coming from, their name is lifted straight from a classic track by The Band.

MATT NATHANSON
Sunday, 10/23 – 2 PM
Matt Nathanson is one of the most dynamic performers and songwriters on the music scene today. The San Francisco-based singer/songwriter has built up a loyal fan base through extensive touring. His live shows are stripped-down affairs: half music, half standup comedy, with the humor balancing out the frequently introspective songs. Matt Nathanson’s 8th studio release, Modern Love, is a collection of pop and rock songs that are more joyful, complex and bold than any of his previous works.

TOM WAITS LISTENING PARTY
Monday, 10/24 – 9 AM
Listening party event for the new Tom Waits album, “Bad As Me”. Stop by and enter to win an autographed “Bad As Me” Deluxe CD!

THE IMPOSTERS / TEMPORAL LOVE
Wednesday, 10/26 – 6 PM
While The Imposters are generally best cornered into the genre of punk rock, and granted they are punk rock, with an edgy rawness and considerable attitude, their music goes well beyond the common expectations from said category.
While anchored in paying homage to the blues, acknowledging jazz, and toying with funk, Temporal Love blasts forth a power-trio force scarcely reckoned with in the world of music today. Intense jams, fat chops, juicy bottoms, extended wanderings, improvisational bliss… and class.

PAULA SINCLAIR
Thursday, 10/27 – 6 PM
Paula Sinclair is a sultry crooner with a country soul and a rock-n-roll heart. A multi-faceted performer, Paula sings her own tunes and sets poems to original music. Paula is also renowned for her kick-ass cover songs ranging from the great Steve Earle to Joni Mitchell to Emmylou Harris. Recently, Paula challenged herself to tackle Joni’s “open” or non-standard guitar tunings and intricate picking style. Hard at work mastering these great works alongside pianist Aaron Andrade, Paula recently premiered a set of Joni tunes when she opened for John Doe at Dante’s. She will also perform these songs at her in-store appearance at Music Millennium. Then, on November 9th, Paula will celebrate Joni’s 68th birthday alongside other performers in a Joni Mitchell Tribute at the Alberta Rose Theatre.

SNOW ANGEL featuring Gabby La La and Pamela Parker
Friday, 10/28 – 6 PM
Snow Angel features Gabby La La on sitar, ukulele, accordion and voice, and Pamela Parker on keyboard and backing vocals. Invoking feelings of nostalgia and hopeful possibility, Snow Angel makes an impression that could melt the most cynical of hearts. Gabby La La’s music is a mixture of indie-pop, folk, and North Indian classical music – her sound cannot be defined by any one genre and perhaps that is exactly what makes her so compelling to such a wide and varied audience. Since 2005, she has made waves not only in nightclubs and festivals, but also in the classroom and for friends, wherever she goes.

JOSH AND MER
Friday, 11/4 – 6 PM
Josh has always had a deep love for the music of The Beatles, Jeff Buckley, and Elliott Smith. Meredith’s musical tastes span from the influences of Simon & Garfunkel, Daft Punk, and Ella Fitzgerald. And so, the two went about conjuring up their own music while filming and photographing the entire process of creation. Blending their love of music with film, photography, and the Portland lifestyle, Josh and Meredith developed a concept to showcase their collaborative efforts and their work as individual artists.

THE BANGLES
Sunday, 11/6 – 3 PM
It was 30 years ago that guitarists Susanna Hoffs and Vicki Peterson and drummer Debbi Peterson formed the Bangles in a Brentwood, California, garage. They did so based on two crucial elements: their common love for rock’s golden age (“Growing up loving the same music has always been the glue for the Bangles,” says Susanna), and the crystalline sound they quite naturally created when they blended their voices (“The chemistry was there instantaneously. It just clicked,” Debbi recalls). These intertwined epiphanies sent them off together on a long and winding road that continues to this special moment: the appearance of Sweetheart Of The Sun, an album filled with a fresh batch of definitive Bangles songs – and it appears that there’s still no end in sight.

HONEYHONEY
Monday, 11/7 – 6 PM
Bubbling up from the underground of the Los Angeles music scene with an indelible Nashville-influenced sound, indie roots duo honeyhoney have released their new full-length album, Billy Jack. Billy Jack evokes California’s hippie Dust Bowl fringe. Overall, honeyhoney’s music contains a strong pull of Woody Guthrie-esque folk, vintage Buffalo Springfield, glints of Gram Parsons and bits of Bonnie Raitt’s early blues, along with Rickie Lee Jones reality and Bakersfield Saturday nights. Not country, not folk, not rock, it is a hybrid that defies exact definition.

COMMUNITY DAY/SONGWRITERS CIRCLE: ALEX MILLER, MATT VRBA, JOSH MALM
Monday, 11/7 – 7 PM

Free refreshments, special one-day deals, and live music!

LYDIA LOVELESS
Tuesday, 11/8 – 6 PM
Blessed with a commanding, blast-it-to-the-back-of-the-room voice, the 21-year-old Lydia Loveless was raised on a family farm in Coshocton, Ohio–a small weird town with nothing to do but make music. Loveless’ Indestructible Machine combines heady doses of punk rock energy and candor with the country classicism she was raised on and just can’t shake; it’s a gutsy and unvarnished mash-up.

JOHN WESLEY HARDING
Wednesday, 11/9 – 6 PM
John Wesley Harding has been joined onstage by Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, John Prine, Bruce Springsteen (with whom he recorded a duet on his album Awake), Joan Baez, Evan Dando, David Baddiel, Rick Moody, Tanya Donelly, Josh Ritter, Andrew Bird, Rosanne Cash, Colin Meloy, Scott MacCaughey and Robyn Hitchcock, among others. He has appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Late Show with David Letterman, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. His songs have been featured in films (including High Fidelity) and covered by other artists. Now 19 albums and three novels into one of the arts’ most compelling careers, John Wesley Harding brings us The Sound of His Own Voice. It features the all-star King Charles Trio, whose lineup includes John Moen, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee and Nate Query, all members of The Decemberists, Peter Buck of R.E.M. and McCaughey. Rosanne Cash, Laura Veirs and John Roderick (The Long Winters) also lend their vocal talents to the record.

RICH ROBINSON (of THE BLACK CROWES)
Thursday, 11/10 – 6 PM
The Black Crowes are still a vibrant, relevant entity, an experience he shares with his longtime bandmates, including his brother Chris. To refresh their individual energies, the band has gone on more frequent hiatuses, which has allowed Rich to explore musical ideas that might not fit the band dynamic, and also continue to hone his skills as a terrific visual artist. Through A Crooked Sun finds the musical gifts that have propelled a major career fully intact, but joined this time by a more sentient, holistic outlook: that of a father, a son, a husband, a spiritual being, a musician, fully integrated and more comfortable than ever in his body, mind and soul.

LAURA VEIRS
Saturday, 11/12 – 3 PM
Tumble Bee, the first children’s record from the prolific artist (Veirs’ last release, July Flame, was dubbed “a perfect Sunday afternoon record” by The Oxford American and “sweet and irresistible” by Rolling Stone) inspires listeners to lean in close and hit replay. The youthful innocence in Veirs’ voice lends itself well to the jaunty spirit of the album. The recording covers a wide range of folk songs, from early 20th century work songs to the ballads of Jimmie Rodgers, Woody Guthrie, Peggy Seeger and Harry Belafonte. The album features guest appearances by Colin Meloy (Decemberists), Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Bela Fleck and Brian Blade (drummer for Bob Dylan) among many others. As Smithsonian Folkways recording artist Elizabeth Mitchell says, “This is a luminous, smart, essential and truly extraordinary album.”

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks rocked the Crystal Ballroom last night & the guitar heavy evening had the crowd staying until the very end. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks have premiered the video for “Senator” off the Beck-produced Mirror Traffic. The video, which stars Jack Black and Gary Cole, was directed by Daily Show writer Scott Jacobsen. Check it…

Through http://www.Yawma.net, we are running a Pay What You Want campaign through next Sunday. Download our movie, latest LP, and Live at the Bananastand recording for a $1 minimum. 50% of the proceeds go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. If we reach our goal of $1000, Blue Skies will perform an acoustic version of a song of our fans’ choice. All contributors will get a video and mp3 of this song. The highest donor gets our entire catalog, all of our future releases, and A DRUID COSTUME, a prop from the movie!!! Just in time for Halloween.

You can see a video of Blue Skies pitching this opportunity to help Parkinson’s research and get more information regarding the campaign at this link: http://yawma.net/bundles/blueskies

Please pass the word along and help us reach our goal of $1000…or even better, let’s exceed it.

Thanks,

Pat Kearns - Blue Skies For Black Hearts – http://www.blueskiesforblackhearts.com/

upcoming in-store performances & events:

All in-store performances are at Music Millennium 32nd & E Burnside, 503-231-8926 .

BRYAN MINUS & THE DISCONNECT
Tuesday, 10/11 – 6 PM
The Portland band formed in February 2010, and have already released an EP called Forage and a 7″ single, Lust. Both received college radio play in the US and abroad. Bryan Minus & The Disconnect have played all over the Pacific NW, the West Coast and as far east as Colorado. Their debut, Empty Skies, is 80′s goth and post-punk, 90′s alternative, and recent synth-pop and experimental music juxtaposed into one; a current snapshot of an evolving band.

WHISPERING PINES
Friday, 10/21 – 6 PM
Whispering Pines is a five piece rock n roll outfit from Los Angeles that sounds as though it was lifted straight out of the Laurel Canyon music scene that overtook the City of Angels in the late 1960s… with a little Allman-style southern soul tossed in for good measure. If the musical homage to the sounds of the past isn’t clue enough to where this band is coming from, their name is lifted straight from a classic track by The Band.

THE BOXER REBELLION
Monday, 10/24 – 6:30 PM
The band’s Union LP saw them make history by becoming the first unsigned band to enter the US Billboard 100 Albums Chart on digital sales alone. By the end of 2009, iTunes US declared Union their Alternative Album of the Year. Their latest album is the breathtaker that is The Cold Still, an album that might never have seen the light of day from a band of lesser conviction. They have taken the trials of their formative years and built themselves a future that glows from the resurgent embers of the determination that refused to be extinguished all those years ago, and burns ever brighter still.

SNOW ANGEL featuring Gabby La La and Pamela Parker
Friday, 10/28 – 6 PM
Snow Angel features Gabby La La on sitar, ukulele, accordion and voice, and Pamela Parker on keyboard and backing vocals. Invoking feelings of nostalgia and hopeful possibility, Snow Angel makes an impression that could melt the most cynical of hearts. Gabby La La’s music is a mixture of indie-pop, folk, and North Indian classical music – her sound cannot be defined by any one genre and perhaps that is exactly what makes her so compelling to such a wide and varied audience. Since 2005, she has made waves not only in nightclubs and festivals, but also in the classroom and for friends, wherever she goes.

JOSH AND MER
Friday, 11/4 – 6 PM
Josh has always had a deep love for the music of The Beatles, Jeff Buckley, and Elliott Smith. Meredith’s musical tastes span from the influences of Simon & Garfunkel, Daft Punk, and Ella Fitzgerald. And so, the two went about conjuring up their own music while filming and photographing the entire process of creation. Blending their love of music with film, photography, and the Portland lifestyle, Josh and Meredith developed a concept to showcase their collaborative efforts and their work as individual artists.

LYDIA LOVELESS
Tuesday, 11/8 – 6 PM
Blessed with a commanding, blast-it-to-the-back-of-the-room voice, the 21-year-old Lydia Loveless was raised on a family farm in Coshocton, Ohio–a small weird town with nothing to do but make music. Loveless’ Indestructible Machine combines heady doses of punk rock energy and candor with the country classicism she was raised on and just can’t shake; it’s a gutsy and unvarnished mash-up.