Music News
John Moen Celebrating Album Release at Holocene
John Moen, of The Decemberists, is set to release his solo project/band’s self-titled, full-length album on June 11th at the Holocene. John’s project is called Perhapst, and the album is titled Perhapst, and the album is being released on Portland-based indie record label In Music We Trust.
Being completely superficial I’ll say I like the solo project’s name (ok, I’m not superficial but in this instance, I’m being such…) because it’s close to word “Perhaps”, a word I like to use when people ask me if I’m going to [a] a show, [b] a party; and I also like it because the word looks like Pabst.
John is the drummer for The Decemberists; you are aware of The Decemberists. The album will speak for itself, but I hear it’s indie pop, folk-rock laden. So work with that for awhile until the album comes out. The good news (because he’s a good musician) is that John plays most of the instruments on the album – channeling some Dave Grohl perhaps; what’s with it with drummers, are they are the most versatile part of a band? Answer = yes.
Perhapst will be playing with Norfolk & Western and opening will be Two Beers. The show starts at 9pm. It’s at the Holocene.
Portland Art Spark in April
Discuss the arts in Portland! It happens the 3rd Thursday of each month. This is what April looks like:
Soooooo, the 3rd Thursday of April would be 17th and the event goes from 5-7 pm at Living Room Theaters’ Lounge & Bar (SW 10th and Stark in Portland, OR). This month’s host is PNCA President Tom Manley and he’ll be talking about the future of the local arts college. Hope to see you there!
2nd Annual 3900' Festival
Info about this year’s 3900’ Festival is up on their website. Last year -the Shaky Hands headlined, and continued success has lead them to the Sasquatch Music Festival this year.
The 3900’ Festival is two days of camping, two stages of music and over 30 independent bands all taking places in North Plains, OR on June 27th & 28th at Horning’s Hideout.
This year’s line up includes: Ian Moore, Two Loons for Tea, Jared Mees, Kurt Hagardorn, Finn Riggins, Echo Helstrom, Ascetic Junkies, the Wherewithals, Outpost, Power of County, McDougall, Acoustic Minds, Trip Like Animals, Ohioan & Native Kin, Reverse Dotty & the Candy Cane Shivs, the Royal Houser, Mercury Tree, No Go Know, Paper Brain, Little Beirut, Shaped Like Sharks, Nick Caceres, Mantis, Double Plus Good and many more.
Tickets are currently $31 (includes parking and camping), but after March 30th, the price goes to $53.
Unfiltered: Indie Rock Showcase in March
This month’s Unfiltered: Indie Rock Showcase takes place March 19 at the McMenamins White Eagle Saloon. All shows start at 8:30pm.
Price: Free
Crossing Pluto
Double Dragon
A Cautionary Tale
Panther Remixed by Copy
Portland’s electro-pop artist, Copy, has a sufficiently impressive remix of Panther’s On the Lam, and you can listen to On the Lam on Hype Machine as of today or at the Kill Rock Stars website – click here maaaaan!.
Panther is Charles Salas-Humara and Joe Kelly. Here’s some of their recent reviews:
“This man is the best fucking band I’ve ever seen.” – The Portland Mercury
“This one completely came out of nowhere and knocked us on the noggin with its sluggish dime-store drum-machines and subdued vocal funk. Dark dance floors and even darker bedrooms will definitely be petting this wildcat.” – XLR8R
“I honestly don’t think you are ready for this album. Truly. I mean, did you hear the first 12” (released by Fryk Beat last year… get with it kid)? Are you prepared to have your speakers floor danced? You don’t know what floor dancing is? Yeah. You’re not ready. In fact, I’m not ready. No one is.” – Jake Hasselman, Indieworkshop.com
Panther’s new album 14kt God was released in February on Kill Rock Stars (buy it there or on iTunes), and the cd cover looks like this,
Here are the tracks on the cd:
01. puerto rican jukebox
02. her past are the trees
03. decision, decision
04. on the lam
05. violence, diamonds
06. these two trees
07. worn moments
08. glamorous war
09. take yr cane
10. beautiful condo
11. 14 kt god
12. total sexy church
13. what you hear
Digital Music Sales in 2007
Some graph-porn over at the Economist. Digital music sales online made up 15% of the total music sales in 2007; a large increase from 3% in 2004.
Last.fm Streams the Music (Ahhh Yeah!)
Last.fm has this to say today, “As of today, you can play full-length tracks and entire albums for free on the Last.fm website”. Last.fm is a social music community crafted around music; so you mark what you like and find others with similar (or differing) musical interests. There’s also an app you can download that will automagically send the names of songs you listen to in iTunes to Last.fm.
Up until today, you could only listen to small portions of a song – I think for signed artists this was the case and with indie artists, maybe you could listen to the whole song: don’t remember. That said, I haven’t listened to a song today on Last.fm because their damn player isn’t working. NW Noise is a user on Last.fm; find us, poke us and add us as a friend – see the music we listen to.
I still prefer find new music through the Hype Machine. You’ll find a ton of signed artists, indie bands and obscure music on Hype Machine. So far they’ve been under-the-radar with the major labels and so they haven’t been sued or man-handled to stop the music. Go Hype!
Boy Eats Drum Machine Band Last Show
Boy Eats Drum Machine’s last show as a band is this Friday at the Holocene. Frontman of the band, Jon, will be taking the act solo, as he finds this the most agreeable way to further his art and make it economically as an artist.
Benjy and Peter will be missed, cause they’re great guys and we like ‘em around here. There last album, Two Ghosts, was replete with musical contributions from Benjy and Peter. Apart from the new record, love from the local press, Boy Eats even had time to put out a fun and well-crafted music video.
Best of luck to Jon as he takes Boy Eats Drum Machine solo!
Duo, Solo Acoustic Gathering
The pizza joint with the long fucking name, MISSISSIPPI, hosted a night of solo, duo special performances by members of local bands. Performing were Nat & Dave of Derby, Michael Nelson of Climber, and Johnny & Pierre of The Dimes.
In my typical fashion, I arrived late to the venue, but Jason and JP caught a great set by Johnny and Pierre of The Dimes. Hoarding most of the air in the room and expelling more body heat than a brothel…err, the place was packed. Climber brought the throngs of people closer to the stage, but not because they use Axe body spray but because of their subdued sound and quiet expression. Musically, they were expressive, appropriate and melodic. We were impressed by the numbers of people that came to see them. We’d recommend going to Mississippi Pizza for a show, but wear a t-shirt, it’s fucking hot in herrrrr.
Listen to Climber’s Escape here on Northwest Noise.
Download: Escape
Teen Bop Dream Out Now
The Soda Pop Kids Teen Bop Dream is out in stores NATIONWIDE today! Northwest Noise reviewed Teen Bop Dream back in late-August and we all thought these guys kick ass and that the album is worth you buying. So there you go, you can buy the album online at Full Breach Kicks – you’ll get a free bandana if you buy it there!
