I apologize for the lack of blogging in the last seven days on my end. I have been severely stricken with the super flu that has been going around and my daily routine has been reduced to trying to keep food down and making sure I am watching The Soprano’s in the right order. Here is two quick noisy gems from our friends down at Trash Yourself.
Trash Yourself & The Toxic Avenger – Die
Trash Yourself – Touch (Kids at the Bar Re-cycled Remix)
Posted By Sasha
My powers of persuasion must be lacking. The only person I knew at this show was that whom I brought with me! Either I’ve been out of Portland too long, or this city seriously never stops growing. Regardless of me being a loser, this show was relatively packed. Seriously? I listened to Ariel Pink on the way to the show, and I love his albums, but the prospect of watching him bring them to life seemed exhausting. I now know how someone with such inacessible records can draw such a crowd: Ariel Pink was astounding live. Thankfully he had a full band (Drummer thank god) which allowed all of his charisma to bleed out in front of some truly pink lights. Girls in the crowd were swooning (no joke) and Ariel Pink ate it up, even joining the crowd at a couple different points in the set. I was fully prepared for a boring albeit interesting set from Ariel Pink, and was given the exact opposite. Do not miss this guy!
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Posted By David Hutchinson
Past Lives play Portland more often than even some local bands, and each time I’m right there watching. If you haven’t noticed, Past Lives are my very favorite band to rise from the ashes of the Blood Brothers and projects past. Everytime they play, they put on a show which embodies the best elements of their Strange Symmetry EP, and all the influences within it. One can’t help but draw similarities between lead singer Jordan Billie and the very weathered Mick Jagger (especially when he spells it out for you…). Live, Past lives are louder than their record might have you believe. It is this restraint on their record which makes Past Lives so interesting, and so much more than just an aside to their abrasive prior triumphs. They are worth catching if only to see guitarist Devin Welch, who I solumnly swear will go down in history as being one of the greats. Here’s to hoping they come again next month; and just a suggestion: open for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs!
More photos after the jump.
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Posted By David Hutchinson
Here’s a new mashup I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks. I was very much inspired by The Hood Internet, but I found it impossible to DJ with the version found on thier third mix tape, so I made my own , which includes a couple more guest vocals by Kanye West and Trix, and I’m giving to you in a 320kpbs format. Let me know what you think in the comments, and if you think you can make a better edit, I’ve included the original instrumental and acappella elements (& video’s after the jump) for you to make your own mashup.
Posted By Gray
Athsmatic Kitty is releasing some amazing stuff this year. First they drop DM Stith’s excellent new record Heavy Ghost, and now they’re prepping possibly their greatest new one of the year with Cryptacize’s Mythomania. You may remember me mentioning their involvement in Nick Krgovich’s Prison Musical only the other day. If you Weren’t already won over by their debut Dig That Treasure, Mythomania might just do the trick. Cryptacize cover all grounds here, nodding to everything from flamenco guitar rhythms (‘I’ll Take the Long Way’) to all out odd instrumentation (‘Tail & Mane’). This unique style lays grounds for some similarly strange vocal qualities. Look no further than the title track ‘Mythomania’ to find the perfect example of Nedelle Torrisi’s unique and affecting vocal style. Each member of Cryptacize compliments the other, and no song better embodies this than album stand-out ‘The Cage’. The album doesn’t come out until April 21, but you’ve been given the perfect opportunity to hear it live this Thursday when they play Holocene. And hey, the also amazing Ariel Pink is headlining!
MP3’s after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted By David Hutchinson
Parenthetical Girls were in rare form last Friday when they performed at Backspace with personal favs No Kids. Zac Pennington always does his best to embody the actions you wish you could take everytime you hear a Parenthetical Girls song. Poeticism like that on Entanglements becomes theatrical when put to music, and Parenthetical Girls bring that to life live better than one might expect. When our minds can’t fully comprehend how to dance to a song like album stand-out ‘Gut Symmetries’, Pennington does his best to fill in the blanks.
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Posted By David Hutchinson
Posted By Sasha
Four full lengths and an EP into Phosphorescent’s carreer and finally we cover him on FuckBadMusic.com. For those of you who missed him with Bon Iver (I know, me too), I sincerely hope you were present for his performance at Holocene last Wednesday. Although one might not normally charcaterize his music as being a sonic relative to Willie Nelson’s, the similarities are present, if hidden. On the one hand Both Nelson and Matthew Houck have voices which can be unquestionably distinguished from their contemporaries. Also, both have a career which both celebrates the singer-songwriter while simultaneously encouraging a more flourished, full-band sound.
Posted By David Hutchinson
(get money)
Valerna The Pursuit of Happyness (192 kbps)
Yeah Yeah Yeah’s poor song (DEATH TO THE THRONE REMIX!!!!)
Franz Ferdinand No You Girls (Zodiac Cartel Mix) (Extended Mix)
Izza kizza Hello (DJ Wool Remix) Euro Edit
Kaz James ft Macy Grey Can’tHold Back (Ryan Riback Edit)
Curses! The Deep End (Bart B More Remix)
Posted By Sasha
Somehow I’ve totally missed out knowing about this trio of SNL comedians who go by the name of the The Lonely Island and will be releasing their new album Incredibad, which is now in stores and online for sale. TimesOnline wrote a great article about the Lonely Island.
Thank god DJ Kue remixed their track “I’m on a Boat” so that I gave it a chance. I love the fact that T-Pain guests on this track, fully confirming that he’s in on the joke of his popularity and public persona. My favorite line has got to be T-Pains
“I never thought I’d be on a boat / it’s a big blue watery road / Poooooseeeeiden !/ Look at me! / oh woh / I’d never thought I’d see the day/ When a big boat’d come my way/ Believe me when I say / I FUCKED A MERMAID!”
Holy shit, that’s genius.
and of course, you already have this track cuz Kellen dropped it on you 2 months ago, but here it is again with the video.
And then of course there’s this parody of the Ying Yang Twins that really make me question why their Whisper Song ever made it on the radio in the first place.
Posted By Gray
One year ago I launched this website to write about the music I love. I quickly added on friends to help me with web design, as dj’s and most of all as writers to collectively post new material every day. What started out as a joke and a funny idea is now a fully formed group of people and a little electronic music community here in Portland, Oregon.
To celebrate our one year anniversary we are throwing our last monthly party at our favorite little night club. This time with VS sets by all the DJ’s from the blog and this time around for free. (Benhibubu is filling in for Dr. Adam due to previous engagement.)
Individual bio’s after the jump:
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Posted By Sasha
Here’s some remixes sent to me by local Portland DJs. Really, I don’t understand why this town with so much live DJ talent doesn’t produce the kind of stellar original production and remixes that have come out of other scenes. But these two acts shine. Also, check out Tyler Tastemaker and Doctor Adams remix/re-edit album.
I don’t know much about them but they just recently started as a duo, as of 2008 and they’re really nice guys.
“Based in Portland he plays numerous nightlife venues and held a spot mixing live on the city’s top radio station. In hopes of pushing the art forward, he teaches mixing classes at Portland’s own Spun Academy as well.”
Posted By Gray
If Leslie Feist was the voice of coffee corporations over the past two years, Rio En Medio is the voice of economy conflicted coffee shops in 2009. With the release of her new album Frontier last month, Rio En Medio (aka Danielle Stech-Homsy) is set to alarm the masses… well, think of it more as a silent alarm. Much like her first album The Bride of Dynamite, Frontiers is a hushed-hand clap driven home recording that utilizes echo and loop to add layer upon layer to the original mix. When a pluck of the guitar fails to do the trick, layers of bells, whips and added vocal tracks fill an otherwise lonely sounding track. Like current tour buddies Brightblack Morning Light, Frontiers is a quiet album dying to break out of the bedroom. But, where BBML’s catalogue reaches a static point on repeated listens, Rio En Medio explores a new environment with each song.
Grab her new album Frontiers from Mammal Vinyl, and look around at the other awesome stuff that label has to offer.
Grab a few of her tracks free of charge after the jump
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Posted By David Hutchinson
I’ve been so happy that Techno seems to have been having something of a resurgence in popularity in Portland. There’s several notable monthly club nights, like R9 @ the GrooveSuite, Kulturszene @ Branx, and Drum Club@ Dunes. And production crews like Latenight Renegades are bringing modern notables like Tiger Stripes to play shows here.
Mikael Nordgren, AKA Tiger Stripes, is from Sweden, and is on the very influential and always reliable Get Physical label, also home to other minimalistic and sexy techno producers M.A.N.D.Y, Booka Shade, and DJ T.
Please Note:
Tiger Stripes was to be held at the 720 this friday, this event is now being held at the 2410 N. MISSISSIPPI venue. Please spread the word. More details can be found on the NWTekno.org posting. Here’s some of my favorite of his tracks:
Posted By Gray
