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June 28, 2005
Dirty Projectors, E*rock, World, The Wind Up Bird, DJ Totally Cutie, Holocene, 6/14
world by daniel
e*rock by daniel
dirty projectors by daniel
I'm super late on this so let me just say this: sometimes you go to a show and you don't really know what you're gonna see, and sometimes you end up with your mouth open going "holy sheezus, what IS this?" and proceed to be totally enthralled for (almost) the entire set (my attention span is flimsy). Dirty Projectors did that for me. I'd been prepared for greatness, but like any jaded person-who-goes-to-hella-shows I wasn't totally buying it.
So I was floored. The music was alien and fascinating; the video gave me chills. The sound is totally unique: a mix of vintage crooner vibes, afropop sunny funk, and Bjork-ian epic weirdness. The band was huge and pumped: upright bass, drums, female backround singers (!!!), synth, other things I forget. It was ambitious and successful.
At one point the singers were holding out a tone and all of sudden they snapped their heads back like rag dolls and slid the notes UP. That was the coolest thing I've seen at a show in a long time. That ruled!
Other notes:
- Wind Up Bird was INTENSE. One guy sitting on the floor with his laptop playing beautiful ambient music that slowly morphed into primal scream/drone therapy. That should've been my first clue. He later appeared in the Dirty Ps.
- I thought I'd seen World before but I think I was wrong. They were totally good too. At one point the video was projecting a disembodied head onto Honey's sternum. It looked like she had a tiny, evil second head. TRIP.
- E*rock's new jamz are awesome. Totally spazzy dance stuff that hits on this exciting emerging intersection between weird electro stuff and house. The first track had a barking MC sample that built the beat up until you were begging for more of that clipped funky beatness, and then you got it, and it was rad. I hope that gets pressed on vinyl, cuz I'd totally spin that shit.
- DJ Hot Air Balloon aka DJ Totally Cutie played the entirety of R.Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" and it was suitably epic. He also played lotsa chopped 'n' screwed Houston rap. He was totally a cutie.
Posted by TRMW at 04:11 PM | Comments (1)
June 14, 2005
Sleater-Kinney, Mary Timony, Crystal Ballroom, 6/2
Was gonna review this and post some of Jason Quigley's awesome photos, but ezruh at Slang Editorial has you covered on both counts. This also happens to be one of my fave new blogs, which double also happens to be partially PDX-based.
Posted by TRMW at 06:05 PM | Comments (0)
Emiliana Torrini, Doug Fir, 6/13
Randburg.com lists Iceland's three main exports as:
• Fisheries products USD 1,237 million.
• Manufactured goods USD 269 million.
• Services USD 636 million.
However, they really should add a fourth category: quirky, fairie-folky female singers. Like her fellow Icelander Bjork, Emiliana Torrini is cute as a button, dresses oddly (last night, she appeared to be wearing some sort of psychedelic Lily Pulitzer muumuu), and has a gorgeous voice. Unlike Bjork, she doesn't feel the need to bury that voice beneath mountains of distortions or effects, preferring to keep her sound minimal.
While Torrini has been getting some indie and college radio airplay recently, her music might be best known to hardcore geeks; she is voice behind “Gollum’s Song” on the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. I ended up going mostly because it was Monday night, I was bored, and her publicist emailed me and put me on the list. I ran in to some friends in the upstairs bar and thus missed most of the opening act, but was told later that her original opener had been detained at the border and her guitarist was filling in and performing some of his own material. I caught his last song, which was pleasant and soft and which I honestly have no recollection of less then twelve hours later.
The downstairs room was almost empty, and the staff has scattered tables around the floor in order to make the room look more full. I’d put the crowd at about a hundred, maybe one fifty. The were mostly older and not the usual “Portland show” crowd; at one point a middle aged man walked past me wearing a sweater tucked in to jeans. Overall, it felt more like a coffee shop then a nightclub. Torrini acknowledged the low turnout by relating an anecdote about playing a festival in front of “three people and a kitten,” then played “Today’s Been OK.”
While all of her songs were lovely, her between song banter was the most interesting part of the evening. She related stories about her high school thrash metal boyfriend and her first meeting with collaborator Bill Callahan of Smog, the latter incorporating the phrase “camel toe spotting” (apparently a sport in Texas). She also told the crowd that “Sunny Road,” which is currently being played regularly on KCRW, was written for Johnny Cash.
In the interest of full disclosure, I didn’t stay for the entire show; I left at about ten to eleven, after she’s been on stage for almost an hour. The reason for this is twofold: one, I usually listen to weird harsh noise and am used to seeing twenty minute sets, and two, I am old lady with a day job. Overall, it was a pretty pleasant way to kill a Monday night.
Drinks drunk: one vodka cran (again, old lady with a day job).
Posted by Cortney Harding at 09:35 AM | Comments (5)
June 06, 2005
Mahjongg, The Cells, Atole, Holocene, 5/27/05
Sorry, TRMW. I did wuss out on the Stereo Total review because I thought they were a bit of a snooze fest (except that one song they did at the end that doesn’t sound like words and Brezel Goring sings the same jumble phrase over and over to a kickin’ beat). Gooey personal issues cannot allow me to write on the Gossip. Ha!
So, I digress and write on the Mahjongg! You ever get some kind of supposedly super secret demo from a friend and then you become obsessed with it to the point where you jam out to it at every red light and it’s the pinnacle of your listening pleasure for months. You give it to all your friends and play it for your editor because you want him to know how super fresh you are. Then, finally you see that it’s come out officially and it’s reviewed on Pitchfork and they’re all like “hmm, seven stars. It’s all right”. Now your little secret is not a secret and Pitchfork has smuggled it into the public spectrum of mediocrity. Nooooooo! I don’t know why I let them have so much power over me. Ugh.
Anyways, so from that little prelude you can imagine how pumped I was for this show. I mean, I had reached groupie status like Friendstering them and letting them know my pumpedness. I’m texting my friends a week in advance “Don’t forget Mahjongg this Friday” and then “One day till Mahjongg”, you get the picture. From my convoluted first impression, I expected the place to be packed but actually considering Bloc Party and Pixies were playing that night, it was situationally packed. Yeah!
I was amazed how much gear they had: two drum sets, a computer setup that looked like it was lifted from CIA offices of the 80s and tons of little toy doodlies for voice modulation and percussion. I don’t remember lighting at the Holocene ever being so good but it rocked visually more than anything I had ever seen there. The stage was packed with bodies and all the band members kept switching instruments like it ain’t no thang. For example Hunter Husar did keyboards, computron, synth, guitar and drums. I must say that the vocals can be a bit doldrums, lacking affect, and there was definitely no rock’n’roll talk (my favorite aspect of live shows). They really don’t need it though considering some of their songs are of an ultimate tribal cadence and had 30 people dancing in the front getting the floor all wet with fallen drinks and sweat (including myself....note to self: don’t wear heels... geez, they did look hot though). Uh-huh!
Posted by at 01:06 PM | Comments (2)
June 01, 2005
Sasquatch Festival 2005, The Gorge Amphitheater, 5/27
Sasquatch is a hairy beast that lives in the woods, also known as Bigfoot. Sasquatch is also a music festival that takes place once a year, way out in bumfuck Washington. The town of George, Washington to be exact, which is an awesome name for a town. I went this year and this is what I saw.
A.C. NEWMAN: I didn't really get into this guy's set, can't really say why. It's really nice music, but maybe it just seemed a little too straight after shotgunning beers and smoking j's at 1pm. Yeah, that's probably what it was.
MENOMENA: I feel like I've been completely stalking these dudes lately. They're probably starting to get a little creeped out. I saw them at SXSW, after the Gang of Four show at the Filmore, then here. It's like every time they leave Portland, there I am, waving awkwardly, mooching band beer, always, THERE. I swear this is just coincidence. Anyway, they were good, it's awlays cool to see people I don't recognize getting stoked on their wonderful music, and Brent seemed to be wearing a kids soccer uniform. Who's creepy now, HUH??
(Horrible period where my only options were Jem, Blue Scholars, and the Dears, NONE of which appeal to me at all. Bummed a cigarette under a tree. Smoked out to Jem's whitebread reggae.)
ARCADE FIRE: My friend Javan and I were talking about Canadian bands and I was saying something halfway snarky about "trying really hard". Which is a good thing right? I honestly wanted to mean it that way but sometimes I don't, and I honestly didn't know what I meant when I sat down for this show. Midway through the Arcade Fire's set - the emotional histrionics and the dudes running around banging on stuff and making orgasm faces like some kind of indie-rock Stomp - and I thought I knew. "Trying really hard" can be like when Celine Dion tries really hard, holds her stomach, slowly curls her hand into a fist and raises it towards the heavens. It can mean schmaltz.
And yet somehow I went away liking this band more. Their songs really are pretty amazing, they sound great in a huge-ass canyon/cliff setting, and they really ARE trying hard and that's a good thing and I hate my asshole self for implying otherwise.
WILCO: Liked it. Nils Kline is an awesome guitarist. "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" was made for arenas like this one.
KANYE WEST: So great. Awesome performer, all the more impressive given his skill as a producer. Played snippets of classic R&B hits to introduce his own R&B hits. Possibly the highlight. "Possibly" because later on my friend Kat was saying how she thought the lyrics to this song were a little effed up. I totally ignored this at first, then I read these awesome, thought-provoking posts from Julianne Shepherd and Jessica Hopper, and I got to thinking, wait, what is up with that song? And, maybe more importantly, why did I instantly dismiss my female friend's complaint? No really, READ THOSE POSTS.
MODEST MOUSE: Good band, but I think I've officially decided (officials please take note) that this is not "my" good band. I just can't really get into it. I feel like they have two basic songs, the sad song and the angry song, and I am just not needing all that sadness and anger. But (surprise!) I really like "Float On". All my friends like them and I like my friends so I'm not talking shit. Just talking.
THE PIXIES: I never ever ever thought I'd see the Pixies once, let alone three times in my lifetime, as I now have. At this point the thrill of seeing these amazing, AMAZING!! songs live has faded and I am free to fixate on the bad parts of their show, and their are enough to make me wish I had only seen them once.
CONCLUSION: Really fun way to spend a Saturday with good friends. Really really hot. Next time save energy for the post-fest party in the campground. Bring a frisbee.
Posted by TRMW at 12:54 AM | Comments (2)