EVENTS: March 2007 Archives
privacy
eternal tapestry
white rainbow
tomorrow
sunday
march 4th
free
holocene music venue
portland
21+
9pm
at the curatorial request of m. mcgonigal, i will play along to harry smith's "early abstractions" films creating a live, improvised new soundtrack.
this event being the second free monthly in a series called
"Miniluah"
like the Halleluah fest of last summer which m. mcgonical (editor of the thick, progressive Yeti magazine who moved from seattle to portland a couple years ago, bringing with him a long and colorful history of music writing since back in the 80's in new york with his Chemical Imbalanced zine up to his newest book about the my bloody valentine album Loveless which just came out as part of the 33 and a 1/3 series) and chantelle hilton (who has booked just about every good place to see shows since the blackbird back in the dark ages of like, 2001 and shit) have put together as a new free monthly that fills the shoes of the retired "Church of Psychedelia" (which was wonderfully curated for a couple of years at a couple of different venues by the wonderful Josh Blanchard of Plants (ex delano, kremlin bronx, mome raths, point line plane etc), who has done his fair share of booking in this town. I met him back when we were both barely out of our teens and he was helping out with Thee O aka the O Hell, which was the sequel to the legendary grunge/punk all ages venue The Xray (both of which were run by the dude who now runs Voodoo donuts) back in 1995 or 96. Josh booked the weird, melencolly final days of the legendary satyricon, filling it with music perhaps too adventurous to bring out the throngs, but some of of the most memorable shows i saw or played since moving back to portland circa '01/'02.
there was the church of psych and now there is miniluah. a handing off of the baton to some new curators.
an uncredited writer of some sort for the mercury, our local "indie rock" news paper decided to make a snarky and dismissive statement about halelluah, miniluah and local "psychedelic" music in general this week, summing them up as basically the equivalent of a dude with a "leather jacket with tassles" playing boring guitar through a delay pedal for 45 minute stretches.
which could be seen as an insult to me and most of my friend who make music. but when you boil it down, the dude is right on. much of this city's psychedelic/noise/improv/abstract/experimental/electro-acoustic/ambient music IS about one dude being "boring" on stage.
its just that some people get into "that sort of thing", and some people don't. most of it is not the best "party music" if you are looking for bands to chug pints to, bop your head to, dance twee-ly to, pump your fist in the direction or do much of anything to except maybe relax, sit back, reflect, trip out, lose sense of time/space, get lost in, etc.
anyway, not all "drone" or "psychedelic" music is of the same quality and a lot of it IS completely tedious. its true. sometimes a person is just not in the mood. and sometimes the dude or dudes on stage making the trips dont quite "hit it". whatever.
maybe there was a need to clear the air, or create a healthy "other" to the group of dudes writing for the merc (including-ironically, perhaps- Josh Blanchard) who were more than a bit psyche-obsessed last year. the annual music issue last year was dedicated to psychedelic music in general and plenty of ink was spilled on me, plants, ghosting, jackie-o, valet, world, and a bunch of other trippy bands. perhaps our day in the sun is over now. the hardcore of us will tread on, delay pedals at full bore, while those who were just passing through will move on to other, fresher creative ground.
its hard enough to keep up with national trends in music writing and criticism, let alone the rapid-fire ebb and flow of dudes writing about portland's ever changing and expanding and growing hip music scene.
privacy is laurel knapp, who is the more private co-runner of marriage records. she's the wife of label ceo curtis knapp and mother of their son Fox - who happen to be two of the most delightful and inspiring friend i have. at any rate, laurel's music is a wonder to experience. so quiet, truthful and close to the source that for me it is impossible to separate from (what i see of) her life with curtis and fox. in this way it is perhaps some of the most "folk" music i have ever seen and heard played. even for me, whose experience of live music performance is so often colored by my friendship of the person(s) playing it as to be completely non-objective. there is a simplicity and honesty to laurel's music that is so refreshingly transparent as to be totally and completely disarming. it comes back to the simple roots of picking notes that sound good, the pleasure of discovering the basics of music itself. Privacy is just really, really good! i cant recommend it enough. she usually plays for only 10 or 15 minutes so come early or risk missing it all.
i met nick bindeman, (who along with his brother jed and a bunch of other cool dudes i know far less make up the deep psychedelic jam band Eternal Tapestry) way back in 2002 or 2003, when he was in Alarmist with James Squeeky (who went on to do sex with girls is rad and is now doing solo stuff as argumentix) and Eva (who later did malibu falcon with nic and is now the woman behind inca ore) and Eric Crespo (who went on to front Ghost to Falco). i saw them play a show, perhaps as part of a Tropix or Arctix festival and was blown away by their weird crazy power and intensity. nic was the drummer. later he gave me a CDR of his solo stuff called Tunnels and i was again blown away, this time by his deeply german kosmic drone music. it was sounded fresh and raw and awesome. when honey and i were dropping out of jackie-o and tom was looking for replacements for us, nic and eva were the first people that came to mind. in between all of that he was playing in crazy spazzed out avant punk band hustler white and probably a bunch of other stuff i dont know about. and also this band ETERNAL TAPESTRY who have been playing a bunch of shows this last year. nic's brother jed moved to town and has been playing drums for them. sweeeet. also, very trippy. in that leather tassel and delay pedal sorta way. FUCK the haters. do a preview vibe on their myspz http://www.myspace.com/eternaltapestry
anyway here are some clips of the harry smith film i will be playing along to, in case you were curious. they were made 50 to 60 years ago (1946-57) and are totally beautiful:
