pampelmoose Dave Allen of Gang of Four’s Music and Media Blog — music . media . web. culture

In what may be the lamest endorsement ever for a young band, the night I first heard the Old Believers I sent an expletive filled email to my friend Arya excitedly proclaiming that this was the first Portland music that I was sure to share with my (future) kids. Why so? Because the song I was listening to - “The Glory’s All Been Done”  - came across as so essential and timeless. The conundrum was a case of a band I’d heard of, but never actually heard or even realized I hadn’t put to an end by a MySpace profile song. Ahhh… the internet. Always proving itself lovely, isn’t it?

Anyways, that’s the story behind my first hearing the Alaskan natives and last week I got my chance to catch the act live for the first time during its headlining Doug Fir set. Taking to the stage around midnight, frontwoman Keeley Boyle took to the stage solo to begin the set and slowly the stage began filling up, song by song. I was a bit surprised when “The Glory’s All Been Done” was pulled out of the bag so early as the second song after co-founder Nelson Kempf came out of the wings bringing along a healthy dose of tuning difficulties. Over the course of the seemingly short, but oh so sweet and appreciated set the Old Believers swelled to a full band set-up complete with a drummer, a small horn section, Doubledutch’s Jordan Bagnall on the accordion and vocalist Danielle Sullivan helping to serenade.  By the end, the numbers onstage dwindled back to the Old Believers’ original lineup with Kempf and Boyle (having started as a duo) entertaining an encore request on their own to close the night.

The Old Believers - That’s All

Reverend Beat-Man - Friday @ Slabtown
This growling menace from Switzerland (pictured) has done most of the work for me - releasing three volumes of recordings as “Surreal Folk Blues Gospel Trash.” I could think of no better descriptor for his devastating and sexy sound. Leave the so-called blues to the pikers down at Waterfront Park and get thee to Slabtown for this rockin’ showcase.

Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth - Saturday @ Someday Lounge
If one fireworks show simply isn’t enough for you, perhaps some aural pyrotechnics will help satiate you. Might I recommend, in that regard, the blazing metal showcase happening at the Someday Lounge on the eve of the 4th. Not only is it free, but it also features the latest group formed and fronted by Tad Doyle, whose blistering outfit TAD was one of the first groups signed to Sub Pop Records. Word is that Doyle has lost none of his fire, his fury, or his girth. We can only hope his backing band can keep up with him.

Helios - Wednesday @ Holocene
If a dreamy, cinematic approach to instrumental music pleases you as much as it does me, look no further than this fascinating artist. Known to friends and family as Keith Keniff, this Portland native’s music evokes haunting memories, the kind that you either want to revel in for an eternity or that evoke lingering aches from deep within.

Bitch Magazine benefit - Thursday @ Mississippi Studios
Help support your local nonprofit magazine that comments on pop culture, feminism and media, and catch a fine quartet of local talent at the same time. The bill includes the one-man turntable attack of Boy Eats Drum Machine and the plaintive folk rock of Katie Sawicki.

Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman have spent the majority of their careers resting in the shadows of the people they’ve worked with and projects they’ve collaborated on. This is especially true of their days as members of The Revolution, the backing band that ushered Prince through the most creative and commercially successful period of his career.

Bearing the weight of his high profile, Wendy & Lisa’s work away from The Revolution unfortunately never caught fire in the marketplace despite the appreciation of critics and their fellow musicians. It’s a shame, too, as the work that Wendy & Lisa have done together over the years, starting with a self-titled effort in 1987, has been quite satisfying, filled with bold strokes of chamber pop and lilting psychedelia.

Thankfully for Wendy & Lisa, the years have been kinder to them than they have to their former employer, musically speaking, as evidenced by this, the duo’s first album in a decade. Their approach to songwriting hasn’t altered much, but the work on White Flags feels as mature and fully formed as ever.

It’s an album that is instantly recognizable as a byproduct of the duo’s adopted hometown of Los Angeles, bearing the sun-baked haziness that has marked so many of the best pop records to come out of the city. It’s there in the rambling tempo and sparkling cool of songs like “Red Bike” and “Invisible”, as well as the album’s overall relaxed, yet assured tone.

Mostly, White Flags feels, for lack of a better term, comfortable. The end of the duo’s romantic relationship (a breakup that inspired the album’s most impassioned song, the acoustic ballad “You and I”) has not tarnished their creative partnership one iota. Wendy & Lisa have fallen back into the well-worn grooves that made their work so interesting from the beginning. To hear them settle into the grinding, sexed-up rhythms of “Salt And Cherries” or get lost together in the ethereal vapor of the album’s title track is to hear this duo at their best.

Partnership to Leverage Combined Global Online Retail Distribution Network And Complementary Technologies

New York, New York — July 1, 2009 — Sony Music Entertainment (SME) today announced that it has entered into a global partnership with IODA to create a new leading distribution and services network for independent rights holders. As part of the partnership, Sony Music has made a strategic investment in IODA, a leader in digital distribution, marketing, and technology solutions for the independent music industry. Additional terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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Ohmega Watts

Week number 10 of the Pampelmoose New Music Hour radio show on WOXY.com. This week we feature even more cuts from Portland bands as once again the whole hour is dedicated to Portland’s rich music scene. You’ll hear Ohmega Watts, Boy Eats Drum Machine, She & Him, Nurses, Blow and more. The show airs twice a week - every Tuesday at 3PM PST and 6PM EST and every Sunday at 8AM PST and 11AM EST. The show streams live - visit the WOXY homepage and click on your preferred method of listening - iTunes, WinAmp, Windows or AAC+. The show will be archived here as well.
And as always, if you like what you hear you can click on the Amazon banner below and support the bands and labels by buying their music.

Spoon - I Turn My Camera On
She & Him - Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?
Nurses - Caterpillar Playground
Solo Dos En Tijuana - Soy El Piso
Parenthetical Girls - Windmills Of Your Mind
Amphisbaena - Born Free
Ohmega Watts - Eyes and Ears
Siren’s Echo - All My
The Swords Project - Md 11
Au - RR vs D
Super XX Man - Medication [Podington Bear Remix]
Boy Eats Drum Machine - Immovably Reunited [Remix]
Noise Abroad - Vent That Spleen
Little Hunks - Came To Party
Blow - The Love That I Crave [Strategy Remix]

[where: 1875 SE Belmont St, OR 97214]

Sonic Youth is not a band. It is an institution. Where other bands who manage to stay together for over a quarter of a century (or much less) become legacy bands (i.e., bands that are only known and revered for a part of their careers long past), Sonic Youth continue to push themselves and their fans into new and exciting territory with every passing year together. Lately there’s plenty of proof. In addition to a new record and a recent movie (both discussed below), there’s also David Browne’s Goodbye 20th Century (Da Capo, 2008), Matthew Stearns’ 33 1/3 book on Daydream Nation (Continuum, 2007), and a forthcoming tour (I’ll be seeing them [again] on July 12th at Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama).

[Full review here.]

I am so proud. Find out more.

One of the most talked about bands at SXSW this year, UME turned alot of heads that week, and everything seems to be taking off for the band in the time since. They stopped by WOXY’s Cincinnati studios while out on a tour that was planned around an appearance at the NXNE festival in Toronto Canada, and played a live studio session.

They played two brand new songs which were titled on the spot, as well as one from their Sunshower EP and also one that happens to be one of the first songs the band ever created, which turned up on their 2005 debut, Urgent Sea. Get all the MP3s and the whole live WOXY set here.

Here’s an unreleased new song from the set:

Ume - Captive [Live at WOXY]

Video of Ume Live at SXSW