Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A preview of just some of the bands playing this weekend at the Pickathon festival in Portland.

(artist - song - album :: extra info)

Blitzen Trapper - Gold For Bread - Furr
Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys - You Don’t Know Me At All - Turntable Matinee
Seth Bernard and Daisy May - Song of the Burrowing Owl - The Copper Country Quintet
Thao with the Get Down Stay Down - Bag of Hammers - We Brave Bee Stings and All
Horse Feathers with Portland Cello Project - Mother’s Sick - Limited Edition EP (PS - Check this out.)
The Wiyos - Side by Side - The Wiyos
Pancake Breakfast - Apple Wood - EP 3
Jaymay - Gray or Blue - Autumn Fallin’
Joe Pug - Hymn 35 - Nation of Heat EP
Dr Dog - The Old Days - Fate
CW Stoneking - Jungle Blues - Jungle Blues
Paleface - You Are The Girl - The Show Is On The Road
Ethan Rose & Laura Gibson - Sun - PDX POP NOW! 2009 :: fortcoming release later this year
Headless Heroes - Just Like Honey - he Silence Of Love
The Deep Dark Woods - All the Money I Had Is Gone - Winter Hours
Breathe Owl Breathe - Drop and Roll - Ghost Glacier
Frank Fairfield - Darling Corey - I’ve Always Been a Rambler
John Doe And The Sadies - (Now and Then) There’s a Fool Such as I - Country Club
Vetiver - Everyday - Tight Knit

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Part 2 of  PDX POP NOW! preview.

(artist - song - album :: extra info)

Ah Holly Famly - EIEIO - PDX Pop Now! 2009
Guidance Counselor - Culture Junkies - Get Brave
The Quick & Easy Boys - Stealing Glances
The Old Believers - The Glories All Been Done - live on That Sound @ KPSU
Grouper - Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping - Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill
Nurses - Caterpillar Playground - Apple’s Acre
The Shaky Hands - We Are Young - Lunglight
Lightheaded - Sunrise Cypher - Wrong Way
Au - Sum - Au
Jeffrey Jerusalem - Disco Dry Mouth - Grimace
Menomena - Gay A - Wet and Rusting EP

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

After a five-month hiatus from this show (read more), I’m back with a podcast, highlighting acts from this year’s PDX POP NOW! festival, happening this weekend at Rotture in Portland. This is part 1 of 2, I’ll likely be posting the second tomorrow.

(artist - song - album :: extra info)

Dirty Mittens - The Dock - Pinky Swear EP
Peter Broderick - Not at Home - Home
The Mint Chicks - 2010
Explode into Colors - Paper (Hot Sax Version) - PDX Pop Now 2009
The Minus 5 - The Long Hall - Killingsworth
White Hinterland - Dreaming of the Plum Trees - Phylactery Factory
Benoit Pioulard - Palimend - Precis
Breakfast Mountain - Dunn (Not Done)
Inside Voices - It Happened Without Expectation
Tara Jane ONeil - Drowning - A Ways Away
Deelay Ceelay - No Vex - Thank You :: a free album on website
Laura Gibson - Spirited - Beasts of Seasons

I’ll be posting a new show here on Wednesday or so, but I to invite you to check out the latest two in-studio sessions I’ve done at opbmusic: Point Juncture, WA and Blue Giant.

Both are Portland bands.

Point Juncture, WA is a four-piece, fronted by Amanda Spring, who also plays drums. Their 2005 album, Mama Auto Boss, still makes it into my player pretty regularly. Their recent follow-up, Heart to Elk, does not disappoint.

Blue Giant is a new band, started by Kevin and Anita Robinson, who have made music as Viva Voce for years. They recently started writing songs with a more southern feel, and recruited friends to play them with them. The results are fantastic.

Enjoy!

The latest fruits of my labor at OPB:

www.opbmusic.org/performances/60-Boy-Eats-Drum-Machine

An interview and in-studio with Boy Eats Drum Machine. Good stuff!

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

So, by time you might actually get to listen to this, Musicfest NW will likely be over (or you may live far, far from Portland, and so it doesn’t matter anyway), but it’s a great collection of songs nonetheless. Artist links T/K.

artist - song - album :: extra info

Crooked Fingers - Your Control
The Love Language - Lalita
The Builders and the Butchers - When It Rains
Les Savy Fav - Patty Lee
The Night Marchers - I Wanna Deadbeat You
Centro-Matic - All Your Farewells
Alela Diane - The Rifle - The Pirate’s Gospel
Laura Gibson - All the Pretty Horses - Six White Horses EP
Vampire Weekend - A-Punk - Vampire Weekend
Throw Me the Statue - Lolita - Moonbeams
The Mommyheads - Help Me - You Are Not a Dream
Oh Captain, My Captain - On My Mind - Recklessly She Split the Sea
The Upsidedown - Silver Wind - Human Destination
TV on the Radio - Golden Age - Dear Science
Hypatia Lake - Bridgett Fountainhead
Dan Deacon - The House I Was Isn’t My Girlfriend’s Porche - Silly Hat vs. Egale Hat

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week’s show is all bands that will be playing this week, on Wednesday and Thursday night of Musicfest NW. Visit their site for a full schedule. Show #57 will be all bands playing Friday and Saturday.

artist - song - album :: extra info

Sleepercar - A Broken Promise - West Texas
(website | myspace | A Broken Promise video)

Bodies of Water - These are the Eyes - Ears will Pop & Eyes will Blink
(website | myspace)

Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened - Microcastle
(myspace | blog | Strange Lights video)

Fleet Foxes - Blue Ridge Mountains - Fleet Foxes
(myspace | @ Sub Pop)

Old 97’s - No Baby I - Blame it on Gravity
(website | myspace)

Love as Laughter - Baby Shambles - Holy
(website | myspace)

Port O’Brien - I Woke Up Today - All We Could Do Was Sing
(website | myspace | I Woke Up Today video)

Lackthereof - Choir Practice - Your Anchor
(website | myspace | @ Barsuk | Menomena)

M Ward - Let’s Dance - The Transfiguration of Vincent
(website | myspace | She & Him)

The Whigs - Like a Vibration - Mission Control
(website | myspace)

F–k Buttons - Bright Tomorrow - Street Horrrsing
(website | myspace | Bright Tomorrow video)

The Shaky Hands - A New Parade - Lunglight :: out September 9
(website | myspace | @ Holocene Music | Why and How Come video)
mp3s:

Sleepercar - Wasting My Time
Bodies of Water - These Are the Eyes
Port O’Brien - I Woke Up Today
Lackthereof - Choir Practice

This event notice will stay at the top of my blog until August 1st, just scroll down for shows.

I’ve been doing this gig on KPSU for six years now, can you believe it!!?! Crazy. That’s 312 weekly episodes, seven address changes, eight Orange Alerts, two Britney Spears marriages, and one marriage and baby of my own. It’s been priceless. As in, I don’t get paid.

And I suppose I don’t mind; I’d rather do it and not make money than not do it at all.

I’ll be celebrating my show’s 6th Anniversary by having a few bands I love come and play!

Tea for Julie
Boy Eats Drum Machine
Blind Pilot
DoublePlusGood
At KPSU’s venue, The Modern Age (map)

Admission is only $5 (not much more than a gallon of gas!) This is an all-ages show.

MySpace
Facebook
last.fm
Google Calendar
Upcoming.org

Invite all your friends, even the ones who have bad taste in music! If you’ve posted this on another social networking site, put it in the comments.

You can read my press release about it here, and download a PDF of the poster here.

mp3s:

Tea for Julie - The Meantime
Boy Eats Drum Machine - Demonic with Horns
Blind Pilot - Oviedo
DoublePlusGood - Wireless

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This weekend is the fifth PDX Pop Now festival, a free, all-ages festival at Rotture (map). There’s 48 bands playing, and I’ve picked a selection of them (playing everyone would not only require three hours instead of one, but, I’ll be honest, I’m not really into all of them).

Oh, and I’m a little busy this week, so no “link buffet.” It’s just you and Google, baby.

artist - song - album :: extra info

The Rainy States - Suddenly Electric - In Basement Air
Tu Fawning - In Silence, We Reached the Palisades - Secession EP
Guidance Counselor - Creature - Bad Reciever EP
Dykeritz - Big Drapes - Rearrangerologyistics
The Builders and the Butchers - Bottom of the Lake - The Builders and the Butchers
The Revisions - On the Lam - On the Lam
Chris Robley - Faulkner’s South - The Drunken Dance of Modern Man in Love
Andy Combs and the Moth - Service Station - The Robot in the Clouds
Eskimo and Sons - The Blizzard - How Does It Feel To Be Crushed By One Man With The Strength Of A Million
Blind Pilot - Paint Or Pollen - 3 Rounds and a Sound
Portland Cello Project (with Horse Feathers) - Mother’s Sick
StarF-er - German Love - StarF-er
World’s Greatest Ghosts - Sleepwalkers - Exorcising Demons
Bark Hide and Horn - Grandfather - National Road

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ah, to be 20 again.

Actually, I take that back. I hated turning 20. I actually really enjoyed turning 30, but 20 meant that I was no longer a teenager, but I had nothing to show for it. I hadn’t yet moved away from home, and had no real idea of what I wanted to do with my life. By 30, I had, and I did.

But to be 20, and to not only know what I wanted to be doing, but actually doing it, and not just doing it, but really excelling at it–ah, to be that.

That is The Old Believers. They moved to Portland from their hometown of Kenai, Alaska after graduating from high school just two years ago. They’ve just released their second EP, Eight Golden Greats, which Casey Jarman of the Willamette Week describes as “crushing, refined Americana pop…The songs are unapologetically romantic, but investigate romance with the same fearlessness that the Believers explore the studio.” The Mercury’s Ezra Ace Caraeff calls their music “soulful country, vintage dustbowl storytelling.”

The duo, Nelson Kemph and Kelly Boyle, were kind enough to come to KPSU and perform some songs. They’re currently on tour, and will play Pickathon on August 2nd and 3rd.

The Old Believers: myspace

*Also, a technical note: If my voice sounds echoey during the interview portion of this show, it’s not because I didn’t properly turn down the reverb on the mic I was using while the Technical Director had stepped out for a staff meeting. It’s because my golden throat makes even the smallest studio sound like a cathedral.