Last Sunday, completely by happenstance, I caught wind of a Shout Out Out Out Out show happening, and my ears perked. I had seen no previous advertisement for such a show but I looked into it and sure enough, the rumors were true. This was a band I used to spin on college radio with my lovely co-host Anna Santiago on our show which was amply titled Fascist Molasses back in 2005 or something. They had then just released a record called Not Saying, Just Saying, which has stuck with me for all these years. It’s a great GREAT dance record. Shout Out Out Out Out, hailing from Edmonton, Alberta, has since evolved into a psych-pop-analog synth-dance outfit. In other words: fucking awesome. There were about 12 total people at the show (including the band and the opening band) which made for the most intimate 4 person dance party EVER. I was enthralled. It completely brought me back to the days when SOOOO was on heavy rotation on WXJM and I was hosting 4 person dance parties in my dorm room. The show telepoted me to another planet, made me dance on that planet, and then rocketed me back to somewhere close to home. They just released a new record, Reintergration Time, in Canada which will be released in the US in May, I think. The record is an appropriate follow-up from (what should be) everyone’s new favorite psych-pop-analog synth-dance band. They certainly have to work on their Portland fan base though…

Shout Out Out Out Out – Bad Choices

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Shout Out Out Out Out – Forever Indebted (off of Not Saying, Just Saying)

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This is a show flyer I just wrapped up. The line-up is incredible, I fully intend on being here for this one.

Photo from the Valentines show 3-23-09

This picture below is out-dated; that gnarly beard has since been harnessed into an authoritative mustache (pictured above). Inside Voices is from Portland. These are folks who manage to create one of the small glimmers of ingenuity out there that remind us that there are still rustic musical paths to traverse in an otherwise well-beaten auditory forest. Their songs are long swaths of wind meandering across empty fields strew with the carcasses of abandoned tractors. Simple song structure led, often times, by a steel string slide guitar (John Gnorski) are backed by appropriate bass (Lee Stack). The percussion (Jeff Brodsky) is what truly seals the deal. Spacious but assertive polyrhythms give the songs something more than the average 4/4, kick, snare, kick, snare, you might expect from songs about the range and rolling waves. If that weren’t enough, the two standing musicians manage to drip perfect vocal harmonies across the songs in a, what seems like, effortless fashion.

They are currently working on their debut album which I hope to be involved in making the artwork for. They will also be featured on Tender Loving Empire’s new comp, Friends and Friends of Friends Vol. 2, coming out in May. This track, “Bombay Beach” is a personal favorite.

Inside Voices – Bombay Beach

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Check out Inside Voices this Monday at Valentine’s or Thursday at Backspace.

So this was the most incredibly awesome, under-covered news yesterday. This underwater volcano erupted off the coast of Tonga in the south Pacific and was so immensely cool that the world couldn’t handle it and forgot to report on it. Meanwhile, the Earth created new islands for us. Thanks Earth.

This past weekend I finished the artwork for the new Tender Loving Empire compilation, Friends and Friends of Friends Vol. 2. The albums will be hand screen-printed on original packaging designed by yours truly in a limited edition of 1000.

The compilation consists of 2 discs: Neighbors (Portland-based acts) and Pen-Pals (national and international acts). Over the last few months I have been wrangling up songs from some of the finest musicians in Portland and across the country. The final track listing has been sent out to master as of last week. The tracks will be in L.A. until early April when they will be returned to TLE for us to press and print. It will be released May 16th. Below is a complete listing of all the artists on this year’s comp.

-Neighbors-
1. World’s Greatest Ghost’s – Butterscotch Sunday
2. Super XX Man – Medication (Podington Bear Premix)
3. Boy Eats Drum Machine – lalalalaLA!
4. Starfucker – Boy Toy
5. Gratitilium
6. Yeah:Great:Fine – Manifest Destiny’s Child
7. Nurses – Technicolor
8. The Woodlands – Summerland
9. Sam Cooper – Spiritual Billionaire
10. The Ocean Floor – What’s On?
11. Dirty Mittens – The Small Things
12. MEGA*CHURCH – PRAISE*A*TRON
13. Autopilot Is For Lovers – Trust
14. Shoeshine Blue – All the Pretty Women
15. Reporter – Valin Seel
16. Inside Voices – So Mysterious
17. Y La Bamba – Chiquilla
18. Alan Singley + Pants Machine – Le Rain
19. Gingerbread Patriots – Mr. Persimmons
20. Typhoon – Affliction
21. Lackthereof – Ask Permission
22. St. Frankie Lee – Ballad of a Hole
23. Jared Mees & The Grown Children – Trampling Daisies (Dash! Premix)

-Pen-Pals-
1. tUnE-YArdS – News
2. Halloween Swim Team – Inside/Out TV
3. Finn Riggins – Mahoney
4. Small Sur – Sand Dollar
5. The Bicycles – What a Fool
6. The Owls Go – Beard
7. Absolutely Parched – Backyard BBQ in 99º Heat
8. Raise High the Roofbeam – A Letter to Noelle
9. Geographer – Rushing In, Rushing Out
10. The Fling – Out of My Head
11. Gretchen Phillips – Burning Inside
12. Clara Clara – Dolphins
13. Massive Moth – Awaiting Thy Erotic Mercies
14. The Dont’s – So Strung Out
15. The Mutineers – Nihlisteria
16. Test Audiences – Mazed Mr. Medicine
17. Low Red Land – Landmark
18. Red River – Tomahawk
19. Starving Daughters – Impossible Things
20. Kickball – My Friends

We all had high expectations for this record, right? Well let me be one of the first to put your minds at ease, it’s glorious.

Grizzly Bear’s last record, Yellow House, was production perfection. The recording was done in some sort of church-like building to evoke the full feeling of a religious experience when listening. They certainly achieved something close to that as many, including myself, were enthralled with that record.

Their follow up would either reveal that Yellow House was a fluke and couldn’t be built upon or that it was the showing of Grizzly Bear’s true colors and the first drop in a stream of lovely music. Veckatimest is a welcomed step in the correct direction. Well-constructed songs with beautiful vocal parts and dreamy themes make this record a delightful listen. Brian Wilson is apparent somewhere in the consciousness’ of the song writers as we are carried across cloud-like oooohs and aaahhs by a demanding and sure bass line. Grizzly Bear have done a good thing here. They kick off their US tour in Portland this May, one day before this record is released. It should be a great show and I fully intend to be there to join them in transcending time and space.

Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks
Grizzly Bear – All We Ask

Below is Grizzly Bear’s Take Away Show from La Blogotheque.

Dan Deacon might be insane, might be a genius, or might just have a TON of time on his hands, but either way, he rules. His new record, Bromst, is chaos. It’ll give you an epiphany, acid trip, and a seizure all at the same time, yet for some reason I can’t stop listening to it. It’s electro noise pop at it’s absolute finest. Even if you’re not completely into this record, this is some material that is worth hearing, just once, so you know what it’s like to go insane; and if you’re already insane and are hearing Bromst, it just might cure your insanity.

This video appeared on Pitchfork.tv this week. It gives a little glimpse into the Bromst recording sessions. I chose this clip because in it Deacon explains the mechanism they used to hook up a midi controller to a player piano. They rigged the sucker so he can compose ridiculously complex midi tracks on the computer and pipe them into a player piano and get the physical, real sound of an acoustic piano. It’s incredible. The sound is amazing. This video is a must watch.

Dan Deacon – Build Voice

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Dan Deacon – Snookered

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You can watch the entire show here.