THANK GOD. It’s been so dry out here. An effing desolate musical landscape. An auditory drought. . Don’t get me wrong, there’s PLENTY of music being made here in Portland, Oregon but these days, in the wash of mediocre tunes, I find myself less and less attracted to any of the fish in this over-populated sea and turning towards more conventional forms of audio consumption, like NPR. Very recently, however, I got really excited about specific record. This hasn’t happened to me, in all honesty since False Priest. It’s incredible. A total gem. Lads and Gentlewomen: Please listen to Radiation City.

Radiation City hails from Portland’s finest tape-label, Apes Tapes, who have been secretly curating some of the finest unknown tunes festering in this town’s musical underbelly in recent months/years. They sound like a recording that a Viva Voce-inspired Beach House might have made in the late 50s, or to use a more tangible metaphor, they sound like the splatter-crackle of a melting 45 being dripped onto a woebegone widow’s soft stomach while she laughs about something morose.
These show-stoppers just released their first full-length, The Hands That Take You, on a cassette-only basis (Apes Tapes steeze). If you purchase the cassette however it comes with a digital DL, which rules.
Here’s a preview track, but seriously. Buy this record.

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Got my hands on the up-coming Starfucker record a few weeks ago and have spent some nice time with it since.

The record begins, surprisingly but not unwelcomed, with an acoustic guitar strum. A warm not-so-electronic intro to a record that I’d anticipated to be a further lurch in the direction that they had started with the “Jupiter” EP: dance jams. The first track is a nice lead off. It pulls the light pop sensibilities from their first record and wades into the beat-driven waters intro which they tread. The rest of the record, essentially, is all beat-oriented dance tunes. Not to write this off! They are lovely dance tunes that have obviously been crafted by a band with a pop back bone. There are hooks EVERYWHERE and it truly provides for a great listen. I’m very curious to see where this new record takes them.

The new record is out on Poylvinyl March 8th. If you pre-order the vinyl you get an instant download of the whole record!

Starfucker – Bury Us Alive

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Don’t miss this awesome dubbed-out remix my buddy did for his Dj sets: Bury Us Alive (Eric Hanson Remix)

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My interest in popular music waxed and waned this year with as much force as the tides on Ymir, Saturn’s most distant moon (slowly and without much force). It was a sleepy year for music that interested me but there certainly were a few highlights. Strangely, when looking back on my favorite records of the year I find myself with a strong respectable list. Loosely ordered from finest to slightly less fine recordings, please find my list below.

If you’re interested in hearing any of these records please let me know and I’ll send you a copy to listen to. However, I encourage buying these records and supporting these artists ’cause they truly kick ass.

Local beatmaster Onuinu, (pronounced “on you in you”) is about to blow up. Dorian Duvall has been making music as long as anyone who knows him can remember, although a few years back you would have heard him wanking out a cheesy Phish tune on a stratocaster rather than cueing obscure samples on his 404 or mixing beats on his MPC. After a few intense years of musical experimentation and growth Onuinu has developed a sound that puts him far, far away from Bonarroo or really anything Phish related for that matter. The music that spills out of his speakers these days is a danceable, chill-able, mix of repetitive psyche-samples and heartbeat rhythms. He layers sweet, subtle vocal melodies on top of this alluring mix for the ultimate answer to the question “what the hell is going on with music right now?”. Dorian’s goin on.

Onuinu released 4 tracks on a split cassette tape this summer through local tape label Apes Tapes. I’ll begin production on the music video for the track “Ice Palace” this month.

Onuinu-Ice Palace

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*photo cred: Christine Hochkeppel link

When I first moved to Portland three years ago I was eager to seek out the best and most promising musicians that were defining the scene I had heard so much about. I remember so clearly two bands sticking out as shoe-ins for success. Bands that were giving me exactly what I wanted, bands that were making me smile and giving me chills at the same time. One of those bands was the fledgling Starfucker and the other was Typhoon. These days Starfucker (now Pyramiddd) signs commercial deals with IBM and Target like their signin’ autographs. Typhoon has yet to reach these heights but with the upcoming release of Hunger and Thirst it seems as though extraordinary things are on the way for this band.

Over the past few years Typhoon embodied a persona quite contrary to what their moniker suggests. They were illusive, playing the odd show here and there and releasing quiet tracks that only their friends knew about. Hardly a downpour, hardly dangerous.

Enter Hunger and Thirst. Recorded over the last few months in Portland by Paul Laxer, this heavenly collection of choral ballads will be released in May on the band’s new record label, the winsome, spectacular, Tender Loving Empire.

Like the first drops of an oncoming tempest, Hunger and Thirst opens with the plunks of differently pitched hollow percussives. These elements form into slow puddles of bass-heavy guitar and eventually burst into a thunderstorm of triumphant horns and angelic vocals in the background. The record continues on in constant undulation. The high points are epic choral explosions and the lows are monologues backed by guitar with heaps of delay. As usual, all of the new Typhoon tunes are soaked in passion. This record is impossible to take lightly as it will rest heavy on the strongest of hearts. Good work guys, nice to hear from you, and good luck.

Typhoon – Starting Over

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Typhoon – Affliction (off of 2009′s Friends and Friends of Friends TLE ’09

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If you can remember, we all entered this decade together with Limp Bizkit farting out one of the worst mainstream rock records of all time, 2000′s “The Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water”, whilst The Backstreet Boys and *NSync battled for the number one slot on TRL.

These were dark times. Since, rap/rock has ceased to exist entirely and, at least for the time being, it seems that the world has tired of boy bands. We can all give ourselves a pat on the back for eradicating that one.

We’ve witnessed the demise of tangible media, namely the compact disc, in exchange for digital versions of the audio we love. Following the CD closely down the tubes went the entire mainstream music industry as it was once known.

Thanks to this, the shift in the way we listen to our music, and the proliferation of the internet, music of all kinds became nearly as accessible as the air we breath.

Because the mainstream had become polluted and failing, casual listeners turned their attention toward the underground. This enabled independent artists to become noticed by larger audiences and prosper. With the internet on their side independent artists were defining the large-scale musical trends of the later quarter of the decade.

Everyone was making music, everyone was experimenting, and everyone else was listening. When music becomes as ubiquitous as it had by the end of the 2000′s it gets difficult to single out the true gems of an entire decade past. The flawed mainstream had skipped over nearly all of the true genius musicians of the last 10 years, unlike during the 60′s and 70′s where the artists in the limelight deserved the respect they got.

My thoughts are that the true stars of this decade haven’t yet been truly acknowledged by the world and that one day they will surface and be properly celebrated.

This was a substantial decade for music, even if the world doesn’t quite know it yet. I think we can all agree that we’ve seen a paradigm shift in popular music as we know it and the years to come are only sounding better and better. The following are the 10 most decade-defining records, in order of release.

Relationship of Command – At The Drive-In [September 2000]

You Forgot It In People – Broken Social Scene [October 2002]

The Ugly Organ – Cursive [March 2003]

De-Loused in The Comatorium – The Mars Volta [June 2003]

Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? – The Unicorns [November 2003]

Satanic Panic in the Attic – of Montreal [April 2004]

Come On Feel The Illinoise! – Sufan Stevens [July 2005]

Strawberry Jam – Strawberry Jam [September 2007]

In Rainbows – Radiohead [October 2007]

Sea Lion – The Ruby Suns [January 2008]

Don’t forget to check out Michelle’s equally outstanding best of the decade list!

2009 was a substantial year for me. I directed my second music video. I learned how to play the ukulele. I moved from Portland to New Zealand. I designed the album art for 3 records. I’m extremely happy to be alive.

The year in music was a good one as well. It never seems to be that substantial as the records are being released one at a time but in retrospect, the albums I’ll remember are great ones. Here’s a list of my favorites from the year past.

The Happiness Project could not have earned a more appropriate title this year than Honorable Mention. The experimental efforts on this record were certainly respectable, commendable, honorable, and certainly worth mentioning. Charles Spearin recorded interviews he conducted with members of his everyday schema on the topic of happiness and took select spoken word clips to put to music. The goal was to extract and celebrate the inherent melody that we all speak with on a daily basis. Very cool concept, flawless execution. Applause. Read more

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The anticipation for this record was so intense that it almost didn’t even matter what Grizzly Bear did with it, just so long as they made me feel like I was the receptor of a pop-sermon again. And they did. Beautiful songs, sparkly production. This record is great, but I do still question it’s staying power. Read more

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Dear Everyone, track down this record. It’s the first full-length from Portland’s languid alt-sprawlers, Inside Voices. It’s simply marvelous. The tunes are minimal and slow, but thorough and strong. This record is meant to be listened to whilst driving across the mid-western United States in your pick-up looking at oil derricks imagining them as dinosaurs… at least that’s what I do. Most importantly, this is a debut that makes me eager for the follow up. Pay attention. Read more

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MINT CHICKS! Lo-fi pop-rock is still awesome. This record immediately captivated me and still continues to. Some of these tunes are so fuzzed-out I can’t tell if there are a million layers of music to pick through or if it’s feed-back. Way to blur the lines dudes. Read more

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Uhhh, have you HEARD this record? This is like future dance-pop if it were made 2 years ago. I’m talkin beautiful streams of vocal harmonies chopped up and scattered atop laptop-synth beats. These guys sing like angels pining for love in the club. Initially this was a guilty pleasure for me, but now it’s just a straight up pleasure. I wanna make a record like this.

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Why isn’t Jeffery Jerusalem famous? This guy’s production habits are unhealthy. He meticulously tweaks EVERY measure of EVERY beat making it impossible, but enjoyable, to notice every blip or sample he’s layered into these masterpieces. Jaw-dropping at times, Mr. Jerusalem has the glitch of Aphex Twin and the soul of Diana Ross. Read more

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Ear butter. Does anyone else love the title to this record as much as I do? Not to mention the cover.. and the songs are good too. Actually they’re mind-bendingly incredible, original and yet somehow as familiar as your mother’s lullabies. Truly pushing music in the direction it needs to be going. All members deliver dumps of strange, creative and appropriate vocals over some of the coolest guitar work in rock and roll. Read more

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Bromst gave me a lobotomy. I feel like I lost part of my old brain, a piece of reality, and gained some kind of new blissful insight into the existence of everything; a 12th sense. Dan Deacon is a wizard. This record entirely changed my perception of what electronic music could be. So dense, so methodical. Schizophrenic. Brilliant. Read more

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I respect the hell out of Animal Collective. They appear to effortlessly chuck out new material almost in jest, as if they’re just testing us, seeing if we will swallow what new material they’ve haphazardly conjured. They push our limits as listeners and in turn are stretching what experimental music in the mainstream can get away with. In the grand scheme of Animal Collective’s oeuvre Merriweather is their pop record, easy on the ears, but still even when what they’re brewing is meant to be easy to swallow, it’s still completely new and completely different than anything that’s been done.. and in turn inspires everyone. When was the last time a new prog band released a record that wasn’t described as “Animal Collective meets ____________”? Exactly.

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Merrill Garbus, a.k.a. Tune-Yards, may be my single biggest reason to play ukulele. I want to be her. She took that instrument, otherwise forgotten, and played they most whack sounding, dissonant freak-pop into her four-track backed by the home-made clink-clank of pots and pans. She touches on reggaeton, trip-hop, soul, rock, and tribal nonsense all while belting at the top of her lungs til her eyeballs are about to fall out of her head. She’s incredible. This record defines a high point in the year and a milestone in my life. Read more

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It’s when bands like Micachu and the Shapes come along that I regain my confidence in the future of music as a whole. At times, it appears to me that bands taking a crack at experimentalism are bombarded by the tidal wave of nonsense being generated by other bands elsewhere having an experimental month and, in turn, it becomes difficult to sort out what new ideas are rubbish and who is actually on to something. Micachu is like the old lady who spends her afternoons sorting through heaps of trash for the gems she chooses to take home, polish and put on her mantle. Aptly named Jewellery is a magnificent mash of dirty beats, clanky guitars with a perfect dusting of sprite synths and sweet vocals. The drums on this record honestly sound like a rusty collection of pots and pans whilst the guitar, almost inaudible at times, sounds like a homemade shoebox banjo with fishing-line strings. I suppose what I’m getting at here is that Micachu has successfully taken a step that many of us have been trying to take for the last 2 years; Jewellery delivers insightful new song structures but still has an addictive pop charm, has an appropriate electronic element but still sounds like it was made in someone’s basement. Way to go Micachu, now what do we do after everyone copies you? (from a previous post.)

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Whoever gave me this album, own up. You deserve some credit. François Virot’s Yes or No must’ve been sitting in my “to be listened to” queue for the last 4 months at least, before one of his infectious tracks forced it’s way into random play, and then into my consciousness. I have no doubt that this record was awarded to me in a huge music swap at some point in time and never given proper attention. Well today, I’m here to declare, that this stuff is mesmerizing.

Mr. Virot is a french songwriter who has the vocal inflection of Avey Tare circa Pullhair Rubeye, only if Avey had a good voice and could actually carry a tune. Virot’s instrument of choice is acoustic guitar often backed by hand claps, snaps, vocal ticks and other forms of bodily percussion. Other than that it’s his enchanting wail that leaps all over the melodic spectrum grabbing listeners perched on all levels of any given auditory wavelength. His songs are sweet but abrasive, catchy but foreign (not just cause he’s french). Try him.

After doing a bit of research into the world of François Virot I came across a lovely, startling coincidence. On his myspace he has a direct link to the page of amazing french 8-bit-synth-garage-pop band Clara Clara. This grabbed my attention because Clara Clara had a track represented on this year’s Friends and Friends of Friends compilation, organized by me and put out by Portland’s Tender Loving Empire. The song rules. Clara Clara rules. So it turns out that Mr. Virot plays drums in Clara Clara and is sibling to one of the other members. Fancy that. Virot’s rule. Clara Clara will also appear on a split with Kickball due out next spring on TLE.

François Virot – Cascade Kisses

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François Virot – Say Fiesta

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Clara Clara – Dolphins

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If I could actually successfully kick myself and do any decent amount of damage, lord knows I would be doing so right now. I’m mostly angry that my dumb ass only got around to giving the Mint Chicks a good listen until NOW. NOW that I’m living in their country of origin, New Zealand, and NOW that I’ve conveniently terminated my resisdence in the city that they’ve since relocated to, Portland, Oregon. We did the ol’ switcheroo, the Mint Chicks and I did. I remember so clearly reading about them in the local weeklies and thinking that the descriptions of their tunes were right in line with something I’d enjoy. They’ve been playing low-key off they radar shows in Portland ever since they moved there a few years ago. The story goes that they left New Zealand after a quick rise to near super-stardom for a more un-noticed, out-of-the-spotlight lifestyle. It’s true, they are a big deal here. Their videos get played on the local music television stations and everyone knows who they are. They’re even returning sometime this year to headline some huge national music festivals. This elusive phantom band has grabbed my attention for more reasons than I just listed, and they are as follows:

The Mint Chicks’ new record, Screens, fucking rules. It’s like a blow-pop you dropped in the dirt. Screens is a pop record, specifically, it’s bubblegum pop but it has a just the right amount of contemporary modernization to push it past the its-all-been-done realm. The vocals are often fuzzed out in a lo-fi styling and electronically chopped to pieces. There are gritty synths and tinny drums speckling the record like shiny pieces of gravel and hair stuck to said lollypop. This record is fun and easy to listen to, but it engages and forces you to listen deeper and see what actually going on. When I first got it I seriously listened to it six, yes, six times in a row.

The Mint Chicks – Red, White, or Blue

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The Mint Chicks – 2010

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The Mint Chicks – Don’t Sell Your Brains Out, Baby

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Another reason that I have a boner for the Mint Chicks right now is that they do though provoking excellent experiments with new tunes. Recently, they released a new song, but the only way to hear the song was to go to a web site they’d set up with four separate videos embeded within it. Each video contains a separate part of the song, and when played simultaneously they come together to formulate the new song. It’s an absolutely brilliant way to engage your audience a in the fibers of your art (though not the first time, see The Flaming Lips’ Zaireeka). I love it and I would love to see many, many more experience-based musical endeavors be celebrated and proliferated throughout the mainstream. Cheers, Mint Chicks.

Watch the four video song thing here.

I’ve been meaning to write about this album for a while now. Recommended to me last summer by FWS4 it immediately presented itself as a glimmer of genius. Three descriptors come to mind when speaking of Apes and Androids’ Blood Moon; over-the-top. This record is perhaps the only existing example of glam-psyche-rock trip-hop pop. Lead by heavy bass synths and layered falsetto vocals, Blood Moon sounds like the record aliens from the 70′s would listen to while they construct a city on their newly conquered planet. Most of the songs are danceable but you’re not gonna feel too good about yourself whilst dancing… you might feel a little underdressed. The whole record has a lovely element of theatrics, from the overt vocal delivery to the robot/spaceship take-off and landing sounds introducing and leading the record out. Give this one a go for some fresh, blindsiding, nonsensical awesomeness.

Apes and Androids – Hot Kathy

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Apes and Androids – Make Forever Last Forever

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Apes and Androids – Golden Prize

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