Blotter, Q&A, Profile

[January 11th, 2006]

^Blotter

THE HANDS OF FATE ARE UPON YOU, PORTLAND!

The Towne Lounge is planning on enlisting improv-noise duo Nice Nice as its house band starting next month. TL booker Chantelle Hylton (who just got the boot from her gig at Berbati's—see page 20) says the gig would be a "monthly residency" where the boys would fill the old morgue with their beat-'n'-squawk for two sets each month. >> Rumors of the demise of Sexton Blake have popped up again and again in the past few months, only to be quashed by band members. Now, according to leadman Josh Hodges, the band is split for real, but Hodges will keep the name alive. He plans to record a follow-up to the tremendous Sexton Blake album he recorded under his own name before the band formed and adopted the album title as its name. He will, though, be recording as Sexton Blake. Got it. Nope? Too bad. Next item! >> Brian Koch , the drummer from Blitzen Trapper , passed Blotter a note containing some info on his side project, a theatrical remake of '60s horror B-movie (and one of the greatest films ever featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000) Manos: The Hands of Fate. The description given was so bloodcurdling, creepy and evil that we really can't say much more at this point.

^Portland Old Time Music Gathering Jan. 11-15

It's time for an Old Time good time.

[OLD TIME] Regular readers of this section know Portland is an epicenter of a nationwide revival of interest in the traditional, handmade American music known as Old Time. Rooted in British folk filtered through Appalachian coal dust, these styles and songs form a living link to a simpler time for those jaded by the artifice of much contemporary music. Unadorned acoustic instruments like guitars, banjos, fiddles and mandolins—plus found materials such as jugs, washboards and washtubs—make the music. And audiences' ears are more forgiving when vocal harmonies are more rough-hewn than spot-on. Overall, the genre is the ultimate extension (or regression) of punk's DIY ethic; not only do its practitioners require no special equipment or training, they don't even need to pay their PGE bills, which—given the current price of power—bodes well for the seventh annual Portland Old Time Music Gathering, assuring that there will be no blackout to keep this festival from marking the maturity of this vibrant scene.

The festival, as homegrown as the music it celebrates, attracts players and listeners from up and down the West Coast for concerts, workshops, dances and more, all commencing Wednesday evening with a free kickoff party at the Moon and Sixpence, featuring the Flat Mountain Girls' ever-delightful antics, plus a "Mystery Band." The following night, Liberty Hall hosts a potluck dinner and square dance starring Uncle Wiggily and featuring the scene's unofficial godfather, Bill Martin. Meanwhile, at the Moon, Sammy Lind of Foghorn Stringband and fiddler Earl White lead a free jam session.

Friday night at Norse Hall, Foghorn headlines a bill featuring two Bay Area acts and local faves Whiskey Puppy. But the real heart of the Gathering is Saturday afternoon's full complement of free events. Filling the Norse Hall's homey rooms and corridors—as well as the sidewalks outside—will be all manner of singers, pickers, dancers and more. Sets by celebrated local songster Lauren Sheehan, among others, coincide with clogging workshops, a family square dance, an open song session and a full slate of documentary films. That night, I-5 brings bands from Vancouver, B.C., Bellingham, Seattle and Roseburg to the Hall, plus locals Government Issue Orchestra. And Sunday afternoon at Mississippi Pizza, the inimitable Miz Kitty closes the weekend in style with a vaudeville cabaret. JEFF ROSENBERG.

For ticket info and a full schedule of events, see www.bubbaguitar.com/festival.

^SARAH DOUGHER Thursday, Jan. 12

Portland's Renaissance lady talks new label and life with cancer.

[SLINGER-SONGWRITER] Writer, academic, political organizer, rock star and, with new label Cherchez La Femme, indie impresario Sarah Dougher has won international acclaim from her guitar-slinging past with the Crabs, the Lookers and Cadallaca (featuring Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker) through her sold-out solo residency at the Knitting Factory to her influential "History of Women in Rock" course at Portland State University. WW sat down with Dougher to check in on the new project. JAY HORTON.

WW: When did Cherchez La Femme start?

Sarah Dougher: July. The first release was my album Harper's Arrow I'd been working on for three years. The second was Bay Area rapper Katastrophe. Coming up this spring, I'm going to release an album by Sarah Jaffe, also from the Bay Area, who was in Erase Errata and now is going to writing school. Then, in the summertime, I'm releasing the debut LP of a Portland band called the Swallows.

How long have you wanted to start a label?

I've worked with independent labels for over 10 years. After [Bay Area label] Mr. Lady Records folded, I thought to myself that the music community I felt I was a part of lacked this one piece: a label that could do more than old-style conventional label things. For example, we're working on getting a distribution network for art together.

Has it been everything you expected?

It's pretty engaging. I really like to work with other people to help them get their music out. After all the help I've gotten from people, I get to have a chance to help other people now, so that's kind of the impetus. I play music, too, I'm just not playing as vigorously as before.

Because of the label responsibilities?

Ever since I got cancer last year, I don't want to go on long tours and I just want to stay healthy. Also, my main collaborator and I live really far away from each other, so that's difficult. I've just been exploring other combinations of people and projects.

Are you still teaching?

I'm teaching a class called Lyrics & Lyricism, and preparing that has been very exciting. I've been doing sociology and history of music for all of these semesters, and now I get to go back to this more cerebral place with my studies, so that means that I'll probably start writing more music.

Sarah Dougher plays with the Swallows and DJ Dantronix at Towne Lounge. 9 pm. $4. 21+.

^E*Rock

Meet Portland's greatest unknown electronic music multitasker, ever.

[ELECTRONIC] A skinny, good-looking 31-year-old with stringy hair and a sly smile, Eric Mast doesn't come off as one of those people who aren't happy unless they're doing too many things at once, but the Portland-based polymath better known as E*Rock is definitely one of them.

The sick thing is how well E*Rock has managed to multitask while becoming a godhead to local and international electronic musicians and fans. E*Rock exudes a friendly slacker vibe of a surfer when asked what he's up to these days. He's headed to Europe next week "to do some art workshops and play festivals, and video projections for a Rhizome event in NYC, and working on new music, and launching a new label," he says, before deadpanning, "Other than that, I'm doing nothing."

Nothing could be further from the truth.

As a day job, he stocks the formidable electronic-music section at Ozone 3. He also makes awesome music by himself, does design work that's simultaneously slick and ratty, releases rad eclectic electronic dance music on his label Audio Dregs, makes these great psychedelic drawings, occasionally puts together music shows where he also projects intensely colored and hilarious animated visuals, edits and publishes the music magazine Thumb, and makes music videos for the likes of Beck and the Gossip with the newly assembled Wyld File crew. And, as if that weren't enough, E*Rock has just launched another record label called Fryk Beat.

For the past few years, E*Rock has been releasing music by artists from Germany, France, Massachusetts and Japan, but now the impresario has turned more of his attention toward fellow Portlanders. The next couple of Audio Dregs titles are from Portland groups Copy and the Plants, and most of the artists on the new label, Fryk Beat—in addition to being sexy, weird and beautiful—are largely local. But the labels are different. E*Rock describes the music on Fryk as "more social music." "It's more vocal, and it's records that you'd put on at a party; Audio Dregs music is more the records you listen to by yourself," he says, adding, "You would let the artists from Audio Dregs watch your kids, but probably wouldn't want Fryk Beat artists to."

Started with Eric Johnson, a member of Pulseprogamming and Riddenpaa, Fryk Beat will be releasing four 12-inches by PDX-centric acts: sexy motherfucker and aggro dance experimentalist Panther, the awesome lap-pop crooner Bobby Birdman, the lovely experimental pop music of 01 (Pop Music) and, of course, E*Rock's own electronic dance persona 1999. Because, really, he doesn't have much else to do. MIKE MCGONIGAL.

E*Rock celebrates Fryk Beat records with Bobby Birdman, Copy (see page 27), Panther and Truckasaurus at Holocene. 9 pm. $5. 21+.