Blotter, Previews & Album Review

[January 25th, 2006]

^BLOTTER

COMINGS, GOINGS AND BIG-TIME SHOWINGS.

Portland transplant alert! During the Giant Sand concert at Doug Fir a few Fridays ago, Howe Gelb announced that the band's opener, Scout Niblett , had recently relocated to our little indie-rock ark from her English homeland. >> Portland's heavy hitters in the local club game are teaming up for something big this summer. Nothing is solid yet, but word is that McMenamins , Double Tee , Monqui , Thrasher and the Aladdin Theater are all working together to organize a big August shindig at a new concert space that would accommodate 4,000 to 5,000 people. Stay tuned to Blotter for more developments. >> Blotter was happy to see the Snuggle Ups ' Brett Whitman out and about for the Fryk Beat launch party at Holocene earlier this month, but what he had to say as he bro-patted Blotter was not so pleasant. "I'm moving to Philly in a few weeks," said the shorter half of the electro-pop duo and Fleshtone founder. "I'm going out there for my music. I've got some leads." All Blotter could offer was a hiccup and a consoling handshake, but others are apparently attempting to convince Whitman, a member of the Lucky Madison camp, that in Portland he will find all the leads he needs. Indeed.

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^The Gossip Wednesday, Jan 25

The Gossip's latest is lukewarm, but the show's gonna make you sweat.

[southern soul punk ] It's a goddamn beautiful thing when a band manages to stir Portland's terra-cotta crowd. There are bands that can go further and turn stirring into shaking and make a show here nearly religious. And then there's the Gossip, easily shattering any crowd into a thousand sweaty vibrating pieces. The trio of Arkansas-via-Olympia imports is an unlikely band in our city: simple gut-gospel punk in a place that clings to its moody grayscales and sound experiments.

It's been two years since the Gossip's last full-length release, Movement, the lag filled with side projects, a teaser single and the recent illness of vocalist Beth Ditto. Over the summer, Portland proved its affection and put together a number of benefits to help with the bills (Surprise! Being a rock star doesn't include health insurance!). Months later, this town got repaid when the Gossip liquified Holocene, turning their back room into a drunk particle accelerator, and revealing most of the new album, Standing in the Way of Control.

While the new disc isn't nearly tumbling over the line into monotony, as the band's prior three have (albeit gracefully), it does still brush against it, particularly on "Jealous Girls" and "Keeping You Alive," which track back to the formulaic slosh guitar riffage and reflex drumming of 2000's That's Not What I Heard. That and the other two previous discs were fantastic in their rare departures and irrefutable in their queer/femme subversion, but redundant otherwise: Ditto's voice, fucking amazing as it is, can't budge a foundation of static arrangements.

After three discs of stylistic isolation—the Gossip is a sound more than a band—the new disc shows the group finally looking up, if only briefly. The Gossip's found its sweaty, coked-up crowd (read: Suicide Club, Northeast Portland's biweekly hipster debauch) and is plenty willing to cave to their dance demands, adding dance beats and the bass rhythms that have been a staple of the waning post-punk revival. The disc's title track could have easily been slipped into the Fever's Red Bedroom, with its skittish high-hat and racing guitar, as could "Listen Up!" with its one-two-three-trip bass line. Fun as these are—especially coupled with Ditto's voice—they've got little power on record, leaving things to the energy of the Gossip's crowd, who thankfully has plenty to spare. MICHAEL BYRNE.

The Gossip plays with Swan Island and Lovers at Wonder Ballroom. 9 pm. $12. All ages.

^Portugal. The Man Friday, Jan 27

Former members of Anatomy of a Ghost excessively replicate and punctuate.

[SCHIZO-ROCK] Damn the Mars Volta and the Blood Brothers. If it weren't for the existence of those two bands the oddly named Portugal. The Man (from here on referred to as P.TM) would be simply revolutionary. P.TM's debut, Waiter: You Vultures!, would probably have spawned such quizzical statements as "Dueling falsetto vocals!? Crazy time signatures!? Where did these guys come from?" Of course, P.TM is not revolutionary.

The Portland group formed from the ashes of Anatomy of a Ghost, a band that unexpectedly disbanded after its first record, Evanesce, earned it a respectable post-hardcore following. According to P.TM's press information, the players "found themselves yearning for a different kind of creativity and musical expression." So they traded in their post-hardcore for a schizophrenic rock recipe, fluctuating between sounding exactly like Mars Volta and sounding exactly like the Blood Brothers.

As it stands, though, the band does boast a spot on the Fearless Records roster with Sugarcult, At the Drive-In and the Aquabats. And Waiter: You Vultures! is a solid, if derivative work with a range of highs and lows typical of a promising young band still trying to find itself.

P.TM isn't afraid to get musically adventurous, as evidenced by "AKA M80 The Wolf," on which John Gourley waxes soulfully à la Sade to a haunting mechanical drumbeat. "I'm just a man," he sings in uncharacteristically lucid fashion (P.TM lyrics generally run the gamut from incomprehensible to ridiculous), "but a proud, proud man." Another shining point is "Elephants," on which, accompanied by clapping and a driving surf-guitar, the singer takes a deep breath and starts to sound like the wavering and catlike voice of John Gourley instead of that of Cedric Bixler-Zavala or Jordan Blilie (the lead singers of the Mars Volta and the Blood Brothers, respectively).

But for every "Chicago"—Nine Inch Nails-style drum distortion and burly synths meet basement jazz trio—there is a less-inspired, more derivative track, like "How the Leopard Got its Spots." On that song, despite competent playing and spot-on vocals, the listener hears another band and another record instead of hearing P.TM.

For its current tour, Fearless Records has paired the group with My American Heart, an uninspired group of emo teenage heartthrobs. If that is any indication of the label's opinion of P.TM, maybe the band's first step toward growing and defining its sound should be to drop that fancy record deal and come back down to earth. CASEY JARMAN.

Portugal. The Man plays with My American Heart, Versus the Mirror, Bryan Free and Turbo Perfecto at Loveland. 7 pm. $8. All ages.

^Anonym Self-Titled (Self-Released)

Anonym's split personality both rocky and harmonious.

[PSYCH-WARD ROCK] Halfway through "Mercitron," a song off Anonym's self-titled debut, singer Keats Ross intones, "To be unsure of the cure and assimilate/ What makes wait for oxygen and fate," his vocals treading near the trembling style of Conor Oberst. Then the chorus comes in, and that fragile vocal is trampled by a sassy, monotone half-rap reminiscent of Beck on Odelay. This tension between stoicism and expression is the core on Anonym's appeal, and it isn't by chance.

Almost all of the lyrics on Anonym's self-titled debut were written by Ross during a two-week stint in the psychiatric ward of St. Vincent Hospital. The music, though, was composed over the following months as Ross' four-piece came together. This creative gap manifests itself in dark and melancholy lyrics offset by blues-driven guitar, electronic percussion and noise that is artfully distanced from the music's emotional core. Overall, Anonym creates a subtle and layered sound with a fascinating and mature group dynamic, which is all the more impressive considering that the young band formed only months ago.

Back on "Mercitron," James Tygret's intricate drum-machine programming allows the minor-key guitar progression to be heavy without dragging, exhibiting his uncommon prowess and virtuosity as a programmer. Korg noise-maker Lauren LePlant produces a similar effect on "Lucero." The track opens with an acoustic guitar line that sounds like a dream of mid-20th-century Mississippi but awakens with a high-pitched squeak accompanying the line "Pinch me," in a rare moment of cohesion, turning what was a blues lament into a dance-friendly track. JASON SIMMS.

Anonym plays with We're from Japan! and Enchanted 4ST 10 pm Thursday, Jan. 26, at Dunes, and with the Decliners and Graxxus 9:30 pm Tuesday, Jan. 31, at Ash Street. Both shows free, 21+.