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Check
out MP3.com's Portland
metro countdown.
For
a semi-endless supply of Chuck D.'s thinking on the Internet
and most everything else, go to
www.public-
enemy.com.
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As has been the case with so many revolutionary things in
the past 10 years, Chuck D. has a tight grasp on MP3.
The bombastic hard rhymer of Public Enemy has pushed
himself to the forefront of the pell-mell digital music
uprising. PE's latest album, the more-than-decent There's
a Poison Goin' On, hit the Internet months before discs
made it to stores, scoring countless downloads. It's perhaps
the first full-length project to generate its own subterranean
buzz by taking its case directly to consumers via the Net--an
excellent strategy for a group that's lost its industry
buzz but maintains a hardcore legion of fans.
Chuck's got a knack for verbal incision, and his description
of the music-industry anarchy sown by MP3--a state of confusion
that terrifies record execs but delights him--strikes me
as the best so far. To paraphrase: Songs are like M&Ms
in a giant bag, and record companies have always kept the
bag cinched tight; the Internet is a hole in the bottom
of that bag.
So who's representing Portland in the crowd of kids in
the cybernetic candy store? Well, if MP3.com's ranking of
the most often downloaded songs by Portland-area artists
is an accurate measure of who's taking advantage of the
slickest do-it-yourself music technology since the seven-inch,
it's something of a surprise.
Dedicated fans of the city's original music, used to slogging
across town in search of the hip, will look long and hard
for the names that dominate the local club dockets. The
leading digital music site's top 100 is totally devoid of
PDX's usual suspects: No Hungry Mob, no Dead Moon,
no Dickel Brothers, no American Girls. Not
even Pete Krebs, who seems to turn up everywhere
else. 3 Leg Torso, after scoring on Amazon.com, only
ranks 66th.
Instead, the top MP3 dog of Portland is the relatively
unheralded dal. Hawking bright, bouncy and definitely
smartassed alt-rock, dal has seized the top three spots
on the Portland-area countdown with "Better (Tonight),"
"Hollywood" and, at No. 1, the irresistibly titled "I'll
Kick Your Father's Ass."
Slipping in beneath dal's dominance, at Nos. 4, 7 and 8,
the equally mysterious Portland band Planet Cha offers
edgy electronica fortified with millennial angst on a small
slew of kinetic tracks. Super-prolific local folkie Lew
Jones, who has occupied the chart with a single-minded
will to power, weighs in fifth with the excellent, wistful
"Let the Water Roll On." It's just one of dozens of on-line
tracks from an artist who's long looked for an alternative
route to listeners, from cable access to the Web.
At No. 9, the Gil Porat Band offers up a "world
fusion" jam that brings together a locked-in Caribbean rhythm
and synthy pan-Asian flutes and chimes. It wouldn't be my
choice, necessarily, but that's the uproarious cyber-democracy
for you.
Beyond the top 10 (the songs go on and on, hundreds and
hundreds of local tracks in order of popularity), the MP3.com
list paints a picture of a bustling grassroots Portland
music scene--a scene even deeper and wider than a voyage
through a typical week's live roster would suggest. There's
the rolling West Coast R&B of Dontae Taylor's
"Supercalifunkalistic," the free jazz of the JAJA Quartet,
the Near-East-meets-deep-space trance of Electronium's
"Dead Sea Sunrise." In all, it speaks of many basements
filled with equipment, many garages given over to noise.
The truth is out there, and the truth is, there's action
shaking in Rose City.
Meanwhile, back in meatspace: 17 Nautical Miles turned
into a temporary sauna for the Tight Bros. from Way Back
When/Fireballs of Freedom/Bangs show two Sundays back.
Final proof that Portland is tougher than Olympia: The Fireballs
rioted through a healthy set in the heat and humanity, while
the Tight Bros. called it quits after about four AC/DC-esque
rave-ups...Speech, mastermind of mid-'90s pop-hop
hitmakers Arrested Development, took the stage at
Ohm last Saturday night. Backed by a guitarist and some
occasional drums, the sunshiney MC rattled off versions
of Marley's "Redemption Song" and Sly's "Everyday People,"
a set list that clearly failed to rock some of the beat-hungry
masses...The crush of Guided by Voices fans dissuaded
me from trekking into a sold-out Berbati's on Friday night.
Word is, GBV unleashed a titanic two-hour-plus set...I ain't
complaining, though, because Dead Moon served it
up raw to the sodden nightcrawlers down the street at the
Cobalt Lounge. The place was half-full, but as always, Dead
Moon played as though the fate of the free world were at
stake. The well-lubricated crowd raised their glasses and
rocked--and one guy devised a unique conundrum of etiquette
for my intellectual diversion: When a fellow concertgoer
decides to hoist himself into your lap, what's the most
polite way to move him along?
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Willamette Week | originally
published August 11,
1999
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