Helio
Sequence CD release party, with High Violets and Melody
Unit
Crystal
Ballroom
1332
W Burnside St., 778-5625
9
pm Saturday, Sept. 9
$6
Rick
Bain and the Genius Position, Man of the Year, The All-Girl
Summer Fun Band
Meow
Meow
527
SE Pine St., 230-2111
9
pm Saturday, Sept. 9
$6
TASTE
THE GLAMOUR AND EXCITEMENT OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY:
The
North by Northwest Music Festival is on the hunt for
volunteers. Work that guy (or lass) who works the door!
Manage the stage! See bands for free! Email peg@nxnw.com
or call 226-2150 for the 411.
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Ah, yes, good old psychedelia--like a friend of many years,
it can be counted on in a fickle world of changing fads.
It vanishes for long stretches, holidaying on the unseen
dark side of pop music's moon while more transient trends
have their moment. Then, in one chameleon form or another,
the urge to drown reality in a Noah's flood of strange sound
returns.
Psychedelia has probably been part of music since the first
antique man got flipped on mind-scrambling moss and hammered
new voodoo rhythms on a hollow log. Its expression mutates
endlessly, though, from addled garage feedback manipulation
to rave walls-of-noise. Still, there are some bands that
reconstruct the vibe of classic '60s psychedelia with all
the reverence and attention to detail of Civil War re-enactment
enthusiasts. Three recent releases from Portland bands keep
that foggy-minded tradition alive.
King Black Acid is undoubtedly the best-known and
-loved of the three. Unfortunately, Daniel Riddle's troupe
produces the least satisfying leg of this trip trifecta.
The aptly named Loves a Long Song (Cavity
Search) is surprisingly sterile given KBA's pronounced fondness
for odd, elongated song structures and deep meshes of sound.
Riddle's vocals are often blown out into that big, pristine
AlternaRock™ bellow. The elaborate taffeta of keyboards
and saturated guitars draped over all these interminable
songs is treacly and off-putting. Ironically, the slick
production works against the charm of the backward-glancing
psychedelic elements. King Black Acid wants to wash you
in a bathwater-warm trough of sound, but Loves a Long
Song is antiseptic and cold, an inanimate hodgepodge
that never fuses into the gushing life it wants.
Rick Bain and the Genius Position (this school of
psychedelia seems to operate under a fairly strict auteur
theory) spins out a similar kaleidoscope of retro sound
on Crooked Autumn Sun (Official). Somehow,
though, Bain and comrades pull it off, infusing their songs
with an earthy vitality the KBA tracks lack. Plentiful keyboards
buzz through the whole affair; the slight echo that shadows
most of Bain's vocals and the dry crackle of the snare drum
give the album a certain reserve, like a sepia-toned photo
of a receding time. A welcome down-country thud moves songs
like "Rapture" along at a good clip, while most of the rest
of the tracks bask contentedly in a wide-open lightness
that recalls the Beach Boys or Oasis.
The best of the lot comes from the fresh-faced young turks
of Portland's spaced-out-rock set, the Beaverton avengers
of The Helio Sequence. This duo's stun-volume live
sets and promising self-released demo have sown plenty of
excitement over the past year or so. Now, the band's fortuitous
hook-up with Cavity Search bears fruit. Com Plex
is a startlingly precocious album for a band turned loose
on a full-fledged release for the first time.
Singer-guitarist Brandon Summers and drummer-computer
whiz Benjamin Weikel put this mother to bed themselves,
recording and mixing nine sparkling songs in all-night sessions
at the suburban music store where they hold day jobs. The
caffeine and insomnia pay off--Com Plex has an urgency
missing from both above-mentioned albums, despite its heavy
freight of layered synths, effects-laden guitar and meticulously
processed vocals.
The Helios do wander astray a few times, a failing that's
perhaps unavoidable with a genre as nebulous and far-reaching
as this. Com Plex contains a few glassy-eyed moments
when the lads need to be told to rein it in. But they're
ambitious, damn it, and they're good. Give them a few years
to hone their Beatlesque candy-colored aesthetic into a
more refined brand of sugar, and God knows what they'll
become. For now, the Helio Sequence performs the deft trick,
hard for any band that builds on so many readily identifiable
touchstones from the past, of making you wonder just what
will happen next.
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