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Thrillbilly, The Webbers, 44 Long EJ's, 2140 NE Sandy Blvd., 234-3535
10 pm Saturday,
Oct. 11
Cover 44 Long will open its own record-release party as bassist Andy Ricker has to play with his recently resurrected band Moxy Love Crux later that night. Spins of the Week: Pedro the Lion, Whole EP (Tooth and Nail)--This Christian quintet from Shoreline, Wash., plays some of the prettiest indie-pop I've heard in a while, even if the messages in its lyrics tend to be preachy. (See the band at NXNW, Friday, Oct. 17, at Mount Tabor.) Miles Davis, Sketches of Spain (Legacy)--This re-issue of Davis' orchestral classic adds 19 minutes of previously un-released music in three tracks. One of the most moving and beautiful records of all time. |
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When Everclear plays its record-release show at Music Millennium Northwest this week, there'll be a line out the door and hundreds of young fans hoping to catch a glimpse of lead singer Art Alexakis. When 44 Long plays its record-release show this week at EJ's, there won't be a line out the door, and the audience that comes to see lead singer Brian Berg will likely consist almost solely of friends and fellow musicians. But for Berg, who turns 40 a few days before the Oct. 11 performance, putting out Collect Them All (Schizophonic) is reward enough. Over the years he's kept a low profile, occasionally mounting a stage to play an opening set, then quietly ducking back into the crowd as befuddled onlookers wondered who he was. With his closely cropped hair and working-class clothes, Berg often looked and sounded like some famous musician who took a wrong turn and got lost at the onset of the '80s; his songs bear resemblance to those of Elvis Costello, Joe Walsh and John Doe. Along the way, Berg released a few demo cassettes, one of which landed him a deal with Criterion Publishing, a company that has worked with Lyle Lovett, among others. Mark Knopfler also got ahold of a demo and called Berg to suggest a manager. The publishing deal expired, Knopfler's input was filed under "lost opportunities" and Berg shifted from job to job, eventually settling into a career as a house inspector for potential home buyers. "I'm good at getting music out," he says, "but I've never been good at trying to sell it." About a year ago, Berg decided to take some friends up on their offer to back him if he ever chose to record an album. He assembled 44 Long with drummer Cory Burden (of the Blubinos), Andy Ricker (Moxy Love Crux, ex-Vehicle) and Eric Furlong (Sunset Valley, Kaitlyn Ni Donovan, Pirate Jenny), and the quartet recorded 10 of the thousand or so songs he's written. The music ranges from bar-band shuffles to plaintive pop to country-tinged rock, and Berg's earnest vocals can be gruff, as on the chugging opener "Fall off the Wagon," or refined, as on the soulful "Irregular Heart." Lyrically, Collect Them All forms something of a song cycle, with middle-aged meditations fighting a tug-of-war with youthful outbursts. |
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"To me it's real cohesive," Berg says. "They're good old Nietzschean musings; I wonder what death's gonna be like, and say you might as well have fun along the way." With a new band and a debut album, Berg says he's more content as a musician than ever before. "It feels so real to me for the first time," he says. "It's like the culmination of a lifetime of songwriting." Hitting the Shelves: To celebrate the release of its second album for Capitol and third overall, So Much for the Afterglow, Everclear will play a free in-store show at Music Millennium Northwest, 6 pm Sunday, Oct. 12. Admission will be on a "first come, first shoved in" basis, as one store representative put it. NXNW Action: Two local North by Northwest acts did some traveling in the month leading up to the festival. The Harlots completed a West Coast tour in early October, including an opening set for punk legends True Sounds of Liberty in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, sitarist Allon Beausoleil flew to New York and sat in with the Dandy Warhols on three dates in early September, one of which was as an opener for Blur. Next up for Beausoleil is a set with DJ Ben at the NXNW Poster show, 8-10 pm Wednesday, Oct. 15, at the Hilton Hotel. Portland Postscript: The music community mourns the loss of local rock critic M.T. Kinney, who passed away Saturday at the age of 28. |
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