MUSIC COLUMN East-meets-West Hookups Not since Elliott Smith moved to Brooklyn has there been this much noteworthy interaction between the Rose City and the I-95 corridor. BY RICHARD MARTIN martin@wweek.com Pacific Northeast?: Displaced East Coasters take note: Portland has suddenly become part of the New York/Boston axis. News of bi-coastal relocations and collaborations abounds this week. Not since Elliott Smith moved to Brooklyn has there been this much noteworthy interaction between the Rose City and the I-95 corridor. In the loss column, Shawn Bosler, who displayed guitar wizardry in the now-defunct noise-rock trio Umberhulk, is heading off to Beantown. Before he splits, Bosler will give us a taste of what could have been, starring in his own mini-rockfest at the 1201 this Thursday. He'll team up with members of the Kung-Fu's and Turks Head in an ethereal guitar, violin and upright bowed bass trio called Mercurium. He'll sit in with Rollerball for a set of art-rock. And he'll close out the night with a solo bow, albeit with a few guests helping out. Chalk one up for the Portland label Hit or Miss. Its second release is the wonderful Gale Wind Transistor, a compilation of songs by New York City graphic design student Adam Bayer and his confoundingly named band The I Live the Life of a Movie Star Secret Hideout. Bayer considers himself an acolyte of the Olympia minimalist-pop sound, but his plaintive, sparse indie rock has just enough professional sheen to make it eminently listenable. The simplistic guitar riffs and unadorned vocals recall Unrest, and the songwriting rings with a low-key wit that favors wordplay over narrative. Turning the tables, the Brooklyn label Amplified Recordings got a hold of the promising Portland act Wow & Flutter and recently released the mellifluous Guilty Pleasures. Favoring minor-key arrangements and drawn-out grooves, this newcomer sounds something like the Sea and Cake covering Sonic Youth. It's not working with the most distinctive formula, but Wow & Flutter constructs songs with a rare finesse and cleverness that sets it apart. Choice cuts include the circuitous down-tempo track "Projection," the hook-filled shuffle "Nothing to Say" and the mildly psychedelic guitar work outs "Bighead" and "Astronaut." If indie rock is dead, Wow & Flutter seems intent on resuscitating it with this sparkling contribution. Lastly, in an East-meets-West hookup of minor but meaningful proportions, Portland's New Bad Things and Brooklyn's Ill Ease will perform Sunday, Nov. 22, at 17 Nautical Miles. The latter band is the latest project from former New Radiant Storm King drummer Elizabeth Sharp; earlier this year Ill Ease quietly released a masterfully warped album, Live at the Gate, on Los Angeles' Smilex Records. The first track, "Walking Pneumonia," combines a repetitive drumbeat and bass line, cloying xylophone and a bizarre series of shout-outs to most of the 50 states, such as "Fuck everyone in Oregon"; it's the musical equivalent of a Tourette's-afflicted geography student with a high fever. The record veers off into seldom-tested musical waters--except maybe by Daniel Johnston--with Sharp splicing together vocal overdubs, rickety percussion, organ vamps, atonal guitars and woozy bass. By turns insulting, cacophonous, inventive and jazzy, Ill Ease promises a night of unusual music. New Band Night: EJ's hosted two of Portland's best hopes for national prominence Tuesday, Nov. 10. Lolly played its fifth show, with ex-Nero's Rome frontman Tod Morissey leading the trio through a well-balanced set of mid- and up-tempo melodic rock songs. The upstart band's already had some success, joining fellow Portlanders the Pinehurst Kids as local bands with songs on the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Lolly's "Silver Dollar" was featured on the Nov. 17 episode. The trio is currently in the studio with Tony Lash. Also on the EJ's bill was Magic Fingers, which features ex-Dandy Warhols drummer Eric Hedford, ex-Swoon 23 guitarist Spike Keating and ex-Brian Jonestown Massacre guitarist and vocalist Matt Hollywood. The band's second-ever performance hinted at pop brilliance, with Hollywood and Keating trading vocals and guitar licks convincingly. Their set was captured by Los Angeles filmmaker Ondi Timoner, who's at work on a documentary about the Dandy Warhols and Brian Jonestown Massacre, to be released next year. Spins of the Week: His Name Is Alive, Ft. Lake (4AD)--Mellow-pop mastermind Warren Defever enlisted a soul singer for his band's latest, a collection of meandering bluesy rock and R&B, including the Neneh Cherry-like standout "No Hiding Place Down Her." The Pretty Things, S.F. Sorrow (Snapper)--A rerelease of the first rock opera, a psychedelic lost classic recorded in the summer of '67 at Abbey Road--at the same time as the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's and Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn.   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published November 18, 1998