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Risley is a shifting collective of musicians revolving around Michael Deresh and Travis Stanek, two guys with fond memories of that time just before Portland became Portland. Deresh cofounded PDX Pop Now, and both played in the early 2000s indie pop band Tea for Julie. With Risley, the duo enlisted somewhere around 11 players to help complete its self-titled debut, an album which can't help evoke a time in the city which, depending on when you got here, is either fading or long-gone.
It wasn't totally clear if that was Deresh and Stanek's intent, but they've doubled down on that mood of wistful nostalgia in their video for "Kill the Clock." Made up entirely of 8mm and 16mm footage of Old Portland—not like, Drugstore Cowboy Portland, but the Portland of Meow Meow and Berbati's—it's like the opening credits of The Wonder Years if it were set to misty, '90s-gazing guitar pop instead of Joe Cocker. It'll bring a tear to your eye, even if your only relationship with "Old Portland" is the conversation you had at My Father's Place with the guy who swears he saw Elliott Smith play a house party once.
KILL THE CLOCK from Michael Deresh on Vimeo.
Willamette Week