- BAND AID: Typhoon wants you...to help sell its stuff! The increasingly popular Portland indie-pop ensemble is searching for an âintern.â The job description sounds like what would have been called a âmerch personâ in the pre-Internet days, but the band says the gig involves more than just sitting at the back of a club hawking 7-inches and baby tees. Duties will include running the groupâs Web store while itâs on the road, mailing packages and organizing âthe mess that is our merch office,â writes singer-guitarist Dave Hall in an email to Scoop. Sounds like the band is trying to trick someone into doing unpaid grunt work by framing it as a career opportunityâsomething we at Willamette Week would never doâbut Hall insists the experience will be mutually beneficial. âI feel that we have been given a really unique opportunity with the amount of support we have gotten in Portland,â he writes, âand how we are beginning to get at least a little attention in other parts of the countryâ¦that has awarded us some perspective I feel could be beneficial to someone who is interested in being an independent artist.â Interested parties may apply at shipping.wearetyphoon@gmail.com.
- ITâS PRETTY CORNY: Not yet sick of Portlandia? The whole âput on a bird on itâ thing sometimes makes us want to uproot and move to some town no one will ever want to make a television show about. If you feel differently, youâll be thrilled with this yearâs cornfield maze at the Sauvie Island Pumpkin Patch. Now you can actually walk inside the 2-year-old meme. The mazeâmake that MAiZEâis designed to resemble Raymond Kaskeyâs Portlandia sculpture placing a bird atop a pumpkin. Itâs supposedly a celebration of Portlandâs âcleverness,â though it seems more representative of the cityâs inability to just let certain things go.
- TRAVELS WITH STELLA BEAN: Portland drummer/songwriter/teacher/painter/jill-of-all-trades Rachel Blumberg, a lifelong resident of Portland and one of the most recognizable faces in the cityâs music scene, has left the Rose City to live in Providence, R.I. Though best known as an early Decemberist, Blumbergâs musical talents (she has played with Bright Eyes, Norfolk & Western, M. Ward, etc.) and visual art have helped enrich and define the Portland arts scene. She had considered moving to Los Angeles, Chicago or Barcelona in recent months, but a reunion and subsequent romance with musician Jeffrey Underhill (formerly of the band Honeybunch) led her to his hometown of Providence. âI still feel like this will always be my home, and I donât intend to break from the community,â she says of Portland. âBut Iâm also really excited to move to such a beautiful, weird, small place.â Blumbergâs dog, Stella Bean, will accompany her on the car trip. In classic Blumberg fashion, she has at least two musical projects lined up in Providence.
WWeek 2015