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Who: Teal Bluestone (vocals, bass), Jackson Walker (guitar, vocals), Ethan Conroy (drums, vocals).
Sounds like: Detention for the worst-behaved band geeks of Calvin Johnson's School for Gifted Punksters.
For fans of: Speedy Ortiz, That Dog, Mirah's Phil Elverum collaborations.
Trying to get anyone in Naked Hour to be at all serious for a moment is near impossible. Within five minutes of meeting the band members, they invent a running joke wherein one of them reveals a scandalous confession about another, giddily prefacing each divulgence with the phrase "on the record" and shouting some embarrassing triviality in a fit of laughter. The rapport is an intimacy only siblings know and one that's impervious to outsiders. Even asking about their stellar, just-released debut album barely helps matters.
It's only after they tire of their new gag that it's revealed their attitude is actually a form of rebellion.
"All of us have classical backgrounds," Walker says. "We were all raised in musical theory, in youth programs. But when I started playing in bands, I started to move away from it. You end up actively trying to not think about it. So, while you still know it, you're trying not to be too in your head."
With Always on the Weekend, the band members channel the jovial hijinks of their friendship into smart, melodic fuzz. Teal Bluestone's sweet, diaphanous voice is a ballast point for the walls of distortion her cronies prop her fragility upon. It's raw but somehow extremely tender and inviting. Their collective joie de vivre humor is revealed through bursts of meticulously crafted explosions, perhaps indebted to the stuffy rehearsals of their youth.
"It was the worst experience growing up," Bluestone groans. "I'd be playing oboe and my parents would be in their bedroom yelling, 'Teal, you're sharp!' And I'd be, 'Mom, I know! Shut up! I'm just tryin' to practice over here!' I think that's why my parents like rock 'n' roll, funk, jazz, but they don't play bass and they can't sing and they don't like punk music. I'm just like, 'All right, I got one thing.'"
SEE IT: Naked Hour plays Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., with Blowout and Rod, on Sunday, June 26. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
Willamette Week