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ALL THE LOCAL FEST NEWS THAT'S FIT TO PRINT.
Pickathon, the Northwest roots music fest, has announced this year's lineup. The festival, which takes place Aug. 4-5 at Pendarvis Farm (between PDX and Boring), will showcase Danny Barnes, the Wailin' Jennys and many more. For a full list, check out www.pickathon.com. >> Last week, we reported that guitar-wielding headbanger Lauren K Newman accidentally banged her head after a fall down the stairs and did some serious damage. Now Newman's friends have announced a benefit concert to be held June 23 at the Modish Building (333 SW Park Ave). Donations are a $10-$20 sliding scale and will go towards LKN's medical bills. For more info, go to www.helplkn.com >> PDX Pop Now! has (finally!) announced the track list for this year's compilation disc, and it's pretty sweet, featuring new music from the Thermals, Viva Voce and Menomena. The two-disc set does not as of yet have a release date, but it will definitely be out before the festival which takes place July 28-30. Go to www.pdxpopnow.com to check out the full tracklist. >> In other PDX Pop Now! news, the polls have officially closed and the votes (or, more accurately, the requests) are being tallied. With 8,000 votes from 3,000 individuals, this year was by far the most successful vote for the three-year-old festival.
Sate our thirst for Portland music news. Email localcut@wweek.com.
We Quit Sunday, June 18
Bass-drum duo packs 500 noisy ideas into each orchestral composition.
[NOISE PUNK] The first time We Quit ever played was at Lewis & Clark College in early 2004. The duo shared a microphone for the vocals, which was tricky because the bass and drum kit kept getting in the way. Each song was about 20 to 45 seconds long, and at the time there was little to distinguish it from Wrong or Petite Salmon Cakes—two more bands that were part of an inexplicable craze at the college at the time: noise two-pieces. But as WQ continued to play, distinct tunes started to take shape, and comparisons to experimental post-rockers Lightning Bolt, with chirpy vocals and lyrics about animals, were not uncommon and entirely appropriate.
As time went on, though, comparisons of WQ to, well, much of anything else became difficult to support. As bassist Mason Crumley said over tea in the living room of his and drummer Jessica Jones' house, "We used to have, like, two ideas in each song." Jones, who also performs as a solo folk artist, added, "Now we have, like, 500."
At its beginning, We Quit could have been called a punk band, but that tag didn't quite fit last Valentine's Day, when the duo played a 2 am set in a NoPo basement. With skillfully constructed volume swells and controlled cymbal splashes, WQ sounded not unlike an orchestra—oh, and the lyrical content had shifted to "landscapes."
"I think that pretty much any good band that plays what they want to, instead of trying to fill a niche, can't be described right away," said Crumley. The truth is that many hear what they want to hear from this charming and original (if less than tight and catchy) duo. The band transcends musical niches; it has appeared on bills with black metal legends Jonny X and the Groadies as well as indy-folk buzz-bandle Dragging an Ox through Water, and garnered a track on this year's PDX Pop Now! compilation (not to mention previous space next to Deerhoof and Sleater-Kinney on other compilation disks). Crumley also reports it was very easy for him and Jones to book a national two-month tour last fall, which saw the band playing with XBXRX and Rachel Lipson.
We Quit's live shows are becoming more rare, as the band focuses on writing more complex material for its full-length follow-up to the self-titled five-song, six-minute debut EP. Sunday's show at The Know should give a taste of where We Quit is headed for that release. Given the band's ability to transform at will, it would be foolish to think its songs are concrete, considering Jones will be spending the next few months in Tennessee and North Carolina doing some soul searching in her native region.
—JASON SIMMS.
We Quit plays with Baby Gecko, Red Dress Press and Bird Costumes at the Know. 8 pm. Cover. All ages.
CEX Saturday, June 17
Cex pairs up with Nice Nice and tells us how to have sex in Denton.
[DIRTY ELECTRONIC] An old friend rolls into town. He's looking for help on a project; a zine at first, and then an album. He needs a story from you, a few hundred words on your own "actual fucking." He takes the story, reprints it in his liner notes, and abstracts it into a song. The old friend is Rjyan Kidwell and the result is the latest release from Kidwell's bandle, Cex. The album, Actual Fucking, is a grand mix of Brainiac, Aphex Twin and the Penthouse Letters column, partially made possible by Portland's wonder-duo Nice Nice (who throw down most of the guitar and drum work on the disc). WW snagged the Chicago musician for a few minutes of pillow talk.
—MICHAEL BYRNE.
WW: How did you hook up with Nice Nice?
Rjyan Kidwell: Kid 606 brought them down to play his monthly [series] while I was living in the Bay. That's the first time I saw them; it blew a few circuits. Then [the Temporary Residence record label] got ahold of them and [label boss Jeremy deVine] got them opening a couple shows in Cascadia in the summer of 5000 [sic]; seeing them again in less-crowded conditions convinced me that they are two of the most powerful beings conjuring sounds in the entire realm. I asked them to be my backup band for a tour, and they were into it, so I stayed in their place for a few weeks, and we did some seriously monastic Kokopelli warrior shit.
What came first, the music or the "actual fucking" idea?
The music was first; and around the same time I was making the music, I made a zine called Actual Fucking that was a tour guide to the U.S. based on specific experiences I've had in different cities. I wanted to [create] an ongoing almanac for young travelers that would basically say, "Well, if you're going to Denton, get ready to stay up late, bust a hammock, and have sketchy doggystyle in the back yard after everybody else but you and your secret sweetheart hits the hay." So I was writing the music while I was writing prose to flesh out the ideas of the album in a direct way, and then I adapted the stories into the lyrics of the album.
Were you at all concerned about this album's "usefulness" in an actual fucking situation?
I was concerned about making some tracks about fucking that weren't goofy pervo humor jams or intenso guilt freakouts. Actual Fucking isn't some boneyard mixtape, it's Henry James, baby.
Cex plays with Love of Everything and YACHT at Towne Lounge. 9:30 pm. $8. 21+.
Various Artists The Sound the Hare Heard (Kill Rock Stars)
Slim's pickin's pass the sincerity test, for the most part.
[SINGER-SONGWRITERS] Art imitates life. Or it should, at least. From the time you're born, the experiences you have start to mold and shape your character. And when you're a true artist, that character is what predicates the essence of your music. It's the force that guides the hand that writes the lyrics that come from within. Music lovers obsess over spotting such artists and marking them as genuine, priding themselves on the ability to smell bullshit from a mile away. With acoustic singer-songwriter types, this test is especially stringent. Stripped of most artifice, with only an acoustic guitar and a voice, these artists are on display and their hearts best be on their sleeves, lest they want to be a Mat Kearney in an Elliott Smith world.
Kill Rock Stars' boss, Slim Moon, is just such a music fan, and his label's latest release, The Sound the Hare Heard, is a collection of songs by artists that pass his own personal test. The 21-track album gives exposure to a slew of the nation's underground artists, including Portland locals Southerly, Corrina Repp, Lovers and Colin Meloy of the Decemberists. The songs that work, like Devin Davis' opening tear-jerker, do so because they so clearly possess that golden trait: sincerity. Other highlights are Laura Veirs' catchy, jangly "Cast a Hook in Me," and Southerly's somber, Turin Brakes-esque "Dumbing Down." However, embedded in the pure gold of the disc are little flecks of pyrite. It's these impostors, including the Moore Brothers' "Waves of Wonders" and Poor Little City Boy's "Nedelle," that prevent the compilation from ever feeling whole.
All the same, Moon has accomplished a highly credible feat by bringing together such a wide range of artists and putting them on display for a larger audience. Even if the album in its entirety doesn't merit a permanent spot on your hard drive, you'll definitely take away a few key tracks from it that will make your heart swell, genuinely.
—DEVAN COOK.
Laura Veirs, Corrina Repp, Lovers, Southerly, Thao Nguyen and Simone White celebrate the release of The Sound the Hare Heard Saturday, June 17, at the Artistery. 8 pm. $6. All ages.
WWeek 2015