Skip to main contentEven more fun if you imagine David Hasselhoff saying it.
[BLOODSUCKING POP] When all-ages venue the Hush closed in February, it was a major blow to Portland's young music scene. For over two years, the Hush—though not a formal, legal venue—combined the intimacy of a house show with the specs of a real, brick-and-mortar concert space. But when the cops finally busted the place (which wasn't up to code, among other violations), it was almost a hidden blessing for booker and musician Rocky Tinder: He could finally focus on his own band, Wampire.
"We'd try to rehearse here, but there were always shows, so we'd have to practice around them," says 21-year-old Tinder. "The progress we've made recently, a lot of it is because the space is free."
Wampire formed by chance last summer when Tinder and Eric Phipps were asked if they could provide music for a party. Growing up in Salem, the pair played in the rock band Root Villa (kind of a "Guided by Voices rip-off," according to Phipps) but were looking to start something a little dancier, stripped-down and fun.
Though the name Wampire—inspired by Phipps' six-month stay in Germany, where his friends continually mispronounced the American word for the bloodsucking undead—is silly, the band's music is anything but. Wampire's self-titled debut is filled with synth-heavy pop and bookended by two spacey, wobbly instrumental pieces. Kraftwerk is an obvious influence (Wampire covers the German pioneers' "Das Modell"), and standouts like the whistling "Orchards" and the bubbly "Wooby Dooby" apply layers of electronic sheen to gorgeous, sun-baked guitar-pop.
Though most of the album relies more on tone and atmosphere than lyrics, songs like "Wooby Dooby"—with its blissful chorus of "Sometimes I try to make you happy/ Other times I want you to be sad"—achieve the duo's goal of making dancey music that's just as listenable at home as onstage.
The debut, though, will be released only on cassette tape (with the added bonus of a digital download coupon). "We wanted something that was kind of a novelty—something you'd want to hold on to," Phipps says. "We needed something tangible after The Hush closed."
SEE IT: Wampire plays its cassette-release show at Worksound on Saturday, July 11. 8 pm. $5. All ages.
WWeek 2015