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"Unexpected things are born from unlikely combinations.
This could basically sum up the gathering of Diego Medina and Desirée Marantes in their first work together. Although both were members of the alcoholic-creative collective named "Os Massa" – a group of friends who get drunk and record improvised songs – the two of them had never created anything together." - - Until now.
via Zombieoper


Zombieoper, as their name suggests, is an opera about zombies! Now, this isn't your typical sleeper opera; this album features an array of guests from Gruff Rhys(Super Furry Animals/NEON NEON), to Desiree's own geese, who all help to give this opera a touch or two of rock roots. I certainly don't recommend this to everyone, but an album this spooky, lively, & funny is sure to catch one of you guys' ears and stick to the wax.



Disk 1>
Disk 2>

Other people's photos.

About a week and a half ago I got wasted at Holoscene for some random show and left my camera on the table. After I de-orbited back in hot pursuit off the dance floor, it was somehow, amazingly still sitting on the table. I then proceeded to lose my entire bag an hour later (I blamed this on it being camo) so when I got it back later I gave my friend Jessica the camera to hold onto. It only seemed sensible.

That was almost two weeks ago and I have been too lazy to go get it back. And the original idea was for this to be partially a photo blog. Fortunately for everyone involved I WASTE SO MUCH TIME exploring the internet late at night that I always run into random bits of impressive color.

H&LA

I normally find youtube videos on blogs a little tacky unless the song is a fucking cut. This is a fucking cut.

No Age @ Food Fight (Vegan Grocery)

Wow. From the moment I arrived at Food Fight excitement washed over me. The band was equally excited, making jokes and drinking from a rubber boot. On No age's Myspace page they claim they are "excited about playing shows" and follow that by claiming they will play anywhere they can. They proved that to be true when they absolutely rocked the little store, which was more full then it had ever been. They went from one end of the store to the other and even climbed on top of the coolers giving every attendee a fair glance at real live talent(thank god for high ceilings). Afterward I tried to think of crazy places I've seen shows: On a Yacht, around a flag pole, in the middle of Burnside. A fan of music truly loves a "take away show", something you and only a few can say you saw. As a band grows they are often robbed of that opportunity, but No age pretty much say fuck that. Well I say fuck you if you missed it! But rest assured someone had their nokia camera to document it all (that post will follow).

Upcoming Shows

So many shows coming up tonight to get excited about. I recommend everyone spend as much money as possible on live music in 2008. Go to the Liars show tonight, too.


*****Jan 30 - Yeasayer, MGMT @ Holocene
Yeasayer are a quartet of super-talented quartet of multi-instrumentalists from Brooklyn. Their debut LP "All Hour Cymbals" sounds like an endless summer type world tour of haunted caves, sunny beach parties, and cyber-punk bodymod flea markets. Sorta like the pop backbone of Paul Simon's Graceland, but with a wider geographical scope and more nitrous hits.

*****Feb 21 - Gaycation and Holocene present... MEN (DJ Samson and Johanna Fateman of Le Tigre), Hey Willpower, Gaycation DJs
I'd probably get my scrotum plucked off for being a straight dude at this show, but from the sounds and looks of MEN's myspace page, they could be a great crazy off the hookah dance party.


*****Feb 29 - Tittsworth, Beyonda @ Holocene - Discobelle.net star DJ Tittsworth should create a ton of stir in Portland with his mad deep crates of b-more and his still relatively under-the-radar status. Plus Beyonda's opening up the night should come for many as a seal-of-approval for a certifiably crazy dance party.

*****March 7 - Crystal Castles, Health, DJ Joee Irwin @ Backspace - This show is Holocene's second venture in booking outside of the Eastside club. Previously the all ages Backspace had hosted Dan Deacon and Ultimate Reality at Holocene's behest. By all reports things went well and the kids were stoked see some legitimately good music in a small booze-free venue. As for this Crystal Castles show, first check Countzero's post from a week or so ago and cop that Remix Rewired bootleggish "album" of Crystal Castles remixes. It's about 70 percent totally rad. All I know of their live show is what Sasha tells me: "It's not very good. It's mostly just him pushing buttons and her screaming and spazzingg out." The remix compilation IS good, though. And Health is gonna steal the show. And buy one of their stylish teeshirts.


*****March 7 - Atlas Sound, Valet, White Rainbow - Choices, choices... On the same night, across the river, we have Deerhunter's twiggish frontman presenting his new project, Atlas Sound. Word is, Cox has been in Portland recently working on material with Honey Owens (Valet), Adam Forkner (White Rainbow), and Brian Foote (Nudge). Those same people will be his backing band for Atlas Sound's set tonight. Considering the members of this group, I'd expect a fair amount of tasteful jamming.

*****April 25 - Nightclubbing Presents... Simian Mobile Disco, G/l/a/s/s/C/a/n/d/y, Linger & Quiet @ Holocene - Yessss? Reaaallly?


*****Sometime, Somewhere - Justice and Diplo are playing but what's up with that anyways?

Tube Tales

I was sitting at the front table in our favorite dive bar playing a Poker dime game with some of my favorite boys (B.Wrong, M.Vista and Bunny who is officially considered a boy in this context) and Vista showed me this weird little mint thing that-
A. looked too strong to put in my mouth (cancer? heartburn?)
B. looked exactly like a gram
Of couse we end up scattering a few near the bathroom door and watched hipsters trying to open them for hours. Red faced frusteration ensued at lack of an opening and keys were brandished as sweaty hands tried desperately to rip open their new
prize.


Then today this popped up on the wire-


From an AP article:

"The Hershey Co. is halting production of Ice Breakers Pacs in response to criticism that the mints look too much like illegal street drugs, the company's president and chief executive officer said Thursday.

Ice Breakers Pacs, which first hit store shelves in November, are nickel-sized dissolvable pouches with a powdered sweetener inside. The pouches come in blue or orange and bear the Ice Breakers logo.

Members of Philadelphia's police narcotics squad said the mints closely resemble tiny heat-sealed bags used to sell powdered street drugs. They charged that the consequences could be serious if, for example, a child familiar with the mints found a package of cocaine."



Oh and here is a song for Sunday.
Flashing Lights-Clipse Remix

Sunday, January 27th

I know it's still friday, and hoping for Sunday this early is a little uncommon, but when you're in Portland, everyday can be Friday if you wan't it to. This Sunday is going to blow your friday away, and by then, lets face it, you're not even going to remember where you were anyways.

Town Lounge is offering its fifteenth installment of the Portland Lounge Series, which means that it is absolutely free.


Via WW - "Feather Figure's Nathan Howdeshell loves noise and embraces that love in this new solo venture of his! Perhaps you're a fan of his guitar rendering in the Gossip as Brace Paine, or his turntable skills as the Chain. Or maybe you're still a bit downtrodden from missing your chance to catch his previous noise project—with notorious noise maker John Weise—Xeaxx Xeaxx (pronounced "Heavy Seals").

Now is your chance! This is Feather Figure's first Portland showing! He's been spending his time of late practicing with a chainsaw for this very occasion.

Feather Figure is light on vocals, but heavy on otherworldly pizzazz. Come get lost in the audible echos of Nathan's mind. It's a bit like vacant chaos with a melody if you care to find it."

If that isn't enough to get you out there then maybe the mention of Portland's own Night Wounds as headliner is. See you there!

Cold winter & the best music of our lives.

Work is like a relationship. And being single is like having days off. But sometimes on those days off you start to get irritated, too much time to think, not enough of easy direction. No comfort in any direction. I need to be busy, even if my time is being wasted I like routine; vacations become oppressive, days off-confusing.

On the coldest day I have ever seen in Portland I woke up late and went straight to the coffee shop. It's soothing. Regulars you recognize but have no obligation to, some of the best coffee in the world and one of the few places where you can sit and do nothing, by yourself and still be socially accepted by others. It is also a haven for recently turned closet smokers. Stumptown is my home if I don't want anyone to talk to me or I can't find anyone to talk to.

I walk around with Nick in the streets empied by a global-warming-cold-snap and we talk about politics. Not silly election politics or city wide politics, not mainstream distractions; but actual deeper, real world problems that are about to hit this generation like a freight train. Shit is about to go to hell and no one wants to face it. And no one ever, ever wants to talk about it, claiming they have no power to change anything.

My friend Kim saved six million acres of Chilean rain forests two summers ago while I was living with her. Anything is possible if we care and plan what we are going to do. So tonight I just glower dark as we walk around the empty streets of Chinatown.

I played my Thursday night poker like a Donkey. I was still glowering inside and my table made fun of me for constantly going all in and never playing past the flop. I realized it was true but by that time I was on the short stack and I lost in a questionable king nine call against an ace that killed me on the river. I made it to the final two tables but out of the money and by this point fairly drunk.

I don't really remember the Gui Boratto show or the Tube after or getting home. So nothing about that. I listened to Pendulum the whole time I wrote this (my secret favorite for Coachella) and I could not find any suitable pictures to post.

Coachella Mix

Regardless of who you are there is always a thing or 5(00) at coachella that you'd probably want to see on a given day. Here's what I want to see Day 1 of coachella, with a couple of reasons why(sans all that you already know about).

--------Day 1--------
-The Swell Season-

Apparently this band exists solely because of a soundtrack they made (of the same title). Unfortunately it has members of 'The Frames', but if you forget about Glen Hansard's other work(the pretty cheezy movie ONCE)... this band(album?) is frustratingly depressing and in turn quite beautiful. I'm not sure what a set outdoors would be like... but due to the nature of their band it is seemingly one of the only chances we'll have to find out.
The Swell Season - Assorted Tracks

-Does It Offend You, Yeah?-

Ok, ok. Dumb band name aside, this act is truly very promising. With nothing but an assortment of singles and a decently mixed compilation, promising is a pretty appropriate term for D.I.O.F.Y.,Y. What they have delivered has been reasonably well recieved and hopefully their set at Coachella follows suit.
Does It Offend You, Yeah? - MIX

-Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip-

With the recent popularity of Dizzee Rascal and other such UK rap acts, its a shame that Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip haven't garnered more praise; especially since they are seemingly doing everything right. Tongue-in-cheek lyrics over un-exaggerated beats that could be mistaken for foot stomps if they weren't so precisely timed. I am seriously looking forward to their set.
Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip - The Beat That My Heart Skipped

-Adam Freeland-

Like edIT, Freeland makes the kind of music that is begging for vocals, but makes the appropriate decision to go without on a number of tracks. A certain monotony is what creates this desire for vocal satisfaction, but again, like edIT, Freeland truly shines when he allows himself the diversity of an instrumental track. Adam built his roots in instrumentals that suffer from a puzzling simplicity, but now flourishes in his subtle complexities. Sans vocals, Freeland has the ability to truly amaze.-- Hopefully he will.
Adam Freeland - Big Wednesday

-Sandra Collins-

Normally I wouldn't give the up-tempo obnoxiousness of Sandra Collins the time of day, but when she is almost single handedly responsible for the rise of danceable hip-hop, she becomes hard to ignore. 6 degrees of Rihanna?
Sandra Collins - Airwave (original Mix)

-Reverend & The Makers-

This band is a lot more acessible than their name suggests. I don't know how amazing they would be live... but if we give bands like the kooks and the klaxons the time of day... don't we owe it to Rev. and the Makers to watch them?
Reverend & The Makers - The Machine

Radio Slave- Next stop Chicago

This was one of those tracks that I randomly got in a mix cd of mp3's. Along with Sally Shapiro, Franki Chan and a bunch of random mixes there was this one track. Oddly hypnotic, driving beat, sparse vocal samples. It's beautiful!

Click here

Pictures from Dan Deacon

...Better late then never.
I am not sure how to crop them right but they look less silly half-size.

Band On The Run

Portland is often overlooked when smaller international acts tour the west coast, and it's a real shame. Don't let Fabulous Diamonds pass us up!



Currently scheduling a US tour in support of their forthcoming 12" LP through Siltbreeze Records, this band is, I repeat, IS planning to play shows on the west coast. Make sure to let them know just how welcoming we can be by sending them a message and encouraging their visit!

Portland Special

Dazed Digital is just wrapping up two weeks of features about Portland which includes this here mix by E*Rock and DJ 1996 Olympixx. I'm pretty stoked on it for a few reasons. First, it features tons of good Portland bands who's songs are mixed together really well, or outright remixed by the DJs themselves. Second, the intro has a sample from a song by Portland rapper Cool Nutz that I listened to back in high School. Also, E*Rock is a swell guy and has been doing great and creative DIY art and music here in Portland for the last 10 years, such as running the Audio Dregs record label, producing records, and making digital animation that is completely psychedelic and bonkers (Also, it's dumb to name drop but his brother is in Ratatat, and yes I am dum.)



Track Listing

Intro: DJ 1996 Olympixx + E*Rock
Parenthetical Girls - Love Connection Part 2
Sean P ft. T-Pain - You Ain't Know (Dirty)
Copy - Backward
Strategy - World House/Cam'ron - Mess With Me
Interlude: DJ 1996 Olympixx + E*Rock
Shakey Hands - Summer's Life
The Olympixxx - Funky 808 Breaks Intro
Panther - You Don't Want to Hear This (E*Rock RMX)
Coolie Dance Riddim
The Planet The - Arty Movie
Vitalic - Poney (Part 1)
B*retta - Untitled
Yacht - Platinum
South Rakkas - Carry Feelings
Copy - A Month
Glass Candy - Life After (E*Rock RMX)
The Blow - Hey Boy (Claps)
Chromatics - In The City
Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait [this is a classic from 1986 - #2 on the UK Charts, and a Portland based group!)
Adrian Orange - No Wonder
Outro: (Glass Candy - Intro)

Failed It/Nailed It

-in which we discuss: Success where others have failed.


The thought of a nearly 6 minute Datarock song is enough to send any fan of sound running far in the other direction. The closest we’ve come to actually being able to handle this musical monstrosity was with Morgan Z’s remix of Princess, but he failed to acknowledge the fact that what makes this band so un-listenable is: the awful vocals (which he doesn’t seem to mind).

Well, that was until now.

With the same song, the seemingly untraceable, DJErik.Pauly managed to strip a good majority of the vocals, using instead single syllables to create a remix that allows us to reconsider, if only momentarily, why we hated Datarock so much. If only they always sounded like this.

Princess (DJErik.Pauly Remix)

The Whip-Dive Bomb-Crystal Castles Remix

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD




While your a it... here's the whole remix album
Crystal Castles - Remixed/Rewired

JACK JOHNSON??!

This is fucking terrible."
That was my first thoughs at looking at the Coahcella lineup. Wow the headliners are Portishead and the.....(wait for it).....The Verve?
Don't get me wrong. I love Coachella. I love the drive there, I like dancing all day in the rave tent, I love looking forward to it for months and then missing all the bands you went there for. I love getting lost in seventy thousand people, I love partying in the desert, 500 miles south of where I should ever go...


In 2008 thank god for the second tier of bands, which are all a dancetastic Pitchfork reader could hope for..

The National, Animal Collective, Aesop Rock, Midnight Juggernauts, Does it Offend you, Yeah?, Minus the Bear, Spank Rock, Mum, Battles, Diplo, Santo Gold, Jens Lekman, Architecture in Helsinki, Busy P, Cut Copy, Black Lips, Datarock, Modeselektor, slands, Enter Shikari, Calvin Harris, Boyz Noize, The Teenagers, VHS or Beta, Erol Alkan, Yo Majesty!, Bonde Do Role, St. Vincent, Institubes DJs (Surkin, Para One and Orgasmic), James Zabiela, Sebastian, Kavinsky, New Young Pony Club, Uffie, Spiritualized, Justice, Gogol Bordello, Chromeo, The Streets, Simian Mobile Disco, Booka Shade, Murs, Dmitri from Paris, Autolux, The Field, Les Savy Fav, The Cool Kids, Black Kids, Kid Sister w/A-Trak,




If only they could have booked some good headliners.


I mean Jack Johnson, The Verve, Raconteurs, Portishead, Kraftwerk, Death Cab for Cutie, Cafe Tacuba,
Roger Waters (“Dark Side of the Moon”), Love & Rockets, My Morning Jacket.

I mean Roger Waters? Who the fuck is that?

Dan Deacon

There will be photos soon but somehow I managed to lose my camera twice last night (booze) and my bag once. I think I also knocked over a coffee table somewhere in the back room of Holocene. The camera ended up in someone elses clutches, which is just as well as the word on the street says that she took hilarious photos of Blake and I looking seriously bored.

We started off at The Sapphire Hotel where we drank dirty Hendrick martini's. Then vodka, vodka, vodka at Holocene with Erik (who is seriously the man).

Some Juicy Fruit or Juicy Team or Team Juice DJ's opened with some absolutely atrocious mixing which they got away with quite fine. It helps that it was the GF of the guy from YACHT and the owner of that record label and they were bobbing and weaving like they had never heard Electro music before.

DATR played which was so-so. Are they really making interesting music? Do we care? It's like playing two kick drums with three key boards, two joysticks and a magic wand. It looks interesting but it is still just two kick drums.

Ultimate reality was enthralling. Video footage of Arnold Swartz spliced together all crazy with two live drummers. It is hard for me to describe. I heard Erik tell it in quite some detail last night so we will get back to that.

Dan Deacon himself? What is there to say? It was a sold out crowd go batshit-beserk in anticipation (why?) when all he was doing was pressing play on an ipod and playing with the lights. Oh and he had a flashing green skull on a stick. I guess that was alright...

The music itself is great but probablly best reserved for late night hacking or drives along the coast. Right when I was starting to dig it we saw some horrendous bitch named Elana right up front with her mouth half open and her lepord print dress thing writhing around like a snake...

Thats when we left. And went to Hughie's B'day party.

DJ Koolaid

This kid is my favorite DJ in Portland.


This is why.
Moving Units Anyone Remix

Winter-time.

I don't eat in the morning and skip most things like showers. The apartment is always cold and it gets worse once you get outside. Damp, bone chilling, biking motion exposes the space where your pants and socks don't meet and your fingertips numb into pink stubbies.

When I get to the coffee shop warmth and bitter high graded import flood over me. Glass and metal, the correct music is playing, material elegance with dirty people..

But still I have not eaten and my stomach gnaws inside. Lightheaded nausea, nicotine and caffeine...

I usually grab something at the last second before work, a food cart Indonesian chicken-sandwitch-spicy-as-hell or Rovente pizza's white sauce delizia because the worst hell in the world is being too busy as a cook to eat as you watch food go out all night..


This morning and it's my day off but I still don't eat. All I do is sit and play Bomberman.


Because it is so fucking cold.

Placeholder

This Blog will eventually move to it's own website, becoming an entity that I control and water until it flourishes in unimaginable glory.

For now it will exist on Blogger, warping a large corporate boiler plate into an obscene beast (from the title down). Topics will be witty and questionable, pictures of drunk boys,drunk girls at hip bars and a smattering of interests bouncing like gas molecules around cooking, poker playing, electro (and euro-krunk, juke house, blog house, break beat, rave & indy) music, fixed gear riding, political activism, too many coma's and high-low fashion.

It will be wonderful.