Ones We Can Depend On
Hola amigos,
Damn, there is always so much to tell you! I realize that I gave you no end-of-year 2022 favorite records list, nor did I share news & photos of my family's international adventures. Those details are gonna have to wait, because right now we have bigger fish to fry.
BANDCAMP FRIDAY RECOMMENDATIONS
Today (until midnight March 3) is Bandcamp Friday, so 100% of your purchases go directly to artists & labels. To me, it's the second best way to support an artist, the first being handing them a wad of cash at a show. You can always find links to what I'm listening to & buying on my bandcamp profile. Here's what I bought today:
I would recommend you check a few recent things:
Sandrider // Enveletration // BUY IT
The loudest band in Seattle releases their first record in five years, definitely worth the wait.
AJ Suede & Televangel // Parthian Shots // BUY IT
Suedegod has been on an absolute tear lately, releasing Indica Music in January after a stellar run of releases in 2022. My favorite Seattle MC releasing on the same day as my favorite Seattle rock band? Feeling a little jealous down here in Portland... At least he's collaborating with Portland producer extraordinaire Televangel.
Sir Nai // Hermit Crab Vol. 3 // BUY IT
After a relatively quiet 2022, Nai comes in strong with the third volume in his Hermit Crab series. One of my favorite producers in Portland, he recently rocked an amazing set at A Beat Happening, as well as acted in a show called Doors at 8 that I'm gonna be going on about for a bit in this newsletter. In short, he's as funny as he is dope behind the boards.
DJ Tan't // Supernova // BUY IT
Tan't is my friend, he makes great music, and his family is going through it right now. Please consider buying his discography if you love him & have the means.
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DOORS AT 8
Youngshirtmayne may be the funniest man in Portland.
My friend Ryan Feigh started a venture called Cloudboy Productions and wrote & directed his first show called Doors at 8. Jenni Moore wrote up a nice piece about the show on the Portland Mercury. It features a whole bunch of super talented and hilarious Portland producers and MCs. And then I'm also in it. I was super humbled to be invited to act with a group of folks that make art I respect. I think it's really funny & worth 11 minutes of your time.
ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahah this was one of the funniest fuckin' things I've ever seen with my own eyes
One of my chief complaints with what I watched of Portlandia is how completely it ignored the experience of non-white musicians moving through non-white music spaces in the city, when I think there are tons of compelling stories to be told in that realm, both tragic and hilarious. I think the cast of Doors at 8 did an incredible job of highlighting some silver of the micro-aggressions and bullshit that I've seen Black & Brown artists have to wade through in this city.
Me & Lucas Dix, a.k.a. High Jinx. This moment is the only time two white characters are on the screen together and it lasts less than thirty seconds, I promise.
Ryan Feigh wrote & directed Doors at 8. He used to run Lucky Madison records with Kevin O'Connor, and he wrote about music for the Portland Mercury.
Sir Nai & blangblanglang are DOPE producers.
Lucas Dix is a.k.a Claud Six of Jellyfish Brigade renown and still finds time to teach middle school, coach basketball, and keep a garden.
Film was shot by Devin Boss (a.k.a. Brill) & sound recording by Mat Randol.
Paul Lynch, aka DJ Tan't, was the editor on this project, because my man HAS GOT MANY SKILLS.
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I might have picked up COVID from having too much fun lately. The doc & I went on a date with a friend to see Yo La Tengo, and prior to that, I went to see a stellar set of beatmakers & producers put together by A Beat Happening, one of my favorite local crews of creative folks. You can check out sets by two Portland producers Free Tillman & Just Alfa on the A Beat Happening YouTube channel. I also got to see a dream show two weeks ago with Unwound's reunion tour. I was at the show in late March of 2002 at the Blackbird in Portland that was to be their last show in Rip City prior to Vern Rumsey's death. I remember it as well as I can considering that I was falling asleep standing up, and my friends kept digging their elbows into my ribs to point out all the Portland rock royalty in attendance that night. ("Look, it's Weiss! Right next to Malkmus!") It felt pretty cool to be able to watch them play together again and bring those songs to life. When they played "Lady Elect" from Repetition it gave me the frisson & spine chills for the entirety of the song, which I'm not sure has ever happened in my life before. Jared Warren made so much sense on so many levels to pick up the bass in memory of Vern.
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FRIEND ROCK
Back in the college radio days, we collectively coined a genre called "friend rock" to mean music that your friends make. It was kind of a damned-with-faint-praise kinda thing, like from "of course I'm gonna support it, it's friend rock!" to "there's no way for me to objectively listen to it, it's friend rock" and then "holy shit turn off that awful friend rock it's so bad." It's a vestige from our days at sweaty basement shows I'm sure, but one thing I've learned in this life is to support the fuck out of your friends with any spark of creativity. You have absolutely have got to nurture that shit.
It's well known I hate the confines and restrictions of genre, yet I still take perverse pleasure in singing the praises of the music my friends make under the banner of "friend rock." Rock is a meaningless descriptor here that may have been adequate when I was in my twenties, but I still hold on to the old words out of sentimentality.
I've been lucky over the years to befriend or know talented musicians. Here's some of the music they've made recently that I enjoy a whole hell of a lot. Sometimes I think I should, I don't know, bite my tongue out of some sort of attempt at impartiality or whatever. But the real truth is that I probably don't sing the praises of my friends music loud & long enough, but I'm gonna keep trying. My friends make KILLER music, and I'm the DJ, so I play what I like.
Territory & Hombre // Supermelagorgeous // BUY IT
Terry Kyte is from Tucson, AZ and he brews a damn fine cup of coffee. He's been making music as Territory & Hombre for almost a decade now, and if I was a shitty music writer, I would use words like ramshackle, homespun, and heartfelt to describe his sound. Opener "Knives Out" is a blast of punk-pop that gives way to the synth-pop of our families favorite song, "Found Us." There have been so many spontaneous little goofy dance parties with my girls to this song, and its sonic cousin "I Started a Fire." Slow jam "Come Outside" sounded perfect to me on the beach last summer, after the sun had gone down and the darkness had set in around our campfire. Terry has really found a nice way to integrate programmed beats into folk and punk, and I'm SO glad he laid out $ for a vinyl pressing. The record reminds me a little of Folk Implosion in the best ways.
Talkdemonic // Various Seasides // BUY IT
My friend Kevin O'Connor shared a song with me in December of 2020 that he had just recorded in his new studio space in New York City. That song became "Dream Silver," the third song on his new record Various Seasides. I feel very humbled that I have friends that share music with me before its proper release. It feels like holding a newborn baby. Kev really went all-out and made a record of self-expression. It sounds just like the person I know, which to me is the miracle of Friend Rock.
Sam Humans // Plasticity // BUY IT
For damn near twenty years Sam Schauer has been making music as Sam Humans, and he conjures the image of a one-man band for me more than any other artist I've seen perform. He completes my leading trifecta of really talented musicians that I've always thought their greatest musical gift was drums & percussion. Sam has leveled up from the Casio beats of his early records to some deeply beautiful, well-arranged, moving music.
Half Majesty // Bitumen EP // BUY IT
John Schork lives in Seattle and posts the BEST pictures of his family dog Griffey. I've always known John to be a great writer, thinker, and listener, so you can imagine my delight when he started making music using modular synthesizers. He's released a slew of singles, a great EP (linked above), and two EPs that are soundtracks to a book!
My Dream Band // My Dream EP // BUY IT
My pal Cheyenne is a rad elementary school teacher, an excellent radio DJ on Freeform Portland, and she plays guitar in a surf-pop inspired band. A real renaissance type lady! I will always be here for ladies singing close harmonies about ocean sunsets and boys. My favorite track is "Honey," the kind of indie-pop I would play for Doc back when we were dating and I was still trying to woo her. My Dream Band also has the best band photo in PDX right now:
The members of My Dream Band, Cheyenne's on the right, I still gotta remember to catch a show!
DJ Tan't // Supernova // BUY IT
Paul Lynch has been making electronic music in Portland as DJ Tan't for (say it with me) damn near twenty years. In 2017, Tan't released Plastic City which quickly became my personal favorite of his, as it was chock full of slithering, sinister synths and great beat programming. It was also a record that grew on me, that got better with each repeated listen. Tan't doubles down on that formula for Supernova, with dizzying layers of absolutely great sounding synths, both hardware and software, and neck-snapping drums. This one came out in 2022 (just a little over a year ago!) and was definitely one of my favorite Portland records of last year.
Fountaine // "Northeast Phonk (N.E.P.)" // BUY IT
In 2021, Fountaine released South of Nowhere, a deeply personal album that he had been working on since 2017 through the loss of multiple family members. He's teased a forthcoming EP (entitled enigma.) with the single "Northeast Phonk (N.E.P.)." It's an effortless, blunted meditation on weed, money, and internet bullshit, which are some of my favorite topics Fountaine covers.
sunfaders // "hotter'n fuck" // BUY IT
In my early days of college radio in Pullman, I was VERY lucky to make friends with Duncan Campbell. Duncan was a PhD student that co-hosted a show with Junk Brown, and, well, you all know who Junk Brown is. If you don't, I'm talking about one of the greatest college radio DJs of all-time on WXYC, KZUU, KBGA, a span of greatness that is still traveling outward from the Earth, into the ether to be heard by receptive listeners around the universe. But enough about Junk, let's talk about Duncan.
Duncan was in a rock band in Chapel Hill in the 1990s called 81 Mulberry. He was a guitar pyrotechnician that had to lay his axe down to pick up the call of academia. He and Junk settled in Missoula, and he joined a band called Motorhome (or as I prefer, Mötörhöme) that put out an excellent record in 2018. He and his 81 Mulberry bandmates (Matt Gocke on percussion & Henry "Ritchie" Williams on vox) began to collaborate on music as sunfaders in 2020, and have since gone on to have 27 releases (!) on Bandcamp. It always brings me so much pleasure to hear Duncan play guitar, often by a campfire or in a living room. His playing style and voice on guitar is so uniquely his own, and it's pretty rad to hear the former members of "the Mulb" jam out together.
Claud Six // In Case We Shouldn't Make It // BUY IT
Claud Six is the norm de plume of Lucas Dix, a middle-school teacher, farmer, hooper, and MC that somehow excels at all of those very different things. Lucas writes amazing poetry about his experience as a teacher, but when he brings his words to life with his own production and bars, it's really something special. He had a year as Claud Six, releasing two solo albums, two collaborations and a single. His two albums this year were a ying and yang of optimism and fear, with a clear-eyed look at the climate crisis, getting older, and keeping your head on straight while the world falls apart.
Sun Tunnels // "efflevium / rust" // BUY IT
Sun Tunnels are an indie rock trio from Seattle, fronted by Louis O'Callaghan from bands An Invitation to Love and Lux Fontaine. Their single "Effluvium/Rust" harkens back to the '90s PNW college radio sounds I love, which I feel like is a revolution being spearheaded by Tacoma's Enumclaw. Hahahahahahahahaha I love that the band named themselves Enumclaw. They fuckin' rock. Lou's band is really damn good too, and this single has two concise, fun rock songs that sound to me like they rip on Seattlites. Good enough for me!
Dykeritz // Twin Flame Reunion // BUY IT
As Dykeritz, Jordan Blum made two records that I consider defining 2000s-era Portland classics in Purple Switzerland and Rearrangerologyistics. Those records were so surreal and elegant, stitched together from summer jams and wistful singalongs, sewn in with psychedelic and cosmic flourishes. Jordan has been making music under the Dykeritz name since his early teens, and he has scores of releases both official and not over the years.
After Rearrangerologyistics was released in 2008, the steady stream of releases from Jordan was dammed, until it burst with three records from 2019 on. Twin Flame Reunion is his latest and it shows off his compositional brilliance and attention to sonic detail.
Truly // Fast Stories... from Kid Coma // BUY IT
Finally, I'll leave you with this gem from 1995. The last time I was in Whatcom County visiting my family, my good friend Glyn took me to a reasonably new record store called Black Noise. I was stunned! It was an incredible shop, the first really good store in Bellingham since my favorite shop of all-time, the 3V (or Vast Vault of Vinyl), closed down at the turn of the twentieth century.
The sign in the window of the greatest record store that ever existed.
The street sign. I weep that I didn't get a picture of the sign behind the counter that he would point at if you asked him how he was doing.
I scored some great stuff at Black Noise (the Viktor Vaughn "Change the Beat" 12"!), and while I was checking out, I commented on the sweet Soundgarden 7" they had on display at the counter. The earnest young bro behind the counter got really excited when he told me about the Truly reissue, and I very soon joined him in his enthusiasm.
I was lucky enough to get to know Mark Pickerel, the drummer for Truly, when he ran a store called Rodeo Records in Ellensburg in the late 1990's. Ronda and I would always stop in on our way between Pullman and Bellingham/Seattle, and Mark was always so generous with his knowledge and time. I loved the records he put out as The Dark Fantastic on Up Records during that time, but for me the Truly stuff was a grail I thought I would never track down.
Another lost record store from the olden days.
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Love y'all,
DJ MR. MOM
North Portland, OR
March 3, 2023