the ascetic junkies mature… into youthfulness

No longer singing about vampires, The Ascetic Junkies are contemplating a move to Canada because neither God nor the Devil nor even the Gov’t can answer their prayers or solve their problems.

Seriously? No, they’re not serious. They’re happy here!

Arriving in Portland in 2008 with an album in hand, the couple of Kali Giaritta and Matt Harmon put out their debut, One Shoe Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, with just two Junkies on board. But the self-proclaimed whiskey stompers quickly grew and are set to release their sophomore album This Cage Has No Bottom, an effort that features five band members and no electric guitar, as co-lead singer and songwriter Harmon likes to point out.

Like the first effort, the duo still wrote the album, but the rest of the band had a much bigger role this time around. “It was much more collaborative in terms of arrangements,” says Harmon plus the group had been playing these songs live for almost a year before recording them. Each band member had the opportunity to add his or her own flourishes, all five contributing their own ideas as the vocals, keys, glockenspiel and percussion of Kali Giaritta and vocals, guitar, keys and percussion of Matt Harmon were combined with Cole Huiskamp on bass, Graham Houser on banjo, and Stephen Colvin on drums. The album even includes contributions from Harmon’s mom and dad, on violin and trombone respectively. You can feel the intricacies. And even a little bit of maturity.

But maturity doesn’t mean you have to be stern and unsmiling. Even though there are serious themes (like the above “God/Devil/Gov’t”) throughout This Cage Has No Bottom, The Junkies will always retain their playful lyrical content and sound.

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Leave a comment on OMN to win a copy of the new CD, a pint glass and two tickets the Junkies CD release gig at the Doug Fir on October 15th.

soft metals’ discovery

Less than six months ago, Soft Metals were still in their infancy. The duo, and couple, of DJs Patricia Furpurse and Ian Hixx were making music mostly for themselves.

They were discovering their sound–a mix of electronic industrial and darkwave, Italo disco and ’80s Chicago house; their musical abilities–how to produce and record; and each other, as their romantic relationship evolved as well.

With Ian’s analog synthesizers and Patricia’s spectral vocals, Soft Metals shared some songs on the internet and played a few gigs, until friend and fellow musician, Rafael Fauria of The Miracles Club, posted a demo of “Love or Music” on his blog in late February. Charting their internet orbit, the track was re-posted on Gorilla vs. Bear, 20jazzfunkgreats, and finally the heaviest hitter of them all: Pitchfork.

Feeling the cyber-love, Soft Metals were encouraged knowing that “we had an audience and that people appreciated what we were doing,” says Patricia. “So we knew we should keep working in that direction.”

After the buzz from the blogosphere, labels started knocking or emailing or whatever they do these days. The two weren’t sure if they were quite ready to expose themselves to the world let alone commit anything to record.

But as Patricia says, “When an opportunity like that arises, you have to go with it. You may never have people’s [or labels'] interest again.” Soft Metals decided to go with the Brooklyn-based label Captured Tracks based on a “gut feeling” that it was the right place for them.

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Read the rest on OMN.

pegasus dream releases debut album at rontoms

As the festivities of PDX Pop Now! wind down Sunday night, August 1st, an unofficial after party will be ramping up at Rontoms with Pegasus Dream celebrating the release of their first album, Painting Pantheons. Playing alongside Astrology (featuring members of Panther and Copy/Atole) and XDS, the gig is free and will showcase the debut of an album that’s been three years in the making from Spokane to Portland.

Since the last time OMN spoke with Pegasus Dream in late April, they’ve returned to their core duo of JT Lindsey (guitars, samples, vox) and Andy Carlson (keys, vox) parting ways with former drummer Mikey Dane, as he moved back to Spokane, but picking up producer/drummer Jeff Bond (Diamond Liars, Asphalt Thieves) as a live drummer at Superfest 2.

Running just over 35 minutes, Painting Pantheons retains the tones of influences like Ratatat but without the droning repetition that can bore; rather Pegasus Dream’s debut manages to remain anchored in a poppy aesthetic but with enough experimentation and reigned in psychedelia to wander and tease the right extremes without taking the plunge.

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Read the rest and listen to a new track from Painting Pantheons on OMN.

the dimes historify indie rock

Beantown, Red Sox, Harvard, Irish immigrants, and Paul Revere. What does any of this have to do with Portland indie-rock outfit The Dimes.

Everything, my friend. Everything.

On their sophomore release The King Can Drink The Harbor Dry, the quartet (recently multiplied to an octet) tackles the theme of Boston conjuring up images of Susan B. Anthony, Abigail Adams, Red Cross founder Clara Barton, Mary Dyer, and the great fire of 1872.

With crafty ingenuity and cleverness, the band accomplished to create love songs and story-telling tales rather than history lessons, a la Sufjan Stevens' poignant tributes to Michigan and Illinois.

Powerful females dominate the personalized odes, and the tunes are lovely gentle and full-spirited. Plus you getta sail through the Boston Harbor discovering the details behind the tracks.

The album came out this week and if you missed their listening party at Mississippi Studios you can still catch release parties in Eugene and Ashland in mid-December.

And while we're at it, why not watch The Dimes perform in a cupcakery.

The Dimes at St. Cupcake from The Penny Jam on Vimeo.

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Read this article on The Deli Portland.

pink martini allures and awes at album release party

"Dazzling!" cheered the Diário de São Paulo.

"Exquis!" boasted the Le Monde.

"Encore! Encore! Encore!" roared the crowd.

Well, they would've said all that and more if they'd attended Pink Martini's CD release party last night at the Crystal Ballroom.

Entering a wonderland, thousands of balloons were scattered across the ballroom ceiling like jellybeans and their sparkling, rainbow tails dangled catching the stage lights just right to glimmer magnificently.

With 19 members on stage, the band took us from Napoli ("Ninna nanna") to "Brazil" bursting with tracks from their previous 3 albums and 11 of the 13 cuts on their new disc Splendor In The Grass.

China Forbes seduced in French, Italian, Spanish, and English while Thomas Lauderdale exuded boyish enthusiasm on the piano accompanied by a menagerie of strings with violins and cellos, a booming percussion section, a harp, a trumpet and trombone, and of course a whistle.

The pair bantered onstage with Lauderdale reading from his "menu," a poster-sized program that guests received along with a flower (or five) from the lovely hosts.

Ranging in elegance to simply cheeky, from dripping love songs to stories of dogs, the tunes traveled to the outskirts of Mexico City on "Piensa en mi" (sung on the album with Mexican lesbian and Frida Kahlo's ex-lover Chavela Vargas), to Sesame Street with "Sing" (originally written in 1971 for the children's program, popularized by The Carpenters, and recorded with Emilio Delgado aka "Luis" on Sesame Street), and back home to the view from Forbes' window overlooking the Tualatin Valley on "Over the Valley."

Couples chasséd, the audience chuckled to the "Tuca Tuca" touching dance between Forbes and Lauderdale, and naturally cheered the barbershop quartet on the album's most "controversial" song: an ode exposing Billy's alter-ego "Bitty Boppy Betty" with a moral that transgender soirées are just more fun.

Badda-bing, badda-boom, the band thanks you, sticking around to sign autographs and bask in Portland's love.

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Read this article on Examiner.com.

the cribs all but ignore portland

I'll forgo the warning since most people sit while using the internet.

The brothers Jarman of the The Cribs teamed up with the potentially post-Modest Mouse/ex-The Smiths' guitarist Johnny Marr for their fourth studio album Ignore the Ignorant.

Old news, yeah.

Okay, well now that the boys call Portland home, they've chosen to sell their limited edition Ignore the Ignorant: The Roses Edition in only three thorny cities in the world. Our fair Rose City included. (The others being Yorkshire and Lancashire, the Jarman's and Marr's respective home counties.)

Tell me something I don't know.

Here's your cue to stand up and jump around: The Cribs, with Mr. Marr in tow, crash Jackpot Records for an in-store set on Sunday, November 8th. Also your one of about three chances to see them in the western hemisphere this year. And it's free.

Come ready, in Marr's words, for "a two-headed beast" with double the guitar.

Ignore the Ignorant: The Roses Edition includes a live disc of The Cribs at The Ritz in Manchester, a DVD documentary of the album's recording, and The Serpent and the Peach–a silent short mostly filmed on a hand-held camera.

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Sunday, November 8th, 2009
The Cribs
Jackpot Records : 203 SW 9th Ave, Portland, Oregon 97204
Show at 2 PM
Cost : FREE
All ages

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Read this article on Examiner.com.