omn’s guide to the 2013 sasquatch! music festival

We all know there's way more happening here than you can possibly witness. The 12th annual Sasquatch! Music Festival at the Gorge Amphitheatre features some 120+ artists and bands performing this Memorial Day weekend (Friday, May 24th through Monday, May 27th) on five stages (although one—Cthulhu—with only three acts per day hardly counts).

So, disregarding some the biggest billed names in popular culture right now—those who you either love or you hate, those you're either sure not to miss (insert: Mumford & Sons, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Vampire Weekend, The xx, The Lumineers) or sure to miss—OMN will attempt to distill each day down to three must-see acts (as well as a few honorable mentions) and then we'll make an effort to follow our own advice come Friday. Feel free to join if you fancy.

Friday, May 24th

ONE: The worst thing in the whole entire world is knowing Portland's RED FANG is melting faces on the Bigfoot stage (from 5-5:45pm) while you're stuck in a never-ending line of cars trying to get into the campground. Don't let that be you. Arrive early—that means early enough to polish off the six pack holstered in your Red Fang-branded, leather beer holder. Then, forget about setting up your tent and get your ass to the venue because there'll be lines there too. Until Sasquatch kicks off, get your air guitars warmed up with "Hank Is Dead"—a metal ode to a deceased cat:


TWO: The disparate MATTHEW DEAR will bring an hour of his dark-yet-dapper dance music to El Chupacabra (from 9:45-10:45pm). Full of murky emotions and beats that are both grinding and grindworthy, find someone to put your smell on because Dear's gonna make the tent sweat.


THREE: No stranger to the Northwest, FATHER JOHN MISTY's J. Tillman is a former member of Fleet Foxes and friend of mainstay, singin'/songwritin' Seattleites Damien Jurado and David Bazan. His indie folk and candid stage presence is sure to draw a crowd to the Bigfoot stage (from 7:30-8:30pm). Get spiritual with "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings":

HONORABLE MENTIONS

You'll have to choose between the rapid, garage-y riffs of the Arctic Monkeys (Sasquatch at 8:30pm) or the psychedelic spirituality of Youth Lagoon (Yeti at 8:30pm).

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Get the rest of our picks on OMN.

q/a : ‘murder the mountains’ with red fang’s aaron beam

If you haven’t heard of Red Fang yet, you must be living under a rock… rather than, you know, listening to your rock. Portland’s favorite metalheads have long been preparing for the release of second album, Murder The Mountains, which came out on April 12th via Relapse Records. Produced by The Decemberists’ Chris Funk and mixed by the Grammy-winning Vance Powell (The Raconteurs, The White Stripes, Kings of Leon), Red Fang brings some fresh depth to their plug-in-and-shred metal, adding Queens of the Stone Age grooves alongside raw, headbang-worthy instrumentation.

The stoner metal foursome has been playing together since the fall of 2005, rocking their first gig on December 31st, 2005. Since then, Bryan Giles (guitar, vocals), Aaron Beam (bass, vocals), David Sullivan (guitar), and John Sherman (drums) have made a home for themselves at Dante’s over the years, yet lately, it seems like they’re out growing those digs. Paying their dues over the years and getting on as many tours as possible, Red Fang most recently shared the Roseland stage with Helmet and five others for the inaugural Metalliance Tour, and they’ll spend this summer touring extensively in Europe as well as rocking Hellfest in France and cities across the US on the Mayhem Fest tour.

But first, there’s a headlining gig of their own, to celebrate the release of Murder The Mountains on Saturday, April 30th at Branx with fellow Portland rockers Mongoloid Village, Lord Dying, and Drunk Ladies.

And while we’re still waiting for the band to reveal the first music video (a Whitey McConnaughy-directed–the man behind “Prehistoric Dog”– and Brian Posehn cameoed joint) from the new record for “Wires,” which you can listen to below, the band has been dropping hints of what’s to come.

OMN caught up with bassist/vocalist Aaron Beam a few weeks ago to discuss the new album, label, video, and upcoming plans, like playing in the sky.

These days you guys seem to be constantly in motion. And you’ve got more dates booked for this summer in the US and Europe with some legendary metal and hard rock names. How has this success happened? It it new label support?

Aaron Beam: It starts of course with hard work on our part. Having played music forever, we’ve made a lot of friends over the years, and we try not to be assholes; we try to be a good band. This most recent kind of success, or whatever you wanna call it, I think is pretty strongly related the manager that we just started working with, Laurel Stearns. A combination of her and having the label support because Relapse has been really great. So I think it’s just being on a higher profile label and having a manager who’s really working hard for us is naturally the turning point. And we’ve got a great booking agent too, and I think having all three things together is what’s really making the difference.

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Read the rest on OMN.

reel music festival 2011 : omn presents ‘portland music videos’ at mississippi studios on sunday

Although in the cable TV world it may seem that Jersey Shore killed the video star, bands continue to make music videos by the thousands, and Portland is no exception. With our loads of local artists, from the screen to strings (and other instruments), we have an environment ripe for music video making.

From shot-and-edited-in-a-day on whatever gear and budget the vocal and visual artists could cobble together to incredibly polished, professionally labored works, Oregon Music News has poured through the reels (and by reels we mean YouTube and Vimeo) and came up with a list of Portland Music Videos, which we will present at Mississippi Studios on Sunday, January 16th at 7 and 10pm. The first showing will include introductions and anecdotes from directors and artists while the second showing will feature several additional videos.

We bring to the theater a swath of videos that represent Portland’s diverse scene. There’s the Portland Cello Project’s delicate plucking and bowing set to an entomological marionette (below) contrasted by good ole PDX rock’n'roll from The Dandy Warhols, Viva Voce, The Thermals (in a video that features Portlandia star Carie Brownstein), and Blitzen Trapper. We have amazing songwriters’ stories married with film from folk-inspired, indie-pop collectives like Y La Bamba, Loch Lomond, and Nick Jaina. There is live footage and documentary-inspired live takes from Into The Woods bouncing off electro-dance makers Glass Candy (with their first-ever video after 11 years together!), YACHT, and Copy. And there’s even the Pink Martini contest winner from a filmmaking fan.

We strove to choose recent videos so most come from the last year or so but a few internet classics were too good to be skipped, like Red Fang’s “Prehistoric Dog” (below), and we also wanted to remember the late John Callahan’s ode to his “Portland Girl.”


From professionally obsessed to hastily improvised, we’re proud to show you 90 minutes of Portland’s best crafted music paired with finely tuned visuals on the big screen.

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See the complete list of videos and directors on OMN and find all the music videos streaming here.

best of 2010... now, what's next?

Since many of my most-prized local memories of 2010 (Y La Bamba, Pickathon, Tu Fawning, Billygoat, PCP, and more) are so well documented by a slew of OMN staffers with (dare I say?) impeccable taste, I give you 6 non-local shows that blew my mind in ’10:

1. Sufjan Stevens at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Friday, October 29th.

2. Jónsi (of Sigur Rós) at the Roseland Theater on Tuesday, April 13th.

3. Major Lazer and Big Freedia at the Roseland Theater during MFNW on Thursday, September 9th followed by Big Freedia live at Sassy’s (the strip club).

4. Janelle Monáe wowing a sold-out (for of Montreal) Roseland Theater on Thursday, October 28th.

5. Peter Hook & Friends at the Doug Fir Lounge playing Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures in its entirety on Thursday, December 9th.

6. The Flaming Lips at Eugene’s McDonald Theatre on Wednesday, September 29th.

Followed by epic festival coverage at PDX Pop Now!, MFNW, and Sasquatch. And since I just can’t resist… here are some locals who deserve love from the last year: Climber, Reporter, Soft Metals, Remix Artist Collective, The Angry Orts, The Ascetic Junkies, Strength, Pegasus Dream, Menomena, and Seattle’s Brent Amaker & The Rodeo and Hey Marseilles. I mourn the end of Explode Into Colors but look forward to more creative and bombastic incarnations. To anyone I’ve forgotten, I apologize but I hope to see plenty more of you in 2011.

But why look back when you should be looking forward? Here are the best, local musics that you’ve likely enjoyed this past year but I am anticipating even brighter futures (and fresh, alphabetically organized, full-length albums) in 2011:

1. AgesandAges’ debut album Alright You Restless due February 15th, 2011 (via Knitting Factory Records).

2. The Blow returns to the NW with new material and eventually a new album.

3. Deelay Ceelay took the last half of the year off to hit the studio and are now mixing things.

4. Red Fang’s Relaspe Records debut due in early 2011.

5. Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside have kept us waiting for a better part of the last year but their debut album is coming.

6. Starfucker’s second album (performed and recorded under the name Starfucker and no other name, abbreviation or derivative) out March-ish (via Polyvinyl).

7. Lastly, Vanimal has only a demo EP thus far but we’re excited to hear what’s next.

red fang ravages + leaves dante’s for dead

On the night before daylight saving time pulled Oregon out of the dark, drizzly abyss that is winter, Red Fang slayed with a midnight set of gloomy metal that could only be exemplified through ferocious profanities collectively bellowed from the beer soaked jungle of Dante’s.

“This beats my day job,” muttered singer and guitarist Bryan Giles as he traded gutteral, growling vocals with bassist Aaron Beam. The Pabst-swilling crowd gritted and gnashed teeth as the aforementioned tall boys were crushed under moshing feet and pummeled the black stage curtain.

Red Fang toed a delicate line, staying just this side of out of control, a feat the audience could not begin to dream of accomplishing. Animalistic and tightly packed, they expelled energy through their pores, picking one another off the floor. As the set built momentum, more and more drinks plumed the air like breaching killer whales...

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Read the rest on OMN.