omn's top 5 acts at pdx pop now! 2012

Portland's annual indie music summer classic is almost here!

In just one short week, the ninth annual free, all-ages PDX Pop Now! festival will be once again hosted at Refuge from Friday, July 20th through Sunday the 22nd.

Now, there's a lot that could be said about each and every one of the 45 acts at that'll be taking the two stages at this year's PDX Pop Now!, but frankly, our time is as precious as yours. Plus, there's a convenient new splash page on the PPN! site that includes nifty little bios written fresh for the fest!

So, in the interest of time, we've copied and pasted the full lineup below, and now we'll attempt to provide you with OMN's top 5 picks for PDX Pop Now! 2012... the top 5 for each day of course:

Friday, July 20th

Outside
6:00: The Parson Redheads
6:40: 1939 Ensemble

If you show up to this weekend's Mississippi Ave Street Fair, you can get a preview of the two acts that'll be kicking off PPN! 2012. And in the true eclectic spirit of PPN!, The Parson Redheads and 1939 Ensemble could not be more appropriately Portland, but each in their very own distinctive ways. With The Parson Redheads you'll get a sweet dose of melodious hippie folk, replete with shakers, harmonica and maybe even some bare feet, plus a pair of authentic gingers to boot. And in archetypal Portland fashion, the PDX via LA band was officially christened earlier this year, appearing on Portlandia as the barber shop quartet during the song "Dream of the 1890s."

Following up that tame and relaxing introduction, 1939 Ensemble will bring their percussive brand of experimental jams. Rhythmically captivating, watch as Jose Medeles and David Coniglio take turns pounding on drums and vibraphones, accompanied by electronic chatter, as they rock out on jazzy, instrumental, krautrock cuts from their debut Howl & Bite:

7:20: Old Wars

Inside
8:05: Arohan
8:45: Litanic Mask
9:25: Lord Dying

Outside
10:15: TxE

Representing PRTLND hip-hop on day one will be TxE, which includes the talents of Tope and Epp on vocals and G_Force (aka Calvin Valentine) on beats. The trio released their debut album, We Get It In True, earlier this year, and check out "The First One" below—the first cut from that record.

10:50: The Shivas
11:30: AU
12:10: Radiation City

Both AU and Radiation City have been steadily gathering steam as of late. AU's been building up frenetic sparks with a new record, Both Lights, that features none other than bass saxophonist Colin Stetson on the first single "Solid Gold" adding to Luke Wyland and Dana Valatka's off-center energy. To insert some visual color to AU's dazzling compositions, watch the video for "OJ" by Japanese director Takafumi Tsuchiya.

And Rad City released a new EP just six months after their debut record. With a new band member in Patti King, the spectral and saccharine five-piece played a live set at Music Millennium not too long ago, which OMN caught on film along with some help from Stumptown Bliss. In case you missed it, here it is now:

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Get the rest of our picks for Saturday and Sunday on OMN.

pdx pop now! announces 2012 festival lineup

The ninth annual, all-ages, free music fest is back again this year at Refuge. From Friday, July 20th through Sunday the 22nd, PDX Pop Now! 2012 will showcase 45 acts spanning every imaginable genre. Acts that played midday sets last year, like Radiation City and Onuinu, will now close the fest down, while plenty of newcomers will look to impress.

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Check out the full lineup on OMN.

pdx pop now! 2011 : notes from sunday

Sunday, July 24th was hot, inside and out, at PDX Pop Now! 2011. It was day 3 of the all-ages, free festival at Refuge, and although we didn’t catch every single band today, it was likely the top overall day of music at this year’s fest. Saving the best for last, here are some of the day’s highlights, in chronological order no less.

Unassumingly emotive: Lizzy Ellison of Radiation City and her slow building soulfulness. Delicate but strong at the same time, once you realized this girl could really sing guitarist Cameron Spies took the lead vocal role for some male-female interplay. Cameron was equally passionate albeit a little more brash at times until Lizzy brought him back into her delicate range, which was not quite as airy as Beach House’s Victoria Legrand or as robustly soulful as Amy Winehouse but somewhere in between with a touch of Regina Spektor. Radiation City verged on sunniness but remained coy like a single sunbeam peaking through the clouds on a gray day, timidly bursting through the last nebulous layer in preconceived streams.

Rough around the edges: And being exactly who they are were The Woolen Men. Swapping instruments and vocal duties, playing a stripped down, stand up “drum kit,” their closing song “West Coast” reeked of wild Captain Beefheart and Lou Reed’s lyrical chatter.

We all need at least one slogging, heavy metal set per day: Thanks goes to Diesto and their varied stack of beat up Orange, Marshall, Hiwatt, Ampeg and Yamaha amps. Also a fan of Red Fang? Try Diesto’s latest, High As The Sun, recorded by Red Fang’s Adam Pike.

Most likely to bring classical music to your street corners and coffee shops or even Holocene: Classical Revolution PDX

Hottest electronica set: With an arsenal of electronic noises, Onuinu (On You In You) built a dancey set that morphed from chillwave to the whole room moving, smiling as he competed with the passing train whistles. If the names Tropics or Deaubird sound familiar to you, Dorian Duvall has also gone by those monikers but today he deftly turned knobs, mic clutched in hand. Adding his own vocals to the mix while steadily increasing the energy, he might be a shining point in this rising class of solo, young electro dancemakers.

Fred Armisen spottings: One. And there’s the proof. Plus somebody from @PortlandiaTV was retweeting our stuff. Thanks!

Besting the noise of a passing train: Look outside through the garage doors of Refuge and you’ll see a flow of freight cars noiselessly floating by. That’s because Holy Sons was easily drowning them out with their melodic, psychedelic, fuzzy, haunting, dusky rock. Led by Emil Amos (of Grails), the vocals were wrenching, although Emil did show a softer and quieter side at times, and backed by his talented band, which had no use for keeping things concise.

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Read the rest on OMN.

pdx pop now! 2011 : notes from saturday

Besides the highlights that were mentioned elsewhere (Lost Lander, Loch Lomond, Wild Ones, Palo Verde), here are a few notes, in chronological order, from Saturday, July 23rd at PDX Pop Now! 2011.

Totally captivated: Although the crowd was small, the best part about kicking off PDX Pop Now! day two for Ezza Rose was the complete focus she received from the audience. Calm, quiet and relaxed, heads tilted a few degrees left or right and fixated eyes stared longingly while ears indulged in her delicate uke plucking alongside her stripped down band–just an upright bass and violin.

Loud, shirtless and screaming in their black jeans: Wizard Rifle, but of course. Who else? Plus they were the second heavy two-piece of the day rocking an Orange amp, although much smaller than Palo Verde’s.

Dance party that caught the crowd off guard: Following the bouncing pop of Monarques, E*Rock threw down a set that could’ve opened for Major Lazer, with “pumped up” (think clubbed up) cuts off his new record, The Clock & The Mountain. It may have been better suited for another night at another venue, like his home spot Rotture, but nevertheless it made for hot body movin’. And although you can oft find him DJing around town, you’d be wise not to miss his next performance. Listen to “Chrome Plates” from the new record:

Theme music to your next dream: Let Blouse transport you with their demur, ’80s inspired synth lines and shoegazing ethos. At their best, they sounded like a female fronted Smiths but mostly they were just looking to guide you through your next dreamsphere with their wispy rhythms.

Best flute solos and fastest djembe hands: Dusu Mali, which means “Gentle Heart of Mali,” and their African-inspired rhythms mixed with American blues, which melded many influences (dubbed “the Portland blues” by drummer Edgar Doumerc) and instruments. Fronted by native Malian Ibrahim Kelly (nephew of Ali Farka Toure) and highlighting his incendiary guitar work (mouth play included), the rambling five-piece brought some international flavor–just look at their names to get a clue of their varied backgrounds as the band also includes Tah Rei (keys/flute/sax), Tyler Smith (guitar/djembe), Terry Tomei (bass)–amongst the sometimes narrow, or at least normal, indie options.

Best brief appearance(s) of a purple, hooded cloak: Adam Forkner of Purple & Green as they were sound checking. It quickly disappeared (although it would make a reappearance later in the set) and it was nothing but slick R&B/electro hooks alongside singer Justin Leon Johnson. It was all super fresh beats and synth hits from Forkner and pure diva star action from Johnson plus some fly popping from their Aviator’ed dance boy and a head stand from Dusu Mali’s Ibrahim Kelly. We almost lost our mind.

And then we did… when Johnson took a leave from stage and returned purple cloaked only to toss it off revealing neon green jean short cut off hot pants… hence, the green. Wriggling his shirtless torso but scarf draped shoulders across the stage, this was the act that E*Rock should’ve preceded and possibly the best set of the fest (so far for damn sure), not to even mention the bootylicious white girl Johnson handpicked from the side stage for a romp during the final number.

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Read the rest on OMN.

pdx pop now! 2011 : saturday, 2:45pm — lost lander : watch an interview with matt sheehy

Just a handful of shows into their live career and playing the seven songs they know best, Lost Lander, clad in white attire, showcased the moving songwriting of Matt Sheehy backed by a talented cast (Dave Lowensohn on bass, Patrick Hughes on drums, and Sarah Fennell on keys/vox) plus Brent Knopf (ex-Menomena, Ramona Falls) on guitar today.

Tinged with tambourine, key, guitar, whistling, and drum accents, Lost Lander put together a billowing set of intricate pop from some seasoned players, including the only two tracks you can hear thus far from the band: ”Afraid of Summer” (because Sheehy was so hot up there in his three-piece suit) and “Cold Feet” (as featured on the 2011 PDX Pop Now! Compilation). Find both streaming here.

Lost Lander’s debut album, DRRT, is already recorded and while Sheehy still hopes for a fall release on the album, watch a brief video interview below:

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Read this on OMN.

pdx pop now! 2011 : nurses

It’s been a quiet little while since we’ve heard much from the unconventional music-making trio of Nurses. Currently prepping to release their third album Dracula via Dead Oceans on September 20th, the band has planted somewhat stable roots in Portland and will be closing Saturday night’s stacked PDX Pop Now! lineup at 11:50pm with a set that will feature Wampire’s Rocky Tinder joining the trio… or at least stripping to his skivvies.

Numerous prospects about this album should excite even the casual fan.

1 — The band hid themselves away in the Oregon coastal forest and shed all instrumental roles to find even quirkier sounds in their environs and minds. ”We just kept contributing ideas until we felt it was right, like three songwriters or producers.”

2 — Focusing “more heavily on groove and beats,” every song may be danceable ”but that’s not all that we want the songs to do.” By their own account: “There’s a lot more energy in everything, which makes for a really fun live experience.”

3 — Finally, Dracula was mixed by a man with “a lot of experience making weird records.” That credit goes to Scott Colburn, who has engineered two Animal Collective records as well as Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible “and tons of other bands.”

Oily as ever, read on as OMN caught the multi-instrumental, many-faceted collaborators Aaron Chapman, James Mitchell and John Bowers for a few questions.

You recently revealed the spectrally hypnotic “Fever Dreams” (below) from the new album. Care to share a couple of words on the track?

“Fever Dreams” was written right before we went to Europe last fall, and it was instantly one of our favorite songs to play, and I think it’s a good song bridge between Apple’s Acre and Dracula. There are a few songs on the album we’ve been playing live for quite a while, like “So Sweet” and “Eternal Thrills,” and I’m really excited about what we did with them for the album. There’s a lot more energy in everything on this record, which makes for a really fun live experience, too.

Where was the album recorded?

We rented a cabin just outside of Manzanita, OR and turned it into our own live-in recording studio in the coastal forest. We were away from our usual lives with all these ideas that we had gathered over the last year or so, and spent the majority of five weeks just working on music, and walking in the forest or on the misty dark beach. The cabin was essentially a large room with a couple doors separating rooms, which made us all involved in every aspect of the recording, and all of us wrote parts for basically every instrument. There were no real instrumental roles, we just kept contributing ideas until we felt it was right, like three songwriters or producers.

What direction is this album headed in?

With Dracula, we focused more heavily on groove and beats–elements that associate with the body and movement. You can dance to pretty much everything on the record, but that’s not all that we want the songs to do. The soundscape elements that were so present in the feel of Apple’s Acre still exist, but used more subtly as emotional undercurrents, and things to tickle your ears while the groove drives the songs.

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Read the rest on OMN.

omn goes mobile with pdx pop now! 2011

That’s right! We did it once at this year’s Waterfront Blues Festival and we’re doing it again for the 2011 PDX Pop Now! festival. Oregon Music News is proud to announce that OMN Mobile (ppn.oregonmusicnews.com) is officially live today and will be your mobile source for information on the 2011 PDX Pop Now! fest, which runs from Friday, July 22nd to Sunday the 24th at Refuge.

You’ll also be seeing this QR code around the fest on flyers, posters, banners and t-shirts, so make sure you’ve downloaded the requisite app from your App Store or Marketplace so you can scan it.

Like always, the 2011 PDX Pop Now! fest is free for all ages and includes more than 40 performers on two stages. It’s three days full of everything from bands you’ve never heard of, because they’ve yet to record or release much music or because you’ve been sleeping under a rock for the last 15 years (Rollerball), to reunions (The Minders) and send offs (Guidance Counselor), to scene mainstays. It’s indie, R&B, punk, electro, psych rock, hip-hop, folky singer/songwriter, dance, metal, pop, and two-steppin’ bluegrass from some of the hottest bands around town.

We’ll be publishing several smaller previews of our favorite acts over the next week as the festival approaches but the real meat of our content can be found by navigating through the mobile site where you can find the complete schedule, general fest information, and artist bios including past OMN coverage like interviews, live reviews and mp3 downloads plus a place to share what you’re doing and who you’ll be seeing on Facebook.

At the fest, we’ll have live coverage of each day (which can be accessed on your phone as soon as it’s published) complete with photos and video. Stay on top of everything by following us on Twitter @oregonmusicnews and use the tag #PPN in your tweets.

We could tell you to check out the image below for the complete line up… or you could click on it and take it with you on your phone. See you at PDX Pop Now!

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Take OMN's PDX Pop Now! 2011 mobile site with you here.