spesus christ, live in church

A new electronica act with a cleverly celestial nome de guerre and a handful of digital tracks, Spesus Christ comes home... well, the Oakland/Portland-based trio returns to Portland from their other Bay Area locale for a "homecoming" show this Saturday at "what used to be the Funky Church on Tamarack (just north of Division)," according to producer/mixer Cameron Spies.

Filling out the bill are the seriously jamming, synth-pop duo Adventures! With Might, electro-ambient Soap Collectors (which also features Spesus Christ's Lizzy Ellison), stomach friendly folk from Leviticus Appleton, and mournful beatmasters Your Canvas.

Behind the moans and machines, Spesus Christ pulsates an unclassifiable twinkling and tapping of beats with steam of consciousness raps. Right Cameron?

"Our sound is a mixture of analog and electronic instrumentation. It includes elements of down tempo hip-hop, rock music, indie, and smatterings of about everything else we like listening to. It’s sort of problematic to try to describe our music using genre titles like we’ve just done, so I suggest that you just listen to our stuff."

Take the man's advice and download the simplistically titled yet multitudinously layered EP 1.

Evolving so rapidly, their concert poster can't even keep up with them--the $2 cover has been nixed, the show is donation-based. And gushing with new material, Cameron says, "We are planning to release an EP every month for the next six."

But until the first is mixed (possibly by next week!), Soap Collectors also celebrate a tape release but remind you that "Soap Collectors are people who gather together varieties of soap and compulsively log and organize them into neat piles."

Save me Spesus.

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Read this article on The Deli Portland.

blue giant free april happy hour residency at the laurelthirst

The best 5 bucks you'll spend all week will be on a beer at the Laurelthirst... while Blue Giant is knocking the electric blues piss outta ya for free!

Holding down a residency at the LaurelThrist Public House from 6 to 8 PM every Wednesday in April...

Wait, wait, wait. "What's a residency?" asked singer and country guitar slanger Kevin Robinson.

Well, it's where you show up and play to the people that are already in the bar. Okay, that sounds pretty good to The Robinsons and Co. because Blue Giant will be trying out new material and jamming with old friends alongside their normal arsenal of slide and steel guitars and anything that you can strum in between. Bring a mandolin or banjo.

But honestly, Blue Giant doesn't strum. Sometimes it's mellow and folky acoustic, sometimes slightly psychedelic. Lots of Southern twang with a fiddle here, then electric riffs and ass kickin' harmonica there--Bringing It All Back Home-era Dylan.

"Got to pay your dues if you want to play the blues, you know it don't come easy," sings Kevin Robinson.

But it's damn easy to enjoy Blue Giant for free.

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Read this article on The Deli Portland.

reporter

Oft rocking Portland basements and warehouses, art spaces and rooftops, Reporter is trio of cosmic groove makers, booty shakers, and bouncing rockers.

Crunchy electronics mesh with space-y smooth synths and Alberta Poon's airy, spectral vocals. Reporter is a hot, sweaty mess. Fervent dance parties roar, pony tails get mussed, and spandex gets stretched every time they pack Holocene or house venues.

The drums kick, the guitars swing and soar while the samples are triggered. Rumbling, reverb lows and glittering, starry highs make Reporter's rife, extended dance jams float endlessly into the nether universe and beyond.

Formerly the indie-punk Wet Confetti, the trio has spawned some amazing spin-offs including the dreary-dreamy May Ling (featuring singer Alberta Poon and Italian Stallion, beatmaster Dan Grazzini).

But the most important thing you need to know about Reporter: Drummer Mike McKinnon is your Potato Champion!



You can catch them on Friday, March 12th at Dance Class with Copy, Push-n-Play, and DJ Maxx Bass.

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Read this article on The Deli Portland, and vote for Reporter in the Band of the Month poll.

van go lion make electropop debut at ash st.

When winter gets drizzly and cold, it's nice to bounce around inside to sunny pop.

Van Go Lion hare just the right blend of sugary sweetness coating their smooth electropop, and they're making their live premier at Ash St. Saloon on Saturday, February 27th with loop-ninja Tony Smiley and indie sentiments from Just Lions.

Like all matches made in heaven, singer Amy Paige met keys whiz Josh Loerzel on Craigslist. A love of Prince, Tears for Fears, Hall & Oates, Eurythmics, early Madonna, and some Boyz II Men made this pair swoon together. Hunched over their MIDI boards and Macbooks, they got serious about pop music and wanna bring some R-E-S-P-E-C-T to the genre with their self-titled debut of “retro-electropop.”

Through floating, down tempo ballads, punchy beats, and humming synths, Van Go Lion is a happy-go-lucky dance party for growing up and making mistakes.

Show starts at 9:30 PM, $5.

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nurses on daytrotter + sasquatch

Nurses were the latest PDX band to visit the Horseshack and lay down 3 live tracks for Daytrotter, which you can download for free!

In their worming and brooding manner, Nurses took three psychedelic tracks from Apple’s Acres, put two together as an 8 minute amalgamation ("Technicolor/Man At Arms"), and recorded an unreleased beauty.

Sadly, Nurses just played their last PDX gig this week (opening for Atlas Sound) and won’t be back for a while when their tour with The Tallest Man On Earth comes to the Mission Theater on Tuesday, May 11th.

In other big Nurse-news, the trio will be rocking this year’s Sasquatch Music Festival on Saturday, May 29th. Other PDX acts playing the 3-day Memorial Day weekend fest include YACHT (who rolled Holocene this week), Quasi, Portugal. The Man... and if we can count them as one of ours... the Pavement cash-grabbin', alt-rockin' reunion show. Frontman Stephen Malkmus does live here after all!

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Read this article on The Deli Portland.

the ascetic junkies free february happy hour residency at the laurelthirst

Havin' a hard time making it through Wednesdays?

Then the last bastion of bluegrass stompin', country callin', folky strummin', and poppy shoutin' is offering you a remedy.

Yes ladies and gents, the LaurelThrist Public House is allowing the gal and guys of The Ascetic Junkies to set up shop every Wednesday evening for a few rounds of happy drinks for happy hour and a happy time.

But these kids don't play alone, they've brought friends! Each week they’re collaborating with a new artist displaying honeyed originals, twangy, traditional bluegrass, ramblin' covers, and maybe even a testin' the pluckiness of new some material.

The Junkies are joined this Wednesday by Sam Cooper of Horse Feathers (2/10) and with guests The Glyptodons (2/17) and Leigh Marble and Ezra Carey (2/24) finishing out the month. These sessions guarantee two hours (6 to 8 PM) of dosey doe switching of partners, instruments and banter. And this'll all come to you for free. (Note: The concert is free, not the booze.)

And if that's not enough to get ya in the door, singer/glockenspieler Kali Giaritta is feeling generous and giving away their latest EP Don’t Wait for the Rescue Squad on Bandcamp. “These songs are like gifts to friends, so we felt silly charging for them. Enjoy!” says Kali.

Have happy music and happy friends at 6 PM every Wednesday in February with the Junkies at the LaurelThirst.

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Read this article on The Deli Portland.

the ascetic junkies ep release party at backspace

Oregon loves it's folk, roots, americana... whatever you wanna call it. And now a new generation is embracing some sort of blended indie folk that combines strings and foot stomping with banjos and pow-wows and is sooo poppy you'll jiggle and smile inside and out.

This brand is not better typified than Boston-to-PDX transplants The Ascetic Junkies. Mixing vocals from Kali Giaritta and Matt Harmon make for a melodic hootenanny tingling with folk country and bouncing indie.

Obviously literary nuts, The Junkies took their name from a group of misfits in a Kerouac novel and after moving to Portland in 2008, they broke onto the scene with their self-produced and released debut One Shoe Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

A little older, a little wiser, and a little more mixed-up musically, The Junkies release a glorious new four-track EP, Don't Wait For the Rescue Squad, this Friday at Backspace and everyone who attends gets a free copy of the album.

The band says this: "In an attempt to avoid wasting plastic that we assume you won't use for anything other than ripping the album onto your computer, we're just going to bring a laptop with us that you can feel free to plug your iPod/flash drive/CD-R/etc. into at any point during the show to steal the EP. Or if you want to sign your email address on a piece of paper, we'll email it to you when we get home that night."

So come kick it up and swing around to some pop/bluegrass/folk/indie rock with The Junkies.

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Friday, December 11, 2009
The Ascetic Junkies : EP Release Show
Bark Hide and Horn
St. Frankie Lee
Backspace
9 PM
$6
All ages

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very international love

Very International Love sounds and tastes like any of your fare from Down Under but they indubitably smell a shade sweeter and live a healthier lifestyle.

Waking up next to crumpled Hungry Jack's wrappers wears on the even the most impenetrable electro-soul and that's precisely why Very International Love has the upper hand. Steadily climbing one rung at a time, they will eclipse the Empire of the Suns, the Cut Copys, The Presets… namely because they don't have the HJ's-temptation to draw them away from their maniac, booty shaking, electro-boogie.

Brilliant, energetic sets at Someday and in basements leave groupies salivating for more beyond the meager few cuts found on their self-titled debut.

Forget everything you thought you knew about dance music, techno, trance, live electronics. Portland is making the best new electro-pop and throwing the wildest dance parties this side of Amsterdam. And Very International Love is at the forefront.

So get your mind outta Melbourne and into the synthrock of VIL.

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Read this article on The Deli Portland, and vote for Very International Love in the Band of the Month poll.

very international love plays free concert with parallels this wednesday

These boys will make you shake your ass to their sleek, electro-thumping and throaty, echoing lyrics. Very International Love is the electro-dance and live experimentation of Joe Turner (tall) and Connor Dudley (small). VIL takes the stage at Peter’s Room at the Roseland Theater on Wednesday, November 18th. And it’s free to you, the electro-noise consumer.

With synths that glitter sonically and a gold-speckled guitar that sparkles physically, VIL throbs with disco-mojo as quick and catchy as any of their Aussie dance club influences (Cut Copy, The Presets, Empire of the Sun).

The pair creates an aural electro-landscape coupled with the rollercoaster climaxes and troughs of a wicked rock show.

And it gets better. Headlining, Toronto’s Parallels brings a calming wave of tranquilizing dance-ambiance. Sway to and fro with Holly Dodson’s icy-sweet vocals and faultless drumming from Cameron Findlay (who used to keep the beat on tour with Crystal Castles). New wave love stays high as we roll into another century. Show starts at 9 p.m. with DJ-duo Rude Dudes and poppy-rockers Diamond Liars. 21+

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the cribs

I first heard about The Cribs back in 2005 or so when they were palling around with the Kaiser Chiefs, opening some shows in the UK and on the Chiefs first trip to the US. Little did I know what these indie scenesters were capable of and how close they'd come to home.

Then in 2007, the brothers Jarman* wizened up (but I dare not say grew up) and released the brilliant, breakthrough album Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever, which scored them a #13 spot on the UK charts. This was still before Gary Jarman relocated to our fair Rose City, but about the same time Johnny Marr** (yes, you can close your drooling, gaping mouth now) joined the fraternity.

Now the tunes are still sing-a-long ready tingling with punky rawness and dance rhythms that make good indie rockers smile. And the Portland connection just grew deeper. Recently, The Cribs decided there are only three cities in the world worthy of their Ignore the Ignorant: The Roses Edition. That's right: Portland, Yorkshire and Lancashire, the Jarman’s and Marr’s respective hometowns.

The special 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. Snatch it up at Jackpot Records (where they played a free in store performance last Sunday afternoon)...if they're still around.

Some background for those that don’t know, because I’m not that pretentious. I don’t expect you to know it all.

*The Cribs is comprised of the three Jarman brothers, twins Ryan (guitar, vox) and Gary (bass, vox) and youngin’ Ross on wee-kiddie drums.

**Johnny Marr is the ex-The Smiths guitarist, former member of Electronic with Bernard Sumner (New Order, Joy Division), and possibly in his post-Modest Mouse phase, although he’s yet to openly declare this. Regardless, he’s reveling in his position as part of The Cribs’ “two-headed beast” alongside Ryan on guitar.

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Read this article on The Deli Portland, and vote for The Cribs in the Band of the Month poll.