Less than a month into living in the Twin Cities, I find myself still adjusting to early set times at venues across town.  Thursday night had an eight o’clock call time, and I almost didn’t make it.  When I got to the Varsity Theater, I was pleased to find a full room, but bummed at the same time because there was no photo area to take pictures.  With camera in hand I made my way stage side just as Reptar had kicked off.  If you aren’t familiar with Reptar, they are stellar!  Their music makes you want to dance from start to finish, but the last few times I had seen the Athens, GA group, it was in smaller venues, and people struggled to get moving.  Now, there is always that handful of brave concert goers who have the confidence to get sweaty and move, so I was curious to see how Minneapolis would respond, and the crowd did just that!  Song after song the crowd loosed up and a dance party ensued.  Old people and young were moving on the wooden floor at the Varsity Theater, and Reptar seemed to feed off that.  I couldn’t have asked for a better band to open for Grouplove.  As Reptar left the stage they made their way back to the merch tables, and that’s where I saw them even after Grouplove wrapped up.

The first time I saw Grouplove, was in one of my favorite venues, Spaceland.  They were a few days into their residency and I was hooked on them.  Catching them at the Varsity Theater brought back those fond memories of being packed like sardines for a sweaty dance party.  Grouplove started like a tornado and never let down.  Lead singer Christian Zucconi drove the crowd back and forth from their studio album Never Trust a Happy Song to their earlier self titled EP Grouplove.  Bassist Sean Gadd snaked his way around stage, just as singer/keyboardist Hannah Hooper moved the crowd with her vocal prowess and charm.

The thing that stood out to me the most about Grouplove was the genuine pleasure and excitement they exude while on stage.  The five piece has grown leaps and bounds over the last few years, and it really showed.  For their entire set, Grouplove performed with a grin the size of the Mississippi and the energy of ten sugar loaded kindergartners at a bake sale.  This energy directly fed life into the audience, as there was not a still pair of shoes in sight.  Grouplove was called upon for a much deserved encore, and wrapped the evening with a few more tunes.  I couldn’t have thought of a better way to spend a Tuesday evening.  Thanks Grouplove and Reptar!

Spring and Summer are my two favorite seasons of the year.  Not only does the weather get to the point that sandals and shorts are everyday attire, but festival season starts in the music world.  Festival season is amazing! Long days spent listening to amazing local music that quickly transition into long evenings spent listening to great touring acts.

The start of the Twin Cities festival season kicked off in St. Paul at Amsterdam Bar and Hall with a new kid on the block.  The Girls Got Rhythm festival is the brain child of Dana Raidt (editor of METRO Magazine) and Travis Ramin (co-owner of Ramo Records), both who have been involved in the music world for some time.  The lineup included local Twin City acts such as L’Assassins, Hot Rash, The Pinsch, as well as Japanese cult classics The 5,6,7,8′s, Portland punk rock legends Pierced Arrows, and headliners Ronnie Spector, Nikki Corvette, and The Muffs!

Friday night set the tone for what the weekend would hold.  Kicking the fest off was local act Hot Rash.  The female three piece appeared a bit shell-shocked sharing the stage with some of the musical legends on the weekends bill, but settled in a few songs into their set.

Following Hot Rash was another local act, The Pinsch, and my first thought was WOAH! The Pinsch, fronted by two very strong and powerful women who really knew how to interact with a crowd.  They sounded great and really knew how to get a tentative, early evening crowd, settled in and warmed up.  I also felt that every time I looked up on stage throughout GGR one of the members from The Pinsch was singing, dancing, or playing an instrument.

Next up by way of Norway was the festivals first international band Caroline and the Treats.  Led by former FHM sex columnist Caroline Andersen, The Treats were just that.  They put on a show, and had everyone at the Amsterdam moving and dancing.  The more Andersen jumped, danced, and bounced around the stage, the bigger the smiles got on the GGR attendees.  Cell phone flashes popped, and the people at the back of the bar began to stream forward.  Caroline and the Treats wrapped their set up with a Nikki Corvette cover, and sure enough, Nikki Corvette climbed on stage to join in.

Next on stage was the brother and sister team White Mystery.  The Chicago duo was pure rock and roll.  There was no synthesizer, no drum machine, no smoke and mirrors, just a guitar and drum set!  It was really refreshing stuff.  They set up their gear front and center and rocked.  With red curls bouncing and flailing around, the crowd ate it up.

The last band I caught Friday night was Portland’s Pierced Arrows.  At first glance I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I knew that the three setting up on stage could probably tell some intense stories.  Pierced Arrows let the St. Paul know who they were and where they had been.  The former members of iconic punk bands such as The Rats and Dead Moon, put on a clinic that everyone in attendance knew was something special.

The second night of Girls Got Rhythm opened with Minneapolis locals L’Assassins, who reminded me a great deal of Portland’s The No Tomorrow Boys.  Musically, L’Assassins sounded like a wonderful meld of punk, rockabilly, and surf rock.  All four women had a really great stage presence, and if you’re in the Minneapolis area, you should absolutely check them out next time they play.

Following L’Assassins was Bay Area vets Midnite Snaxxx.  The Oakland three piece was loud and in your face.  They were like a big fuck you, but with smile.  Their pop/punk/rock sound and stage presence continued what had been a theme at GGR, “Strong, and Powerful Women, who sound great”!

The transition from Midnite Snaxxx to the next group was an interesting one.  Next up was the So Cal duo The Little Girls.  Originally a warm up act at fancy Hollywood parties, the sisters went on to record several albums and eventually opened for acts such as Billy Idol and The Pretenders.  Saturday night The Little Girls had backing from Nikki Corvette’s Sting Rays and were lots of fun.  They were reminiscent of a grownup Punky Brewster, and early 80′s So Cal shopping mall duo, cute and poppy.

With The Stingrays still up on stage, icon Nikki Corvette was the last set I saw, and a memorable one it was.  Nikki Corvette originally the front woman of Nikki and the Corvettes and then Nikki Corvette and The Stingrays used the stage as her playground.  Cool, calm, and collected Corvette strutted around the stage and quickly invited the other women from GGR up on stage.  One minute later the stage at the Amsterdam was packed with women from the 12 bands taking part in the festival.

Pictures from night one of Girls Got Rhythm can found here, as well as pictures from night two here.

You can check out pictures and a review of Ronnie Spector and The 5,6,7,8′s at the Local Current blog.

About a month ago, we wrote about a new project that Portland’s The We Shared Milk launching a very exciting recording project.  The band had called upon other PDX musicians to help produce tracks for an upcoming album.  The trio has been hard at work with the Banana Stand Media peeps, as well as Portland bands Charts, And And And, Grandparents, Support Force, Old Age, Hustle & Drone, Fanno Creek, Talkative and Log Across the Washer and is now putting a  call out to you!

TWSM is in need of cash to complete the project. Expenses include use of the facilities at Banana Stand Media (awesome house studio/venue), $900 at Revolver Studios to tie together the project at the end of the individual sessions, around $500 to master the finished product, and about $300 to produce the first run of discs.

They’ve created a Kickstarter style fundraiser for this project.  Here’s the scoop directly from their front man Boone Howard.

Basically you shoot us an email at

thewesharedmilk@gmail.com

with the subject line “MILK ALBUM” and we’ll arrange a PayPal transaction to secure yr prize (to be redeemed August/September 2012).

Here is the prize list for the project:

$5 — Early digital download of the new album (early August).

$12 — Early digital download of the new album and physical copy of the first run of discs!

$25 — Copy of the first run disc with early digital download & free entrance to the release show (late August in Portland).

$40 — All of the above prizes plus one of the first ever TWSM t-shirts.

$100 — TWSM will play a private show at your house/business in September/October and we’ll play one cover song of your choice!

$666 — You get to name the album! (We reserve the right to veto generally offensive titles, but anything else is fair game).

Any way that you can support these dudes would be amazing.  They do great stuff, and are one of the busiest bands in the Portland area.  Check’em out on Facebook, bother them on Twitter, download their tunes on Bandcamp, and get the ball rolling on something awesome!

Aren’t Monday’s supposed to be awful? Aren’t we supposed to sit awake on Sunday evening, dreading the moment when the clock strikes midnight? It’s funny how a good concert can bring you out of that funk. Especially when that concert happens to have some of the best bands in Portland filling you up to the brim with music you wish you’d written. Monday night’s bill at Mississippi Studios was perfectly crafted, and flowed from one band to the next seamlessly.

Death Songs started the night off right. To be honest, I’d never heard of them, but can’t figure why. They play effortlessly, as if they’d known these songs since the day they were born. Still, it’s a sound that has obviously been worked on, and crafted with great dedication. There is an obvious respect for sound here, and how each piece of instrumentation will compliment the others on a given song. I think the best example of this that comes to mind can be found on their Facebook page in a song called Let This Body Go. It seems that no two instruments occupy the same rhythmic or tonal space. The bass notes bounce around each hit of the drums, while the guitar melodies slip between them, filling out the sound with great precision. Nicholas Dellfs sings with an undeniable sort of honesty, that compliments the organic sound of the songwriting very well. Also, I’m a sucker for electric piano… and I’ll be goddamned if he didn’t utilize it well.  Watching Dellfs smash they keys of that thing while raking his pick over the strings of his guitar really got me going. The drum sound also stood out to me as not only well crafted, but extremely pleasing and complimentary to the overall sound. Justin Power’s kit reminded me of Mo tucker’s set up from the Velvet Underground… only he played it better. (don’t get me wrong, I love me some Velvet Underground, she’s just not the best drummer. ) Also, a really fantastic addition to the band was the gal who was playing /singing with them. That’s right… “the gal”. I can’t find her damn name on any of their web pages. I even walked up to her nervously after they played to say how fucking awesome it was but can’t for the life of me remember what she said her name was. But I digress. “The gal” sang at just the right moments, adding an extra push where it needed to happen, slipping seamlessly between Dellfs’ voice and the instrumentation. Ironically, Death Songs sounds like a celebration, and I challenge any of you to get that stupid smile off your face while they proceed to smother you in sonic glory. Damn, already too many parentheticals and ellipses in this write up.

ANYHOW.  Have you ever wondered what it would sound like if the Cuban missile crisis wasn’t averted? Well ponder no longer. Sun Angle. That’s what I’m getting at. Latin beats, precision timing, soaring vocals and guitar that rips straight through everything. Let’s not forget the bass, which rumbles and compels the music forward. We’ll start with what stood out to me the most, the drumming of Papi Fimbres. If Fimbres isn’t drumming, he must be running around the block full speed. I can’t comprehend the massive amounts of energy it would take to keep up drum beats like that for a full set. JEEESSSUUUUSSS CHRRIIISSSSTTTT. The guy knows what he’s doing. My only complaint is that most every song had a very similar beat. But maybe that’s not a bad thing? It’s interesting to listen to a set from Sun Angle and hear how the songs can sound so different while utilizing a very similar backbone. I think this is due in large part to the creativity of Charlie Salas Humara’s vocals and guitar playing. The guitar tone is heavy, but somehow maintains a sweet sort of clarity. Well crafted indeed. The song Vague Light for me was a highlight vocally, which can be found on their SoundCloud for those following along in their textbooks.  One of my favorite parts of a Sun Angle show (yeah , I’ve seen ‘em before) is watching people start dancing, then suddenly stop as Fimbres chokes his cymbals and disrupts the beat, only to continue again as if nothing happened. I mean, who doesn’t want to dance to a Latin beat? I’m not sure if this intended, but the sudden stops during certain songs really works well to get people to listen to the music, and not just dance through the set mindlessly. Go see these guys; you absolutely will not regret it.

So by the time it came for AgesandAges to begin playing, I was pooped, drunk and ready to go home. I’d heard the name, and heard some recordings but couldn’t see how ANY band, no matter how good,  could top what had preceded them. As they begin playing, I couldn’t help but just laugh to myself. Right off the bat they were absolutely fantastic. They produce an incredibly full sound that can’t possibly be ignored. My first thought was, “Oh hey, this is like if Fleetwood Mac wasn’t lame!” (sorry Fleetwood Mac fans, fuckin’ deal with it.) That’s obviously too simple of a way to describe AgesandAges. They have a sound all their own, and have obviously worked very hard to hone their craft into something truly great. Everything about this band works will together, from the drums, to guitars to the vocals. Each piece helps to create a tremendous sound that washes over the audience in great waves. The song Navy Parade is a great example of this, which can be found at http://agesandages.com/ (ooooohhhhhhh, legit website). I find myself having a hard time writing about AgesandAges, possibly because I’m not the best writer. I like to think it’s because they’re better understood first hand, not from the words of someone who was there and tries to emulate the feeling in print. Just go see them; you’ll know what I mean.

Honestly, few nights really get me going like Monday did. Each band was unique and brought something that none of the others did. Or even could. The thing that connected each band in my opinion was a genuine joy for what they were doing. It felt like a celebration, and each audience member was the guest of honor. This, to me, is Portland at its best. The first real sunny day of the year, everyone’s absolutely tired of the grey and the clouds. Its days like this where everyone is out, filling their favorite haunts with a kind of small town comfort where you know a good handful of the folks around you. You run into bands you love, ex-girlfriends you hate, bosses you’re avoiding because you skipped out on work to enjoy the sun (though he/she probably did the same thing). Mississippi Studios really out did itself by lining up Death Songs, Sun Angle and Ages and Ages. It just goes to show, you can have your mind blown even on a Monday. SUCCESS!

With less than a week under my belt living in my new Minneapolis digs, I was delighted to hear that the Portland Cello Project was going to be in town for a dual album release event with Emily Wells.  I had lived in Portland, OR for over a year, and had made the mistake of never catching PCP live before, so their performance at The Cedar Cultural Center was my chance to right that wrong. The Cedar is a rather large venue/hall near the West Bank area of Minneapolis.  It is a non-profit music venue that receives funding from the Minnesota Arts Board.

I walked into the venue and was blown away; wall to wall people.  Big people, little people, dapper people, hippy types, children, and grandparents.  A packed concert hall was on top of the first tornado warnings of the season.  I knew I was in for something special.

Emily Wells took the stage, and sounded absolutely marvelous. Originally from Texas, and now residing in New York, Wells plays everything.  She is a one woman band, and does it well!  While on stage at The Cedar I counted Wells playing more than 5 different instruments with perfection.  She would play an instrument, loop it, and then move on to the next one.  It was stunning to watch her add layers upon layers to each track.  The crowd at The Cedar took a few songs to warm up, but Wells got them settled in by the time she played Dirty Sneakers and Underwear off her new album Mama on Partisan Records.  Wells wrapped her set with another song from Mama called Passenger.  Halfway through Passenger, a much deserved line began to form at the merch table.

After a brief intermission, the lights began to flash and out walked eight musicians; cellists, a horn player, a flutist, and behind a clear barrier was a drummer.  As The Portland Cello Project began their set, you could feel something magical swirling around the room.  Not only did they sound beautiful, but they were beautiful to watch.  They plucked, strummed, flicked, tapped, slammed, and even mouth popped.  When you think of a group of classical musicians, the names Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Pantera don’t usually pop up, with PCP, it does. After each song cellist Douglas Jenkins would walk up to the microphone and address the crowd.  Jenkins would give a run down of what piece PCP would perform next.  After each announcement, the crowd would chuckle as if Jenkins was joking, only to watch him turn back to his seat and The Portland Cello Project would nail Pantera’s Mouth for War or a Jay-Z and Kanye West track.

One of my favorite moments from the evening was when Jenkins approached the mic and began to break down what the Jay-Z/Kanye West song HAM meant. As he tiptoed the language landmines of the track, and presented a few lines from the song, it got hard for both the crowd and Jenkins to hold back their laughter.

If you have a chance to catch The Portland Cello Project in your town, make sure you do it.  They do a wonderful job on what can be a stuffy realm for people.  Make sure you check out their new album titled Homage on Kill Rock Stars, it will be well worth it.

Not only are the Into The Woods peeps throwing this bash, but they will also be filming the event.  So if you are in attendance, chance are you’ll be in an Into The Woods video!

If you aren’t familiar with what Into The Woods does, they are a multimedia collaborative of some of the brightest and creative minds in Portland.  It’s a group of writers, film makers, photographers, and other creative types, that really live and breathe Portland music.  Curious about the day jobs of some of the great PDX musicians? Into The Woods has it!  Curious about what a performance inside the homes of some of your favorite Portland musicians would be like?  Into The Woods has it!  These guys and gals work tirelessly and put out great stuff.

Here’s the event page for all the details:

https://www.facebook.com/events/282066521873216/

One of the things that regularly impresses me about the Portland music scene is a wonderful sense of community. On a nondescript street in inner SE, in the basement of a nondescript house is the living and breathing organization called Banana Stand Media.  A group from friends from the Midwest had an idea to create and foster a sustainable live music documentation project that rewards musicians for their art.  They do this by hosting, recording, producing, and disturbing free, live music of some really amazing musicians in the Portland area.

They’ve done this all on their dime and now it’s time to help make sure this project continues.  Banana Stand recently kicked off a Kickstarter, that will help sustain this project, as well as help create a 20 song compilation album, and an all ages event at Portland’s Hawthorne Theater.

You can help give to an excellent cause, and one that will help to strengthen the Portland music world.  The Banana Stand Kickstarter has hit the ground running, and your contribution will help this really amazing project continue.

So, throw a few bucks their way, get out to Hawthorne Theater on June 10th for a FREE all ages event, and help support the local music community that Banana Stand helps to make wonderful.  Below is their Kickstarter video, as well as track info for the upcoming LIVE FROM THE BANANA STAND VOLUME 1 compilation album.

LIVE FROM THE BANANA STAND VOLUME 1
1. Blue Skies For Black Hearts – “The Sitch”
2. Youth – “Want You To Know”
3. Death Songs – “Water in the Eyes of Man”
4. The Woolen Men – “Land of Laughs”
5. The We Shared Milk – “Drag”
6. The Angry Orts – “No More”
7. Tango Alpha Tango – “Black Cloud”
8. Log Across the Washer – “What’s New Fat Man?”
9. Forest Park “Story”
10. The Polyps – “Short Song”
11. Talkative – “Front Porch Annex”
12. Tiger House – “No Bees”
13. Alex Arrowsmith & His Pugs – “Freeze Tag”
14. Curious Hands – “British Columbia”
15. The Silent Numbers – “Said So”
16. Sons of Huns – “Super Kanpai Rainbow”
17. The Hague – “Passing Cars”
18. Towering Trees – “Coolidge”
19. Modernstate – “This Is Life”
20. Jack Ruby Presents – “Old”